Here's our text this morning.
It's found in John, the fifth chapter, verse 40. I know that
you're familiar with this scripture. You've heard it many, many times,
but let me read it again. Our Lord said, and you will not
come to me that you might have life. And you will not come to
me that you might have life. What hinders a man from coming
to Christ? Our Lord gives a full and free
and gracious invitation to every guilty sinner. He says, come,
let us reason together. Though your sins be as scarlet,
I'll make them as white as snow. He's able to save to the uttermost
them that come to God by him. There's no sin too great, there's
no past too black, that our Lord can't put that sin away and make
it as white as snow. But men will not come. Our Lord
gives a full and free and gracious invitation to every weary sinner.
Are you weary, he said, heavy laden, burdened with the load
of guilt of sin? Come to me and I'll give you
rest. Come to me. Our Lord gives a
full and free invitation to every thirsty sinner. Oh, he said,
everyone, attention, everyone that's thirsty, come to the water.
Don't bring any money. Come and buy wine and milk without
money and without price. Why do you labor for that which
is not bread? Why do you spend your money for that which satisfies
not? Come to me. Come and receive
it all free. Blessed are they that hunger
and thirst after righteousness, they shall be filled. Come on,
Christ said. But men will not come. Our Lord says to every
lost sinner, The Son of Man has come to seek and to save the
lost. To every ungodly soul, He says, Christ died for the
ungodly. To every sinner, God committed His love toward us
in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. So it's a
full and free and gracious invitation that the Master extends to every
sinner, and He says, whosoever will, let him take the water
of life. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved, but men will not call, they will
not come. Christ the Lord. Now, they'll
come to a program of religion. I'll tell you, it surprises me.
I said to my wife the other day when we were watching one of
these religious programs on the television that keeps begging
and begging and begging and selling and selling and selling and gimmick
after gimmick after gimmick, I said, I don't know why I'm
surprised. I see this all the time. And they're supported by
the millions. They talk about fifty-seven and
sixty million dollars a year supplied by people all over the
nation to preach the gospel they're not even preaching. I never hear
them preaching the gospel. There's no gospel preach. I hear
them singing and giving things away and selling things and introducing
new gimmicks, but I don't hear any gospel being preached. And
yet people support it. You know why? Because people
will come to a religious program. They'll come to a religious organization,
but they will not come to Christ. You can organize any kind of
religious opportunity or organization today, and you'll get some folks
to follow you. Like this Jim Jones that led
almost 1,000 people to suicidal death because of gimmicks and
promotion. But men will not come to Christ.
Oh, and they'll come to a system of morals. They'll come to a
law. You can start making rules for
people to live by, and rules for people to abide by, and sacrifices
for people to make. Have them take their shoes off
and walk 50 miles every morning before breakfast in order to
go to heaven, and there'll be some folks trying. But they will
not come to Christ. And you can organize religion
where they have a dress code, people have to wear a certain
kind of clothes, they have to have a certain kind of diet,
they have to belong to a certain denomination, and you'll get
multitudes to follow you. And they'll come to the front
of a church. You can stand before a congregation and plead for
them to come to the front, come to the altar, come to the preacher,
come to the preacher's hand, come to the prayer closet, come
to the place of inquiry, the inquiry room. They'll come to
those places, to those programs, to those organizations, to those
foolish endeavors, but they will not come to Christ. That's what
our Lord said. That's what he accused them.
He talked to these Pharisees, they had their traditions, they
had their days, they had their Sabbaths, they had their holy
days. One of them said, I fast twice a week, I pray, I give
alms, I'm not an adulterer, I'm not an extortioner, I'm not an
unjust man, I'm not like that publican, I wear my robes of
religion, I teach in the synagogue. Christ said, but you will not
come to me that you might have life. There's no life in the
law, there's no life in religion, there's no life in organization.
There's no life in tradition. There's no life in dress codes,
diets, and denomination. Life's in Christ. He's the life. But men will not come to Christ,
no matter how clear the note sounded in the scriptures, no
matter how clear the note is sounded regarding Jesus Christ. He says, I'm the way, the truth,
and the life. No man cometh to the Father but by me. But you
will not come to me. Let another come in his own name,
and him you will receive. I come in my Father's name. You
will not come to me." He said, I'm the door by me if any man
enter in, he shall be saved. Go in and out and find pastures,
but men will not come to Christ. He said, I'm the resurrection
and the life. Other foundation can no man lay than that which
is laid, Christ the Lord. There's none of the name under
heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. He that believeth
on the Son hath everlasting life. He that believeth not the Son
of God, whatever he believes, whatever he does, whoever he
follows, shall never see life. That's what your Bible, and that's
what this Bible, and that's what every Bible says. And yet, in
the face of overwhelming facts, overwhelming evidence, Christ
said, the works that I do bear witness of me, the Father bore
witness of me, John the Baptist bore witness of me, and you search
the scriptures because in them you think you have life, but
there they which testify of me, and you will not come to me.
that you might have life. And in the face of overwhelming
scripture and overwhelming evidence concerning life only in Christ,
men will not come to Christ. They'll come to anything else,
anyone else, any other program. Give them something to do, something
to give, somewhere to go, some Mecca to visit, some holy land
to visit, some shrine to visit. Give them some beads to count.
Give them some bendings and bowings to accomplish. Give them some
programs to support, money to send in. They'll do anything,
but they will not freely, graciously, willingly come to the Lord Jesus
Christ. You can sell salvation, but you
can't give it away. Man's in the mood to buy salvation
by his works and deeds. He's not in the mood to take
it from the hand of Christ as a beggar by the mercy of God.
What's wrong with him? What hinders a man from coming
to Christ? I'll give you five reasons And
it'll sum up everybody listening to this program and the fellow
preaching it to by nature There are five reasons why men do not
come to Christ. There are five things that hinder
men from coming to Christ The first one is the human will You
will not Christ said you will not Come to me The first problem
is a human will Now men may talk listen to me. I wouldn't offend
you I'm trying to tell you the truth. Men may talk of the human
will being free, but the human will is not free. It's enslaved. The human will is not free. It's
in slavery to sin. It's in bondage to sin. It's
been in bondage since the fall in the Garden of Eden. The human
will is in bondage to sin. It's a servant and a slave of
sin. You have no power over what you
think, the evil that you think. It comes without any promotion. The scripture says in Romans
8, 7, the natural mind, that's the human mind, is enmity against
God. It is not subject to the law
of God. Neither, indeed, can it be. You
try to exercise some control over your mind and your thoughts
and your dreams and your imagination, you're in for a shock. Your will's
in bondage to your evil nature. Listen to Jeremiah 13, 23. Can
the Ethiopian change his skin? Can the leopard change his spots?
Then, when that happens, when an Ethiopian can, by willing,
become another color, and by a leopard, by willing, can do
away with his spots, then can you do good that are accustomed,
that are trained, that are taught to do evil. The great preacher
Martin Luther wrote a whole book on the bondage of the human will. The human will is in bondage.
You don't have to teach your children to lie. They're born
knowing how to lie. They're born exercising that
will to lie. You don't have to teach them
to hate. They're born knowing how to hate. You don't have to
teach them to covet. You don't have to teach them
to be selfish. They're born knowing how to be selfish. You have to
teach them how to love, how to be gracious. You see that? Because the human will is in
bondage. It's not free. It's not free
at all. It can't do one thing in its
own power. You will not. You will not. That's
your trouble. You will not come to me, Christ
said. You don't will to come. But I'm glad for a good note
in Psalm 110, thy people shall be willing in the day of thy
power. God can make a man willing. The
Holy Spirit can make a man willing. And if a man is willing, the
Holy Spirit made him willing. It's not of him that willeth
nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. And
we're born, not of the will of the flesh, not of the will of
man, we're born of God. Here's the second reason why
men do not come to Christ. What hinders the men from coming
to Christ? First is their will. Sure, salvation's free, but you
will not take it. Sure, the gift of God's eternal
life, but you will not receive it. Sure, Christ welcomes every
penitent sinner, but you're not penitent. You will not bend,
bow, surrender. You will not. Our hearts are
stubborn, and our wills are in bondage, and our minds and necks
are stiff against God. The second thing is, men not
only are not willing, but they love the world. They flat love
this world. John 3, 19 says this is condemnation. Life is coming to this world.
Light has come. Life has come. Truth has come.
Christ has come. Did men love Him? Look outside
the city of Jerusalem, you'll find out how much they loved
him. They nailed him to a cross between two thieves. That's how
much they loved truth. Somebody said, oh, if holiness
would just come embodied into this world, men would love him. Holiness came embodied into this
world. Love came embodied into this
world. Christ, the Lord of glory came
into this world and they spat upon him. hit him with the open
palm and plucked out his beard and lied on him and nailed him
to a cross and put a guard up in front of his tomb. Oh, how
they hate holiness. This is condemnation. Light has
come into this world, but men love darkness. That's why they
won't come to Christ. That's what hinders them from
coming to Christ. They love darkness rather than
light because their deeds are evil. A man can't serve two masters. He can't serve God and mammon.
He can't do it. A man cannot love Christ and
love this world. He's got to make a choice. And
all men, by nature, make that choice. Give us Barabbas. That's
the choice. Well, I have two here. And it's
a custom to release unto you one this day. Now, to whom? To
whom? Which one shall I release unto
you? Jesus or Barabbas? With one accord. Natural man,
religious man, infidels agnostic skeptics atheists Denominational
people everybody with one accord said we'll take Barabbas and
that's man's nature That's what hinders him from coming to Christ.
The man cannot walk with God and walk with the enemies of
God. It can't be done This is why our Lord's invitations are
always carefully worded. You listen to the listen to the
invitations of our Lord He said if any man come to me let him
deny himself Take up his cross and follow me There's a choice
to be made. If any man love his mother, father,
brother, sister, even his own life more than me, he cannot
be my disciple. Choice to be made. If a man puts
his hand to the plow and turns and looks back, he's not fit
for the kingdom of God. Choice to be made. The prophet
of God stood one day and said, choose you this day whom you
will serve, either the gods on the other side of the Jordan,
the gods of the heathen, or the Lord God of glory. There's a
choice to be made. What hinders man from coming
to Christ? That's his choice. Darkness,
the world, materialism, self-love, fame, the praise of men. They
seek not the honor that comes from God, they seek the honor
that comes from this world. It's sold out for a mess of poverty. It's sold out for 30 pieces of
silver. What are you selling it for?
What are you selling Christ for? How much are you getting for
your soul? How much are you getting in exchange for eternal life?
How much are you getting in exchange? It's not worth it. What shall
it profit a man if he gained the whole world and lose his
soul? They don't come to Christ because
they love the world, and you can't love both, because Christ
and this world are as opposite as East and West, infinitely
separated. You've got to make a choice.
Thirdly, men do not come to Christ because they're wrapped up in
the traditions of religion. Everybody today's religious.
Somebody told me the other day that 53% of the citizens of the
United States were born again I don't believe a word of it
Our Lord took 12 men and shook the world. What would we do with
110 million Americans? There are 110 million church
members in this country. There are 110 million people
wrapped up in religion in this country There are 110 million
people who are following the traditions of religion in this
country But they're not 110 million people who've come to Christ,
whose life is Christ, whose love is Christ, whose way is Christ,
whose hearts beat with the love for Christ, whose minds throb
with the thoughts of Christ, whose souls are committed to
the laws and commandments of Christ. No, sir. And I'll tell
you this, the best place to hide from Christ and the gospel of
his grace is in the church. That's the best place to hide.
That's the best refuge to protect you from the truth. Hide in the
church. The most difficult person to
reach with the true gospel of substitution and saving grace
is a church member. The most difficult person to
reach with the true gospel, what are we? Who is Christ? What did
he do? Why did he do it? Where is he
now? What is faith? What is repentance? What is eternal
life? The hardest person to reach with
those vital issues is a man in religion, a man in the pulpit
or in the pew. Because he's wrapped up in the
traditions of religion. He's been confirmed. He's been
sprinkled. He's been baptized. He's a Baptist
or a Methodist or a Catholic or a Presbyterian. He has his
custom, tradition, his special days. He has his righteousness.
He's not a sinner and he does not need a savior. He's not lost
and he does not need finding. He's not guilty and he does not
need grace. He's not corrupt and he does
not need mercy. And like the Israelites of old,
he boasts that God is his father, and Christ said, you don't even
know God. Men are hiding in false professions
and false refuges. They say we've made a covenant
with death. With hell are we in agreement.
When the scourge of God's wrath shall come through, it won't
touch us. We have a refuge. And that brings
me to the fourth reason why men do not come to Christ, what hinders
men from coming to Christ. They've already come to a profession
of faith. They've already come to a religious
refuge. They've already come to an experience
of religion. They say this, I know I'm saved. Now I made a profession of faith
years ago. I accepted Jesus and I'm saved. I have no prayer life. I have
no love for the scriptures. I have no regular worship habits.
I have no grace in my heart, I have no forgiving spirit, I
have no real love for God and his word and his people, I show
no genuine growth in Christ Jesus, but you can't tell me I'm not
saved because I was there when it happened. That's a good refuge
in which to hide from God and to hide from the conviction of
the Holy Spirit and to hide from the gospel that's able to set
you free. and to hide from the truth of Jesus Christ that's
able to make you a new creature. I was preaching on the radio
one time, and a friend of mine listened regularly. He was an
insurance man who walked a debit, and he was walking his debit
one day, and he stopped in a house and knocked on the door to collect.
The lady came to the door, and he said, I'd like to invite you
to church. She said, I already go to church. He said, well,
why don't you listen to my pastor preach? He's on the radio every
morning at 830. She said, well, I'll be glad to. And so he was
gone for a month, and he came back by a month later, and he
knocked on the door, and she came to the door. And while he
was collecting, he said, say, have you heard my pastor? She
said, I did several times. We quit listening. And he said,
well, you mind telling me why you quit listening? She said,
yes, I'll tell you why we quit listening. I've got two teenage
daughters, and they're members of the church. They made professions
when they were juniors or primaries. And she said, we were listening
to your pastor every morning, and he got my daughters upset. They thought they weren't Christians.
They thought they were not saved. They started crying at the breakfast
table and saying, Mama, we're not saved. She said, I took them
to the pastor, and he told them they were saved, and it's me
to turn that radio off and not let that man disturb my daughters
anymore. I can't convict anybody of sin. The Holy Spirit was disturbing
those young ladies. The Holy Spirit was showing them
their need of a true relationship with Jesus Christ. And I'll tell
you this about any pastor or preacher that'll tell a man he's
saved. Any man that'll tell another man he's saved is a lost man
himself. Because my friend, there's no
one knows the human heart but God Almighty. You can't tell
a man he's saved. The only person that'll tell
a lost man that he's a saved man is another lost man. The
best place to hide from Holy Spirit conviction, from the truth
of the gospel, from the preaching of the grace of God, is in church
membership or in the pulpit. A false refuge. Oh, I know I'm
saved. I'm a church member. I go to
Sunday school. I tithe. You sound like that
old Pharisee in the temple. I thank you, Lord. I'm not like
other men. I'm not an adulterer. I'm not
an extortioner. I tithe, and I fast, and I give
alms to the poor, and I do this, that, and the other. Christ said
he went home damned. While there was a publican down there who
wouldn't even lift his eyes to heaven, but smote on his breast
and cried over his sins and said, God have mercy on me, the sinner. Oh, Paul didn't talk about an
experience. He talked about a person. He said, I know whom I have believed.
He didn't say, I know when I believe. He didn't say, I know what I
believe. He said, I know whom I have believed. I'm persuaded
he's able to keep that which I've committed to him against
that day. Again, he said, who is he that condemneth? It is
Christ that dies. What is your hope? I should ask,
who is your hope? If your hope's in a what, or
your hope is in a church, or your hope is in a law, or your
hope is in an experience, you're gonna hear him saying that day,
as he says to all those people who lay claim to righteousness
through a false hope, depart from me, I never knew you. But
salvation's free. If you'll turn loose of that
false refuge, if you'll just let that experience die a natural
death, It's already dead. Why don't you bury it? It never
has had any life. It's never given you any peace.
It's never given you any joy. It's never given you any assurance.
You've just carried it around and lugged it around like a dead
body. It's never meant anything to you. You've got to whip it
up and revive it up by some kind of special revival or special
season of revival or special music. I get amazed at these
preachers that have to stir people up with music. By half these
programs, Stirring people up with this music and when they
get them stirred up to a certain pitch to pass the offering plate
If you have to stir yourself up with something like that,
I hope is Christ. It's not an experience. It's
not a feeling it's a person And he's always the same. I may be
on the mountaintop of the valley, but he's always on the throne.
He's always the same And my hope is who he is and where he is
and it never changes I'll tell you another reason why men do
not come to Christ what hinders them from coming to Christ They're
ignorant. Now, that's an awful charge,
and I hope you didn't turn me off. But you know, this is perhaps
the most humbling and offensive charge that a man can bring against
his fellow man, ignorance of God. But Paul used it. Paul said,
My heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they
might be saved. I bear them record. They have
a zeal of God, but it's not according to knowledge, for they being
ignorant of God's righteousness, Going about to establish their
own righteousness will not submit to the righteousness of God who
is Christ The goal the purpose the end of the law for righteousness
Now my friends you can accuse a man of not having the will
to come to Christ and he won't get too mad You can say your
will is in bondage. He'll get upset, but he won't
get too mad Your will is in bondage and then you can choose a man
accuse a man of loving the world And in his heart, he knows you're
telling the truth. He knows you're telling the truth. And you can
accuse a man of being wrapped up in religious tradition, and
he might fuss a little while, but he knows he's wrapped up
in religious tradition. He knows he'd rather burn a candle
than for his heart to burn in love for Christ. He knows he'd
rather pay somebody to pray for him than pray himself. He knows
he'd rather pay some preacher to study for him than to burn
a little midnight oil and study for himself. He'd rather pay
somebody to see that he gets to heaven than to seek the Lord
himself. So he doesn't mind too much.
If you tell him he's wrapped up in religious tradition, he'll
say, well, I suppose you're right. Or you can tell a man he's got
a false profession, that he's depending on an old experience
that stayed old, and he won't get too mad. But, boy, folks
resent being told they're ignorant. Our Lord Jesus Christ in John
chapter 8, read that chapter. He stirred up the Pharisees and
when he told them he said you neither know me nor my father
They said God's our father. He said you don't know God You're
up your father the devil he was a liar from the beginning and
so are you and His work you'll do you don't know God and let
me tell you friend. They took up stones to stone
him But now was he telling the truth our Lord always told the
truth He said, you do not know God. You neither know me nor
my Father. He said, no man knoweth the Father
but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him. Paul wrote
in 1 Corinthians 2, 8 through 10, I have not seen, ear hath
not heard, neither hath it entered the heart of man the things God
has prepared for them that love him. But he hath revealed them
unto us by his Spirit. For the Spirit searcheth the
deep things of God, the mysteries of God. And the natural man receiveth
not the things of God, their foolishness. That's foolishness.
That's what he said you'd say. The cross is foolishness. The
blood is foolishness. The new birth is foolishness.
That's what he said you'd say. The preaching of the cross is
to them who are perishing foolishness. Ignorance. The eunuch was riding
along in that chariot, and Philip walked along beside him and listened
to him read Isaiah chapter 53. And Philip said, do you understand
what you're reading? And he said, how can I? He said,
somebody show me. And that's why I'm on this telecast.
I'm not here to raise money or build a university or put my
name on a church. I'm here to tell you about Jesus
Christ. I'm here to tell you about the way of life, and that's
Christ. I'm here to put some pressure on you And to ask you
the question, what think ye of Jesus Christ? This is a faithful
saying. It's truth. because it's a revelation
of God, because it's attested by prophecy, promise, and miracle,
and it's proven its power many times. This is a true saying,
and it claims your attention. It's worthy of all acceptation
of Jew and Gentile, male and female, white and black, that
Jesus Christ, none other than the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord,
he's divine, Jesus, he's a man, Christ, he's anointed, has come
into this world In our flesh, in our likeness, tested as we
are yet without sin, and died on the cross, he came to save
them that are lost. He came to save sinners, not
to half-save them or make them savable or help them save themselves,
but to save them. How? By his death. To whom do
we preach it? Sinners. The chief of sinners.
Will you come to Christ? You'll have to come yourself.
I can't help you. He can. Ask him to redeem you.