Let us turn back, friends, to the Word of God as we find it in John, chapter 5. And seeking God's blessing, we look again at verse 40. John, chapter 5. We read in verse 40, And ye will not come to me that ye might have life. Ye will not come to me that ye might Have life. I think it's quite obvious when you read these words that the opposite is implied when Jesus here says to the Jews, you won't come to me in order that you might have life, but it's true that if you did come, you would. And the problem then is that you haven't got life, the life I have to give because you won't come. You know, friends, the gospel is so plain and simple in many ways that there isn't anyone, I don't think, here tonight who wouldn't be able to really understand even the most basic part of it. The wonderful thing about the way of salvation is, as it was explained to us by the minister this morning, that all that had to be done to secure for sinners like us the way of salvation and to come back to being at peace with God has been done. This is what Calvary means. This is why Jesus went to the cross to accomplish reconciliation between God and man, to die in the place of sinners and so secure peace. And then the gospel is preached not to tell you or to tell me that we have to do so many things to then earn the favor of God. The gospel tells us tonight that all we have to do to be saved is to come to Jesus and in coming to Jesus to receive him and his salvation. You see, it's quite simple, isn't it? But all we are told to do is to come. But no matter how simple it seems, the problem is with you and with me is that we will not come to him. We won't come, no matter how simple it's made, no matter how plainly it's presented. The problem isn't with Jesus. The problem isn't with the gospel. The problem is with you and with me. We just won't come. And I think this is something we should look at tonight. Because I think if you're not a Christian tonight, if you haven't come to Jesus, if you haven't given your life to him, if he isn't your Savior and Lord tonight, the reason is because you won't come to him. You might have many reasons in your mind tonight. You might have many excuses. But you know, this is what it really comes down to. You just won't come. So the problem then lies with you. It lies with me. You notice that Jesus was the subject of great persecution from very religious people. Jesus was, in these days of his earthly ministry, performing great miracles. He went about everywhere doing good. He was a man, we see early on in the chapter, who had been 38 years afflicted with an illness. 38 years this man was there by the pool of Bethesda and he was no doubt known to the Jews. He was in a situation that people in the religious circles would have known about. And then one Sabbath day these people see this man walking along carrying his bed. The bed he was for 38 years lying on. Now they didn't stop and think what happened to him. They didn't stop and think what miracle has taken place in your life. They said, what are you doing walking on the Sabbath day carrying your bed? It's not lawful for you to do this. They were so religious that they were blinded to the realities that were surrounding them. They couldn't see that a miracle had taken place in this man's life. They weren't interested. They were just legalists. Do this, don't do that, and you'll be saved. God will be pleased. Jesus was found out to have been the one who did this. And then the Jews sought to kill him. Isn't that quite remarkable? That Jesus is the very son of God, the very one to whom all of the Old Testament pointed, who when he came into the world, the Jews looked at him and didn't recognize him. But because he, as they allege, broke the Sabbath day and made himself equal with God, they tried to kill him. You know, religion is a terrible thing. Religion is a blinding thing. And you might even be here tonight and you're the most religious person that you know of. You might try to square your life with the Bible. You might read your Bible every day. You might be on your knees morning and night. You might be coming to church and giving your money and so on. And you think, well, that's good enough. It's not. Because it's blinding you to the one fundamental reality to whom the whole Bible points. And that is Jesus. You see, this was the problem with the Jews. For all their religion, for all their Bible reading and Bible obeying, they missed the whole point of the Bible. Jesus. So in this context of persecution and opposition, Jesus begins to speak to these Jews. He preaches a sermon. And he's basically saying to them, you sent unto John, John the Baptist, and he bore witness to the truth. You were willing for a season to rejoice in the blessing and the power and the light that John's ministry brought. Many Jews were really affected, some of them for the better, of course, by John's ministry, John the Baptist, who was the forerunner of Christ. But Jesus is saying, look, he has witness. But look, I don't need the witness of John the Baptist. You hold John the Baptist in some esteem, you look up to him. But I don't receive my testimony. I don't receive the credibility and the value to my ministry, even from John the Baptist. He said, you look at what I'm doing. You look at the works that I'm doing, because they bear witness to me. He says that in verse 36. I have a greater witness than that of John. For the works that Father has given me to finish, the same works that I do, they bear witness of me, that the Father has sent me. So here is this man that's just been healed. A living proof of a miracle. Living proof that a man who they were persecuting and very much opposed to had about him and in him a power they had never seen in their own lives active in anyone else. Maybe you think if you saw a miracle tonight, you'd believe. Maybe if you saw something like this happening, you maybe know people tonight who have been ill for years. And if you saw something phenomenal, something miraculous, completely out of the ordinary, you'd say, oh, I would believe in God. You wouldn't. Nor would I. You know that Jesus made it clear that even if someone rose from the dead. If someone rose from the dead from over and across the road and came in here tonight. Living proof of the miraculous. wouldn't be insufficient to bring you or to bring me to faith. Because the problem we are confronted with is not the lack of evidence. It's in here. We do not want to believe. Now, Jesus works up this argument by way of application. And it's amazing that our Lord wasn't the kind of preacher who tried to be popular. He didn't, of course, try to make himself unpopular, but the temptation would always be present, I'm sure, for every minister to try at times to feel that he wants people to accept the message. He wants to put the message across in a way that people would be glad to receive it. But Jesus, in his ministry, never tried to make himself popular. He didn't try to fit in with people, because what he did is he told people the truth. He told people quite straight, plainly, obviously, whether they liked it or not. Because what he does, he's not just explaining, look, this evidence, this miracle you've just seen is proof that I have been sent by the Father. He goes beyond that. And he says, go back to your Bible. What a rebuke to religious men who have spent and devoted their lives to the Bible. He says go back to your Bible and search the scriptures. Don't just read them. He says search them. Get right into the very heart of these writings because in them you think you have eternal life. He's telling them you've got it all wrong. You're building your hope for salvation and for eternity in the wrong place. You're believing You are trusting, you are depending on the Bible. But he says you're missing the whole point of the Bible, which he says is me. In them, he says, you think you have eternal life. This is verse 39. In the next part of verse 39, he says, and they are they which testify of me. The whole Bible. From Genesis through to Revelation has as its very central and fundamental theme, Jesus Christ and whom crucified. And Jesus is saying to the religious men, you've missed this point. You've missed the whole point of the whole Bible. Have you? Are you putting the Bible in the place of Christ? Are you trusting in the Bible? Are you trusting in the written word and not the living word behind the Bible? Through the Bible, we're meant to come to the living Jesus, the living word. These people missed the point. They didn't see the wood for the trees, as we'd say. Jesus was testified of and borne witness to from Genesis right through the Bible. You know, we were hearing this morning as well about the Passover. The Old Testament appointments, the sacrifices, all of these things. There in the Old Testament are the shadows of the coming Christ. The light of Calvary shining back. The shadows of Christ are seen. In the New Testament, the substance is there. The reality. Jesus came into the world, but the shadows were there. And you know that Abraham, for one, he saw Christ. Jesus tells us, he saw my day. And he was glad. But the Jews missed the point. Some saw Jesus in the Old Testament. Some didn't. The point, friends, we shall come to tonight is there in verse 40. Jesus challenges these people. He says, you've seen the evidence. He says, go back to your Bible, because the Bible speaks all about me. And he says, the consequence, the application is this. You will not come to me. that you might have life. But if you go back to your Bible and understand it for what it's meant to teach you, you will see me there and you realize that I am the subject. I am the reality. I am the one to whom the Bible points. Four things tonight, friends. The first is this. You will not come to Jesus. You will not come to Jesus. The argument here is not that you cannot come. The Bible makes it very clear that there is such a reality which lies behind our unwillingness to come, and it is this, that we cannot come. We read later on in The following chapter that no one can come to me, Jesus says, unless the father who has sent me draws him. There has to be this preceding or first of all, work on the part of God to bring a sinner to Jesus, without which a sinner will never come. But you know this, Jesus isn't saying that here. Very literally, this means you are not willing to come. The problem is not with your inability to come, but with the fact that you don't want to. which puts the responsibility on you and upon me. And it's a fact. Some of you here tonight just will not come to Jesus. If you're going to be honest, if you're going to be honest with yourself and put all things aside and say you have to admit tonight, some of you just will not come. But you've got reasons. It's not just so obvious and straightforward and There are reasons. Some of you might have quite complicated reasons for not coming. Some of them might seem legitimate to you. Some of you might be saying, well, I'm too young to come. I'm too young in the sense that, well, everyone else who's a Christian is so much older than me. Friends, young boys and girls tonight, don't ever think you're too young to give your lives to Jesus. You're never too young to be a Christian. Jesus will never turn you away, no matter how young you are, no matter what anyone would say to you. He welcomes you. You're not too young. And how great to see young people, boys and girls in the house of God. The best place in the world they can be. But no, friends, go beyond that. Young boys and girls, give your lives to Jesus while you're young. And you'll have a wonderful life. But maybe you're not so young as a boy and girl. Maybe you've got a bit older, but you're still saying, I'm too young for other reasons. I want to live. There's so much in this life I want to enjoy. There's so many places I want to go, so many people I want to be among, so many things I want to do. And you're thinking, I'm too young to come. You maybe say, I do want to come. Yes, but not now. Maybe when I'm a bit older. Is that true of you tonight? You're saying, I want to come, but not now because I'm too young. You know what you're saying? You're saying you don't want to come. You might want to come on your own terms and in your own time. That amounts to not wanting to come at all, because the way you must come is on his terms and in his time. And his terms and his time are right here and now. Without any excuse, without any debate, he calls you, he summons you to come. And if you say you're too young and want to come when you're older, he's saying, no, you don't want to come at all. Maybe some of you are saying you're too old. Maybe some of you feel you've lived too long, rejecting the gospel for too long. And maybe you genuinely, sincerely, in your heart, as far as you can understand it, think, I really feel I've burnt my bridges. I've heard the gospel so much. I've heard many passionate, urgent, very moving appeals. I've even felt convicted by this gospel. But I've spurned the invitations. I've said no to the Lord. And maybe you think now tonight your time is gone. Too late. You know, friend, it isn't. How not? Well, you're alive. And you're here and you're listening to the gospel. The time will end for you as far as the opportunity to be saved. And humanly speaking, the possibility to be saved will end when you die. The fact you're alive today and you're under the gospel today is evidence that you can still be saved. So, friend, don't put that and don't let that stay in your mind. You're never too old. You're never too young. But maybe you're saying, if you only knew my life, If you only saw my checkered past. My past, you may say, isn't even checkered. It's all black. And maybe you're really, genuinely saying, I want to come to him, but I feel I can't because I'm too bad. I'm too sinful. What does Jesus's name mean? Why were they told to call him Jesus? He was to save his people from their sins. You see, friend, Jesus didn't come to call the righteous. The people who think that Ephesus is the problem with the Jews, they thought they were fine. They thought God was pleased with their lives. They thought they were keeping the commandments. And when Jesus challenged them with this message, they couldn't accept it. Because the message Jesus had was addressing sinners like you and me. And friend, let me tell you tonight, from the Bible, no matter how black or dark your past has been, there is hope for you in the Gospel. Because Jesus doesn't attach any qualifications. If your life has been so good, but no worse, you may come. It's without any restriction or limitation. He's addressing these people and He's saying, You will not come to me that you might have life. And he's saying unreservedly, if you did come to me, you would have life. If you're young, if you're old, if you're sinful friends, this is what it's about. Jesus is the Savior. But maybe you're saying tonight, OK, I believe all that, but I honestly can't come to him. You may be saying, I've been trying to find the Lord for years. And what you're saying to me here is just adding to the burden and the weight that I'm feeling, because I know that as I am a sinner, that I feel shackled and bound and unable to believe. Have you gone to Jesus with that? What are you waiting for? Are you making your felt inability to come an excuse? Well, if you haven't gone to him with your inability, you are. And you know, friend, you won't be saved by waiting for anything to happen. Why do people go into a lost eternity? You know how easy it is. Just don't do anything about your salvation. Just sit back and wait for something to happen. It never will. You won't come. That's the first thing. The second thing, though, is. But you will come. What do you mean you think I won't come and then but I will come. There's a day coming friend when you will come to Christ. Whether you like to think about it or you want to accept it or whether I do or not. You know there are two times when you and I will meet with with Jesus. We will we will appear before him when we die. And we'll appear before him in a way that will be completely irresistible. Tonight, when you're listening to the gospel as you've listened to it many times in your life, you've had this ability to resist and push away the message. But you know, Ken, when the time comes for you and for me to die, as it will, it is something we will not be able to resist. It's something all the medical, Applications and medicines in the world will not be able to resist or put away or postpone. It's an appointment. It's a day, a time, a date that is set. And you know, friends, we are so out of our minds when we don't face this fact. We live thinking we are never going to die. Well, you say, I don't, I believe I'm going to die, but you don't live believing that, do you? How far away is the day of your death from you tonight? Oh yes friends, and it can happen so suddenly. My own congregation just last week, a man 42 years old without any underlying health problems dropped dead at his workplace. No warning. Don't fret, don't trifle with this. This is real, this is serious. You're going to die. I'm going to die. Unless Jesus comes before the point at which we will die, we will die. And the Bible makes plain to us that all who to dust descend, Psalm 22, will bow to him. You and I, we will see Jesus. We will come before Jesus, whether we want to face the fact or not. So you know this, friends. Why think that you can run all your life? Because the day's coming when you'll see him anyway. You'll be before him and you will come to him. At death, at the day of judgment, we must all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. This is where people just want to try and switch off. Who wants to think about this subject of judgment anyway? Friends, how much of the Bible is devoted to this teaching. Not to leave you feeling condemned in your seat without any hope, but as a warning that because death and judgment are inevitably coming your way and mine, that we must prepare for that time. That's why the Gospel is proclaimed to you. It's not a sentence of doom over any of you tonight. It's a message of hope. It's a message of good news. But in the good news, It can only be seen as good news because of the bad news. Sin, death, judgment, eternity, friends, it's coming your way. Get ready, because you will come to Christ, whether you like it or not. You won't come. Some of you won't come. All of us will come. Thirdly, You must come. You must come to Jesus. If you don't, friends, you will forever be spiritually and then eternally dead. What is Jesus promising here? He says, you will not come to me that you might have life. And that means if we need life and He has life to give, it means we're dead. Unless we come to Jesus, we will forever be dead in our sins. We will have no life in us. You may be saying, I feel fully alive today. What do you mean I'll be forever dead? Well, of course, it's not speaking about you as far as your physical life is concerned. It's something spiritual, it's something on the inside. But unless you come to the Lord, you'll never get. You must come to Jesus, you mustn't just come to the Bible. We're going back to this point again. It's not to the Bible you have to come. Believing the teaching of the Bible won't save you. Arguing with people in your workplace about the Bible won't save you. You must come beyond the Bible to the one to whom the Bible points. Jesus, isn't it? Do you see that? I hope you see that tonight. We must come to Jesus. It's more than coming to church. It's more than coming to the Bible. It's more than putting your children to the Sunday school. It's more than giving money to the Lord in the plate out there when you come in. It's coming to Jesus. It's a personal, life changing encounter that you must have. Coming to Jesus is a picture of faith. It's a picture of leaving one place and going to another. Leaving self. Leaving righteousness, leaving our own hopes, leaving our own standards, leaving ourselves, going to Jesus. He speaks of himself in the Bible as stretching out his hands all the day long. To welcome you. And what you and I must do. is come to these open arms and be received by Him. Can you see that? All He does is bid you come to Him. You must come to Jesus. Friends, there is no other way to be saved. Religion won't save you. No other way of salvation will save you. You know that, you know, sometimes you find so often, well, you maybe feel that what you've been taught from maybe when you were young is so old fashioned. And it's so fundamentalist. It's so exclusive, narrow minded, you maybe think. Well, who's to say, you might say tonight, that there is no other way to be saved. Well, why can you say to me that there are no other right and true religions in the world? Why are you saying they're all wrong? Friends, it's not any church or minister or parent or anyone who says that. It's Jesus who makes it so clear. You know these words, you've maybe known them from when you were so young. He says, I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life. No man comes to the father, he says, except or but by me. We step into acts and how do the apostles preach when they go into places where there were other religions set up for centuries before they'd ever heard of the gospel and say, well, you just carry on doing what you're doing. There are many ways to God. There are many ways to salvation. You just carry on doing what you're doing. Don't need to change a thing. They said, no. They would come in and they would bring a message that was so exclusive that they would say there is no salvation in anyone else because there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. There is no other way. This is what the Bible tells you. You may be saying tonight, well, how do you know that all the other religions are wrong? Apart from by saying the Bible says they're wrong. I'm not going to try and change your mind by any reasons I come up with, but just think about this one. What makes the difference between the religion that teaching the way of salvation of Jesus and every other proposed religion in the world? You look at all these other religions and you have to make your way back to God by earning his favor. Do this and you will live. You look in the gospel and God comes to you. God sends his son. And his son dies in the place of sinners like you and like me, accomplishing and fulfilling everything we were unable to do for ourselves. They all say, make your way to God. The gospel says God makes his way to you in providing salvation through the death of his son and proclaiming salvation in the gospel. He makes his way to you. You see the difference? Friend, if you're going to be saved, you must come to Jesus. And you must come to him now. Do you believe that all you have to do is believe? Do you believe that all you have to do is believe here and now? What do you think else has to happen? What are you waiting for? When the gospel comes to you from the Bible, what does God tell you to do? Does God tell you to wait for something to happen? Does he tell you to wait until you feel a certain way and then think you should believe? When Paul went to Athens, a place completely given to idolatry, He walked through the streets and he saw the place was completely abandoned, given over to false religion. And working up in a sermon to these people, the very intellectual people that they were, he pressed upon them the fact that God commands all men everywhere to repent. God doesn't call on you or me to be passive in the sense that we wait for something to take place. He calls upon you and upon me to turn from sin and to believe in His Son. And you know this, friends, He calls upon you to do it now. You don't need to wait until you go home. You don't need to wait until next week. You can cry to the Lord to come into your heart. and help you to come to him right here and right now. My friends, you could be saved right now. The Philippian jailer, remember this man. He was told to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and he would be saved. He believed right there and then and was saved right there and then. Let's not put this time gap in between the gospel command and our response. You know only too well, by the time you're outside and go back to your car, you'll be thinking about something else. You'll be hardening your heart again. You'll be thinking, well, you'll be thinking, how am I going to get on this week? How much money am I going to make? What's on your mind just now? Are you really listening? Or are other things just floating around your mind while you're paying a little bit of attention? You know, friend, God speaks to you in the gospel. And God confronts you with his revelation. And what he's revealing to you in the gospel is your need to be saved. And that to be saved, you must come to Jesus. There's one more thing. These three things maybe, maybe leave you feeling, can I really come though? If you're saying that you won't come. And then you say that you will come and then you say that you must come. Well, does that give me any encouragement? Oh, friends, the last thing tonight is that you may come. You may come. You know, the gospel to you and to me tonight is an invitation. It is an invitation. where God invites you to be saved. The invitation isn't something that you can take or leave lightly. You might get an invitation to go to some places or go to meet some people and, well, they can take it or leave it and they won't really mind. This isn't the way the gospel is. The gospel comes to you, yes, as an invitation, but it comes as an invitation that is also a command. How do we know? OK, you may be saying I'm not convinced by you. You're just saying it's an invitation and a command. Well, read the verse again. You will not come to me that you might have life. That you might have life. Here is a conditional. Promise to your friend that if you will come to him, then you will have life. So what's he saying? He's saying come. Does that sound like an invitation? The intention of the scripture is salvation, friends. The gospel isn't for you or for me tonight to just think about or maybe feel a little bit moved or affected by, if at all. The whole point of the Bible, friends, is that we would come to Jesus. You read your Old Testament, you read your New Testament, it's all pointing to this one fact. The whole Bible covers this period we speak of as redemptive history. God's accomplishing of salvation in real time. And it all centers upon and revolves around Calvary, pointing back and pointing forward. The Bible is here to For salvation, friends. You read verse 34. What does Jesus say? Why is Jesus speaking to these people? I want to stress the word might. These things I say, that you might be saved. So Jesus is coming to the Jews with a message they don't really want to listen to. A message that goes against their self-righteous and religious grain. One that tells them they haven't got the love of God in their hearts. A message that tells them, for all your religion, you don't even know God. You don't even understand the Bible. But he says, I'm saying this, that you might be saved. It's the intention of the Bible. You notice as well that Jesus is calling in the plural. He's not speaking to one person there. It was a great multitude in front of him. Jews, people who were persecuting and hating him, candidates for salvation. Oh, well, do they look ready and ripe just to come and believe? Here are people who are trying to kill Jesus. They're trying to, they're wanting to kill him. They're hounding him. They hate him. And what does he say to them? You will not come to me that you might have life. He's saying, OK, where is your real excuse? What is your real reason for not coming? Why all of this persecution and hatred when I'm telling you the reason behind my mission, the reason behind my message is that you might be saved. Do you ever wonder about the kind of preacher Jesus was? How can you picture him delivering his sermons? Well, he delivered them in different ways, of course, at different times. If you go forward into chapter 7, what you find on that day of the Feast of Tabernacles is that as the festival was coming to an end, we're told that Jesus stood and Jesus cried with a loud voice. Jesus was a very passionate preacher. And Jesus called this day to a multitude of Jews all in front of him, celebrating and adhering to and following an Old Testament festival, a feast of tabernacles. What did Jesus say? He said, if any man thirsts, let him come to me and drink. He didn't just say, if any man thirsts, come. Jesus was very serious when he preached. And we mentioned yesterday that he preaches still. Every time the word is opened and he is proclaimed, he is preaching through that very word. If you weren't here, let me remind you what Paul tells the Corinthians. He says we are ambassadors for Christ. You know, an ambassador goes from his country to another, from a seat of authority to another, bearing the message and authority of the people who send him. He doesn't go in his own authority. As we read this morning in John chapter one of John the Baptist, there was a man sent from God going with God's authority, going with God's message. He was an ambassador. Paul says we are ambassadors for Christ, meaning we are here sent by him. We're here with his authority. We're here with this word. More than that. He says, when we are delivering this message, it is as though God is beseeching you by us. God himself personally, in the pulpit in front of the congregation, which means, Paul is saying, Corinthians, you're not just listening to Paul or Apollos or any of these men. You're not listening to me or men when this message is being delivered. You're face to face with God. More than that, he says, we pray you in Christ's stead. We plead with you. We entreat you in the place of Jesus. that you would be reconciled to God, which means where Jesus right here tonight, where he right there in Corinth, he would be saying, be reconciled to me. So, friends, don't think that when you hear the gospel, you're just listening to your minister. You're listening to God. And he's speaking to you, just like he spoke right here to these Jews. When he said to them, You will not come to me, that you might have life. You won't come, friend. One day you will come. To be saved, you must come. But you may come tonight. There is nothing in this gospel that says to any one of you, you may not come. The gospel message is universal. It is for every man. It is for every woman. It is for every boy. It is for... Am I just saying that? God commands all men everywhere to repent. Look unto me and be ye saved. All the ends of the earth. If you can exclude yourself from being within the ends of the earth. If you can exclude yourself tonight from being among the all men everywhere, well, yes, the gospel's not for you. You know, friend, you won't find yourself outside of these words. That means it is for you. Every single one of you tonight, the youngest boy and girl to the oldest adult in this place, the gospel message is addressed to you personally by the Lord himself. So you go away from this house tonight and say, no. Later, next week, when such and such happens, or I go to such and such a place, you know what you're saying? You're saying, I will not come. Tonight you either will come or you won't. It's not that you can't. The responsibility falls on your shoulders and mine. So I leave this with you, friend. Will you come to Jesus tonight? You must, and you may. Let us pray.