We should turn back to Mark chapter
one. I've entitled this message, what
does it mean to come to Christ? Now that ought to interest every
one of us very much. What does it mean? to come to
Christ. If I, if you do not personally
come to Christ, whatever that means, we will not be saved. We will not be in heaven. So I must know, what does it
mean to come to Christ? Let me read you some scriptures.
In John chapter six, verse 37, the Lord said, all that the father
giveth me shall come to me. All of God's elect shall come
to Christ. And him that cometh to me, I
will in no wise cast out. Now listen to me. If you come
to Christ, you will be received. He will not cast you out. In John chapter five, verse 40,
the Lord said to the Pharisees, you will not come to me that
you might have life. You see, this thing of coming
to Christ is the act of spiritual life. John chapter seven, verse 37,
The Lord Jesus said, if any man thirst, let him come to me and
drink. In first Peter chapter two, verse
four, Peter said, to whom coming. Do you know that describes the
believer's life? To whom coming. as unto a living stone. In Matthew 11, verse 28, the
Lord said, Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden,
and I will give you rest. Revelation 22 verse 17 we read,
and the Spirit and the Bride. This is the message of God the
Holy Spirit. This is the message of the church.
The Spirit and the Bride say, come. Not go and do. Not go and make
yourself ready. Don't think about anything that
you need to do. Just forget that. The spirit
and the bride say, come. And let him that heareth say,
come. And let him that's a thirst,
come. And whosoever will, let him take
the water of life freely. If I do not personally come to
Christ, I will not be saved. Now the big question is, what
in the world does it mean to come to Christ? Now you've come
to church this morning. It was a physical act. You got
out of bed, possibly, hopefully, with the intention of coming
to church. You got dressed, you got in your
car, You drove here, you got out, you sat down to listen.
It was a physical coming. I hope it's for spiritual bread,
but coming to church was a physical thing. But do you know that coming
to Christ is a purely spiritual act? You come to Christ without
moving a muscle. It's something done within the
heart. What does it mean? to come to
Christ. Now the only way that question
could be answered is from the scriptures. You see, if I say
here's what I believe it means to come to Christ and I give
you my thoughts on it, you know what that's going to do? It's
going to confuse you. It's going to be cloudy. It's
going to be something you probably are thinking, what in the world
does he mean by that? So I want to avoid, in every way I can,
trying to give you what I think it means to come to Christ, and
I want us to look at a place in the Bible where it says a
man came to Christ. Now this leper I just read about,
look what it says with regard to him in verse 40, and there
came a leper unto him. Now we know this man came to
Christ and this man teaches us what it means to come to Christ. And it's my prayer that this
very morning, everybody in this room will come to Christ just
like this man did. Wouldn't that be a blessing of
grace? If you and I are enabled in our hearts truly to come to
Jesus Christ, the Lord. You know, the Bible doesn't say
anything about coming to Christ in response to an altar call.
That's what most religious people think. The Bible doesn't say
anything about accepting Jesus Christ as your personal Savior.
You know, that's foolishness. Just saying something like that
is foolishness. The Bible doesn't even say anything
about asking Jesus into your heart. You won't find that in
the Bible. What does it mean to come to
Christ? I know I won't be saved if I
don't. What does it mean to come to
the Lord Jesus Christ? Would you turn with me to John
chapter six? I want to begin this message
by you and I seeing that this thing of coming to Christ is
impossible for us. That's where we must begin. As
a matter of fact, if you've not seen that you personally cannot
come to Christ, you have not seen who God is, and you've not
seen who you are. Now we gotta begin here. John chapter six, verse 44. These are the words of the Lord
Jesus. And he says, no man can come to me except the Father
which has sent me draw him. How many different ways are there
to take that? The Lord says, no man, that's you, that's me. No man can, no man has the ability
to come to Christ unless God draws him. Look in verse 65 of
this same chapter. The Lord repeats Himself. And He said, Therefore said I
unto you, that no man can come unto Me, except it were given
unto him of My Father. Now let's start right here. I
mean, you can't come. If we don't, we won't be saved.
and we cannot come except God draws me. Except God gives me
the grace to come. Now listen to this. You don't
come until you see you can't. It's only when you see that you
cannot come THAT YOU WILL COME TO THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. IT
BEGINS HERE. IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THIS, YOU'VE NOT SEEN WHO GOD
IS. IF YOU DON'T SEE THIS, YOU DON'T
HAVE ANY IDEA WHO YOU ARE. THIS THING OF COMING TO CHRIST
BEGINS WITH ME SEEING THAT I CAN'T Come. Now somebody says, why
in the world would you tell somebody to come when they can't? Because the Bible says this.
We gotta begin here with what God says in his word. The Bible
says this. And listen to the words of the
Shulamite woman in the Song of Solomon. Draw me. If no man can come to me except
the Father which has sent me, draw me, draw him. Here's what
I say, Lord, draw me and we will run after thee. Why tell people to come to Christ
who cannot come? Because the Lord said, go out
into the highways and the hedges and compel them to come in. There came a leper to him. Now what does it mean to come
to Christ first? You know you can't unless you're
drawn. And you haven't commenced coming
until you've been taught that. Second, you come knowing who
he is. You don't come to somebody you
don't know who they are. Now, does that mean you believe
you know him? You might not believe you know him, but you know who
he is. That is the important knowledge. If you know who he
is, you'll know him, but you come knowing who he is. That leper came to him. Luke's account says, behold,
a man full of leprosy who seeing Jesus. No man will come to him
unless he knows who it is he's coming to. This is not some kind
of ooey-gooey ethereal, you know who it is you are coming to. This man came to Christ knowing
he was God. Somebody says, well, how do you
know he knew he was God? Well, Matthew's account says he came
and worshiped him. And he asked him to do what only
God can do. If you will, you can make me
clean. He came worshiping him. Is the one you're coming to worthy
of worship even if he turns you away? If he doesn't do anything for
you, if he doesn't do anything for me, if he lets me drop into
hell, is he worthy of divine worship? Is he? the object of divine worship. Now this must be settled first
without reference to what he does for me or you. He's to be
worshiped for who he is. Matthew's account says the leper
came before he received anything from him, before the Lord responded
to him, he came and he worshiped him. Nobody's ever come to Christ
who did not worship him as God. Now notice back in Mark chapter
one, once again, Remember, this is a man who came
to Christ, and we're asking, what's it mean to come to Christ?
Well, number one, you haven't come to Christ until you've found
out you can't, and it's only then when you come. Somebody
says, that doesn't make sense. Yeah, it does. Yeah, it does.
That's from a knowledge of who he is and who you are. And you
come worshiping, he is God, and look what this man And there came a leper to him,
beseeching him and kneeling down to him and saying unto him, if
thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. Now hold your finger there
and turn to Matthew chapter eight, Matthew's account. What does
it mean to come to Christ? Verse one, when he came down
from the mountain, great multitudes follow him and behold, there
came a leper. and worshiped him, saying. Now, if you come to Christ, you've
got something to say. And this is what you'll say.
First of all, you acknowledge his utter lordship. He came saying, Lord. What is it to come to Christ?
It's to acknowledge in your heart, and it's gonna come out in your
mouth, you're gonna say it, Lord. Jesus Christ is the Lord. That means he's Lord of creation. This one I'm coming to is the
one who spaked the universe into existence. When he said, light
be, the darkness fled. He created the universe. He's
Lord of Providence. This one I'm coming to is the
one who controls every event, every person, and everything. He's the Lord. By Him, all things
consist. He upholds all things by the
word of His power. He's the Lord of salvation. What
that means is my salvation's up to Him. It's not up to me.
It's up to Him. Lord. Nobody comes to Christ
who doesn't know who he is and doesn't know that he is the Lord.
You remember that thief on the cross? He's the fellow that I'd
say had the minimum of knowledge. Would you agree with that? He
went up to that cross not knowing who the Lord was. And sometime
during his time being nailed to the cross, he found out who
the Lord was. What did he say? Lord, remember
me. When you come into your kingdom,
you're not going to stay on the cross. You're not going to stay
dead. You're going to come back as a mighty reigning king. Lord, remember me. What is it to come to Christ?
It's to acknowledge his Lordship. Notice what he says next in Matthew's
account. This is written in Matthew, Mark
and Luke, but he says in Matthew chapter eight, verse two, and
behold, there came a leper and worshiped him saying, Lord, if
thou will, When you come to Christ, you
do acknowledge His sovereign will. Nobody has ever come to
Christ who did not acknowledge His sovereign will. If you will, you can make me
clean. Now, what does sovereign will
mean? Christ has a will, an eternal
will, a purpose. Christ has a will. Christ has
the power TO MAKE SURE HIS WILL COMES TO PASS. DO YOU KNOW HIS
WILL CAN'T BE THWARTED? IF HE WILLS SOMETHING, IT MUST
BE DONE. I MEAN, THERE'S NO ARGUMENT. IT MUST BE DONE. HE HAS THE RIGHT
TO MAKE HIS WILL COME TO PASS. CAN I NOT DO WHAT I WILL WITH
MY OWN, HE SAID. AND HE ALWAYS DOES MAKE HIS WILL
COME TO PASS. according to his will in the
armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. And
none can stay his hand or say unto him, what doest thou? This
man came acknowledging his sovereign will, if you will. Can you imagine
this man saying, Lord, I will that you make me clear. What
insolence. What arrogance to come into God's
presence and say something like that? Or say, Lord, I'm asking
you to make me clean. It wouldn't be fair for you to
not make me clean. Wouldn't come that way at all, would he? Lord,
if you will, when someone comes to Christ, they always come acknowledging
his sovereign will. If you don't acknowledge his
sovereign will, it's simply because you don't know who he is. If
you know who he is, you will acknowledge his sovereign will. I say there in Matthew, what
happens next? If thou wilt, thou canst. You have the ability to make
me clean. What is it to come to Christ?
It's to come acknowledging His ability to make you clean. If you will, you have the ability
to make me clean. Anybody who comes to Him because
of their knowledge of who He is, they know he does have the
ability to make them clean. Now, they may question his willingness
to. I understand that. I mean, that comes from looking
at who you are and how sinful you are, and you think, why would
he ever make me clean? I mean, I understand somebody
thinking that way, but the reason we think that way is because
we have too little knowledge of his character. You see, that's
the only kind of people he does make clean, people who are unclean
and have no merit of their own. But one thing every believer
is sure of, everybody that comes to him, they're sure of, he is
able. I'm not talking about my ability.
I'm talking about his ability. If thou wilt, Lord, he came and
worshiped him. Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst. You have the ability to make
me clean. Is anything too hard for the
Lord? I think of that scripture in
Jude 24, now unto him that's able to keep you from falling
and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory
with exceeding joy. Now, because of who he is, you
see, I believe he's God. I believe he's the object of
divine worship. I believe He's the Lord. I believe
in His sovereignty. If He wills something, it must
happen. I believe His ability. I love that scripture, Hebrews
1, 3, when He had by Himself, by Himself, without you, without
your contribution, had by himself." See, he's got the ability to
do this. When he had by himself purged our sins, he sat down
at the right hand of the majesty on high. Jesus Christ has the
ability to make me clean, sinless, faultless before God. So that when I stand before God
in judgment and God looks me over, holy, unblameable, and
unreprovable in His sight. Now we're going to get in just
a couple of minutes to how that can be. But remember this is
how does, what does it mean for a sinner to come to Christ? Well,
he comes knowing who He is. He comes worshiping. He comes
acknowledging his sovereign will. He acknowledges his ability. And in this thing of coming to
Christ, there is an acknowledging of the fact that I am unclean. He was acknowledging the fact
that he was unclean. That's a good word to describe
me. unclean. If I think it, it's unclean. If I say it, it's unclean. An unclean heart, a heart filthy,
wicked, as God said God saw the wickedness of man was great in
the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart
was only evil continually. Somebody says, I just can't see
that. It's because you've never seen the Lord, you've never seen yourself,
if that's the case. You see the Lord, you see who
you are, you're gonna say, that's me. Unclean. Now remember this man was a leper.
What disease does the Bible talk most about? Leprosy. Leprosy. It's a picture of sin. Leprosy. Turn with me to Leviticus chapter
13 for just a moment. Look in verse 44. He's a leprous man. Leviticus 13 verse 44. He's a leprous man. He's unclean. The priest shall pronounce him
utterly unclean. His plague is in his head, and
the leper in whom the plague is, his clothes shall be rent
and his head bare, and he shall put a covering upon his upper
lip and shall cry, unclean, unclean, stay away from me. And the days
wherein the plague shall be in him, he shall be defiled. He's
unclean. He shall dwell alone without
the camp, shall his habitation be." Look in verse 12 of this same
chapter. And before I read this, Luke's
account tells us that when this leper came, he was full. of leprosy. The same leper, Luke
gives us this detail, he was full of leprosy. That means every
square inch of his body was completely covered by this hideous disease. There was no cleanness in him
whatsoever. He couldn't look at one spot
of his flesh and see healthy flesh. He was completely covered
with leprosy. That's how this man came to Christ.
Completely covered with leprosy. Now look in verse 12. And if
a leprosy break out abroad in the skin, and the leprosy cover
all the skin of him that hath the plague, from his head even
to his foot, wheresoever the priest looketh, then the priest
shall consider and behold, if the leprosy hath covered all
his flesh, he shall pronounce him clean. Now, as long as, let's go on
reading. He's all turned white, he's clean, but when raw flesh
appears in him, that word raw means living, healthy. If raw flesh appears in him,
he shall be unclean. Now, do you hear what that's
saying? It is only when I come with nothing
but my leprosy, nothing but my sin, and everything about me
is covered with sin. That's when the priest pronounces
him clean. And that's one of the great mysteries
of the gospel. It's only as you come completely
covered by sin that you're going to be pronounced clean. Let's go back to Mark chapter one. If thou wilt, If thou wilt, thou
can make me clean. Now, what is it to come to Christ?
It's to come to him for the right thing, to be made clean. He didn't come to get his marriage
straightened out. He didn't come to get his finances
improved. He didn't come to be saved from
hell. He didn't come to be made healthy,
wealthy, and wise. He came to be made clean. That's what I need. I need to
be made clean. I can't make myself clean. I
come to Him as God, worshiping Him for who He is, acknowledging
His Lordship. He's the Lord. Acknowledging
His sovereign will, if you will. Acknowledging His ability. You
can. Acknowledging my uncleanness.
If you can, if you will, you can make me clean. I'm not clean. I need to be made clean. Now that is what it means to
come to Christ. Verse 41. And Jesus moved with compassion. You see anybody who comes to
him just like this, he's going to be moved with compassion. Oh, the compassion of the Son
of God toward sinners. He's moved with compassion, put
forth his hand and touched. How long you reckon it had been
since that man had experienced any human touch at all? Would you have touched him? I
wouldn't have. But the Lord moved with compassion. Oh, he's so glorious. He reached
forth his hand and touched him. And let me say this. If I'm coming
to Christ that way right now, he touches me. If you come to
Christ the way this man did, he's moved by compassion. And
he reaches forth his hand and touches you. And saith unto him, I will. Lord, if you will, you can make
me clean." I will. Everybody who comes just like
this hears this, I will. Oh, there's such ... If I say,
I will do something, do you know how weak and I will do this. Well, maybe you will, maybe you
won't. You don't know what state you're gonna be in in the next
30 seconds. But when He says, I will, He will. I will. Be thou clean. And verse 42, and as soon as
He had spoken, immediately, The leprosy, now notice this word,
this is very important. It departed from him. It departed from him. Went somewhere. Where'd it go? Who his own self bear our sins
in his own body on the tree. It departed. from him. It left him. Very much like the
glorious picture we have of the scapegoat when the high priest
put his hands on the goat. What took place? The sins of
Israel came through the priest to the scapegoat, and the scapegoat
bore those sins. Now, if you would understand
the gospel, if you would understand how you can be clean, here it
is. God took my sin and gave it to
his son, and it became his, and he put it away, and his perfect
righteousness is given to me, and I am made clean. This man full of leprosy came, and the Lord was moved by this,
and his flesh became perfectly clean. And if I come to Christ
like this leper did, I stand before God right now, clean,
spotless, holy, without sin. Verse forty-three, "...and he
straightly charged him, and forthwith sent him away, and said unto
him, See thou say nothing to any man." Don't tell anybody
about this. Now why'd the Lord say that?
How many times does He say that? As a matter of fact, when He
heals somebody He says, don't tell anybody. I think the thing to do is tell
everybody. Tell everybody, maybe somebody will hear, get the word
out and everything. But what I love about this is
the Lord wasn't seeking to gain a following. He wasn't. He said, you just go present
yourself to the priest and offer there the things Moses told you
to. Now, one of the things about this thing of the Lord's cleansing,
when he cleanses you, you can go to the law and it's gonna
say, I find no fault. No fault at all. He cleanses
you. You can take yourself to the
law, to the Ten Commandments. They look you over and say, perfect. Perfect. Verse 45, but he went
out and he began to publish it much and to blaze abroad the
matter. Was he disobeying the Lord? Yeah. The Lord told him not to do it. Could he keep his mouth shut?
No. He went out and blazed abroad
the matter. I love that language. That's
the way the gospel should be preached. It's to be blazed abroad. What a glorious message we have
that everybody needs to hear. Everybody needs to hear this
message. I need to hear this message. This is the gospel.
He went out and began to publish it much and to blaze abroad the
matter insomuch that Jesus could no more openly enter into the
city, but was without in desert places and they came to him from
every quarter. You see through this man blazing
abroad this matter, Everybody came to Him from every corner,
needing His mercy. Now, can I come like this man
did? I know who He is. Do you know
Him? Well, I don't know if I could
say positively I know Him in the sense that I know He knows
me, but I can say this, I know who He is. He's the Lord. He's God. He's to be worshiped. I come to Him acknowledging his
sovereign will, acknowledging his ability, acknowledging my
uncleanness, acknowledging my need to be made clean. And here is his answer to everyone
that comes to him just like that. I will. Be thou clean. Let's pray. Lord, you are worthy of worship
because of who you are, whatever you do with us. Lord, we acknowledge that you
are the Lord. We acknowledge your glorious
Lordship. We acknowledge your sovereign
will, if you will. Lord, we acknowledge your omnipotence. You can. Lord, we acknowledge
our uncleanness. and our need to be made clean. Bless your word irresistibly
and invincibly by your grace and give everybody in this room
the grace to come just like this leper did. In the name of our blessed son,
we ask these things. Amen. Let's sing just as I am. What page is that on?