“And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely”
Those that love and preach the message of God’s sovereign saving grace in Christ alone are often accused of not believing in “whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely”. How can one that God has taught by His Holy Spirit believe anything other than this? It is clearly taught in scripture! The unregenerate falsely say that because we accept and preach the truth of God’s electing grace, we proclaim a message that excludes some men from coming to Christ even if they want to. The problem is not the call to come…the problem is man’s willingness and ability to come. When the Lord Jesus cried in the last day, that great day of the feast (Jn.7: 37) “if any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink”…why did men not come to Him to drink of the water of life? I’ll tell you why…they didn’t want to! Men by nature are just not willing to come to Christ as He is revealed in scripture! (Jn.5: 39-40) Hear the sweet message of God’s grace to an undeserving people…”Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power”. (Ps.110: 3) Those that the Holy Ghost effectually calls, willingly come to Him as spiritual beggars in need of a Savior! They come because they now see the hopelessness of salvation without Christ the Mediator between God and themselves. They have been given a new heart to come to Christ for mercy. They willingly come to Christ as their Surety, their Representative, and their Substitute before God. I leave you with these questions. Do you want to come? If you do, believe me, it’s not because you decided to exercise your free will, because your natural will is the slave of sin! Will you be saved by His grace alone? If you will, it’s because you’ve seen your works of self-righteousness to be unacceptable before God because of sin. Do you know by faith that the imputed righteousness of the Lord Jesus to robe you for justification before God’s law is the only covering of eternal hope? Will you come to Christ as the One who was made a curse for you at Calvary? If you will, COME! If you have no desire to come to Christ like this and you perish in your sins, it’s your own fault. But if you desire to willingly come because you see by faith your need of Christ for life by His blood, it’s because God has shown you mercy by giving you that new heart to come and has been pleased to not leave you to yourself.
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