"LET HIM COME"
Intro. In the first book of the Bible, we find the story of God creating man in His image and likeness for the purpose of meaningful fellowship but we read of man departing from God. Man chose to rebel against the commandment of God and thereby left that fellowship with God. The Bible is the story of God calling man back to his ultimate intention to live in fellowship with God. So that here at the end of the book the very last invitation from God to man is to come.
I. "AND THE SPIRIT AND THE BRIDE SAY COME,"
A. The Spirit of God is in the world today calling men to come to Jesus Christ.
1. Jesus said: When the Spirit comes, He will reprove the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment.
a. Of sin, because they believe not on Me.
b. Of righteousness, because I go unto My Father.
c. Of judgment, because the Prince of this world is judged.
2. The Spirit calls us to the better life, to life on the highest plane.
B. The Bride says come. The mission of the church in the world is to call men and women to come to God through Jesus Christ.
1. We are the bearers of the good news of God's love for lost mankind.
2. Jesus commissioned us to go into all the world and preach this good news to every creature, so that those who believe and are baptized, might be saved.
C. "Let him that heareth say come." Once you have heard the message of God's love for you through Jesus Christ, you are then to go out and share the good news and invite men to come.
D. "Let him that is thirsty come."
1. God called to the people through the prophet Isaiah: "Every one that is thirsty, come to the waters, and he that has no money come buy, and eat; Why do you labor and spend your money for that which cannot satisfy?
a. What a picture that is of the world today, laboring and spending their money on things that cannot satisfy that thirst in their spirit.
b. God said, "Listen carefully, you can have the good life, A life that is overflowing."
c. As Jesus said, "For I have come that you might have life, and that more abundantly."
d. He did not come to take from you, but to give to you. The only things that He will take from you are those things that are destroying you.
2. John tells us that on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried to the assembled crowd, "If any man thirst let him come unto Me and drink."
a. Jesus was referring to the universal thirst in the spirit of every man for God.
b. Only by coming to God can the spiritual thirst in your life be quenched.
c. The great problem with our age is the endeavor of man to satisfy that spiritual thirst with physical or emotional experiences.
d. There may be temporary fulfillment, but soon the thirst returns.
e. Jesus said to the Samaritan woman at the well, "Drink of this water, and you will thirst again."
f. How true that is of every earthly goal or ambition.
E. "And whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely."
1. Note the invitation is to all of mankind. "Whosoever will."
a. Jesus said, "God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him, should not perish, but have everlasting life."
b. We used to sing a hymn in the church, "Whosoever surely meaneth me."
c. God does not exclude any man from the invitation, for God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
II. GOD DESIRES THAT MAN WHO HAS DEPARTED FROM FELLOWSHIP WITH HIM, TO COME BACK INTO FELLOWSHIP WITH HIM.
A. God made the provisions by which this could be accomplished.
1. The thing that created the breach between God and man was sin.
a. This has always been true, sin breaks your fellowship with God.
b. Isaiah said that God was not deaf, so that He could not hear us, neither was His arm so short, that He could not reach out to save us, but our sins had separated us from Him.
2. God is too holy as to have fellowship with sin.
3. Paul asked, "What fellowship has light with darkness?"
4. God had pronounced the death sentence upon sin.
5. Under the law, God allowed an animal to be slain as a substitute for the sinning man, and thus the sinner could fellowship with the holy God.
6. The problem with the animal sacrifice was their inability to cleanse from the guilt of sin. They could only cover man's sin, not cleanse it.
7. So God sent His only begotten Son to be the complete and perfect sacrifice for sin, that He might pardon us once and for all.
B. While Jesus was here on earth, He went around inviting men to come to God.
1. He said in
Matthew 11:28, "Come unto Me, all ye that labor, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."
2. Jesus said: "All that the Father has given to Me, shall come to Me, and He that comes to Me, I will in no wise cast out."
a. All in the Greek means all.
b. His promise is that He will receive you no matter how heinous your sin.
c. You are not beyond the reach of God's love and forgiveness.
3. Jesus also said that you could not come to the Father but by Him. "I am the way, the truth and the life, no man can come to the Father, but by Me."
4. You may hear some say, "All roads lead to God." All roads may lead to some god, but there is only one road that leads to the true and living God, the Father. No man may come to the Father but by Me, is the declaration of Jesus.
5. This morning the Spirit is calling you to come and take of the water of life freely.
Verse-Reference
Square — [Jhn 1:1 KJV]
Abbreviate Books
Use SBL Abbrev.
