Let us pray. Most gracious God, I want to thank you and praise you for who you are, for what you have done for us. You are good, you are merciful, you are goodness itself, you are love itself, oh Lord. You have shown us just abundant mercy, abundant grace through your Son, Jesus Christ. Because you are one with yourself, a trying God. We cannot die. Whereby your spirit you have drawn us to you, O Lord. You've given us to your son, and he died. He died a terrible death on the cross for that sinners such as me, such as everyone in this room, to come to you freely and drink freely of the water of life. It is through you, O Lord, that we've been made alive. We have been made alive together in you, O Lord. I want to thank you and praise you for that, O Lord. I pray that you'll be with us, O Lord, just to get me out of the way and just speak through me, O Lord. Let this be Christ through me, O God. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. So in our passage this morning, we're at the end. We're at the end of Scripture. This is the close of Canon. These are the last words of Scripture that the Holy Spirit has given us. And this is probably the last page of our Bibles. And before we get to the maps, the appendix, the indices, and concordances, whatever else you have in the back, but this is it. We've gone from in the beginning. We're rapidly approaching that last Amen. Here we are, standing here in Scripture at the end of history, after all that Christ has shown John. This is the culmination of all things. The seed of the woman that was promised in Genesis has crushed the head of the serpent. And we see that seed here in the book of Revelation in his full, shining glory, giving light to heaven. Christ's enemies have been made his footstool. as promised by scripture. They have been broken by the rod of iron. They've been dashed to pieces like a potter's vessel. And he sits at the right hand of the Father, and all the ends of the earth have been given to him for his possession to reign and rule as our gracious king. This is the roaring lion of Judah and our precious lamb. Here, as we hear at the end of the age, what closing statements would Scripture have for us? We've seen redemptive history unfold throughout the Bible, so what will be left for us? here at the end. After Christ has shown John throughout this book, how will it end? What else do we have? So here in these two verses that I'll be preaching on this morning, we're offered two things. A stern, solemn, but true warning for unrepentant sinners, and a warm, free welcome for those same sinners to commune with Christ. So, our first point in our outline. So, I'll read our passages one more time, then we'll get to the first point. So, Revelation 15, but outside are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters and whoever loves and practices a lie. 17, and the spirit and the bride say, come, and let him who hears say, come, and let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely. This brings me to the first point in our outline, a stern warning for those who love and practice the lie. This is verse 15. As I said before, this verse teaches a solemn and heavy truth, but it is not one we should disregard. Those who are found outside of the gates of the new Jerusalem, outside of this holy city, will be cast away from our triune God for all eternity. outside the gates, there will be those that lived the lie that sin is sufficient for our happiness and well-being. There will also be those whose idolatry, lust, and covetousness became their identity. They found their identity in their sin. This is the sin that They found attractive. This is a sin that they thought they have found a goodness in that they thought would fill their emptiness. But in the end, they have found that they have loved and lived and imbibed a lie. They have chased the temporal fleeting pleasures of this world and only found damnation. Those outside the gates believed that their salvation lies outside of Christ and believed that salvation could be found in another God, another religion, perhaps our own good works, perhaps we could have made a righteousness for ourselves. They thought they could fashion a sufficient righteousness that was good and equitable for all. But all they were doing was hewing broken cisterns that could hold no water. They're like Sisyphus from Greek mythology, simply condemned to roll a burdensome boulder up a hill for all eternity, except this time they were only crushed by its weight in the end. Psalm 212 states, kiss the Son lest He be angry and you perish in the way. When His wrath is kindled but a little, blessed are those who put their trust in Him. Blessed are those who put their trust in Him, the very Son of God. To kiss the Son is to make peace with the Father. To kiss Christ is to embrace Him. Depend upon Him all these ways as your kinsman, as your sovereign Lord, at your going, at your coming, at your reconciliation, in the truth of religion and yourself, in a peaceable unity with the church, in a reverent estimation of those men and those means whom He sends. Kiss Him and be not ashamed of kissing Him. Don't be ashamed of this Christ. There's only He who can deliver you. But a refusal to bow the knee and kiss the Son is to be ashamed of Christ, is casting Him aside and depending on yourself and only yourself fully. When you refuse to kiss Christ, you have made no true peace with the church. with men, and you have no reconciliation with God. You have made Christ your enemy, and as Psalm 2-9 states, you will be broken with the rod of iron and be dashed to pieces like a potter's vessel. If you deny Christ before men on earth, he will deny you before God in heaven. Are you kissing the Son? Are you bowing to Christ as your sole, sovereign, sweet Lord? Is He your sacrificial Lamb? Is He the Lamb that gives you the light and the glory? Do you seek His righteousness, His goodness, His mercy, His grace? Our Lord Jesus said that we will know men by their fruits, and the false prophets that refuse to kiss the sun will be cut down and thrown into the fire. In Matthew chapter 7, verses 21 to 23, Christ says, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name, cast out demons in your name, and done many wonders in your name? And I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. Those who do these things, they supposedly do these things in the Lord's name, does nothing but take his name in vain. These men who Jesus cast out, these are not men who have kissed the sun. These men are not men who like the Shulamite maid in the Song of Solomon said, let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth for your love is better than wine. No, these men have not put their trust in the Son. These men have instead put their trust in themselves and in their own abilities to try to please the Lord. They have trusted in their own abilities to cast out demons, prophesy, and do many wonders. They've made idols out of their own abilities. They have lived and loved alive just like those who are found outside of the gate of New Jerusalem. They, like Simon the magician in the book of Acts, have trusted in their own abilities to perform wonders. They tried to just purchase the grace of God for themselves with their own doing. But they're ultimately left in the outer darkness with the rest of the sorcerers, as the scripture says. when the grapes of wrath are harvested from the earth and thrown into the winepress. It is Christ in all his glory who treads the great winepress of the wrath of God. He strikes the nations with the sword of his mouth and brings the kings of the earth who have taken counsel together against the Lord and his anointed to their knees. The mighty rulers of the earth have been made his footstool. These are the great kings. These are the mighty people we see in the earth. These are the powerful. These are the people who we would be intimidated by, that we think are great, mighty, powerful people. But the Lord has held them in derision and made them his very footstool. There is no king like the king of glory, like sweet King Jesus. Do you believe, church, that you will somehow muster up a righteousness that will exclude you from this wrath to come? Do you believe that you have an inherent goodness so that God will just excuse your sin and let you slide? I know I don't. I have no goodness to offer the Lord. I have no goodness to offer any of you. There is no righteousness. I have me to offer you. It is only through the blood of Christ, it is only through His righteousness that we are saved. He saves us by grace through the instrumentality of that saving faith. Do you believe that even though the great kings and rulers of the earth are left without excuse, do you think you have an excuse? Do you think you'll be left over? Beloved, the wheat will be separated from the chaff. The goats will be separated from the sheep. Nobody is to escape the just judgment of the Lord who judges all the nations of the earth with perfect equity. And we hear that word a lot today, equity. You know, we try to, we've heard a lot with, you know, the social justice crowd that we hear simply men coming up with their own measure of justice, their own measure of goodness, their own measure of righteousness. But it's the Lord and the Lord alone who judges the nations with perfect equity. Would you remain outside the gate where there is darkness, weeping, and gnashing of teeth as Christ himself described it? Will you stand before God one day in all of his bright, shining, resplendent glory? Instead of entering in with the saints, he utters these fated words to you. Depart from me, you worker of iniquity. I never knew you. It's a fearful thing to not be known by the triune God, and it is the most excellent thing to be known by Him, and He can be known. But will you be cast into the lake of fire where the worm doesn't die and your thirst will never be quenched? Perhaps you're looking inward right now. Perhaps, you know, you're thinking to yourself, this is inevitable. I can't escape this judgment. You may be thinking you'll never measure up. You may be thinking of all the horrible things you've done in your life, all the sins you've committed. You may be thinking of the wrong things you said to the wrong person. Perhaps there's been a time in your life you've been selfish, you've lied, you've murdered your brother because you have been angry. You've been unjustly angry with him and you withhold forgiveness to others. Maybe you're thinking of these things. Maybe you have committed adultery by lusting after others. You may be thinking of all this and that your only outcome is hell and that there is no hope. But I have wonderful news this morning. It is the most wonderful news I could bring to anybody. It is, you know, it is not a sense of right or duty, but it is the sight of peerless worth. This is the very Christ that treads the winepress of God and he died for sinners such as you and me so that we may be reconciled to God and adopted as sons and daughters. This very Christ who humbles great kings and rulers died a horrible death at Calvary so that sinners may be his beloved bride. He calls sinners to Himself. He calls sinners who may not have a hope. He calls sinners who've done these terrible things to come dine with Him, to come commune with Him, to be reconciled through His perfect finished work. So this morning, come hear of the glories of this Christ who is pleased to save sinners. Come hear of a God who has sent His only Son to die for these sinners so they may freely drink of the water of life. Come to this God who forgives sinners for His own sake, because it brings Him glory to forgive sinners. Come and welcome sinner to Jesus Christ. Next will be part two of our outline, the two-fold call. And verse 17 says, and the spirit and the bride say, come and let him who hears say, come and let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take of the water of life freely. So first we'll touch on the first meaning of this call, and that is the bride's desire to see her dear bridegroom in glory. Now I understand there are a lot of different views of Christ's second coming. You've got premillennialism, amillennialism, postmillennialism. That's not what I want to touch on this morning. We're looking at the bride's desire to see her bridegroom come in glory. Jesus says in three times in Revelation 22 that he is coming quickly. Twice before our passage in verses 7 and 12 and once after in verse 20. And as Christ tells us, he's coming quickly. The Spirit and the Bride echoes this back to our Lord. Please come quickly, sweet King Jesus. It is worth noting that the Spirit and the Bride are not saying these separately, but this is the Spirit through the Bride. This is the indwelling of the Spirit of every believer. And this is the Spirit who makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. With one of those groanings being, come quickly, Lord Jesus. is the Spirit through us, the Spirit and the Bride together, that we long to see our sweet King Jesus in all of His glory. We long to see Him face to face. We long to see our Savior. In communion with the triune God, John Owen writes, he reveals to the souls of sinners, this is speaking of the spirit, he reveals to the souls of sinners the good things of the covenant of grace, which the father has provided and the son purchased. He shows to us mercy, grace, forgiveness, righteousness, acceptation with God. Lets us know that these are the things of Christ, which he has procured for us. Shows to them for our comfort and establishment. These things I say, He effectually declared to the souls of believers and makes them know them for their own good. Know them as originally the things of the Father and prepared for eternity in His love and goodwill as purchased for them by Christ and laid up in store in the covenant of grace for their use. Then is Christ magnified and glorified in their hearts. Then they know what a Savior and Redeemer He is. This is the Savior and Redeemer that we long to see come in glory one day. The Spirit shares the glorious goodness of Christ with His bride. All that the Father has prepared and all that Christ has purchased for His bride has been revealed to her by the Spirit. Spurgeon says, a bride is one that has been chosen from among others and set apart by love to be specially dear to him who chose her. The bride of Christ has been set apart for Christ, for him to love for all eternity. We are, church, we are the object of Christ's love. He loves us. He loves us with an everlasting love, a free, overflowing love that we can never deplete, that we can never decrease for ourselves. Perhaps when we're out of communion with God, that we may decrease the experience of that love. But church, we will never decrease the love that Christ has for His bride. He loves us with a full, everlasting love, and that is a glorious thought. We have been married to Christ by His covenant, by this covenant of grace that the Spirit testifies to us. And much joy awaits for His bride at the wedding feast of the Lamb. Christ kisses His bride with the kisses of His mouth and the bride proclaims that His love is better than mine, His love is better than all the things that this world has to offer. There's nothing in this world that will come close to the love of Christ. There are all the vain things in the world, but they are nothing but emptiness. It's just empty vanity. The bride yearns for her lover. As Amber and I are forever apart, I yearn to see her again. She is my earthly bride. When we're apart for too long, I long to see my bride. And so much more do we long to be with our Christ, our bridegroom. Her heart leaps at the sound of His voice. She has sought for Him, searches for Him. Her love has taken away her sins, clothed her in His righteousness, and has wiped the very tears away from her eyes. Her love is white and ruddy, His glory giving light to all of heaven. She longs to be with Him in all of His glory forever. The Spirit and the Bride stand together amazed at the beauty and the splendor of Jesus. And together they sing, how marvelous and how wonderful is the Savior's love to me. Jesus cries out, behold, I come quickly. And his bride echoes back, come, Lord Jesus. The bride, having been washed and redeemed by the blood of her bridegroom, grows weary of this sinsick world. She sees the world mock and blaspheme his very name. She sees the world toss away his righteousness for righteousness of their own. God has said to us, live. He has washed us in water and anointed us with oil. He gave us sandals of badger skin and clothed us with fine linen and silk. He has adorned us with jewelry, bracelets, and a chain upon our neck. He has placed a crown on our head. Yet there are times where we have played the harlot. We have cast aside the righteousness for Christ, for righteousness of our own, and the world has rejected him. Thus the bride cries out, come quickly, Lord Jesus. Christ has said, my reward is with me. And what better thing could Christ offer us but himself? He is the very root and the very offspring of David. Very God and very man. Fully God and fully man. He is the bright and morning star. His very glory drives away the night and gives light to all of heaven. This very Christ is our reward. He gives himself freely to us. What a marvelous thought that we can know our Savior, our Maker. that He's not a distant God. He's not a God who simply created us just to be used, that He needed us so that we could worship Him. But out of the overflow of His love, we were created. And out of the overflow of His love, we have been redeemed by the blood of Christ. He has gone before us to prepare a place. There will be unspeakable glories in heaven, and we will be one day reunited with believing friends and loved ones who have gone on before us. Yet there is still something far greater than all that, and that is Christ Himself. given Himself to us, and God Himself will wipe away our tears, and His tabernacle, His dwelling place, will be with men, will be with us. God Himself will be with us. The bride eyes not her garment, but her dear bridegroom's face. I will not gaze at glory, but on my King of grace. Not at the crown He giveth, but on His pierced hand. The Lamb is all the glory of Emmanuel's land. He's coming to be his bride's allotted portion, and she echoes back to him. The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places. I have a good inheritance. And you, O Christ, there is fullness of joy. And at your right hand, there are pleasures forevermore. Your love to me is better than life itself, and my soul is completely satisfied in you. My beloved is mine, and I am his. The Church, the glorious Bride of Christ, in seeking closer communion with Him, in seeking to see His face, in seeking to see the whole, full Christ, longs to see Him come. Grace Church, do you seek this communion with Christ? Do you long for Him? Do you long for a place you know but you've never been? Do you long for the rest and peace that only Christ can provide? It's your home, not on this world, but in heaven. Together, as the bride of Christ, we will cry out to Him to come deliver us from this sin-sick world so that we may be together with Him for all eternity. Now we will discuss the second meaning of that call. It's point 2B in your outline. Thirsty sinners invited to freely drink of the water of life. And we can think of this in three ways. The spirit and the bride's call for sinners to come. The hearer of the gospel's call to come. And finally, the invitation for sinners to take of the water of life freely. The spirit and the bride together say come to our Lord Jesus as they await his second advent. But also together say come to weary sinners out in the world who are without a savior. And these two calls are not in opposition. The bride cries to heaven for her dear bridegroom to come in glory, but also cries to earth for sinners to come drink of the fountain of life, to have their sins cleansed by the blood of the land, be adopted as sons and daughters of God by the Spirit." These are not contradictory thoughts. A world that is held captive by sin should motivate us to preach the gospel to these sinners and make them captive to Christ and be made free in Christ, to be freed from their sins in Christ. And so that they may, together with us, behold the glory of the second advent. Christ will not return until his church has been gathered. So we go out into the world gathering the harvest. The bride eagerly invites sinners to her dear bridegroom so that even though they are unworthy, they may dine with the saints at the marriage supper of the lamb. While all of our hearts and all of our songs join to admire the feast, each of us cries with thankful tongue, Lord, why was I guessed? Why was I made to hear your voice and enter while there's room when thousands make a wretched choice and rather starve than come? T'was the same love that spread the feast that sweetly drew us in, else we had still refused to taste and perished in our sin. Next, we'll look to those who have heard the call. All those who have heard and believed in the gospel are invited to say, come to fallen sinners who are outside of the gate. Spurgeon, in his sermon, The Devil Come, says this. It is a very sad calamity when any church ceases from its mission work. It is clearly out of fellowship with the Spirit of God and has ceased to work with Him. The cry of come should never cease at any time or in any place, but it should be addressed to all men as we have opportunity. The world should ring with come to Jesus, come to Jesus, come and welcome sinner, come. For this purpose, the Spirit of God dwells among men, and for this purpose, there is a church left on earth. If it were not for this, the Holy Ghost might depart, and Jesus Christ might bear his saints away to dwell with him above. The Spirit abides here, and the church abides here, that together they may continually cry, let him that is a thirst come, and whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely. This call of come is to be made to all men freely and without exclusion. We don't simply measure up those that we come in contact with. We don't just, we don't deem who's worthy to whom we should share the gospel. Because it has been shared with us and we are unworthy. There is no goodness in us that makes us worthy. to have come to Christ. And so, as Christ has freely given to us, we freely give to others. And a church that has ceased from this mission work is indeed a sad calamity, as Spurgeon said. It is a church out of communion with the Triune God, and it is a church that simply buries its talents in the ground out of fear Christ gave us the Great Commission in Matthew 28 and 19 so that we will make disciples of all nations and lead weary sinners, weary and thirsty sinners to drink of the water of life. And in this great commission, Christ himself said that he would be with us even to the end of the age. And as we see, as we just read the very last chapters of the Bible, we see Christ there at the end of the age. He is the alpha and omega, the beginning and the end. With Christ with us, what do we have to fear when spreading his glories? If God is for us, who can be against us? The fulfillment of the Great Commission comes from the overflow of our own communion with God. Our God is an overflowing God. He is an overflowing fountain that bubbles over to us so that we then overflow with His goodness. Our spirits go out to God in communion and come back full and we make returns on that. We make overflowing returns with that communion with God so that we overflow to others, so that we overflow to other thirsty sinners, so that they may do the same. Michael Reeves says this from his book, Overflow. Mission is the overflow of love from the enjoyment of divine fellowship. As we partake in the Father's pleasure in His Son, and the Son's pleasure in His Father, and the Spirit's enlivening of their mutual love, it causes us to share their love for the world. Thus we become like what we worship. It is then, friend, you will want to sing of Him when you are basking in the sunshine of God's love. Because, as Jesus said, the mouth speaks from the overflow of the heart. Our mouth speaks from the overflow of our hearts. If our hearts are filled with the fullness and glory of God, thus our mouths will speak of the fullness of glory and the glory of God to others. Those that have heard the call have come and believed it, partake in the mutual enjoyment between the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. As this mutual love between each member of the Trinity bubbles over into our own hearts, we then share it with others so that they may also partake. In communion with the triune God, our own hearts become full and overflowing with the water of life. And we can't help but tell others of the glories of Christ and invite them to drink deeply with us. Those who have answered the call and believe the gospel. They have been made kings and priests to God to reign with the Son. Through this calling we have been given license and command to preach the gospel to all ends of the earth. We are all invited to invite others to come just as we have been invited. No rhetoric of man, no earthly knowledge, wit or reason, and no amount of apologetics or clever arguments qualify us sinners to spread the gospel of Christ. Instead, we are commanded to call sinners to come because Christ first called us to come and we have believed it. Grace Church, As we've been called, let us call others. Together, as the bride of Christ, let's call sinners to Christ from the highways, our jobs, the supermarkets, schools, co-ops, gas stations, your grocery stores, anywhere we are throughout the week. Call them just as we've been called and call them freely and fully as Christ has freely and fully called us to himself. Church, let us be so full of Christ and his glories that we can't help but proclaim, come to this lost and dying world so that they may have everlasting life in Jesus Christ. Finally, It's the invitation for sinners to take the water of life freely. In Isaiah 55, 1, the Lord calls all sinners to drink of the fountain of life. Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters. And you who have no money, come, buy, and ye eat. Yes, come buy wine and milk without money and without price. Never let anybody tell you that God in the Old Testament is a God of wrath, that God in the Old Testament has simply come to destroy sinners on earth and to break our backs with the law. Never let anybody convince you of this. This very God has invited us to come buy wine and milk without money and without price. God Himself calls these sinners, you who have no money, to buy and eat, to buy wine and milk without price. All those who hear are invited to do this. Matthew Henry works this out in his commentary on this verse. Not the Jews only, to whom first the word of salvation was sent, but the Gentiles, the poor and the maimed, the halt and the blind, are called to this marriage supper. Whoever can be picked up out of the highways and the hedges. It intimates that in Christ there is enough for all and enough for each. that ministers are to make a general offer of life and salvation to all, that in gospel times the invitation should be more largely made than it had been and should be sent to the Gentiles, and that the gospel covenant excludes none that do not exclude themselves. In Matthew 9, 36, when Christ sees the scattered multitudes, He does not condemn them, but instead pities them. Christ offers a warm welcome to these sinners to dine with him at his table. In Matthew 11, chapter 11, verses 28 to 30, Christ says, come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. In Luke chapter 5 verses 29 to 32, Christ dines with tax collectors. They're some of the most despised people of the day and probably still some of the most despised people of the day today. Yet he offers no condemnation, but instead calls these sinners such as you and me and these tax collectors to himself. Later, in Luke chapter 19, Zacchaeus was curious about who this Jesus was and climbed into a tree to see him above the crowds. Zacchaeus was a chief tax collector and he was rich because of this. His riches would have come from extorting the poor and taking advantage of his earthly authority. He was a very mercenary man. He was also a short man. He had neither good works nor an impressive physical stature to offer to the Lord. Yet Christ still called Zacchaeus to himself to dine with him. Zacchaeus received him joyfully. Christ came to seek sinners like Zacchaeus. He came to seek and save the lost, to invite them to the feast at the marriage supper of the Lamb. As Christ was hanging on the cross, he cried out on behalf of his murderers, forgive them for they know not what they do. The very people that murdered our Lord, he cried out, forgive them. He sought to even show mercy to his murderers. The repentant thief on the cross next to Christ had lived a life of rampant sin. He also was a mercenary who only used others for his own good. He took advantage of those around him. He stole from them. He disadvantaged those that he was around to advantage himself. He had committed crimes worthy of being flogged and hanged on a cross to die. He had no goodness or righteousness to offer Christ. He had nothing else to offer him. Yet, in his dying moments, he kissed the Son. Christ clothed him with his righteousness, and his sins were forgiven freely and fully. Jesus himself assured the thief that they would be together in paradise that day. The dying thief rejoiced to see that fountain in his day, and there may I, though vile as he, wash all my sins away. Oh, what a display of the infinite grace and mercy of our sweet King Jesus, that he even draws tax collectors and thieves condemned to die on a cross to himself. Sinner, would he not do the same for you? Who may feast with this Christ? You know, in this life, if we're hungry and we want to eat, it's normally something we gotta do to get that food. We have to work for it, or we have to earn it somehow. You know, we go to work to earn money so we may buy this food, or perhaps if we have a farm or garden, we have to go out to our farm, we have to work our farms, or work in our gardens, often long hours to grow this food, to maintain it, to prepare it so that we may feed our families. And if we can't work to provide our own food, or we can't work to get money to buy this food, then there's still yet a process we have to go through. You know, we fill out paperwork to try to qualify for government assistance. We wait in long lines for food stamps. Or perhaps, you know, we go another route, and we try to go through a charity, yet you still have to fill out, you know, the paperwork. You have to qualify for this assistance somehow. In other words, there's always something we have to do or offer to somebody so that we may buy food or drink. But this is not so with Christ. He freely offers the water of life to thirsty souls in need of a Savior and offers rest to souls who are heavy laden. He offers wine and milk without money and without price. Looking back on verse 15, the very sin that would keep us from entering the gates of New Jerusalem is the very sin that Jesus will forgive, that He will freely wash away. Christ does not offer a partial salvation for certain sins. But it's full. It is a full, purchased grace for all of our sins and all of our iniquities to be removed far from us, as far as the East is from the West. And at face value, that statement doesn't even make sense. The East and the West can never meet. It perhaps is difficult for us to understand, but this is the infinite glory and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. The sexual immorality, the sorcery, the idolatry, the murder, and the lies that are all found outside of the gates of New Jerusalem are the very sins Christ freely offers forgiveness. He takes these sins upon himself and gives you his righteousness in return. He takes our filthy rags and clothes us in robes of white. He washes our sin-stained souls with his precious blood so that they are clean. I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine. Paul was a murderer, a blasphemer, a self-righteous man who hated God and loved himself. He boasted in His knowledge. He boasted in His own goodness. He thought He had a righteousness for Himself. He only had His sin to offer back to Christ. Yet Christ freely drew Him to Himself and made Him one of His apostles. your own brokenness, my own brokenness and failure, or what Jesus came into the world to redeem. He came not to condemn the lost, but to save them. Therefore, there is no condemnation in Jesus Christ our Lord. Are you fearful? Let the commander of the army of the Lord go ahead and fight for you. He has told us not to fear, that he would not break the bruised reed. Have your affections towards God started to cool? Have they already grown cold and dim? Christ said that he would not quench the smoldering wick. Are you asking yourself, what if I have committed murder by being angry with my brother without a cause? There is a Christ for that. You may also be asking yourself, what if I have created idols out of the things in my life? What if I have made idols out of my family, my children, my friends, my spouse, my work, entertainment? You know, movies, TV shows, sports, video games, our phones, social media. What if we have made idols out of all of these things in our life? There is a Christ whose glory captivates us and draws us away from these vain idols. What if I have lied? What if I have loved and practiced a lie? Do you have a sense of the need of a savior? Do you have a convicting sense of the crushing weight of your sin? Sinner, that is the Spirit's work in your life to draw you out of yourself and come into Christ. So come drink of the fountain of life, for Christ offers it freely to all thirsty sinners. Let not conscious make you linger, nor fitness fondly dream. All the fitness he requireth is to feel your need of him. Come ye weary, heavy laden, lost and ruined by the fall. If you tarry till you're better, you will never come at all. I will rise and go to Jesus. He will save me from my sin. By the riches of his merit, there is joy and life in him. Don't wait till you're better, because that time will never come. Perhaps we may be able to, we may be able to modify our behaviors for a time. Maybe we'll look better before men. Maybe people will be amazed that, oh, Chris has started praying more. Chris has started reading his Bible more. Chris, oh look, Chris went to preach on Sunday at his church, or Chris has started reading his Bible. Wow, I like those Facebook posts he did, but it is, but without Christ, it's all for naught. Now is the accepted time, and today is the day of salvation. For God's mercies are renewed every morning through Christ. God blesses and keeps sinners. He makes His face shine upon them and is gracious towards them. He puts His very name on undeserving sinners, such as you and me. God's sweet love and His sweet mercy is a warm sunshine to cold, dark, dead sinners. Just think, think of a cold, nasty winter's day. You know, it's the day everybody hates when it's cloudy, it's rainy, it's dark outside. You walk outside, you know, it's in the 20s, it should be snowing, but it's not yet. The clouds roll away and there's sunshine. Think of the warmth that that sunshine provides your body. The warmth, the vigor, the vitality that sunshine provides to you. Think of how much more Christ will do for you. He breathes life into those who were once dead in their trespasses. Church, Christ's work is finished and sufficient for all. There's nothing we can add to it. And there's nothing we can detract from it either. We have a Christ whose mercy and grace is greater than all of our sins. Come then, thirsty sinner, to the fountain and drink deeply and freely of Christ, for He will graciously accept you. Let us pray. Most gracious God, I want to thank you for this passage. I want to thank you for the free invitation for thirsty sinners to come drink deeply of the water of life, to come drink deeply of Christ, to taste and see that the Lord is indeed good. You are good. There are no songs that we could compose. There are no amount of books we could write to perfectly convey Your goodness, Your love towards sinners such as us. It is for Your own sake that You draw sinners to Yourself, O Lord. You have graciously sent Your Son, Christ, into the world to die for sinners such as myself. Lord, I pray that we will imbibe these truths, oh Lord, that we will go into the world and proclaim, come to the sinners in the world as we have been drawn to Christ. Lord, go with us the rest of this Lord's day. I pray that we'll make the best use of it together, oh Lord. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.