“It shall come, that I will gather all nations and tongues; and they shall come, and see my glory”.
(Isaiah 66:18)
Coming is believing. These words are interchangeable in their use. For example in John 6:35: “And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life; he that cometh to Me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on Me shall never thirst.”
What is it, to come? People often think that coming is: “trying to come”. These people are from time to time a bit restless; they make some attempts to come to a Jesus who has not been revealed unto them. People then call this “coming”. That is how they are instructed in the churches and how it is also told in private religious assemblies (conventicles). One deceives the other into thinking that this is the truth, and nearly everybody believes it. But it is something different!
Coming to Christ presupposes “want”, lack of everything. He who is not lacking in everything, will not come. “He hath filled the hungry with good things” (Luke 1:53). People say: “I am missing the Lord, but I would not like to disavow everything in me”. This keeps you away from the Lord. You think you have something, but you have nothing if you are missing God , and everything you have without God is pure self-delusion, of which every person is destined to become persuaded sooner or later. Admission and a sense of need are necessary. That is why the Lord Jesus said: “They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick” (Matt. 9:12).
Coming presupposes calling. “Zacchaeus, make haste, and come down; for today I must abide at thy house” (Luke 19:5). When a man has nothing left than that which makes him damnable before God, then he is called by Christ, and this is the meaning of the words: “And he calleth His own sheep by name” (John 10:3).
Coming indicates that a man sees everything to be in Christ. The apostle writes this to the Colossians: “But Christ is all, and in all” (Col. 3:11). In order to be able to come, a man must see this first.
(From: Meditations, 5 February. Sermon on Isaiah 66:18, 14 December 1926 in Rotterdam.)