Turn with me to John chapter
7. John chapter 7. Look at verse 37 of John 7. We read here in that last day,
that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and he cried, saying,
if any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. Come unto me. How often. How often we hear
that phrase, that command, come to Christ. Listen to the words of this hymn.
Come, come ye sinners, poor and needy, weak and wounded, sick
and sore. The Lord Jesus ready stands to
save you. full of pity, love, and power. The command is simple. Come. Come to Christ. But you know there are those
who will not come, those who refuse to come, Our Lord said
this in John 5, 40. He said, you will not come to
me that you might have life. Men are unwilling by nature to
own their sin, unwilling to admit their inability, unwilling to
seek God's mercy. unwilling to cast themselves
at his feet. Hebrews chapter 4 verse 16. Turn there with me if you would.
Hebrews 4 verse 16. Let us therefore come boldly
unto the throne of grace that we might obtain mercy and find
grace to help in time of need. Come boldly. That's a strong
word, isn't it? Come boldly. It means to come
with courage. How do we come to Christ? We
come with courage. It means to come openly. It means
to come with a fearless confidence. It means to come continually,
that we're instructed in God's word to come continually. And that's what I want to look
at those four words here this evening on this topic, on this
subject, on this command. Come to Christ. Turn to Esther
chapter four, verse 16. Esther four. Verse 16. Remember that story of Esther,
how she was made queen? Well, look at verse 16 of Esther
4. What did I say? Come boldly,
come with courage. Look here at verse 16. She tells,
she says, go gather together all the Jews that are present
in Shushan and fast for me, and neither eat nor drink for three
days, night or day. I also and my maidens will fast
likewise, and so will I go unto the king, which is not according
to the law. Listen to these words, if I perish,
then I perish. The law of the Medes and Persians
said that any man or woman who came before the presence of the
king without his invitation, without him calling them, was
condemned to death. And there was no escaping that
punishment unless the king, in mercy, held out that scepter,
indicating he was receiving that person. And Esther was brought
to this place for her people. And she said, basically, either
I plead my case before the king, or we're going to perish. Well, what did she do? She said,
if I perish, then I perish. Isn't that where the sinner finds
himself or herself? Isn't that where we find ourselves?
If left to ourselves, we're going to perish. What's there to do? Come before the king. Come before
him. Listen, scripture says that our
iniquities, our sin has separated between you and you're God. Our sins have separated us from
God. Our sins have hid his face from
us that he will not hear. Habakkuk wrote this. He wrote
this of Almighty God. He said, thou art of pure eyes
than to behold evil and cannot look upon iniquity. God told Moses, he said, you
can't see my face. There shall no man look upon
the face of God and live. I can't look on him and live.
He can't look on me. Yet God and mercy holds forth
that scepter. We're accepted. His people are
accepted in the Lord Jesus Christ. Can we go before the king? Can
we go before him trusting in his grace, trusting in his son? Either he'll save me or I will not be saved. Neither is there salvation in
any other. Look at, do you still have Esther?
Look at chapter five, verse two. And it was so, when the king
saw Esther the queen standing in the court, that she obtained
favor in his sight. And the king held out to Esther
the golden scepter that was in his hand, and Esther drew near,
and she touched the top of the scepter. I don't know about you, but that
encourages me. That gives me great encouragement
in approaching Almighty God. approaching his throne of grace,
the throne of Christ, our King. For what? Mercy, help in time
of need. Would you forsake all and approach
the throne of grace as Esther did? Listen to her words. She said, I'll go to the King's
presence. And if I perish, I perish. But you know it's impossible.
It's impossible for a sinner to perish at the throne of grace. Is there any? Do we know of any
that has ever perished confessing his sin and seeking God's forgiveness
at the footstool of mercy? God's faithful to his promise. He's just. to his son to forgive
sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. His word declares
this, that he delighteth in mercy. If he delights in mercy, what
would ever stop us from begging for it? Lord, be merciful to
me. to bow at his throne, to trust
in his son, to plead the Lord God to forgive us and receive
us and accept us only in the Lord Jesus Christ. We're accepted,
accepted in the beloved. That one who sits at the right
hand of the Father on high and ever lives to intercede for his
people. In His name, we're to come boldly
and obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Come with courage. Come with
courage. Listen to the words of our Lord
from John 6, 37. He said this, all that the Father
giveth me shall what? Come to me. and him that cometh
to me, I will in no wise cast out. That means he will never
cast out. In fact, that word means this,
God forbid, God forbid, he'll never cast us out. Come boldly, come with courage. Second, Come openly. Not trying to conceal anything.
Come openly. Turn to 2 Kings. 2 Kings chapter 7. Now here in 2 Kings, we read
of a great famine in Syria. A great famine. And in verse
3, we read of four lepers that sat there at that gate of the
city. And they said to each other, why sit we here until we die? If we just sit here, we know
what's going to happen. We're going to perish. We're
going to die. But look at verse 4. If we say we'll enter into the city,
then the famine is in the city. We'll die there. And if we sit
still here, if we just stay where we're at, we'll die also. Now, therefore, come and let
us fall unto the host of the Syrians. And if they save us
alive, we'll live. And if they kill us, not going
to change anything because we're going to die anyhow, right? What
did they do? They came openly. They didn't
try to sneak in. They came openly into the camp
of the enemy. They considered their options.
Again, if we stay, we die. If we go into the city, we die.
There's no food there. The Syrians are our enemies,
but they have plenty of food. We can go to them. We can seek
mercy. We can seek help. And if they
choose to show mercy, If they're pleased to show mercy, we'll
live. What happened? What a remarkable story and a
true story at that, right? They were delivered by the providence
of Almighty God. That evening, the Lord had made
all the Syrians hear the noise of chariots and horses and a
mighty army advancing. And the Syrians, They thought
the king of Israel had persuaded the Egyptians and the Hittites
to come against them and they fled. And they left everything
behind. All their supplies, all that
these four lepers needed and more was left behind. Would you do nothing? Would you
stay where you are? Would you go to the place where
there's no food? Would you die in your sins? What can a sinner do but come
to Him? To cast ourselves on the mercy
of Almighty God, if He chooses to show mercy, we'll live. We read earlier, he delights,
he delights to show mercy. And even though we have sinned
against God, and even though our sins have brought upon us
what we deserve, his wrath, his judgment, God is merciful. Again, he delights to, I just
can't hear that enough, can you? He delights to show mercy. Come boldly. Come openly. Third, come with a fearless confidence. Turn to Matthew chapter 15. Matthew 15. Look beginning with verse 22. Matthew 15, verse 22. And behold, a woman of Canaan
came out of the same coast and cried unto him, saying, have
mercy on me. 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 they 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. And then came she and worshipped
him, saying, Lord, help me. But he answered and said, it's
not meat to take the children's bread and cast it to dogs. And
she said, truth, Lord, yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which
fall from their master's table. Then Jesus answered and said
unto her, O woman, great is thy faith, be it unto thee even as
thou wilt." And her daughter was made whole from that very
hour. She came with confidence. She
came knowing that the Lord could heal her daughter. This Canaanite
woman, she'd heard of him. She knew him by name. She called
on the name of the Lord. She cried unto him and she said,
have mercy on me, O Lord. Have mercy on me, thou son of
David. Her need is beyond the help of
any man, any physician. And think about this, when she
came to him, he didn't say a word to her. How quickly we jump to conclusions
at times, don't we? The Lord doesn't hear me. He
heard her. The disciples, his own disciples
said, send her away. For she crieth after us." And
the Lord said this, He said, I am not sent but to the lost
sheep of the house of Israel. I came to save my elect. And when she hears him say that, Did she just go to another? Did
she just leave and say, I'll find someone else to heal my
daughter? She did not, did she? Oh, she
worships him. She says, Lord, help me. And then he goes on to say, it's
not meat for me to take the children's bread and give it to dogs. You're not worthy. That's true of all of us, isn't
it? Is there any one of us worthy? We're not worthy of the least
of his mercies. Listen to her reply. Truth, Lord. Everything you're saying is true. Everything you're saying about
me is true. Truth, Lord. I am a dog. Yet, the dogs, even the dogs eat the
crumbs that fall from their master's table. I've got two dogs. We've got
two dogs at the house. Lady and Otis, that's our dogs. They're my dogs. I feed them every night. They
get fed every night. And I go out there, and they
stand. Membrane will go out there, and he'll get the water, and
I'll get the food. And they jump around. They get
all excited because they know they're going to be fed. They're
just dogs. The way they jump around and
carry on, I'm confident that they know they're going to be
fed. Even a dumb dog knows that. I own them. I don't feed the
neighbor's dogs. I feed my dogs. They're mine. I'm responsible for them. This
woman, she belongs to the king. She's his. She comes to him. She casts all her cares upon
him, and she will not be run off. Pretty easy for us to get our
feelings hurt, isn't it? He called her a dog. She's not
going anywhere, is she? What did he say to her? Oh, woman,
great is thy faith. Be it unto thee, even as thou
wilt. Come boldly. Come with confidence. Come, come, come every soul by
sin oppressed. There's mercy with the Lord and
he will surely give you rest by trusting in his word. What's the rest? Only trust him,
only trust him, only trust him now. He'll save you. He'll save you. He will save you now. Come to
Him. And fourth, come continually. Come continually. Turn to 1 Peter
2. 1 Peter 2. Look, beginning with verse 3
of 1 Peter 2. If so be, you've tasted that
the Lord is gracious. Those next three words, to whom
coming? As unto a living stone. disallowed
indeed of men, but chosen of God and precious. Ye also, as
lively stones are built up a spiritual house and holy priesthood to
offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ,
to whom coming. Believing on Christ and living
in Christ, it's not a one-time experience. It's not a one-time
act of faith. I came to Him. No, we continually
come to the Lord Jesus Christ. A continual exercise of faith. faith in Him, faith in His love,
faith in His grace, faith in His blood, faith in His intercession,
all that He's done for His people, we continually come to Him. And it says, to whom coming? It doesn't say to what, does
it? We don't come to a thing, we
come to a person. We don't come to the front of
the building, we don't come to a place, we come to the Lord
Jesus Christ. Hebrews chapter 12. Turn there
with me, Hebrews 12. Hebrews 12 verse 18. You're not coming to the mount
that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness,
and darkness, and tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, and the
voice of words, which voice that heard entreated that the words
should not be spoken to them anymore, for they could not endure
that which was commanded. And if so much as a beast touched
the mountain, it shall be stoned. or thrust through with a dart,
and so terrible was the sight that Moses said, Moses said this,
I exceedingly fear and quake. Here come to Mount Zion, unto
the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable
company of angels, to the General Assembly and Church of the Firstborn,
which are written in heaven, and to God, the judge of all,
and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus, to
the Lord Jesus Christ, the mediator of the new covenant, and to the
blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel. We don't come to a place. We
don't come to the law. We don't come to ceremonies.
We don't come to works. By faith, we come to Christ and
Christ alone, believing Him, resting in Him, looking to Him,
trusting Him and Him alone, to whom coming. Throughout this
life, We continually come to Him. We come to Him in salvation. There's no other name under heaven
given among men whereby we must be saved. We come to Him. We come to Him throughout this
life. We must continually come to Him. Spurgeon wrote this. He said,
men don't breathe the air which they breathed a week ago. We
have to have fresh air in our lungs, moment by moment. Nobody thinks he can be fed once. The fact that we had a good meal
six weeks ago, that's not going to hold us for long, is it? No,
we continually come. Come to him for comfort. We come
to Him in times of sorrow. We come to Him in joy. We come
to Him in suffering and pain. We come to Him in prayer and
thanksgiving. We come to Him for pardon. We
come to Him for righteousness. We come to Him continually. Throughout this life, we continually
come to Him. And one day, one day, we'll come
to Him We'll go to Him. We'll be brought to Him for eternity. Listen to John 14. Turn with
me. Turn with me to John 14. Listen to these first three verses. Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also
in me. In my father's house, in many
mansions, if it were not so, I would have told you, I go to
prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare a place
for you, I'll come again. And I'll receive you unto myself. that where I am, there ye may
be also. We continue to come to him, looking
unto Jesus, looking unto the Lord Jesus Christ, the author
and finisher of our faith. And then last, who, who is to
come? Who is to come to Him? Turn to
Revelation 22. Revelation 22. Look at verse
17 of Revelation 22. And the spirit and the bride
say, come. And let him that heareth say,
come. And let him that is a thirst,
come. And whosoever will, let him take
the water of life freely. Is that for everybody? Who's it for? To him that heareth. I ask you,
do you hear his word? Come to him. Who gives a hearing ear? How
is it that we have a hearing ear? The seeing eye and the hearing
ear, the Lord had made both of them. Who's to come? Him that's a thirst. Do you thirst
for the water of life? Do you thirst for Him? Whosoever
will. Who's to come? Whosoever will. Will you be saved? Has He made you willing to be
saved? Saved by His grace alone? Saved by His righteousness alone? Saved by the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ alone? If so, come to Him. Come to Him. Let me close with
these words from Matthew 11, 28. Just listen. These are the words of our Lord
Himself. He said, come unto Me. Come unto me, all ye that labor
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Come to Him. All right.