My text this morning is in John
chapter 14 and verse six. I want to ask and answer a question
which you may never have been asked by anybody. Or you may have never asked anyone. But one which I believe every
sinner who's ever sought the Lord has asked. and is still
interested to know. How does a sinner come to God? How does a sinner? You see, the sinner, it says
of the sinner, there's none that seeketh after God. There's none that understand
this. There's not an inkling of any
possibility that a man left to himself will ever come to God. Did you know that? He never will. If God leaves him to himself
and leaves him to this world and leaves him to the influence
of Satan and false religion, he'll never come to God. He'll come to the front. He'll come to the baptismal pool. He'll come and sign your pledge
card. He'll come and join the church. He will agree to do certain
things, but he'll never come to God. How does a sinner come
to God? Are you a sinner? Are you? Are you a sinner? Are you aware of the lust and
evil desires of your flesh? Do they just, you get a little
older and you get these things they call hot flashes. And they
just come over you. I mean, you just be sitting there
watching TV and all of a sudden, the lust of your flesh do that
too. They overwhelm you, they just
come upon you out of nowhere. It don't matter what you're doing,
you can be reading the scriptures, you can be praying, you can be
doing it, and these things just flood into your mind and heart. You know anything about that? Have you ever acknowledged God's
testimony of man, or are you still running around saying,
well, I think? Do you ever acknowledge God's
testimony about man? Of his condemnation? Of his depravity? Of his constant practice of sin? Do you experience anger? Jealousy? Pride? Envy? Covetousness? Do you find yourself
more often than not going contrary to the will of God? I'm painting for you a picture
of the sinner and I'm asking you this morning, are you a sinner? Oh, now wait a minute, preacher.
I'm a believer. I'm a believer. Well, I hope
you are and myself as well, but being a believer does not make
you exempt from the presence of sin. You're still a sinner. I had a fellow Oh, I was so young
in the ministry. I didn't know up from down, really. I had no business being out preaching,
but I was sent. And went way out to Illinois
to this little group of people. And I should have known something
was bad wrong when he introduced me to his son. His son's name
was John Gill. I should have knew I was in for
trouble. But I preached a message that
morning, and we went back over to Mr. Gill's house and had dinner,
and he said, I got a bone to pick with you about your message
this morning. And I said, oh? I said, what's that? And he said,
well, you called me a sinner. He said, we did an extensive
study And nowhere in the Bible after a man is saved does it
ever refer to him again as a sinner. And his question shocked me down
to my shoes. I couldn't believe this man who
said he believed in sovereign grace was saying this, and I
just went blank. And Henry Sonnenloh was with
me, Bob Coffey, and he went blank. We had a fellow with us that
hadn't been listening to the gospel just a short time and
was still living in Lexington and listening to Brother Henry
preach. And he knew we were coming right past his house and he wanted
to ride with us. So we took him with us out there. And Mr. Brown said, well, what
about this one? This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners. The Apostle Paul said, of whom
I am chief. And the guy looked down at the
table for a minute and turned kind of red and he said, well,
we might have missed that one. Being saved doesn't mean that
you're exempt from sin and from the presence of it. All men are sinners. Isn't that
what the scripture says? All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. The difference is that believers
know it. That's the difference. We're
all sinners, believers know it. Paul said in Romans 7 verse 18,
he said, for I know. that in me, in my flesh dwelleth
no good thing. Believers know what they are.
They know that they're sinners. He said, for the will is present
with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not. So
my subject this morning has an application to you whether you're
a believer or not. If you're a sinner. You see what
I'm saying? Are you a sinner? And understand
this. Faith is not an isolated act. What do you mean by that, preacher?
Has to be a first time. Has to be a time when faith comes.
Has to be a time when faith is born and given and put in the
heart of men. Yes, it is. Just like you're
born. There's a time when you was born.
You didn't exist until you was born. But after you're born,
you become a living soul. You got a mind to think with
and a heart. You have the ability to reason.
You're a man. You're a person. And so when
this faith is given, it's a living principle. It's a new man in
you. And it grows and it learns and
it understands and it can be taught. Faith, not just an isolated
act. Well, I believe, so I'm going
to take that now, put it in my pocket, and I'm going to take
it home, put it up on the shelf. And if anything ever happens,
I can run up there and get it real quick. Say, look here, get
out of jail free card. Got it right here. You can't
send me to hell, I believe. I believed back in whenever,
1926. No. No. Faith is a continual living principle
in the heart. in the heart. And what does this
faith do? It continually brings you to
God. Isn't that what it does? Continually brings you to God. He said, faith cometh, it keeps
on coming, by hearing and hearing by the word of God. So how do
sinners like you and I come to a holy, righteous, and just God
with any kind of hope or assurance of being accepted, heard, or
blessed of Him? Now, when I was a kid, I didn't
hesitate, because I've been told anybody can come to God. He'll
receive anybody for any reason. Just come on. Just come on. And then I learned something
about who God was. How do sinners like you and I
come to a holy, righteous, and just God with any kind of hope or assurance of being accepted
or heard of God or blessed of God? And I want to give you five
things. And I'm going to begin here in
my text, and then I'll grab some of these other things from other
places in the Word of God. First of all, he tells us over
in Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 6. He that cometh to God must believe
that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek
him. Now this was said of a man who
never saw death. He never saw death. God translated
him and took him straight into glory. Took him straight into
glory. But he left his testimony behind,
he pleased God. But without faith, it's impossible
to please God. For he that cometh unto God must
believe that he is. As to believing that God is,
I say that he's left a testimony to all men. He left a testimony
to all men. And he's left these two evidences
to all men to render them without excuse. He tells us about them
over in Romans chapter 1. Conscience and creation. What is conscience? It's an inborn
sense of right and wrong. That's what it is. You do something
wrong, your conscience is wrong. It's wrong. You know it's wrong.
You knew it was wrong when you did it. The conscience knows in general
what God demands and that he cannot produce it. And that renders him guilty before
God. Creation, on the other hand,
is a manifestation of God's presence, power, and authority. They're talking about this eclipse
that's coming up Monday, making such a big deal out of this thing.
It's been going on for hundreds of thousands of years. But it's
gonna be this big deal when you get to see the sun blackened
and all this stuff. Maybe it is a big deal, maybe
I'm underplaying what's going on, I don't know. There's too
much order in creation for it not to be controlled by deity. There's just too much order in
it. Just look around. It testifies
of itself. You don't need any other evidence.
Just walk out and look. Look at yourself. David just
looked at himself. He'd stand there and wiggle his
fingers and think about what he could do. He could play a
harp. He could shoot a bow. Think about
how wonderfully that you're made. There's too much order in creation
for it not to have deity behind it and ruling it and reigning
it. It's a manifestation of God's
presence, power, and authority, and it bears witness to all that
they are to submit to and obey their creator. Paul used this
argument at Mars Hill in Acts chapter 17. In Acts 17, 24, he said, God
that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he's Lord
of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands.
You don't need to build him a temple. Neither is he worshipped with
men's hands as though he needed anything, seeing he giveth to
all life and breath and all things. He's the giver. And He's made
of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face
of the earth. And He's determined the times
before appointed and set the bounds of their habitation. And
He did all this that they should seek the Lord. If happily they
might feel after Him and find Him, though He be not far from
every one of us. For in Him, in Him, we live and
move and have our being. So as to God as the rewarder
of them that diligently seek Him, He's left a witness to all
men that He is, and that He demands certain things
from men. He witnesses that in your conscience. But as to God as the rewarder
of them that diligently seek Him, this we learn from that
great cloud of witnesses that God has given to us that's already
passed. That great cloud of witnesses,
the church, that have exampled His mercy and grace. And we learn
this by the Word of God, which testifies of His goodness and
mercy. And we learn this through the
preaching of the Gospel, which declares His grace and mercy
in Christ to seeking sinners. But when we come to God, we come
believing in God. that God is, and that if you
seek Him, He's a rewarder. Those who diligently seek Him,
He's a rewarder. So if I come to God, I must come
with some sense of His being and character and willingness
to receive sinners. Now I don't have that unless
somebody can give it to me. And that's the Holy Spirit of
God through the preaching of the gospel. Secondly, I must
come to God by the way which God himself has ordained. There's
only one way to come to God. I'm so tired of hearing preachers
talking about wheels and spokes and coming from different directions
and all going to the hub and all this kind of nonsense when
they're talking about God. There's just one way to come
to God. Just one way. And that's Christ. Jesus Christ came into this world
as a man. And as he grew in age and stature,
he began to preach and to call out disciples. Some of these
disciples he would have to be apostles and be witnesses of
him. And they saw him and believed
him to be not just a prophet, but the prophet that was foretold
by Moses and others in the word of God. And they believed him
to be the Christ, but in their limited knowledge of who and
what the Christ was. They didn't know exactly what
the Christ was, even though they were standing and looking at
him. He told that woman at the well, she said, we know Messiah's
coming. He said, I'll speak unto you
of him. They did not yet clearly see
that Jesus Christ was God come into the flesh. He's the God
man. And so as the day of his crucifixion
drew near, he began to speak to his disciples and give them
some comfort concerning his leaving this world. He was gonna die.
And he knew what they were gonna do. They were gonna mourn for
him, be disappointed because he's gone. And so he tells him
that his going away was to prepare a place in his father's house
for them. And then in just a short amount
of time, he would return. And he gathered them to himself
that where he is, there they might be also. And he tells them
all this in the first part of John. And then he said, whether I go,
you know, and away you know. And Thomas said, Lord, we don't
know where you're going, and we don't know the way. He said,
I am the way. There's just one way to God,
and that's through His Son. No other way to come to God.
If you come any other way, you can't come shaking a preacher's
hand. You can't come dipping in a baptismal pool. You can't
come coming to the front. The only way you can come to
God is through a man, the God-man, Christ Jesus the Lord. Just one
mediator between men and God, the man, Christ Jesus. There's a way that guilty sinners
can come to God and find pardon and acceptance and forgiveness
for their sin. And that way is Christ. Salvation
has a lot of facets. You know, you take an old diamond
and go up here to the, what do they call that? Anyway, up there
where they hunt diamonds. And you go out in there and you
find one in the rough and it's just a stone is all it is. Boy,
you give that thing in the hands of a master cutter and he begins
to take the grain of that diamond and he puts all those facets
on it and he sets it in a gold setting and lays that thing in
a black velvet box and boy, that thing, I'm telling you, it's
gorgeous. And salvation has many facets like it's been cut by
a master jeweler. It's the work of grace, it's
the work of mercy, it's the work of wisdom and righteousness,
the work of justice, the work of God's power. But it's accomplished
and manifested and received through the Lord Jesus Christ. And if
I would be reconciled to God, I must satisfy the justice of
God. You can't just come to God as
a guilty sinner. You've already been condemned
and kicked out of his presence. that you're gonna be reconciled
and come with any hope of being accepted and blessed of God,
you're gonna have to come being justified. And you can't justify
yourself. That's what our Lord said about
the Pharisees. He said you or they would justify
themselves. He said I will by no means clear
the guilty. He said, the soul that sinneth
shall surely die. God cannot and will not excuse
sin, and this is what's being preached all over this country
today. God will just excuse sin. Well, that's my boy. He did that, and I know he's
just a boy, so I'll just let it go. That's what you do, but
that ain't what God does. sin has to be paid for justice
has to be satisfied and no man or angel is capable of satisfying
that justice if he were now listen there'd be no limitations on
hell The guy that sinned a little,
he'd be out there in a short time. The guy that sinned a lot,
he might have to stay a little longer, but eventually he'd get
out. But hell's everlasting, nobody gets out. Whether they
sin little or sin big, they don't get out, period. They suffer
forever. Why? Because man cannot satisfy
the justice of God, that's why. But the God-man in union with
his elect, he can suffer and he can satisfy God's infinite
demands because of who he is. This is the God-man on that cross. His blood satisfies, his death
satisfies God. He'll see the travail of his
soul and he'll be satisfied. Listen to this, Hebrews 9.24,
he said, Christ is not entered into the holy places made with
hands, which are the figures of the true, but into heaven
itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us. Nor yet
that he should offer himself often as a high priest enters
into the holy place every year with the blood of the substitutes. For then must he often have suffered
since the foundation of the world. But now, once in the end of the
world, hath he appeared, now listen to this, to put away sin
by the sacrifice of himself. Past sins, present sins, future
sins, put them away. they're gone. If that don't make you want to
stand up and shout, something's wrong with you. Your sins are gone. That which
separated you from God, that which prevented you from coming
to God, those things are gone in Christ. They're gone forever.
You may recall them, but he said their sins and iniquities will
I remember no more. Christ is the way of justification. He was delivered for our offenses,
for ours, not his, for ours. And raised again for our justification. If I would come to God with any
hope of being accepted or even heard, I must have a perfect
justification. And I can only have that in Christ. I must also have a perfect righteousness. What's that mean? That means
a perfect obedience in motive, thought, and deed. I must have
this in my heart and in my mind continually unbroken from the
cradle to the grave. I've got to have this. Can't be broken anywhere. A perfect
obedience. That means everything I do, I
do because I love the Lord my God with all my heart, soul,
mind, and strength. Every word I say, every deed
I do. Anybody here got something like
that? No. But you do in Christ. Every word
he said. Every deed he did. he did out
of pure love for his father. You know, when I was just a little
fella, confused and ignorant, I was
often told by the pastor and the elders and my own father
even, if I'd just do the best I could do, I'd be okay with
God. It ain't okay with God. Best
you can do is filthy rags. And that's what Isaiah said.
All our righteousnesses, what's that? That's the best you can
do. All our righteousnesses are as pus-covered rags of a leper. Filthy rags. Let me read you something here
from Romans chapter 10. Paul said, brethren, my heart's
desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be
saved. Now wait a minute, preacher,
you're talking about God's elect. That's who I'm talking about.
I'm talking about Israel. Israel, his kinsmen. For I bear
them record, they have a zeal of God, an energy, a determination,
an active walk, but it's not according to knowledge. Four. They, being ignorant of the righteousness
of God, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God,
and they're going about to establish their own righteousness. They're
doing it in ignorance. They're going about trying to
establish their righteousness. How do they do that? They keep
the Sabbath day, just like that boy told you. I keep the Sabbath
day. What else do they do? They give
a tenth. They give a tithe. What else do they do? Well, they
dress a certain way, they cut their hair a certain way, they
wear a certain length dress, they attend meetings every so
often, they keep certain days, they do this, they do that, they
do the other. Ignorantly, they're going about
to establish their own righteousness, and in doing so, will not submit
themselves unto the righteousness of God. Now, I'm gonna tell you
something. I want to please God, I do. I
don't want to dishonor my God by not paying my bills or by
lying or anything else. I want to honor my God. But I'm
not even trying to establish a righteousness before Him. I'm
satisfied with the righteousness I have in Christ. It's a perfect
righteousness. And I walk in that righteousness
and I walk in hope of being accepted by that righteousness. If I have
any hope of being that man who walks up before the Lord and
the Lord says, enter thou in, thou good and faithful servant.
Huh? You got any hope of being there?
You don't apart from the righteousness of Christ. But if you've got
that, He's going to say, well done, thou good and faithful
servant. Enter thou in. Huh? Well, Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believe it. And there's
only one righteousness of which God will approve, and that is
the righteousness of Christ. And Paul found himself, he starts
out there in Philippians telling you how that his hope was in
his righteousness. And he said, you think you got
a hope? I got more than you do. He gets down toward the end and
he said, oh, he said that I might win Christ and be found in him
not having my own righteousness. And that's what happens. That's
what happens when God opens the mind and heart and causes his
spirit to to birth a new creature and pours into him the wisdom
of Christ, and he begins to see what righteousness is and that
he has it in the Son. You see, what are we talking
about? We're talking about a man coming to God, a sinner. How
am I going to come to God? I don't have a righteousness. How am I going to justify my
sins? I can't. But in Christ, I have
a perfect justification. I have a perfect righteousness. Oh, but now wait a minute, preacher.
You said we as believers still sin. Oh, yeah, we do. We do. But Christ is seated at the right
hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. And he still
pleads his blood and his righteousness for me every day of my life. Every day of my life. He's the way, I'm telling you.
He's the truth, and he's the life. All right, thirdly, how
do sinners come to God? They come to God as they're called
of God. That's how they come. That's
the only way you can. The only way you will is to be called. John chapter
6, verse 44. Those Jews murmured because he
said he was the bread, he was the manna. Come down out of heaven. Come down from his father. Our
Lord said don't murmur. No man can come to me except
the father which sent me draw him. He can't do it. They won't do it. But he will
when God calls him. I picture him, the old short
fella, had that short man's hot attitude, always bucking against
the wheel, you know. Here he is, he's up there in
a tree. Lord said, come on down. Fifty people could have told
him to come down, he wouldn't have moved. Christ said, come
on, down that tree he went. Peter, them old rough fishermen,
Peter and James and John, they came. And I tell you, one day, he told
you to come home. And you went. You went, and so
did I. You know why? Because he called
me. Paul said, he called me by his
grace. Natural men have neither the
power nor the will to come to Christ. In John 1 verse 10 it
said he was in the world. The world was made by him, and
the world knew him not. And he came unto his own, and
his own received him not. His own nation, his own people,
his own relatives, and his own received him not. But as many
as received him, To them gave he power to become the sons of
God. Otherwise they never would have
received him. He gave them power to become
sons of God. Even to them that believe on
his name, which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of
the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. There is an effectual calling
of God by which chosen sinners are arrested in their rebellion.
I can preach to them. Things can happen. All sorts
of things go on and they're never arrested. They go right back
to the hog waller. They go right back to the wallowing
of the sow. They go back like a dog does
to his vomit. They just go back, go back, go
back. Not when God calls you won't
He arrest you. He takes you captive by his grace. You can't get free because you
don't want to. Huh? That make any sense? But that's exactly what happens.
Old Ralph Barnard said, God saves men against their will with their
full consent. And that's exactly what he does. Peter said, you are a chosen
generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people. But you should show forth the
praises of him, now listen, who called you out of darkness into
his marvelous light. Paul went further than that.
He said, whom he did predestinate, them he also called. And whom
he called, he justified, and whom he justified, he glorified. And then Peter said this way
back yonder on the day of Pentecost, or shortly after, he said, the
promise, this promise of Christ and the promise of the Holy Spirit
opening and birthing new creations of Christ. Listen to this. He
said, the promise is unto you and to thy children and to all
that are afar off, even as many as the Lord thy God shall call. How do sinners come to God? They
come when they're called. When they're called. They come by way of a divine
calling. The gospel of Christ becomes
an irresistible power that draws them to the Savior. How do sinners
come to God? Fourthly, they come as they are. If there's one thing that I'm
not seeing in this whole generation, this is what it is. They don't
come as sinners. Come as you are. No natural man, not your children
are mine, not your sisters are mine, not your neighbors are
mine, no matter how educated, bright, or gifted he is, has
any clue to his standing before God. And I could go on for a while
showing you God's testimony of the depravity of the heart. Job
said he drinks iniquity like water. How easy it is and how
often we grab a glass of water and drink. That's the way natural
men drinks iniquity, like water. Moses said, every imagination
of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Isaiah said, the wicked are like
the troubled sea when it cannot rest whose waters cast up mire
and dirt. And then again, he said, we're
all as an unclean thing. and all our righteousnesses are
as filthy rags, and we fade as the leaf, and our iniquities,
like the wind, have taken us away. But that which I believe
strikes at the heart of our condition can be seen over here in Romans
chapter 3, verse 18. He sums it all up, having stated
some horrible things, he sums it all up with this. There is
no fear of God. before their eyes, none. No reverence, no love, no honor,
no submission, no respect for the God of glory. Word has no
more impact on our hearts than any other fact of nature. I will tell you this, do not
pretend to come to God with some spark of goodness, some sense
of goodness or devotion. Come as you are. Guilty, vile,
wretched sinners. Come as you are. Our Lord said
to the Pharisees, they said, boy, if he knew something about
who these people were, he wouldn't be letting them touch him and
wash his feet. He wouldn't have nothing to do
with them. He looked at them and he said, the well need not
a physician, the sick. And he said, you go learn what
this means. I'll have mercy and not sacrifice. For I'm not come
to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. He calls sinners. Who comes? Sinners. Sinners. Come as you are. Joseph Hart wrote this hymn hundreds
and hundreds of years ago, and I'll close with this. He said,
come you sinners, poor and wretched, weak and wounded, sick and sore. Jesus ready stands to save you,
full of pity, joined with power. Let not conscience make you linger. nor a fitness fondly dream, all the fitness he requireth
is to feel your need of him. Come as you are, wretched sinners, come you weary,
heavy laden, bruised and mangled by the fall, if you tarry, till
you better. Now listen, You will never come
at all. How do sinners come to God? They
come as they are, and then fifthly, and I'll be real brief with this,
they come believing. They come believing. You cannot
call upon an unrevealed God, and how shall this revelation
come without a preacher? I got a letter from a man that's,
well, I've been corresponding with him now a couple of times,
but he was in a Christian chat room on the internet. Some of
you know what that is. And this fellow was in the Christian
chat room. I had no idea who either one
of these people are, just what he wrote me. And he said, this
fellow began to tell me some things. And he said, and I didn't
like it. I didn't like it at all. talking to me about the depravity
of men and talking to me about the sovereignty of God. He said,
I don't like it. And he said, after a while, he
said, the guy quit talking. And he said, later on, he said,
I got this text from him and he sent me your site on Freegrass
Radio and told me I need to go over there and get some tapes
and listen to them. So he said, I did. He said, I
downloaded about 30 of your messages. And he said, I don't like what
you were saying. But he said, the more I listen, the more it sends to me. So I wrote to him and told him
some things. And I still don't know where
he lives. But he wrote me back, and now
he said, oh, he said, I'm in so much fear that I'm
going to die and go out to thank God. And I don't have any faith. You know, that's what happens
in a sinner's heart when God calls him. He strips him of all
his hope. All his righteousness, all his
religion, it's all gone. And there you sit, trembling, and like the leper, you'll fall
down before him and say, Lord, if you will, you're all the hope I have. If
you will, you can make me clean. I'm going to tell you something.
Everybody that does that is going to hear this. I will. Be thou
whole and one.