Well, I can tell you that I already
know that not only will I not exhaust the subject of Christ
our Savior, I won't begin to start to scratch the surface
of it. I remember the very first time
I ever taught Brother Henry's Sunday school class, it was Easter
Sunday. I mean, it was packed. People
were out in the hallway. It was packed. And Brother Henry's
advice to me was this. He said, when you preach the
gospel, jump in the deep end, swim around for about 40 minutes,
and get out. That's what I hope to do tonight. It's good to see
all of you. I told you so many times how
much I love you and care for you and your pastor. It still
is true, and it's an honor to be here this evening. If you
would, open your Bibles with me to 1 Peter chapter 2. I guess this will be our text
or jumping off point tonight. First Peter chapter two, verse four, to whom coming as into a living
stone disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God and precious.
To whom coming, that's what I want to look at tonight. The title
of my message is why should I come to Christ? It is my earnest prayer
tonight that the spirit will enable me to preach Christ so
clearly, to set forth his glory, his sufficiency so clearly that
each one of us will come to Christ. That we see Christ so clearly,
we won't be able to stay away from him. I know you often hear
preachers say, come to Christ. And that's what I want you to
do tonight. Right where you sit, without moving a muscle, you
come to Christ. I'm not asking you to come to
the front of the church. I want you to come to Christ. Now I
know that sounds mysterious to those that don't know him. What
is it to come to Christ? If we're gonna see why I should
come to Christ, I think the first thing we should look at is what
is it to come to Christ? Well, to come to Christ is to
believe Him. I believe that Christ is able
to save my sinful soul. That's why I come to Him, because
I believe Him. To come to Christ is to obey Him. You know, He
commands us, come to Him. This is not an invitation, it's
a commandment from God, come to Christ. He's not commanding
you to keep the law in order to make yourself righteous that
you might be accepted. Our commandment that we have
from God is to believe on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
To come to Christ is to obey Him. To come to Christ is to
come to Him for righteousness, because Christ is the only righteousness
that there is. I don't have any righteousness.
He, I'm not talking about coming to Christ now to receive a thing
called righteousness. I'm saying come to Christ because
he is our righteousness. Righteousness is a person. To
come to Christ is to come to him for the forgiveness of sins.
I come to Christ because I believe this. The only way my sin can
be forgiven is in the precious blood of Christ's sacrifice.
To come to Christ is to come for spiritual life. I'm dead,
and I believe he can give me life. You remember the Lord told
the Pharisees, you will not come unto me that you might have life.
Well, then to come to Christ is to come to him to receive
life, isn't it? To come to Christ, and this is very important, something
that's completely lost in our day, in the natural man, is we
come to Christ as the sovereign king. I come to him begging for
mercy, begging for forgiveness, begging for salvation. I don't
come to God like, well, now I've come to you, you owe it to me.
No, sir, God doesn't owe me anything but wrath and you either. I come
to God begging for mercy. I'm not bargaining here. I'll
do this if you do this. I'm begging you, Lord, have mercy
on my sorry soul. I beg mercy from the sovereign.
Because I believe this, only the Lord Jesus Christ has both
the sovereign power and the willingness to save a wretch like me. That's
why I come to him begging him to forgive my sin. Now, one thing that we preach
that's very different from what you hear out in false religion
is the doctrine of election. And I hate to even call it that
term because what the world is attached to that term. When I'm
talking about election, I'm talking about God's electing love. I'm
not talking about a doctrine. I'm talking about his electing
love. And God's electing love for his people is all through
the Bible. It's on every page. Now, the
word elect means chosen. In His love for His people, God
chose to save some sinners out of Adam's fallen race. He chose
them just because He would. He chose an exact people that
He would save. He chose them by name to save
them. They didn't deserve it, but God
chose. Now that's a loving truth. Isn't that something so loving
it thrills my soul, just makes the hair on the back of my neck
stand up. It's so thrilling. What can be more loving than
the father choosing to save a people who would never choose them,
him, or love him unless he chose them and loved them first? That's
so loving. And this truth of God's electing
love means this, that all those people that the father chose
to save, They will be saved. They will be. Christ came to
die for those people. He came to die for God's elect,
those people that the Father gave Him in all of eternity,
and those people and only those people will be saved. The Lord
Jesus Christ did not die to give everybody a chance to be saved.
If He did that, that would mean He's a failure, because He saved
some and lost some others. He's not a failure. Christ died
to save His people from their sin. and they shall be saved
because his blood atoned for their sin and redeemed them.
It's utterly impossible for them to perish because Christ the
substitute, now get a hold of this, the son of God stood as
a substitute for God's people and someone as glorious as him
died in the place of somebody as wretched as you and me. My
soul. then those people cannot perish.
The substitute already died in their place. Look over at Psalm
14 for just a second. You know, people say this. I
only deal with this just because you hear this out in the world,
and I want you to have an answer to it. People say, well, God
chose people because He looked down through the telescope of
time and saw that they would choose Him. God looked down through
the telescope of time and saw these people would do good and
be good, so God chose to save them. Brother Donnie Bell says
that's God taking credit for what man would do anyway. That's
not what happened. Now, I will tell you this, God
did look down through time. You want me to tell you what
He saw? He tells us here, Psalm 14, verse 2. The Lord looked
down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were
any that did understand and seek God, and this is what God saw.
They're all gone aside, and they're all together become filthy. There's
none that doeth good, no not one. When God looked down to
his people, that's what he saw. And God chose to save them anyway. Now that's grace, isn't it? God chose to save them anyway.
Now, some people, me at one time, I grew up, I tell you I've been
a Calvinist as long as I can understand language. But this
is, I understood this, what this said, naturally speaking at any
rate. And this is what I thought. I
thought, well, salvation is a done deal. So, there's nothing I can
do about it. God's elect will be saved. I
believed that whole heart. I can never remember a time I
did not believe that. God's elect will be saved. Well, then there's
nothing I can do. If I find out I'm one of the
elect, I'll come to Christ. If not, I'll perish and there's
just nothing I can do about it. Now, that kind of thinking is
so wrong, and I hope nobody here thinks that, and if you do, don't
ever think that again, because that's not true. Now, it is true
that we can't do anything to save ourselves. That's absolutely
true. It's absolutely true. We can't do anything to get God
to save us. This is why we come to Christ begging for mercy,
because we can't bargain with him. We can't do anything to
get him to save us. But there is something we can
do. We can beg for mercy, can't we?
We can ask God to forgive us. Couldn't we do that? Can't we
ask God to save us, even though we don't deserve it? We can do
that. Now, I tell you, I've read this
whole book. not a person in this book that
ever came to the Lord asking for mercy that the Lord didn't
show mercy. Every single person that ever
came to Christ asking for mercy. Everybody that ever called on
God and begged Him for mercy always received it, every single
time. See, no one ever comes to Christ
because they know they are one of the elect. People come to
Christ because they are sinners and they need a Savior. They
come begging for mercy. And you know what they find out
later on? Oh, I was one of God's elect
all along. He just put it in my heart. I
didn't know that. I just came to Christ because I was a sinner.
This is an illustration I've heard. I heard it a long time
ago. I'm sure you've heard it too. I'm going to repeat it.
The illustration is this, that salvation is like a doorway.
And it's a good example, isn't it? Because what did the Savior
say? I'm the door. I'm the door. On one side of the door, above
the door, there's writing. And the writing says, come unto
me, foggy that labor and heavy laden. I'll give you rest. Are
you thirsty? Come, I'll give you drink. I'll
give you rivers of living water. Well, I come. I said, that fits my need. I'm
thirsty. I'm weary. I'm so weary of trying
to keep God's law and failing. I'm so weary of myself and my
sin and my failure. I'm so weary. I'm coming for
rest. I thirst for righteousness. I don't have any. I need some.
I'm thirsty. I'm coming. So that tired, thirsty
sinner comes through the door. On the other side of the door,
there's more writing. And it says, I've loved you with
an everlasting love. Therefore with loving kindness
have I drawn you. I found out, oh, I was thirsty
because God salted me. I was weary because he put this
burden on me and made me come to Christ. Now I see that's why
the elect come to Christ. That's the connection between
God's electing love and coming to Christ. Now I'm gonna give
you three examples from the word of God. to show you why we come
to Christ. Why is it I should come to Christ
and beg him to save me? Well, first look at Matthew chapter
15. We come to Christ because we
need help. I need help. Matthew 15. Beginning in verse 21. Then Jesus
went thence and departed in the coast of Tyre and Sidon, And
behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coast and cried
unto him, saying, have mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David. My daughter is grievously vexed
with the devil. But he answered her not a word.
And his disciples came and besought him, saying, send her away, for
she crieth after us. But he answered and said, I'm
not sent, but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Then
came she and worshiped him, saying, Lord, help me. And this woman
came begging for mercy. She came begging for help from
her daughter. Lord didn't even answer her. I mean, he didn't
even answer her. And you know what she did? She kept begging. If you beg God for mercy, here's
my advice to you. Keep begging. Keep begging until
he gives it to you. He taught us to pray that way.
Don't quit, he said. Don't quit. Keep crying on him.
Keep begging. She kept begging. Well, when
the Lord did finally answer her, he told her, I only came to save
my elect. I only came to save spiritual
Israel. Now, she understood what he said,
and she didn't storm off and say, well, that's not fair. She
didn't tell her poor daughter, grievously vexed with the devil.
She didn't say, well, honey, I tried. He won't have anything
to do with us because we're not one of the elect. Let's go home.
She didn't do that. She said, Lord, help me. Help me. I don't know if I'm one of the
elect or not, but this is what I know. I need help. I need help. That's why I come to Christ.
I need help. Well, verse 26, he answered again.
He said, it's not me. It's not right to take the children's
bread and to cast it to dogs. The Lord here is telling you
the truth about his electing love again. I've only come to
save my elect. And you're just a dog. Ooh. Can you imagine today? Call me
a dog. I'm nobody's dog. I'm not going
to put up with this. I'm going to go home. He just
offended me. She didn't do that. She didn't
throw him off home. She stayed right there begging for help. I need help. There's no help
at home. There's help at his feet. I'm begging for help. Verse 27, she said, truth Lord,
yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their master's
table. She said, Lord, everything you're saying about me is true.
I am a dog. I am, you're right, I'm a dog.
And you only came to save your leg. I see that. You have that
right. It's only right that you came
to save the people that you chose to save. But I need help. Lord,
help me. Just a crumb from a master as
great as you will solve all my need. Just a crumb. In verse 28, Jesus answered and
said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith. This is great faith,
knowing I'm a dog and he's the master. It's great faith. Great is thy faith. Be it unto
thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole
from that very hour. She kept begging for mercy, and
the Lord healed her daughter. He gave her the help that she
needed. Now, you and I are sinners, and
we need help. I've done some projects around
the house. I'm no electrician. I'm no carpenter. I'm no plumber. But I'll start
on these projects, you know, thinking I can get these things
done. And then I can't. I call one of the men from church.
Usually I call Brother Eric Floyd. I say, Eric, I need help. And
Eric comes over, and he takes what I've started, and he finishes
it. That's not the kind of help you and I need. We're dead. We can't do anything. This is
the help we need. We need the Savior to come and
do all of the saving for us. It's not I do my part and then
the Savior does his part. This is the help I need. I need
the Lord Jesus Christ to do everything that God requires of me. That's
what I need. Everything the Bible says about
us is true. We are dead sinners. We are just dogs. We are filthy
in our sin. That's not just people out there
in the world. That's you and me by nature. We're filthy in our
sin. And that's why I need help. And
that's why I come to Christ. And the Lord never tells a beggar
who's come to him begging for salvation, I won't be merciful
to you. He never says that. That moves my heart to come to
him begging for help, doesn't it, you? All right, number two,
look at Matthew chapter eight. We come to Christ for spiritual
healing. Matthew eight, verse one. When
he was come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed him.
And behold, there came a leper and worshiped him, saying, Lord,
if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. Now this man had leprosy. We read in other accounts he
was full of leprosy. His whole entire body was covered
with leprosy. He was so miserable in his disease. And leprosy is a very good picture
of our sin. We think of leprosy as a disease
of the skin, but you know it's not. It's a disease of the blood.
It's rots the body from the inside out. And that's our sin. Sin
is not just what we do on the outside. Sin is what we are,
and it's killing us from the inside out. It's like those fiery
serpents that bit the people in the wilderness. Serpent bit
them, and there they were, laying in the wilderness, that snake
venom just coursing through their body, killing them from the inside
out. That's the leprosy of our sin.
Now at this time, there was no cure for leprosy. There's treatments
and things for leprosy today, but there wasn't then, no treatment
at all. And that's what sin is. There's
no human cure for sin. We can't make ourselves stop
sinning. We can't do it. The old Jews
called leprosy the living death. A person with leprosy was physically
still alive, but they're as good as dead. Leprosy is going to
kill them soon. That's such a good picture of
sin that's in us. We're all alive physically. You
all are sitting, blinking, and breathing, and responding. We're
alive physically. But by nature, we're dead spiritually. And we'll perish unless God has
mercy on us. We're dying. Sin has killed us.
Scripture does not even call leprosy a disease. We think of
it as a disease. You know what scripture calls
leprosy? An uncleanness. That's another good picture of
sin, isn't it? Sin is not just the things that we do wrong,
you know, breaking the rules, doing something we've been told
not to do. Sin is an uncleanness that's defiled our souls. And
we just do wrong on the outside because of the uncleanness that's
made our souls so filthy in sin. Now that's the disease this leper
had. I think it's very interesting. He comes to the Savior right
after the Savior finishes preaching what we call the Sermon on the
Mount. He heard the Master preach. And he couldn't help it. He came
to Christ. But you know what? The law said
he can't come. The law said he had to stay away
from people. He had to wear that veil and mask over his face and
cry unclean, unclean, and not let anybody get near him. The
law said he's not even allowed to go talk to the Lord, but he
does anyway because he's unclean and he needs healing. You know,
you and I might think, well, There's no use in asking the
Lord to save me, because he's just going to save his elect
no matter what. There's no use in me asking the Lord to forgive
me of my sin or cleanse me of my sin, because he's going to
save his elect no matter what. He'll forgive me if I'm one of
his elect. He'll save me if I'm one of his elect. Oh, I used
to have a boss that's stinking thinking. That's what that is.
Do you know sinners actually have every right to come and
ask the Lord to save us? We have every right. And you
know who gave us that right? The Lord himself. He said, come
unto me. I'll give you life. Come unto
me. I'll give you rest. Come unto
me. My burden is easy. My yoke is
light. Come unto me. There is nothing stopping you
and me from coming to Christ except our self-righteousness.
That's all it is. There's nothing ever stopping
us from coming to the Lord and asking Him to save us, asking
Him to forgive us. The law says stay away, doesn't
it? But Christ the Savior says come. That's our permission. He's the one who gave us the
permission to come, begging Him for mercy. And that's what this
less leper did. And I love how he begs for mercy. I love this. Lord, if you will,
you can make me clean, if you will. He didn't know if the Lord
would have mercy on him, but he knew this, the Savior had
the power to heal him. And it was all up to Christ.
It was all up to him. And that's the way you and I
should come begging for mercy. I don't know if I'm going to
elect or not, but I do know the Lord can have mercy on me if
he will. I don't know if the Lord will have mercy on me. I
don't know if he'll cleanse me. I don't know if he'll forgive
me. He sure don't have to. But I know this for a fact, the Lord
can save my sinful soul if he will, if he will. See, this is
coming to the sovereign, begging him for mercy. Well, what did
the Savior do? Verse three, Jesus put forth
his hand and touched him. saying, I will, be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was
cleansed. I'm sure glad that our Lord was
not a legalist. Aren't you glad he didn't look
this leper and say, you're not allowed to come to me. You're
not allowed to come near me. What are you doing? You're not
allowed to come around these people. What do you think you're? He
didn't say that at all. The Lord always made sinners
comfortable to come to Him. This leper, I mean, you think,
I just can't even imagine what his life was like. He felt comfortable
to come to the Savior. As our Lord traveled, everywhere
he stopped, who gathered around him? Publicans and harlots. Sinners are always comfortable
to come to the Savior. The Savior didn't look down at
this man and say, let me think about it for a while and I'll
get back to you. He didn't say, let's find out if you're sorry
enough. Maybe if you do some good works. He didn't say that. The Lord immediately said, I
will. And he reached out and touched
that leper. This man's full of leprosy. I'm confident of this. Other lepers wouldn't touch that
fella. But the master did. Oh, can you
imagine what that felt like? I will. He was cleansed immediately.
Now, why could the Lord do that? Well, there's no human cure for
leprosy, but there is no disease that the Lord could not heal.
One day he was out there in a field or something, and people in the
nearby town heard he was there. And they emptied that town of
people who were sick and hurting and diseases, and they brought
him to people. He healed everyone who had need
of healing. Everyone. See, the question is,
do you have a need? Most people don't know it. Do
you have a need? Then come to Christ. He healed everyone who
had need of healing. There's no human cure for sin,
but there's no sin so bad, so defiled, so deep that the blood
of Christ can't wash it white as snow. Here's why the Savior
could touch that man, because very soon, he's gonna take the
spiritual disease of this poor leper and all of his elect and
take it into his own body upon the tree. and put it away by
his precious blood. And you know what he's gonna
trade for all that sin and all that corruption? He's gonna trade
his righteousness and his life and give it to them freely. That's
what he did in picture with this leper. See, the power of the
Lord to save and his willingness to save, his compassion, he reached
out and touched this life by showing his compassion on this
man. He has the power to save, he has the willingness to save,
and he has the compassion and the pity for somebody like me. That's why a sin sick sinner
comes to Christ. His power, his willingness, and
his compassion. Are you dead? Are you dead in
sin? You come to Christ for healing.
All right, here's the last thing. Look across the page, Matthew
chapter nine. We come to Christ because I need
him, him. Matthew chapter nine, verse 20.
And behold, a woman which was diseased with an issue of blood,
12 years, came behind him and touched the hem of his garment.
For she said within herself, if I may but touch his garment,
I shall be whole. Now this woman had a very, very
painful disease for 12 years. Delicately put, it was her time
of the month for 12 straight years. Now she needed healing,
didn't she? She needed help from the Lord.
The doctors couldn't help her. She tried. All they do is make
her worse. But she knew this. I need him. If I could touch the Lord, if
I could just touch the hem of his garment, I'll be healed. See, this is what she knew. I
need him. I need the Lord. I need everything that he is.
Now, just like the leper, this woman with this sickness, she
wasn't allowed to go out in public. Whatever she touched became unclean.
She was supposed to stay home. Now, I'm sure as best she could,
you know, maybe other than going to doctor's appointments or whatever,
she tried to follow the law. She tried to stay home for 12
years. Remember the pandemic started
when we had that shutdown? How lonely did she get? I mean,
how did this? Man, I need to see somebody.
12 years this woman endured this. Not only did she need healing,
she needed a friend. She needed companionship. Salvation is not not wanting
to go to hell. Nobody wants to go to hell. If
somebody tells you they're not afraid of going to hell, they're
lying. Nobody wants to go to hell. Salvation is not even wanting
to go to heaven. Everybody wants to go to heaven.
Salvation is knowing and trusting and loving a person. A person. Salvation is wanting and needing
to be wherever Christ is. You can have all the pearly gates,
all the big mansions and all the streets of gold you want. I want to be where Christ is.
My soul's desire is to one day open my eyes in glory, look into
the face of the Savior, and see him as he is, and be made like
him. David said, I'll be satisfied.
I will too. I will too. I want to be where
he is. Salvation is not just a legal
transaction where our sins are paid for. That's vitally important. There's no salvation without
the blood, paying for the sin. We have to have that. But salvation
is more than that. It's needing Christ. It's needing
to have a relationship with Him. If I have Christ, I have forgiveness.
I have righteousness. I have cleansing. I have salvation. Salvation is not just having
things. That's what this war has caught up with, is having
things and having blessings. I'm all for those things, but
I'll tell you what I need. I need the blesser. I need the
blesser. I need him. Salvation is having
the presence of Christ in my heart. It's all if I could just
be where he is. Prisons would palaces prove,
wouldn't they? If Jesus would dwell with me there. I guess
the best way to say what I'm trying to say is this. I don't
want the things that Christ can give me. I want him. I want a relationship with him.
I'll amen what the apostle Paul said. I want to be found in him,
in him, that salvation. Well, verse 22, but Jesus turned
him about. And when he saw her, he said,
daughter, be of good comfort. Thy faith has made thee whole.
And the woman was made whole from that hour. Now, this woman
came to Christ because she needed him. I know I need him. I need
to, if I just touch the hem of his garment, just, he is so wonderful. If I just touch the hem of his
clothes, I'll be healed. I need him. And you know what
she found out? She found out she was one of
God's elect all along. The Savior turned and looked
to her and called her his daughter. She found out she's a daughter
of God. This is the only woman I found
in the New Testament that the Lord ever called a daughter.
This woman, you're my daughter. You're part of the family. Part
of the family of God. That's the father of two daughters.
Let me tell you something. A father loves his daughter.
I know the father loves his sons too, but now this is where the
Lord called this woman his daughter. There's a special love, a tender
love, a tender care for your daughter. The Lord healed this
woman, didn't he? But she got something so important.
She got a relationship with the Savior. He's my father. She was lonely. She needed a
friend. She found the friend of sinners.
You imagine next time she went to the, The meeting house and
they stood up to sing, what a friend we have in Jesus. She was singing
louder than anybody, wasn't she? What a friend. She needed some
love. She needed companionship. The
Lord let her know, I'm your father. You're my daughter. I'm your
father. I'll be with you always. I'll
take care of you always. You'll never be alone. She came to Christ because she
needed Him. I'll tell you what, that's why we come to Christ.
I need Him because He, He is everything that I need. Now remember
when we started we looked at Peter where he said to whom coming.
The life of a believer begins by coming to Christ. And the
life of a believer is lived constantly coming to Christ. I'll be driving
home from the service sometime. Aaron, you understand this. I don't know if it's depression,
if it's serious, but you're kind of lost, and you're thinking
about the message, thinking, oh. And Jan will ask me, what
are you thinking? I'll say, oh, I hope somebody
comes to Christ today. And she'll often tell me somebody
did. I did. I came again. That's what Peter's
saying, to whom coming. The life of a believer is constantly
coming to Christ, constantly coming to him for forgiveness,
constantly coming to him for righteousness and peace, constantly
coming to him for assurance and companionship. It's constantly
coming to worship him, constantly coming one more time to hear
more of him. Claire, the preacher Kent is
also subject. Who can tell it? But in 40 minutes,
would you tell me just one more, tell me more about him. To whom
coming? Oh, I pray Lord bless this to
your heart. And either for the first time or the 10,000th time,
cause us to come to Christ. He's everything we need. All
right. Lord bless you. I appreciate you.