Kingsport Sovereign Grace Church,
located at 905 Yadkin Street in Kingsport, Tennessee, would
like to invite you to listen to a message of sovereign grace
by their pastor, Gabe Stoniker. And now, Pastor Gabe Stoniker. Our message today is going to
come from the book of John, chapter 6. John, chapter 6. I would like for us to look at
the truth of how salvation takes place. The truth of how men and
women are saved. It's an issue that concerns everybody. Every single person. And it's something that many
people are searching for the answer to. There are many people
that are searching for the truth. The truth of how men and women
are saved. I would like for that answer
to be confirmed to me. I want to be confirmed on the
truth and I want you to be confirmed on the truth of that answer that
we might know. I want to know how God saves
centers. That's important to know, isn't
it? There are a lot of opinions out there on the subject. Many,
many opinions. Some of the opinions are misleading.
Some of the opinions are hard to understand. Some are just
obviously wrong. You hear what some have to say
about it, and you just know that's not right. But we can totally
ignore all opinions on the subject. This ought to give us much peace,
much comfort, much rest. in knowing that we can ignore
all opinions on the subject. You do not have to figure out
which man should I trust? This man has this opinion. That
man has that opinion. You don't need to figure that
out. We can ignore all opinions on the subject. And the reason
is because we have God's word on the matter. And that's it. That settles it. I can ignore
my own opinion on the subject. I love that. That brings, that
brings such peace to my heart. Whatever my opinion is on the
subject, I can throw that out the window. It does not matter
one bit what my opinion on the matter is, and the reason is
because I have God's Word on it. I have God's Word on the
subject. Romans 3 verse 4 says, let God
be true, but every man a liar. And I'm included in every man. I'm included, so I'm not interested
at all in my opinion. and you should not be either.
Neither one of us should be interested in my opinion on the subject.
It's too critical. It's too critical and it's too
exact. Just too exact. I'd like to encourage
us to throw all of our opinions out the window. I want to sincerely
encourage you to throw your opinion out the window. Everything that
you've thought up to this point, Whatever it is, and me too, I'm
going to do the same thing. Let's together throw our opinions
out the window and let's take God at his word. Let's just take
God at his word. He is the only one who knows
and holds the truth of the matter. He's the only one. Only His Word
in the end will prove to be the truth. When everybody gets to
the end and all opinions come before the judgment throne of
God, only His Word will stand. Only His Word will hold up to
be the truth. So what does God have to say
about our salvation? How does He say salvation takes
place? He summed it up in one verse.
He tells us on every single page of his book, how he saves sinners
is written on every single page of this book. But for our message
today, we're gonna look at it in one verse. He summed it all
up in one verse. Right here in John 6, he said
in verse 44, no man can come to me. Except the father which hath
sent me, draw him, and I will raise him up at the last day. That's pretty clear, isn't it?
That's pretty clear. No man can come to me. Except
the father which hath sent me, draw him, and I will raise him
up at the last day. Now, if the Lord will reveal
the meaning of this verse to us, then we will have the truth
revealed to us. This is the truth. This is the
truth. Our Lord said in John chapter
eight, if we know the truth, the truth shall make us free. I want the truth. I believe you
do too. You want the truth, don't you?
So let's throw everything else out and only cling to God's word
because only God's word is the truth. The true revelation of
how sinners are saved. That's what sets a sinner free.
That true revelation, that true understanding, that true acknowledgement
of how God saves sinners, that's what sets a sinner free from
all of his bondage, all the bondage of sin, all the bondage of self,
all the bondage of the lies out there that are being told from
pulpits, the lies of false religion, all the opinions, that's what
sets us free from all of it. So let's look at this verse and
let's see if the Lord will confirm the truth of salvation to us.
John 6, 44, he said, no man can come to me. Wait a minute, what? What does he mean no man can
come to him? What does he mean by that? No
man can come to him. Surely he doesn't mean no man. Surely he doesn't mean that. Here's something we must know
about God's word. Let's get a hold of this. We
must understand this. God says what he means. He means what he says. If he
says it, he means it. But he says what he means. He
says exactly what he means to say. And he said in verse 44,
no man can come to me. That's what he said. In verse
35, if you look here at John six, verse 35, it says, 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. He said, I'm the bread of life,
and if any man were to come to me, he'd never hunger again. Never. Spiritually speaking,
never hunger again. But here's the problem for man.
If a man came to Him, he'd never hunger again. But here's the
problem for man. No man can come to me. Man by
nature, the flesh by its own nature, will not come to Christ. By nature, the flesh will not
come to Christ. He said that in John 5, all right? Now, again, let's throw out all
of our opinions. Let's throw everything out and
take God at his word. If you look at John 5, verse
40, this is what he said, and this is concerning all men on
this earth, naturally, in their flesh. John 5, 40, he said, you
will not come to me that you might have life. You will not. naturally in the flesh, does
not want to. He does not want to. But his
problem is greater than that. Even if he wanted to, he's not
able to. He's not able to. He cannot,
he will not, he may not. Not able to, not willing to.
Why is that? The answer is sin. It's sin. Now, many people think that they
are willing to come, but in reality, once the truth is revealed to
them, they see that they're not willing to come to Christ. They're
willing to come to religion, or they're willing to come to
their own obedience of the law, or they're willing to come to
their decision. They're willing to come to things other than
Christ himself. The flesh loves to come to religion.
People are religious all over the place. The flesh loves to
come to the good deeds of the law because it feels good about
itself, but that's not coming to Christ. Sin in our flesh causes
us to reject the person and the work and the glory of Christ
alone. Now let me prove that to us with
some verses of scripture. Romans 5 verse 12 says, Wherefore,
as by one man, sin entered into the world, and death by sin. And so death passed upon all
men for that all have sinned. By one man, sin entered the world,
and death came because of that sin. Death came. And now all men and women die
because all men and women are sinners. And I want you to think
about that and I wanna think about that for a minute. We know
that all men and women die. You have family members and friends
and loved ones who have died. Do you know why people die? Do
you know why the average lifespan is about 70 years and then people
die? Sin. Sin is what brings death. Now, many will hear that and
say, I'm not a sinner though. I don't understand what you're
talking about. I'm not a sinner. Well, let me show you something
in 1 John 1. Let's throw out our opinion on
that and take God at his word. 1 John 1, verse 8, it says, if
we say that we have no sin, do you know anybody who says that
they're not a sinner, that they have no sin? Have you ever run
across a person who says, no, I'm not a sinner, all right?
If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the
truth is not in us. We're trying to find the truth,
aren't we? If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves
and the truth is not in us. Just saying, I'm not a sinner
is sin. If a man just says, well, I'm
not a sinner, that's rebellion to the word of God almighty.
That's rebellion to the commandment and the declaration of God Almighty
concerning about us. It's calling God a liar. That's what verse 10 says. If
we say that we have not sinned, we're calling him a liar because
he says we have. We make him a liar and his word
is not in us. That's horrible, isn't it? To call God Almighty, you're
a liar. I'm not a sinner, you're a liar. Buddy, that's sin. That's
sin. You just declare what God's Word
says about all of us, and that's what we're doing right now. This
is what God's Word says about us. All of us are sinners. You declare that to people, and
they get angry over it. Try it sometime. Walk up to somebody
and say, you're a sinner before God, and see what happens. The
average person gets angry over that. Do you know that in Matthew
5, our Lord said, if you get angry in your heart, you've committed
murder before me. Just getting angry in your heart
is sin. When they get mad saying, don't
you call me a sinner? That's sin. That's sin. If they really had no sin, this
is what they would say. When you say you're a sinner
before God, they'd say, that's right. You can, you can call
me whatever you want to call me. because you're speaking the
truth. And you know, our Lord said,
if one smites you on the cheek, turn your cheek and give them
the other one. If they had no sin, they'd say, well, go ahead and
smite me here too. That's all right. If they really had no
sin, but that's not the flesh of man. That's not the nature
of man. In our natural condition, we're
all sinners. And that means we're all spiritually
dead. Spiritually dead. By one man,
sin entered the world and death by sin. Now this is critical
to understand. All men and women will eventually
die physically. And it's because all men and
women were born into this world already dead spiritually. That's the reason. Spiritual
death is what leads to physical death. It starts inside and then
evidences itself outside. In Ephesians 2, when it says,
you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins.
Well, we were physically alive the whole time. Physically alive,
but we were spiritually dead. That's what it's talking about.
Spiritually dead until he quickened us to spiritual life. That is
very important to understand because if you'll turn with me
to John 4, it says in John 4 verse 24, God is a spirit and they
that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. Here's that word again, truth.
No man or woman can come to Him because they must come to Him
spiritually. It must be a spiritual thing
and all men and women are born into this world spiritually dead. They cannot spiritually get to
Him. They can get to a lot of things,
a lot of physical things, but they cannot spiritually get to
Him. And it's because of their spiritual
death. Men and women naturally have it in their mind that physical
things translate to spiritual things. They go hand in hand.
That's what people think. They think physical things translate
to spiritual things, but they don't. They don't. Man naturally thinks that coming
to Christ is the same thing as coming to church. He thinks if
he comes to church, he's coming to Christ. Men and women can
come to church. They can. I do every week. Men
and women can come to church, but that's not coming to Christ.
Just because a man walks into a church building, that doesn't
mean he's come to Christ. Men and women can come to the
ordinances of the word like baptism. Men can come to baptism. It's
just tap water. They can come to baptism as easy
as they can do anything else, but coming to baptism is not
coming to Christ. It's an ordinance of God's word.
He said, if you believe on me, confess me. I did. It's a wonderful
ordinance, but coming to baptism is not coming to Christ. Men can come to their own self-righteousness,
all of their deeds of the law. They can read down through there
and show each other. You see that? You see what this
word says? I do that. I do that. They can be all lifted
up in pride over that. Men can come to doctrine. They
can go from having no understanding of God's election to having a
full understanding of God's election. That's not coming to Christ. Coming to a mental understanding
of the truths of the word is no different than coming to a
mental understanding of anything else out in the world. Men can come to all these things,
all these things, but men and women cannot come to Christ unless
Unless there is one exception. Here's the truth. I want the
truth. Do you want the truth? Here it
is. There's one exception. Only one
exception. Look with me back at John 6 verse
44. It says no man can come to me
except the father which hath sent me sent Christ Draw that
man. And I will raise him up at the
last day. That's the only way. That is the only way that means
God, the father has to choose the center first. God has to
choose a spiritually dead center first. He has to lay hold of
the center first and draw the center to Christ first. Over in John 15 verse 16, our
Lord said, you have not chosen me, but I have chosen you and
ordained you that you should go and bring forth fruit and
that your fruit should remain that whatsoever you shall ask
of the father in my name, he may give it you. He said, you've
not chosen me. I chose you to that. David said
in Psalm 27, when you said, seek ye my face, that's when my heart
cried, Lord, thy face will I seek. God said in Isaiah 65, I am sought
of them that asked not for me. I am found of them that sought
me not. I said, behold me. That's the
truth. That's the truth. Now, why would
God do this for us? If we all were nothing but sinners
before Him, if we would not come to Him, if we worshipped ourselves
and glorified ourselves rather than Him and His Word, why would
God draw us to salvation? Well, in John 3, verse 16 says,
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son,
that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting
life." God loved the world. Thank God. Not just the Jews
only, Gentiles too. The love of God was not isolated
to a country called Israel. His love went all over the world.
His love even has come to Kingsport, Tennessee, or wherever it is
you are listening to this. Verse 16 says, God so loved the
world that He gave His only begotten Son. His only begotten Son. We read in Romans 5, this time
verse 6, when we were yet without strength in due time, Christ
died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous
man will one die, yet peradventure for a good man some would even
dare to die. But God commended his love toward
us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Oh, the love that drew salvation's
blueprint. God sent his son to man. and drew man to his son. God sent his son down to man
and drew man to his son. And the two of them met on the
cross of Calvary. That's where they met. The father
united Christ with man's sin. And the father united man with
Christ's righteousness and in joining those two together. Because
of the joining of those two Christ died with us. He died for us. He died with us. We his people
God's elect were in him when he died. He died with us. and we live with him. He arose
for us and he arose with us. All of God's people were in Christ
when he arose. It was a perfect union. Him being
united with everything that was wrong about us and us being united
with everything that's right about him. and He endured it
for us, He endured it with us. We died with Him, we live with
Him. In John chapter 10, He said,
I lay down my life for the sheep. All that the Father has given
me, every one the Father gave to me, I lay down my life for
him or her. Without any doing of their own,
Without any ability of their own, all of God's people were
chosen by the love of the Father, redeemed by the blood of the
Son, and quickened to life by the Holy Spirit. And with that
life comes a brand new creature, a brand new creation, a redeemed,
justified, sinless creation with the quickening of the spirit. With that life comes a brand
new mind. We threw out all the old, all
the old ways of the old mind, and we see the truth. And now
there's a brand new mind. There's now a brand new heart.
There's now a brand new will before God's Sheep who had not
been quickened to life would not come to him. Now they come
running after God does his work. They are now made willing in
the day of his power. Those who could not come before
now are able to walk right up to the throne of his grace. They
will and they can. And this is what he has said
concerning every center that the father draws to Christ and
the spirit quickens with Christ to every center who has been
made willing to come. Christ says in John 6 verse 37. All that the father giveth to
me shall come to me and him that cometh to me I will in no wise
cast out. That's wonderful, isn't it? That
is wonderful. What a glorious thing to hear.
Verse 39 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. Christ said, I'm not gonna
lose one of them. If my Father draws them to me,
I will receive them. And I will not lose one of them.
Verse 40, this is the will of him that sent me that everyone
would see at the sun and believeth on him may have everlasting life.
And I will raise him up at the last day. I believe that's the
greatest news I've ever heard in my life. I believe that's
the gospel to me. I pray it is to you too. Our
text says, no man can come to me except the Father which has
sent me draw him. And Christ said, I will raise
him up at the last day. That's the truth of how many
women are saved. Till next week, the Lord bless
His word. You have been listening to a
message by Gabe Stoniker, pastor of Kingsport Sovereign Grace
Church in Kingsport, Tennessee. If you would like a copy of this
message or to hear other messages of sovereign grace, log on to
our website at ksgctn.org. If you would like to come and
worship with us, our service times are Sunday morning Bible
study at 10 o'clock AM, worship at 1045 AM and 6 o'clock PM,
Wednesday evening at 730 PM. Please tune in next week for
another message of God's free and sovereign grace.