John chapter 6, and our text
will be found in verse 29. The title of the message this
morning, The Work of God. The Work of God. Jesus answered and said unto
them, This is the work of God, that you believe on Him whom
He hath sent. Now, after the Lord Jesus Christ,
here in John chapter 6, had fed the 5,000 with the five loaves
and few fishes, this people perceived that He was a prophet or even
perceived Him to be the Messiah. They saw this miracle and they
experienced it and they themselves would have taken Him. and made
Him their king by force." That was their intention. Read that
in Mark chapter 6. They wanted to take Him and by
force make Him their king. But the Lord Jesus Christ, understanding
this, He tells His disciples, boys, get in the boat. Get in
the boat and go over to the other side as fast as you can." And
Jesus departed and He went into a mountain to pray. And the next
day these people woke up and they said, hey, where'd they
go? Where's our meal ticket? They
wanted to know where Jesus went. They said, where'd He go? He
must have went on the other side. And so they got into boats and
they traveled over to the other side of the sea. And they found
Jesus there. And Jesus, knowing their hearts,
knowing what they wanted, knowing that these were not His
people, these were not His elect, He said unto them this, Truly,
truly, I say unto you, You seek Me not because you saw the miracles,
but because you did eat of the loaves and were filled." These
men that experienced this great miracle, perceiving Him to be
the Christ, would make Him king, and Jesus plainly here exposes
them for exactly what they were. These men sought Him not to be
King, Christ, and their Savior. They didn't need salvation. The
only thing they wanted was bread. That's the only thing they wanted.
And Jesus says, I know what you want. I know what you're here
for. You're here because you were filled with the loaves.
That's the only reason you sought Me. You don't need salvation. That's
not what you're after. You sought Me because you were
fattened by the loaves. They didn't desire to bow down
to the Lord Jesus. They didn't desire that. They
desired to be filled with physical bread. Now, if you read this
chapter, and I encourage you to read the remaining part of
this dissertation, this discussion with Christ and these people,
if you will look, these people only wanted something physical. They only wanted something that
Jesus could do for them physically. They didn't care about anything
else. They only cared about what He could do for them physically. So everything that He was talking
about, they took literally. But Jesus here in this portion
of Scripture, every time you read His words, know this, His
words are spoken spiritually. They are talking about spiritual
things, not physical things. To illustrate this, I'll show
you a couple of points in this. He said, I am the bread of life,
and he that eats this bread will never hunger. What did they say?
Give me that bread. Give me that bread. You see,
Jesus was talking in spiritual terms. I am the only source of
life for your souls. And they said, well, we want
that bread that doesn't make us hunger in our physical bodies.
They didn't understand. The second thing he said was,
he said, except the man eat my flesh and drink my blood. He
doesn't have life. These men thought he was talking
about his literal flesh and blood. And even today, there are some
fools who think that eating his physical flesh and blood is the
way to salvation. That's not what he was talking
about. He was talking in spiritual terms. How do you know this? Well, Jesus plainly explains
this in verse 63. Look at that. Look at verse 63.
This is the key to all that He's saying. Verse 63. He says, It
is the spirit that quickeneth. The flesh profiteth nothing. The words that I speak unto you,
they are spirit and they are life. These words that Jesus
spoke were spirit and truth because they spoke of Him. He spoke of Himself as being
the only source of life for the souls of men. And by this morning,
if you do not have Christ as the bread of life, if you have
not taken Christ as the bread of life, if you have not eaten
His flesh and drinken His blood, by faith you are not alive. You're dead and in your sins. This morning, Jesus said, that which is born
of flesh is flesh. It'll live flesh and die flesh.
And if you only want the things of this life that Jesus can give
for you, then you'll die with those things. You'll die with
those things. That which is born of the flesh
is flesh. It'll live flesh and die flesh. In other words, true
salvation, true life does not come by the working of the flesh. The flesh profits you nothing. It doesn't profit us one thing
to perform physical acts of righteousness because sin is mixed with all
we do. Jesus is making this very plain
spiritually. That you cannot work righteousness
from the outside in. It has to be worked from the
inside out. That's how righteousness has
to come. That's how life comes. And what I want us to see this
morning in our text is I want to see two things concerning
this salvation that Christ is speaking of. This life that He's
speaking of. The meat that endureth through
everlasting life. Two things I want to say. Let's
ask two questions this morning. First of all, who is He that
God has sent? Look at that in our text. Look
at that in our text, verse 29. This is the work of God that
you believe on Him whom He has sent. So who is this that God
has sent? Who are we to believe? That's
a very important question. Because this tends to physical,
spiritual life. If you don't know who you have
believed, And if you are believing, if you're not believing in this
person, then you don't have life. Second of all, what is the work
of God? What is the work of God? First
of all, who are we to believe? Religious folks like that verse
in Romans 10, verse 13. Whosoever shall call on the name
of the Lord shall be saved. You know, I like that verse.
That's a good verse. It's the truth. I believe that. But see, what happens is people
neglect the other two verses that go along with that. Flip
over to Romans 10. I want you to see these verses
and how they tie together. And it's vitally important to
understanding what it is to believe on Him whom He has sent. Romans
10, verse 14. Romans 10, verse 14. You see, to stay on that verse
13, Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved,
without understanding the next two verses, you miss the whole
point. Look at this. How then shall they call on Him
whom they have not believed? In other words, you can't call
on somebody you don't believe. Isn't that right? You can't call
on somebody you don't believe. And how shall they believe in
Him whom they have not heard?" If you haven't heard about this
person, how can you believe in this person? And how can you
call on Him? The next step is, how shall they
hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except
they be sent? My friend, if a man of God does
not tell you who Christ is, then you cannot believe Christ. You must know who He is and believe
Him. Believe Him. Believe what the
Word of God says about Him. In order for someone to call,
they must know who He is. And today, I want to declare
to each one of you, under the sound of my voice, who this Man
is. Who God has sent. This is Him. This same Jesus Christ, I declare
unto you, is none other than the Son of the living God. That's who I declare unto you.
He is the Son of the living God. I tell you by the Word of God
that this man that is speaking in our text is God Himself. That's who He is. Jesus Christ
is God. And He is none other. He is God. Jesus said this of Himself. He
said, No man ascended up into heaven, but the Son of Man which
came down from heaven. You see, He who has blessed God
forever, enjoyed from all eternity the praise of all His creation. He sat on the throne of heaven
and He ruled and He was worthy of all praise. And yet my scripture tells me
that this same God came down and manifest Himself in human
flesh. He says, the Scripture says,
he took upon himself the form of a servant, and being found
in fashion as a man, he humbled himself. He was made in the likeness
of sinful flesh, the Scripture says. And I tell you that this
man, Jesus, whom you are to believe, is the only God-man mediator. There is none other. He who is God the Son was sent
to become a man. And I tell you this, He was not
a pretend man. He was not a man that was devoid
of pain or suffering. He experienced everything that
we have and more. He was a man, just like we are. yet without sin. Excluding sin,
He experienced all of our hurts and pains. He took upon Himself
the form of a servant, born of the Virgin Mary, conceived by
the Spirit of God, prepared a body by God Himself, holy and righteous
was His body. But a body of a man nonetheless.
This is His person. This is who we are to believe.
Anyone that is not, anyone that does not see Jesus as this person,
how can you be saved? How can you call on this Jesus
if you don't believe He is the God-man? How is that possible? If you believe He's just a man,
a good prophet, and you call on Him, you're not calling on
this Jesus. And if you call on a God who has not become man,
you're not calling on this Jesus. But why did God come? Why did
He do this? Why did He condescend so low
to take upon Himself the form of a servant? The answer to this question is
to see the work that He had performed. To answer that question, see
the work that He had performed. In order for us to believe on
Him, we must first understand who He is, and we must also understand
what He has done. What He has done. You see, this
same Jesus, Peter, in Acts chapter 2 said this, God hath declared
Him. God hath made Him both Lord and
Christ. God declared Him to be so. God
said of Christ, this is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. God approved of Him. And He manifests
this approval by the miracles that He performed. And in front
of these people, He had performed a miracle of great feat. He had
fed 5,000 with 5 loaves. He had declared to them who He
was. I am God manifest in the flesh. and I have come to do
a work of God." The work of God. You see, because man was created
in the image of God, he sinned against God, and before he sinned,
he was born a living soul, the Scripture says. Our Father, your
Father, my Father, Adam, was born a living soul. He was perfect
and upright before God. Yet when our Father fell, when
our Father ate the fruit, He died that day. He died in His
soul and He passed that death on to you and to me. You see,
you and I were born spiritually dead in our sins. Spiritually dead. Romans 5 tells
us death passed upon all men. You see, I didn't escape my spiritual
death and neither did my son, neither does my daughter, and
neither does any one of you escape the spiritual death that was
passed down by our father Adam. And because of this sinful nature,
this depraved nature, We were enslaved to our sins. We were just like these men that
sought physical bread. If you're lost today, you are
still just like these people. You only care about what this
body wants. If you're lost, that's all you
care about. All you care about is the things that maybe Jesus
can provide for you. If Jesus gives me things, hey,
I don't mind liking Jesus. But all people care about, I
know this before I was saved, before the Lord saved me, that's
all I cared about was pleasing me. Because of our spiritual nature,
this is all we were, was dead in our trespasses and sins. And
that left a void in our heart. An empty space. And we, like
these men, labor for the bread that perisheth. We labor for
the bread that perisheth. How many of us have ever said
this? If I can just get this, I'll be happy. If I can just
get to this place in my life, I'm going to be happy then. Surely,
everything's going to be alright then if I can just reach this
one point. Somebody said, if I could just
have this person, this person, if I could just marry this person,
everything's going to work out just fine. Everything's going
to be good. What happened when you got what
you wanted? What happened? Was that it? Did you enjoy it? You did for
a season. And then what happened? You went
on to something else, didn't we? We went on to something bigger
and better and greater. And that is our nature. Why?
Because there's a void inside of our heart that we cannot fill
by this world. You can't. It won't happen. You're
only satisfied. Nothing in this world will ever
satisfy you. My friend, there is only one
place to find satisfaction. There's only one person that
can give you the bread that doesn't perish, that completes us. And that is the bread of life,
Jesus Christ. He's the only one. He's the only
one. And it is this bread that came
down from heaven. He performed the work to make
that applicable to us. He come down to accomplish the
work that was necessary to bring us to God. That's what he did. Jesus said, I am the bread of
life. I am. Jesus is the bread that came
down from heaven. He was sent of God the Father,
according to the eternal covenant of grace, to fulfill all that
was lacking in us. Because we were dead and enslaved
to sin, we could not perform the righteousness that God demands
of each of us. God demands righteousness from
each one of us. And I'll tell you this, right
now, none of us could ever fulfill the righteousness God demands.
None of us. We were all born enslaved to
our sin. And it is only by the work of
Jesus Christ that you can be set free. Set free from the needs
of this world, the cares of this life. It is only by the blood
and righteousness of Christ, because of our sin, God's justice
was upon us, so that we could not escape. We because of our
sin were sentenced to eternal death and hell. And all we were
waiting for was God's hand to fall on us. And if you're lost,
God's hand is on you. We by nature, it's not that we
commit acts of sin by nature. My friend, we are sin by nature. Our very nature and core of our
being is nothing but sin. From the crown of our head to
the soles of our feet, Isaiah says, is wounds and bruises and
putrefying sores. That's what we are by nature.
Paul says, we as a natural man receiveth not the things of God.
You that do not hear me, you that hear me with your physical
ears but you don't understand or have any care, you cannot
understand what I'm saying. You cannot have an interest in
what I'm saying. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto
him, neither can he know them. Why? Because he is spiritually
discerned, depraved by nature. Depraved. Romans 8, 7, Because
the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to
the law, neither indeed can be. We can't be. We won't be. But this One whom God has sent,
His Christ, His anointed, the One sealed of the Father, has
come to give life to the dead. He's come to give life to the
dead. He has come to give righteousness to the unrighteous. He has come
to pay the sin debt. And we owe to God. He has done this by his life
of righteous obedience to God in every precept. Everything
he did was righteous. Everything he did was good. And
he honored God's law to the fullest degree. None of us can say that. Has any one of us personally
done that ourselves? Has anyone of us experimentally
obeyed the law in thought, word and deed? Absolutely not. We've all sinned. But this man, but this man, he
has come and he has brought righteousness by his life. He's brought righteousness
and obedience to God. And all who have faith in Him
alone have the righteousness of God imputed to your charge. Isn't that something? All who
believe have the righteousness of God. I'm not talking about
just any old righteousness. There's no such thing. I'm talking
about the righteousness of God Himself. The righteousness of
God Himself. Romans 3 says, even the righteousness
of God, which is by the faithfulness of Jesus Christ, unto all and
upon all them that believe. Isn't that something? This man
came to provide righteousness. This man came to accomplish righteousness. You see, I have no hope in the
law or my good works. I put no trust in anything I
have ever done to earn righteousness. I rest alone in the righteousness
of Christ. He is all my righteousness. All of it. He is all my standing
before God. Have you seen that there's no
hope in you? Have you seen there's no hope
for you to obey the law of God? I have. If you see these things
and I point you to the only one that can fulfill that void in
your heart, that righteousness you need, His name is Jesus Christ. The righteousness of God. The
righteousness of God. I tell you that by His death,
He satisfied the justice of God that demanded the death of His
people. Scripture says, "...the soul
that sinneth, it shall surely die." But this man Jesus, this God-man
mediator, He came and He took our sins. He took all of the
sins of all of His people and He put them on Himself. And He bore our sins. And He died. He suffered the penalty of sin. And all who believe in Him have
that same blood that was spilled, applied to our hearts, And by
this blood, God says, I'm satisfied with you. By the blood of Christ
alone can God's justice be satisfied. And see, what I'm talking about
isn't calling upon a Jesus. You know, I'm not talking about
calling upon a Jesus that merited a righteousness and died for
everyone. I'm not talking about that one. You see, my friend,
that's another Jesus. I'm not talking about Him. I'm talking about a Jesus who
died for all those that the Father gave Him. This blasphemous heresy
of universal atonement is a lie and not the truth. How do I know
that? Well, let's stay in our text.
I can go to many places. Stay in your text and go to verse
38. I'm going to talk about the Jesus
that we're to call on. This is Him. These are His words. He said this of Himself. For I came down from heaven. We just discussed that, who His
person is. I came down from heaven, not
to do mine own will, but the will of Him that sent me. The
will of God. The will of God. What is the
will of God? I hear that a lot. What is the
will of God for my life? What you want is a future crystal
ball kind of thing when people say that. You want to know what
the will of God is? You want to know what the purpose
of God is? You want to know what the decree of Almighty God is? Here it is. And this is the Father's
will which has sent me. That of all which He hath given
me, I should lose how many? Nothing. Nothing. But raise it up again at the
last day. This is the will of God that
sent Jesus. The Father hath given me, I should
lose nothing. My friend, I am pointing you
to the Jesus Christ that did not make salvation possible.
I am pointing you to the Jesus Christ that accomplished salvation
by His life and by His death. God left nothing to chance at
my salvation. Nothing. He accomplished everything
I needed. Everything. Everything. I tell you of a successful Savior. I tell you one that died for
His people, the elect of God. I tell you, call on Him and believe
on Him and you shall be saved. Call on His name. This modern
Jesus of religion that died for everyone and saved no one is
worthy of no praise. He's worthy of no praise. Ah,
but this Jesus. This Jesus, whom God has sent,
He said, I will lose nothing, but raise it up again the last
day. Nothing. I declare unto you that Jesus
is a successful Savior, accomplished salvation on the cross, and He
made peace by the blood of His cross. and that He is now, even now,
at this moment calling His elect. Isaiah 42 verse 4 says this about
this Jesus. He shall not fail nor be discouraged. He shall
not fail nor be discouraged. And my friend, the Jesus that
I'm pointing you to today is not a failure. If Jesus died for all of the
world, and there are people in hell for whom Christ died, you
cannot say He did not fail. He failed if they're in hell.
His blood accomplished nothing for them. But that's not the Jesus I'm
talking about. Praise God! That's not the Jesus I'm talking
about. I am talking about a Christ that accomplished salvation for
all that the Father gave Him. And He did exactly that. And
right now He is calling His people. And this gives me to the second
question. What is the work of God? We know
who this man is. We know whom we're to call upon.
This God-man mediator, the one that prepared righteousness for
His people, the one that died for His people, that's the one
we're to call on. Don't call on any other Jesus.
There is no salvation in any other Christ but that one. Number
two, let us look at the work of God. What is this work of
God that Christ is talking about? These men were told of Christ.
that the things of this life are perishing." He said, don't
seek them. Seek not the bread, but seek
the bread of everlasting life, which is seen in Jesus Christ,
the Lamb of God alone. They asked him this question
after he told them what to do, after he explained the gospel
to them that the bread of life is here. I'm the enduring bread
of life. I want you to listen to their
question. Pay very close attention to what
they're asking here. Verse 28, And they said unto
him, What shall we do that we might work the works of God? What are they asking? What are
they asking to perform? What they wanted was this. They
wanted to learn how to make five loaves into 5,000. That's what
they wanted. They wanted to know what to do in order to be able
to create like God. They wanted God's creative power
and glory for themselves. That's what they wanted. They
wanted His creative power. Most religious folks know that
the work of God in creation is His alone. I'm sure that every
one of you here understand that. I'm sure that every one of you
here understand that only God can create. Can any one of us
create? Do we have that ability? Is there
any amount of religious working that we can do to obtain the
power of creation? No. None of us can do that. None of us can do that. We know
that. If you go out and look at the night sky, look at the
heavens, and on a clear night, you can see pretty far. And you
look out at the vastness of space, and I want you to understand
this. The Scriptures in Psalm 19 says this about God and the
universe. He says that this is His handiwork. You ever have a pet project?
Something you tinker with a lot? Kind of sewing buttons or hammering
nails? Little bitty things that don't
take much skill. That's what that word handiwork
is. It's God's tinkering. It's God's tinkering power to
create the vastness of space with His fingertips. To speak. And there it is. God says, I am God alone, declaring
the end from the beginning. Only God can do that. These people
were desiring the creative work of God's creative glory. And
yet we know that no man can share in that glory. None of us can
share in His creative glory. And most will agree that this
is foolishness. But is this Not exactly what
the religious world is asking. They're not asking to share in
His creative glory of creating loaves of bread, but they are
asking to share in His salvation glory. They want to know what
they must do to work the works of salvation. They want to know that. Religion is not trying to share
in God's creative glory. They're trying to share in God's
work of salvation. Well, how can you say that? Well,
let's see what Jesus says about God's work, and I'll show you.
I want us to notice this. Look back in your text. They
wanted to work the works of God, plural. You see that? Works of God. That's plural. You see, religious men think
that there's not only one way to God. Religious folks see that
there are many ways to God. Well, Pastor, I know you believe
that salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, and Christ
alone. And that's a good way, but my way is this way. And we
should just get along, because I name Jesus too. You know, I
say the name of Jesus, I believe in Jesus too. We should all just
get along. You see, religious folks think there are many ways
to God. There are not many ways to God. There is only one way
to God. Religious folks want to know
which ways to God. And they'll choose any way that
they can probably try to fit under. Any way they think they
can get. Some say, well, I like the way
of the Catholics. That's a good way. I'm going
to take that way. And some say, I like the way of the Baptists.
Let's just go this way. I'm going to take the Baptist
way. And some say, well, I'm a Calvinist. I'm going to go
that way. My friends, salvation is not
in a creed. Salvation is not in a plan. Salvation is a person. Even Jesus Christ. the Lord. You see, there is not many ways
to God. There is only one way to God. Many people say, well, I like
Christ and that's good, you need to believe in Jesus, but you
need to add to it this. You need to put baptism in there.
If you don't have baptism, you can't be saved. You've got to
do this. You've got to stop doing this
and start doing this. The folks of Galatia, we were
studying that on Wednesday nights. The people of Galatia were dealing
with that same problem. And Paul said this to them in
Galatians 5 too. He said, you that are circumcised,
Christ will profit you nothing. These people believed that if
they were believing in Jesus plus their circumcision, they'd
be alright. That is a lie. If you believe
in Jesus Christ plus anything, you are lost and in your sins. Christ profits you nothing. Religion
always tries to work from the outside in. Changing this will
change my life. If I can just exercise my free
will, then I'll change. No, you won't. You're trying
to work from the outside in. That's not the way. People say this as though they
can work the works of God. My friend, I'm here to tell you,
salvation is a work of God, the work of God. That's what it is. And none of our work. My friend, this is the work of
God, even our faith. Jesus is telling us that a man
cannot work the works of God, much less do the work of God,
which is to give man life and faith. You see, I declare unto
you this morning, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, but I
know this, you cannot believe unless He works faith in you. Unless God gives you faith, you
cannot believe the gospel that I am preaching. See, my friends, I want us to
know this, all the providences of God. Think about all the things
that's happened in your life. Providence. Everything happens
according to the providential purpose of God. Ezekiel talks
about a wheel in the midst of a wheel. You heard that, right?
What those wheels are are the providences of God. The providence
of God. And you imagine a wheel spinning.
You know, I had a bicycle when I was a kid. You spin the spoke
wheel. You know, every time I looked at the spokes, I got dizzy. But I noticed something about
that wheel. When I spun it around, the spokes were all blurry, but
the center, the hub, didn't move. The same is true of the providence
of God. Everything in the providence
of God is spinning around the hub of God's purpose. You see,
God has only one purpose. Everything in this whole world
moves around that one purpose. What is that purpose? To save
His elect people. That's what He's doing. That's
the work of God that never moves, that never changes. He is always
moving all things according to the counsel of His own will.
moving all things for the salvation of His people. What did He say?
He said, I have given Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Sheba
for me. I have given men's lives for
you. Everything moves around the purpose
of God's will and pleasure, and that is to save His people. It
is true what Jonah said, salvation is of the Lord. And anyone who tries to take
the work of God is a thief and a robber. If you try to work the works
of God, if you try to produce faith in yourself, you are robbing
God of His glory. You are robbing God of His glory.
My friend, God has given His Son for us. Shall He not also
give us life and faith? Does faith come from you? Did
you generate your own faith? Let me make this as clear as
I can. To believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ for you and me, it is impossible. If you have a dead man sitting
here in front of this, laying on the floor, and you put a pen
on the table and you say to that dead man, just pick up the pen. If you'll just reach out and
pick up the pen, everything will be all right. You see, he can't. He's dead. For you and me, it's
simple, isn't it? Pick up the pen. Okay. Why? Because
I have life. And when I tell you to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ for you, it is impossible. Why? It,
faith, is the work of God. Ephesians 2, 8, 4, By grace you
are saved through faith and that. What is that? Faith. That faith is not of yourself. Bob, you don't have faith today
because of you, do you? You don't have faith today because
you decided to get up and have faith. No, God gave you faith
and He is working faith in our life every single day. It is
the work of God to give us faith. And anything that this religious
world says is a lie if they tell you you
can generate it by the exercise of your will or by doing anything
else. The arrogancy of man. to try
to take the work of God in salvation and give it to themselves. Faith is an operation of the
Spirit of God alone. I know that salvation is the
work of God. Do you? You do if you've experienced
the work. You do if you've experienced
the work. You know it's all of God. And therefore, God is to
receive all the glory for this divine work. Who are we to believe on? Jesus
Christ, the Son of God, God manifest in the flesh, who had provided
a righteousness and died for the sins of His people, believe
on Him. How do we believe? That's the
work of God. That's not a work of this preacher
and that's not a work of this church. My friend, that is a
work of God. And maybe God would give faith
to someone. Maybe God will encourage us by
His Spirit who know Him and believe this to be true, so that we might
find rest and comfort for our souls. Salvation is of the Lord. Let's stand. We'll be dismissed
in prayer.