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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/frank-sona/come/
2 Corinthians chapter 6. 2 Corinthians 6 and verse 2. For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succored thee. Behold, now is the accepted time. Behold, now is the day of salvation.
And now an Old Testament counterpart to that, Isaiah chapter 1. Isaiah chapter 1 and verse 18. Isaiah 1 and verse 18. Come now and let us reason together, saith the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet.
God is not asking the people how they feel their sins are. God is not opening the door to an emotional response, to a subjective feeling about how far they've gone, what they deserve, or anything like that.
God is making definitive statements. And He says, your sins are as scarlet. And then He says, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. Now here's how. If you be willing and obedient.
If you come now to me, He says, you shall eat the good of the land. But if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured with a sword. And then to put the cap on it, He says, for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.
There's something about preaching the gospel. There's something about opening God's Word that presents individuals with an unrefutable authority, with a tremendous, unchangeable message and a charge. And that charge to come has a note of urgency with it as well.
And both of those notes are sounded in a gospel meeting or when the Word of God is presented. The questions that my brother has asked you, you can't put them off. You have to face them now. This is not a message for tomorrow.
Even though salvation is for eternity, it's not a message for tomorrow. Tomorrow never comes. Tomorrow is the word of the devil. Tomorrow is the word of a sin-sick heart. Tomorrow is the word of a world that beckons and calls.
Tomorrow is not the word of God. It's come now. Now is the day of salvation. Now is the accepted time. In a few short moments, this meeting will be over. And as this gospel is being preached and presented, this is a message for now.
You who sit in your seat tonight, you in this audience who are in your sins lost under that wrath of God that is hovering over you, God is holding back by tremendous compassionate patience in the longing that you will come now, in the desire that as he calls for you to come now, you will come under his terms and agree with God about your guiltiness, your need, your condition.
Maybe I'm dating myself a little bit, but I can remember as a boy and hearing about John F. Kennedy as president, and I remember when there was an invasion down in Cuba and in the Bay of Pigs, and Russia was bringing their missiles and they were presenting them in Cuba, and Kennedy was going against that, and there was, I can remember Khrushchev who was the leader of Russia at the time.
Kennedy made him, and he gave him basically an ultimatum, get them out of war. That's it. And Khrushchev was, this leader of Russia was infuriated. He was angry. He actually took his shoe off, and he was banging on the table, and he was saying, we must negotiate.
We must negotiate. This world leader, so angry. You know what Kennedy said? No. I don't know what you think tonight, but if Khrushchev couldn't do it with President Kennedy, you certainly can't do it with God.
There are no negotiations here. There is no coming to the table, and the sinner saying to God, and God saying to the sinner, listen, maybe we can meet halfway. If you give a little ground, I'll give a little ground, and so on, and you'll take refuge in, really in a refuge of lies.
No, God is saying, here are the terms. You are guilty. You have sinned. You are condemned. You are lost. You have broken my laws, but I am offering you now, not tomorrow, now, salvation through my own son that I gave to die at your feet.
At Calvary's cross. He paid the price in full. I will save you where you are. I will deliver you this moment if you will come as a lost, guilty sinner, and you will admit before me on my terms, for my heaven, with my love offered to you, that I will save you.
God says, come now. Let us reason together. If you are willing and obedient. If you come my way. It's my heaven. It's my son. Everything is against you, but listen, I want you to understand tonight, God is not against you.
God is actually for you. God wants to save you. God has made provision, and in fact, that you have a Bible in your hand with these verses on them is proof. God has provided a word that will not be destroyed, that will stand the test of time, that you can look down on words that don't change, and you can come now.
I think of people even during the time of the Lord Jesus that came to him. People who saw their opportunity and seized it, and they were blessed by it. I think of a woman with an issue of blood, and she had suffered so many years, and now Jesus of Nazareth is coming through, and she comes through, and she's knifing her way through the crowd, and she has suffered many things of many physicians.
She's lost money, and now she says, this is my moment. It's as if I can but touch the hem of his garment. Is there someone tonight in this meeting with that attitude? Is there someone tonight that has that fortitude, that conviction, that desire?
I need to get this now, because if you don't have that, you are not going to get God's salvation. It has to come down to that. That's how that woman got it. I think of a nobleman, and his son is at the point of death, and he's coming along, and he has to get to Christ.
I think of a jailer later on in the book of Acts, and he says, this is it. An earthquake has happened. He says, look at the jail. It's in rubbles, and he says, this jail is a little picture of my life because of my sin, and he says, what must I do to be saved?
And he comes that moment. Listen, if salvation is worth anything, it's worth everything. Come now because of your lack, number one. You have a tremendous lack. The Bible puts it this way, for when we are without strength, you have no strength.
You are an absolute spiritual weakling. You have no strength. You have no ability to save yourself, and it's not just a matter that you are unable to save yourself. It's a matter that God has actually designated you can't save yourself, so that there is no human effort.
There is no human ability. It's not a matter of mental acuity figuring this out. Salvation isn't some giant Rubik's Cube that if you twist it the right way, the colors will wind up, or some puzzle, if you get the connection right, bingo, the light will go on.
Salvation is a matter that you cannot save yourself. You are helpless. You are hopeless. You are out of Christ, in your sins, condemned. Can you identify with that? Can you agree with God? Or is there someone tonight in this meeting, and you're in your sins, and you're vaunting yourself, and you're puffing out your chest, and you're walking, and you're looking around at other people, and you're saying, you know what, there are a ton of people out there that are far worse than I am.
Don't tell me that I have a lack. I can get this. You can't save yourself. It's not just that God is saying, come now, because you have a lack, but also He's telling you because there is a love. There's a love.
You ever see people refuse love? You ever see people, when someone loves someone, and they are offering something, and they're giving, they're offering their hand? What would you think of a person who there was someone who loves an individual, and they're extending themselves, and they want to give to them, and it's coming from a heart of love?
It's not a matter of philanthropy. It's not a matter of one hand washes the other, and if I do something good for that person, they'll do something good for me. You can do nothing for God. And God is offering a hand in love.
He's offering salvation with the greatest of love. Can you refuse that? In your need, in your sins, with Christ who's been crucified, with heaven's opened door, is there someone tonight, and you're actually refusing love?
And God is calling, come now. Come now. And you're sitting there, and you're refusing it. You need to come now because there's a lake. As we sit here on this nicely polished gym floor, there is a lake of fire in existence.
There is a place called hell, and a lake that burns. You need to come now. Please, if you are not saved, if you are lost, if you're in your sins, please, you need to come now. And I just wonder if there are people sitting here tonight, and you just don't believe it.
Or you just don't care. Because you want your sins. You want your life. And it's no life at all. There's a lake. I was thinking of that lake just a day or so ago. I was out on a boat. It's just a small lake.
I had a depth finder. Fish finder, a depth finder, no fish. As I was looking at the depth, come up anywhere from a foot and a half, and get out of that area, and I'd look down, and there was one 24 feet.
I thought, this little lake, it's got a bottom. There's a depth here. But my mind went to a lake of fire. And there's no bottom to that. There's no depth to that that can be sounded. It's forever. Come on.
Where's your mind at tonight? Where's your heart at? Is it in that world out there that you want to be such a part of that's condemned? Is it with a life that's so empty and shallow and literally meaningless, no matter what you may do or accomplish?
Because the moment you breathe your last, it all means nothing. And you're gone. At least gone from here. There's a lake. I was thinking of these words, come now. God does not leave the word as beautiful, as wonderful, as sweet as it is, come, without a qualifier.
It's come now. And I thought of the immediacy of that word in relation to biblical events. I was thinking of the Lord Jesus as he went to the tomb of Lazarus. And here's this cemetery, and he stands in front of this grave, and there's a dead man.
He's been dead for four days. And by all human standards, he would start to stink. What a picture of a human being in their sins, absolutely dead. And the Lord Jesus sounds the word, Lazarus, come forth.
And immediately, there's a response. He comes forth. It's in the Savior's power. He calls him forth. I'm thinking, and I was thinking today as we were hearing preaching, of what it will be like the moment that the rapture occurs.
And from heaven, the Lord Jesus now, in the sky, that call goes out. Come! Graves are opened. Believers sitting in chairs, maybe in a home, sleeping on the other side of the world, or sleeping on this side of the world, depending on what time zone they're in.
Immediately, raptured! And there is no force on earth that will stop it. As the call goes forth, come! Come home! Because it's in His power. I was thinking of a time, Great White Throne Judgment, the souls of sinners who have died out of Christ, who have died in their sins, who never came now.
In fact, they never came at all. Because they wouldn't come now when God said they never came at all. And out of hell, He says, come. And the bodies of those people resurrected and united forever. We were referring to this earlier, bodies that are perfectly suited for a lake of fire.
And He says, come now. And there is not a force in the universe that will be able to stop it, because it's in His power. But I was thinking, really, in an act of kindness, because God has given you free will.
He has given human beings choice. And He says, come now. And it's in your power. It's in your hand. The question is, are you going to respond? Are you going to listen? Are you going to come? And that will determine where you spend eternity.
Choose. It's in your hand. If you be willing and obedient, your sins that are scarlet, white as snow, crimson as wool, God will cleanse. The blood of Christ can cleanse every sin, all sin. Give the sinner the cleansing that you need if you will but come.
And come now.