Take your Bibles and turn to Revelation chapter 22. I was kind of chuckling as Anthony was coming up to play the guitar and the cord was getting wrapped around. I was thinking, you know, I'm glad that we don't need to be plugged in. As people, you know, imagine if you had to have a cord to have power so that you could actually operate. We have computers, laptops that only last so long they have to plug it in. It's always such a pain to mess with those cords. What a creator we have that can make us self-sufficient. Unbelievable that God, the creator God of all the universe, could do something like that. By the way, thank you, Anthony. I always appreciate your offertories. What a great God we serve. In fact, last time we were looking at Revelation 22 verses 6 through 21 and we saw that in fact we have a great Christ. We saw the greatness of Christ. We saw that in fact He is God. that He is the Judge of all the earth, that He is the Sovereign, He is the Alpha and Omega, He is the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last, He is the Source of everything, as well as the Focus and the End of everything. In fact, I submit to you that if your life is not focused on living for Jesus Christ, you are missing out. because you're not doing what you were wired to do, what you were designed to do. There cannot be any full peace and satisfaction apart from doing God's will. We also saw that He is human and that's what gives Him the right then to represent me, to be my sacrifice, to take my place on the cross. We saw that He is the bright and morning star So he is really the announcement of coming day, the end of night. And he's also gracious. As this passage ends, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. He is a great, Messiah, a great Christ. So we focused on the greatness of Christ in this passage today. I want to focus on the gospel of Christ. That's another one of the grand themes in these closing verses. And really, these closing verses, verses 6 through 21, the epilogue, if you will, is really a summary of the grand themes of all of Scripture. Is not the greatness of Christ a grand theme of Scripture? Yes. Is not the gospel of Christ a grand theme in scripture? Oh, certainly. And there will be one more theme that we'll look at. We'll look at the coming of Christ in a couple of weeks. Not next week, because we'll have a special speaker, but the following week we'll end up with the coming of Christ. But let's take a look. And I'm not going to read all of the passage this morning. I'm going to start us in verse 12. and read through verse 21. So Revelation chapter 22 verses 12 to 21. And behold, Christ says, I come quickly and my reward is with me to give every man according as his work shall be. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life and may enter in through the gates into the city. For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie. I, Jesus, have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I'm the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star. And the spirit and the bride say, come. And let him that heareth say, come. And let him that is a thirst come, and whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely. For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, if any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book. And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part of the book of life and out of the holy city and from the things which are written in this book. He which testified these things saith, surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so come Lord Jesus and the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. And so this morning I want to focus on this second grand theme, the gospel of Jesus Christ. And here's the truth I want us to focus on. All who are needy are invited to come to Christ. All who are needy are invited to come to Christ. And this is going to break down very easily into three subparts here. All who are needy, we're going to see who that involves. invited to come to Christ we're gonna see that that's really the answer and all who are needy are invited to come to Christ and so first of all I want us to see that the gospel identifies a problem the gospel the good news that's what gospel means the gospel identifies a problem let's take a look at verse 14 14 and 15, first of all. Blessed are they that do His commandments. Now, if you have a different English translation, you're saying, wait a minute, am I in the right place here? Because perhaps your translation reads something like, blessed are they whose robes are washed, or those who wash their robes. that they may have right or authority to the tree of life and may enter in through the gates into the city." Well, that's kind of a difference, right? Blessed are they that do His commandments or blessed are they that wash their robes. What's interesting here is you actually have a difference in the Greek manuscripts. And the King James Version, which I'm reading out of, is taking some of the manuscripts, the Textus Receptus, some of the newer of the Greek manuscripts. Whereas if you have a different English translation, it's probably taking some of the older Greek manuscripts. And so that brings us to the question, all right, so which one is right? Which one is right? And of course, because we believe in verbal inspiration, that every word of the Bible is inspired of God and is profitable, then we're very interested in the words. And so how can you have a difference in the words here? Well, the way I have been able to resolve this for myself, have you ever read something in scripture and you say to yourself, hmm, what does that mean? And then you maybe go to a commentary, and this guy says it means this, and this guy says it means this. And they're totally different in their interpretation. Well, how do you know which guy is right? Well, what do you do? You actually then look at other passages of scripture, right? So if some guy says, you need to believe and be baptized to be saved. And some guy says, yeah, you need to be baptized to be saved. And some guy says, no, it doesn't say you have to be baptized to be saved. What do you have to do? You have to look at the whole of Scripture. You have to look at the context around that verse. You have to look at the context of the Scripture itself. And God has given this incredible book with a lot of material to help guide us from making bad interpretive decisions. And so it's not just one verse or one book that we have to look at. We have the whole of God's word to look at. And so sometimes I'll come to a verse, like, believe and be baptized, and thou shalt be saved. And then it says later on the verse, and if you don't believe, you won't be saved. You say, oh, OK. So the emphasis really is on the belief, not the baptism for salvation. And that seems to be justified by other places in scripture. Sometimes you come to a very difficult situation in maybe the Old Testament, and it's translated one way or translated another way because they're not sure what that Hebrew word meant. And you have to look at all of scripture, and you could say, yeah, OK, this translation seems to fit. This one doesn't. Sometimes both translations are taught elsewhere in scripture. You know what I can say dogmatically? That regardless of what translation I take, it is biblical. How do I know that? Because I have other places in scripture that aren't even questioned that teach this or teach this. Now I come to you today and say, verse 14, blessed are they that do his commandments. Is that biblical? Yes. Blessed are they whose robes are washed. Is that biblical? You know what? I'm not sitting here wringing my hands saying, oh no, what translation am I going to use? It's OK. Both of these are justified and solidified by other passages of Scripture. And so what I'm going to do this morning, I'm actually going to take both of these, all right? I'm going to take the King James translation first, and then a little bit later on, I'm going to take the other translation, and we're going to see how that fits into this grand theme of the gospel of Jesus Christ. So, let's take first of all, blessed are they that do his commandments, because the result is they will have right or authority to come to the tree of life. And they'll have the authority or the right to enter into the gates of the city of Jerusalem, this new Jerusalem. wow that's great but here's the problem remember we said the gospel identifies a problem which of us completely does God's commands which of us is not a sinner because to do sin is to break God's commands well Matthew chapter 5 and verse 20, Jesus had said, for I say unto you that except your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. So Jesus Christ says, look, if you're going to trust in your good works, then you better be even better about good works than the Pharisees are. Now today, Pharisees get kind of a bad rap. When you say somebody is a Pharisee, you typically think of somebody who's hypocritical. And they're really not doing good works, they're just trying to be seen by men. And there were many Pharisees like that. But by and large, the Pharisees in Jesus' day were the ones that were running the soup kitchens and the rescue missions. They were the ones that were living basically in poverty and giving everything they had to help the poor. They were the ones who would pray and fast days in a week. they were noted for their humility and their spirituality as opposed to the Sadducees many in the fair and by the way many of the Pharisees actually did accept Jesus Christ as the Messiah Paul is an example of that Saul of Tarsus who later became Paul the Apostle he was a Pharisee and so in order to even have a chance of going to heaven, Jesus says, you've got to be even more righteous than the Pharisees. And the obvious answer to that was, there's no way you could be more righteous than they were. In fact, Isaiah 26 in verse 2, it says, open ye the gates that the righteous, which keeps the truth, may enter in. So only those who are completely righteous, who always obey the law, get to go to heaven. Now, initially, somebody might say, well, you know, yeah, I think I'm righteous. I'm a pretty good person. Why is it a person can say that? Because they're comparing themselves to somebody else, right? When I look, I'm much better than Hitler. or Mao Zedong or Joseph Stalin. I mean, I'm a lot better than those guys. And in fact, I can find people that I rub shoulders with every day that I'm a lot better than them. But you see, that's not the standard by which we are judged. God's given us 10 basic commandments. In fact, we were learning this in Good News Club, right? Well, sorry, Niang, you weren't in Good News Club. You graduated from Good News Club. The rest of you, we were in Good News Club. We're talking about the 10 commandments. Just 10. Basic. All right, let's start talking through those, right? So thou shalt honor thy father and thy mother. OK, which of us never disobeyed or disrespected our parents? Oh my, broken that one, okay. Well, put that off to the side. What about thou shalt, oh we talked about this one in Good News Club. Thou shalt not kill or murder. And of course the kids say, oh we've never done that. But then Jesus explains what that means. In fact, if you've ever been bitter or hateful or cursed somebody or lost your temper or Ah, you've broken that because to have hate in your heart towards somebody or to lose your temper against somebody is a violation of that commandment. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. If you've ever said, oh my, and then put God's name in there, that's a violation of that commandment. Thou shalt not steal. You mean you've never taken anything, even accidentally, from somebody. Well, how many times have you been filling something out at the doctor's office and you stick the pen in your pocket and you go home and, oh, yeah, there's a, that's why in the doctor's office now they have these big chains on their pens or a big flower on it so that there's no way you could accidentally, because it happens all the time and we're not even meaning to do that. And then there are times when we do mean to take and we rob people of their time or of their possessions. Thou shalt not commit adultery." But Jesus told us that it was even if you look on somebody to lust after them in your heart. So pornography, all of that is a violation. And all of a sudden we begin to realize, James 2, verse 10 says, if you keep the whole law and yet offend in one point, you are guilty of all. Like how good is a chain with one broken link? The chain can be really, really strong, but if you've got one broken link, the chain is no good. And you may keep a lot of these and do your very best, but if you've got one broken commandment, then you're guilty of all. And frankly, the fact of the matter is, we are guilty of far more than breaking just one. Every act of selfishness, Every thought of bitterness, every word of gossip, all of that is in violation of God's law, making us unrighteous. And if you've broken it once, then you have no hope in and of yourself to ever have the right to enter into heaven. In fact, Matthew chapter 7, verses 21 to 23, not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say unto me in that day, Lord, Lord, have you not prophesied in thy name, and in thy name have cast out devils, and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then while I profess unto them, and I can just see the loving eyes of a very hurt Savior, boring into the soul of that self-righteous individual, I never knew you. Depart from Me, ye that work iniquity. And so it is that you may be in a Christian home, you may have gone to a good church, you may understand a lot about the Bible, you may be a pretty good person, from the world standpoint, but that's not the issue. In order to get to heaven, you must be completely righteous. That's a problem. That's a problem. Verse 15, outside of this city, now this isn't talking about the outskirts of the city. So like if you open the door and watch out, there's a dog there or something. That's not what it's talking about here. For without, and we see in Revelation 28, 21, 8, that that's referring to the lake of fire. We'll see that in a second. For without are dogs. And again, this is not talking about literally there are furry creatures with fangs barking. No. This is a symbolic dogs are those that are abominable, unclean. These are scavengers. These are people in society who take instead of give. Sorcerers, whoremongers, murderers, idolaters, and whosoever loves and makes a lie. Revelation 21.8 uses some of the similar terminology. It says, but the fearful and the unbelieving, the abominable and murderers and whoremongers and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. So to be outside of the city, in this case, is really a reference to being cast into the lake of fire. We've looked at these descriptions before. Interestingly, again, sorcerers comes from the Greek word pharmakos, from which we get our word pharmacy, a place that dispenses drugs. So it was often associated with magic arts like potions or drugs, often to bring about an altered state of mind, to bring about peace or contentment or a heightened sense of power or security that only God can give. But the problem is you're trying to get it some other way. Often it's linked with idolatry as well. And whoremongers, of course, the immorality, and then even those that are involved with lying. And unfortunately, all of us fall into that category. We've all lied. We've all broken that commandment. Satan is the father of all lies, and so If we're a liar, then we ought to join our father in his place, the lake of fire. Well, I remember the day that this thought struck me that I was a sinner. I didn't have to be convinced of that. Even as a young boy, I knew that. But the problem gets worse. Yes, none of us are righteous, but there's also an accountability. There is a judge that we're going to have to stand for. So here's man's problem. He's unrighteous, and he's got to stand before a judge, verse 12. And behold, Jesus says, I come quickly, and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be. OK, I'm a sinner, but so what? Romans 6.23, the wages of sin is death. Revelation chapter 20 verses 13 through 15, as the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them. And they were judged every man according to his works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. We just looked at Revelation chapter 21 in verse 8. What we deserve because of our sin is separation from God forever in the lake of fire. Because God is holy and He cannot allow sinful man into His presence. All who are needy are invited to come to Christ. That's us. In fact, that's everybody. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And so this invitation is an invitation for everybody. Because everybody is needy. All who are needy are invited to come to Christ. And that is the solution. So the gospel not only shows us that there's a problem, but the gospel also provides a solution. I'm so thankful that the Bible actually gives us solutions. You know what we have today in our society? We have a lot of people saying, that won't work! OK, what will? Give me a solution. Well, here is a foolproof solution. God provides a solution, and that solution actually has a name, Jesus Christ. This solution requires cleansing. Now this is why I believe that a translation of verse 14 that says, blessed are they who wash their robes. Because look at Revelation chapter 7 and verse 14. In fact, keep your finger here. Just flip back a few chapters. Look at Revelation chapter 7 verse 14. Revelation chapter 7 in verse 14. And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said unto me, these are they which have come out of great tribulation and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Ah, so here is a commentary on this meaning here of Revelation 22, 14. How is it that you can wash your robe? How is it that you can make it white? How is it that you can become, if we want to call it this way, how can you become righteous? The blood of the Lamb. Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God who died on the cross and shed His blood to make us righteous. We saw clearly from scripture that only righteous people can go to heaven. So where do we get that righteousness? Well, 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21. For he that is the Father, God the Father, hath made him, that is Jesus Christ, to be sin for us who knew no sin. So Jesus didn't know any sin, but he was made sin for us. In order that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. So this exchange, we've talked about this before if you've been here. When Jesus Christ died on the cross, all of my sin was charged to his account. And all of his righteousness, Jesus Christ who did no sin but kept the law perfectly. I mean, even down to his baptism, everything kept the law of God perfectly. All of that then can be charged to my account. He was made sin for us so that we might have the righteousness of God in us. 1 Peter 2, verse 24 says, "...who his own self bear our sins in his own body on the tree." that we, then being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness by whose stripes we are healed. And so it is in Revelation chapter 2 and verse 7. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life which is in the midst of the paradise of God. And that tells me that the paradise of God is the new Jerusalem. That's where the tree of life is. And the only way I have access to that is by having the righteousness of God applied to my account, the righteousness of Christ applied to my account. In essence, my sins were paid for when Jesus shed his blood at the cross. And that's how my robes are made white, by being washed in the blood of the lamb. There's nothing I have done to earn that. That's why it's called grace. Grace, undeserved, unmerited favor. And so, The solution is Christ. The only way I have the opportunity to get to heaven is because my robes have been washed in the blood of the Lamb. And it also requires not only His work, but it requires belief. It requires belief. It's really as simple as this, right? When the Philippian jailer asked Paul and Silas, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? Paul did not say, well, OK, first of all, you need to be baptized. Then you need to go to church. And then you need to pay for a couple of Hail Marys. Oh, and by the way, make sure. No. Sirs, what must I do to be saved? Paul says, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. Now, that comes out in our passage, but kind of in a unique way. Look at verses 18 and 19. And this really comes down to trust or belief. It says, for I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book. Now, let's pause for a moment. Who is it that's testifying this? It says, for I testify. Is this John making this statement? Or is this Jesus making the statement? I submit to you that this is Jesus making the statement because look at verse 16. I, Jesus, sent my angel, et cetera, et cetera. Notice verse 20, for which testified these things saying, I come quickly. The one talking here is Jesus. John, by the way, never takes to himself the authority of I, and it uses the emphasis of the pronoun there. I testify. John never felt like he had that kind of authority. But Jesus does. And this is what Jesus is testifying. If any man shall add unto these things of the book, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book, the judgment of God. And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life and out of the holy city and from the things which are written in this book. In other words, this book is the word of God. Don't add to it or take away from it. You have to believe this book. And that means that somebody that comes along and says, yeah, this angel appeared to me and gave me these gold plates, and then I translated this book. Hey, that's not in this book right here. It's called the Book of Mormon. That's adding to this book. The Koran, that's adding to this book. And so any charlatan that comes along and says, thus saith the Lord, and it's not in this book, then it's not true. It's not from God. It's not a messenger from Him. The only thing they have to look forward to is the judgment of God. What about taking away from this book? Anybody that would come to us and would say, you know, Jesus is not God. Well, wait a minute. That's what this book says. In fact, this passage tells us that Jesus is God. And so to add to, or to, by the way, I'm glad that right here at the very end, this little information was given us because that saves us from quote unquote Christians coming to us with these revelations from God. Like, I saw a 900 foot Jesus and he told me that you need to give me $30,000. What? Oh yeah, God told me. Uh, God didn't tell me though. So it is, that God has, and by the way, Deuteronomy chapter 4 verse 2 says the same thing. Moses says, you shall not add unto the word which I commanded you, neither shall you diminish from it that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you, Deuteronomy 12, 32. What things soever I command you, observe to do it, thou shalt not add thereto nor diminish from it. So Moses, at the end of his basically writing the first five books of the Bible, the Torah, the law, says, here's the law given to us at Mount Sinai. Don't add to it or take away from it. The Jews understood that what Moses wrote was very, very somber, serious, true, legitimate, God's Word. And you know what? The Apostle John, in essence, is saying, look, what his revelation is from Jesus, this is just as serious and somber and real as the law given by God on Mount Sinai. It's almost as though God is writing it in stone for the ages to come. So you've got to believe what this book says. Not what some church says, not what some television preacher says, not what some ism says, but what God's Word says. shall call upon the name of the Lord, shall be saved." I don't see anything about works in that. I don't see anything about your parents or your religion. I see everything about Jesus Christ in that, calling on the name of the Lord. I don't understand how it all works, by the way. It's very clear. Well, I'm getting ahead of myself here. Ephesians chapter 2, verses 8 and 9. For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it's a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Isaiah 66, verse 2 says, But to this man will I look, even to him that is of poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word." And so it comes down to this. Do you believe what God says? Or do you not believe what God says? Do you believe that Jesus Christ, God, came down to this world, took upon himself human flesh, died on the cross, paid for your sins, rose again the third day, showed that He had conquered death and sin for your sake, and the invitation is, whosoever will may come. Do you believe that? All who are needy, and we're all needy, are invited to come to Christ. He is our provision. He is our solution. He is our only hope. But third, the Gospel extends an invitation. The gospel extends an invitation. Then we have this great verse, verse 17. And the Spirit and the bride say, come. This offer is a powerful offer. You have the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit. I believe Jesus is the one speaking in this verse. Now, some would say that the spirit and the bride are saying to Christ, come. That could be possible for the first two here. And the spirit of the bride say, come, as in like, come, Lord Jesus. And let him that heareth say, come, Lord Jesus. But notice the last part of the verse. And let him that is a thirst come. Ah. I really believe this is an invitation to those who are needy, to those who are thirsty, for them to come to the one that can provide the solution, Jesus Christ. And so I believe certainly if not all of the comes, certainly some of these comes are very clearly an invitation to the needy person. Why does the spirit get involved here? Well, John chapter 16, verses 8 through 13. And when he, that is the Holy Spirit, is come, he will reprove the world of sin, of righteousness, of judgment. And by the way, he came at Pentecost 2,000 years ago, we know that. Of sin, because they believe not on me. Of righteousness, because I go to my father and ye see me no more. Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged. Verse 13. Howbeit when he, the spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth. For he shall not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak. He will show you things to come. The Spirit is very much involved today with drawing sinners to Jesus Christ. Now, this is a great encouragement to us as Christians. How many times have you witnessed to somebody and you get nowhere? In fact, sometimes it's a little frustrating because, in fact, even a little scary because you're like, oh boy, I hope I don't say the wrong thing. Oh, I hope I don't mess it up. But here's the great encouragement. The Holy Spirit is doing the convincing and the convicting, not you. All right? You just be faithful. You just, in your maybe stumbling way and messing around, not knowing how to answer the questions that they throw at you, you just tell them what Jesus did for you. And the Word of God is quick and powerful. And it's through the agency of the Spirit that the Word of God can change a person's life. Frankly, I don't save anybody. You don't save anybody. It's the Spirit of God that does the drawing, that does the convincing and the convicting. Acts chapter 1 and verse 8, but ye shall receive power after the Holy Ghost has come upon you, and then ye shall be witnesses unto me. The power comes through the Spirit, not from you. But here's the other thing about this offer, this invitation. The spirit and the bride say, come. Wow. There's nothing like a satisfied customer to sell a product, right? You know, you see these things on TV. You know, these things that you can get for $19.95 that will change your life forever, right? this brush or this thing or whatever, you know, you just push this button and your whole bathroom's clean, just like that. And sometimes you wonder, I wonder if that really works. I wonder if that really works. You kind of wish you knew somebody that bought the product and could tell you firsthand if it really worked. Ah, but the bride? These are people who have put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ. And they're saying, oh, come. Come. It's far better than you even thought, in essence. And after you get through with the book of Revelation, you're like, wow. Eye hath not seen or ear heard. You can't even imagine what God has in store for His own. And the bride says, come. Oh, that we might have this kind of urgency or passion to reach people. There's a teenage girl in Michigan. Apparently, she was wondering how in the world she could reach anybody with the Gospel. And one day she found out that there was a teenage girl in Spain, the Basque region of Spain. I think her name is Ani. a girl that the Bergmans were trying to reach. And the Bergmans must have been talking about Ani when they were here in the United States on a furlough and this teenage girl got a real burden for him and said, hey, can I become a pen pal? And so this girl in Michigan is writing this girl in Spain. The girl in Spain is not saved. They're writing back and forth. And now this summer, the girl in Michigan and her family has invited Ani to come stay a couple of weeks with them. Well, how in the world is she going to pay for that? Well, another church says, hey, we'll pay for that girl to come to America and stay with this Christian family. Why are they doing that? Because they're saying, come. Come. This is a teenage girl that sees an opportunity to be a pen pal with a teenager who didn't know Christ? How are we reaching out to invite others to come to Christ? I mean, some of us won't even go across the street, let alone across the world, to invite somebody. But Jesus Christ is the only solution for a needy person's problems. This offer is not only powerful, but it's personal. Let him come, or let the one who's needy come. Anybody who is thirsting spiritually. I remember years ago, there was a lady who came to a Christmas cantata at our church in Chicago. She was actually the county assessor. for DuPage County. It was an elected position. So she is, she's basically the tax collector for the county in which we lived. And she came because one of her employees was a member of the church and they invited her to the Christmas cantata. Oh okay, we were doing Handel's Messiah with a couple other churches. That night we were at our church. And so she comes, she sits, she enjoys the music. Then we have a dessert fellowship afterwards. She goes down, she's eating. One of our old deacons, faithful deacons, sits down with her and begins to talk with her. She's a Catholic, a religious, good, moral person. She knew that Jesus Christ died on the cross to pay for men's sins. She knew that. She just never realized that Jesus Christ died on the cross to pay for her sins. That was a personal thing. And that night, the Holy Spirit said, come. And the bride said, come. And she said, yes. The reason I bring this up, because two weeks ago, when I was in Chicago visiting with my dad, Carrie Cockrell went home to be with her Lord and Savior. All those thoughts kind of came flooding back the night she accepted Christ as her Savior. Isaiah 55 verse 1 says, Ho, everyone that thirsteth, cometh ye to the waters. And that he that hath no money, come, buy, eat. Ye come by wine and milk without money and without price. You say, well, I just I don't have anything to bring to God. That's exactly the kind of person He's asking to come. Because it's grace. It's mercy. It's not self-righteousness, because we have no self-righteousness. This offer is personal and this offer is public. Whosoever, verse 17 says, and whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely. This whosoever is the one who's thirsting. And again, I don't understand how it all works together. I know that God is sovereign and the spirit draws. But I also see whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. I also see whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely. And here is this free and, I believe, genuine offer for anybody to come. Christ this offer is priceless Ephesians 289 for by the for by grace are you saved through faith in that not of yourselves it is a gift the gift of God Romans 623 for the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord John 316 for God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten Son. And so we see that Jesus Christ is a gift to us. And that's why Jesus Christ says in Matthew 11, verse 28, Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. This is a very powerful invitation. I was on a train headed into Chicago that a friend of mine, a lawyer, Chicago, found Christ. How did that happen? He was reading the biography of an astronaut. I think that astronaut's name was Charles Duke. Charles Duke went up. As he's circling the Earth from outer space, he looks down on the Earth and he realizes, I'm a pretty small person. In fact, it's amazing to me how many astronauts either are Christians or became Christians. When you get outside of this terra firma, and you're floating around up there, you realize, ah, this didn't just all happen. There is a God who created this. And my friend, what struck my friend was that Charles Duke, this astronaut, this guy had everything. He wasn't like a drug addict and just a derelict on the street. This guy was a successful astronaut, and he needed Christ. See, my friend, the lawyer, thought that only people that were really bad needed Christ. He didn't need Christ. He was a lawyer in Chicago. And he realized, wait a minute. Actually, I'm needy, too. And he trusted Christ as his Savior. You see, whether you are a lawyer, or an astronaut, or a doctor, or you've burned your mind out on drugs, all of us are needy. We all need the righteousness that comes from Christ alone. The real question is not, are you needy? The real question is, have you come to Christ? Because we're all needy. The Spirit and the Bride say come.