Now I cling to Jesus every day. Now I gladly honor him as my
King. Now my raptured soul can only
sing the King. ? Mercy there was great and grace
was free ? ? Pardon there was multiplied to me ? ? Never burdened
soul without liberty at Calvary ? ? Oh, the love that crucifixion's
planned for me ? Oh, the grace that brought him down to man. Oh, the mighty gold that God
did spend at Calvary. Mercy there was great and grace
was free. Pardon there was multiplied to
thee. All right. Ed, would you and Stan come and
receive the offering this morning? Our Father, we approach you again,
thanking you, Father, for this. Another great privilege, Lord,
to come before you in prayer and worship. The privilege, Lord,
once again, of speaking from your precious Word. We ask you
this morning, Lord, to help us today to worship you, Lord, and
giving back some of that that you've given us so freely. And
help us, Lord, to do it with joy, knowing that you gave all
for us. We ask these things in Christ's
name. Amen. you All right. Thanks again, Jim. Turn back with me if you would.
And keep your Bibles open because I'm going to make some references
that you may want to read with me. But Revelations 22, 17 says,
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 come and take of the water of life
freely. This mic's a little bit too hot.
Can you turn this mic down just a hair? I'm getting a little
bit of reverberation from it. Does that do anything? I think so. I think so. Does that sound all right to
everybody? Okay. Well, in this verse, there is much controversy, not
necessarily among religion, because religion looks at this in one way, and always in one
direction. And like many things, it's taken
out of context so very often. And the spirit and the bride
say come, and let him that heareth say come, and let him that is
athirst come, and whosoever will, let him come and take of the
water of life freely. People want to just take that
last part of that and say, whosoever will, let him come. My subject
this morning is on free will. I know that that is a controversial
word when it comes to today's religion. Free will is not only promoted
widely by religion in our day, it has become its fundamental
doctrine. Almost everyone you might have
a Bible conversation with in these days not only believe it,
but are highly offended if you question its validity or intimate. that you don't share their love
for what has become religion's mantra. It has been a refuge that religious
men and women hold to with all their might, lest they be found
to be without their God. I know that that's so, and you know
that that's so. This verse not only says that
whosoever will, let him come and take of the water of life
freely. And when you start talking to people about the sovereignty
of God that God does as He pleases, to whom He pleases, when He pleases,
and how He pleases, you get a recall immediately usually from people
and they say, whosoever will. Whosoever will. All right. The only thing that they don't
realize is he tells you who they are. He tells you who the whosoever
will are. It's not as they think every
human being on this earth without exception, but he's talking about
a particular and a peculiar people. He's talking about his elect.
And we want to make some points this morning to clarify that.
Maybe even some of you have a problem when you run into this issue. that maybe you don't quite understand
exactly like you would want to. So hopefully
today that the Lord might direct our remarks and give us ears
to hear. And that's one of the things
that this says in the text of the whosoever wills. He said,
And the Spirit and the bribes, they come, and let him that heareth.
You see that word? He that heareth. Everybody don't
hear. Well, they can hear my voice,
but they're not hearing His voice. There's a difference. And we'll talk more about that. And here is religions problem,
one of them is described in Isaiah 28, 15. He said, because ye have
said, we have a covenant with death, and with hell, we are in agreement. When the overflowing scourge
shall pass through, it shall not come unto us, for we have
made lies our refuge, and under falsehood Have we hid ourselves,
and that's what men are doing today in religion, so much. They said, we've made a covenant
with death. We know we're going to die. Everybody's going to
die. But I'm not worried. We believe people's going to
hell. We're in agreement with that. These people ought to go
to hell. When the overflowing scourge
comes and shall pass through, it won't come to us, because
whosoever will. For we've made lies our refuge,
and under falsehood have we hid ourselves. I want to talk about
this in three divisions this morning. Number one, the first
point is that man has a will. or this is their doctrine, and
the will is entirely free, and that men must make themselves
willing to come to Christ, otherwise they'll not be saved. That's
what religion stakes their hopes on. Free agency, we may believe,
but according to scripture, free will is absurd. Anyone who believes in his heart
that a man of his own free will turns to God cannot have been
taught of God. Nowhere in scripture does it
give license for anyone to believe it, much less to declare it as
doctrine. Man cannot act freely outside
of his nature, nor can God, for that matter. There's things God can't do.
You know that? You've all heard God cannot lie. He can't lie. Why? Because it's
His nature not to. He is essential truth. Nothing can flow from God but
truth. He cannot lie. He cannot die. He is eternal. He cannot act different from his nature. God's
holy. He can't be anything but holy. And in turn, man can't act outside his nature. If man acts differently, it's
because something's happened to his nature. So, turn with me. I want you to read
with me on this. Turn to Isaiah 14. I'm gonna read to you about someone
else that had a will. Let's see if it was free. Isaiah 14. You'll know who this fellow is. Isaiah 14, 12 says, How art thou
fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning? How art thou
cut down to the ground, which did weaken the nations For thou
hast said in thine heart, I will ascend to heaven. I will exalt my throne above
the stars of God. I will sit upon the throne of
the mount of the congregation in the sides of the north. I
will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I will be like
the most high. Yet thou shalt be brought down
to hell, to the sides of the pit. They that see thee shall
narrowly look upon thee and consider thee, saying, is this the man
that made the earth to tremble and did shake kingdoms, that
made the world as a wilderness and destroyed the cities thereof? that opened not the house of
prisoners. You know who that is, don't you?
Old Lucifer. Lucifer had a will. How free was his will? You know, there's a lot of things
we will, and we don't have the power to carry it out, neither
did he. So putting our wills in perspective, Next to God, that's one of the
most powerful beings that was ever created. What good did his will do him?
How much more power has he than us, than human beings, weaklings like we are? That ought
to put things in perspective, but it don't for a lot of people.
They still boast free will. I have a free will. God won't
mess with my free will. They believe that God will not
overrule their wills or mess with their wills until it comes time for judgment,
and then He overrules their wills then. He don't overrule their
wills otherwise. Rubbish. There's not a point between hell and heaven that
the creature can say that this depended on me or that I must
rely on my own efforts or my free will or that I know that
Christ suffered and died for me and he's made it possible
for me to be saved, but it's up to me. It's my free will.
I can receive it or I can turn it down. I can reject it. Another preposterous fallacy
of man's religion. There's many occasions in the
Word of God where the Lord raised the dead, healed the sick, the
lame, opened their blinded eyes. I want you to picture a man that
was blind that called upon the Lord and the Lord touched him
and gave him sight. I want you to picture that man
saying, Lord, I'd rather be blind. Let me go back to the way I was.
Yeah, right. Do you think men are going to
reject salvation and eternal life and say, no, I'd rather
be dead? You see how ridiculous this doctrine
is that men hold to and revel in? It's important that we see
these things as they are. Romans 9, 16 says, it's not of
him that willeth, but God that showeth mercy. James 1, 18 says,
of his own will begat he us with the word of truth. Now, in Revelations 21.6, he
said, And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega,
the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is
a thirst of the fountain of the water of life. Isn't that one
of the things that he said in our text? Let him that heareth,
let him that's a thirst. You know what's wrong with people
today? They're not thirsty. They're okay. Talk to them. I'm
okay. I know I'm all right. I know,
I know, I know I'm safe. You see, they're not thirsty.
They don't really want to know the living God. They want to
live in their fantasy world. And they said when the overflowing
scourge comes, a lot of people deserve to go to hell, but I'm
not going because I know I'm okay. Yeah, they're not thirsty. I've got four points to cover
in my message today. That is, man is dead. Secondly, there is life in Jesus
Christ. And thirdly, that there is life
in Jesus Christ for everyone that comes for it. And fourthly, that no man by
nature will ever come to Christ. First of all, man is dead. Men,
by nature, are dead. They're born dead in this world
because of the fall. When Adam fell, he died. And
all of his posterity after him was born, stillborn, dead in
trespasses and sins. When a man is sentenced by the
law to death, He is reckoned by the law to be dead. Hebrews
9.27 says, As he is appointed unto men, wants to die. But after
this, the judgment. You see, all men, all men are
under the sentence of death. You and I are. We know we're
going to die. We know this body, this physical life is going to
leave this body. We're going to go back to the
dust of the earth. So all men are appointed unto death. That's
God's word. We know it's so. All men are under the sentence
of death. In the eyes of the law, he is a dead man. He cannot vote, inherit, bequeath. He is condemned. He cannot do
his will as he wills. Dead men are not free to exercise
free will. Dead men can't do anything spiritual. Dead men physically can't do
anything physical. In John 3, 18, A lot of people like to quote
John 3.16, but this is John 3.18. He said, Our Lord said, He that
believeth in him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is
condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name
of the only begotten Son of God. You see, men are under condemnation
of death by nature. Secondly, men are spiritually
dead. Through the fall, men lost the
power to partake of celestial things and to see heaven. You remember when the Lord was
addressing Nicodemus? And he said, Nicodemus, you must
be born again. Otherwise, you cannot see the
kingdom of God. So natural men can't see the
kingdom of God. There must, something has to
happen. There has to be a new birth. He has lost the power to choose
good over evil. He's lost his ability to infallibly
judge between right and wrong. Virtue, holiness, integrity departed
and man became dead. Just as a physical dead man cannot
partake of anything physical, spiritual dead men cannot partake
of anything spiritual. Ephesians 2.1 says, And you hath
he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins? Quickened
means made alive. Something has to happen. Supernatural. to a man in order to see the
kingdom of heaven. These eternal death, it's an eternal
death. It is the execution of the legal
sentence. It is the consummation of the
spiritual death. This eternal death is. These
two, physical death and spiritual death and physical death are
the roots of death and eternal death is the flower of it. The
second death in Matthew 25, 31 through 34, let's turn to that,
Matthew. Matthew 25, 31. It says, He said, When the Son of
Man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with
Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory, and before
Him shall be gathered all nations, and He shall separate them one
from another as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And he shall set the sheep on
his right hand and the goats on his left. Then shall the king
say unto them, on his right hand come ye blessed of my father,
inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of
the world. But in the 41st verse he said,
Then shall he say unto them, On the left hand depart from
me ye cursed into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil
and his angels. That's it, folks. There's a day of separation. Sinners who are condemned today
can be as clear of guilt as the angels of heaven. That's so. Christ has paid the debt of sin
that I owed. The Passover lamb is slain for
us. The lentils and the doorposts
have been sprinkled with his blood. There is no hell for those
whom Christ died for. Romans 8-1 says, There is therefore
now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk
not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Condemnation to what? To eternal
death. There is no condemnation to them
who are in Christ Jesus. Why? Because their sins are covered
by His blood, not one sin shall be charged
to one of his elect. There is no condemnation to them
who are in Christ Jesus. There is a spiritual life in
Christ Jesus. He said, John 5, 25, he said,
Verily, verily, I say unto you, the hour is coming, and now is,
when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and
they that hear shall live. What is that day? Today is the
day of salvation. There's coming a day, he said,
when the hour is. It is now. He's not talking about physically
dead. He's talking about spiritually dead people. When they hear. Isn't that what
the scripture that we read in Revelation said? Let him that
hear. I pray that people will hear.
I can't give you ears to hear. No other man can. Only God can
do that. And if he hasn't give you an
ear of what I'm talking about, it won't mean a thing to you.
And if it does a little bit, you'll forget it real quick. But his people know what I'm
talking about. Those who have been given ears to hear, eyes
to see, and a heart to receive his blessed gospel, they understand
what we're talking about. I pray that God would give you
ears to hear it, if you haven't so far. As surely as Christ raised dead
men, he will quicken all who come to him. we regain what we lost in Adam. There is a pain connected with
coming to life or dying out to sin, because when we come to
Christ and see Him in His holiness, we shall see ourselves as we
are. I can give you some examples
of that. Isaiah, he said, in the day,
in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord high lifted
up. His train filled the temple. And he said, woe is me, I'm a
man. This was a prophet of God. I'm
a man of unclean lips. I dwell among a people of unclean
lips. He worshiped God because he's
seen God. He's seen his glory. He's seen
the beauty of Christ. Job, he said, I've heard thee of the
hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee, and I hate myself. Oh, there's pain with it. When men come into the presence
of a Holy One, the Son of God, they don't get up and shout and
run all over the house. They fall on their faces and
cry, Oh Lord, my God, have mercy on me, this sinner. That's so. There is eternal life. Eternal
life is given to all who come for it. There is eternal life
in Christ Jesus. John 10, 28 through 30 says,
and he said, My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow
me, and I give unto them eternal life. and they shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them
out of my hand. My Father which gave them me
is greater than all, and no man's able to pluck them out of my
Father's hand. I and my Father are one. Yes, His sheep hear His voice. Oh, that men could hear His voice. You know how they hear his voice
through the preaching of the gospel. The preacher is nothing. He's just like was said of John
the Baptist. He's just a voice crying in the
wilderness. He's nothing. He'll pass off the scene like
all men will, but the preaching of the gospel,
that's God's method of saving men. because he gives them eyes
to see, ears to hear. There's not a man who ever came
to Christ for eternal life, for legal life, or for spiritual
life, who had not already received it in some sense, and he knows
he had it soon after he came. You see, the gospel reveals unto
men if they're one of his or not. You see, dead men cannot see
nor comprehend anything spiritual. First Corinthians 2.14 says,
But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit
of God, for they are foolishness to him. Neither can he know them
because they're spiritually discerned. Wherefore he is able to save
them to the uttermost that come unto God by him. That's in Hebrews
7.25, seeing that he ever liveth to make intercession for them.
John 6.37 says, And all that the Father giveth
me shall come to me. And all that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out." There's assurance. If you come to Christ,
He will never cast you out. He said, For I came down from
heaven not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent
me. And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that
all which he hath given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise
it up again at the last day. And this is the will of him that
sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth
on him, may have eternal life. And I will raise him up at the
last days." A lot of wills in those verses. His will. He only done what his father's
will was. Every man or woman that believes
shall be saved, and every man that comes shall find the door
open. Suppose a man comes who is not
chosen. Well, if a man is not chosen,
he will never come. That's simple. Suppose a man
would come who was not called of the Spirit. That can't happen. No man, the Bible says, can come
except the Father draw him. That's what the Lord said. By nature, no man will come to
Christ. You see, like we said previously,
a man can't do anything outside his own character, his own nature. Those who promote man's free
will might ask, could they not come if they liked? We reply
this, we are talking about whether they will, not whether they can.
That's not what we're talking about. He says they won't come. We reply, we are talking about
whether they will. I heard a preacher say one time,
he compared it, I thought it was a good comparison. Religion wants to say that salvation
is like a big chocolate cake. Anybody that wants to can have
a slice of it. Well, the only problem is man
by nature despises chocolate cake. I like peas. My wife can't stand
them. If she has a pot pie that's got
peas in it, she'll pick every pea out of it. She hates them. I like them. Well, I could set a whole bowl
of them in front of her and say, eat them. She ain't going to
eat them. That's what man is when it comes to coming to Christ. It's against their nature. They
just don't like it. I heard a preacher say one time
some character was trying to be smart. And he asked him something about heaven. And the
priest told him, he said, you wouldn't like it there. Well, some people wouldn't like
it there. Most people's looking for a fire
escape. They're not looking for Christ. They're not looking for
the Savior. There's not a man who ever came
to Christ for eternal life. that didn't receive it. By nature,
no man will come to Christ. No man can except the Father
draw him, but it is the will we are speaking of. Luke 14 said,
A certain man made a great supper and bade many, and sent his servants
at suppertime to say to them that were bidden, For all things
are now ready. So many excuses were made. You
see, a general call is sent out to all men because they cannot see the beauty
of Christ nor the value of spiritual things. They won't make excuses.
They won't come. Christ said, you will not come
to me that you might have life. So he sent his servants to the
poor and maimed and hauled and blinded. Then he told his servants to go into the highway and hedges
and compel them to come. So there is an effectual call
that goes out to his sheep with the power of revelation and life
and light. You see, If God gives them a
hearing ear and an eye that can see and behold His beauty, they'll
come. That's the effectual call. He
said the hour is coming and now is when the dead shall hear His
voice, the Son of God, and they that hear shall live. Any man
who believes that he's entirely free and that he can be saved
by it does not believe in the false. Proud men and women like
to boast that they were born in a glorious free will and that
they have the power to turn to Christ. They say, Lord, you've
given us all saving grace and I've made use of it and others
didn't. Men like to have some glory in
what they believe is their salvation. But he don't share his glory
with anyone. It all belongs to him. Some didn't
improve on the grace that you gave, but I did. That's the way
men think. Philippians 2, 12, and 13 said,
Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in
my presence, but now much more in my absence, Work out your
own salvation with fear and trembling. That's another verse people like
to quote. Work out your own salvation with
fear and trembling. But it's out of context if you
don't read the last verse. It says, For it is God which
worketh in you. You see, if a man does anything
good, if he's God's child, if he's saved, if anything good
comes out of him, it's because God worked it out of him. I heard a preacher say one time,
he said, God's got to hold me to the fire. He's got to keep the pressure
on me. He can. This is not one that can say,
there is not one that can say, I sought God before He sought
me. 1 John 4, 19 says we love Him because He first loved us.
If you love God, it's because He loved you first. Just to recap
on all I've said, By nature, men are dead, dead in trespasses
and sins, dead, not sick in need of help. They're dead, D-E-A-D,
graveyard dead, unable to see anything or understand anything
spiritual, unable to see Christ or the kingdom of God, unable
to desire anything that pertains to spiritual life and light.
Dead men and women will never be willing to seek after God
of the Picard of the Bible, but he will seek after the God of
his imagination, a God that makes him feel good about himself when
he performs good works, a God that he can control and limit,
a God that is not sovereign in salvation but only can save him
if his free will will allow it. What was our text? And the Spirit
and the bride say, Come. And him that heareth say, Come.
And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him come
and take of the water of life freely. Thank you for your kind attention
this morning. My voice has been terrible. It's not my voice that counts.
I pray that God has given men and women ears to hear. Father,
we thank you again, Lord, for helping us, Father, to declare
your word one more time. Thank you for mercy and grace. In Christ's name we pray, amen. It is God that worketh in you
to will and to do His good pleasure.