Gospel according to John. John
chapter 6. John chapter 6. I'd like to look for just a few
minutes at one verse of Scripture. Verse 37. I've quoted this Scripture. We've
read this Scripture so many times. And I woke up this morning thinking
about this passage of Scripture. I had it on my heart. I felt this is what I was to
preach on tonight. John 6.37. that the Father giveth me shall
come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast
out." Let's pray together. Our Father, we ask You this evening
in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, would You bless the services
this evening. Bless them, Lord, by Your Spirit
to our comfort and to our good. Bless them, Lord, to Your honor
and to Your glory, the wonderful glory and praise of Your goodness
and mercy. Show compassion to Your people. Help us. Help us to hear. Help us to worship. Lord, let
us truly hear and rejoice in the Lord Jesus Christ. For it
is in His name we pray, Amen. A lot of folks talk about coming
to Christ. I've come to the Lord. Come to
Christ. That's scriptural language. That's
words of Scripture. "...Coming, all that the Father
giveth Me shall come to Me. Him that cometh to Me I will
in no wise cast out." Everyone, this is what he's saying, everyone
that the Father has given Me, that is in eternal electing grace. All that the Father giveth Me." And I want you to notice that
that word, giveth, giveth, you know, that's a progressive. That's
present progressive. Everyone that the Father has
given in eternal election and is bringing forth effectually,
powerfully, shall come And that word, come, right there, it means
to be present with. They are going to be present
with me. And He that is continually coming,
Him that cometh to me, continually coming, I will not at all, no,
not in any wise, reject away. Now, that verse of Scripture,
and there's many that deal with coming to Christ, coming to the
Lord Jesus Christ. And this passage of Scripture
sets forth an act of the heart, because coming to Christ is an
act of the new man. It is an act
of the new spirit, the new will, the reborn man coming to Christ. It is an act that is absolutely
essential in the setting forth of the evidence
of regeneration. But it is totally impossible. to be performed by the natural
man. Now there is an act that takes
place. There is an action. Something happens. The Lord described it there. Come to Me. All that the Father
giveth Me shall come to Me. Now there's some folks that I'm
convinced are sitting in this congregation that understand
some things concerning this act of coming to Christ. And I know based on Scripture,
I know that the Word of God sets forth that coming to the Lord
Jesus Christ cannot be performed by a spiritually dead man. I
know that. John 6, 65, and he said, Therefore
said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were
given unto him of my Father. So I know that men do come. I know that Almighty God gives
some a heart comes to Christ. But I know by nature, based on
that Word, and as I've told you before, unless you can back something
up, make it good by the Word of God, then it's just your Word,
a theory, an opinion, and everybody's got one. Now rest assured, It's the Father's will based
on that Scripture. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise
cast out. Do you rest assured that it's
the Father's will that all that He's chosen in electing grace,
all that He's given unto the Son, all of them, is going to be saved. Now our Lord said that. All that
the Father giveth me shall come to me. Listen to this verse,
John 17. This is when our Lord was praying
His high priestly prayer. As thou hast given Him power
over all flesh that He should give, eternal life to as many
as Thou hast given Him." Listen to 2 Peter 3.9. Here's a verse of Scripture that's
greatly misquoted. The Lord is not slack concerning
His promise, as some men count slackness, but is longsuffering
to uswort. Not willing that any should perish,
but that all should come to repentance. You know, if we ever get a handle
on who the usward are, he's long-suffering to usward. You'll say, well,
who are the usward? When Peter wrote his first epistle,
Peter 1, verse 2, he was writing to, you can look at that, 1 Peter
1, 2, he was writing to the elect. In 2 Peter 1.10, he was telling
those elect, he said, now you make your calling and your election.
Sure. So God Almighty is not slack
concerning His promises. Some men count slackness. Long-suffering to us-ward. As
I've said before, why is God putting up with this world right
now? Why is Almighty God putting up with this world? I'll tell
you why. Because He's long-suffering to
His elect, not willing that any should perish. I tell you, He'll
allow this world to continue going. And He'll allow men in
their rebellion against Him to continue rebelling until all
of His elect, all of His sheep, have come to Christ. He longs
suffering, not willing that any of the usward should perish. Not willing. Not willing. But God's will has not left a
chance. He shall do that which He pleases. See, this is the misconception. Almighty God has a will. God
has a will. And His will is going to be done. His will is going to be accomplished.
Isaiah 46, 9 and 10, Remember the former things of old, for
I am God, and there is none else. I am God, and there is none like
me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times
the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand,
and I will do all My pleasures." My counsel. I looked those words
up. My purpose. My purpose shall stand, and I
will do all, when He said My pleasure, My desire. I will do
all My desires. So my question is this, what
does the Scriptures have to say about the will of God concerning
salvation? What does God's Word, not what
I have to say or you have to say, what does God have to say
about it? Well, here's what God has to say, and this is the Lord
Jesus Christ speaking, John 6, 39, and this is the Father's
will which hath sent me. Now, you know what? I want to
hear the next thing He says. This is the Father's will which
hath sent me, that of all which He hath given me I should lose
nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day." Now
you know that pretty well settled it, didn't it? This is the Father's
will. He had just said in Isaiah 46,
9 and 10, My counsel, My purpose, shall stand, and I will do all
my pleasure." Now, how do we know those that
the Father has given to the Son? How do you know? The Scripture
sets forth that Almighty God chose a people in Christ. That's
what Ephesians 1-4 says. The Lord Jesus Christ said, This
is the Father's will which has sent me, that all that He has
given me, that none of them should perish. Now how do you know those
that are God's? How do you know God's elect?
How do you know? Well, John 6.37. That's what we just read. All that the Father giveth me
shall." Not maybe, not might, not I wish they would. I hope
they do. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. They'll come to me. God, by His
Holy Spirit, makes alive, spiritually alive, the objects of God's mercy
And they come to Him. Now is where I'm going to get
down to the question. What is it to come to Christ? I want
to know. I want to know because this is the question of all questions
right here. What does the Holy Scriptures
have to say about coming to Christ. What is it to come to Christ?
What is it to come? All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. What does that mean? Well, I've
got eight things that I jotted down from the Holy Scriptures
to prove what God has to say about coming to Christ. Here's
the first thing I know. To come to Christ is to come
by faith. Come by faith. Faith, the word
faith means conviction or persuasion. Now I know this. I know that coming to Christ
by faith with conviction and persuasion is not in order to
be saved, but coming to Christ is an action of the heart because
God has saved you. He has quickened you. You cannot
do something until God makes you alive. I know this, Hebrews 11 and 6,
without faith, It's impossible to please Him, for he that cometh
to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of
them that diligently seek Him." Now here's a question. How does a man possess faith? You say, well, why would you
ask that? Because 2 Thessalonians 3 says, for all men have not
faith. Well, I thought they did. No,
God's Word says they don't. Well then, how is faith obtained? Philippians 1.29, for unto you
it is given in the behalf of Christ, not
only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for His sake. Ephesians 2 verse 8 says this,
For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. Faith is not a grace that you
possess naturally. Why? Because you would boast
in it. As I've said before, if it was left up to me, if I
had faith and everybody had faith and all they had to do was just
act on it, this is what God's Word has to say. This is how
I would act. Well, I didn't do much, but at
least I believed. You didn't, but I did. It's not of yourselves. Neither
salvation nor faith is of yourselves. It's the gift of God. All men
have not faith. Let me tell you this. When Almighty
God is pleased to call a man or woman out of darkness. Let
me tell you what the Scripture says. The Spirit of God quickens
them, rebirths them. They're born from above, born
again. God Almighty gives them a new
heart, a new mind, a new spirit, a new will, and then gives them
faith to believe what God has done. is the gift of God given to those
that God calls out of darkness. They believe God. So what is
it to come to God? What is it to come to Christ?
I know this. Coming to Christ must be by faith. Now the next seven points that
I'll quickly go through. They're all tied in with that
one point right there. Coming to Christ. The foundation
of coming to Christ is coming by faith. You have a heart that
believes God. You hear the message of God's
grace. You hear the message of God's
sovereign, saving, particular grace. And you realize It's not
of me. Because I'm going to boast in
it if it's of me. Coming to Christ must be by faith. And faith must be given. It's not of you. It's not of
me. I don't possess it naturally. I wasn't born with faith. No
man is. Faith is given. Here's the second
point, but remember, don't ever get away from the first point.
All of the others are going to go back to number one. Coming
to Christ. What is it to come to Christ?
I'll tell you this, it's to come daily. It's to come moment by
moment. He that cometh to me, I will
in no wise cast out. Anytime you see ETH on the end,
it is present progressive. Now, keeps going, keeps going,
keeps going. As I've said before, the faith
that Almighty God gave me yesterday is not the faith by which I live
today. Faith cometh, cometh. It cometh by hearing. You see,
looking back to a former act, have you come to Christ? Somebody
says, well, yeah, when I was nine, I walked down an aisle. When I was 13, I was baptized. And I joined the church when
I was 17. I kind of got away a little bit,
but I rededicated my life when I was 22. And I'm not as consistent
as I ought to be, but I've come to Christ. That's not coming
to Christ. No. Coming to Christ is right
now. Is right now. Is right now. Is
right now. He that cometh to me. David said in Psalm 61.8, So
will I sing praise unto thy name forever, that I may daily perform
my vows. A man or woman that comes to
Christ does not look back years ago and say, I came to Christ. You know, I joined the church. Coming to Christ is now. Now, now, it is a perpetual act. And I'm telling you, it is a
perpetual act that is associated with struggles. I mean, you struggle,
you struggle. Lord, help me. Lord, I'm so inconsistent. I see the frailty. Prone to wonder. That's what we just sang. Prone
to wander, Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love.
And I do love Him. And I know that there's a heart
in me, an old man that wants to leave. But there's a
new man that's not going to leave. Why? Because he's kept by the
power of God through faith. God-given faith. That's how He
stays. I don't have the ability to stay. Leave it up to me and
I'll go. What is it to come to Christ?
It's to come by faith. It's to come daily, moment by
moment. Here's the next, what it is to
come to Christ. It's to come as a needy, helpless
sinner. You say, well, what do you mean
by that? This is what I mean. Some men
say they come to Christ because they don't want to go to hell. Well, I guess if you ask anybody,
you know, do you want to go to hell? No, I'd rather not. Coming
to Christ is not to escape. I mean, that's the benefit of
it. There's no doubt about that. But if the object, if you think
the object of you coming to Christ is so that you won't go to hell,
Number one, you don't see your need of Him. Coming to Christ
is to come as a needy sinner. Mark 2, 16, 17, When the scribes
and Pharisees saw Him eat with publicans and sinners, they said
unto His disciples, How is it that He eateth and drinketh with
publicans and sinners? And Jesus heard it, and He saith
unto them, They that are whole, have no need of the physician,
but they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous,
but sinners to repentance. They that are whole, they that
have force, that's what it means, they that have ability, have
no need of the physician, but they that are sick. Now this
is going to amaze you. It amazed me. Maybe I'm just
easily amazed. They that are sick. You know what that means? A bad
nature. A bad nature. You know what it is to come to
Christ? It's to come because I realize this. I need Him. I'm a sinner. A sinner that is
unable because I don't have Any force, any ability, once the Spirit of God reveals
to a man, you have no ability in yourself to come. No man can
come. Coming to Christ, no man can
come except the Father drawing. Let me finish that scripture.
Coming to Christ is to be drawn with the arm of power, revealing
to you your helplessness without Him. O blind Barnabas, I love this
Mark 10.47, when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he
began to cry out, Jesus, thou Son of David, have
mercy on me. You know, there is nothing that
is more beautiful than finding, as Brother Scott used to say,
find a sinner. He said, just so few of them.
Just so few that see, I need Him. I'm helpless. What is it
to come to Christ? It is to come by faith knowing
your need of Him. Lord, without You, I can do nothing. Let me tell you the next thing,
what it is to come to Christ. It's to come willingly, but not
by my natural will. No man is born, as I've said
before, with a free will. If you understand what that means,
you think, there's no way. Free will means bound by nothing. Bound by nothing. What do you
mean bound by nothing? I mean bound by nothing. The
doctor tells me I'm sick, I say, not anymore. I've got a free
will. I'll just will it away. We're bound in trespasses and
sins. Bound. Slaved. And you can't shake it. But I know this, a man comes
willingly. We're not robots. Thy people,
Psalm 110.3 says, shall be willing in the day of thy power. How? How is it that I can come by
faith? How is it that I can come as
a needy sinner How is it that I can come to
Him knowing that the Scripture says no man can come except the
Father which hath sent me drawing? How? How can I come willingly? Ezekiel 36, 26, A new heart also
will I give you. A new heart and a new spirit
will I put within you. I will take away the stony heart
out of your flesh, and I'll give you a heart of flesh, a heart
that's sensible of sin and your need of Christ. I'll give you
a new heart. I'm going to give you a new will,
a new will. Before, I didn't want to come.
I didn't want to come. But I'm telling you, when Almighty
God says that thy people shall be willing in the days of thy
power when he says, like he did his apostles, follow me. And with that command went the
power to do that which he commanded them to do where previously,
number one, they wouldn't come. Number two, of themselves, they
couldn't come. No man can come. But God's people are willing. I've said before, you that believe,
you know why you're here? Because you want to be. This
is why I hear you want to be here. I wanted to be here. There was a time in my life,
I look back and I had no desire, none whatsoever. Wednesday night,
Sunday morning, stuff to do. I don't want to
go there. I've heard that before. Oh, for God's people, they say
as David said, I was glad when they said unto me, let's go to
the house of the Lord. Let's go hear what God has to say.
Let's pray for the preacher. Let's pray God give him a heart.
Let's pray God give him a message. Who knows? God may speak tonight.
God may say something to me. God may quicken me. Almighty
God may call you out of darkness. I'm glad you're here. Here's the next thing, number
five. Coming to Christ is to come without reserve. Now that's,
you know, there's no stipulations. That's what I'm saying. There's
no reserve. We are the sheep and He's the
shepherd. We're the clay. He's the potter. When Samuel,
little Samuel, you remember the Lord called Samuel one night.
He was sleeping, a little fellow, and the Lord called him and Samuel
thought it was Eli. Samuel got up and went in there
and asked Eli, he said, did you call me? He said, no, I didn't
call you. Went back to bed. The Lord called Samuel again.
Went back in there and asked Eli, he said, did you call me?
He said no. But Eli recognized that it was
the Lord talking to Samuel, the little fellow. Eli told him,
he said, if he speaks to you again, you say, you know, thy
servant heareth. Speak, Lord, thy servant heareth.
He called him again. The Lord spoke to him, told him
some things that were going to happen to Eli. And the next day,
Eli, talking to Samuel, he said, what the Lord say to you." And
he said, don't you hold anything back either, because I pray God
do to you what He said He's going to do to me if you don't tell
me. So Samuel told him what the Lord had told him. And this was
Eli's response, 1 Samuel 3, verse 18. It's the Lord. Let him do
what seemeth him good. You know, we know that He does
all things well. Now we know that. And we know
that He's surely going to do His people good. And all that
He performs toward His people, He does for their good and their
profit, and He does for His glory and His honor. Listen to the words of Job. Knowing
that God Almighty is going to do good. He's going to do good
to His people. He's going to be merciful. Here's what Job said, Job 3.18.
though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him. But I will maintain mine
own ways before Him. I don't have a right to question
Him. I don't have a right to question
what He does. As I said, He's the potter and
we're the clay. He's made us. All souls are mine,
He says. and I will do all my pleasure.
I'll tell you what it is to come to Christ. It's to come to Him
by faith, willingly, as a needy sinner, daily, moment by moment,
without reserve. Lord, as You do, give me a heart
to bow to that. Number six, come into Christ
is to forsake all other former false securities. That's what
it is to come to Christ. You know, this world and all
of the old nature within myself tells us that we can do something
to merit salvation before God. I want you to turn to Philippians.
Philippians chapter 3. Philippians 3. Now Paul the Apostle
was a religious man. I mean very religious. A whole
lot more religious than we are. And coming to Christ is to forsake
all other former securities. You say, well, the reason that
I'm a Christian is because I, and whatever you're about to
say, if it has anything to do with something that you did,
that whereby you think you're converted because you did this
for God, it's not right. Salvations of the Lord, all of
grace, is to forsake all former securities. Philippians 3, 4,
Though I might also have confidence in the flesh, if any other man
thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh,
I more. Paul said, I circumcised the eighth day of the stock of
Israel of the tribe of Benjamin. I was a Hebrew of the Hebrews
as touching the law as a Pharisee concerning zeal, persecuting
the church, touching righteousness which is in the law. I was blameless. That is in his own estimation.
But those things which were gained to me Those things, he said,
that I saw as my gain, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea, doubtless, I count all things
loss, but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus
my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do
count them but dung, that I may win Christ and be found in Him,
not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that
which is through the faith of Christ the righteousness which
is of God by faith, not having my own righteousness." How many
times do you hear, well, the reason I'm saved is because I
decided to give my heart to Jesus. Well, then that would be something
that you did in your mind whereby you think that you are converted
because you did that. That's a work. That's a work. That's a work of righteousness,
not by works of righteousness that we've done. Well, then how
can a man be saved? I'll tell you how he's saved.
God saves him, then tells him. That man believes Him. He comes
to Christ. If you're holding on to your
profession as a reason for your salvation, then you've not come
to Christ. I'll tell you what you've come
to. You've come to your profession. That's what you're coming to.
Number seven, coming to Christ is to come to the only one that
you can come to. Now, I'm telling you, don't come
to your baptism. Don't come to your profession
of faith. Don't come to your church membership. I want you to turn with me to
John 6. John 6. John 6, verse 60, well,
about 65. I'll start there and then I'll
read a couple of verses after that. John 6. Now listen to this. John 6, 65. And he said, therefore,
I said, therefore said I unto you, no man can come unto me
except it were given unto him of my father. Now, let me tell
you, let me tell you what he just said. What he just said
was, Man is impotent spiritually. And God's sovereign. That's what
He said. Man's impotent. God's sovereign. And let me tell you, I want you
to look at the next verse, what happened. And from that time,
many of His disciples went back and walked no more with Him.
Here's what they said. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait a minute.
Whoa. Wait a minute. Hold on. Hold on. Whoa. Are you telling me that
I don't have any ability in myself to come to God if I want to?
Not unless God gives you a new heart, you can't. No man can come unto me except
it were given unto him of my Father. Then you're saying that salvation
is totally at God's discretion. That's exactly what I'm saying. Well, in a case like that, then I just
I just don't believe I'll walk with you anymore. Verse 68, then Simon, no, no,
no, no. Verse 67, then said Jesus unto
the twelve, will you also go away? Then Simon Peter answered to
him, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ,
the Son of the living God. Coming to Christ is coming to
the only One that you can come to. There is no other salvation. You can't come to yourself. And
if you come to your profession, or if you come to your church
membership, or you come to your baptism, I'm telling you, you're
coming to yourself. Now, you know that's so. You're
coming to what you can do. There's only one that can save
a man. That's God Almighty. Coming to Christ is to come to
the only one that can save. And lastly, coming to Christ is known. Coming to Christ. is understood spiritually. Coming to Christ is revealed
one way. Romans 1, verse 16-17. Coming to Christ is through the
means of the preaching of the gospel. Paul said in Romans 1-16,
I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. For it is the power
of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first
and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness
of God revealed from faith to faith. As it's written, the just
shall live by faith. That phrase I've said before
is revealed from faith to faith. It's by faith that you know it's
all a faith. It's a faith. It's not of works
to faith. It's not a faith to works. It's
from faith to faith. God gives you faith to believe
that you're saved by grace through faith. The gospel of God's sovereign,
saving grace. There's one message that God
Almighty blesses to a man coming to Christ, and it's the gospel
of God's grace. Not of works. Not of works, not
of your ability. I'll tell you this, you get a
man or a woman that God's truly called. Now, I'll tell you this,
they will. They'll walk after God Almighty. They do. There's a work of faith,
a labor of love. They do. They get Pikeville, Kentucky flooded out.
You'll open your heart, Carl. You'll open your wallet. You'll
go down there. You'll do what you can, and you
won't put one ounce of stock in what you did. We'll do what
we'll do, and when we're all done, Gary, we're but unprofitable
servants. We've done that which was required
of us. Going down to Piteville, do you
think that added one ounce of merit before Almighty God? Why'd we go? Why'd you give?
Why did you support the men that went down there? Why? Because
you wanted to. Do you trust in that? No. No.
It was your duty. It was your duty. You don't look
to your works for salvation. But I tell you this, you will
work. Work of faith. And you'll find
no confidence in it. What is it to come to Christ?
Come by faith. Come as a needy sinner. Come
to the only One that can help. Come to Him who is Almighty God.
And you come through the hearing of the gospel. May God Almighty
bless these words to our heart. For Christ's sake, Amen.