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 the water of life freely.
Every Christian who thinks they chose Christ, and who believes in decisional salvation, will look at this verse and even quote it and exclaim. “See! How can you deny that man doesn’t have a free will? It says right here in His Word, ‘And Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.’ There it is black on white - CHOICE! Explain that for me, please!”
I can easily explain it but it will take us right back to where we’ve been before. There are many Christians who do NOT accept God’s Word that man is Totally Depraved. Just as a baby does not cause himself to be born, neither can we cause ourselves to be born again. Just as a baby can not do ANY of those things for which babies are known (cry, suckle, sleep) until after he is born, neither can a man do ANY of those things for which Christians are known (repent, believe and trust in Jesus, love God) until after he is born again. Why?
- because every imagination of the heart of a lost man is only evil, continuously (Genesis 6:5), the Bible allows no exception to this;
- a lost man who is accustomed to doing evil cannot do good (Jeremiah 13:23), the Bible allows no exception to this;
- a lost man is hostile toward God and can not please Him (Romans 8:7-8), the Bible allows no exception;
- a lost man accepts nothing from the Holy Spirit, thinks it is all foolishness and can not understand it (1 Corinthians 2:14), the Bible allows no exception.
Over and over God’s Word tells us of the Totally Depraved nature of a lost man and what he cannot do.
And let him that heareth say, Come. As I wrote extensively in Bible Truth #366, only those who are of the Truth can hear, and as such, only believers will be saying “Come.”
And let him that is athirst, come. Of what kind of thirst is God speaking? He is telling us of a spiritual thirst! A lost man is spiritually dead and has no idea that he needs water because he isn’t thirsty. Spiritually speaking, a dead man can’t see, can’t hear, can’t smell, can’t speak, and can’t thirst - and each and every lost man is spiritually dead! The Psalmist writes: As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God (Psalms 42:1). That is from the quill of a saved man! Only a saved man can seek after God. Paul tells us in Romans 3:11 that no man seeks God. Is he referring to every man or just lost men? The context of the passage is obvious, he is quoting the Old Testament (Psalm 14:1-3, 53:1-3, Ecclesiastes 7:20) and he is referring to lost men, those that have only the flesh, those whose spirit is dead. A lost man does not thirst nor has any idea what it means.
And whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely. Simply because God has John record “whosoever will” does not mean that each and every man has the ability or desire. Only a man who is thirsting after the spiritual truths of God will freely drink. And as I described in a paragraph above, a lost man WON’T. Please go back and read Bible Truth #92 where I give an example of two opposing teams in football - the Cardinals and Eagles. Who will wear a green jersey? Only an Eagle. Who will thirst, believe, or repent? Only those who have passed from death to life - because a man with a dead spirit can’t thirst, can’t understand (1 Corinthians 2:14), can’t please God (Romans 8:8), can’t repent (2 Timothy 2:25), won’t come into the Light (John 3:20), and CAN’T believe. Only those in whom God has worked will believe (John 6:29) because belief is GIVEN to us by God (Philippians 1:29), it is not something a lost man can just decide to do.
And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. And who will? Only those whom God has already quickened, those He chose in Christ before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4), those whose names were written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, also before the foundation of the world (Revelation 17:8).
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.