yet you refuse to come to Me to have life.Yet you will not come to me, that you may have life.And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.and ye will not come to me, that ye may have life.
5 sermons cite this verse
… These are the scriptures that testify about me. Yet you refuse to come to me to have life. I do not accept praise from men, but I know you, I know that you do not have the love of God in your hearts. Again, those words of Jesus to his opponents are from John chapter 5. The fact that you are listening to this program tells me that you are not an opponent of Jesus. However, we Christians can fall into a similar trap, talking about our lives, our Christian walk, and not turning, there's the word again, not turning the focus toward Jesus. I'm not suggesting that we shouldn't talk about our own lives. Every merchant knows that a satisfied customer can be most convincing. St. Paul, for example, often wrote about his own experiences. We can do that too, for the incarnation of Jesus Christ is about God changing human stories. And so your story is worth telling. I'm simply saying, don't stop with your story, with your Christian experience. …
… This morning we're in the fifth chapter of that gospel, beginning at verse 31, reading through verse 47. John chapter 5, verses 31 through 47. If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true. There is another who bears witness of me, and I know that the witness which he witnesses of me is true. You have sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth. But I do not receive testimony from man, but I say these things that you may be saved. He was the burning and shining lamp, and you were willing for a time to rejoice in His light. But I have a greater witness than John's, for the works which the Father has given me to finish, the very works that I do bear witness of Me that the Father has sent Me. And the Father Himself who sent Me has testified of Me. And you have neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His form. But you do not have His Word abiding in you, because whom He sent, him you do not believe. …
Why natural men are not willing to come to Christ, and their dreadful condition. Hence we may learn the reason why natural men will not come to Christ: they do not come because they will not come. “Ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.” John v. 40. When we say that natural men are not willing to come to Christ, it is not meant that they are not willing to be delivered from hell; for without doubt, no natural man is willing to go to hell. Nor is it meant, that they are not willing that Christ should keep them from going to hell. Without doubt, natural men under awakenings often greatly desire this. But this does not argue that they are willing to come to Christ: for, notwithstanding their desire to be delivered from hell, their hearts do not close with Christ, but are averse to him. They see nothing in Christ wherefore they should desire him; no beauty nor comeliness to draw their hearts to him. And they are not willing to take Christ as he is; they would fain divide him. There are some things in him that they like, and others that they greatly dislike; but consider him as he is, and as he is offered to them in the gospel, and they are not willing to accept of Christ; for in doing so, they must of necessity part with all their sins; they must sell the world, and part with their own righteousness. But they had rather, for the present, run the venture of going to hell, than do that. …
"Ye will not come to Me, that ye might have life."--John v. 40. St. John tells us in to-day's Epistle that "God hath given unto us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son hath not life." Yet in the text the Son Himself, our Saviour, sorrowfully and solemnly expostulates with His own brethren, "Ye will not come to Me, that ye might have life." "He came unto His own, and His own received Him not." We know from history, as a matter of fact, that they did not receive Him, that they did not come to Him when He came to them; but He says in the text that they would not come, that they did not wish to come, implying that they, and none else but they, were the cause of their not coming. Does it not seem a plain natural instinct that every one should seek his own good? What then is meant by this unwillingness to come for the greatest of goods, life, an unwillingness, which, guided by the light of Scripture and by experience, we can confidently affirm to prevail at this day as widely and as fully as in the age in which Christ said it? …
21. And “the same Lord over all is rich” in mercy “to all that call upon him:” (Romans 10:12:) But you say, “No; he is such only to those for whom Christ died. And those are not all, but only a few, whom God hath chosen out of the world; for he died not for all, but only for those who were ‘chosen in him before the foundation of the world.’” (Eph. 1:4.) Flatly contrary to your interpretation of these scriptures, also, is the whole tenor of the New Testament; as are in particular those texts: — “Destroy not him with thy meat, for whom Christ died,” (Rom. 14:15, ) — a clear proof that Christ died, not only for those that are saved, but also for them that perish: He is “the Saviour of the world;” (John 4:42; ) He is “the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world;” (John 1:29; ) “He is the propitiation, not for our sins only, but also for the sins of the whole world;” (1 John 2:2; ) “He,” the living God, “is the Savior of all men;” (1 Timothy 4:10; ) “He gave himself a ransom for all;” (1 Tim. 2:6; ) “He tasted death for every man.” (Heb. 2:9.) 22. If you ask, “Why then are not all men saved?” the whole law and the testimony answer, First, Not because of any decree of God; not because it is his pleasure they should die; for, As I live, saith the Lord God,” I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth.” (Ezek. 18:3, 32.) Whatever be the cause of their perishing, it cannot be his will, if the oracles of God are true; for they declare, “He is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance;” (2 Pet. 3:9; ) “He willeth that all men should be saved.” And they, Secondly, declare what is the cause why all men are not saved, namely, that they will not be saved: So our Lord expressly, “Ye will not come unto me that ye may have life.” (John 5:40.) “The power of the Lord is present to heal” them, but they will not be healed. “They reject the counsel,” the merciful counsel, “of God against themselves,” as did their stiff-necked forefathers. And therefore are they without excuse; because God would save them, but they will not be saved: This is the condemnation, “How often would I have gathered you together, and ye would not!” (Matt. 23:37.) …