I want you to do something for
me, if you would. I want you to open your Bibles
to my text, and I want you to just mark it. If you want to
hold your Bible on your lap, you can, but if you want to mark
it, it's Luke 9. I want you to hold that, and I
want to preach to you for a few minutes, then I want to read
my text to you. And I have a question to ask.
I want to ask you this question. Why won't you come to the Lord
Jesus Christ? Why won't you come to the Lord
Jesus Christ? If you are here this morning
and you come to him, my text will tell you why you came. If
you are here this morning and you haven't come to him, my text
will tell you why you haven't come. Why won't you come to the
Lord Jesus Christ and to God by him? There is one mediator
between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. I am the way, I
am the truth, I am the life. No man comes to the Father but
by me, but all are welcome to come by him." Why haven't you
come? Why won't you come to the Lord
Jesus Christ? In him and by him is everything
a soul needs, everything that is required for time and eternity. Nothing else but what is in him
and what he gives you is all that you need and all he requires. Why won't you come to him? Incline your ear and come unto
me. Here and your soul shall live. He that hears my word and believes
on him that sent me hath everlasting life." What more could you want?
What more could you and I need as we face eternity? Life. Life. Come. Come to me and your soul
shall live. Come unto me, all you that labor
and are heavy laden. I'll give you rest. Rest for
your burdened, guilty conscience. Rest. If any man thirsts, if
any man thirsts for God, My soul thirsteth for God, for the living
God. I thirst to see his smile. I
thirst to be accepted. I thirst for mercy. I thirst
for forgiveness. If any man thirsts, let him come
unto me and drink. He that believes on me, as the
scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living
water." Why won't you come to Christ? Everything that you need
is in him. Everything God requires is in
him. Oh, come, let us return unto
the Lord. Oh, come. That's my message to
you this morning. Oh, come, let us return unto
the Lord. He has torn us, but he'll heal
us. He has smitten us. but he will
bind us up. Everything that a soul needs
is in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Think of this. The Lord Jesus Christ has sent
me to tell you to come to him. That's what I'm doing here this
morning. I have no other purpose this morning in my message, but
my master has sent me to tell you, you've not yet come, but
he sent me to tell you to come. A man made a great supper and
bade many, and he sent his servant at suppertime to say to them
that were bedded, come, everything's ready. Don't bring anything with
you, just come. That's my message from my master
to you. And he said, go out into the
highways where the strangers travel. Go out into the hedges
where the criminals hide to rob people. And say to them, come,
that my house may be filled. I'm asking you this question
this morning from my master. Why won't you come? The Lord's people are here this
morning, His church, His tender bride that knows her husband. She knows the heart of her husband.
And this is what she says to you. Come. The bride says, Come. Go preach the gospel to every
creature and say to them, Come. Come to the Lord Jesus Christ. Come to God by Him. And listen to this, the Spirit
himself says, Come. Revelation 22, 17. The Spirit
says, Come. The eternal Spirit, the third
person of this sacred trinity, the Spirit of God, the Spirit
of Christ says to you, Come. You say, Bruce, is he speaking
to me? If he's not speaking to you, I don't know who it is. If he says it in his Word, is
that not to you? You will never hear him speak
apart from this Word. He says, Come. And listen to this. Come now
and let us reason together, saith the Lord. He knows you. have sinned against him, and
he knows it. And he knows you, and he knows
your sin. And here is what he says. Come. Come. O sinful nation! O people laden with iniquity! A seed of evildoers! Children that are corruptors!
They have forsaken the Lord and provoked the Holy One to anger.
Why should you be stricken any more? You'll just revolt more
and more. Your whole head is sick. Your
heart's faint from the sole of your feet to the crown of your
head. You're full of nothing but wounds and bruises and putrefying
sores. He knew you. He knows you. And
yet, here's what he says. Come now and let us reason together. Your sins may be as scarlet,
and he knows they are. They may be red. blood red, murderous
red. But here's what the Lord Jesus
said, come now and let us reason together, saith the Lord. Why
won't you come? And think of this, everybody's
soon coming. Everybody is coming to the Lord
Jesus Christ. Many are coming now. There are
many here this morning who have already came to Him. I've came
to Him. I came to Jesus weary and worn
and sad. And I've found in Him a resting
place. He's made me glad. Many have
come to Him this morning. But it won't be long until everybody
is coming. Everybody is coming to the Lord
Jesus Christ. As I live, sayeth the Lord, I
swear by myself. He looks around and he can find
no one greater than himself. So he says, I swear by myself
that unto me every knee shall bow. And every tongue is going
to confess. Who is that speaking? That is
the Lord Jesus Christ. Every knee is going to bow to
me. Every tongue is going to confess. All those who are in
sense against him They shall come. Everybody is coming. The
Son of Man shall come in His glory, and His holy angels will
come with Him. And He is going to sit there
on the throne of His glory, and He is going to speak, and the
graves are going to open, and the dead are going to get out,
and everybody is coming to heaven. There before His throne, in His
presence, at His feet, they are coming to Him. Why not come now? Why not come to the Lord Jesus
now? Come for mercy now. Come for
grace now. Come for salvation now. Come
for life now. You may wait, and He may suffer
you to wait, but you're coming. You're coming. All men shall
come to the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you think you're too sinful
to come? Do you think you're too vile to come? I'll be honest
with you, I don't run into many people like that. But maybe that's
your problem. Maybe that's what you've been
thinking. I'd never dare approach him as the Son of God. I'd be
afraid to come to him. I'm afraid he'd cast me out.
He'd look upon me as being so vile in his presence. Is that
why you won't come to him? Let me tell you a story. There was a man who got up one
morning, and he noticed a little sore
on his arm. And he thought nothing about it. And he went to work,
and he came back that night, and he noticed that it had begun
to spread. And the next morning, he got
up and he noticed that it looked worse. It was still spreading. He thought, well, maybe I'll
go to the priest. I'll let him examine me. Maybe
he'll know what it is. He goes over to the priest and
the priest examines him and looks at him and says, I'm going to
have to keep you for a few days. We'll have to shut you up for
a few days. You'll be fine. We're going to feed you and take
care of you. But you can't go back home. A few days later,
the priest sends for him and he comes in and he examines him. And it's spread words. And the priest gave that man
devastating news. When he heard what he said, his
heart sank in him. He became so heavy he could hardly
breathe. He said, you've got leprosy.
You've got leprosy. And the priest called for his
servant and he said, you go to this man's house and you get
his clothes and put them in a bag and you bring them back here
to me. They brought his clothes back there to the priest and
he rips them up. And they take this man outside
the city of Jerusalem out on an old dusty road, and they said,
You've got to put a rag over your lip, and you've got to live
here by yourself or with these other lepers. You are never to
come inside the city of Jerusalem. You must never be seen in the
temple, never make contact with your family, never see your children
again. And if anybody comes close to
you, you cry out unclean. unclean, I'm contagious, don't
come near me. I have leprosy.' And they left
him there. And his leprosy got worse. His
skin began to decay. His nose turned black, and he
smelt awful. Sores were all over his body,
and he began to run, and fever filled him. Sometime he was half
out of his mind with fever until finally one day, another leper
looked at him and he said, man, you're filled with leprosy. And he was waiting to die in
those running, stinking, fever sores. And he heard that Jesus
Christ was preaching nearby. And he went to Jesus. What an
amazing statement. And it says this, he came to
Jesus. He came right where he was. He
came contrary to the law. He wasn't supposed to be there.
He took his life in his hands when he came. He could have been
drug away or perhaps stoned. He had no right to be there.
But the Scripture says he came to Jesus, threw himself down
at his feet, and said, Lord, if you will, you can make me
clean. And Jesus Christ, the Son of
God, did the most amazing thing. He did what nobody else would
ever dare have done. He reached out and touched this
man. Touched him. And he said, I will, be thou
clean. And immediately the leprosy departed from him, and he was
cleansed. He was cleansed. The Son of God
touched that leprosy, and it had no effect upon him. But he
had effect upon that leprosy, and it fled from him. He was
cleansed. Are you any more vile than that? You're afraid to come to him
because you think you're more vile than that? Maybe the devil or your conscience
is telling you you don't have a right to come. Well, that's
the truth. If we ever had any rights, we'd
send them all away. We have no rights. We don't come
because we have a right. We come because we're lepers.
We come because we need mercy. We need to be saved. And we do
just as this man did. We don't come saying, I've decided
to let you heal me. Utterly ridiculous. We say this,
if you will, if you will. You know what? Here was a dying
man, and whether he died or lived, rest in the will of the Son of
God. And he was content that it should be that way. I had
a friend of mine told me a few weeks ago, her husband was almost
dead in the hospital, and she said this nun had come in and
wanted to know if it was all right to pray for him. Of course,
the Lady of Stelma wasn't a believer either. She said, yeah, if you
want to. She said, the reason I want to
pray for him is that some of these Protestants around here, they
like these old Protestant prayers. She said, I like the Catholic
prayer. Well, what's the difference? Well, the Protestant prayer is
like this, Lord, if you will, Lord, if you will. That's the prayer of every sinner
that comes to the Lord Jesus Christ. Whether I live or I die,
if you will, you can. But Bruce, if I believed that,
then I'd go off and forget about it. If it just rested in his
will, you would unless you were in trouble. But if you find yourself with
this leprosy of sin inside and knowing he's the only one that
can do it, bud, you'll come pleading his will. And I tell you this,
nothing can tear you from his feet. If it's left up to his
will, you're going to stand there looking up. Lord, if you will,
you'll have mercy on whom you will, then have mercy on me.
Are you more vile than this man? Why don't you come then? Why
don't you come to Christ? Well, maybe you say this. Maybe you say, I just don't have
enough knowledge to come. I don't have enough understanding
to come. I sit and listen to the preacher, and I don't even
know what he's talking about. I opened up my Bible, and somebody just
took all the words off the page. I don't understand anything.
I am as blind as a bat. I don't have any spiritual side
at all. I'm going to sit here until finally I've got everything
figured out. And then when I fill my head
with this knowledge and this learning, then I'll come. When
I get my act together, then I'll come. Is that what's keeping
you from coming to Christ? Your ignorance, your blindness? Is that why you won't come to
him? Let me tell you another story.
Our Lord Jesus was passing through Jericho one day. On his way out
of Jericho, sitting by the side of the road, was a beggar, Varnta Vest, the
beggar, dressed in old filthy rags, and he had to beg for them.
Everything he ate, he had to beg to get it. Everything he
drank, he had to beg to get it. He couldn't do anything for anybody.
Everybody had to do something for him. And he sat there and
begged so long, when you went down that road, you crossed along
the other side because you knew he was going to be a beggar looking
right at you. shaking his little cup when he
heard you coming by. But he wasn't just a beggar,
he was a blind beggar. Never seen a sunrise, never seen
anybody, never looked anybody in the eye. And he heard that Jesus was passing
by. And he commenced to cry, Jesus,
thou Son of David, have mercy upon me. And he just kept on
crying. And the crowd said, would you
shut up? You're nobody. You're a blind beggar. For what's
in your life could you just shut your mouth and leave everybody
alone? We'll be out of here in a minute.
Shut up. Yeah, me shut up. You're not
blind. You're not a beggar. You can
afford to shut up. I've got just a minute and he's
going to be gone. Jesus, thou Son of David, have
mercy on me. And our preachers have often
told us about what happens next. One of the most amazing things
that hasn't happened before and never happened since. The Scripture
says that Jesus stood still. Our Master was always on the
go. Devils tried to stop Him and couldn't. The raging sea
tried to stop Him and couldn't. Nothing could stop Him but the
cry of mercy from this blind beggar sitting on a dusty roadside. Jesus have mercy on me. And the
Lord said, you call him over here to me. And the scripture
says, he threw away that old garment and he came to Jesus. How did he get there? He couldn't
see a lick. How did he get there? He didn't
know where he was. The crowd got quiet. They were
amazed at what was going on. Which direction do I go? How
do I get to him? Where is he? You'll know when you get there. Just come. And he came and the Lord Jesus
said, What will you that I should do for you? And he said, Lord,
that I might receive my sight. I'm blind. I'm blind. I can't see anything. I'm in
darkness. Is that what's keeping you from
Christ? Your spiritual darkness? You'll never see until you come
to Him. That's the truth. If you're waiting until you've
got it all figured out in your head, you'll never come. It's
not those who have it straightened out. It's those who are confused
about it all that come to Him. Now, that's the truth. Lord, that I might receive my
sight. And Jesus the Lord said, Go your way. Your faiths have
made you whole. And immediately he saw. Immediately he saw. And you know
the first one he saw? The one who gave him sight. And he followed Jesus in the
way. What do you want from the Lord Jesus Christ? Come to Him. Come to Him. I can't tell you
how to come. I just tell you to come. I'm sorry I can't tell
you how to come. But you must come. And you come and tell him what
you want. What do you want from him? What I want to see. What
do you want to see? I want to see you. I want to
see you. I want to see myself accepted
in you. I want to see myself complete
in you. That's what I want. I want to live. I want to see
life. I want to see salvation in you.
And you may stand there saying that as blind as a bat, but I'm
telling you, you may be surprised how quickly he'll open your eyes. What's keeping you from Christ?
Why won't you come to Christ? Well, you may be here this morning
and you say, Bruce, really, I'm not coming because I'm delusioned. I'm finished. I am so sick of
religion. I'm so sick of what it's done
to me and to me and against me. I'm ready to give up on it all. I found out that it did me no
good when I was confirmed and committed and baptized as a little
They took me and baptized me as an infant. I'm still dead and sick. I walked the aisle just like
they told me to, and I'm still sin-sick in my soul. I've repeated
the sinner's prayer just like they told me to. I've joined
the church just like they told me to. I've tried to conform
to what the preacher told me to do. I've tried to do everything,
and it's did me no good. I'm sick of it. I'm tired of
it. And I'm still dying. And I don't even know what I'm
doing here this morning. But this is the last service
I intend to attend, and that's it for me. I'm out of here. I'm
sick of religion. Sick of hearing about God. Sick
of hearing about salvation. Don't anybody talk to me about
it. I'm finished with it. But wait a minute. Wait a minute. Let me tell you a story. There was a lady who got up one
morning, and she was bleeding. And after a few days, she hoped
it would stop, but it didn't. And her bleeding got worse. And
she went to a physician. And he said, Oh, yes, I can help
you. I can help you. This time tomorrow you won't
be bleeding any longer. I've got the cure for you." And
he gave her some medication and she went home. Tomorrow she was
bleeding worse. She waited a few days and went
back to him. He said, I'm sorry, I thought that would work. I
know a specialist and I'm going to send you up there to him.
She went up there to him. He said, oh yeah, I can fix you
right up. I can do it. I can do it. I treat this all the time. You
just do what I tell you to do. And she went back home and did
it. And a week later, she noticed she was getting weaker and weaker
and still bleeding. She went back to the specialist.
Well, there's another fellow. I don't have the money. Can you
opt your house? Well, yeah, I can do it. Okay.
You go do that and come back. And I know this guy. Okay, she
did that. But she got worse. She emptied
her bank account out. She borrowed all that she could
borrow. And finally she was broke. And finally she went to a doctor
and he said, I'm sorry, we can't help you. So that's the way you're feeling,
huh? These positions of no value have used your soul as a piece
of merchandise. And now you're still dying. Well,
listen to what this lady did. She heard the Lord Jesus was
by, but she couldn't get to him because there was a crowd there.
But that didn't stop her. She said, I know, and I have
no idea how she knew this. Oh, how secretly the Lord works
in the heart sometimes. Somewhere or another, after trying
all these other positions, somebody convinced her heart, if I can
just touch a hem of his garment, I know I'll be whole. But these
fellows stood in her way. These two big fat men stood in
her way. But somewhere or another, she got between them. She pushed
another out of the way, and she pressed her way and touched the
hem of his garment, and immediately she felt in herself, my problem
solved. I ain't bleeding anymore. I'm
healed. I'm whole. And the scripture
says the Lord Jesus turned and said, Who touched me? And those
disciples said, Lord, please, please. Everybody's been touching
it. Look at the throngs of people
pressing on one another. And you say, Who touched me?
And he said, Somebody touched me because virtue has gone out
of me. Merit has gone out of me. Power
has gone out of me. And somebody's got life. Somebody's
been healed. I know it. And this woman came
and fell down and told him all the truth. What did she tell
him? Just what you ought to go to
and tell him. If your delusion were these physicians of no value.
If they've dumped you in the baptistry. If they've got you
down front on the altar. If they've talked you into a
profession. You go to him just like she did, and you tell him,
Lord, those are positions of no value. I'm finished with them.
They took my time. They took my energy. They took
my money. And they would have took my soul
if it hadn't been for you. Is that what's keeping you from
Christ? You're just fed up with it all? Well, come to Him first. If he's the last one you come
to, that's good. Come to him. You say, Bruce,
I've been trying to come to him. I've really been trying to come
to him. I talked with a dear young man, and I may have told
you about this. He was in our congregation. And
I asked him one day, I said, Gary, he'd been sitting under
the preaching for a long time. I said, Gary, why don't you come
to Christ? Why don't you come to Christ?
He said, I don't know how to come. I've been trying to, but
I don't know how. You've been trying to come to
Christ. What's in your way? What's in your way? And I don't
completely understand this, but maybe you're like me. A lot of
things stood in my way. And you say, Bruce, I'm so weak,
I'm just ready to give it up. Just ready to give it up. I've
been trying to shove this out of my way. Don't give up. He may be closer than you think.
You may be right there just to reach out and touch him. And when you do, you'll know
it. You'll know it. Why won't you come to Christ? Well, maybe it's this. Maybe
it's this. Maybe you say, well, I've waited
too long. I procrastinated, and I procrastinated. And somebody's telling me that
it's too late for me now. I wonder who's telling you that.
Well, it could just be your conscience. It could be God. I don't know. It could be the devil. I don't
know. Is that what's keeping you from
coming to Christ? There's no hope for me now. There's no hope. I've done weighty too late. No
sense coming down. I might as well go on without
any hope. I've loved strangers, so after
them I'll go. Let me tell you a story. One
last story. Let me tell you about this fellow.
Must have committed some awful crimes, because they tried him
and condemned him to death and hung him on a cross. Hung two
of them, him and his buddy, on a cross. And they hung them on
either side of the Lord Jesus Christ. And both of them was
radical, and they were mocking the Son of God, saying, if you
be the Christ, come down from the cross and save us. Neither
one of them would come to Christ. For as we know, they never thought
about coming to Christ. If they did, they didn't come.
But suddenly, one of them was awakened. He began to think about this.
He said, wait, wait a minute here, wait a minute here. I know
for myself that I'm right where I deserve to be. I've got one
foot in the grave and as far as I know, one foot in hell and
that's exactly what I deserve. I'm receiving just what's due
me. Don't that have something to
do with repentance? And he turned to the Lord Jesus
Christ and he said, I know you're not going to stay dead. How did
he know that, I wonder? It's just amazing how these things
set up in a man's heart. You don't know how it happens,
but there it is. I know you've got a kingdom. I know you're
not going to stay dead. I know you're going to raise
and ascend unto your kingdom. There at the right hand of God
on your throne. And when you're there, would
you remember me? And the Lord Jesus made an astounding
statement to that man. Here was a man that was so weak, beaten, ready to die. What authority does he have to
tell somebody else, this day you will be with me in paradise? But there he said it. He said
it. And before that day was over,
Both of them were there. Isn't that amazing? This man, as far as anybody knew,
had been sentenced to death and was ready to die and perish in
his sin. There were some people out there
that day who said, Boy, we know one thing about it. We're not
for sure about that man on the middle cross, but we know those
two thieves. They're in hell. They're in hell. Surprise, surprise. Wouldn't
you be surprised if you come to the Lord Jesus today and you
thought that you had waited too long? And your conscience had
told your soul, and you didn't know if it was the devil or God
told you that you had done, waited too late. You had sealed your
destiny. You went around bragging how
you was the captain of your soul. Now it's time to pay for it. But lo and behold, you came. And just like this man, The day
that they had ordained for him to die was the day that God had
ordained for him to live. Oh, the Lord Jesus never changed
his destiny, did he? He just showed him his destiny
wasn't what he thought it was, and what everybody else thought
it was. You may be here today and you think, I'm ready to perish. That may be so. This one thief
is. But it may not be so either.
And I'll tell you how you can know. Come to Christ. Come to
Christ. Has God destined you? Has he
predestinated you to life eternal? I'll tell you how you can find
out. Come to Christ. Lord, remember me when you come
into your kingdom. Why won't you come to Christ?
I'm telling you to come. The church is telling you to
come. If you come to him, he'll never cast you out. He's never
cast anybody out that came to him, and never shall. Why won't
you come to Christ? Come, humble sinner, in whose
breast a thousand thoughts revolve. Come with your guilt and your
fear oppressed and make this life resolved. I'll go to Jesus. I'll go to Jesus. Try everything
else and everybody else. I'm going to Jesus. Though my
sins like mountains round me close, I know His courts I'll
enter in, whatever may oppose. Prostrate, I'll lie before His
throne, and there my guilt confess. I'll tell Him. Lord, I am a wretch
undone without your sovereign grace. I'll to the gracious King
approach whose scepter pardon gives. Perhaps he will command
my touch, and this poor beggar lives. Perhaps he will admit
my plea, and perhaps will hear my prayer. But if I perish, I
will pray and only perish there. I can but perish if I go. I am
resolved to try, but if I stay away, I know I must forever die. But if I die with mercy sought,
when I the King have tried, this were to die, O delightful thought,
were a sinner never died." Come to Christ. Come to the Lord Jesus
Christ. And I tell you what, when you
turn to Him, when you come to Him, you may be amazed how quickly
you arrive. And He tells you how to pray.
We don't put much stock in a sinner's prayer, but you know the Lord
gives the sinner a prayer. And here's what He says. He says, all iniquity, and receive me
graciously. You want to come to Christ? Take
that prayer and go to Him. And in your heart of hearts,
pray that prayer to Him. Say it to Him. Plead what He
tells you to plead. I plead it all the time. Jesse
pleads it all the time. Your pastor pleads it all the
time. God bless you.