Let me read from the book of
John, chapter 1, beginning there at verse 15. It says, John, bear
witness of him that is of the Lord Jesus. And he cried, saying,
This was he of whom I spake. He that cometh after me is preferred
before me, for he was before me. and of his fullness have
all we received, and grace for grace. For the law was given
by Moses, but grace and truth comes by Jesus Christ. No man
hath seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, which
is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared Him. And this is the record of John
when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask
him, Who art thou? And he confessed and denied not,
but confessed, I am not the Christ. And they asked him, What then
art thou, Elias? And he saith, I am not. Art thou
that prophet? And he answered, No. Then said
they unto him, Who art thou, that we may give an answer to
them that sent us? What sayest thou of thyself? And he said, I am the voice of
one crying in the wilderness. Make straight the way of the
Lord, as said the prophet Isaiah. Now if you'll turn with me. to
the fifth chapter of the book of John. John chapter 5, beginning
there at verse 11 of the book of John. No, I'll start reading
here at verse 33. It says, He sent unto John, and
he bare witness unto the truth, that I received not testimony
from man, But these things I say, that ye might be saved. These
things I say, that ye might be saved. He was a burning and a
shining light, and ye were willing for a season to rejoice in his
light. But I have a greater witness
than that of John, for the works which the Father hath given me
to finish, the same works that I do bear witness of me. that the Father hath sent me,
and the Father himself which hath sent me hath borne witness
of me, ye have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen
his shape, and ye have not his word abiding in you, for whom
he hath sent him ye believe not. Search the Scriptures, for in
them ye think ye have eternal life, but they are they which
testify of me." And he concludes by making this statement. He said, "...and ye will not
come to me that ye might have life." Eternal life is to be
had and to be found in the Lord Jesus Christ. He was sent of
the Father, born of a virgin in Bethlehem's manger. He was
the light then, and he still is the light of the world. And he makes this pronouncement
here against all men. He said, Ye will not come to
me. In another place he said, All
ye that labor and are heavy laden, come unto me, and I will give
you rest." Here he says, you will not come unto me that you
might have life. Now, for the most part, the general
population of people believe that life is a span of anywhere
from one hundred or anywhere from one to a hundred years.
But our Lord here is talking about not a temporary life, but
he's talking about a life that will last forever. It's a time
when men will live in eternity. And he says, of all the predictions
and prophecies of the prophets of old. And this great prophet,
John the Baptist, of whom there is none greater, has spoken in
several different places at different times to the Pharisees and the
general run of the population of that time, that he who was
born of a virgin in Bethlehem's manger is And outside of him
there is no life. And our Lord made this statement,
and he said, You will not come to me that you might have life. In light of the fact that he
said to a great crowd of people on the day of Pentecost, he stood
and said, Come unto me. all ye that labor and are heavy
laden, and I will give you life. But here it says that He says,
Ye will not come to Me that ye might have life. Why is it that
men will not come to the Lord Jesus Christ when He promised
life to everyone that comes? But men will not come. He said, You won't come to me
that you might have life. Well, I want to talk to you a
little bit here this morning about why men will not come to
Christ for life. And I want to be as plain as
possible and begin by saying it's because they do not believe
they are dead. in trespasses and in sins, and
have no need of life. Now that's the first reason why
they won't come, because they don't believe. The opposite of
life is death. So they prefer, actually, death
over life. It's because they do not believe
they are far off from God. They do not believe that they
are out and out enemies of God, and they are wrong one hundred
percent in their evaluation of who God is. And secondly, they
think they have a righteousness of their own and have no need
of a righteousness of another. They think that everything is
all right with them. All is well with me. I'm a pretty good fellow. I don't
make a habit of taking God's name in vain. I have not followed
the vast majority of people in the wrong way. I feel like I'm
all right. They reason with themselves that
everything's going to turn out all right. But if the opposite
of life is death, and if a man goes through this life and never comes to the Lord Jesus
Christ, then he'll experience the opposite of what Christ gives. which is death. It is not a natural
death that I'm talking about. All men die. Men and women and
boys and girls have no control over the time that they will
expire. When the time that they will
shut their eyes for the last time, they have no control over
that. But the life that I'm talking
about is everlasting life. The Lord Jesus said, I am the
resurrection and the life. But men will not come that they
may have life. They choose death. They argue
within themselves that I am as good as the next man or the next
woman, and that way their condition by the weakness of others or
the weakness of themselves. So I want to be plain as possible
here and say, number one, it's because they do not believe they
are dead and need life. When throughout the Bible, specifically
the Lord Jesus, as well as the prophets of old, The Lord Jesus
and the apostles went everywhere preaching that the Lord Jesus
Christ came down from God the Father to give life, not death. But they don't believe that they
need life, that they're not dead in trespasses and in sins. They think they have a righteousness
of their own, a self-made righteousness that will meet the demands of
a holy God. A holy, holy, holy God demands
perfection and holiness. That's His demand. The layout for holiness, which
God demands, and perfection out of every man, woman, boy and
girl is set forth in the Ten Commandments. The first and great
commandment is, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy
heart and mind and strength. That's the demand of God that
a man do that. And if he can do that, well,
he'll be all right. But the sad fact is that he can't
do that because he's dead in trespasses and in sins. And in that state, he's against
God and against God's Christ. And he won't come. They think they have a righteousness
of their own and have no need of the righteousness of another
because they cannot trust Christ and renounce the world, which
everyone must do that comes to Christ. And because the natural
man hates Christ, they really and truly, in the deep recesses
of their mind and their heart, they want nothing whatsoever
to do with this man called Jesus. Now that's an actual picture,
portrayal of a man who's outside of Christ. He does not want Christ. He does not think he needs Christ. As a matter of fact, he doesn't
even know who Christ he is. This is a a statement here of the Lord
Jesus Christ himself. He says, And ye will not come
to me that ye might have life. There's life in coming to Christ. There's life in a look at the
Lord Jesus Christ, who he is, what he's done, why he's done
it, where he's at, and what he's doing. came to make atonement
for the sins of the people of God, to atone for them, to keep
that law for them. He kept the holy law of God Almighty. It was cast down into the mud. And our Lord Jesus Christ, when
he came, he lifted that law out of the miry clay and made it
honorable, made the law of God honorable by keeping every precept
of that law. Everything that the law demanded,
our Lord Jesus Christ as a man, you've got to remember, he's
not some mystical figure. He's not some ghost-like individual. He is a man who had blood in
his veins, who had air in his lungs, and he had life on his
lips. He was all man, and he was all
God in one person. And as a man, he met that law
head on and lifted it up. and made it honorable. And God
said, This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. And here the Lord Jesus Christ
says, You will not come to me that you might... What reason can we find that
will somehow give us some understanding why a man will not come to Christ? when Christ is life, when Christ
has kept that holiness which God demands by keeping that law. And he says, come unto me. But
yet man says, I have no need to come. He will not come because
he is dead in trespasses and in sin. He's as much dead as
a man is now. A man who is over at the funeral
parlor, laid out in his best clothes, his hair is combed,
and he's got powder on his face. And if you'd go to him and say,
rise up out of there, Come on to me out here and have a cup
of coffee." He'd make no answer. There'd be no movement. Why? Because he's dead. He's
dead and he cannot get up. And you could speak to him all
day long. You could bring his brothers
and his sisters, his friends and his father and his mother
in and begged him to get up and get out of there. And he could
not respond because he is dead. He's dead. And the natural man,
even though we have life, we live, we breathe, and when the
Lord Jesus Christ says, come unto me that you might have life,
they will not come. Why? Because they're dead. They're dead spiritually. The Bible says, except a man
be born again, he cannot experience eternal life. He's got to be
born of the Spirit as our The pastor here says time and time
again that a man, the natural man, he must have a heart to
love God. And only God the Holy Spirit
can give him a heart to love the Lord Jesus Christ. Well,
he won't come because they think. that everything's all right,
they're as good as the next man. They think they have a righteousness
of their own, and they don't need the righteousness of someone
else. Well, they will not come because
they cannot trust Christ and renounce the world, which everybody
must do. that comes to Christ. Also because
the natural man, as I've tried to say here, hates Christ, and
really and truly, if they'll tell the truth, they want nothing
to do with him. He says, you will not come to
me that you might have life. They won't come to him because
they don't want to have anything to do with him. They do not want
to be identified with him. They don't talk among the circle
of their friends about the Lord Jesus Christ. They don't want
to hear his name. They have an enmity in their
hearts and their minds and their souls against God's Christ. After all I've said and all I've
done and all I have promised, you will not come to me that
you might have life. This won't do it. Well, I think
I've made a good case for why man will not come to Christ. Now, let me tell you what I think
is implied in coming to Christ. Now, it cannot mean coming towards
this person. It cannot mean that. He's on
the throne. The Lord Jesus Christ is on the
right hand of God making intercession for His people. That's where
He is. So, it cannot mean coming to
his person. He is not here in bodily form. He is in heaven on the right
hand of God making intercession for his people. It cannot mean coming toward
his person or coming to him to see him or to hear him preach. Coming to Christ does not mean
that. It does not mean coming to the
church auditorium, the sanctuary, some holy place, doesn't mean
that. It doesn't mean that a man's
coming to Christ when he comes to the Lord's table or when he
is baptized. That does not mean that he's
coming to Christ. There's thousands upon thousands
of people every day and every Sunday that come to the Lord's
table that know no more about the Lord Jesus Christ than a
poor dead dog. Coming to Christ doesn't mean
coming to the Lord's supper, or coming into the baptismal
waters, or coming to Christ with our formal prayers and service. That's not what it means. Thousands
upon thousands of people have done this who have died in their
sins and have been separated from God throughout all eternity. Coming to Christ for salvation
means believing in Him. actually trusting Him. All of us are born in sins, dead
in trespasses and in sins. All of us are on one road or
the other. We're either going to hell or
we're going to heaven, one of the two. Thousands of people
have kept the ordinances, have went to the Lord's table went
to the baptismal pool and have died in their sins. But actually
and really coming to Christ for salvation is believing in him
as our righteousness. God demands perfection. The soul that sinneth shall surely
die. We've broken every command of
God Almighty one way or the other. We've broken the commandments
with our eyes wide open, knowing that they were wrong, but having
no feeling of care in our hearts that they are. Coming to Christ
for salvation means we're trusting him as one who met the demands
of God Almighty against us. The Lord Jesus Christ came and
he kept all the commandments. That keeping all the commandments
enables God to be just. He keeps the commandments in
our stead and in our place. We do not want to and cannot
do it if we wanted to, but our Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior,
He's the Savior, and He comes as a substitute and looks those
commandments in the face and keeps every one of them. And
the first one is, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all
thy heart and all thy soul. You never have done that, and
neither have I. But He says, I'll send my Son. The son of my bosom, my darling
son, I'll send him." And the Lord Jesus Christ was obedient. He said, I'll go if it will please
the Father. He said, I'll do all things to
please the Father. And the Father said, you go and
stand in their stead and place and room. You keep that law,
lift it up out of the mud, and make it honorable. And our Lord
Jesus faced that law, and he kept every integral part of the
law, every jot and every kiddle, every dotting of the i, every
crossing of the t. He kept it. enabling God to look upon you
with mercy. Not only did he keep that law,
but he bore the penalty due to those who broke that law. He
established a righteousness by keeping that law. And not only
did he keep the law, but he did something else. He bore the punishment
due those that broke the law. He bore their suffering. He bore their shame. When they
disrobed Him, left Him naked before that angry mob, He was
submissive to their want. He yielded himself in their hands. He, being God the Son, could
have waved his finger and sent them all rushing into hell. But
in order to please God and save the people of God, he provided
a perfect righteousness for them. He's going to take their punishment
as sinners. He's going to die their death
and take their shame, and they're going to put him in the grave.
And they put him in that grave, and he stayed there for three
days and three nights. And when the time was come, he
come forth from the grave. And he said unto that woman,
Mary, he said, I am the resurrection and the life, and whosoever believeth
on me shall be saved. I believe him. I believe the
Lord Jesus Christ right now. I believe that he's my Lord,
he's my God, and he's my Savior. I believe that he did all these
things for me, a poor, hopeless, helpless, doomed, damned sinner. I believe him. I come to him. I believe him. I receive him.
I recognize him. I love him with all my heart
and soul. He did this for me, a poor sinner. What is implied then in coming
to Christ? Coming to Christ for salvation
means believing in him. He really was. He is and always
will be. I believe him. I believe what
he did, which is set forth in the Bible to save a sinner. I believe that he took my place. God demands that perfect righteousness
and I haven't got it. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord imputeth not sin. He doesn't charge me with sin
because he charged my Savior with it. You say, well, you believe
that Christ being the Son of God actually really took my sins,
all of my sins from the time that I was conscious of sin until
right now, until the time I die. He took them all and rolled them
on Him and He suffered and He paid all that God demanded. He fulfilled the penalty and
He went to hell. saved me through unbiased righteousness
and went to hell, suffered my penalty by going down into the
regions of the dam and conquering the devil and hell, and on the
third day he came forth from the grave, the Lord Jesus Christ. Come unto the Lord Jesus Christ
for salvation means believing in Him as our righteousness,
not your righteousness. You have none. The only righteousness
that means anything to God is the righteousness of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And that righteousness of Christ
is charged to the believer in Christ. Coming to Christ for
salvation is believing in him as our righteousness and our
sanctification. Sanctification means holiness. That's what it means, holiness. I'm not holy, and neither are
you. I'm only holy in the Lord Jesus
Christ. He's not only my righteousness,
but he's my holiness, he's my sanctification, and he's my wisdom,
and he's my redemption. Coming to the Lord Jesus Christ
means trusting him for all I want and all that God wants. That's
what it means to come to Christ. Him and him alone can save a
sinner. No one else can do it. Good works
don't even want to talk about them. So I'm asking you here
this morning, what do you want? And what does a holy God want? You won't have quitted from your
guilt. That's what you want. That's
what I want. I want to be acquitted from my
guilt. You want pardon, sealed home
upon your conscience. You want that. You want peace,
and you want promise. You want a prospect of eternal
happiness. You want comfort, and you want
consolation. You want the assurance of God's
eternal love. Well, coming to the Lord Jesus
Christ is coming to him for all of this. What does God want? God wants
holiness, purity, and perfection. How can I satisfy the claims
of God's wants? It's impossible. I can't do it. I can't do it. But thank God
He sent His Son to do it for me. You believe in Him? I believe
in the Lord Jesus with all my heart. I believe that He came
from the Father's bosom. He was born of a virgin. He is
a man, all man, and all God in one person. And as a man, He
redeemed my soul by the atonement that he made of himself. How
can I satisfy the claims and the wants of God? It's impossible. But he, the Lord Jesus, has done
this for all of his people, every one of them. Coming to Christ
is to trust him as the doer of these things. He did them all. Mark this, you must not take
a rag or a shred of your own righteousness along with you
when you come to Christ. Not one shred. You come as you
are, naked, unholy and ungodly, and a sinner with the deepest
dye. You come to Him that way. Well,
it's true, yet it's news that no self-righteous man or natural
man in this world can receive or avail himself to it. It's true to this hour that this
sort of a man will not come to Christ that they might have life. And I'll tell you why they won't
come. I've tried to tell you, but I'll tell you again. They
won't come because they think they've got life. They think
they already have life. Everything's going to be alright.
I'm breathing. I'm breathing. And somehow, someway,
I'll avoid all this. Oh no, you won't. You won't avoid
it. You are in need of the Lord Jesus
Christ. You must have Him. two questions
and I'll quit. How is it possible for a fallen
man to come to Christ? Well, it's totally impossible
without a miraculous interference. That's so. No man can come to
me, says the Lord Jesus Christ himself. No man can come unto
me except the Father who sent me draw him. Except a man be
born again, or born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of
God. If you can come to the Lord Jesus
Christ, if you can come to Him as you are, nothing in your hands,
come with your nothing, and God will make your nothing something. You will not come to me that
you might have life. On your own, you won't do it.
There's got to be a miraculous intervention in your soul and
make you willing. You're not willing to come naturally. He's got to make you willing.
If He makes you willing, you'll come. If you're never made willing,
you'll never come. Why will ye not come? Why will ye die when the Son
of God is so nearby? Well, I'm a poor, poor interpreter
of the doings of the Lord Jesus. But I know that I love Him. I
know that He made me willing in the day of His power. Years
ago, so long ago, I can't hardly remember it. When I was 24 years old, the
Lord... I never had went to church. I
went to daily vacation Bible school one time, and I didn't
know what it was all about, but I went because someone warned
me to. But one time I did stop in at
the church and listen to the preacher, and God made me willing. The first time I heard it, God
made me willing to come to Christ. I come to Him then, and I've
been coming to Him ever since. And I hope and pray that all
of us here this morning has come to Him. If you haven't, you will,
if He makes you willing.