Hardening of the Heart, Part 1

Came across a poem that someone had written. I don't know who wrote it, but it goes as follows. It says, I had walked life's way with an easy tread. I had traveled where pleasures and comfort led. Until one day in a quiet place, I met the Master face to face. With station and rank and wealth for my goal, Much thought for my body, but none for my soul, I had entered to win this life's mad race When I met my master face to face. I built my castles and reared them high Till their towers had pierced the blue of the sky.

I'd sworn to rule with an iron mace When I met my master Face to face. I met him and knew him, and blushed to see That his eyes full of sorrow were fixed upon me. And I faltered and fell at his feet that day, While my castles melted and vanished away Melted, vanished, and in their place, Nothing else could I see but my master's face. My thoughts are now for the souls of men I have lost my life to find it again Ever since that day in the quiet place When I met my Master Face to face. I wonder if you've met the Lord God face to face.

And for those of you who have met Him face to face, I wonder as you behold that face, how much of Him do you really know? I'm reminded of the psalm's words in Psalm 8 when he said in verse number 3, When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon, and the stars which thou hast ordained, What is man that thou dost take thought of him, and the son of man that thou dost care for him? I wonder what must have been going through David's mind as maybe he walked out on his balcony and looked over the city of Jerusalem and thought about all the great things that God Almighty had done.

And then began to think, what is man? That you should even take a thought about him, that you would even consider him. The Almighty God of the universe. A complex truth, an incredible truth, that Almighty God would even stoop. To look at you and me, that we might even behold him face to face, the eternal one invading time.

The infinite creator in a loving relationship with fin creation. The unapproachable purity. Reaching out to sinful humanity, the Lord God Almighty, wanting and longing to be our most intimate friend. God has done everything he can to make him available to man. It 's man's fault if he does not walk. In int with God. And I'll be honest with you, as I have sat in my study or spent time at my home in the evening just reading the Bible and reading through what the Bible has to say about walking with God.

God has stretched my own personal life. And hopefully, each week when we come, my desire is just to share with you things that God is teaching me. I by no means have a tremendous walk with God. It's nowhere where it ought to be, and I've got a lot of things to learn. But as I learn them, I want to share them with you. And hopefully, we together will, as we journey along life's road, will be able to see: yep, that's what God wants for us. That's where God wants us to be, that's what He has for us.

And so we're going to begin tonight by looking at the invitation to intimacy. And for that, I would invite you to turn with me to the last chapter of the Bible.

The last chapter of the Bible and the last series of verses in the Bible. A tremendous passage of scripture. They're all tremendous. I don't know why I say that. They're all tremendous. They're all God's word. But I find it very interesting that God would close out his word with an invitation. That's just like our Lord, isn't it? He spells out the end times. He tells us how it's all going to come to be. What he's going to do, and how he's going to do it, and how the tribulation is going to work itself out, and how, when he comes back, he's going to set up his kingdom.

And how he's going to rule for a thousand years, and how it's all going to come to an end, and how there's going be a new heaven and a new earth. He lets us know exactly what's going to happen. We know the future, we know the end, right? And God gives us the end. But it's amazing what He does. He gives us an invitation. So I just want to read through verses 13 to 21, verse number 13. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.

Blessed are those who wash their robes. That they may have the right to the tree of life and may enter by the gates into the city. Outside of the dogs and the sorcerers and the immoral persons, And the murderers and the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices lying. I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you these things for the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, the bright morning star. And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let the one who hears say, Come. And let the one who is thirsty come, and let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost.

I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God shall add to him the plagues which are written in this book. And if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city which are written in this book. He who testifies to these things says, Yes, I am coming quickly. Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen. The Lord God closes out his word with a plea.

An inv to all people. That invitation is recorded in verse number 17. And surrounding that invitation are a group of incentives. As to why people want to respond to that invitation. So, we want to declare to you that invitation this evening, and then we want to describe to you the incentives for coming. So, point number one, declaring the invitation, we want to cover three things.

Number one, its distinction, number two, its extension, and number three, its appropriation. First of all, it's distinction.

It's important to note that the first part of verse number 17 is a prayer on behalf of the Spirit or a plea on behalf of the Spirit and the bride, which is the church.

For the Savior to come. The second half of the verse is a plea for the sinner to come. Follow along with me. And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. Now, who are they saying, come to? I believe they're saying, Come, Lord Jesus. It says over in verse number seven: the Lord says, And behold, I am coming. Quickly. It says in verse number 12, these words: Behold, I am coming quickly. Verse number 20, yes, I am coming quickly. So the Spirit in the church says, Yes, Lord, come quickly. It's a plea for the Lord to come.

After all, the Spirit has been engaged in bringing people to God through the course of the world, right? His job is to convict man of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. He is to bring man to him. But all through the period of the ages, the Spirit of God has been quenched, the Spirit of God has been grieved, the Spirit of God has been rejected. And the Spirit of God has been blasphemed, and no more so has he been blasphemed during the, except during the seven-year tribulational period, which is described in the book of Revelation.

And so the Spirit of God says, Yes, Lord, come. Why? Because what is the work of the Spirit? It's to glorify the Lord Jesus, right? John 14 or John:, He will glorify me. So, the job of the Spirit is to glorify the Son. And the greatest way for the Son to be glorified is for the Son to come. Because the last time the world saw the Lord, they saw Him on the tree. The next time they see the Lord, they're going to see him coming on a white horse. And the Spirit of God says, That's what I want them to see.

So come, Lord Jesus. Come quickly, Lord Jesus. I want the world to see you for who you are. I want the world to begin to mourn over the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. I want the world to be able to see the King in all of his glory. So he makes a plea for the Lord to come. Also, notice that not only is the Spirit pleading for the Savior to come, but so is the church.

It says in the Spirit and the bride. Say, come. The bride wants the bridegroom to come, right? If you're engaged and you're about to get married and you're looking forward to that wonderful day in which you and your Your fian are going to be united forever. You're looking forward to that day. So, come June 5th, come June 10th, come July, whenever it is you're going to be getting married, come quickly so we can be together for the rest of our lives. Well, the church is the bride of Christ. And the bride somehow wants the bridegroom to come.

And is it not true that the believer's life is to be wrapped up in looking? Longing and living for the return of the Lord Jesus. Paul said over in 2 Timothy 4, verse 8, that we are the ones who love. His app. Why do we love it? Because when he returns, there will be the fulfillment of our salvation. That is. What we do not yet have in terms of perfection, we will have that is total Christ-lik, immortality, eternal riches. Our salvation is not yet complete in that sense. And when the Lord Jesus comes, the bridegroom, and takes us home to be with Him, everything will be complete.

If two people are engaged to get married and the bride is not longing for the day she will be united with her bridegroom forever, there's something wrong with the relationship, right? You'd be questioning the love that's going on between the two. Someone here is not really in love with the other one. You long for the day in which you'd be together for the rest of your lives. You hope. It's your chief joy. It's your prayer. You see, the bride, too, is weary of the battle. The bride too is weary of sin.

The bride too is weary of the world. And they too want to go home. And I would find it very much incongruous with the Christian faith for someone who loves the Lord, who says they love the Lord, and is not looking nor longing for His return. Yet, how many people don't look for him to come? Don't even necessarily want him to come until Certain things happen. They get married, they have a child, they see their kids grow. Those things seem to be more important to them than The return of the Lord Jesus.

I find that rather odd. I have a hard time understanding that, especially in light of the Scripture. We are to love and to long His appearing. What's Tit II tell us? What 's the grace of God teach us? The grace of God teaches us to look. And to long for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus. And this verse helps us understand that. For the Spirit and the bride say, yes, Lord, you come. And then it says, and let the one who hears say come. He who is listening to the Spirit and the bride say come.

May he turn, in turn, listen, learn, and believe, so that he too may join in the chorus of saying, Yes, Lord Jesus. Come quickly. But that one who hears must come before he can say, Come, Lord Jesus. Because the unbeliever is not looking and longing for the Lord to return. They're not living in light of his return. They're not going to be joining in with the church, nor the spirit saying, Come. Lord Jesus. But as the spirit and the bride say, come, they invite the one who is listening to come. Then the invitation is extended by the spirit and the church.

To the world. So you must understand the distinction, which leads us then to the extension of the inv. For the second half of the verse says, And let the one who is thirsty Come and let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost.

The one who is thirsty, the one who wishes, is the extension of the invitation. All those who have recognized their need. All those who have felt the dryness of their soul and are thirsty. All those whose hearts are parched and barren. All those interested in coming to drink. It's the prerequisite to repentance. It's those who have realized Poverty of spirit. It's those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they are the ones who shall be satisfied. They are the ones who have realized that there is something in their soul that is missing.

There's an emptiness that's there. And so they are striving for that which will only fulfill the hunger of the soul. Jesus said in John 6:3, I am the bread of life. He who comes to me shall not hunger, and he who believes shall never thirst. He said in John 7:3, if any man is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. This is why you're listening. This is why you're hearing. Because in the depths of your soul, you are thirsty. You are hungry. Matthew 11:2 says something similar. It uses another metaphor, not being thirsty or hungry, but one who is weary.

Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden. And I will give you rest. Are you weary? The invitation is extended to those who not only are thirsty and hungry, but to those who are weary. And God says: if you're thirsty, you come.

If you're hungry, you come. If you're weary, you come. It's those who have recognized Their need. And it's the human element. It's the human volition in salvation. It's not the free will of man in salvation because man doesn't have a free will. You know that, don't you? Man doesn't have a free will. The reason you know that is because man is in bondage, right? To sin. If you're in bondage, you're not free, right? If you're a slave, you're not free, right? So to say that man has a free will is not according to the biblical term.

Man has a human volition, but not a free will. He's in bondage to a sin. He's a slave to a sin. He must fulfill a sin. Until the Spirit of God touches his heart. Then he begins to recognize he has need. And then the human volition responds by saying, Yes, Lord. Yes, I am thirsty. Yes, Lord, I am hungry. Yes, Lord, I am empty. Yes, Lord, I am weary. I want to come. And then there needs to be an appropriation of the invitation. That's our third point.

It says, take the water of life. Without cost. You recognize your need. You know where the supply is. And you take it by faith. It's free. The cost only came on behalf of Christ. He is the one who paid the ransom. He is the one who paid the price. But for you, It's by faith. The water of life refers to eternal life, being with the Lord forever in the heavenly city on earth. John:, Jesus told the Samaritan woman that the water he gives would be a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.

And the Lord God says, look, if you're in need, you need to take the water of life without cost. It cannot be achieved. It must be received. You can't merit eternal salvation. You can't do enough good things to get there. When you recognize you have a need, you must receive the gift. For the gift of God is what? Eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. That's the invitation. It's extended to those who are thirsty, to those who are needy and empty, hungry and weary. And it must be appropriated.

You must reach out and receive the free gift. Of eternal life. The question is: why would anybody want to do that? Why would anybody want to come to Christ and see him face to face and meet him where he is? This te gives us at least five incentives for doing so. And I want to cover just the first one with you this evening.

The first one is this: the identity of Christ, who he is. Verses thirteen and sixteen. It says in verse number 13, I am the alpha and the omega, the first and the last, the beginning.

In the end. I guess when you receive an invitation, the only reason you respond Primarily as if you had any consideration for all at all for those who extended the invitation to you. I mean, we receive invitations for birthday parties. We receive them for graduations. We receive them for anniversary parties. We receive them for weddings. And sometimes we toss them, and sometimes we go. But it all depends on who's inviting us, doesn't it? Most of the time. Well, God says: the alpha and the omega.

The beginning and the end, the first and the last. I am the one who is extending to you. The water of life. I'm the one who extends to you the invitation. There, I want you to come. And so the king of the world invites you to his kingdom. The question is, will you go? Will you be a part of what he has to offer and who he is? He identifies him. I am the Alpha and the Omega. Now, the readers of Revelation, of course, were Greek, or excuse me, were Gentiles. And they spoke Greek. And so we all know that the alpha and the omega are the first and the last letter of the Greek alphabet.

And it's kind of interesting that Christ, four times in the book of Revelation, refers to him as the Alpha and the Omega. Two times in the beginning, Revelation 1, 8, and 11, and two times. At the end, how ironic. Revelation 21, 6 and 22, 13. So he says, Look, I am the beginning and the end, and I am all that's in between. It expresses his infinity. It expresses his eternality, the boundless life of God that extends everything and expresses everything. The immensity of God. The Bible begins with God.

In the beginning, God. And the Bible ends with Jesus. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you all. Amen. Revel 22:2. And everything in between points to the Savior. Because God is the beginning and the end, the first and the last, the alpha and the omega.

It's a way of saying the same thing over and over and over again. He's before time, he is time, he's at the end of time. He's the end of all things, the beginning of all things, the goal of all things. It expresses his completeness, his timeliness, his sovereign authority. He's not a man, he's not an angel, he's not some superhero, he's the God of the universe. The beginning and the end, and that's the one who extends the invitation. That's the one who says, Come, come and drink and take of the water of life freely.

Isaiah said something similar back in Isaiah chapter 41 when he said this in Isaiah 41, verse 4. Who has performed and accomplished it, calling forth the generations from the beginning? I, the Lord, am the first and with the last.

I am He. Over in Isaiah 43, verse number 10, the Lord says this. You are my witnesses, declares the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen, in order that you may know and believe me, and understand that I am He. Before me, there was no God formed, and there will be none after me. I, even I, am the Lord, and there is no Saviour besides me. The reason there isn't is because I am the beginning and the end, the first and the last, the alpha and the omega, and there is no other God besides me.

Isaiah 44, verse number 6. Thus says the Lord, the king of Israel, and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts, I am the first, and I am the last, and there is no God besides me.

Isaiah 48, verse number 12. It says this: Listen to me, O Jacob, even Israel whom I called, I am he. I am the first.

I am also the last. Jesus Christ is before time. Jesus Christ is after time. Jesus Christ is the center of time. Jesus Christ is above time. He is below time. Jesus Christ encompasses time. Jesus Christ is everything. And that's the one who gives you the inv. To come. He says down in verse number 16, I Jesus. Again, describing who he is. Of all the names that the God of the universe could have given his son, he chose the name Jesus. Why? For he would be the one who would save his people from their sins.

No sweeter name in all the earth than Jesus. That's the name that dispels demons. That's the name that calms the waters. That's the name that does all there is to do, the name of Jesus. It's I, Jesus, who extends the invitation. I'm the one who wants you to come. I'm the one who wants you to be with me. That's the one who extends the invitation.