Come! God Part 1

Welcome to this edition of Back to Basics with Pastor Brian Broterson.

The Lord is inviting all people to come and drink the water of life freely.

You see, that's what salvation is. It is the thing that satisfies the human soul.

It is the thing that brings peace. It is the thing that washes and cleanses us so thoroughly

from the stain of sin that it's like we never even had those stains upon us.

Today, on Back to Basics, Pastor Brian continues his study in the Book of Revelation.

Join us as Pastor Brian begins his teaching on Revelation 22 verse 17 in a message titled

Come, God's invitations. Now, here's Pastor Brian. Verse 16, Jesus is speaking to us,

I Jesus have sinned my angel to testify to you these things in the churches. I am the root

and the offspring of David the bright and morning star. And the spirit and the bright say come,

and let him who hears say come, and let him who thirst come, whoever desires,

let them take the water of life freely. We're going to look at this invitation that we read here.

And it, of course, is this invitation to come and drink the water of life freely,

take the water of life freely, and the water of life here is a symbolic way of describing salvation.

And we'll talk about that a bit later, but just this beautiful picture that God gives to us of

what He offers to us, this water of life. Now, of course, as we see, as we know, here we are

at the conclusion of the Book of Revelation, but notice that we're also at the conclusion of

the Bible itself. So we've come here to the end of the entire biblical revelation,

and the thing that is really amazing to me to think about is that here, once again,

we have God extending his invitation to people. And now, think about this. Human history is,

among other things, it's the story of man's continued rejection of God. Man continues to reject God,

continues to spurn God's offer of life. And rather than giving up on man, rather than just

deciding, okay, enough is enough, I've offered this so many times and it's been turned down,

I'm just going to withdraw the offer. The amazing thing to me is to see how all the way to the very end,

God continues to hold out that offer, that invitation is there. You know, think about it,

if you yourself, if you were extending sort of like an olive branch for illustration,

all of branches like a peace sign, if you continue to extend that to someone, there's a point

and you were constantly rejected, you were constantly spurned, there's a point you're just going

to say, you know what, I'm done, okay, I've tried everything I can, they don't want this, I'm finished,

I'm withdrawing the offer. But you know, the amazing thing is God has never done that. And even though

history has been just a continual rejection of the creator, by us, his creation, he still offers

that gift of life and we see that right here to the very end. Now there are a number of places

in the Bible where we find similar kinds of invitations and they begin in a similar way with

the invite to come. And so what I want to do today is I want to just look at a couple of those

other invitations that are given and then we'll come finally back to the one that we started with

here. But what I want to look at when we take a look at these is to see what the invitation is to

and who it is that is being invited. So if we go back to the book of Isaiah, you don't have to turn

there but maybe you want to just jot this down because it's a great invitation there. In the first

chapter of Isaiah, verse 18, it says, the Lord is speaking and he says, come now. Let us reason

together says the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow, though they

are red as crimson, they'll be as wool. So here's one of those invitations. And notice the

invitation is to the sinner who sins are like scarlet and crimson. Now make no mistake about it.

Everybody's a sinner. We're all sinners. The Bible is crystal clear about this. All of sin

and come short of the glory of God. Every one of us are sinners. But not every one of us

sin necessarily to the same degree. Not everyone is affected by sin equally. Of course in the

spiritual realm, in the eternal realm, we are all affected equally by sin. But not all of us are

affected equally by sin in this life because not everyone engages in sin to the level that

your sins would be as scarlet or as crimson. So what's being described here is those who are under

the control really of sin in all of its destructiveness. Sometimes the term is used to speak of

people whose lives are just so devastated by sin as people who are engaged or under the control of

life dominating sins. And there certainly are those kinds of life dominating sins, sins that

just literally wreck a person's life so that they can't even live life normally. They can't

really even function normally. Now a lot of these people are addicted to drugs, to alcohol. They're

addicted to violence. They're addicted to all kinds of bad behavior. And so we're talking about

those upon whom sin has left its mark. The stain of sin goes deep into the fabric of their life.

Sin permeates the very warp and wolf of their being. But still, God is able. And notice what he's

able to do. Notice the promise. Though your sins be as scarlet, they will be white as snow.

God is able to take those lives that would appear to other people to be beyond repair.

He's able to take them and actually cleanse them to such an extent that the stain is completely

removed. That's the promise here. That's amazing. And you know, that's really what redemption is.

God is the God of redemption. He redeems things. The word redeem, the idea behind it is to purchase

back something that was lost, something that was stolen, something that was taken away.

Redemption is buying that back, bringing that back. And God is the God of redemption.

You know, one of the places, interestingly, one of the places where there is amazing work of

God happening in our day that we don't necessarily know this because we might not be directly connected

to it. But did you know that in the prisons across this country, there is a mighty work of God

that's taking place. And this is not the normal kind of a situation. But for about the past, you know,

20 years or so, there's been an extraordinary outpouring of the spirit in prisons all across this

country. And men whose, and women whose lives would be like this. It's being described here.

There's sins of scarlet like crimson. The, the blot, the stain is so obvious and it's so

thoroughly permeated. They're, they're being that they are incapable of even functioning out in society.

Many are being redeemed. Many are being washed. Many are being cleansed. So as we consider

this invitation here in Isaiah 118, let us all know that whether it's for ourselves or for someone else,

the invitation is still there to come and have those stains removed by the blood of Jesus.

There's no one that's too far. There's no one whose pit is too deep. There's no stain that's too

dark that the blood of Jesus can't remove. So that's one invitation. Second invitation that I want

to look at is found in Matthew chapter 11. In Matthew chapter 11 verses 28 through 30,

here Jesus extends an invitation and he says this, he says, come to me, all you who labor and are

heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and

lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

Now like I said a few moments ago, we're all sinners. There's no person anywhere in the world

never has been who who's not a sinner. But like we also said, we have to recognize it that not everybody

has engaged in sin to the same degree and not everybody's life is

marred by sin to the same degree. And so the manifestation of the

the presence of sin in people's lives varies to some extent from person to person.

And rather than the person who has, you know, there's sins of scarlet and crimson and the right

there is just a massive blot. You can just, it's inescapably obvious. You can't help but see it.

There's other people who aren't really like that externally, but yet

the reality is there's still sin there. There's the burden of sin. And Jesus here is extending an

invitation to those who labor and are heavy laden. He's talking to those who are weary, the man or

the woman who is burdened by sin, weighed down by the heaviness of life, overcome by troubles and

cares that are connected back to sin that's in the world and sin that's in our hearts as well.

And it's the same solution. The solution is coming to Jesus, coming to him. And as he said,

he will take that heavy burden. My yoke is easy. My burden is light. He will take that burden of sin

that we bear. You know, sin is a heavy burden and trying to come out from under it,

apart from the grace of God, it can't happen. It ends up being a crushing thing.

And so when we take him up on this invitation to come to him, we receive the rest, the relief,

we receive the peace. That is otherwise unattainable. But then that brings us to God's final

invitation here. And as we read here, the Spirit and the Bride say, come, let him who hears say, come,

let him who thirst come. And this is the third category that I want to look at. There's the, as we

said, there's the sin that's deep and it's permeated into the very fabric of a person's soul. The

sin is scarlet in crimson. And then there's the sin that weighs down the burdens. But now here's

the third category. And I think everybody's somewhere in one of these categories. And in some cases,

we might be in all three places. But the third description here of the condition that the

invitation is meant to remedy is that of thirst, if anyone thirst. And I think that this is

so prevalent in our culture today. And the idea that most people have is that through the obtaining

of things, material things, or by gaining some sort of position in society, or by really just

discovering myself and living for who I really am, that it's through this, that I'm finally going

to have this thirst quenched. So the invitation here is to the thirsty, is to those who find that

nothing in the world satisfies, nothing fulfills. There is in them a deep sense of emptiness and

futility. And then this is true, like I said, of multitudes of people. And everybody's always thinking

that, well, you know, it's just, it's the next thing. That's what's going to do it for me.

I remember myself before I came to Christ. That was where I was at. I was always looking to the

future because, you know, from where I was, I was restless. I was thirsty, didn't matter what I

was doing. So I would think, okay, well, you know, I'm going to move on to this next thing. And when I,

when I get to that spot, that's where the thirst will be quenched. But you know what, I get to that spot.

And I'd find it, well, I'm just as thirsty here as I was back there. It's a never-ending thing.

Because the truth of matter is this, that in every single human heart, and I, when I say

hard, I don't mean the physical organ, I mean the core of every single human being, there is a

God-shaped void. And there's nothing that can be put in that place except God that will bring

fulfillment. It's just as Augustine said, we were made by God and for God, and we are restless

until we come to know Him. That is the situation. But notice the invitation. This is the invitation.

The Lord is saying, come, come. Whoever is thirsty, come. Let him drink of the water of life

freely. And that's the picture of what we're talking about here. The Lord is inviting all people

to come and drink the water of life freely. And you see, that's what salvation is. It is the

thing that satisfies the human soul. It is the thing that brings peace. It is the thing that washes

and cleanses us so thoroughly from the stain of sin that it's like we never even had those stains

upon us. And that invitation, like I said in the beginning, it goes all the way out right to the

end. That's where we're at. We're right at the end of the Bible. And God is still extending the

invitation. And notice what it says, the spirit and the bride say, come. The Holy Spirit, you know

what the Holy Spirit is doing in the world today? The Holy Spirit is saying, come to people. He's

convicting the world of sin, righteousness and judgment. And in doing that, he's seeking to draw

people to Jesus. That's the work of the Spirit. He's saying to people, come, I want to say this to

you. If you are a parent today and you have a child that has gone astray, that has wandered off,

maybe so far from the place that they should be, maybe their lives are dominated by sin.

Maybe that stain of sin is so deep. Maybe they're in prison. Maybe they're living on the streets

because they're addicted to drugs. Know this. The Spirit is saying to them, come, keep praying for them

because even though you might not see it, even though you might not have any sense that there's

anything happening, the Spirit says come. And that's what the Spirit does. And I have heard testimony

after testimony about how in the midst of that deep, dark, sinful place, many would testify and say

the Spirit was saying come. I came back to the Lord because this is what the Spirit was doing in my

life. And of course, then we realized that yes, and loved ones had not stopped praying for them.

Keep praying. The Spirit says come. The bride says come. The bride says come. You know, it is our

privilege. We're the bride. It is our privilege to invite people to come to Jesus. You know,

sometimes we get all hung up about what we call evangelism, sharing our faith.

Sometimes we get all intimidated. And sometimes we get all stressed out about that. But you know,

listen, let's just simplify it. What are we doing? We're just inviting people to come. You know,

I don't have to convince somebody that the Bible is true. I don't have to convince somebody that

the gospel is reality. It's not my responsibility to make people understand this to the point

that they can really believe it. You know, all I need to do is just invite people, you know, come.

Come and see. Because the truth of the matter is, Jesus is very much alive and well. And you come

and see and guess what? You'll meet him. He'll let you know what the facts are. I like in the gospel

of John, you have the series of events where Andrew, he goes and gets his brother, Simon Peter,

he says, come. And they go others and they get the Philip and Nathaniel and they're, you know,

come and see. Come and see. We found the Messiah. What just come and see? You know, they didn't say,

we found the Messiah. And here's 10 reasons why we know this is the Messiah. They just said,

we found the Messiah. Oh, come on. How could you have found the Messiah? Are you sure? Well, come and see.

Come and check it out. And so for us as well, like I said, sometimes we just get way too hung up.

And we find that, you know what? The Spirit's already at work. So what are we doing?

Inviting people. Come and see. Taste and see that the Lord is good. You want to know about Jesus?

You want to know if He's real? We'll ask Him if He's real. I don't have to convince you that He's real.

You really want to know He's real? Guess what? If you ask Him, He'll tell you. He'll make

Himself known to you. The Spirit and the bride say, come. So this is our privilege that we,

it's, it's not a burden. It's a privilege that we get to do this and let Him who hears say, come

and who does the invitation go out to? Whoever desires. Whoever desires. That's the same all the way

through. Whosoever will. Whosoever believes. God has this offer of the water of life and it's free

to everyone. The only thing one must do is want it. Desire it. And like Jesus said, there's not a

single person. He said, whoever comes to me, I will never, ever turn them away. There's no one that's

gone too far. There's no pit that's too deep. There's no burden that's too heavy. There's no thirst.

That's unquenchable because Christ is able to deal with all those things. And that invitation

goes out today. It's gone out all throughout history and it's going to go out right to the very end

because God is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. Let's not

forget that. God wants to save people. Jesus died so people could be saved. Who did he die for? He

died for everybody. So everybody is a candidate for salvation. So we as the bride, let's say come

and let's have confidence that the spirit is saying come. And of course, let's for ourselves who

have already come, just stay refreshed. They're in that fountain of living water. The water of life

just keep drinking from that fountain and let that fountain well up within and pour out from our lives.

We'll continue tomorrow with more valuable insights from Pastor Brian as we study together in the book

of Revelation. Thank you for listening to Back to Basics with Pastor Brian Brotison. For more

information about the Back to Basics Radio program or the teaching of Pastor Brian and are available

resources, please visit our website back to basics radio.com. That's back to basics radio.com

or by calling our request line at 1-800-733-6443. That's 1-800-733-6443. And now once again,

here's Pastor Brian. I love the many, many invitations we are given in scripture. I think back to

the words of Jesus and Matthew's gospel, come to me, all you who are weary and burdened and I

will give you rest. And here at the very end in the book of Revelation, once again, an invitation

and the spirit and the bride say come and let him who hears say come and let those who

thirst come. The Lord is inviting us to come. Whoever desires can come and take the

water of life freely. This is the amazing thing about the salvation that's in Jesus. It's God's

free gift to anyone and everyone who will receive it. And so the spirit and the bride, the Holy

Spirit and the people of God, invite you to come.

Back to basics is the listener supported preaching and teaching ministry of Pastor Brian

Broterson.