Reasons Why Some Will Not Come, Part 1

Introduction: The Tragic Refusal to Come to Christ for Life

0:03 The following sermon was delivered on Sunday morning, October 29, 1995, at the Trinity Baptist Church of Montville, New Jersey. When it was my privilege to stand in this place two Lord's Days ago, I preached the final message in the series entitled, Take Heed, How You Hear, a series of studies based on our Lord's instruction in Luke 8 and verse 18. God willing, next Lord's Day morning, we will begin a series of studies on the moral law of God, or that section of the scriptures that we commonly identify as the Ten Commandments, and then, God willing, a week from now. This Lord's Day evening, I'm sorry, two weeks from this Lord's Day evening, next Lord's Day evening is our communion meditation. We begin our expositions on the book of 1 Peter, and for the foreseeable future, those two series will be running concurrently,

1:16 the moral law of God in the morning, and the epistle of Peter in the evening. But today, before launching into these two series, I would like to say a few words. In these two series of studies, I want to direct your attention to a text which expresses what, in my judgment, is one of the most sad, the most tragic, the most irrational facts recorded anywhere in the Holy Scriptures. The text to which I make reference is found in John's Gospel, chapter 5, and is a record of the very words of our Lord Jesus, while here upon earth, words spoken into the ears of some of his contemporaries, words, I say, which are tragic, words that are irrational, they are sad, they are grievous, and yet, if they could only be spoken in that generation, they would be sad enough indeed, but I fear that were the Lord Jesus, the Lord Jesus, the Lord Jesus, the Lord Jesus, the Lord Jesus, the Lord Jesus, the Lord Jesus, the Lord Jesus, the Lord Jesus, the Lord Jesus, and amongst us this morning, he would say to some who sit here in this place, the very words that he spoke to his contemporaries,

2:41 and the words to which I make reference are the words of verse 40 in John, chapter 5. Jesus speaking says, And you will not come to me that you may. Have life. And you will not come to me that you may.

The Setting of Our Lord's Words in John 5

3:08 Have life. Now to feel something of the force of these words, just spend a few moments with me, considering briefly the setting in which our Lord spoke them. According to chapter 5 and verse 1, our Lord Jesus has gone up to Jerusalem, to one of the states. After these things, there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

3:40 And while he was there in Jerusalem at this particular feast time, our Lord performed a miracle of healing upon a man who for 38 years had been so infirm as to lay apparently in a paralyzed state upon a paralyzed man. And the Lord marvelously instantaneously healed him, but he did so according to verse 9 on a Jewish Sabbath day. Now it was the Sabbath on that day. Now having healed this man on the Sabbath, this precipitated another encounter between Jesus and the Jews. Our Lord's ministry. Our Lord's ministry, as recorded by John, often revolves around these various encounters with the Jewish leaders. And because he had broken their rules and regulations by healing on the Sabbath, certainly not the law of his Father, he enters into this period of interaction with the Jews, disputation with them, which resulted, according to verse 16, in the act of the law of the Sabbath.

4:59 And he entered into this period of interaction with the Jews, disputation with them, which resulted, according to verse 16, in the act of the Sabbath. In other words, he entered the PB and just in this limited period of time, the first act of the Sabbath, which was thefahren samadhi. In our testimony one says, look at the Torah and look at the glory of the Lord. Now I will do this myself.

5:25 My wish is that the Jews ask me a question. Which God's Crow free us of sin. Even of our life and in ourст. I have a very certain meaning, the Holy Spirit words.

5:29 Here are regarder today's sentence a lesson from the Torah. And he did so in such a way that the very terminology he used with respect to his relationship to his father was clearly understood by the Jews as nothing less than a claim to deity. And so from mere persecution, we read in verses 17 and 18, but Jesus answered them, My father works even until now, and I work. For this cause, therefore, the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only broke the Sabbath, but also called God his own father. Making himself equal with God. And so from persecution occasioned by his healing on the Sabbath, there is now an intensified commitment to kill him, because in their reckoning, he was guilty not only of Sabbath breaking, but of blasphemy. That he was claiming to be equal with God.

6:46 Amen. Amen. Amen. Jesus then, in response to his awareness of this intensified animosity and bitterness, now rising to the level of a determination to kill him, makes some of his most sweeping, stupendous, personal claims in the next paragraph, beginning with verse 19.

7:10 And in that paragraph, our Lord claims an equality of relationship with God. With the Father, he claims to be the one to whom the Father has committed all authority for the judgment of men. The one at whose very voice the dead will be raised from the dead and will come to judgment and have their eternal destinies announced and implemented by Jesus Christ himself. And then he goes on in his interaction with these.

7:47 These Jews to indicate that these claims that he makes concerning himself are not empty, invalidated, or non-validated claims, but rather claims validated by a three-fold witness. First of all, the witness of John in verse 33. You have sent unto John, and he has borne witness unto the truth. And one of the truths you remember to which John bore witness, as recorded in John chapter 1, is identifying Jesus not only as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, but as the very Son of God.

8:37 And then there was the witness of the Father, verse 36 in this chapter. He says that the witness which I have is greater than that of John. For the works which the Father has given me to accomplish, the very works that I do, bear witness of me that the Father hath sent me, and the Father that sent me, he hath borne witness of me. So there is the witness of John himself.

9:08 There is the witness of the Father validated particularly in the works that the Father enables Jesus to do. And he says these works attest to my true identity. But then in verse 39, he says there is another witness that you have had concerning my identity. And that is the witness of the Old Testament scriptures themselves.

9:36 You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life, and these are which bear witness of me. This emphasis. This is repeated at the end of the chapter. Think not, verse 45, that I will accuse you to the Father.

9:56 There is one that accuses you, even Moses, on whom you have set your hope. For if you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote of me. Now in this setting, a setting in which our Lord has manifested his power in the healing of this man who had been in this condition for 30 years. In a setting in which the Lord reminds them that these stupendous claims regarding the identity of his person were claims validated by the witness of John, the witness of the Father, and the witness of the scriptures themselves. He is setting with this end in view delineated in verse 34. But the witness which...

10:54 The witness which I receive is not from man, how be it. Say these things that you may be saying, who are persecuting him, who have an intense commitment to kill him, and yet he says, I continue to speak to you, I continue to set forth these validations of my claims, these things that underscore that I am what I claim to be, because he...

11:31 There's the salvation. There's the salvation of these very people determined to kill him. These very ones determined to oppose him. But he says, I speak these things that you may be saying.

11:47 So get the picture. They've made it very clear that no sympathy for him. That they regard him as a Sabbath breaker and a blasphemer. And yet the Lord Jesus does not wash his hands of them, but he continues...

12:03 He continues to interact with them. He continues to reason with them. He continues to set before him the manifold evidence that he is who he claims to be and is able to do what he says he will do. And he says, all of this I do, I say, that you may be saved.

Understanding 'You Will Not Come to Me'

12:24 But he had to say to these people, you will not come to me that you may. Have life. And it is obvious that in speaking these words, he holds them personally for their...

12:48 Come to him. He says, you will not come to me that you may have life.

12:59 Oful these astoundingly grievous words.

13:05 Who had witnessed his mighty power. Who had heard witness of John. Who were constantly seeing the witness of the Father. Who had in hands the witness of the scriptures.

13:21 And yet, in spite of all of this, he would not come to the one who could impart life to them. That his use of the words, that you will not come to me, are used synonymously with believing upon him. For certainly, in terms of physical proximity, they had come to him. They were in his very presence.

13:50 They were carrying on a di... They were close enough to exchange thoughts and words.

13:59 So when he says, you will not come to me, he is obviously using that terminology as synonymous with the motion, not of the feet, but of the heart that goes out to Christ in faith and trust. The heart that goes out to Christ in that saving response which he...

14:22 continually embodies in this language. Come unto me, all labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that comes to me I will in no wise cast out. And so when our Lord says, you will not come to me, what he is saying is, you will not.

14:51 You refuse to pass. You refuse to cast yourself upon me. You refuse to commit yourself to me. You refuse to trust in me.

15:02 You refuse to embrace me for who and what I am. It is to you that you may be saved. You refuse to do the one thing necessary unto salvation, namely, come to me. And as we anticipate entering into two new concurrences, I am going to ask that you do not want to be afraid of God for the sake of your own self.

Anticipating New Series and the Need for This Message

15:32 I am going to ask you to give a chance to be windows and doors and doors. I am going to ask you to come and be a bridge between the people of the world and the earth. And thefalcon will be able to be a bridge between the people of the world and the earth.

15:46 And so ye will wholeheartedly stand in the presence of your Lord. And I will ask the Lord, I will pray to God to go with me into the kingdom and to the kingdom of God. which I trust will point us to the perfection of Christ who made under the law, perfectly kept that law, a study which I trust will increase our appreciation for what He bore when He bore our sins, all of our transgressions of the law in His own body up to the tree, but a study which will find us primarily concerned with seeking to understand the claims, the moral demands of the living God over us as His creatures. And as we enter upon our studies, following the track of the Spirit of God through the pen of Peter, and we will range far over many doctrines and privileges and responsibilities that are found in that marvelous epistle of some five chapters, there will be opportunities to bring applications to the conscience, of those who are not in Christ, to those of you who have yet to close with the offers of mercy in the gospel, that as I prayerfully anticipated what to do with this Lord's Day,

17:11 as my own preparations mature for these other two series, my own spirit was constrained to focus in upon this most elementary of all issues, to say to you this morning, you do not have life, but what is it kept men in our Lord's name to Him that they might have life? What is it in us where crept forth repeatedly in all His saving mercy and power, in all of His suitableness to be the Savior of every and any sinner who will cast himself upon Him? What is it that would keep you, man, woman, boy, or girl, from coming to Christ that you might have life? Well, this morning I want us to focus on two major reasons why some here, as in the day of our Lord Jesus, did not come to Him that they might have life,

Reason 1: Ignorance of Desperate Need of Christ

18:31 and then God willing tonight to focus upon two more major reasons why this text is true, even in this place. And the first and perhaps one of the most fundamental reasons in these to whom our Lord spoke was this, that they did not come to Christ that they might have life because they were ignorant of their desperate need of Christ. They were ignorant of their desperate need of Christ. Remember the situation in which our Lord stands before them.

19:14 He has come as the great burden bearer. He has been spoken about by John as the Lord. He has been spoken about by John as the Lord. The Lamb of God bears away the sin of the world.

19:28 He has spoken in this very book of John as the one who as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness had to be lifted up. He had to be lifted on a cross that he might die, that there might be the provision of a just pardon for sinners. He was constantly offering himself to men as the one who would receive sinners. And yet these people, the Lord Jesus said to them, you will to me that you may have life.

20:09 And what was the problem? Well, the problem with many of them, as perhaps with some of you sitting here today, was ignorance of their desperate need of Christ. One of the clearest examples of this is, is found in Luke's gospel, chapter five, the gospel of Luke, chapter five,

20:32 in the middle of the account of the conversion, the discipleship of Levi, Matthew,

20:41 the Pharisees and their scribes. See the Lord Jesus calling this man to himself, going into his home, sharing in a banquet with him and his fellow publicans and other notorious sinners. And they are terribly offended at this. Luke, five and verse 30 and the Pharisees and their scribes murmured against his disciples saying, why do you eat and drink with the publicans and sinners in the parallel account?

21:12 They were also getting at their master. Why does your master, why does he, along with you eat with publicans and sinners? Jesus answering, said unto them, they that are in health, those who are in a state, a state of physical wellbeing have no felt need of a doctor. And therefore they don't get on the phone and doctors appoint the person who has no fever, who has no pain, who has none of the symptoms of a physical malady, unless he simply enjoys the wallpaper in the doctor's office and the music that comes over the loudspeaker or has a crush on the doctor or simply likes to have conversation with him. People that are consciously in a state of health have no felt need of a physician. Therefore they don't call a physician and should a physician show up on their doorstep and say, I'm here for you today. They'd say, well, that's all well and good, but frankly, I don't need you.

22:16 That's the point our Lord is making. They that are in health have no need of a physician. They don't call out for the physician. Should the physician himself appear at their door, they would not welcome him.

22:28 Oh, they may welcome him. They may welcome him as a friend. They may welcome him as an interesting character with whom to have some general chitchat, but they do not welcome him with a spirit of desperation and gratitude as those who have a need which the physician can meet. They that are in health have no need of a physician, but they that are sick, those who are sick, who know themselves to be sick, who feel themselves to be sick, those whose condition of sickness, sickness is a matter that they are not prepared at all to debate or to deny.

23:06 Then Jesus said, likewise, here's the point of all of this. I am not come to call the righteous. I am not come to call those who in their own eyes and in their own estimation are morally well, that is righteous, who do not see themselves and feel themselves to be sinners, unrighteous, ungodly, morally, spiritually sick. I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

23:38 I have come as the great physician in order to deal with those who are conscious that they need what I and I alone can give. So when our Lord Jesus spoke as he did to these Jews in John chapter five and said, you will not come to me. That. They have life.

24:00 He was speaking to a people who were ignorant of their spread need of Christ. And that's why they would not come to him. They were in the presence of the lamb of God who in a short time would by his death upon the cross barrel the sins of the world. They were in the presence of him described by Isaiah the prophet as the suffering servant of Jehovah.

24:30 Who would be bruised for the iniquities of others who would bear the sins of others. The one upon whom Jehovah would call to light the sins of others. And yet in his presence they had no Christ. And so it made no difference that he could present himself as he did for who and what he was as the source of spiritual life.

25:02 As the only savior of sinners. As the appointed judge of the world. The very one who would arbitrate their eternal destiny in the last day. They still to come to him why?

The Inexcusable Nature of This Ignorance

25:17 Because they were ignorant of their desperate need of Christ. And what was true of them I fear is true of some sitting here this morning or in this place at your family table. In your living room. In your Sunday school classes.

25:37 Week in. Week out. Month in. Month out.

25:41 For some of you year in. Year out. And for others literally decade in and decade out. Christ has been set before you of his grace and power as the only savior of sinners.

25:57 And you have been urged by his word and glorious means to lay hold of his grace to come to all that he claims to be. To sinners who trust him. And you sit here this morning and of you it can be said you will not come to him. And why?

26:21 Because you are ignorant at the deepest level of your being of your desperate need. You see that ignorance is utterly inexcusable. The testimony of the word of God concerning your desperate need of Christ is clear. You with me are.

26:43 And according to the scriptures Romans 5 12 1 Corinthians 15 22 in our father Adam we fell God to appoint Adam as the representative head of the whole. And when he fell the scripture says as in Adam all die. Romans 5 through the one man sin entered into the world. And death passed upon all men for that all there is no other nation for the human this biblical ace of sinners coming from a common your indifference to what Christ is and what Christ offers this indifference rooted in ignorance is inexcusable because you have the testimony of the word of God that you are part of that race that fell in Adam the testimony of scripture. It says you are a sinner by nature. Psalm 51 in verse 6 behold I was shaping in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive

28:09 me Ephesians 2 and verse 3 we are by nature children of wrath even as the rest and this ignorance of your desperate need of Christ is inexcusable because not only does the word of God. This. As part of that race that fell in Adam but it describes you as a sinner by nature and your own conscience affirms that you did not need to be taught sin and to do that which your own conscience condemns you that sinning was as natural to you as breathing sinning was as natural to you as it is natural for the eye to receive light and for the ear to receive. You are a sinner by nature a sinner by practice when you evaluate your words and thoughts and deeds in the light of God's word and in the light of his holy laws we should be doing God willing in weeks to come you will not find it in you to debate the language of Romans 3 10 and following as it is written there is none righteous no not one there is none that.

29:29 Understands there is none that seeks after God they are all on out of the way they are together become unprofitable. No the word of God in its testimony concerning our state and our condition is clear and in that state we are condemned the soul that sin shall die the wages of sin is death we are impotent to rescue ourselves we are described. There is without strength in Romans chapter 5 we are under the wrath of God he that believeth not is condemned already John 3 and verse 18 so this ignorance of your desperate need is inexcusable the testimony of the word of God concerning your state is abundantly clear and add to this the testimony of your own conscience is inescapable. Romans chapter 2 verses 14 and 15 affirmed that even those who have never seen a page of the Bible who have never heard one of the 10 commandments preached out of Exodus 20 or Deuteronomy chapter 5 or the many other places where some or more of those 10 words

30:51 are reiterated yet yet they have to reckon with this reality Romans 2 verse 14 for when the Gentiles who have not the law do by nature the things of the law these not having the law are a law unto themselves in that they show the work of the law written in their hearts and how do they show it how do they manifest this consciousness of God's authority and God's right to say do this and don't do that how do they show that the ordinance of that. The original constitution of man in his uprightness is yet there within them how is that manifested their consciences bearing witness there with and their thoughts one with another accusing or excusing them there's not a one of you here that does not know what it is to have conscience function and conscience doesn't seek your approval conscience doesn't have to ask for your vote to function conscience is that oft unwelcomed voice that takes much

32:13 of the light out of our sin you children can remember at first so filled with a sense of relief that when mom or dad asked you a question that pertained to something you had done and you knew if you were honest you'd have been punished and you lied. And. The first sense that you had when you avoided the punishment was one of great relief but you remember how quickly after that all of the delight of avoiding the punishment began to slip away very quickly because this little thing called conscience made you begin to feel dirty and unclean and you knew you had wronged not just mom and dad but God himself when you lied to them. And. When you cheated first time spoke the dirty words when you deceived your parents and then as you came up into your teenage years and adult years and whatever the sins may be there is that function of conscience within there is a probation when we do that which we know is right and there is accusation when we do that which we know is wrong and these people had conscience.

33:40 These people to whom our Lord spoke they had conscience is and yet they were inexcusably ignorant of the depths of their need because they sought to try to argue down even the voice of conscience with all of their religious ritual how sad for the Lord Jesus to say to them you will not come to me that you may have life. Because they were a people willfully wickedly ignorant of their need of him and I wonder how many sitting here this morning of whom it can be said you will not come to Christ because because of your ignorance of your desperate need of him if you really believe if you really believe the testimony of God's word that in Adam you fell into a state of condemnation and sin that from your very conception you were a sinner and your deeds and acts and even every word spoken that has been a violation of God's law is known by him and will in the last day be brought into judgment surely the Lord Jesus standing before you in the gospel saying come unto me I will come unto you.

35:18 I will take to myself the responsibility for all of the guilt of all of your sin I will take to myself the responsibility of cleansing you of the stain and defilement of your sin as well as clearing you of the guilt of that sin surely you would go to Christ immediately. But alas he said then and he says to some this morning you will not come to me that you may have life. You may have life why because of ignorance of your desperate need of Christ and I would plead with you if you're in this category not to pride yourself that you can hear of Christ and his perfect life and his substitutionary death and his triumphant resurrection and his sincere and earnest entreaties to come to him for life and salvation.

36:22 And forgiveness don't pride yourself that you can sit through such stuff day in and day out in family worship week in and week out in the Sunday school class and in this very building and be indifferent to Christ overtures to come to him don't develop calluses on your conscience cry to God that he would give you a felt sense of your desperate need. Need of Christ especially as we enter into this series of studies on the moral law for the scripture says that by the law comes the knowledge of sin that sin by the commandment might become exceedingly sinful will you not cry that God would give you a felt sight of how desperately you need what only Christ can give. For they that are holy. Have no need of a physician. And until you feel in the depths of your soul.

37:37 The malady of your own sinfulness in its guilt and its defilement to the extent that you know you can't fix yourself up you can't clear your record you can't change your own heart any more than the leopard can change its spots. People ask how much conviction. Of sin does a man a woman a boy or girl need in order to be saved and I answer he needs just so much only so much but so much as to drive him out of himself to seek salvation in another and that other is the Lord Jesus here these people could stand face to face with him talking to him having seen his mighty works. Having heard the witness of.

38:31 Gone seeing the witness of the father and they trafficked in the very scriptures that should have brought them broken to his feet and yet they had so learned to handle the scriptures is to make them a barrier between themselves in Christ. What a tragic thing to have Christ say you will not come to me that you may have life because of ignorance of your desperate need of Christ. But then. There is a second major reason why the Lord Jesus spoke these words in that immediate setting and why he speaks them again and again in every setting where he offers himself in his word and through the gospel where he speaks through his servants to the same end he speaks these things that you may be saying. And yet you will not. Come to him that you might have life what is the second great reason.

Reason 2: Impenitence Before Christ's Demands

39:35 Not only ignorance of your desperate need of Christ but impenitence before the flesh withering demands of Christ impenitence before the flesh withering demands of Christ see the gracious command and call to come to Christ is a command. And call to. Leave your sins that's clear in the entire revelation of God's salvation in Christ his gracious command and call to come to Christ is a command and call to leave your sins Matthew 121 the words spoken shortly after his conception the angel speaks to Joseph and says you shall call his name Jesus for he shall save his people. Not.

40:35 In but from their sins he shall save them from their sins Luke 532 we read earlier I am not come to call the righteous no I've come to call sinners but to do what to call them to myself for a full and free pardon while leaving them wedded to their sins no look what the text says I am come to call. In but from their sins he shall save them from their sins no look what the text says I am come to call the righteous no I've come to call their sins no look what the text says I am come to call them to myself for a full and free pardon while leaving them wedded to their sins. To repent and to divorce him of their souls from sin. Starting with the sin of self-righteousness and self-trust and self-serving and self-centeredness and all of the sins that grow out of those deep sins rooted in self. Acts 532 tells us that he is exalted as a prince and a savior to give repentance. and remission of sins. He gives no remission without repentance.

41:45 And Paul summarizes his apostolic preaching in Acts 20.21 by saying, I testify to Jews and to Greeks, repentance towards God and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ. He did not preach faith divorced from repentance or repentance divorced from faith. The reason why some in our Lord's day would not come to Him to have life, though He offered Himself as the giver of life, though He did, as in this setting, speak words that men might be saved, the reason was their impenitence before the flesh-withering demands of Christ. As one has said, if you would be married to Christ, you must be prepared to divorce your sins. You see, with some, the problem is not one of insensibility of their sin. No, you may be conscious of your sin and even have a dread of God's judgment on behalf of that sin.

42:56 You may live as I did for years, afraid to go to sleep at night for fear you'll die and drop into hell. I'd be very surprised if there are not some of the children and young people in this very building within the sound of my voice this morning of whom that is true. Why don't you come to Christ? It's not that you're insensible of your need of Christ.

43:20 No. Life would be a lot easier if you could somehow insensitize yourself to your felt need of Christ. You know yourself to be a sinner. You know yourself to be under condemnation.

43:33 What is your problem? Your problem is you know that in coming to Christ you must be prepared to part with your sins. And that's the rub. Like the rich young ruler, you remember?

43:48 He was conscious that with all of his knowledge and all of his influence and all of his externally moral life, he did not yet possess what Christ alone could give. And he came and said, Good Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? He came to the right person. The Lord Jesus.

44:08 He didn't go to the scribes and the Pharisees. He came to Jesus and said, What shall I do to inherit eternal life? He came with the right question. He acknowledged that he did not have eternal life.

44:22 He had morality. He had external religion. He had influence. But he knew he did not have life.

44:29 Then he came to the author of life and said, What must I do to possess life? Jesus begins to probe his heart. He begins to lay bare his true problem. And you remember when the Lord pinches the real nerve.

44:44 He says, All right. It's not a matter of you living in blatant open defiance of the moral law of God in your external life. You could say all these things that I kept from my youth up. I've honored my mother and my father.

45:00 I've not stolen. I've not violated anyone's marriage bed. I've not gone about in a life of slandering. In others, Jesus said, One thing you lack.

45:12 Here's the real issue, young man. I look into your heart and what I see is a heart that is a vast temple of idols. And over all of the idols is written a dollar sign.

45:27 It's not that you possess riches that is your problem. The problem is that your riches possess you. And if you want eternal life, you want me. But if you want me, I'll possess you to be your master.

45:43 Your gracious master. Not only to take you to heaven, but to guide you all the way there. To govern you. To rule over you.

45:51 With my yoke that is easy and my burden that is light. So, young man, I will speak to you and tell you the one thing you lack. Go, sell that you have, give to the poor. Come, follow me.

46:06 And then the Lord said, You shall have treasure in heaven. You will not be the loser. In your case, young man, your money has you. You must be divorced from your idolatry.

46:26 What happened? Remember what happened? He said, The young man went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. Yes, because great possessions had him.

46:37 And it said Jesus loved him. Jesus wasn't playing games with him. When he said, What shall I do to inherit eternal life? Jesus yearned that this man would possess eternal life.

46:50 But when he looked at it, he didn't. He didn't. He didn't. He didn't.

46:50 He didn't. He didn't. He didn't. He didn't.

46:51 He didn't. lays out the terms, he's unwilling for them. He would not come to Christ that he might have the very life he came inquiring about why. Because there was impenitence, impenitence before the flesh-withering demands of Christ, saying to the young man, yes, eternal life and all of its blessedness is found in attachment to me, and I'm calling you to come after me, but I'm telling you to smash your idol, and your idol is your attachment to your things and your possessions.

The Inexcusable Nature of This Impenitence

47:30 Now that wasn't true of everyone. The Lord Jesus didn't tell everyone who came inquiring after life, go sell that thou hast. He didn't say that to Levi. He didn't say that to Zacchaeus.

47:44 He didn't say that to many others. But in his dealings with this individual, he knew there was the issue. With the woman at the well, you remember what the issue was with her? He said, I want this life, this water of life.

47:59 I want this water that if I drink of it, it will be a well in me springing up into everlasting life. Lord, I want this water. He says, all right, go call your husband.

48:12 I have no husband. He said, that's right. You've had X number of husbands, and the one you're now living with is not your husband. What was he doing?

48:21 Was he playing games with her? Was he promising her? Was he promising her life? Promising her that well of water that springs up into everlasting life?

48:30 No! He was letting her know that if she would have that life in him, she must be prepared to deal not with sin in general, but with her own particular darling sin in particular.

48:48 And I say, as with a lack of felt need of Christ, this impenitence before the Father, before the flesh-withering demands of Christ is inexcusable. The testimony of the Word of God is clear. Whatever sin we cling to that keeps us from cleaving to Christ can only damn us. The wages of sin is death.

49:19 The sin as dear as right hand and right eye can only take us to hell if we do not part with it. And that's why Jesus, again and again, used the imagery of cutting off right hand and plucking out right eye. What is it? What is it?

49:39 To go into hell having stroked your bag of shekels, Mr. Rich Young Ruler? What comfort will they give you in the fires of hell? And I say to some of you sitting here today, you've heard the call of the Gospel.

49:59 You've heard it so powerfully. Two weeks ago, Sunday night, from Pastor, we were in the middle of the church and we heard a man saying to me, why, why,

50:09 why will you come to Christ that you might have like? Well, in your case, it is not ignorance of your desperate need for Christ. That's not your problem. But it's impenitence before the flesh-wuthering demands of Christ.

50:29 And I say such a posture is irrational. It's a form of madness. For your Christ, Clinging to that which can only ultimately damn you. And even in the present, whatever pleasure that same sin brings to you.

50:48 The scripture says, there is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked. The wicked are like the troubled sea that casts up mire and dirt. Whatever momentary pleasure comes from that sin, ends pleasure for a moment. And I say to you who are struggling with that issue, that ambition, that relationship.

51:21 You say, if I come to Christ, I know that this will have to be dealt with and this will have to be dealt with. I'll have to go through the embarrassment of sitting down with mom and dad and telling them that I stole out of mom's pocketbook. I'll have to tell them that I've lied. I can't face the embarrassment of telling them.

51:41 I know I'll have to. How can I get right? To God and not make right these issues. I know that they don't earn me brownie points with God.

51:51 But I know to lay hold of Christ and to welcome His rule and His grace into my life means I'll have to sort these things out. I can't do it. I can't do it. I'll have to go to my teachers at school and confess that I cheated in this test and that.

The Madness of Clinging to Sin

52:07 And I may flunk this course or that course. I may have to repeat a grade. That's what some of you kids are going through, aren't you?

52:15 Listen to me. Oh, listen to me. As you weigh why you will not come to Christ, as you face the demands of true repentance, I plead with you. I plead with you.

52:30 Behold the scarred and twisted lives of those who for unwillingness to part with some sin refuse to come to Christ in their youth. And look at what their lives have become progressively as sin. As destroyed them and scarred them and twisted them and the devil's about to throw them off as unusable junk. And they'll end up in hell.

53:01 My dear aunt, one of my mother's sisters, had a large heart for needy children. And in addition to her own daughter, she adopted two children.

53:19 Took them in first of all as a foster parent. Gave them all the love. The warmth of a Christian home and the instruction.

53:29 And thankfully, that daughter has brought great delight to my aunt. But that son, I hadn't heard from him in years. And I heard a slurred voice on my answering machine a few weeks ago. Barely coherent.

53:49 Calling me from a mental institution in Connecticut where his brain is fried on all kinds of drugs. As a result. Of an abandonment to a life of drunkenness and lechery.

54:07 And he's ruined.

54:10 He's ruined.

54:12 I still remember him. When he was a round-faced, happy-faced teenager. Way back in his brain, he still remembers that I played football in high school and I threw left-handed. And through his garbled, jumbled speech was something about how he left-handed and he was still throwing well.

54:33 His children.

54:45 He said, I can't come. I can't come to Christ. I come to Christ. And I have to make this right and that right and the other.

54:53 So what?

54:58 If you need to. And know you're right with God now and go to heaven with Jesus when you die.

55:07 Whatever it will cost. The way of a transgressor is hard. No peace to the wicked. I urge you, as you're wrestling with the issues, look at the scarred, twisted lives of those who've run away from what they thought were the demands of Christ.

55:30 That were too stringent for them. I wish I could take you to the deathbed of people who've died in their sins. Conscious that they were slipping out into a crisis eternity. Take you to the day of judgment.

55:47 Take you down to hell and let you put your ear to the gates of hell and hear the weeping and the wailing and the gnashing of teeth. Then ask yourself, whatever it is that keeps me from coming to Christ. Is it worth it?

Behold the Cross: The Ultimate Argument Against Impenitence

56:06 And above all, I would ask you, not simply to look at the scarred, twisted lives wrecked by sin. The horrible death of sinners. The frightening specter of the day of judgment. The weeping, the wailing, the gnashing of teeth.

56:28 But above all, go and plant yourself down at the foot of the cross. And there behold the Son of God who left the glories of his Father's presence. To take to himself. To take to himself the true human soul and body.

56:44 And there behold him who knew no sin. Being made sin for us. Behold him who perfectly kept the law. Being made a curse under that law.

56:58 Behold him. Then you'll be able to say with John Newton, a bleeding Savior I have viewed. And now I hate my sin. You view a bleeding.

57:13 You view a bleeding Savior, young person, adult, whatever the sin is, whatever the sins are that you say I know to come to Christ. I must part with these.

57:28 Put them in the light of Golgotha. And if a sight of an immolated incarnate God dying under the wrath and curse of his Father does not make you want to write out a bill of divorcement between you and your sins. It is right for God to say to you. In the day of judgment, depart from me, ye curse.

57:53 You see, with these Jews, you know what one of their crowning sins was? Jesus identified it in verse 44 of this very chapter. Why they would not come to him. Look at it.

58:04 How can you believe? How can you come to me? Who receive glory one of another. And the glory that comes from the only God you seek not.

58:15 You think that peer pressure is a peculiar problem of teenagers?

58:20 These religious leaders, they were seeking one another's acceptance and glory and approbation. He says, how can you believe as long as acceptance with one another is more important than acceptance with the eye of God? It's morally impossible for you to believe.

58:41 You see, whatever the sin is, the acceptance of your peers, afraid to be considered different, afraid to be cut off from social interaction. Whatever the thing. What is it in the light of the death of Christ? What is it in the light of the coming of the day of judgment?

A Plea to Come to Christ

59:02 The Lord Jesus said, though I speak these things that you may be saved, you will not come to me that you may.

59:15 Is he saying those words to you this morning? You will not, you will not come to me. Oh, may God grant that this day you will say, God. God, no longer will you be forced to say in the words of your son, you will not come to me.

59:36 But by your grace, I come just as I am without one plea that thy blood was shed for me and that thou bidst me come to thee, O Lamb of God, just as I am. And waiting not to rid my soul of one dark blot. To thee whose blood can cleanse each spot, O Lamb of God, I come. The hymn speaks of fightings without and fears within.

60:13 Yet, Lamb of God, I come. May God grant that this day, some of you who entered the day in this description, you will not come that you may have life. May find you coming and coming. Find the promise of Jesus.

Prayer of Conclusion

60:34 True in that comes to me. I really know why our father, we are saddened to read the words of Jesus spoken to his contemporaries who saw his mighty works, who heard the witness of John, who had the witness of the scriptures. And yet we know that that tragic, tragic reality obtains to this very day. And we plead that you would take.

61:16 The simple proclamation of these very basic issues and make them effectual in the hearts of some that this day, some who have refused to come would no longer maintain that posture of refusal. But, O God, may they, turning from their sins, cast themselves upon Christ as he so fully and freely offers himself to them. In the gospel, and for those of us who once were ignorant of our desperate need, we thank you for showing us our need and showing it to us in such a way that we despaired of ever meeting it in ourselves or in any other creature. And you brought us to the place where we recognize that our need could only be met in the Lord Jesus. We thank you that in many of us who once clung.

62:18 To certain sins and felt we could never, never part with them, that you have enabled us to divorce those sins and to cleave to your dear son and in his strength and power to continue to wage warfare against all of his enemies within our own hearts. We pray that you'd seal the word preached and make it effectual. We plead, hear us as together. We make our plea in Jesus' name.

62:52 Amen.