Good evening. It's a joy for me to be here
tonight and an honor to be here. I know much of this church's
history. I know much about its pastor,
Brother Don, who I've listened to so many times. and have always
been blessed by hearing his messages. I need your prayers tonight.
I'm just kind of tired in body, but the Lord is able to make
us stand. And he can do above and beyond
that which we could ever ask or think. Turn your Bible to
John chapter six tonight. Sixth chapter of the Gospel of
John. John chapter six. I want to read two verses in
your hearing. Verses 44 and 45. John chapter
six. Verses 44 and 45. While you're turning there, I'll
kind of give you a little bit of an introduction. The Lord
Jesus is speaking here. And the Jews were murmuring,
and they said, this man is saying that he is the bread that come
down from heaven? Is not this Joseph's son? How can he say that he's the
bread that come down from heaven? In verse 43, Jesus said, murmur
not among yourselves. And in verse 44, we read this.
No man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me
draw him. And I will raise him up at the
last day. It is written in the prophets
and they shall be all taught of God. Every man, every man,
Therefore, that hath heard and hath learned of the Father cometh
unto me. I want to preach to you tonight
on God's school. God's school. Before I get into the crux of
the message, let me say this by way of introduction. Before
I get into how God teaches His people, notice verse 44. No man can come unto me. No man. Regardless of education,
regardless of culture, regardless of who your mother and daddy
is, regardless of what religious prestige that you may hold, no
man, whether he's an engineer or a ditch digger, no man, whether
he's a lawyer or a storekeeper, no man, whether he's the President
of the United States or a pauper with nothing. No man, Jesus said,
can come unto me. Now, why is this so? We have
to ask ourselves the question, why is it that Jesus said this? Why can no man come unto him? Most religious people today are
totally ignorant of what happened in the fall. When Adam fell,
he not only fell himself, but he plunged his entire posterity
into ruin and to death. Man is totally depraved. Now, what do we mean by that?
What do we mean by he's totally depraved? Well, I mean, he can
still think. He can still talk. He can still
feel. He can still smell. He can still
make decisions in this life. He can buy things, trade things.
What is it that happened to Adam in the fall that makes men not
able to come to Christ. When Adam died, he died spiritually. The scripture tells us in Romans
5 and verse 12, for about one man, one man, Adam, for about
one man, sin entered into the world and death by sin and death
passed upon all men because all have sinned. He's spiritually ruined, spiritually
unable, separated from God. He hates holiness. He hates righteousness. He doesn't love God, doesn't
love the truth of God, doesn't love the church of God, doesn't
love the men of God. He's totally ruined in the fall. Polluted, corrupted, and to pray. We see this in man's birth. David said in Psalm 51 and verse
5, Behold, I was shapen in iniquity and in sin. My mother conceived me. What's wrong with man? He's born
wrong. He's born spiritually dead. depraved Psalm 58 verse 3 David
said the wicked are estranged from the womb They go astray
as soon as they be born speaking lies Did you know you don't have
to teach a child how to lie? They already know how They know
how to lie. Why do they know how to lie?
It's that nature that nature. They'll lie every time. I remember
when I was growing up, me and my father went to a little store,
and I begged and begged and begged him for a Hershey bar. He said,
no, I ain't buying it. And I just caught his back, turned,
looked this way and looked that way, and I took that Hershey
bar and slipped that thing in my pocket. Dad paid for what
he wanted and we started walking home. So I just pulled the Hershey
bar out and I'm starting to eat it and he said, where'd you get
that? I said, I don't know. Typical response. Why? It's that nature folks. Wicked are estranged from the
womb. They go astray as soon as they
be born, speaking lies. Now if that's not enough, man
has a deceitful heart. Jeremiah 17 and verse 9, Jeremiah
said, The heart is deceitful above all things. Now did you get that? Above all
things and desperately, desperately, Wicked! And who can know it? Jesus said in Mark 7, he said,
verse 19, I believe it is, From within and out of the heart proceedeth
evil thoughts, adultery, fornication, uncleanliness, lasciviousness,
pride, evil, foolishness, all these things, where do they come
from? From within. And they defile the man. How many times have you heard
somebody say, follow your heart? Oh, don't do that. Oh, don't
do that. It's deceitful above all things. In fact, the heart is the harbor
where all of the vileness and wickedness and ungodliness The heart devises things that
the body doesn't even know how to perform. That's right, folks. Man's spiritually ruined. He fell in Adam. In Adam all
die, but in Christ shall all be made alive. Not only did man
fall in Adam, Had a woman told me one time, she said, Preacher,
I shouldn't have to go to hell for Adam's sin. I said, you won't. You were there. Now that's right. You were there. Sin is nothing but an effort
to push God off of his throne. And when Adam sinned, you were
right there with him. Adam received the commandment
from God, you can eat of every tree that's in this garden except
this one. And when you do, you'll die. But Adam said, I ain't gonna
do it. And he gave him that forbidden
fruit, whatever it was, and he willfully, with his eyes wide
open, transgressed God's law. Satan had said to them, you won't
die. God knows in the day that you
eat thereof that you'll be as gods, knowing good from evil. And Adam said, I want to be my
own god. That's all. And he took of that
fruit, and oh, what a cataclysmic change occurred. when he took
of that fruit. Why can no man come unto me,
Jesus said? Not only was man ruined in the
fall, not only is he estranged from birth-speaking lies, not
only is his heart deceitful above all things and desperately wicked,
but his mind is utter hostility against God. Romans 8 and verse
7, for the carnal mind is, present tense, is enmity. And that word enmity is hostility
against God. Why is that? It's not subject
to the law of God. Neither indeed can be, so then
they that are in the flesh can not please God. He hates everything high and
holy. He thinks he's been put here on this earth to fulfill
his lusts. He thinks he lives on this earth,
he breathes God's air, eats God's food, God's blessed him with
a place to live, car to drive, and a family, and he's gonna
live it up because he's his own God. That's right, folks. Man by nature is me, myself,
and I. That's right. Not only that,
if that's not enough, the scripture says that he won't seek after
God. Romans 3 verse 10, there is none
righteous, no, not one. There is none that understandeth. There is none that seeketh after
God. That's right. Well, what a terrible
shape he's in. He's helpless. He's hopeless.
He won't seek after God. You see, man's will is governed
by his nature. That's right. His will is governed
by his nature. He's a captive of Satan. Paul told Timothy, in meekness
instructing those that oppose themselves, if God, peradventure,
will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth
who are taken captive by Satan at his will. That's a pretty
bleak picture, isn't it? He's guilty before God. Destruction and misery are in
their ways, Romans 3. The way of peace they've not
known. The poison of asps is under their lips. Yes. Their feet are swift to shed
blood. Now we know what things ever the law saith. It saith to them that are under
the law that every mouth be stopped and all the world become guilty. before God. Man stands on the
broken commandments of a sin avenging God who will not at
all acquit the guilty. That's right. Hell will be his
portion. That's so folks. He's broken
God's holy law. You see, there are three things
about God's holy law we need to understand. First, God's holy
law demands perfection, not only in outward works, but in inward
motive. And that slays all of us. Thou shalt love the Lord thy
God with all thine heart, all thy strength, and all thy might. And the second is liken unto
this. Thou shalt love thy neighbor
as thyself. Let me ask you a question. How
you doing with that? How you doing with that? That's right. God demands perfection
and you cannot produce it in your own flesh. You can't produce
it. Then God demands faith and you
don't have it. You don't have it. You say, preacher,
every man's got faith. Give me a break. Where are you
going to get it? You can't get it at the hardware
store. You can't get it from Amazon.com. You can't get it from Piggly
Wiggly or Winn-Dixie. Where are you going to get it?
How are you going to obtain faith? Faith comes by hearing and hearing
by the Word of God. So God demands perfection and
you can't produce it. And God demands faith and you
don't have it. And then, it's not what will
you do with Jesus, it's what will He do with you. He's Lord over all. And He can
do two things with you. He can either save you or He
can send you to hell. That's right. God is sovereign. Now, brethren, if this is the
end of the story, if this is the end of the story, helpless
and hopeless wouldn't even begin to describe it. But oh, there's
hope. There's hope. No man can come unto me except Except. Except the father. Not the preacher. Not the soul
winner. Not the Sunday school teacher.
But the father. Except the father. Which sent
me. Draw him. There's hope there. There's mercy there. There's
joy there. There's forgiveness there. Except the Father, which sent
me, draw him. That word draw in the Greek is
elko, elko, and that literally means to drag. That's right. Oh, praise his name. You say
preacher. That doesn't give much hope.
Listen, folks, that opens the door to the wideness of God's
mercy. That means the wickedest sinner
out of hell can be an object of God's mercy. Oh, what a blessing. Accept the Father, which sent
me, draw him. Now I'm finally getting to the
text, verse 45. It is written in the prophets, they shall be
all taught of God. Let's talk about the word all
here. Who's he talking about? They
shall be all taught of God. Well, if you'll back up, if you
still got your Bible open to John 6, back up to verse 37 and
you'll find out who the all is. All that the Father giveth me. That's who the all are. All that
the Father giveth me shall come, shall come. That's definite. That's rock solid. As my grandmother
used to say, that's on the rock of ages. Shall come unto me. And him that cometh unto me I
will let no wise cast out. Before the foundation of the
world, I don't know when the beginning was. I don't even know
when before the foundation of the world was. I don't need to
know. All I need to know is this, is
that before the foundation of the world, God Almighty purposed
to have a people for himself. to have a bride for his son.
How'd God do this? Well, he didn't do it by our
foreseen faith. He didn't do it by any goodness
that he saw within us. No. No. Romans 9 11 says this, As it
is written, Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated, that the purpose
of God according to election might stand. Before God saved
me, I used to always look at that verse and I never understood
it. And I thought to myself, Mark, I just don't see how God
could hate Esau. But you know what? After he saved
me, I look at that verse now. And I say to myself, how could
God love someone like Jacob? How could God love someone like
Jacob? It wasn't due to trade horses
with Jacob. He was as crooked as a dog's
hind leg, but God, it pleased God to set his love on that man. And it pleased God to set his
love on you if you're one of his. He does all things according
to his good pleasure. Oh, so many times I sit there
back there in my study and I just have to drop my head and I have
to say, oh, Lord, why me? Why me? Oh, you put your love on me. Why me? You loved me. I've loved you with an everlasting
love. Oh, why me? Because it pleased
God. Praise his holy name. Chose a
people for himself, in Ephesians 1, for according as he, God,
hath chosen us, whose us, his people, before the foundation
of the world. that we might be holy and without
blame before him in love. Yes, that's who they all are. They shall all be taught of God. I think I can sum up what God
teaches his people in three points. I'm gonna try to, what does God
teach in his university? What does God teach in his university? The first thing he teaches is
that he's holy, God's holy. When Hannah was praying 1 Samuel
2, 2, she said, there's none holy as
the Lord. Unholy. Habakkuk 2, 20, the Lord
is in his holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence
before him. Isaiah found out how holy God
was. In Isaiah chapter six, Isaiah said, in the year King Uzziah
died, I saw the Lord. What'd you see, Isaiah? Isaiah
said, I saw him high, holy, and lifted up. Isaiah said, his train,
his presence filled the land. The posts of the door shook. And there were seraphims there,
and they had to cover their eyes. And they cried, holy, holy, holy. The earth is full of his glory. What a sight that must have been
to see that. God's holy. He's so holy that
the scripture says in Job 15, 15 that even the heavens are
not pure in his sight. That's how holy God is. That's
how holy he is. The Apostle John in Revelation
chapter one. saw the utter holiness of our
blessed Lord. John said, in the midst of the
golden candlesticks, I saw a man. What did he look like, John?
His hair was white like wool. His face was as the sun shineth
in its strength. He was girded about the paps
with a golden girdle. His feet was likened to fine
brass as if they'd burned in a furnace. And John said, when
I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. God's holy. This world thinks that God is
somebody like themselves. This world thinks that God's
some old long-haired, mealy-mouthed granddaddy sitting up in heaven
on a cane wringing his hands trying to figure out why people
won't let him have his way. But I'll tell you this, if you
ever find out who he is, you'll never be the same. You'll never be the same. God's holy. Well, God's school,
he teaches, first of all, that he's holy. And the second thing
that he teaches is you are not holy. There's none righteous,
no, not one. Isaiah said all our righteousnesses
are as filthy rags and we do fade as the leaf. That's pretty
bad. We're not holy. Go back to Isaiah
6 for a minute. After Isaiah saw the Lord, high
and holy and lifted up, something happened to Isaiah. Something
happened to Isaiah. In verse 5, he said, woe is me. Woe is me. In the chapter before
that, he'd been given everybody down the road. Woe unto this
fellow. Woe unto that fellow. Woe unto
this city. Woe unto that city. But now something
has taken place. He saw the glory of God. And he says, woe is me. I'm a
man of unclean lips. I dwell among a people of unclean
lips. What's wrong with you, Isaiah?
What's happened to you, Isaiah? He said, I've seen the king. I've seen the king. I've seen the king. Let me say this, if you don't
hear anything else I've said so far, I hope the Holy Spirit
will drive this home like a hammer. There's no way that you can see
how holy he is and not see how unholy you are. It just can't
happen. It just can't happen. Yes. Then the third thing that he
teaches, that God teaches in this school, this university
that he has, he teaches that his son is the substitute. You find out who Jesus is. Acts 4.12, Peter said, there
is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must
be saved. I love that old song, my hope
is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. On Christ the solid rock I stand. All of the ground is sinking
sand. Christ died for his people. That's right. Ephesians 5.25, I don't know
how much clearer it can be. Husbands, love your wives even
as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. That's right. Redeemed by his blood. Paul said in Romans 5 in verse
9, much more than being justified by his blood, we shall be saved
from wrath through him. When we look at Calvary, we see
two things. We see the love of God, but we
also see God's wrath against sin. And that's what fundamentalists
never preach on. It's God's wrath against sin. He that spared not his own son,
but delivered him up for us all, all of his He hung there six hours on that
cross, and from the sixth hour to the ninth hour, darkness covered
the sky. And he cried a cry, and I guess
you'd have to been there to heard it. It was a forsaken cry. My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? What happened, preacher? What
happened was this. God took the sword of justice
against sin, and he made him sin for us. That's right. 2 Corinthians 5
21, for he hath made him to be sin for us, that we might be
made the righteousness of God in him. I wish I could plumb
the depths of that verse, Mark, and really understand it like
it ought to be understood. He was made sin for me. He paid
my penalty. But you know what's so wonderful
about this? In Galatians 2.20, Paul said
this, I'm crucified with Christ. When Christ died, I died. I'm
crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ
liveth in me, and I walk by the faith of the Son of God who loved
me and gave himself for me. What can wash away my sin? Nothing
but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Let me say this. The greatest
thing that you can ever experience in your life is to know that
your sin is forgiven. Oh, praise his name. Now, I stand justified. When he sees me, he sees the
blood of the lamb. He doesn't see me as I am. He
sees me in His Son. And I'm justified. No sin. Sanctified. Set apart. Holy in
His sight. Oh, I wish I could just Father,
that here I am in this body and my thoughts are wicked and my
heart's still wicked in this flesh. But when I look at the
scripture, he says I have no sin. I'm telling you folks, I'm complete
in him. I'm complete in him and you can't
add anything to completeness. Well, there's something about
coming to Christ. My sheep hear my voice, and a
stranger they will not follow. It's that drawing. That's that
drawing. I'm thinking of Zacchaeus right
now. I'm thinking of Zacchaeus up in that sycamore tree. And
he's up there, he wants to see who the Lord is. Well, he couldn't
see him on the ground because there was this huge crowd following
the Lord. And so he climbs up in the sycamore tree and there
he is. Now, let me tell you something, folks. There was a huge crowd
following the Lord Jesus that day. And I'm here to tell you
that he didn't save anybody in that crowd. He was looking for
one man and one man only. And when he came to a dead stop
and looked up in that tree, he called him by name. He said,
Zacchaeus, make haste. Come down. For today, today,
I must abide at thy house. The effectual, invincible call. Look at Matthew. Matthew was
another crook. Sitting at the receipt of customs,
he's got a table full of money on this table and the Lord Jesus
comes by and he looks at him and he says, follow me. What makes a man leave a table
full of money right where it is? What makes a man leave Not
only money, but leave his livelihood. What makes a man leave his prestige? Leave it all behind? I'll tell
you what it is. It's that divine call. The Apostle Paul, on his road
to Damascus, wasn't thinking about God. He had put to death
and was going to imprison everybody in Damascus that named the name
of the Lord Jesus. And all of a sudden, without
warning, a great light shone down from heaven and Paul fell
to the ground. Saul, Saul, Why you persecuted
me? Who art thou, Lord? He said,
I'm Jesus of Nazareth. Uh-oh. Paul found out Jesus was
alive. He found out that he was alive,
and he is sitting on a throne. You know what Paul said? Lord,
what would you have me do? that divine, invincible, effectual
goal. That's right. And you know what? You'll always be coming. You'll
always be coming. It's not a one-time thing. You'll
always be coming to Christ. Amen. Peter said, to whom shall
we go? that has the words of eternal
life. He's the lily of the valley.
He's the bright and morning star. He's the fairest of 10,000. To
my soul, you'll always be coming. Let me say this. I'm gonna close
here pretty quick. Don't mean to be so long-winded.
In this school, God's university, There are no valedictorians.
There are no salatorians. There are no sigma cum laudes. There are no cum laudes. There's
not even any honorable mentions in this university. Boasting is excluded. Who maketh thee to differ? What
do you have that you did not receive? If you received it,
why do you glory? No, all glory and praise goes
to the teacher, amen? To God be the glory. Then let
me close with this. One day, we'll see him as he is. And I can't wait to see. I can't
wait to see. I'll never forget the night that
the wind blew on me. You say, what are you talking
about, preacher? Jesus said, the wind bloweth where it listeth. Thou hearest the sound thereof,
but canst not tell whence it cometh, or whether it goeth. So is every one that is born
of the Spirit. One night the wind blew, and I've never been the same. I've never been the same. I've
never got over it. I've never got over it. I've
never been the same. Oh, and one day we'll see him
as he is. John said, behold, what manner
of love the father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called
the sons of God. Therefore, the world knoweth
us not because it knew him not. And we know that when he shall
appear, We shall be like him. Why? For we shall see him as
he is. One day, with undimmed view,
with a pair of eyes that can behold him, and a body that can
stand it, we'll see him face to face, and we'll enjoy His
glory while the ceaseless ages roll. Let's pray. Our Father, we thank you, Lord, tonight for
your mercy and your grace. Oh, what wondrous love. What
wondrous love. What wondrous love that you gave
to us. Lord, take the message tonight
and use it for your glory, that it would be an encouragement
to your people. Oh, Lord, have your way now. We ask this in Christ's name
and for his sake. Amen.