I want to thank Dick for reading
the scriptures and praying for us this morning. Turn with me to the sixth chapter
of the book of John. John chapter six. Sixth chapter of the book of
John. I want to talk to you this morning
concerning verse 35 through verse 40. Let me read that for you. And
Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never
hunger, and he that believeth on me shall
never thirst. But I said unto you that ye also
have seen me, and believed not. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise
cast out. For I came down from heaven,
not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. And 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. And this is the will of him that
sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth
on him, may have everlasting life. And I will raise him up
at the last day. Now, our Lord has been speaking to the Jews. And they have followed Him from
place to place. And in this chapter, He speaks of the loaves and the
fishes. And they continued to follow
Him, those 5,000, not counting women and children. They follow Him, and over here
in verse 26, Jesus answered them and said,
Verily, verily, I say unto you, these people that were in the
audience and were eyewitnesses to this wondrous miracle that
he performed on behalf of this crowd of people, this vast, great
crowd, taking the few loaves and the fishes and feeding the
multitude of five thousand men and others. and still having
so many baskets full left over. Three ten glorious miracles,
which they were eyewitnesses to. And he said unto them, Verily,
verily, I say unto you, you seek me not because you saw the miracles. That's not the reason that you
are here where you are today. Not because you saw the miracles,
because you did eat of the loaves and were filled. That's the reason.
Because your stomachs were filled by the loaves. Now, in verse
34 of this sixth chapter, these same people said unto him, after he said
In verse 32, I say unto you, or verse 31, Our fathers did
eat manna in the desert, as it is written, he gave them bread
from heaven to eat. Jesus said unto them, Verily,
verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from
heaven, but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he which
cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world. They said unto him, the hearers,
the crowd, the listeners, the followers who had followed him,
not because of the miracles that he had done, but because their
stomachs were filled from the feast of the miracle of the bread
and fishes. They said unto him, Lord evermore,
Lord evermore give us this bread. Now, after they made this request,
Lord evermore give us this bread, in verse 36, our Lord said, But
I said unto you that ye also have seen me, and believe not. This same crowd. I said unto you, ye also have
seen me. You've seen me. And believe not. Now, if you remember right, I
sat here not so long ago where I saw this bulletin board in the front of
a church building, the property of the church building that said,
A word similar to this, that the title of the man's message
for the morning service would be, be careful that how you live
and how you act because it may be that the people that see you,
the people that you have a conversation with, folks you live with, folks
you're around, may be the only opportunity that they have to
see Christ, because they might see Christ in you. And I said,
well, that was kind of superficial, because I said, if those that
seen Christ in the flesh, if they didn't see Christ in Christ,
how are they going to see Christ in you? And you answer me that. If they couldn't see Christ in
Christ, how are they going to see Christ in you? He said unto
you, Ye also have seen me, and believe not. Now, even the sight
of the Lord Jesus Christ in the flesh and the beholding of His
marvelous, wonderful miracles did not bring men to believe
on Him. Can I say that again? Even seeing the Lord Jesus Christ
in the flesh, beholding of His marvelous miracles,
did not bring man to believe upon Him, which causes me to
say, oh, the depravity, oh, the depravity of the human heart.
Man is depraved from the top of his head to the sole of his
feet. There is not a sound spot in
him. There is not a good thing about
him. His heart is bad. His heart is deceitful and desperate. and no man can know it, including
himself. The sight of the Lord Jesus Christ
in the flesh, plus his wonder-working miracles, did not bring men to
trust him as a Redeemer. Oh, what a request this was! It was a valueless request. Evermore, give us this bread. Why, they could quote the scriptures,
these people could. And the Bible says they trusted
in Moses. Look over here in John chapter
9 and verse 28, I believe it is. Verse 27 of the ninth chapter
said, He answered them, and He said, I told you already, and
ye did not hear. Wherefore would ye hear it again? Will ye also be His disciples? Then they reviled Him. Thou art
His disciples, thou art His disciple, but we are Moses' disciples. We know that God spake unto Moses. As for this fellow, we know not
whence he came. So here we find out that they
could quote the Scriptures and they trusted in Moses and they
rejoiced for a season in John the Baptist's light, yet they believed not. How far
can a man go? How far can a man go and yet
come short of the one thing that's needful for his salvation? Wondrous miracles, five loaves
and two fishes feeding a multitude of people and so many baskets
left over. the sight of the Lord Jesus Christ
in the flesh, yet they did not cast their souls upon Him. They did not recognize Him. They
did not recognize His commission, His authority, His office. They
didn't know what He came for. They didn't know who He was in
reality. Now listen, this would be Actually, this would be the result
in every case were we left to our own thoughts concerning the
Lord Jesus Christ. We need to make sure that the
faith that we have is saving faith, saving faith. I say unto you, he said, ye have
also seen me and believe not. Now, they seen Him. Now, was the incarnation a failure? God become a man. God condescended
and become a man. The babe in the virgin's womb
was none other than the Son The great mystery, the greatest
mystery in the whole wide world is God becoming a man. That's a mystery, that God Almighty
become a man. Was that incarnation a failure? Was His mission, which was a
desperate mission, Was it fruitless? Was it unsuccessful? That cannot
be because there's no failure with God. God does not propose
a thing or purpose a thing and then fail to do what he said
he would do. God's not a failure. God's not
trying to do anything. God's doing things. We say that
this carnal religious world talks about letting Jesus do something. Let Jesus be your King. Let Jesus be your Lord. Why don't
you give yourself to Jesus? You don't let Jesus do anything. Jesus is God Almighty. He does whatsoever He pleases,
and to whom He pleases, and when He pleases to do it. He is not
at our beck and call. He is the sovereign King upon
the throne and all power in heaven and earth is given to Him. Let Jesus. He is not a failure. But now listen, our Lord was
not the least bit discouraged at the apparent failure of his mission
when he said, Ye also have seen me, and believe not. He was not
dismayed, discouraged, discontented. Oh, no. Notice what he says next. Ye have also seen me, and believe
not. Was he discouraged? Listen to
what he says. Verse 37, he said, All that the
Father giveth me shall come to me. Does that sound like he's
a failure? Does that sound like he's discouraged?
Does that sound like he's trying to save every single solitary
soul of Adam's race? He said, All that the Father
giveth me maybe will come to me. No, all that the Father giveth
to me shall come to me, shall come to me, and him that gets
to me I will in no wise cast out. He wasn't discouraged. You say, well, are you discouraged
that the message that you preach has been so slighted by the crowd? And it certainly has been slighted. They're not. No one's interested
in what I've got to say. No one's interested in this message
that gives all the honor and glory unto God Himself. They're not interested. Well,
am I discouraged? No, I'm not discouraged, because
I know that all the Father giveth to the Lord Jesus Christ shall
come to the Lord Jesus Christ, and Him that gets there shall
in no wise be cast out. There's a verse of Scripture
in accordance with this text that I want to read to you over
here in the book of 2 Timothy, I think it is. Turn with me there,
if you will, to 2 Timothy chapter 2 and verse 19. In light of what
I said, in light of the fact that these people saw Jesus in
the flesh, eyewitnesses to his miracles. And he said, You've
seen me. You've seen me, but you don't
believe on me. You're only here because of the
loaves and the fishes. You're not here because of America.
Listen to what it says here. No wonder he's not discouraged.
This is the reason I'm not discouraged. Nevertheless, the foundation
of God standeth sure. Having this seal, this is the
seal, this is the witness, the Lord knoweth them that are his. And let every one that nameth
the name of Christ depart from iniquity. Evermore give us this bread.
That's a valueless request. evermore give us this bread."
It was a whimsical desire. It was a wishful thinking. They really did not know what
they were even talking about. They didn't desire Him as a man
ought to desire Him. You remember over in, I think
it's the fourth chapter of the book of John, there was a woman There was a woman that came to
draw water. First it says in the beginning
of this fourth chapter, it says that Jesus himself, he left Judea
and departed again into Galilee. And the fourth verse says, he
must needs go through Samaria. That wasn't the shortest way.
to get there. He left Judea and he is going
to Galilee, and the shortest way wasn't through Samaria, but
it said he had to go through Samaria. There was a reason why
he had to go through Samaria, and I will tell you what the
reason was. There was one of those in Samaria that God had
given him before the foundation of the They were one of His chosen,
one of His sheep, and the Scripture language says that he or she
was one of His elect. One of those that God had ordained
unto eternal life, one of those that had been chosen in Christ
before the foundation of the world. Now, they've got to be
found, and found they will, and they've got to come, and come
they will. I mean, God's no failure now.
If He's purposed to do a thing, will He be successful in what
He does? Is His death on the tree? Is it a failure? If He died to save the whole
world, why isn't the whole world saved? Why is there a hell? Why do men go into torment if
it was His intent and purpose that He so loved every member
of Adam's race and He's going to save, He's going to die for
every member of Adam's race? Why do men die and go to hell? Why is there a hell? Why did
that rich man, why did he die and go to hell? And the beggar
died and went to be with Father Abraham. If God is trying to
do something and He can't do it, God's no failure. God's no failure. What God proposes,
what God promises, listen to me, He's got power to fulfill
His promise and His purpose. Well, it says that He must need
to go through Samaria. He's got to go through Samaria. Every one of those that God gave
His Son, they're going to be confronted. They're going to
be confronted here in time. Sooner or later, they're going
to be confronted and they're going to be brought to the Savior.
They are going to repent and they are going to trust in the
Lord Jesus Christ and they are going to follow the Lord Jesus
Christ all the days of their lives until they wind up in the
heavenly family of God in that place called heaven. He must
need to go through Samaria. Well, anyhow, Jacob's well was
there. Jesus therefore being wearied
as a man, he was wearied, all man and all God in one person. And in his humanity, he was a
man as you and I, he hungered, he thirsted, he got tired. He wearied with his journey,
sat thus upon the well. It was about the sixth hour of
the day. And there come a woman from Samaria
to draw water Jesus saith unto her, he said, unto this woman,
said, Give me to drink. For his disciples were gone away
into the city to buy meat. Thus saith the woman of Samaria
unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest the drink
of me, which am a woman of Samaria? For the Jews have no dealing
with the Samaritans. Jesus answered and said, unto
her," now listen to this, "...if thou knewest the gift of God."
What is the gift of God? The gift of God's eternal life. That's the gift of God. The wages
of sin is eternal death, but the gift of God is eternal life
through Jesus Christ our Lord. "...if thou knewest the gift
of God." Who it is that saith unto thee, and who is doing the
talking right now, he said, and who it is that saith unto
thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of him, and
he would have given thee living water, living water. Well, you
come on down here. Jesus at 13th verse, Jesus answered
and said, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again.
This water that's coming out of Jacob's well, he'll thirst
again. You'll need some more water.
But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall
never thirst. Shall never thirst. If you drink
of this water, you shall never thirst. That does not mean that
you'll not have times. in this life that you'll grow
despondent and you'll grow weary and the burden will become very
heavy and sometimes you'll sink underneath the load. It doesn't
mean that you'll not do that, but this thirst and satisfaction
he's referring to is in the fullness of himself, the fullness and
satisfaction is in him. And if there's times that we
thirst, it'll not be because of him. It will be because of
a little thing. Not of him, it's thine. All right? Whosoever drinketh of the water
that I shall give him shall never thirst, but the water that I
shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up
unto everlasting life. Now listen to what this woman
said. I've said all that and read all this in order to get
to this verse of Scripture. And the woman saith unto him,
Sir, give me this water that I thirst not. Give me this water
that I thirst not. These Jews over here said, Lord
evermore give us this bread. And he said, I am the bread of
life, and he that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that
believeth on me shall never thirst, But you've seen me, you've seen
me, you have also seen me, and you still don't believe the difference
between these Jews and this woman. Give me that water that I shall
never thirst. Give it to me. Did he give it
to her? They had a desire up here, a
whimsical, fleshly desire. Evermore give us this bread.
But their conscience had not been pierced. They didn't know
their state before Almighty God. True conversion is not wishful
thinking. It's not admiration. That's not
conversion. He talked to this woman when she said, Sir, give me this
water that I thirst not. neither come hither to draw.
Jesus saith unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither. And the woman answered and said,
I have no husband. And Jesus said unto her, Thou
hast well said, I have no husband. For thou hast had five husbands,
and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband. in what you
said, you are right.' And the woman said unto him, Sir, I perceive
that thou art a prophet.' And he went on. You can read the
rest of the story. But the woman went back. She
left her water pot. She was so excited about what
she heard and what she saw and what she felt that she left her
water pot. The water pot is there. And the
woman saith unto him, I know that the Messiah cometh which
is called to Christ. When He is come, He will tell
us all things.' And Jesus said unto her, I that speaketh unto
thee am He. And upon this came His disciples,
and marveled that He had talked with the woman. Yet no man said,
What seekest thou? Why talkest thou with her? And
the woman then left her water pots, and went her way into the
city, and said unto a man, Come, see a man. Come see a man. What man is that? It is the man
Christ Jesus. Oh, it is that man that never
another man spake like this man. Oh, come see a man which told
me all things I ever did. Is not this the Christ? Now, these Jews, these Jews,
they said evermore, give us this bread. They really didn't want
this bread. They didn't want it. They're
just talking. They're like a lot of people
in this religious world. They're just talking. Well, let
me now get down here to the meat of the whole discourse. Here, our Lord Jesus Christ in
verse 35 through verse 40 in particular, He speaks in the
first person. It's the I and my, that he is
talking about. And I think in this particular
portion of Scripture, this 6th chapter, he speaks no less than
35 times in the first person. I and my, I and my. Verse 35, Jesus said unto them,
I am the bread of life. I am the bread of life. Now,
three of our Lord Jesus Christ's great sayings are strung together
like pearls in this passage. Each of them ought to be very
precious to every true believer. All taken together, these three
great sayings that I will mention to you here this morning, all
taken together, form a world of truth in which he that searcheth
needeth never search in vain. We have found in these verses
here a saying about Christ Himself, and the saying is this, the bread of life. And he that
cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth in me shall
never thirst." He would have us here this morning to know
that He Himself is the appointed food of a man's soul. have us to know that. Not ceremonies, not rituals,
but he himself, not the Lord's Supper, not baptism, not this,
not that, but he himself is appointed the food for a man's soul. I am the bread of life. I've
been appointed, commissioned, sent by God as the appointed
food of a man's soul. The soul of every man by nature
now, by nature, every man by nature is starving and dying
because of sin. You remember I've told you time
and time again in chapter 2 of the book of Ephesians, And ye
who were dead, and ye whom he hath quickened were dead in trespasses
and in sins." Dead because of sins, and Christ is given by
God the Father to be the Satisfier, to be the Reliever, to be the
Physician of man's spiritual needs. And nowhere else can satisfaction
be found. It cannot be found in religion.
It cannot be found in yourself. It can only be found in Him whom
God has appointed to be the sole food of the spiritual man. In Him, in His meditatorial offices,
in Him and His atoning death. In Him, in His priesthood. In Him, in His grace. In Him,
in His love, in His power. In Him, A-L-O-N-E. In Him alone. In Him alone will
empty souls, starving, vanishing souls find their needs supplied. Only in Him. And in particular,
their needs as a sinner is met in the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ and Him and Him alone. Nowhere else. No need to look
anywhere else. The longer you look to yourself,
inside yourself, to your motives and what have you, as long as
you look to anything that's pertaining to yourself, of yourself, in
yourself, or outside of yourself, be no hope is to look to Him
alone, alone. When those Jewish people were
bitten by the serpents in the wilderness, He told all of them
that were bitten, Look, He said, and put that brazen serpent on
the pole, and whosoever looketh upon him shall live. Look alone. The object of faith
is Christ Jesus. It's not the looking that saves
you. It's the object of the look.
Look to Him and Him alone. Don't bring your good deeds with
you. Don't bring your self-righteousness
with you. You come to Him and look to him
alone, nothing in my hand I bring, simply to thy cross I cling."
That's the language of the Scriptures. Come empty-handed. Come like
a beggar. Come desiring it more than life
itself. Come to me and I'll give you
life. I'm the bread of life. I'm the
sustainer of life. I'm the taker of life. I'm all
things. All your needs are met in me.
I'm the bread of life. Oh, in Him there is life. He is the bread of life. With
perfect wisdom was that name chosen by God the Father and
given to Him. Infinite wisdom chose that name. I am the bread of life. We can manage fairly well without
many things on our table, but not without bread. We must have
bread. You have to have it every morning,
you have to have it every evening, all the days of your life. You've
got to have bread. I bet there's not one of us here
this morning can truthfully say, I can do without bread. Everybody
likes bread, don't they? He's the bread of life. He's
the bread of life. We must have Christ. We must
have Him or die in our sins. If you don't have Him, you're
going to die in your sins. Where He goes, you cannot come. We must have Christ. I am the
bread of life, must have Him. Bread is the food that suits
all people, suits everybody. Some cannot eat meat, some cannot
eat vegetables, but all can eat bread. Isn't that right? All
can eat bread, all alike. So it is with Christ. He's food for the President.
I wish he were. He's food for the highest office
in this land. And he's food for the poorest
of the poor. He's food for the beggar. Bread is the food that we need
daily. Other kinds of foods we can perhaps
occasionally take, But we want bread every morning and every
evening. So it is with the Lord Jesus
Christ. There is never a day, an hour
that goes by in our lives, but we need His blood. His blood
cleanses us from all sin. We need His blood every day. We need His obedience every day.
We need His righteousness every day. We need His grace every
day. We need His intercession every
day. Is there any wonder that God
chose this name for Him, the Bread of Life? I am the Bread
of Life. They said, Moses, give us bread.
And He said, He gave you that bread and you ate and died. You
eat this bread, you'll never die. I'm the Bread of Life. Ah, do we know anything of spiritual
hunger? Know anything about that? Well, I do know this, that we
got to come to Him by faith. I know that. Let me read this
to you in the book of Hebrews, if I can find it real quick. Oh, yes, in the eleventh chapter.
Listen to this. It says, By faith Enoch was translated
that he should not see death. By faith. And was not found because
God had translated him. For before his translation, he
had this testimony that he pleased God. By faith. But without faith,
now listen to me, but without faith, it's impossible to please
God. If you don't have this, if you
don't have this, this scarce commodity which is called faith. Faith's a gift of God. Faith's
a gift of God. Faith is not something that you
have naturally. Every man that's born a woman
is born void of faith, void of true faith. God must give him faith. God
does not give it to everybody. Faith cometh by hearing. Hearing the Word of God. That's
the reason why I insist that people, when I talk to them,
come to church. Come to church where the gospel
is proclaimed. Not any church, but come to church
where the gospel is proclaimed. where God is God, where God rules
and reigns. Come back. Who knows? Faith cometh by hearing, and
hearing by the Word of God. Listen, but without faith it
is impossible to please God. Oh, to come to Him by faith!
Listen, if we come to Him, it means that we believe on Him. It means that we commit our souls
to Him as the Scripture reveals Him to be. The only way that
you can know God is to know Christ, and the only way that you can
know Christ is to have Him revealed unto you as the Scripture reveals
Him. You see, what I'm saying is this,
now listen, as the Scriptures reveal Christ, does the Scriptures
reveal the Lord Jesus Christ out begging people to follow
Him? Does it teach throughout the
Bible here that Jesus went around and begged people, why don't
you come, come, come, come, come, begging them to come? Did He
beg them to come? Oh no, He didn't beg them to
come. He didn't beg them to come. He preached the gospel. And the effect of the Spirit
of God working in the hearts of the hearers brought some unto
the Christ. Because they believed in the
Christ as He's revealed in the gospel, a sovereign Christ. All right? It says that we come
to Him by faith. We believe on Him. We commit
our souls to Him. And in coming to Him, now listen
to me. This will help you if you see
what I am talking about. In coming to Him, He pledges
His royal Word that we shall find everlasting satisfaction,
both for time and eternity. I am the bread of life, and he
that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth
on me shall never thirst. You'll find in me everlasting
satisfaction, both for time and eternity. It is written in the
Bible, he that cometh to me shall never hunger and shall never
thirst. He gives his word. His royal,
kingly Word that if a man will come to Him, he will never hunger
and he will never thirst if you come to Him. I am the bread of
life. Now, the second saying involved
here is a saying of Christ about those who come to Him. We come to Him just as we are. We come to Him as Hopeless, helpless,
doomed, damned sinners. Guilty sinners. We've got no
ground to stand upon. We've got nothing to bring. Everything that we've said, done,
every word, every thought we ever had prior to conversion
is sin. Everything is sin prior to conversion. And God is angry with the wicked
every day. So anything that you try to bring
of yourself unto God when you come to God is sin. You come empty-handed. You come
as you are. You come without any shield.
You come without any thing to fortify yourself, to make you
stand in good light. You come empty-handed like a
beggar. You come with nothing in your hand. Nothing in my hands
I bring. Nothing. Absolutely nothing.
Don't bring this and that or something else or your religion
or what your mama did, what your mama said, where you go to church
and where you don't go to church and what you believe and what
you don't believe. You come empty-handed as a sinner. Come without nothing. Come without nothing. The second
thing here is the saying, of the Lord Jesus Christ about those
who come to me. He says, ìHe that cometh to me
I will in no wise cast out.î What in the world does that mean?
What does that mean? ìHe that comes to me I will in
no wise cast out.î It means this, ìI will under no circumstance
or condition cast you out.î There is no way He cast you out. Isn't that a good saying? He
that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast him out. You might feel a million times
like he ought to be cast out. And there will be accusations
against you saying, well, you ought to be cast out. The devil
will say, well, he's no good. He ought to be cast out. I said,
under no circumstance, under no condition, no one will I leave
you to yourself. No way. What does that mean? It means come unto Christ and
all that. It is a movement of the soul
when a man knows his state as a sinner by nature, by nature,
when he knows what he is. When he knows he is guilty, guilty,
guilty of crimes against God, not against your fellow man,
all your sins directed against God. You are guilty. You don't have to go very far.
The first commandment covers you and me. It says, Thou shalt
love the Lord thy God with all thy strength and all thy soul.
You haven't done that and neither have I. We are sinners, guilty.
We have broken the law of God and the wages of sin is death.
But oh, the glorious gift of eternity! God sent His Son to
be a propitiation for our sins, to die in our stead and our place,
our room, bear the punishment that is due us, born in His own
sinless body, sinless soul. What does it mean? Well, when
a man knows his state as a sinner, when he finds out that he can't
save himself, have you ever found that out? That you can't save
yourself by all your proposals and all your all your propositions
and all your promises and all your acts. I'm going to do this
and I'm going to quit doing that. You can't save yourself when
you find that out. When you find out there's no
hope nowhere except in Him who said, Come unto Me, all ye laboring
and heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. That's what it means. When he finds out he can't save
himself and he hears of the Lord Jesus Christ who is sent of God
to save sinners like himself. That's what it means. It means
leaning on your weight, leaning on your weight, leaning on Jesus,
everything. When this happens, a man is said
in Scripture language, that he come to Christ when that
happens. What did our Lord mean by this
saying, I will in no wise cast him out? Well, it means that
he will not refuse to save anyone who comes to him standing on
the ground of who they are, standing on the ground of their sinner.
It says he won't refuse it. He won't
refuse that soul regardless. if he is standing on that platform
of his sinnerhood. If he comes naked, nothing in
my hand I bring. It means that he will not refuse
to save anyone who comes to him, no matter what he has been or
how great his past sins are or his present weakness or infirmity. If he comes, believing and trusting
God in Christ Jesus, God will graciously, lovingly receive
him, pardon him, justify him freely and give him everlasting
life. Isn't that a glorious saying? He that cometh to me shall never
hunger. He that believeth on me shall never thirst." These are
precious words to the ears of a poor sinner. It was precious
words to me. I had nothing in myself, and
I knew it, that I could say, Look here, Lord, there's some
good in me. I didn't have that. I don't know
about you, but I never had it. I never had a single solitary
thing. that I could lay in my hands
and say, Lord, look at this. And the reason I felt that way
is because God made me to feel that way. He made me to know
that I was a poor sinner and nothing at all, but Jesus Christ
was my all in all. These are precious words to the
ears of a poor sinner who has found out who he really is. Not
what his mother said he was, or not what his daddy said he
was, not what his wife thinks he is, or his children think
he is, or his neighbors think he is, but he's found out who
he really is. He's a sinner. He's guilty. He's
broken the law of God. He's a guilty sinner. And only
his needs can be met in the sent one, the Lord Jesus. Nowhere else to go. Nowhere else
to go, helpless and poor and needy. Nowhere else to go. I was at all those other places.
They didn't help me any. Remember that poor woman? Spent
all that she had on the physicians of this world and found no relief.
She found no relief until she got through the crowd. She reached out and she touched
the hem of his And he said, who touched me? And they said, oh,
there's a big crowd here. We couldn't answer that question.
He said, I know that virtue has gone out of me. Somebody touched
me. The woman didn't touch him. She didn't pull his outer garment
off. Cheer raises a great big fit
and holler and sing and yelp and yell and run around and throw
songbooks and jump over benches. He's touched it! That's what
it is. A day'll come, folks. A day'll come when flesh and
blood shall fail. It may become sooner for me than
it will for you, but it'll come for you. Flesh and blood will
fail, and the world can't help us no more. Kind words of your
wife and your husband and your children when they try to encourage
you and say you're a good man and you've been a good husband
and all that business, that won't help you then. That won't help
you when you come down, when you come down that you've got
to face. Oh, happy, happy and glorious
will be that day if the Spirit, if the Spirit comes and witnesses
with our spirit that we really and truly come to Him. Oh, lastly, a saying of the Lord
Jesus Christ about the will of His Father. Here's what it says. Verse 37, All that the Father giveth to
me shall come to me. They're going to come. They'll
come from the east and the west and from every tribe and every
tongue and every nation. They'll come. The whole world
won't come, but His people will. His people that were chosen,
that were sanctified and set apart before the world ever was.
He's going to find them wherever they're at. He's going to find
them. He's going to find them like he found that woman. He
must need to go through some area. He had a reason to go over
there. There was one of them over there. And he found her.
And she said, give me this drink. Give me this water. I'll never
thirst and never have to draw from this well again. Give it
to me. And he gave it to her. Oh, He said, if you know who
it was, who you're speaking to, who it was that said unto you,
give me drink, if you know who it was, He'd give you water from
an everlasting well. Oh, my soul. This is the will
of Him. This is the will of Him. All
the Father that giveth to me shall come to me, and Him that
cometh to me I will. in no wise cast out. For I came
not down from heaven to do mine own will, but I come to do the
will of Him that sent me." And this is the Father's will that
has sent me. This is what it is. I'm not trying to save everybody
now. I'm going to save His people. That's the reason this church
building ain't full. They're not all crowding around
to hear me. They're not sending me invitations
from all over the country, come speak at our church. They're
not doing it. And this is the Father's will
that sent me, now listen, that of all which He hath given me,
I should lose nothing. That's what
He has to say about the will of the Father. Look at verse 37, the first word.
Same all. All that the Father giveth to
me shall come to me. And this second all down here. That of all which he hath given
me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the
last day. And then he says this, And this
is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth
the Son, they seen him, Didn't they? Well, He says up there, But I said unto you, Ye also
have seen me, and believed not. They've seen Him. They didn't
see Him with their eyes and face, did they? No. He said, This is the will of
Him that sent me, that every one would seeth the Son, and believeth on Him. may have
everlasting life. And I'll raise him up at the
last day. And these Jews, they said, What kind of talk is that?
What kind of talk is that? I remember one time I preached
a fellow's funeral. He was ninety-some years old.
Oldest man that I'd ever had conversation with. He died. And I preached this funeral,
and I was saying some things like this. And after the funeral,
a Church of Christ member came to me and said, You've made God
a murderer. He said, You've made God a murderer. The Lord giveth, and the Lord
taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. This is the will
of Him that sent me, that everyone that seeth the Son may have everlasting
life. Then we're told, Again, of the
all which he hath given to Christ he shall lose nothing. It means
that not one lamb of his flock will be left behind in the wilderness. He will bring them all home safely
to him. Lord, bless the Word to our understanding
here this morning and help us to rejoice in such a wonderful
Savior. who came from heaven, who left
heaven, all the glories of heaven, and took upon himself the humility
of being a man, a man. His greatest humility in this
life was he's a man, a man. He'd become a man. with it. Flesh and blood cannot
reveal the Father to my soul. The Father must reveal Himself
to my soul. Well, over here in this verse 30, Listen now, this man called Jesus, super
human origin, supernatural. Verse 38 says, For I came down
from heaven, I came down from heaven, that's where I came from,
not to do mine own will. I didn't come to do my own will.
But what did you come down for? But the will of Him that sent
me. But the will of Him that sent
me. Now listen, He promises here, verse 37 He promises, All that
your Father giveth to me shall come to me, and him that cometh
to me I will in no wise cast out. Now He promises here to
reject none who really come to Him. Now that's the promise.
This is the promise of Him who is of super origin, who is of
above. The Jews said we know Him, but
they didn't know Him. If we know Him, oh, if we know
Him, we'll never trust Him. See? He promises to reject none
who really come to Him. And He declares that no imaginable
condition or circumstance will ever expel, that will cause Him
to ever expel any one of these little ones that come to Him. That's what He promises. That's
His royal pledge. His royal pledge. He signed it
and sealed it with His own blood. You remember, Peter came to Him
one time. You remember that? Peter was
converted. Peter came to the Lord Jesus Christ and he was
saved. God accepted him on the basis
of the Lord Jesus Christ and made him the chief apostle. That is, he was the leading spokesman
for all of the apostles. Peter was. Peter came to him and was saved,
but later on, Peter denied his master with an oath. Isn't that right? Didn't he deny
his master with an oath? He cursed bitterly. Went out
into the night, denied his master. Said, I never knew him. They
said, well, you sound, your speech betrays you. Sounds like you're
one of them. Oh, no. He said mistaken identity. I said, you just misunderstood
my speech. I don't really talk that way.
Oh no, he said, not me, not me. And he denied his master with
an O. But did Christ cast him out?
Did he? I'm glad it's there, aren't
you? I'm glad that's there. I feel
sorry for Peter, for what Peter did. I hope I never get in that
situation. But I'm going to tell you this.
God didn't cast him out. The Lord Jesus didn't cast him
out. Absolutely no, He didn't. And can we find a more extreme
case than that in the Scriptures? Oh, no. That's about as bad as
you can get, is to look him in the face. Look him right in the
face and say, I never knew you. But He never cast him out. Oh,
what hope! Never cast him out. Oh, my hope is built on nothing
less than his blood and righteousness. Now, if Peter was not cast out,
no believer ever was or ever will be. Oh, what assurance the
Bible gives us! Why are we so afraid? Then in
this verse 38, He assures His own, His people
that come to Him, He will save unto the end all that the Father
has given Him. He assures them of that. Save
them unto the end. Down one place there He says, Everyone that saith the Son believeth
on him may have everlasting life, and I'll raise him up again the
last day." The last day means the last day of this so-called
dispensation. I'll raise him up again, and
I'll show everybody then, I didn't lose one of them. I didn't lose
one of those that the Father gave me. I'll raise them all
up. Well, listen now. in verse 38, For I come down
from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of Him that
sent me. Now, this particular statement
here declared by our Lord Jesus Christ, who came from heaven,
existed before He appeared unto man. What He says here enhances
the value of the precious words at the close of the preceding
verse, in verse 37, when he said about our coming to the Lord
Jesus, for I come, or verse 37, this is the last of the 37th
verse, to him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast him
out. I won't cast him out. We see that our coming to the
Lord Jesus Christ is not attributed to man's fickle will, but it
comes. Our coming to the Lord Jesus
Christ and our believing on the Lord Jesus Christ is the effect, it is the result
of the Father's drawing us. Our believing and trusting the
Lord Jesus Christ is the result of His drawing power. He drew
us. He drew us. What was that scripture
you read the other night in Isaiah chapter 65, Brad? I sought them,
I found them that sought me not. You know what he said? I found
them that sought me not. We didn't seek Him. He sought
us. He drew us. We believe. We come. Because that's the effect
of His drawing power. Chose us before the foundation
of the world in His all-out love He chose us unto Himself. Now
listen, that's the effect of the Father's drawing to the Savior. Each one given to Him in the
counsels of the Father's love. before the foundation of the
world. And we are brought to Him by the unseen drawings of
the Father's love. Unseen, unseen. The Spirit, the Spirit is like
unto the wind. It bloweth where it listeth.
No man can tell from which it comes or which it goes. So is
the drawing power. of the great and glorious love
of God that draws us unto himself. Our safety, then, and our security. Safety and security. We like
that, don't we? Rest not on anything in us or
from us, but on the Father's drawing power, the Father's choice,
and the Son's obedience. That's what it rests on. God
who is rich in mercy. Then verse 39 again. And this
is the Father's will. This is the Father's will which
hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me. Think about
that now. Just kind of let that soak in.
What is the Father's will? He came to do what? He came to
do the Father's will. He came not to do His own will,
but He came to do the Father's will. See? That's what He said. I come down from heaven. I existed there before I appeared
here, and I came down not to do my own will. I didn't have
a personal thing about this thing. I come down to do the will of
Him that sent me. And this is the Father's will
which hath sent me. This is it. That of all He hath
given me, He gave. God the Father gave the Lord
Jesus Christ so many in the counsel halls of eternity, in the counsels
of His divine love, He gave them. The Lord Jesus Christ came to
get them, to ransom them, to pay the price for their deliverance. This is the Father's will which
sent me, that of all which he hath given me, I should lose
nothing, won't lose anything. but should raise it up again
the last day. Now, what am I saying? Here's
what I'm saying. I'm saying eternal predestination
guarantees eternal perseverance or eternal preservation. That's
what I'm saying. Eternal predestination guarantees
eternal preservation. Ah, the last day. I said what
that was. Oh, and that's when, that last
day, he'll show forth, and the fact that he hadn't lost a single
solitary one of those. He never left any of them behind.
There's no little old lamb walking out in the wilderness there.
And that destroys this idea. I remember one time, Glenn and
I was out there burning a lot of wood there. We had a whole
40 years ago with lots of lumber out there. And we was burning
that lumber up. Some fella come along, we knew
him real well, and we talked to him, and we liked him, and
felt he was a good friend and all those things. Nice fella. We talked a little bit about
heaven, a little bit about hell. And he said, boys, he said, told
us, and I'll never forget it. He said, I'll tell you this,
my friends. He said, if there's anyone who
goes to heaven, it's going to be my mother. And he based that
on the fact that his mother was gentle and kind and nice. But that's not where it's at.
It's in this man. He's the bread that cometh down
from heaven. And we've got to acquaint ourselves
with him, Pat, and be at peace. We're shut up to the drawing
of the Spirit, to reveal His Son. Verse 40, And this is the will
of him that sent me, and every one that saith, The Son believeth
on him may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the
last day. Now, he had already disclosed the fact that the success
of his ministry depended not on man's will, That's the idea
in all the preaching that I know of, apart from a few, is that
it's man's will that determines whether he's saved or not. It's
up to man's will. He can say yes or he can say
no. He's sovereign, not God. But
I tell you, God's sovereign. God's sovereign. He's on the
throne. And man's will is not free as
he thinks it is. He's free alright. He's like
a frog in a snake's belly. He's free to move around, but
he's not free to get out. That's how free he is. He's dead
and trespasses and in sin. And what can a dead man do? What
can a dead man do? He can't do anything. He doesn't
want to do anything. He's got no feelings. He's got
no desires. He's got no emotions. He's dead
stone cold dead in the market. Now he has already disclosed
the fact that the success of his ministry depended not on
man's will. For in every case, man's will
is so perverse so as to reject the Lord Jesus Christ. If it
depended upon man's will, nobody would be saved. All men by nature
hate God and His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. The success of
his ministry, he says, depends upon the drawing power of the
Father. And then he leaves the door wide
open to anyone, anywhere, who is disposed to enter that door. It's open, wide open. If you
are disposed to come, you can enter in. If you don't and die
and go to hell, you can blame yourself for it, not blame God. You'll not blame God for it.
He'll shut your mouth. He'll shut your mouth. Every
mouth shall be stopped and every knee shall bow and every tongue
shall confess that Jesus Christ is to the glory of God. He leaves
the door. wide open to anyone and everyone
that has the disposition to enter. Why will you die when the door
is open wide? Depravity is a terrible thing. Now he says, Everyone that seeth
the Son believeth on him may have everlasting life. And I'll
raise him up the last day. Now, believing on Christ is the
result of seeing Him. See what it says? Everyone that
seeth the Son, if a man sees the Son, he is going to believe
on Him. To believe on Him is the result
of seeing Him. He must first be revealed by
the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, before he will be received by
the sinner. And if that takes place, He'll
come. And the Jews began to argue at
him. They said, you know what you're
talking about. You don't know about it. Where'd you get all
this stuff? Who taught you this? That ain't
the way it is. That ain't the way it is. That's
what folks tell me. That ain't the way it is. Where'd
you get that at? They said, You're the only one
I ever heard say that. They murmured at him. I said,
We know who he is. They didn't know who he was. Jesus, verse 47, said,
I am that bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in
the wilderness, and they're dead. What a commentary on them. on
their bread. Their bread didn't sustain them.
They're dead. That was a shock to them, wasn't
it? He said, This is the bread which cometh down from heaven,
true bread. I'm the true bread. Now listen,
that a man may eat thereof and not die. I am the living bread
which cometh down from heaven. If any man eateth this bread,
he shall live forever. A declaration like that, none
other than Him who came from above, who existed there before
He appeared here. And He said, if you eat this
bread, you'll live forever. God, I'll cry out like them Jews
every morning, give me this bread! Give me this bread! Well, which came down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread,
he'll live forever. And the bread that I will give
is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. My
flesh. We enter in. That's the reason
why we need... That's the reason why we got
to... He's so ordained that there'll be churches where the Word of God would be
read. and the Word of God would be
preached. And the more we read, the more we preach and hear,
the more we eat of this blessed gospel. We take it in, like we
take in the bread, and we digest it. And what happens to the bread
when we chew it up? And it goes into this process
of doing whatever it does. It becomes part of us. Isn't
that right? becomes part of us. That's the
way it is with the gospel.