I did choose thee. Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Nybert. We are located at 4137 Todd's
Road, two miles outside of Manowar Boulevard. Sunday services are
at 10.30 a.m. and 6 p.m. Bible study is at
9.45 a.m. Wednesday services are at 7 p.m. Nursery is provided for all services.
For more information, visit our website at toddsroadgracechurch.com. Now here's our pastor, Todd Nybert. I'm going to be preaching from
John 6, verses 28 and 29, and I've entitled this message, The
Bottom Line. Now, I hope that you will listen
very carefully as I'm going to try to give what the Bible says
is the bottom line of what is required from you and from me. The bottom line. Now, these are the words of the
Lord Jesus. He says in verse They said to him in verse 28,
then said they unto him, what shall we do? That we might work
the works of God. What a question. What an important
question. What am I, what are you called
upon to do that we might work the works of God? And the Lord
gives a very specific Simple, succinct answer. Verse 29, Jesus
answered and said unto them, in regard to this question, what
must we do to work the works of God? Jesus answered and said
unto them, this is the work of God. that you believe on him
whom he hath sent. You know what goes after that? A period. This is the work of
God. This is what he gives. This is what he requires. This
is what he accepts. This is the work of God that
you, don't worry about anybody else, that you believe on him
whom he hath sent. Now, when you repent, this is
what you do. You repent of anything contrary
to this statement. That's what repentance is. You
know, preachers quite often say, repent of your sins. Well, we
ought not ever sin again. I wouldn't make any excuse for
sin, but calling repentance, repentance from your sin, that's
a phrase that's not even found in the scriptures. Repentance
is toward God. Repentance is a complete change
of mind regarding this thing of the forgiveness of sins. If
I don't understand salvation, I think there's something, must
some work I must first perform before I can be forgiven of my
sins. When you repent, you repent of that. When you believe, this
is what you believe. You believe on him whom he hath
sent. Now this is the bottom line.
This is the essential point. This is the keynote. This is
the heart and soul of the gospel. This is the work of God. If you believe it's the work
of God, he calls you to do it. This is the work of God. This
is the work God accepts that you believe. on him whom he hath
sent." Now, the people who asked him this question are the people
who had experienced the miracle of him creating food, bringing
food into existence that was not there before, and fed 5,000
people. Now, these people liked this.
As a matter of fact, they thought, we're going to make him king.
And the Lord left, because the Lord's no elected king. He is
king. He's not king because somebody makes him king. He is king. When
I hear a preacher say, make him the Lord of your life, you can't
make him the Lord of your life. He is the Lord of your life,
whether you know it or not. You're in his hand. He's the
Lord. And when these people tried to make him king, he left that.
He's always going to leave that kind of thinking. He left that
and that's when he went over the sea on the boat and the people
saw that he was gone and they went following after him because
they wanted this food. And we read beginning in verse
24, when the people therefore saw that Jesus was not there,
neither his disciples, they also took to shipping and came to
Capernaum seeking for Jesus. Now this is going to begin the
message at Capernaum. one of the most important messages
that the Lord preached in the scripture. And when they found
him on the other side of the sea, they said unto him, Rabbi,
note what they call him, not Lord, but Rabbi, teacher. They
didn't understand that he's the Lord. They thought of him as
a teacher, perhaps even a miracle worker, a healer, but they didn't
understand his lordship. And they address him as Rabbi.
Rabbi, when camest thou hither? Verse 26, Jesus answered them
and said unto them, Verily I say unto you, you seek me not because
you saw the miracles, not because of your conviction of who I am
by what you've seen. Here's the reason you're seeking
me, because you did eat of the loaves and were filled. You're not seeking my person.
You're seeking to get your bellies filled. You're seeking to have
your life made better. This is a way we could have food
all the time and wouldn't have to worry. If he was king, he
could feed us like this. You know, it's never right to
seek the Lord simply for personal gain. I'll have it better. I'll
have more money. I'll have a better life. I'll
have a better family. I'll have better circumstances.
That's never the reason to seek the Lord. You seek the Lord because
of who he is. No other reason. who he is. Now look what the
Lord says to them. He says, labor not for the meat
which perisheth, but for the meat which endureth unto everlasting
life, which the Son of Man shall give unto you. For him hath God
the Father sealed. Now all they heard was labor
and work. So they asked this question,
then said they unto him, what shall we do? that we might work
the works of God. And he said unto them, this is
the work of God that you believe on him whom he hath sent. I'm asking myself this question
and I'm asking you this question. Have I ever looked to Christ
only? Nothing more, nothing less, nothing
else. Have I ever found sole satisfaction
in looking to Him only? Have I ever looked at Him and
looked to Him in such a sense that I didn't want anything else
and I didn't need anything else? I was completely or I am completely
satisfied with Him, being found in Him, being saved by Him. I'm
not looking for anything to add to that. Colossians 2.10 says,
you are complete. You are completely full. You
need nothing else. You're complete in Him. 1 Corinthians
1.30 says, Of Him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made
unto us. This is what God's made Him unto
us. Every believer. Wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. Now, I am not satisfied with
myself, and as far as that goes, as long as I still sin, I'll
never be satisfied in that sense. I won't be satisfied till I,
with David, awaken his likeness, beholding his face in righteousness,
Psalm 17, 15. But as far as the salvation of
my soul, I am satisfied with him. I do not need anything else. Notice he said, to believe on
him whom he hath sent. I believe God sent him. I believe
he was before God sent him. I believe he's the eternal son
of God. I am completely satisfied with his pre-existence. I'm completely
satisfied with his person as my only salvation. I'm completely
satisfied to have his righteousness, his perfect obedience as my perfect
obedience. I'm satisfied with His sin payment
on Calvary's tree when He shed His precious blood as all that's
needed to make me perfect before God. I'm satisfied with His resurrection
that His resurrection said that God was satisfied with what He
did. And He raised Him from the dead and He was delivered for
our offenses and raised again for our justification. I am satisfied
that when He was raised from the dead, I was justified. declared
by God Himself to be without guilt and without sin. I'm satisfied
with His intercession. He's representing me before the
Father right now. No worries. Satisfied with Him. I believe on Him whom He hath
sent. Now, These people didn't really
hear what he said when he said, labor not for that meat which
perishes, but that meat which endures to everlasting life.
They didn't get it. They didn't understand what he
said. They were thinking about what they needed to do. Then
said they unto him, what shall we do? You talk about labor,
what shall we do? That we might work the works
of God. And how I love his answer. He says, this is the work of
God. They were looking for works.
What works do we need to do? This is the work of God. Now, if you ask the average preacher,
what are the works that we need to do that we might work the
work of God? Well, he'd say, well, he'd give
you a litany of things. Well, you need to read the Bible
more. You need to go to church more. You need to be around better
influences. You need to get rid of the sin
in your life. You need to become a better person. You need to spend more time in
prayer. Just a litany of things that
you might do to work the works of God. And I'm not saying those
things are bad in and of themselves, but if I answer that way, I've
missed it. The Lord doesn't say, this is
the work of Him that sent me, that you read the Bible more,
and pray more, and fight more against sin, and witness more,
and be more holy. He doesn't say anything like
that. He says, this is the work of God. Now what the Lord says
is of infinite importance. This is the work of God, that
you believe on Him whom He hath sent. Not works, but work. This is the definite article,
work of God, that you believe on him whom he hath sent. And notice there's no and there.
There's a period. Now most preachers, when they
call upon men to believe, to come to Christ, they'll say things
like, Repent of your sins and trust the Savior. Turn from your
sins and trust the Savior. Well, when the Ethiopian eunuch
said, what hinders me from being baptized? Did Philip say, well,
repent of your sins, get your life straightened out and believe
everything will be okay. No, he gave one answer, if you
believe with all your heart, you may. When the Philippian
jailer said to Paul and Silas, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? Their answer was the same answer
the Lord gives here. They didn't say, repent of your
sins and believe on Christ. They said, believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. When the Lord said in answer
to those people, what must I do? What must we do that we might
work the works of God? He did not say, turn from your
sins and believe on him whom he has sent. Now let me say,
sin is bad. Sin is evil. Sin is against God. And there
is never an excuse to sin. Sin is never okay. But what is
meant by this term, repent of your sins? When somebody says
to me, repent of your sins and trust the Savior, I think about
what I need to do before I can trust Him. I need to get my sin
taken care of. And when that's taken care of,
then I can trust the Savior. And all I do by that is darken
counsel with words without knowledge. The term, repent of your sins,
is not even found in the Bible. Now, there is a change of mind
regarding sin. Maybe I once loved it, now I
hate it and want free from it. But the term, repent of your
sins, is not found in the Bible. And most people, when they think
about it, they think, well, to repent of your sins means to be real
sorry for them and to stop committing. Well, how sorry? How sorry, sorry
enough? And you name me one sin you've
stopped committing in your heart. You might have even stopped committing
outwardly, but if it's in your heart, it's still sin. If repenting
from sins is being sorry for them and stop committing them,
nobody's ever repented. Repentance is toward God. It's
toward your old way of thinking. You see, it's wrong. You see,
you can't save by your works. You repent of that. You repent
of anything contrary to faith in Christ alone. That's repentance.
You look to Christ alone. Paul said in Acts 20, 21, that
the whole counsel of God was, preaching the whole counsel of
God was repentance toward God. a change of mind about God. You
used to hate His sovereignty, now you love it. You used to
hate His way of saving sinners, now you love His way of saving
sinners. You've repented toward God, and along with repentance
toward God is always faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, if
repent of your sins means don't see yourself in any other light,
but then that being a sinner, I'll agree with it. That is repentance
from sin. But here, this is the work of
God that you believe on Him whom He hath sent. Now let's take
that apart. This is the work of God. It's
God's work. If you do it, it's because He
caused you to do it. This is His work and His work alone. Everyone that has been saved
by His grace, this is what they do. This is the work of God. This is the work of God. This
is what He accepts. This is what He receives. This
is the work of God that you believe on Him whom He hath sent. This is the work of God that
you believe. Not that you get your life straightened out. I
hope you do get your life straightened out. All the problems people
have, I'm not saying anything against that, but that's not
what the, you can get your life straightened out and miss Christ
altogether. This is the work of God that you believe. on him whom he hath sent." Now,
don't miss that phrase, you believe on him whom he has sent. That
phrase is found 46 times in the book of John, him whom he hath
sent. You believe God sent Jesus Christ. Do you believe that? Do you believe
God sent Jesus Christ? Now, if you believe that God
sent Jesus Christ, you believe He was before God sent Him. You believe that Jesus Christ
is the uncreated, eternal God, the Son of God, equal to the
Father. Do you believe He's the Son of
God? Do you believe that He was before He was sent? In the beginning
was the Word. The Word didn't began to be in
the beginning. He already was. In the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning
with God. You believe in His eternal existence
because you believe He's God. He was before God sent him, and
God sent him. Aren't you thankful God sent
him? He didn't have to, but he did. You believe that God sent
Him, and you believe He did exactly what it was that the Father sent
Him to do. That's what faith is. It's believing
on Him whom He hath sent. Now, listen to these words in
John 6, just a few verses down. Verse 38, we read these words,
For I came down from heaven, See, the Father sent him and
he came down from heaven. If I said, I came down from heaven,
you would think you're crazy and you'd be right for thinking
that. But he said, I came down from heaven because he did come
down from heaven. This is speaking of his eternal
pre-existence as the son of God. He said, I came down from heaven,
not to do my own will, but the will of him that sent me. There's the phrase, he's sent
of God. Now look in verse 39, and this
is the Father's will, which hath sent me, that of all which he
hath given me, I should lose nothing, but raise it up again
at the last day. And this is the will of him that
sent me, that everyone that seeth the sun and believeth on him
may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the last
day. Remember the Lord said, this
is the work of God that you believe on him whom he has sent. Now
here, Christ tells us exactly what the Father sent him to do. He came to do the Father's will. God has a will. And His will
is always done. His will cannot be thwarted.
Somebody says, do you mean we can't disobey God's will? Everything
is according to God's will. His sovereign will, He's completely
sovereign over the free and uncoerced actions of men. He controls everything.
I came down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will
of Him that sent me. Now He clearly identifies in
two ways what the father sent him to do in these two verses,
verses 39 and verses 40. He says, and this is the father's
will, which has sent me, listen up. Here's why I came. Here's
what the father sent me to do. This is the father's will, which
has sent me that of all which he has given me, I should lose
nothing. raise it up again at the last
day. Now he talks about a people the
Father gave him. And this gift was before the
foundation of the world. This is the glorious truth of
divine election. God's choice of His people before
time began. When Christ came to this planet,
He didn't come to make salvation available for all men if they'll
just do their part. There's no gospel in that message.
He came to save His people, those the Father gave Him, from their
sins. God gave Christ a people. We read in Ephesians 1.4, according
as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and without blame before him. He gave him
a people and Christ came to save those people. Matthew 1.21 says,
thou shall call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people
from their sins. And he said, it's God's will
that I do not lose one of them. Listen, if one of them can be
lost, if Christ can die for somebody, and they end up being lost and
going to hell anyway, then no one will be saved. He said, I
came to make sure every single one of them are saved. I came
down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of Him
that sent me. And this is the Father's will which sent me,
that of all which He hath given me, I should lose nothing. Oh,
He's a successful Savior. If He died for you, you don't
run the risk of the possibility of the hazard of being anything
but saved. His death is salvation. There was an accomplishment made
in His death. The salvation of His people,
that's what He meant when He said it is finished. And then he says
in verse 40, this is the will of Him that sent me, that everyone
which seeth the Son. Now this is not talking about
a physical sight, this is talking about a spiritual sight, when
you know who He is. The faith is knowing who He is. The thief on the cross knew who
Jesus Christ was. He said, Lord, remember me when
you come into your kingdom. He knew He's the Lord. He knew
He never sinned. He knew He was God. Don't you
fear God seeing you're in the same condemnation? Faith is knowing
who He is, everyone that seeth the Son, and believeth on Him. When you see the Son, you know
what you're gonna do? When you see who He is, you will believe
on Him. You will trust Him to save you. You gotta see it. When you see
Him, you will believe. Now, like I said, once again,
this is not a physical sight. This is a spiritual sight of
who He is. Everyone that seeth the Son and
believeth on Him, To him that worketh not, but believeth on
him that justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. This is the will of him that
sent me, that everyone would seeth the Son, and believeth
on him may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the
last day." Now, here's the bottom line. You're thinking, what do
I need? What do I need to be accepted
by God? What is the bottom line? This is the work of God, that
you believe on Him whom He hath sent. You believe God sent him. You believe he was eternal God
before God sent him. You believe he did what God sent
him to do. And you are trusting all of your
salvation in this. He did it all. And you're not
looking anywhere else. And you are satisfied with this.
This is the work of God. that you believe on him whom
he hath sent." Well, when you talk about an elect people, what
makes me think I have a right to believe? You're commanded
to believe. Don't wonder about whether or
not you have a right to believe. You're commanded to believe.
He says, all that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and
him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. Bottom line, this is the work
of God, that you believe on Him whom he hath sent, have you and
I ever quit looking to our works and our efforts, and looked to
him only, and found satisfaction in knowing that he is all, you
have nothing else, and you need nothing else? To receive a copy
of the sermon you have just heard, send your request to todd.neibert
at gmail.com or you may write or call the church at the information
provided on the screen.