In Revelation chapter 22, and
here in verse 17, just this one verse, the Spirit and the Bride
say, Come, the Spirit and the Church, and let him that heareth
say, Come, and let him that is of thirst come, and whosoever
will, let him take of the water of life freely. Anyone and everyone who has any
love or has any sympathy at all in his heart or any concern for
a poor, fallen humanity is compelled to say, Come. Come to the Lord
Jesus Christ. Come to the Savior. Come and
partake of the gospel blessings. Come and be saved. If we love
a man, if we love a woman, wouldn't we tell them that? Wouldn't we
tell a lost and dying world that if we truly love them? Anyone
who has any love for his own soul has come to Christ himself. And then they turn right around
and tell others, come. Spurgeon said if a man doesn't
come to Christ, it's because he doesn't love his own soul.
And if he doesn't love his own soul, he doesn't love the souls
of others. And therefore, since he has not
come himself, he doesn't tell others to come. But those who
love others and those who love themselves, they tell people,
come, come to Christ. And anyone who loves the Savior
in his heart of hearts, he tells people, come to the Savior. Come. The Father loves the Son and
has given everything into His hands, and what does He tell
men and women to do? Come to my Son. Hear my Son. The Holy Spirit, the blessed
third person of the sacred Trinity, He loves the Son, and what does
He do? He tells people, Come. He guides
men to Christ. He leads men to the Lord Jesus
Christ. When He has come, He shall not
speak of Himself, but He shall glorify Me. He shall take of
the things that are Mine, and He shows them unto you. And what does the Spirit say?
He says, Come. Come. The Spirit is the most
tender of the Godhead. I think the Bible would teach
us that. We read of the wrath of God. We read of the wrath
of the Lamb. But whoever read of the wrath
of the Son, the wrath of the Spirit, brother, he comes down
from heaven as a dove, as a tender, gentle dove. And when he's come,
what does he do? What does this gentle dove do?
But he comes to us and says, When the Lord wanted us to know
and believe how earnest He was in writing this verse, how willing
He is that poor sinners come to Him and be saved and drink
of this fountain, what does He do? He sends this tender Spirit,
the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, and says to us, Come. The Spirit says, Come. He comes. And think about this,
brothers and sisters, all of those places in the Bible that
we have all of these invitations to come to Christ, all of these
commands to come to Christ, who is it that inspired those verses? Who is it that really said, ìHold
every one that thirsteth to come.î We know who wrote that down,
the dear prophet Isaiah. But who inspired him to write
that? Who really said, incline your
ear and come unto me? Who really said? The Holy Spirit.
All of these sweet words and invitations that we have in God's
Bible, it's from the blessed, third, and sacred person of the
Holy Trinity. The Spirit says, come. He even goes this far. Listen
to this. Let the wicked forsake his way,
and the unrighteous his thought, and let him return unto the Lord."
The wicked, the ungodly, the wretch, let him return unto the
Lord. And something else, when you
think of the Spirit saying, Come, doesn't He come to the very conscience? When a man becomes concerned,
when he becomes concerned about being saved, he becomes concerned
about his sin, Being right with God. When a man lays on his bed
of the night, and he has thoughts, I want to be right with God.
Who is it that's speaking to that conscience? Who is it when
a man lays flat of his back, and he's sick, and he thinks
he's dying, and he begins to think, oh Lord, would You lift
me up? Would You be merciful? I'll seek
Your face. Who is it that opens that understanding? That gives life? Is it not the
Holy Spirit? Anytime anybody has a will, anytime
anybody has a desire, anytime anybody even looks in the direction
of the Son of God, he even thinks about coming. It's the Holy Spirit
that does that. The Spirit and the Bride say,
Come. The Bride says, Come. The Church, the Church. As your
pastor, I say, Come. I'm a priest on it all day. Come
to Christ. You say, Bruce, I've come to
Christ. Just keep on coming. Carl said, I can't do it. I'm
still coming. That's what you said, Willie
Carl. To whom coming? I tell you every Sunday in almost
every message, come to Him. Keep on coming to Him. I'm coming
myself, and I'm telling you to keep on coming. Someday we'll
really come to Him. Really come to Him. In my messages,
I say it. in our ordinances when we come
to the table of the Lord? What is it we're really saved
when we come and partake this bread and partake the wine? Isn't this the message? Come
to the Savior. When we come to the baptistry,
aren't we preaching the gospel? Here's the death of the Savior,
the burial of the Savior, the resurrection of the Savior. Come
to Him. And when you and I gather for
worship, aren't we saying to our neighbors? I'll tell you
what we're preaching right now to our neighbors on every side
here in this little community. Come to Christ. Come to Christ. We're here to worship Him. We're
coming to Him. Come. Come to Christ. The life
the church lives and the message that she preaches It's come. It's come. And if this church
or any other church doesn't have that as their message,
then how can we say we have communion with the Holy Spirit? Because
that's His message. Come. Come. into preaching and
singing and worship and serving, we not only have our Lord's glory
in view, we not only have our edification in view, but as we
worship, as we serve the Lord, as we sing of Him, we have something
else in view too. And you know what it is. We're
saying to sinners, come. Come. Come to Him. And then come and worship us
with him. The bride says, Come. And notice what else is there
in this verse. Let him that heareth say, Come. You know what this means. There
is such a good example. Let me show you this. Let me
just remind you of this. Look over at John chapter 1. We have sometimes read this in
John chapter 1. And look here in verse 36. Such
a good example of let him that has heard say, Come. Look in John chapter 1 and look
in verse 36. This is John the Baptist looking
upon Jesus. As he walked, he said, Behold
the Lamb of God. And the two disciples heard him
speak, and they followed Jesus. Then Jesus turned and saw them
following, and said to them, What seek ye? And they said unto
him, Rabbi, which is to say, Master, where do you dwell? Where do you stay? And he said
unto them, Come and see, come and see. And they came and saw
where he dwelt, and abode with him that day, for it was about
the tenth hour." Look down in verse 43. The days following,
Jesus would go forth unto Galilee, and he found Philip, and said
unto him, Follow me. And Philip was of Bethsaida,
the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip findeth Nathanael, and
said unto him, We found him of whom Moses and the prophets and
the law did write, Jesus of Nazareth the son of Joseph. And Nathanael
said unto him, Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?
And Philip said unto him, Philip had heard himself, hadn't
he? Come and see. And what does he do? He goes
and finds Nathanael and says, Come and see. Come and see. If you have heard of him and
you've come to him, you know what you'll tell other people.
Come. Come. Look in chapter 4. Here's probably
even a better example. In chapter 4, look in verse 25. John chapter 4, verse 25. The
Lord Jesus preached unto this woman at Jacob's well. And He
reveals Himself to her in verse 25. The woman said unto Him,
I know that Messiah cometh. I know Christ is cometh. When
He is come, He will tell us all things. And Jesus said unto her,
I am He. I am He. I am speaking to you,
woman, and I am He. And upon this came his disciples,
and they marveled that he spoke to the woman, but nobody asked
him why he talked to her. In verse 28, the woman then left
her waterpot, and went her way into the city, and said unto
the man, What did she say? What did she tell him? Come,
come. Why did she tell him that? Because
she had come to him herself. She had heard his voice. He had
made himself known to her. And now she goes to these men
and says, come see a man which told me all things that ever
I did. Is this not the Christ? If you've heard, then you're
saying, come, come. I tell you, a babe in Christ
can say that, can't he? Because that's what he's done.
He may realize that's all he knows that he's done. What did
you know? I just know I've come. Some people
say, I don't really know if I've come to Him. Now listen now,
let's be honest about this thing. I mean, coming to the Lord Jesus
Christ is too dramatic. It's too life-changing not to
know we haven't come to Him. That may be all we know. We're
like that poor old Husker. When they took him into the back
room and examined him, how much he knew, and he said, all I know
is I'm a poor sinner and nothing at all, and Jesus Christ is my
all in all. We know that, don't we? And if
we know that, then we go tell other people that. I don't know
anything, but I know this, come to Christ. Come to the Son of
God. You'll find in Him eternal salvation. Everything you need, everything
God requires, you'll find in Him. I don't know what else to
tell you, but I can tell you this. Come to Christ. Come to
Him. And I tell you that because that's
what happened to me. That's what happened to me. There's a bunch of fellows that
after coming to Him, sat down and wrote some things. And I
was thinking about this, and I went to our song book, and
listen to what some of these fellows said. All of them have
got the same theme about it. They heard themselves. And listen
to what Joseph Hart said. Come, you sinners, poor and needy,
weak and wounded, sick and sober, Jesus ready stands to save you,
full of pity, love and power. He is able. He is able. He is willing, doubt no more. Why did he write that? Because
he had heard himself. Listen to this. Come every soul. Come every soul. By sin oppressed,
there is mercy with the Lord. And He will surely give you rest
by trusting in His Word. Only trust Him. Only trust Him. And listen to this one. Come
to the Savior. Come to the Savior. Make no delay. Here in His Word, He shows us
the way. Here in our midst, He stands
today, tenderly saying, Come, come. Suffer the children. Oh, hear His voice. Let every
heart leap forth and rejoice. And let us freely make Him our
choice. Do not delay, but come. Think once again. He is with
us today. Heed now his best commands and
obey. Hear now his assents tenderly
say, Will you, my children, come? Why does he write so earnestly?
He had heard himself. Listen to this. Come, ye comfortless,
wherever you languish. Come to the mercy seat, fervently
kneel. Here, bring your wounded hearts. Here, tell out your anguish.
Earth has no sorrow that heaven can't heal. Oh, come to the Savior. He patiently waits to save by
His power divine. Anchor your soul in the haven
of rest and say, My Beloved is mine. What is our desire as a
church? What's our chief prayer? To what
end do we pray? Is it not this? To see poor sinners
come to Christ. He's our Husband. And we seek
His glory. And His chief glory is saving
sinners. So that's what we pray to that
end. And that's why we witness. That's
why we hand out tracts and CDs saying, Come. Come to the Savior. Let him that heareth a bride
say come, and let him that heareth say come. And look at this once
again. Let him that is a thirst, let
him that's thirsty come. I don't know about you, but I
can't hardly drink water unless I'm absolutely thirsty. If I
try to force myself to drink water, it makes me sick. Sometimes
I'll go out and work up a sweat just to get thirsty to drink
water. Isn't it a blessing to get thirsty? The Lord Jesus said, Blessed
are they that hunger and thirst. They thirst after righteousness,
for they shall be filled. Listen to these passages. I will
not turn to them, there are too many of them, but listen to this.
David said in Psalm 42, My soul thirsteth for God. For the living God, when shall
I come and appear before God? Psalm 63, David said this when
he was in the wilderness of Judah, O God, Thou art my God, early
will I seek Thee, my soul thirsteth for Thee, my flesh longs for
Thee in a dry and thirsty land where no water is. What do you
want, David? What's your soul thirsting for?
He tells us, to see thy power and thy glory as I've seen thee
in the sanctuary, because thy lovingkindness is better than
life. My lips shall praise thee. My soul shall be satisfied as
with Myra and Phatmas, and my mouth shall praise thee with
joyful lips, because thou hast been my help. Therefore, in the
shadow of thy wings will I rejoice. My soul follows hard after thee. Thy right hand upholds me." See
how his soul is thirsting? What's a man to do when he's
thirsting for God? For communion with God, for the
grace of God, for the knowledge of God, to see the love of God. When a man is thirsty in his
soul, what's he to do? Come unto me and drink. There
is in Jesus Christ, brothers and sisters, everything that
will satisfy and quench our thirst for God. He knows the Father. He can reveal the Father. And
He can satisfy a longing, thirsty soul. David said this in Psalm
143, I stretch forth my hand unto thee, O Lord, my soul thirsteth
after thee. as a thirsty lamb. Hear me speedily,
O Lord. My Spirit fails within me. Hide not Your face from me, lest
I be like them that go down to the pit. Cause me to hear Your
lovingkindness in the morning, for in Thee do I trust. Cause
me to know the way wherein I should walk, for I lift up my soul unto
Thee." Thirsty. Do you ever thirst? Do you ever
thirst for God? The Lord Jesus said, if you're
thirsty, oh, you're blessed. You're blessed. Come to me and
drink. Come to me and drink. I'll satisfy
you. I'll satisfy you. If any man thirsts, let him come
unto me and drink. And then the last thing is this.
Whosoever will. Whosoever will. Let him take the water of life
free. Some people have made a big controversy
out of this and say, well, he doesn't say come here. And they
get into the free will of man and all of this. Why would we
want to make a controversy out of a wonderful passage like this?
If a man wills to come to Christ, then come. Come to Christ. I think this is right. I've thought
this out, and I think this is right. I've learned to distinguish
between my affections and my will, my desires and my will. Used to, I made no distinction
between my affections and my will. If I felt good, I'd come. If I didn't feel good, I didn't
think I could come. You know, as you get older, your
affections are not as shallow Your emotions are not so rampant
as they were when you were young. Our affections are so changing,
aren't they not? Sometimes I tell you my desires,
I have no more affections, at least I feel like I have no more
affections. My heart is so cold. If I waited
until I was thirsty, If I waited until I felt this longing to
seek His face, you know what? I wouldn't be seeking much. I
wouldn't be seeking much. But you know something? The will
is much stronger and settled than the affections is. Whether
you feel like it, whether you feel thirsty, whether you feel
like you love the Savior, you come to Him. Why? Because you've
got a will to come. I will to come, therefore I'm
coming. If I waited until I felt like
coming, I wouldn't come. But I will to come. And if there
first be a willing mind, it is accepted. One old fellow said
it like this. One fellow said, I just don't
have the desire to come. He said, wouldn't it be a wonderful
thing, Bill, if you come to Christ without even a desire and He
accepted you? Wouldn't that be wonderful? Do
you will to come? That's what he comes down to,
doesn't he? Do you have a will to come to the Lord Jesus Christ? If there first be a willing mind,
whosoever will. You know the only thing that
shuts a man out from coming is a man's will? The Bible doesn't
shut us out, does it? This verse proves that to you.
The Bible shuts no man out. Somebody says, well, He's not
drawing me. Some people use that as an excuse too, don't they?
My son said in my kitchen one day, and he said, well, God is
not drawing me. God is not calling me. God calls
right here. Does He not? And they use that
for an excuse. But I just tell people, and you
have too, no, you're not shut out from coming. You've shut
yourself out. If you will to come, then you
would come. And upon coming, you would be
accepted. Because the Scripture says, Whosoever
will, let him come. You say, does that include everybody? It includes anybody that has
a will to come. Is the door not wide open, brothers and sisters?
And if men do not come, they cannot blame the Holy Spirit.
They cannot blame the church. They cannot blame God. They cannot
blame Christ. They'll have to lay it at the
charge of their own will. You will not come to Me. And what a curse, what a condemnation
that the dear and blessed Son of God, who is altogether lovely,
who is so willing, more willing to save a man than that man is
to be saved, and to think that He is such, and a man will not
come to Him. He deserves to perish. He deserves
whatever he gives. No, it's not Christ that shuts
a man out. A man shuts his own self out
by his own wretched, depraved will. Because he says here, whosoever
will, come and welcome. Oh, ye needy, come and welcome.
God's free bounty glorified. And then he says this, let him
take The water of life. What is that water of life? Well,
the Lord Jesus tells us exactly what this says. Listen as I quote
it to you in John 7, verse 37. He tells us what this water of
life is. In the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus
stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, 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." What is that? He tells us in the very next
verse, "...this he spake of the Spirit, that they which believe
on him should receive, for the Holy Ghost was not yet given."
What is this water of life? It is the Spirit of himself.
Look back over in my text, but look in chapter 22 in verse 1. This reminds me so much of the
Holy Spirit. The Lord Jesus said that He proceeded. I'll go back to the Father and
I'll pray to the Father. The Spirit will proceed from
the Father in my name. And He's called the waters of
life. And it shows here where he comes
from. Look in chapter 22, verse 1.
And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal,
proceeded out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. Where does the Spirit come from?
He comes from the Father. He comes through the Son, and
He comes to us, and He brings all the blessings of the gospel
with Him. He Himself is the Spirit of Life. And you notice He didn't say,
if any man thirsts, let him come to Me and I'll give him a drink. He says this, there shall be
in him a well. That's the source, isn't it?
That's an eternal supply. That's the river. A well of living
water. The Holy Spirit comes from heaven.
God in us. Christ in us. And He's that well. And He's springing up to life
everlasting. That's the water of life. That's
the water of life. He proceeds and comes forth from
the Father. And He says here, take, take. Come to Me and take this water
of life freely. Take it. How do we take it? One way to take this river, and
that's by faith. Take it and receive it into the
mind and enjoy it and be thankful for it. That's what it means
to take it. We receive it into our beings.
We receive Him into our beings. It's joyful, is it not? We joy
in God. We joy. We enjoy God. The things
of God. We joy. We joy in God through
our Lord Jesus Christ by whom we have now received the atonement. With joy we draw water out of
the wells of salvation. We take it in us. The water of
life. Breathing. In our hearts. In our spirits. And lastly, in
concluding, he says this, take it freely. Take it freely. You can't buy it. You can't buy
this. It would be almost blasphemy,
would it not, to attempt it. You can't earn it. We sure don't
deserve it. Then how else are we going to
take it? Freely. Freely given. Freely received. When he saw
they had nothing to pay, what did he do? He freely forgave
them both. No, we can't earn it. We don't
deserve it. The Lord knows it. So he says
here, I'll freely, without money, without price, come and drink
freely, freely. Everything God has for sinners,
it comes through and by and for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ. God's only begotten Son. Come and put all your faith in
Him, all your trust in Him. Humbly seek Him in prayer and
drink of Him. Drink of Him. Stoop down and
drink and live. And enjoy Him. Enjoy Him. Come. Come. His word.