The Great Invitation

Well, take your Bible this morning, turn with me to the Gospel of John. We're going to be in Chapter 7, and our verses this morning will be verses 37 through 52. We'll cover quite a few verses this morning, and we will finish up Chapter 7, and we will finish up Jesus' time there at the Feast of the Tabernacles. Some translations say the Feast of the Boots, and I always try to give you those variant readings. I want you to understand sometimes when it might mention something that reads a little different, there's a purpose behind it.

But He is finishing up His time there at that great, it was a grand feast, it was one of the three main feasts where the people were called to make a pilgrimage there to Jerusalem. Now we have had three messages so far with Jesus' time there at Jerusalem, at the Temple, at the Feast of the Boots. We saw first the timing of Jesus out of verses 1 through 14. We saw Jesus' authoritative teaching, remember His claims of being Christ there in verses 14 through 24. And then we saw their reaction to Christ's claims out of verses 25 through 36. Now why this review of the previous messages, why would I mention these other messages?

I want us to see the progression. I want us to see the progression of Jesus' ministry at the Feast. Now remember He was not there in Jerusalem yet. His siblings, His brothers came, and they urged Him to come at the beginning of the Feast and make Himself known. Remember we learned that that was not God's timing for Jesus, but we did see that He slipped into the Feast about midway, and His timing was different than the world's timing. And then we see that progression. We see His great authoritative teaching. He claims, He proclaims to be the Christ, the Messiah.

Remember He cried out in a loud voice, taking the place of those who were in authority. And then we see, we saw the reactions of Christ's claims. We saw the people and how they reacted. See there's that natural progression. And we need to see that, and we need to be reminded of that in our own minds at times. Now in this last message, finishing up this time, we will really see almost a crescendo. It will be elevated to a higher pitch, if I can use that language in Jesus' teaching. I want to say it to you like this. Really Jesus goes a little farther. He goes all the way.

He takes this thing a little farther down the road in His calling His people, the Jews, unto Himself. Now when we begin to examine these verses, we're going to notice two important aspects, two important things out of these verses. Take note of this. First, we will see the heart of Jesus for humanity. Haven't we been seeing this all along? Even though the Jews, for the most part, have rejected Christ, now we know that they are the disciples, those twelve chosen. We know that there are some within the crowds who have believed, but for the most part the Jews have rejected Jesus, have they not?

But still we see, and we will see, this wonderful heart that Jesus has for people, and that people would come to Him in true salvation. Second, we will see the different reactions of the people. I don't know if you realize it, but there's just been this pattern. Jesus proclaims Jesus, teaches Jesus, reveals Himself, and then all of a sudden they begin, the people begin to react. You know what's really sad? Some of the most positive reactions came from the Samaritans, those Gentiles, those that God's people turned their nose up to. But yet we've seen, obviously, in Chapter 6, so many rejected who Jesus was when they heard His true teaching.

So we're going to see these two important things out of these verses. We're going to see His heart for humanity, and we're going to see the people's reaction to Jesus. And there are multiple reactions from multiple different types of people. Now I've already given you the title of the message, and that is the Great Invitation. The Great Invitation. We're really going to look at two truths out of these verses. We're going to cover quite a bit of ground to get to the end of the chapter. We're going to look at the Invitation to Come out of verses 37 through 39, and the people's reaction out of verses 40 through 42.

The Invitation to Come, there's Jesus' heart, and the people's reaction really seems repetitive, but it's very important for us to see all along the journey of Christ's ministry how people reacted to Jesus. Now let's look at our verses together. I trust you have your Bible. You should have it each time we come to worship together and to sit at His table and to be fed from the Word. Let's look at starting in verse 37. Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and He cried out saying, "If any man is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.

He who believes in me, as the Scripture said, from his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water. But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive. And the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus had not yet been glorified." Then now it changes starting in verse 40. "Some of the multitude, therefore, when they heard these words were saying, 'This certainly is the prophet.' Others were saying, 'This is the Christ.' Still others were saying, 'Surely the Christ is not going to come from Galilee, is He?' Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the offspring of David, and from Bethlehem the village where David was?' So therefore arose a division in the multitude because of Him.

Some of them wanted to seize Him, but no one laid hands on Him." Verse 45. "The officers, therefore, came to the chief priests and Pharisees, and they said to them, 'Why did you not bring Him?' The officers answered, 'Never did a man speak the way this man speaks.' The Pharisees, therefore, answered Him. You have not also been led astray, have you? No one of the rulers of Pharisees has believed in Him, has he? But the multitude, which does not know the law, is accursed." And then we will see a familiar character in verse 50. "Nicodemus said to them, 'He who came to Him before being one of them.

Their law does not judge a man unless it first hears from him and knows what he is doing. Does it?' And then verse 52, 'They answered him, and they said to him, 'You search and see that no prophet arises out of Galilee.'" And we will stop there. And like I said, we're going to look at two main truths, and we will cover a lot of texts, a lot of verses, and I think you'll be able to get all that the Lord wants us to get this morning. Let's look at main truth number one, the invitation to come. That's out of verses 37 through 39, the invitation to come. Now, here in these verses we see this great invitation given by Jesus.

This invitation was great because it was a two-fold invitation. It was given to two different peoples, and this invitation was also great because of its setting. Remember, I've taught you this before. We need to always understand context because context teaches us so much. And remember where Jesus was. He was at the Feast of the Tibernacles, and that is the setting. Now, we're going to look at four truths out of these verses. First, I want you to see this invitation was given on the last day. Look at verse 37. "Now, on the last day, the great day of the feast." This is the last day, the last day of the Feast of the Tibernacles.

Now, there is a little bit of debate. There's a little bit of a debate between if this was the seventh day or the eighth day of the feast. But nonetheless, the text says this is the last day. This last day was the day of what was called a holy convocation or a solemn assembly. Remember, I've already taught you that the last day was the pinnacle of that celebration. And this seems to have been called the last day or the great day. We see this out of Leviticus, chapter 23, verse 26. But what I want you to see in this is that this was the pinnacle of the celebration, the apex of the celebration.

So Jesus' invitation was given on that last day, the great day, the most important day. Second, this invitation was given to any man. Look back at verse 37. "Now, on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out." And he was saying, "If any man is thirsty, let him come to me and drink." What do we see? Here we see familiar action by Jesus. He stood up and he cried out. We've seen this before. Now, all of the translations that we study have this very same language. We saw this previously in verse 28.

"Remember, we learned that this was not a soft whisper, that he cried out in a loud voice for all to hear." The text said that Jesus stood. And this was in contrast to the Jewish leadership of the day. When they sat and they taught, when they taught, they sat before the people. That was the custom of the rabbis. The Jesus, he stands. This would have given emphasis to what Jesus was saying and doing. This would have brought great attention from the thousands who were there at the temple. And also note that he cried out. This would have been a very loud voice for all to hear. But I want you to notice who this invitation was given to.

There are two people. First it was to the Jews. Who was there at the celebration? This was a Jewish celebration. These were the Jewish people. These were the people of Israel. God's chosen people. Jesus' people. So this was obviously an invitation to those who were there. They were the Jewish people. But second, there is implication for the Gentiles. Go back to verse 37. "Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and he cried out, saying, 'If any man thirsts.'" He did not say, "If any Jew thirsts." He said, "If any man thirsts." This is an implication that the gospel was for the Gentiles as well.

We've already seen this in action, have we not? He went down to the Samaritans and the Samaritan woman believed. And many people believed that was a precursor to what God was going to do in taking the gospel to the Gentiles. So this invitation is free to all who would hear and all that the Father would call. Now we've already learned that. No man, no woman, no people can ever come to Christ unless God calls them and enables them. We learned that in chapter 6, verse 44. So I want you to see this invitation was given to any man, Jew and Gentile. Third, this invitation was given to those that thirst. Go back to the verses.

"If any man thirsts, let him come to me and drink. And he who believes in me, as the scripture said, from his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water." Now this language of thirst and drink and water must be understood in light of the feast. Remember that's context. In light of the feast of the tabernacles. Now most of you probably do not know this, but some of the details about the feast need to be communicated. On the seventh day of the feast, the priests would march around the altar seven times, pouring out water from a golden pitcher.

They would have gone out from the temple complex and they would have drawn water from the pool of salome and the priest would have marched back toward the temple and as they got to the water gate, they blew the ram's horn and they sang songs of praise and thanksgiving for the harvest. Now what was the meaning of this? This is all foreign and alien to us. This was symbolic. And this was symbolic of the Jews' experience going through the desert and coming into the Promised Land. It was a picture. But yet we're going to see that this is also a picture of Jesus. So with this backdrop of this great invitation, we must see some specifics.

Notice the need of the thirsty. Go back to the verse. If any man thirsts, there is a need. This speaks of lost humanity. This speaks of their great thirst to be made right with God. Jew or Gentile. Did we not see that with the Samaritan woman? She was so thirsty. She was so lost and in need of Christ. So we must notice the need of the thirsty. So then notice the satisfaction from Christ. Jesus is saying to the crowds, "This ceremony is pointing to me. This ceremony is a picture of me." He's saying, "Come to me and I will quench your thirst. I am that living water." He's basically saying that water that's being poured out is a picture of me.

Notice the results of this salvation in verse 38. What does he say? He says, "He who believes in me," and as the Scripture said, "from his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water." Jesus is saying that those who believe, those who drink of his salvation, shall have living water flowing from their lives. Now notice that language. The King James reads Belly. But where this comes from is, this comes from the Jewish understanding, the Hebrews understanding of mankind. They believed that there was a deep cavity within a man and that was the seat of their emotions.

That's why the New American that I study and read from translates this, "his innermost being." You see? They were saying this comes from the very core of who man is. But remember, this is the results of the salvation. Go back to the verse. "He who believes in me," as the Scripture said. In other words, when you come and you drink of Christ and your thirst is quenched, what does he say? "From his innermost being, the very core of who they are shall flow rivers of living water." I give you a quotation that helps us see this. I think we can all relate to this.

MacArthur said that God did not intend for believers to be pawns in which living water of salvation stagnates. See? We are not to be pawns of living water. We are to be rivers of living water. You see? We're not to be a stagnant pool. We are to be a life where living water, Christ, the Spirit of God flows from our innermost being. That's the results of this salvation. You see? This invitation was given to those who thirst. And we see this progression. There is thirsty humanity, and they come for satisfaction in Christ, and then there is a result because all of the days of their lives, this living water flows from their innermost being.

And then the fourth main truth. We see the promise of the Holy Spirit. Go back to verse 39. "But this he spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive," that's the future, "for the Spirit was not given yet because Jesus was not yet glorified." One of the Bible commentators that I use, the New American commentary, helps us here. The author says, "Jesus' words are a foreshadowing of the era when the Spirit would be given." You see? That is a picture of what was going to happen at another time.

Because when Christ had died on the cross, he had been raised from the dead, and he ascended to the Father, then the Spirit came, therefore producing a new era in God's people. And this verse speaks of that time that was coming. Now, we know that the Spirit was poured out on that wonderful day of Pentecost in Acts chapter 2. And what do we see? This is the promise of the Spirit. Now, I want us to take a step back, and I want us to see this invitation to come. This was the last day of the feast. This gave this glorious, all-inclusive invitation to mankind.

The only precursor is those people, those men, Jew and Gentile, could only come if God the Father enables them. This invitation was given to those who thirst, and he is pictured in this great feast. And we see the results of that, because when they come to Christ, there is a living water that flows out of their innermost being, and they will receive this promise, the work of the Spirit in their lives. Here we see this great and this wonderful invitation to the lost, to lost humanity, to come to Jesus. And there is so much depth in this invitation, Jew and Gentile alike, for all mankind who are thirsty.

This is really a culmination of that feast of the Tabernacles, because this feast was none other than a picture of Jesus, and he was standing there, speaking with great authority, saying, "Come," in a loud voice, "Come to me, those who thirst, and I will satisfy you." Now, in application, I really want to ask you one question. Have you tried to quench your thirst in your own way? You know, there are so many different ways in which people try to quench their thirst.

If I were to try to make an exhaustive list, we would be here all day, and I would never finish the list, because there are so many ways in which people, young and old, rich or poor, try to quench that thirst that is within them, some do this by sinful living. Did we not see that with the Samaritan woman? Sinful living, such an immoral person, and it never quenched her thirst. We see that in our culture today. Immerality, it just abounds, and what is taught in our culture is that if you will satisfy all these sinful urges that you have, you will fulfill those desires.

As a matter of fact, our culture is even inventing ways to sin in this area. There are some who do this by the cares of this world. They think that if they can work hard enough and acquire all these toys, that they can have enough wealth, if they can have the right job and the better job and the bigger job, they think that that will satisfy their thirst. You know, some even try to satisfy their thirst in religion. Religion will never satisfy your thirst. Did Nicodemus see that as he encountered Christ that faithful night in John chapter 3?

One of the things that I've seen people do in the life of the church, a lot of times people are lost and without Christ, and they'll come into the life of the church and they'll try to reform their life. They'll try to change their life outside of conversion, and they think that will satisfy their thirst, but it never does, you see? The only way that man will ever be satisfied, truly satisfied, now listen, from the inside out is in true conversion, coming to Christ, this great and miraculous and wonderful thing that only God can do. And listen, don't you ever forget it. It is nothing more than a miracle.

And again, the question, how have you tried to quench your thirst? Let's move on. Truth number two, let's look at the people's reaction. The people's reaction, and you can see we're going to cover a lot of verses, verses 40 through 52, and this is just a tumbling down, a revealing of the people there before Jesus. Now, here in these verses, we're going to see this ongoing debate, and this ongoing debate is just the same old thing. Who is Jesus? Who is Jesus? Now this happened to Jesus every time he presented himself to the people. This debate has always been going on throughout the centuries. It will always continue.

People will always debate who Jesus truly is. Now there are several things I want us to see out of these verses. We're going to break down the different people. It'll be easy for you to follow. First I want us to see some seem to believe. There were some, and they seemed to believe. Look at verse 40, in the beginning of verse 41. Some of the multitude therefore, that's the people, the common people, the Jerusalemites. Some of the multitude therefore were saying these words. This certainly is the prophet. Now there were others, verse 41, they were saying this is the Christ. What do we see here?

These are two confessions, and these are two confessions that come from the Old Testament scriptures. Some saw him as the prophet. Isn't that what we see? That first confession? Now all of the translations that you have before you will have this word prophet, and most all of them will have prophet capitalized. Now this was a reference to the Old Testament prophecies concerning the Messiah, namely Deuteronomy chapter 18 verse 15 through 18. I'll read just verse 15, but notice what Deuteronomy says. The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet, like me, from among you, from your brothers. It is to him you shall listen.

That verse is speaking about Jesus. And what are they saying? Surely this is the prophet. So this was an accurate confession. And then there were some, they saw him as the Christ. Go back to the verse. Certainly this is the prophet, verse 41. And then others were saying this is the Christ. Now this group, they went a little further. They went a little further in declaring that Jesus was the Christ, the promised Messiah. Now it is interesting to note the difference between the people right here in these verses and in chapter 7 verse 13. Earlier these people, they were afraid to speak up for fear of the Jewish authorities.

But now they are freely declaring what they believe about Jesus. And it seems that this group does believe. That like I've said earlier, they are untested. They will be tested. All true believers will be tested. But it seems that these people in verse 40 and beginning of verse 41, they do believe. Also second, we'll see some seem to reject. Some they seemed to reject. Look at the end of verse 41. And verse 41 on down to verse 44. Others were saying this is the Christ. Now notice the changes. Still others were saying surely the Christ is not going to come from Galilee, is He? And then it goes on down.

Has not the scripture said that the Christ comes from the offspring of David and from Bethlehem the village where David was? So there arose a division in the multitude because of Him. And some of them wanted to seize Him, but no one laid their hands on Him. See these seem to reject. Now notice the second portion of verse 41. In this group they had a rebuttal. What did they do? They rebutted what the previous group said. Notice the question is origin. Look at verse 41. Is surely the Christ is not going to come from Galilee? You see? They question His origin.

Now in the original language the construction of the question expects a negative answer. What they were saying was that they never could believe that the Messiah could come from Galilee. Why? Galilee was a backwoods, country-fied place. In our language we would say that's what the backwoods rednecks would say, would be, would stay. But they go on to say that the Old Testament says that the Messiah is to come from the lineage in the house of David, from Bethlehem. Now this was correct. This was correct. And this scriptural knowledge was common knowledge among the people and it was taught by the scribes.

These verses come from Isaiah 11 verse 1 and Micah chapter 5 verse 2. But I want you to see they were ignorant. They were ignorant. They were ignorant of the situation because He was of the house of David and from Bethlehem. But see their assumption was this, that since He grew up in Nazareth, which was in Galilee, they assumed that He was born there. Simply they just didn't do their research, you see? So they are rejecting Him. They are ignorant of the situation but this shows us their rejection. Then also notice that a division arose among the people. We see that in verse 43.

Because of their rejection and the other's open profession, they arose this sharp division among the people. And then we will notice that hostility arose among the people. Look at verse 44. And then some of them wanted to seize Him, but no one laid their hands on Him. This sadly is a pattern. Jesus teaches a discussion arises among the people. Some seem to believe, some seem to reject and hostility arises. Now this is the third time this has happened to Jesus since He had been teaching at the feast. Here in this verse and then also in verse 30 and verse 32. But of course no one did arrest Him. Why? Because His time had not yet come.

So we see first some seem to believe and then second some seem to reject and then third we see some seem surprised. Some they seem surprised. Look at verse 45. We'll go on down to verse 49. The officers therefore came to the chief priests and the Pharisees and they said to them, "Why did you not bring Him?" See they weren't even arrested. Verse 46, the officers answered, "Never did a man speak the way this man speaks." The Pharisees therefore answered them, "You have not also been led astray, have you?" No one of the rulers of the Pharisees believed in Him, has he? But the multitude which does not know the law, they are accursed.

What we see is a great surprise here with these leaders. Here we see this similar conflict played out in more detail. Back in verse 32 we see that they were sent to arrest Him and a few days later they failed to do so. Here the same thing happens. They've tried to go arrest Him but it does not happen. But yet out of these verses I want you to notice they were confused. Verse 45 says, "Here the religious leaders asked the officers, 'Which were the temple police? Why didn't you bring Him?'" What do we see? He goes on to say that they were stunned. They were amazed. Go back and look at the verse.

The officers therefore said, they came to the chief priests and said, "Why didn't you bring Him?" They said, "Never did a man speak like this." So they were confused. Why wasn't he arrested? And then we see that they were amazed. Here we see the reason why the temple police could not arrest Him. They were amazed. The temple police were trained Levites so they would have had a working knowledge of the Old Testament scriptures. They would have known what the scribes would have taught them but simply they were shocked. They were amazed at His teaching. And then we see that they were accused.

Here the temple police, they were rebuked for not doing their job and arresting Jesus. They were being accused of being persuaded by this false teacher, they thought. And then in verse 48 we see the Pharisees who were part of the rulers, they tried to separate their group from this seeming problem. You see? The Pharisees jumped up and said, "None of our people have been led astray." Then comes another accusation. It was levied against the people. Verse 49 says that the people are cursed because they have been led astray in their eyes. So what do we see? There's just this big confusion. They are surprised. They are confused. They are amazed.

And they start making all these accusations. And then fourth, the last group. Some seem to be pondering. Some seem to be pondering the situation. Look at verse 50. Down to verse 52. "Nicodemus said to them," remember in parenthesis, "He who came to Jesus before," and then verse 51, "Our law does not judge a man unless it first hears from him and knows what he is doing." Does it? What do we see here? Here we find the one who had come to Jesus at midnight and that's Nicodemus. He was one of the Pharisees, if you remember, and he stood up and he spoke up in a very hostile situation. Now what does he do here?

Notice he defends Jesus on the basis of the law. You need to look at verse 51. "Our law does not judge a man unless it first hears from him and knows what he is doing." Does it? He defends Jesus based on the law. He is referencing Deuteronomy chapter 1 verse 16 through 17 and chapter 17 verses 2 through 5. You see? He's defending Jesus based on the law. Now this leads us to a question. Does this mean that Nicodemus was a believer? Some say yes while other commentators, Bible writers say no. Now what evidence do we see out of the text? First of all we need to see that he was still a member of the Jewish ruling council.

Then also we see that he had not publicly confessed Christ, otherwise those of the ruling council would have known that. An open profession would have been known. And you would assume, we would safely assume that if he had professed Christ he would have been dismissed from the council and he might have even walked away from the council. So a logical conclusion would be that he had not believed in Christ yet, but yet he is pondering the situation. Then I want you to see after he defends Jesus based on the law, he is accused. Look at verse 52. "And they answered and they said to him, 'You are not also from Galilee, are you?

Watch and see that no prophet arises out of Galilee.'" Here I want you to see they insulted Nicodemus. I mean this was a big insult. Why? Because they asked him this question and it was constructed in the negative. What they were doing was they were accusing him because to accuse him from being from Galilee would have been one of the most ultimate insults from the rulers. Not only are they insulting him by this question, but they insult him by accusing him of not knowing the scriptures and that would have been very demeaning. But I want you to notice two things here.

These religious leaders, they revealed their lack of own knowledge because there were prophets from Galilee. Jonah, the prophet Jonah was from Galilee. And many Bible writers speculate that other prophets like Hagia were from Galilee. Second, they realized that they had not, they didn't realize, but they had not done their research because Jesus was from Bethlehem, but he was raised in Nazareth. You see? You see? They accused this Nicodemus. And here simply we see this great debate. We see this great division among the people. And I'll say it again, this was very common. And we will see this as we continue through the Gospel of John.

But notice the people's reaction. Just take a step back. Some seem to believe. Some seem to reject. That inflamed the situation. There were those who seemed surprised. They were taken back by this situation. And then there was one who seemed to be pondering. He seemed to be still thinking about this Jesus. Could he be the Christ? Now in application, we need to realize that there will be debate among people as to who Jesus is. There are two places where this is debated. First of all, outside of the church. I think we're pretty familiar with this. If we keep one eye to the horizon and we look at what's going on in our culture.

And there always is and always has been a debate outside of the church as to who Jesus is. But there's also a debate within the church as to who Jesus is. There are a lot of churches. They do not realize that Christ is to have supreme authority over the church. Have we not learned that in our study in the book of Revelation with those seven churches? Christ demands supreme authority over the church. Is this His church? He died for the church and He's coming back for the church. But yeah, it seems that there are a lot of people in the life of the church. They do not want Christ to have supreme authority over the church.

Because they want to run the church the way they want to run the church, no matter what the Bible says. But then also, we must see this within the church in dealing with salvation. There's some debate about salvation. They misunderstand salvation. They have cultural Christianity. There's some that have a profession of faith. But they do not have this flowing of a living water that comes out of their innermost being. And what happens is in the life of the church, there can be this debate as to what true conversion is. And isn't that the very center of this issue anyway? Do we not see this in this great invitation?

Christ is saying, "I am the salvation of the world." And so we need to see that there will always be debate. And many times it spills over into the life of the church. Now as I begin to conclude, I want to remind you of the title of the message. It's the great invitation. It's the great invitation. And as I conclude, I want to bring to you two points of application. And I really want you to pay attention. First, there is an invitation for you to come this morning to Christ. Let me repeat that. First, there is an invitation for you to come to Christ this morning. We see this in the verse. Isn't that what Jesus is saying?

Those of you who are thirsty, come to me. Come and receive living water. Come and have your thirst quenched. And by the authority of the word of God, by the example of Jesus, and by the fact that God has brought you here by his divine circumstances, there is an open invitation for you to come. And there are some of you here, you are pondering and you've been pondering. You are thinking and you are studying and you're even praying and you're wondering if you're truly converted. And I want to say to you there is an open invitation for you to come.

And the only way you can have that invitation is if God himself is drawing you and bringing you to this point and time. And I want to say come. Come to Christ. Die to all of your efforts. All of the ways in which you've tried to satisfy that thirst that will never be satisfied until you come to Christ. You know one of the things about growing older is that you have the benefit of hindsight. You know hindsight sometimes can be difficult. The life of the church I'm sad to say that I have seen many people come to times just like this. Bible preaching, the truth revealed.

I've seen many people come to a place where circumstances have brought them to the place where they are pondering Christ, they're considering Christ, they're pondering their estate, they're pondering and questioning whether or not they are right with God. And I've seen some people ponder too long and then all of a sudden you see them a million miles away from where they once were. Pondering the truth, not in a church where the truth is proclaimed, they do not seem to be at that place. And I want to tell you if you were here this morning, do not take this time for granted.

God could have ordained the circumstances of your life positive and negative to bring you to this place. There's an invitation to come. And second, if you do, there will be an immediate debate around you. There always is. There will always be someone that will come up to you and say, "Well I always assumed that you were already a Christian." See, that's debate. I mean it might even be your mother, it could be your grandmother. I have seen that debate rage on because when people come to Christ, listen, it always casts light on those who do not have Christ.

And listen, when you come to Christ, and I trust that you will, it will force people to deal with Christ because this is what happens. You come to Christ, you'll profess Christ, you'll be obedient to baptism and you'll become a part of the church and then you'll begin to go out and you'll begin to live different and you'll begin to share the gospel and share Christ and share your testimony and it will begin to shed light on that dark world. People will either have to accept what God's done in you or they'll have to reject. It always brings about a debate. And it can be hard because it could come from those who are the closest to us.

I'll tell you a story and then we will close. And this story I think will help illustrate what I mean. I remember years ago, back when I was still doing student ministry, Brother Keith and I were ministering together at that time. I remember we were at a student camp and what I mean by a student camp, it was a camp where the word was preached. It was not overloaded with a lot of superficial ministry, a cheap gospel. It wasn't overloaded with tons of fun. We were preaching the gospel and loving on young people and praying.

And lo and behold, a sweet precious girl in the life of the church came and she said, "I'm lost and I'm undone." She was raised in the life of the church. Sweet girl but lost. She was probably around the eighth grade, if I can remember. And I never forget how she counseled with people and she professed to know Christ. She talked about how she had been religious and been playing a game and she had talked about how that religion never quenched that thirst, you see. But see, she came to Christ. It's sad but she came home and she went to her parents and said, "Mom, dad, God save me." And immediately a debate.

Her own mom and dad, they began to use words like this, "Well, I remember when you were a small child and I remember how honest and sincere you were. No one knows the heart." Now I'm not saying a child can't be converted. That's not what I'm saying. But what I'm saying is many times people will be converted and sometimes the ones that are the closest can be the ones who will offer the most debate. I never forget they had meeting after meeting with that young girl trying to talk her out of what she had done. That's sad. Great debate. It even brought in leaders of the church. Great debate. So what am I trying to show you?

In the verses this morning we see a wonderful invitation, a great invitation. But yet when Christ comes on the scene it always brings debate because it always casts light on a dark and lost world. Has your thirst ever been quenched? Have you ever come to Christ in true conversion and salvation? If that's never happened to you, I want to tell you your thirst will never be satisfied. You might go all of the days of your life working very hard to satisfy, but it will never satisfy unless you come to Christ. I hope and pray that the Spirit of the Lord is drawing you and working in you to do what only He can do.

But yet I stand here and offer you the great invitation. Come to Christ. Lord, thank you for these verses. Thank you for this example. Thank you for this teaching. Lord, even the negative, even the difficult passages.