Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayer for attention to John chapter 6, the chapter
we read, and verse 44. Verse 44. 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. John 6 and verse
44. Our Lord was speaking to a people
which at first had expressed a real desire that they might
have the bread from heaven. In verse 34 we read, then said
they unto him, Lord evermore, give us this bread from, or give
us this bread, which was the bread from heaven. Our Lord had
been speaking in a way that he was able to give this bread. They had already known what it
was to be given from the hands of our Lord Jesus Christ the
natural bread the day before. He had taken those five loaves
and two fishes and given thanks and broke them and they had fed
5,000 men beside women and children. And that was a great miracle. Our Lord reproved them that they
were following Him the other side of the sea, not because
they saw that great miracle. but because they had eaten of
the bread and were filled. And he says unto them in verse
27, labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat
which endureth unto everlasting life. We get a picture of a people
that were viewing the Lord Jesus Christ as a supply, if you like,
a natural supply that would supply them bread in a natural way. And if it was to be bread that
endured to eternal life, well, he could give them that as well. And that true bread from heaven.
But then as our Lord went on speaking to them, it changes
from, here is a man, Jesus of Nazareth, that is able to do
these great things, is able to give bread, to a man that is
saying, I am that bread. I am that bread. And then they
stumble at this. They stumble at that because
they say, how can this man give us his flesh to eat? They're
still speaking and thinking of it in a natural way. And then
they stumble at it because they know his parents and his brethren. And we see that here is a people
that is willing to receive benefits and blessings from this man.
But if he himself testifies that he is that bread, or he is the
son of man, or he is the only name given among men whereby
one must be saved, Then men are ashamed and offended, and as
we read later on, from that time many of his disciples went back
and walked no more with him. And what a lesson that that is
to us, how it focuses us right on the Lord Jesus Christ himself,
the one that caused offense here It is not what is received, but
what we receive that the Lord Jesus Christ himself is. Coming not to the manna, as it
were, coming not to his gifts, but coming unto him. Peter says
in his epistles, to whom coming? as unto a living stone, disallowed
indeed of men, but chosen of God and precious. But our Lord has something to
say and to say to us in our text that is an explanation as to
why it is that so many on this occasion and other occasions,
did not receive Him and could not come to Him. Another thing
that is very solemn and searching here in this portion, our Lord is speaking of those
who cannot receive Him, who will not receive Him. are those that are described
as unbelievers and do not believe. But he points out, and he's speaking of the disciples,
and he's speaking specifically of the apostles, the 12 that
he's chosen. He says in verse 64, But there
are some of you that believe not. That is, some that were professing
a belief, some that passed off with the fellow apostles that
they were believers, and yet they weren't. They had not been
drawn, they had not come They did not believe. There was a
profession of religion but not a possession of it. And so he
says, for Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that
believed not and who should betray him. And then we have a rehearsing
of the very words, really, of our text. And he said, therefore,
in verse 65, therefore said I unto you that no man can come unto
me except it were given unto him of my father. So our text
is in the context of Judas Iscariot. It's not only in the context
of those that are openly rejecting Christ, But even of those that
are professing to believe and accept and walking with him,
and yet are not true believers. It is a very searching word that
is before us here this morning, but it is a word that explains. Explains. It is a word also that
should make clear to us those that are God's people and
those that are not, and especially with ourselves. So I want to
look then with the Lord's help this morning. Firstly, why men
cannot come to Christ. No man can. come to me except. There just is one exception,
but generally men cannot come. And then secondly, why men must
come to Christ. And then thirdly, the promise
to those that come I will raise him up at the last day. And of
course, when we use the term men, and when the Lord uses the
word man, he's speaking generically with a man, woman, child, whoever,
mankind, those that have fallen. But firstly, why men cannot come
to Christ? No man can come to me except
the Father which hath sent me draw him, and I'll raise him
up at the last day. Many of the difficulties, many
of the perceived problems in the world and the existence of
evil and of death And indeed the matter before us here could
all be traced back to the fall, all be traced back to the sentence
that God has brought upon us justly for our sins. It was said for our first parents,
in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. We shouldn't just lightly pass
over those words because so often throughout the Word of God a lot hangs upon what is eaten,
or what is the appetite. There it was that God had given
to our first parents all of the fruit of the garden, except. We have an except in the text,
but there it is in except one, the tree of the knowledge of
good and evil. In the day that thou eatest thereof,
thou shalt surely die. But through Satan's temptation,
Eve, she saw of that fruit that it was good to eat the lust of
the flesh, it was good to the lust of the eye, and to be desired
to make one wise, the pride of life. And so she
took that fruit. their eyes were opened, they
had sinned, they had transgressed, they had fallen, the sentence
of death came upon them and upon all their posterity, immediately
spiritually dead, immediately under the sentence of death,
literally in due time, and after death, the judgment. And that
is the condition that man is in. He was banished from the
Garden of Eden, And that sentence is God's sentence, and the spiritual
death. Our question, why men cannot
come to Christ, the sentence of God is that man is dead. He is to die spiritually, and
that is why he cannot come, because he does not have life. God has
taken away his spiritual life, as the sentence that he said
he would execute upon man. We are fallen and we are corrupt. We are alienated from God through
wicked works and also from the sentence that God has brought
himself. We are fallen. It is also God's
decree that this should be so. yet blinded their eyes, yet hardened
their hearts, lest they should see with their eyes, lest they
should feel, lest they should seek after God. The natural man,
Paul says to the Corinthians, receiveth not the things of God,
neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. The Lord hath concluded all under
sin, and it is that he might have mercy upon all, that is,
mercy upon all of his people. If we are to truly value salvation,
if we are to know the miracle of it, the wonder of it, then
we are to know what God has determined the condition of man is, and
the one way of which that that can be escaped, the except in
our text. But there's a couple of reasons
why we should really ponder on this first point, why men cannot
come to Christ. Because really reading the account
here, we see this enacted out again and again in the world. We see those that despise the
name of Jesus, that have no need of him, that hate him, that persecute
his people, that do not see any need for him, that stumble at
not just the words that are spoken in this chapter, but they'll
find words right through the Word of God and bring them up
as reasons why we shouldn't believe the Word of God, as reasons why
they are justified in their own eyes of not following the law. Now it says here, from that time
many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him.
Over the years I've seen many that sadly have gone away from
the churches. And there's seldom been one that
has, that has not had a reason. And usually it is something that
the church has done, something they've found offensive, something
that in their own eyes justifies their actions as to giving up
even an outward faith and going on and walking away from the
Word of God. Never is it, or very seldom,
that one will point the finger at themselves but it's someone
else's fault. And those that were here, they
are saying this is a hard saying. It's the doctrine, it's the teaching,
it's the things that are brought before us. This is why we won't
have anything to do with the Lord Jesus. This is why we reject
Him. But when we see that, and we
will see it, then we are to know the reason why. The reason in
our text, the reason why the Lord reaffirms it in verse 65, because it gives an explanation
as to why men's hearts are so hard why they reject Christ,
why they walk away from Him. Now when we know that, those
of us who believe, sometimes we may get very disheartened,
especially with evangelism, or speaking to our loved ones, and
even those in our own congregations, those that have an outward form
that's said for many, many years under the truth, They don't believe,
they don't receive the word. It gives an explanation for it,
a reason why. There's another thing that is
to be really known here. If we are drawn and if we are
brought to believe and to come to Christ, we are to know very
clearly that this is God's work, that it is a miracle, and to
understand the blessing that we are blessed with. Sometimes
Satan might tempt us and think, well, we just have a natural
religion. And you might say, well, you've
already said about Judas. But you know, I believe those
that are drawn, and those that come to Christ, they will still
know, they will still feel, and it will still plague them, that
they have an old nature. And what others are saying outwardly
and doing, they find that their heart, their old nature, is still
the same. And so that they are not ones
that just have turned over a new leaf, and it's still the old
nature, it's the old man, but now it's a religious one. Which
is the case of all those that are not truly saved, but they
just have a name of religion, they've just turned over a new
leaf. It's just like someone taking up with a hobby, or changing
a job, or something like that. It's still the same nature, it's
still the same person. People love history, they do
all sorts of things and get very taken up with it, and some will
do that with religion as well. But those that are truly born
again, those that have a new nature, those that we look at
in our second point, they will know the two sides to it. They will know as well that hardness,
unbelief, the old nature that is all others have, but with
God's children is what they have, but they have a new nature as
well. And the reality of that is to be known by really knowing
that By nature, man cannot come to Christ. We cannot. Those dead in sin cannot. But even believers of themselves
cannot. It is God's work. And when we
realise that, then we will put the crown on the right head. Though he might be like the Apostle
Paul that labours so diligently and effectively. He says, I laboured
more abundantly than them all, yet not I, but the grace of God
which was in me. When he has the thorn in the
flesh, the messenger of Satan, and he beseeches God to remove
it, the Lord says, my grace is sufficient for thee. Not grace
at the beginning and then just left to go on his own way. No,
needing that grace day by day to be able to bear that cross,
to be able to continue and not despair and to give up and to
go back as those here walk no more. And so it is necessary if we
are to discern God's work in us, if we are to discern a new
nature and old nature, to know why men, natural man, man on
his own without the power of God, cannot come to Christ. no man can come to me except. And then rehearsed again in verse
65, and he said, therefore said I unto you that no man can come
unto me except. The reason why he had said it
was because of those that were going because of Judas Iscariot
that he knew would betray him, because of those that were saying,
murmuring at him, verse 41, because he said, I am the bread which
came down from heaven. They said, is not this Jesus,
the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How is it
then that he said, I came down from heaven? And our text is
really the answer, Jesus therefore answered and said unto them,
murmur not among yourselves, no man can come to me except
the Father which hath sent me draw him, and I'll raise him
up at the last day. They saw no beauty in Christ,
no attractiveness, everything to hinder them, everything to
offend them, everything to put them off, every reason why they
felt that they should go back. His person, his teaching, they
didn't want it. So this is the reason why men
cannot come to Christ. Because of the form, the sentence
due to that, God's decree. I want to look then secondly at
why men must come to Christ. And the first reason I put this
is that there is salvation in none other name. Our Lord said,
if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall perish in your sins. There is none other name given
among men whereby we must be saved. If we do not, come to Christ
we shall be damned, we shall be lost. To turn away from him
is to turn away from any hope and any life at all. Our Lord
was adamant in John 3 to Nicodemus that he must be born again. But then we have that beautiful
word in verse 16. For God so loved the world that
he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him
should not perish but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son
into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through
him might be saved. And then he says this. He that
believeth on him is not condemned. But he that believeth not is
condemned already, because he had not believed in the name
of the Only Begotten Son of God. This is the condemnation, that
light is coming to the world, and men love darkness rather
than light, because their deeds were evil. just because man cannot come
to Christ, does not excuse him, does not make his guilt any less, but we must say that if we are
to have eternal life, if we are to be forgiven, if we are to
be saved, we must come to Christ. There is no other way of salvation. It points out to every inquirer
of eternal life, points out to everyone that has soul need,
it points out Christ. Our Lord who said, I am the way,
the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. Absolutely vital. Christ is the
way. Men must, you and I, if we are
to be saved. As the hymn writer says, object
of my first desire, Jesus crucified for me. It's almost as in this
chapter, don't get sidetracked by bread, hard teaching, difficult
sayings, what may be said of Christ himself, to be offended
actually in him. But to have this set before us,
our vital, to come to him. You know, when our Lord began
his ministry, and Philip said to Nathaniel,
come, we have found the Messiah, whom
Moses and the prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth. And Nathanael,
he says, can any good thing come out of Nazareth? In one sense, in his mind, there
was these objections here, what these Jews were murmuring at. But you know how Philip answered
that. He just said, come, come and
see, come to Christ. And as he was coming, Then our
Lord said, Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile.
And Nathanael, he said, How is it? How do you know me? Before
that Philip called thee when thou wast under the fig tree,
I saw thee. Now naturally speaking, under
a fig tree's canopy, a natural man would not be able to see
him there. The Lord knew where he was. but
it was coming to Christ. Come and see. And may that be
our desire as we hear the word that we come, come to Christ. And we might say, how? How do
we come to Christ? We come predominantly by prayer. Coming to the throne of grace,
the Lord Jesus Christ is ascended up into heaven. The Holy Spirit
has been given and the promise of the Lord's presence by his
grace and spirit. And we are to come as exhorted
in Hebrews, boldly unto the throne of grace, that we might obtain
mercy and find grace to help at time of need. We come to the Lord in prayer. That is why it was said, with
Saul of Tarsus, behold, he prayeth. We're coming as unto one whom
we see has the words of eternal life. This was the testimony
of Peter when the Lord said, will ye also go away? Verse 68. Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou
hast the words of eternal life. So we come to the words of the
Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord said in John 8, to those
that believed on him, if ye continue in my word, then ye shall be
my disciples indeed. Ye shall know the truth and the
truth shall make you free. But there's another reason why
men must come to Christ. And this is the saving reason. This is what we hold to as irresistible
grace. When the Lord works in a heart,
when the Father draws, our text says, no man can come to me except
The Father which hath sent me draw him. So when the Father
that sent our Lord Jesus Christ draws a man, that man, woman
and child must come. It is irresistible grace. It is the power of God unto salvation. But how the Lord draws That is his sovereign, sovereign
right and in every one it is different. We see Zacchaeus and
he knew the Lord passed by, he wanted to see him, curiosity
perhaps. We have the woman at the well
of Samaria coming with her water pot. And by the Lord's words,
he draws out. And he tells also that woman
about her life, and the one thing that she knew of Messiahs, that
when he came, he would tell us all things. And the Lord had
told her all things about herself, things that only one that was
God would know. The Lord kept her coming back,
And he knows how to draw a people. You might hear the word at first
and go away and say, I'm not having anything to do with that
anymore. I'm not going to go and listen
to that sermon or go into that house of prayer. And then when
the next time comes, think, well, I'll go just again. And sometimes we do not know
is the reason why. You think of a magnet, and you
get a magnet and a piece of metal, you can't see the force between. But as you bring those two things
together, you feel it, you feel the drawing, and it pulls them
together. And this is what is set before
us here, the Father drawing. drawing in a way that is a hidden,
secret, powerful way. And those that are drawn, they
must come. Now we are told in this portion
here of how the Lord does this and how the Lord works in this
way. those that hear of the Father. In verse 45 after our text, the
Lord is going back to the prophets, rehearsing that what is being
taught here is taught right through the Word of God. And they shall
be all taught of God. In other words, those that are
drawn by the Father are taught of God. Every man therefore that
hath heard. In other words, every man that
is drawn by the Father hath heard the word of God and hath learned
of the Father. Those that are drawn of the Father
have learned of the Father. And so our law doesn't say, some
of the men that have heard and hath learned cometh unto me.
No, every man, they must. because it's to that end that
the Father is teaching them, that the Spirit is given, that
their ears are opened. The Lord says in John 10, my
sheep, they hear my voice, they follow me. Now you and I do not know the
secret will of God and purposes of God. God does not say when
he begins a work of grace in a sinner, I am drawing you. You have the power of God on
you. Very often that person will not
know until afterwards looking back. They'll not be able to
discern it. Your concern, my concern, is
that we hear the word of God and that we obey the word of
God. That we seek the Lord while he
is to be found. The blessing, and to discern
that blessing, is to feel the drawing. Later on, when we are made profession,
when we are converted, when we are believed, and when we feel
again still the hardness of our heart, the distance, the far-offness,
how earthbound, how natural we are, there many times we'll be
crying to the Lord. Lord, draw me. I feel so far
off, so hard, so cold. Do draw me. Do come through thy
word. Cause there'd be some word that
is spoken in that sermon that affects me like those on the
way to Emmaus, that my heart burn within me. And that I'm
drawn to that precious truth that is set forth. The Lord knows how to have a
real powerful effect upon our hearts. And if we have once known
that, may the word this morning remind us of it. How did we first
come? And how we need the Lord to draw
again. What a testimony it is really. to have to say, in me dwelleth
no good thing. I still need the influence of
thy grace. I still need that to quicken us
in our path, to run the race that is set before us. The why men must come to Christ
is because the Lord has opened their ear and he's taught them
and being instructed and being taught of God, they must come. The Holy Spirit, which is the
teacher, in the course of great mystery, Father, Son and Holy
Spirit, one God. But as our Lord said, He shall
receive of mine and shall show it unto you. He shall not speak
of himself, No, wherever the Holy Spirit is, wherever the
work of the Father is in drawing, the Lord Jesus Christ will be
precious. It hath pleased the Father, we
read in Paul's letter to the Colossians, that in him should
all fullness dwell. When we see those that will be
Lifting up the spirit as in the charismatic movement, we say
this is not of God, because the Holy Spirit will lift up the
Lord. Wherever the Spirit's work is,
Christ is precious. Hearts are touched, they're drawn
to Christ and Christ alone. So as we would see Jesus. And he is the altogether lovely
unto you which believe he is precious. So the question we may ask, have
we had to come? Have we been drawn? Have we seen
an attraction in the word of God? Has it fastened on our hearts? Has he taught us and instructed
us? Can we discern that it is not
us, but it is the Lord's work? He will have regard to the work
of his own hands. He which hath begun a good work
in you will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ. If you and
I are to receive comfort from such a word and promises that,
we need to be able to see that the Lord did begin a work in
us. And as we said in our first point,
Naturally man will not come, does not hear. His heart is hard. But is your heart hard? Does
your ear hear? Do you feel attracted to the
Lord? Attracted to the precious truths
of God? Maybe you have passages in the
Word of God that God has made precious to you. You remember
the time and place when it was so. Has our heart always remained
hard, unmoved, undrawn? Or have we known what it is to
be drawn? And we've had to pray. And we've
had to go and hear the word of God. And it may be that also We've
had to walk in the Lord's commands and walk in obedience to his
word. He that believeth and is baptised
shall be saved. We're drawn to Christ, we're
drawn to follow him and to obey him and to love him. So may we esteem the ordinances
of his house, baptism, and the Lord's Supper, and follow Him
in that way, be drawn to Him in that way. They shall come, they must come,
God's work ensures it. I want to notice then lastly
the promise to those that come. And I will raise Him up at the
last day, What a beautiful promise. But really, what has been done
already? That sinner has been raised up
from spiritual death to spiritual life. They're already a miracle
of grace. They've already received eternal
life. But what our Lord is saying,
that when their body's dying, when their dust returns to dust,
When the Lord shall come again in great power and glory, then
he'll quicken our mortal bodies and give us a celestial body.
And so shall we be forever with the Lord. A blessed prospect for the people
of God. How impossible for man. to take
the dust of David, where David's dust or bones may be at this
present time, and raise up an incorruptible body for his soul
to inhabit, or any of those that are gone before us. How impossible
for man to do that. And it's just as impossible for
man to make a believer himself, But when God makes a believer,
and that is a miracle of grace, then our Lord gives this promise,
that which is just as impossible, I'll raise your dust. And dear
Job, he says, though after my skin, worms destroy this body,
yet in my flesh shall I see God. What a blessed promise that this
is. And I will raise him up at the
last day. We need God's power in us now. And then when we have no power
in the grave, then the Lord will raise up our bodies. And really, we feel day by day
we have no power. No might now, but the Lord does
have power. And where we have hope in his
power to raise our bodies, may we be encouraged that the Lord
will raise us up now. And that be our prayer. Lord,
quicken me again. Draw me again. Revive me again. Run thy blessing in my soul again. May we know this work of the
Lord, this drawing of the Father. No man can come to me except
the Father which has sent me draw him and I'll raise him up
at the last day. May the Lord add his blessing.