Good evening. I was just sitting
there a moment ago thinking about us sitting here right now, and
it just really occurred to me how much I love you all. I just
thank the Lord for you. I really have known many of you for a long
time, and I'm so honored to be here. Thank you for asking me.
Thank you for having me in your home. I pray the Lord will bless
us, you know, come into this place and send his spirit and
touch our hearts and feed our souls. And this is our foretaste
of glory divine. We have some dear loved ones
who, who fortunately have already gone on to be with our Lord.
And one day soon we'll get to join them. And it'll be just
like this, except for the pastor will be preaching. And I can't
wait for that. But thank you for having me.
Turn with me, if you would, to Revelation 22. Revelation chapter 22. The outline of the Scripture, what we will find everywhere
we turn, when we read the Word of God, whether it's Genesis
1-1 or Revelation 22-21, everything in between, the outline of the
Scripture is mankind, all men, women, boys,
girls, Mankind, all of mankind, is completely sinful. All of mankind is completely
sinful. That's what this book says. Everywhere
you turn. Mankind is not partly sinful. the reason why we can't ignore
this. Mankind is not mostly sinful. Mankind is completely eaten up
with sin. That's what I am and as much
as I love you, that's what you are. Just totally, totally, completely
ruined. Somebody will hear that. I always
think as I'm preaching, somebody's going to hear that and think,
I don't look ruined to me. Unfortunately, God says we look
ruined to Him. And more unfortunately than that,
God says we are. Not only do we look ruined to
Him, He says that we are ruined to Him. But the outline of Scripture
goes on to say that God chose to save some of us ruined sinners. He elected a people to bring
out of ruin and restore to a perfect state. That's something we cannot imagine.
You cannot enter in to what it would be like to exist in a perfect
state. And the only way that was possible
for man to be reinstated into this perfect state, the only
way that was possible was through the death of the Son of God.
That's what this word sets forth. The law said, God is holy and
He's just and He must do what's right. And the law said the wages
of sin is death. The only way that these elected
ruined sinners could be redeemed if the law was satisfied. So God the Father made God the
Son to be the deliverer of those particular
ruined sinners by trading places with them. Christ became their atonement. That means their bloody victim. That's what it means. The slain
sacrifice for their sin. And when He did that, those particularly
redeemed people became the righteousness of God. absolute perfection,
that holiness. That entire transaction is called
grace. That's what it's called. God's
people were saved by grace. Salvation is not something that
God's people took part in. It's something that happened
to them. They were not offered the option
to accept His grace or reject His grace. They were not offered
the option of rejecting it. Aren't we so glad for that? Because
you know what we would have done? It was irresistibly given. I love that. I love the absolute
sovereign power of God. He says, you're going to take
this. It was sovereignly bestowed on
His people. In the same way that God's people
took no part in their physical birth, God's people take no part
in their spiritual birth. They're just notified of it later.
Just like we all were. At some point we came to the
realization, I'm alive. I'm a member of a family. That's
my father. Same way. When that notification comes,
this is what God's people are notified of. This is the notification
of the Scripture. It's done. The great transaction is done. You are your Lord's and He is
yours. If God gave you to Christ, and
if Christ traded places with you, and if the Spirit has given
you faith to believe this announcement, it's done. It's over and done. And what God does is forever. If God does it, it is forever. It cannot be undone. It cannot
be changed or altered in any way. If Christ saves you on that
cross, He will save you all the way to the end. His faithfulness will keep you. That's the outline of the Scripture.
His faithfulness will keep you. I have a dear brother who I love
so much and he's always calling me and just down on himself because
he's just faithfulness. He's just not, you know, I just
wish, and I said, I know, join the club. But our hope is not
in our faithfulness. It's in His. His faithfulness. Because of His faithfulness concerning
our salvation, We won't be able to lose it. I can lose anything. Not that. We will not be able to ruin it. This sin ruins everything. Not that. We will not ever be
able to reject it. If He saved us, we're saved. We're saved. That is good news. That's wonderful news. That's
the Gospel. Good news. That's the outline
of every Scripture in God's Word, alright? God's outline. That's God's outline. What I'd
like for us to see tonight is Revelation 22, the end of verse
17. It says, Whosoever will, Let him take
the water of life freely. That's God's outline. That outline
we just declared. Whosoever will, whosoever will, whosoever will, let him take
the water of life freely. The word whosoever is in the
Scripture. I counted it in my concordance.
I believe it is 183 times. I may have missed a time or two,
but it is above 180 times. Every time that our God has said
the word whosoever, whatever He has said about that word will
hold true. If He said it, it will hold true. When He said, whoever does this
or whoever does that, whatever He has to say concerning it will
come to pass. That's the way it will be. This right here is going to hold
true. Whosoever will, let him take
the water of life freely. That is going to hold true. Whosoever
will. He is going to be able to take
the water of life freely. Let me show you another one.
This is another whosoever that will hold true. Turn with me
if you would to Exodus 32. Exodus 32, verse 33. And the Lord said unto Moses,
Whosoever hath sinned against Me, him will I blot out of My
book. Now that's going to hold true. That is going to hold true. God
cannot lie. God does not write with trickery. He cannot take back His Word.
My Word will never fail, He said. That is going to hold true. Whosoever
hath sinned against Me, him will I blot out of My book. Now, have
we sinned against Him? How technical is He about sin? I think that's a pretty good
question because if you ask the average person that, we ask the
question here among us, have we sinned against Him? Every
head goes, yes. You go ask the average person
that and they'll say, well, how technical is He about sin? Where
does He draw the line? What does He consider to be sin. Look with me if you would at
Matthew chapter 5. Matthew chapter 5 verse 21 says,
You have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt
not kill, and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the
judgment. But I say unto you that whosoever
is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of
the judgment. And whosoever shall say to his
brother, Rekha, that means vain fellow, shall be in danger of
the counsel. But whosoever shall say, Thou
fool, shall be in danger of hell fire. Have we ever been angry? God said that's sin. Verse 27, you've heard it was
said by them of old time, thou shalt not commit adultery. Everybody knows they shouldn't
commit adultery. People know that. But I say unto you that
whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed
adultery with her already in his heart. Verse 33 says, again, you have
heard that it hath been said by them of old time, thou shalt
not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths. But I say unto you, swear not
at all, neither by heaven, for it is God's throne, nor by the
earth, for it is His footstool, neither by Jerusalem, for it
is the city of the great King, neither shalt thou swear by thy
head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black.
But let your communication be yea, yea, nay, nay, for whatsoever
is more than these cometh of evil." Have you ever said you
were going to do something and then not done it? For whatever reason, whether
you could Control it or not. Just not been able to do it.
God says that's sin. You say you're going to do something,
do it. All of us fall into the category
of being ruined in sin. All have sinned. But our text
says, whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. So let's look at that next word,
will. Whosoever will. Look with me
if you would at John 5. John chapter 5 verse 40 says, And you will not come to Me that
you might have life. You will not come to Me. Verse
39 says, Search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have
eternal life, and they are they which testify of Me. And you
will not come to Me that you might have life. It holds true that whosoever
will, let him take the water of life freely. But the problem
for natural man is, he won't. He will not. Not on God's terms. Man will not on God's terms. Man thinks he will. Go ask somebody,
will you take the water of life freely? And they'll say, oh yeah,
I'd be glad to. But then you tell them what God's
terms are concerning the matter and they say, never mind, I don't
think so. Man thinks he's willing. He thinks he's willing to come. But once he finds out what God's
terms are, he's not. What are God's terms? These are God's terms. He does
everything. We do nothing. He does all of the work. We do
none of the work. Man will not come, because man
cannot come. That's what the next chapter,
verse 44 says. No man can come. What that means
is, He gets all of the credit, and we get none of the credit.
He gets all of the glory, we get none of the glory. We remain
dead in trespasses and sins until He sovereignly chooses to save
us. We just stay there dead. We just
lay there until He moves on us. The commandment is, come or you
will die in your sins. But we cannot come unless He
lovingly draws us. We just can't. Our only hope
is that the Father has given us to Christ His Son and that
He will raise us up in the last day. That's our only hope. We
have no say in the matter. That's a good one. You go tell
people that. Let's talk about salvation and
start right here. You have no say in the matter. None. Salvation is totally in His hands. You talk about the offense of
the message? You tell somebody salvation is
totally in His hands, whatever He decides. If He saves you,
you're saved. If He damns you, you're damned. I don't like that. Will you come
on those terms? I don't think so. That's His
terms. Those are His terms. The song
that we all sing says, in our hand no price we bring, simply
to His cross we cling. We come on the grounds of being
at His mercy. Think about this. Think about
what mercy means. We are totally at His mercy.
We're just totally at His mercy. We come on the grounds of His
grace alone, His free kindness to us alone and not our works. Now with that in mind, let's
go back to our text and see if we can enter in a little more
clearly to what is being said here. Revelation 22, the end of verse 17 says, Whosoever
will, Let him take the water of life
freely. That's the key. That is the condition. Those are the terms. Whoever
takes the water of life has to take it freely. Those are the terms. That's the
only way it will be given. In Hosea 14 verse 4, the Lord
said, I will love them freely. In Matthew 10 verse 8, the Lord
said, freely you have received. Look with me at Romans 3. Romans 3 verse 19 says, Now we
know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them
who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped and all
the world may become guilty before God. Therefore, by the deeds
of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in His sight, for
by the law is the knowledge of sin." The reason the law was
given, this is the only reason your tax dollars are spent on
speed limit signs. There's only one reason. It's
to show you your error against the law. You look at that sign
and then you look at your speed, and compare to see, am I sinning
against the law? Alright? The law was given to
show us just what sinners we truly are. This is what God demands. And then when we look at ourselves,
we see just how totally sinful we are. Verse 20 says, Therefore,
by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in
His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now
the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being
witnessed by the law and the prophets. Even the righteousness
of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon
all them that believe, for there is no difference. For all have
sinned and come short of the glory of God, being justified
freely." What that means is, in our hand, no price we bring.
We bring no work. We bring nothing worthy of earning
salvation. We just freely receive it. It means Christ paid everything. All of it. We pay nothing. Verse 24 says, being justified
freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ. Through that particular redemption
that is in the Lord Jesus Christ. The problem for the flesh is
it wants credit. That's the problem. It wants
credit. It wants to share the glory. But God says in verse 27, where
is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No. By the law of faith. Therefore, we conclude that a
man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. Justification
is not earned. It is only freely given. Go with me over to Romans chapter
8. Romans 8 verse 29 says, For whom
He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed
to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among
many brethren. Moreover, whom He did predestinate,
them He also called. And whom He called, them He also
justified. And whom He justified, them He
also glorified. What shall we then say to these
things? If God be for us, who can be
against us? He that spared not His own Son,
but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also
freely give us all things?" Freely. Christ was given to us freely. All of God's gifts are given
freely. That's what grace means. Free
grace. Go with me over to 1 Corinthians
chapter 2. 1 Corinthians 2 verse 12 says, Now we have received not the
Spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God, that
we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. We have irresistibly received
that irresistible grace from the irresistible Spirit of God. and its glorious things, that
we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. We have freely been notified
of all the wonderful things that God has done for us and given
to us through that unimaginable payment. We talk about it being
free, it's so free, it's so free. It was an unimaginable payment
that had to be paid to make it free. This free salvation cost an infinite
price. It cost the life and the death
of the Lord Jesus Christ. What a cost. It cost Him everything
to give it to us freely. Go with me if you would now back
to Revelation, this time chapter 21. Revelation 21. Verse 6 says, And He said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning
and the end. I will give unto Him that is
a thirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. He said, I will give unto Him. I am going to give this fountain
to my people freely. Their natural flesh does not
want this fountain freely. But he said the good news is
I'm Alpha and I'm Omega. I'm the beginning and I'm the
end. I started this. I'm going to
finish it. I'm going to change their will. That will that wants some of
the glory and wants some of the credit and wants some of the
work, I am going to change their will. Those of you that the Lord
has done a work of grace in you, do you want some of His glory?
Do you want some of His credit? I am going to change their will.
I am going to make my people willing in the day of my power. I'm going to make them willing
to count all of their works of self-righteousness. All of their
works of worthlessness. Everything that they've done
that they believe could possibly earn them a salvation. I'm going
to make them willing to throw it all away. Completely throw it all away
and count it all done. And I'm going to make them willing
to cry, we are saved by God's free grace alone. Now let me ask this question.
Are we willing to be saved on God's terms? The merit of Christ alone, are
we willing to be saved on those terms? Absolutely we are. Are we willing to come to Christ
on God's terms? His will, His call, His draw,
His doing alone. Are we willing to come on those
terms? Absolutely we are. Are we willing for Him to receive
all the glory for the great things that He has done? with no price,
no work, no participation added by us. Are we willing for that? Absolutely we are. Are we truly
willing to take the water of life freely, on His terms, freely? If we are, if we are, if God
has done that work here, God has done that work in me, Then
let's go back to Revelation 22. Verse 17 says, The Spirit and the Bride say,
Come. The Spirit sends that irresistible
call. The Spirit says, Come, if God
has made us willing. then the Spirit says, Come. And the bride cannot help it.
The bride says, Come. Verse 17 says, And let him that
heareth, right now, him or her that truly
hears God's terms, the terms of His sovereign call, let that
person right now in his or her heart say, Come. and let him that is a thirst."
Are we thirsty for this freely given water? Eternal life water? He said, let him that is a thirst. I'm so thankful He didn't say,
let him who thinks he's worthy. He didn't say, let him who thinks
he's a fine Christian. Let him or her who desperately
needs this water of life, him or her that is thirsting for
the Lord Jesus Christ, truly needs Christ. I need this man. Let that sinner come. And whosoever will, whoever it is, It doesn't matter what our condition
is. It doesn't matter how great our sin is. It doesn't matter how unworthy
we are. Whoever has been made willing,
made willing to bow, whoever God has caused to willingly bow
to the finished work of Christ, whosoever will, Let Him take
the water of life freely. Don't you love in Isaiah 55,
it says, Ho, everyone that thirsteth. You know, people hear the message
of God's sovereign grace and they think that we're preaching
a club that nobody else is allowed in on. That's not true. Whosoever
will, whoever God has made willing, whoever God has done a work of
grace on, Everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters. And he
that hath no money, I like that, no spiritual money, come ye buy
and eat. Salvation comes to sinners one
way, freely. Is that not glorious just in
and of itself? Salvation comes to sinners one
way, freely. If it does not come freely, it
doesn't come at all. If it doesn't come freely. It's
an amazing thing when God makes a sinner willing to receive the
water of life freely. Man naturally says, no, no, no,
you tell me how much I owe and I'm going to pay what I got to
pay. freely. That's good news to a man if
he's broke. You know that? And that's where
God brings His people. And I'll go ahead and tell you
that's where we are. Spiritually speaking, in ourselves, we're
broke. We're flat broke. We're weak. We're helpless. We're hopeless. Spiritually broke. If you're
spiritually broke, I mean flat broke, then the Spirit says,
come on. Take the water of life freely.
Whosoever will, let him come. Alright, Brother Drew. Thank
you.