Nobody Will

There is a verse in my Bible, in the book of Revelation, which I love and I often use it as the freeness of the call to the gospel. It's Revelation 22, 17, which declares, And the Spirit and the bride say, Come, and let him that heareth say, Come, and let him that is the thirst come, and whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. I love that verse, friends, with all its promises of eternal life to the thirsting individual who feels their need of a Savior from sin.

But I think we overemphasize the whosoever will aspect of that verse because the sad reality is nobody will. Nobody will come to Christ until they first see their need of him. And that's the title of my message today, friends.

Nobody will. In this day of easy believism, we fail to be honest with folks and tell them the truth about themselves, that their hearts are so bad they will not come to Christ for forgiveness for sin. Now, multitudes will gladly accept the little Jesus of the modern gospel who stands helplessly at the door of the sinner's heart, knocking until somebody lets him in.

That kind of harmless Jesus is the popular Jesus of the perverted gospel of our day. And just about anybody will be okay accepting him so they can have their free ticket to heaven punched while they remain unchanged and sin all they want to. But the same individual will have nothing to do with the Christ of my Bible who demands from every follower of his full allegiance, first place, and complete surrender to his lordship and absolute authority over the rule and reign of a person's life.

They don't want that kind of Jesus who is a sovereign Lord who has rights and claims on all followers of his. They'll gladly accept the shrunken-down, harmless little old Jesus of modern evangelism that doesn't have any cost or sacrifice to follow him. That's why so many in our churches today live like the devil.

I'll never forget the big Southern Baptist pastor who, after a Sunday service, made an announcement to the men in his congregation that every single male there was to go across the hall immediately to the big cafeteria for a brief meeting. I stood there with 4,000 men beside me while this pastor made us close our eyes and respond to his question. He said, How many of you men here are looking at pornography? Raise your hand and keep your eyes closed.

Be honest. Raise your hand. I sensed hands go up all around me as this pastor remarked in disgust.

Well, that's half of you here, and I know another third are just as guilty but afraid to raise your hand. Then he abruptly dismissed us. Looking back on what that pastor taught as the gospel, it is no wonder that his people were mainly unconverted individuals who had merely accepted his little version of Jesus, but it never transformed their lives.

And that's the trouble today, friends, when Jesus was here in his earthly ministry. As he passed from towns and villages, those who encountered him experienced change. The blind that were healed never lost their sight again.

The lame that were made to leap never went back to being crippled. When Christ enters a life in regeneration, then that person has a new principle implanted in them by the Holy Spirit, and that principle can take the vile sinner, transform his or her heart, give them a disposition for holiness, and then stick that person back in a sin-loving society. But now that person has a power stronger than him to live above the world.

That's salvation, friend, at least the kind found in my Bible. But people will take your little Jesus so long as he won't get in the way of their daily living, but they want nothing to do with a living Lord who must rule and reign like a prince over their life. That's why nobody, nobody will come savingly to Christ Jesus to take him as their Lord.

They will never seek shelter in the blood of Jesus Christ until God rains down on them floods of horror, blood, and fire, and prick their hearts with their rotten sins and reveal to them their need of a blood-stained Savior from sin. If we continue to preach a watered-down gospel that we have diluted of its saving transforming power, then we should not be surprised if our congregations mirror the wicked society in which they live. I feel sorry for the pastor who fails to call sin black and hell hot and to warn men to flee from the wrath to come by repentance and faith and surrender to a thrice holy God who sent his only begotten Son to be a scandal hanging on a bloody cross, who suffered and bled there, died there, and was buried in another man's tomb, who rose again and ascended back into heaven, who sits now at the right hand of the Father as he rules and reigns as a living Lord of absolute authority.

If you fail to preach the Christ of the Bible and warn men of the need of repentance, then you will one day stand before the reigning Christ with a bloody suit of clothes and bloody hands.