In John 6, verse 37, all the Father
gives to me, all that He has given, He's still giving, shall come to me. And him that
cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. I want to look and
just dwell on this portion of this verse that is found here,
and the last portion of it. Him that cometh to me, I will
in no wise cast out. Precious promise. And I won't
keep you very long, but I wanted to challenge you this evening
to do something. I want you to take this portion
of this verse, and pray about an opportunity, seek an opportunity, to talk
with somebody this coming week about this portion of this verse. It may be a friend, maybe a neighbor,
maybe a co-worker, somebody that you know, a relative, But I challenge
you, I don't mean to put you under a burden to do it or some
sort of a legal fear to do it, but I would challenge you to
take this portion of verse and confront somebody with it, a
lost person. Reason with them about this portion
of this verse. Begin by reading it to them.
Him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast You may want
to read it twice, because most lost people, they don't get into
their heads. You have to go very slow. And read it deliberately. Him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast him out
for no reason. One version says never, no never. Another one says for no reason
will I ever cast him out. And I want to offer you five
quick things, and I want you to put these down if you can,
because I truly want you to confront someone with this and with these
passages of Scripture. I just have about three or four
Scriptures I want to turn to, but it all has to do with this.
"...Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out." Begin there,
and then, If you experience what I've experienced
with lost people, one of the things you may be confronted
with is this, how do I come? But don't even wait until He
asks you that because they may not ask you. You confront them
with that. Come unto Me. Come unto Me. First of all, how? How to come? Look over in Hosea. You mark
this passage. Look over in Hosea chapter 14.
Here's the first thing about coming. How to come. Look at this. Chapter 14 and verse 1. O Israel,
return unto the Lord thy God, for you have fallen by your iniquities. Now He's going to tell them how
to come. Here's how men must come. Take with you words and turn
to the Lord. Take with you words and turn
to the Lord. Now, why is that important? That's
the way we come. That's the way He says to come.
Now, most lost people that I know can talk to other people. Some of them can talk to anybody,
anytime, about anything. Then talk to the Lord. Come to
the Lord talking to Him. Bring with you words. If a man is ever going to be
saved, if a man is ever going to come to Christ, here is the
way he will come. He will begin to talk to you.
Now, isn't that simple? A man can do that, can't he?
If I asked you to raise your hands this evening about how
you started to come to Christ, I know what you'd tell me. If
you'd come truly, you would say, I began by praying to Him. I began talking with Him. I didn't
know much to say. And you didn't either. But didn't
we begin by just talking to Him? Him that cometh to me, I will
in no wise cast out." Then first of all, come to Him in words.
Bring words to Him. Begin to pray to Him. Begin to
talk to Him. Get off by yourself and do that. Secondly, what is the issue? What am I to talk to Him about?
You find it here in my text, in this text that I just read
to you in verse 2. take with you words and turn to the Lord
and say unto Him, Lord, take away all iniquity and receive
us graciously. What are we going to come and
talk with Him about? Not only take with you words,
but take with you words to describe your sinfulness. Don't come talking
about how you're going to get your act together. Don't come
making Him promises. And sure don't come telling Him
how good you are and how good you've been. Here's what He wants to hear
from your lips about your sin. And I tell you, if you start
talking with the Lord Jesus Christ, You won't have talked to Him
very long. If you didn't know you was a
sinner when you began, it won't be long until you'll realize
it. Sin. Sin. Here's another scripture. Look
in Isaiah chapter 1. Look in Isaiah. Thirdly, when should we come? When should this person come?
If you are going to confront somebody, him that cometh to
me, I will then know why he is casting out. When are you going
to tell him to come? This is an issue that we have
to press upon people and confront them with. And look at it here
in Isaiah chapter 1. In verse 18. Come now. Come now. Come with words. Reason with
the Lord about your sin. And do it now. Come now. And
let us reason together, saith the Lord. Though your sins be
as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be
red like crimson, they shall be as wood. If you be willing
and obedient, you shall eat the fat of the land, the good of
the land. But if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured
with a sword, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it." There
is a time in every lost sinner's life when he does not come to
Christ. And then there is a time in every
lost sinner's life when he won't come to Christ. And then there comes that time
he must come to Christ. He must come to Christ. You see
that in the Scripture, don't you? You see that in the Scripture. Blind Bartimaeus sat by the highwayside
begging. But there was a time when he
came to Christ. There was a woman who said was
a sinner in the town, but there was a time when she came to Christ.
There was a man full of leprosy. But there was a time when he
came to Christ. There was a woman that had an issue of blood. She
said, if I can just touch his garment. There's a time, brothers
and sisters, when we come to Christ. And that's what we confront
lost men with. Now, now, there's got to be an
angle. Come now. Come now. It's a pressing
issue. Brother Barnes said, press them
until they come or press them until they leave. Press them
until they come or press them until they leave. Bring men to
a decision, a conscious decision. I must come to Christ now or
I'm going to leave. That's good, isn't it? That's
how serious it is. I think that's the extent of
which you and I should challenge man. Number four. Look back in my
text. This is important. It's right
here in the text. Reason with people about this,
who they're to come to. Who is a man to come to? Him that cometh to me, I will
in no wise cast out. Me. Me. Don't say anything about
coming to church. That has its place if you want
somebody to come and hear the preacher. But this is not about
that. This is not about coming to the
apostles or the disciples. This is not about coming to the
baptistry. Don't say anything about coming
up front or to an altar somewhere. Don't say anything about getting
your act together or reformation or amendment. Force them to stay
on this issue. And you'll have to force them
to stay there. All of us have experienced this. Because they
don't want to talk about coming to a person. They'll talk about
everything but not coming to a person. I know I need to read
more. I know I need to be a better
person. I know I need to get insurance. Bring them back to this issue.
Who must men come to? Christ. If you keep a true in
His context, well, you can see and you can expound to them just
a little bit who me is. He says there in verse 32 and
verse 33, look at this. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses
didn't give you that bread from heaven, but my Father giveth
you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he which
cometh down from heaven and giveth life to the world." Who is it? He's the true bread. He's the
bread of God. He has come down from heaven.
And verse 48 and verse 50, I am the bread of life. He's the bread
of God. He's the bread that came down
from heaven. He's the bread of life. Verse 50, this is the bread
which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof and
not die. I am the living bread. Everybody knows something about
that bread, don't they? I can hardly eat a meal without
bread. Especially cornbread. Me and Ellen love cornbread.
We never have it anymore, but we love it. We long. I'm about
ready to start praying for it. We love bread, don't we? Wouldn't it be something if there
was a bread a man could eat and live forever? There is. There
is. Come to this bread of life, the
bread of God that came down from heaven. Who is it? Jesus Christ,
the Lord and Savior. Tell Him that's who He's to come
to. Get everything else out of your mind, neighbor. Listen,
dear co-worker. Listen, my dear sister or brother.
Listen, my dad or mom, my cousin. Come to a person. If I'm going to teach you doctrine,
it's just to reveal to you a person that you're to come to. Come
to Him. Look in verse 62. What if you
see the Son of Man ascend up where He was before? Where is
He? Well, He's there in heaven. He
did ascend up, didn't He? If I don't see Him, if He's in
heaven, that far away land, how am I to come to it? Take with
you words and turn them to Him. And say, Lord, take away all
iniquity. When should I do that? Right
now. Right now. Reason with them about this.
Look in Revelations chapter 22 and verse 17. You have trouble talking to lost
people. Your pastor does. I'll tell you
one of the troubles I have is getting right in the middle of
something and forgetting anything to say. And I'm embarrassed. I'm ashamed. The devil's got
something to do with that. Flash has got something to do
with that. Sometimes the Lord tries His people to see if we're
serious about this. Well, here's a little outline
you can confront them with. Shut them up to these things.
Look at this, Revelation 22, verse 17. The Spirit says, Come. The Holy Spirit. The Spirit of
the living God that was sent down from heaven. He is here
in this world. And what's His message? Come. Come. So when you confront your
neighbor, or a lost friend, or whoever you confront, you can
bet this, you've got the same message that the Spirit has.
Come. Come to Christ. Come to this
Bread of Life. And eat of Him. Believe in Him.
And live forever. And look at this, the Bride,
the Wife of Christ, the Church, says come. And if you've heard, if you've
heard Him yourself, what do you say? You've got the same message.
Come. I've had the same message ever
since I came, ain't you? I'm telling everybody else, come.
I'm like Brother Hastings who fled into the city of refuge,
got my shoes on, I'm running, and while I'm running, I'm telling
everybody else, flee. I'm fleeing myself. Flee with
me. Come. And let him that is a thirst
come. And look at this. Here it is.
And whosoever will. Whosoever will. I remember when
Todd Niblett was preaching here one time. And he said he loved
this. And the reason he said he loved this, as opposed to
having his name in there, Todd said, I'd rather have whosoever
will there is Todd Niblett there. And if you remember what he said,
he said, if I read Todd Nybert, just as sure as anything, that
would be talking about that other Todd Nybert. I went one time
to apply, Joe and I did for a long, years and years ago, and they
turned me down. Come to find out it was another
Bruce Crabtree. There's other Bruce Crabtrees out there. But
this whosoever will is you and me. and the guy that you're talking
to. I mean, it just goes beyond nationalities. It goes beyond cultures. It goes
beyond sex. It goes beyond age. It goes beyond
whatever occupation or position you may possess in this life. Your education. Your ignorance. It don't matter who you are.
It don't matter what you are. This whosoever will just lays
the door wide open. Do you want to come? Do you want
to come right now? Then you fit in. Whosoever will. Let him come to Christ. Let him
come and take the water of life. Here we have bread and now we've
got water. We've got bread of life and we've
got water. I could live off of that. I could live off of that. And sixthly, I'll let you find
this one for yourself. When you seek Me with all your
heart, you'll find Me. When you seek Me with all your
heart, you'll find Me. There's a reason sometimes when
we first begin to seek the Lord that we don't find Him. He doesn't
make Himself real. And you know why that is? We're
not seeking Him yet with all our heart. You know, He just... You can't play around with Him.
I mean, He just won't lie. He's the Lord. He knows us. He
don't have to compromise with us. He wants all of us. He wants
all of our hearts. And sometimes He lets us do...
He lets us get in bad shape in our conscience. He lets us wear
ourselves out. And finally, with all our heart,
we seek Him. And then we find Him. He found
it. We come to Him with all our hearts. Stress this. If you get an opportunity
to talk to somebody next week, stress this to them. Here's a
promise. Here's a promise. And it's not
a promise made by some mere man. And it's not a mere promise.
There are promises here that we shouldn't refer to as mere
promises, but we do to distinguish them from covenant promises.
This is a covenant promise. Did you notice that? All that
the Father giveth me shall come to me. That's the covenant, ain't
it? He's talking about the covenant
there. When were they given to us? Back there in the covenant.
He went on to say, this is the will of Him that sent me, all
that He's given me, I should lose nothing. That's the covenant.
That's the way the covenant runs. The Father gave them to Christ,
entrusted them to Christ, and Christ doesn't lose any of them.
And He says this, I promise you this, and this is a covenant
promise, that if you come to Me, I won't cast you out for
any reason. For any reason. You may talk to an old woman,
You may have an old neighbor like I have. You may have some
old friends that have never come to Christ. And now they've gotten
old and feeble. Will Christ cast them out? If
they come, will He cast them out? But they've waited so long. They didn't know how to come.
They wouldn't come. Can they come now with the hope
of being accepted? Yes. Why? This promise. I will for
no reason cast you out. One more thing, and I'll close. I thought about not saying anything
about this, but I thought about this last night and it stuck
with me. You and I come to Christ all
the time. There was our initial coming day, and He never cast
us out when we first came to Him. But this is a promise, not
just for our initial coming, but this stretches through all
time, every occasion, every time that we come. Here's a promise. If we come, 490 times a day to
Him. He'll never cast us out. I was
praying last night. And as I began to pray, as my
conscience often does, I just fell into doubt. My soul just
suddenly cast down with me. Do you ever have trouble in prayer?
When you come to the Lord in prayer, do you ever have difficulty
in prayer? And it seemed like my soul just sunk and I was somewhat
discouraged. And to be honest with you, every
time I go to prayer, it's just happened to me for probably five
or six years now that I know of, either my flesh or the devil
or both, I know more than say, Lord in heaven, than somebody
says to me, that's enough, you can quit now. You've ever had
trouble? And you have to get through that.
And I was praying last night, and just as soon as I started
praying, I just got so discouraged, and I thought, boy, look at me. What have I even done today anyway?
I'm just a mess. But I was coming to Him. And
this Scripture comes to me. He that cometh to me, I will
in no wise cast out. And I was coming. I was coming
to Him. Did that apply to me? Yes. Yes,
it applied to me. You know, it got underneath my
soul and stopped my fall and helped me up. Listen to this. Have you sinned? Have you sinned? Then come to Christ and He'll
forgive your sin. And He won't cast you out. Because,
you see, are you backslidden? Do you ever
backslide? Most people don't know it when
we backslide, do they? Because it's not something outward.
It's in my heart. It's in our hearts. We leave
Him in our hearts, then come back to Him in our hearts. And
He said, I will heal your backslidings, and I'll never cast you out.
Can a backslider come? Yes. Have you ever fallen? Have you
ever fallen? Then come back to Christ, and
He'll help you out. And He won't cast you out when
He doesn't. That's His promise. Are you weak and doubtful? Come
to Christ. He'll strengthen you and increase
your faith, and He won't cast you out. Are you walking in darkness? Then come to Christ, and He'll
be your light, and He won't cast you out. Are you in trouble?
Then come to Christ, and He'll deliver you from your trouble,
and He will not cast you out. Oh, ain't that a precious verse? And since it's so precious to
us, and it applies to us, and you want it to apply to you,
you want somebody to explain it like I have just now, because
it encourages you, then take it to some lost person. Maybe he'll encourage you into
that. And maybe he will experience in this what you've experienced.
Wouldn't that be wonderful? I challenge you to do this, brothers
and sisters, this week. I challenge you. Don't leave
here now and just forget about that. I challenge you to do this. Somebody, it's difficult to talk
to people about the Lord? Try this. Try this little outline
that I've given you. These five or six things that
I've given you. Read the text to them. Tell them how to come. Tell them to start talking to
the Lord. Tell them what to talk to him about. Tell them when
to do it. Tell them who to come to. And
tell them it don't make any difference who they are or what they've
ever done. Whosoever will, may come. And
tell them to bring all their heart. Bring their heart. And they have this promise. Do
that. Would you do that? Don't promise me. But try to
do that. Seek the Holy Spirit and they'll
be pleased to do it. Let's pray.