Bear with me, if you would, back
to John 6. John 6. I would like for us to look this
morning at the truth of how salvation takes place. The truth of how men and women
are saved, it's a critical issue. It's a critical issue. It involves
everybody. There's not a soul on this earth
that is not exempt from this. It's so critical. It involves
everybody and many people are searching for the answer. Some are not sure if they found
it. Some believe they found it, but maybe they haven't. I would like for the answer to
be confirmed to me. And I would like for the answer
to be confirmed to you, that we might know. I mean that we
might know. Because there are a lot of opinions
out there on the subject. There are a lot of opinions.
Some of the opinions are misleading. Some of the opinions are hard
to understand. It's hard to even understand
what they're talking about, where they're going with it. Some of
the opinions are just obviously wrong. You can hear that and
think, well, that's just wrong. That can't be. But do you know
that we can totally ignore all opinions on the subject? Because
we have God's word on the matter. I adore this. I can totally ignore
my opinion on the subject. I can take my own opinion that
is in my heart and I can throw it out the window. And the reason
is because I have God's word on the matter. We all have God's word on the
matter. Romans 3 says, let God be true,
but every man a liar. And I am included in every man. So I'm not interested in my opinion
at all. I'm not interested in it, and
I would imagine you're not either. It's too critical. The subject
is too critical, it's too exact. I would like to encourage all
of us to throw all of our opinions out of the window this morning.
That's the first thing I'd like for all of us to do. Let's all
throw all of our opinions out the window and let's take God
at His word. because he is the only one who
holds the truth of the matter. No matter what opinion there
is out there, he's the only one whose word in the end will stand
as the truth. So what does God have to say
about our salvation? What does he say concerning how
salvation takes place? He summed it up in one verse. Now it's on every page. We could
turn to any page in this book, and this is not the only verse
he summed it up in. But here in John 6, he summed
it up in one verse, and it's verse 44. He said, 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 of scripture to us, then he will
reveal the truth to us. And if we have the truth to us,
he said, the truth will make us free. It will set us free. The true revelation of how sinners
are saved is what sets a sinner free from all of his bondage. The true revelation of how sinners
are saved, that is what sets a man or a woman free from all
of his or her bondage. The bondage of sin, the bondage
of self, the bondage of lies. People are in bondage to lies.
The lies of false religion, all of the opinions that are out
there. So let's look at this verse and
let's see if the Lord will confirm the truth of salvation to us.
Verse 44, he said, no man can come to me. No man can come to me. Somebody's
gonna hear that and think, what? What does he mean no man can
come to me? Surely he does not mean no man. God means what he says. He does not write with trickery.
He does not say one thing meaning something else. He means what
he says. He said, I'm so thankful, Father,
because you hid these things from the wise and prudent and
you revealed them to babes. If we want a babe to understand
us, if we want to teach a babe something and tell a babe something,
we don't say the opposite of what we mean. We make it plain
and clear. I'm telling you exactly what
I mean. He means what he says. If he
says it, he means it. He means what he says. And he
says what he means. And this is what he said. No
man can come to me. In verse 35, Jesus said unto
them, I am the bread of life, He that cometh to me shall never
hunger. He said, I'm the bread of life.
If any man were to come to me, he'd never hunger again. But
here's the problem for man. Verse 44, he said, no man can
come to me. Man by nature, the flesh by its
nature, will not come to him. He said that in chapter five.
If you want to look at chapter five, verse 40, He said, you will not come to
me that you might have life. Mankind naturally doesn't 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. He cannot. Now why is that? Why is that? Sin. That's the reason. We, in our
flesh, cannot come to Christ because of our sin. We cannot. Now let me prove that to us with
some verses of scripture. Go with me over to Romans chapter
five. Romans chapter 5, verse 12. Wherefore, as by one man sin
entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon
all men, for that, that means because, all have sinned. By one man, sin entered into
the world and death came because of that sin. That is the reason
why we die. That's the reason death came. All men and women die. All die. And it's because all men and
women are sinners. If there was no sin, there would
be no death. That's why in glory, there's
no death. There's no sin. All men and women die because
all men and women are sinners. That includes me. All men and
women. Now somebody will say, I'm not a sinner. A lot of people
will say that. Now wait a minute now. I'm not
a sinner. I know some sinners, but I'm
not one of them. Alright, well turn with me if
you would to 1 John 1. 1 John 1. Verse 8, if we say that we have,
not had, not had, 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. Just saying that is sin. It's rebellion to what God has
to say about us in his word. You just declare what God says
about all of us, that all of us are sinners and people get
angry over that. You just say, this is what God
said in the Bible, this is not me, this is him and his word. You just declare what God has
said and people get angry over that, which is sin. Our Lord told us that in Matthew
5. He said, you know that you're not supposed to commit murder,
but if a man gets angry at his brother, he's murdered him in
his heart. It's sin. If a person, if you told a person
that and they really had no sin, they would say, that's okay.
You can call me whatever you want to call me. I'm not offended. If their cheek was smitten, they
would turn their head and say, you're welcome to smite the other
one if you want to. In our natural condition, we're
all sinners. And that means in our natural
condition, we're all dead. By one man, sin entered the world,
and death by sin. Now this right here is critical
to understand. This is so critical to understand.
All men and women will eventually die physically because all men
and women were born into this world already dead spiritually. Spiritual death is what leads
to physical death. In Ephesians 2, when it says,
you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins.
It says, you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and
sins. We were physically alive the
whole time. But we were spiritually dead until he quickened us to
spiritual life. That is important for us to understand. Because if you'll turn with me
to John 4. John chapter 4. John 4 verse 24, it says, God is a spirit and
they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. No man or woman can come to Him
because they must come to Him spiritually. And all men and
women are born into this world spiritually dead. They cannot
get to Him. They cannot. They can get to
a lot of things. A lot of physical things, but
they can't 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. I need to repeat that. Men and
women naturally have it in their mind that physical things translate
to spiritual things, but they don't. That which is flesh is
flesh, and that which is spirit is spirit. They don't. Man naturally
thinks that he's coming to Christ by coming to church. Men and
women can come to church. I did today. You all did. All right? Men and women can
come to church. Men and women can come to baptism. I did. They see the commandment in the
Word. Our Lord said, if you believe on me, confess Him. Baptism is
a wonderful thing. Confess Him. And they think,
okay, I need to come to baptism. And they do, and I did. But that's
still not coming to Christ. Coming to church is not coming
to Christ, and coming to baptism's not coming to Christ. Men and
women come to their own self-righteous deeds of the law. You see that? See that one? You see that one?
I do this. I do this. Men can come to doctrine. They can come to a mental understanding
of truths in the Word, just like they can come to any other truth
in the world. Men can come to a mental understanding
of election. Just like they can come to a
mental understanding that 2 plus 2 equals 4. Men can come to all these things,
but they can't come to Christ unless there is one exception. There's one exception. Go back
with me to John 6, verse 44. No man can come to me except
the Father which hath sent me draw him. That's the only way. That's the only way. What that
means is God the Father has to choose the sinner first. God the Father has to lay hold
of the sinner first and draw the sinner to Christ first. Look with me at John 15. John 15 verse 16, our Lord said, You have not chosen me. Everybody thinks that they've
chosen Jesus Christ. Everybody thinks they have. But
he said, you have not chosen me. I chose 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 haven't chosen me, I chose you. David said in Psalm 27, when
you said, seek ye my face. That's the moment my heart cried
out, Thy face, Lord, will I seek. It was after you said, Seek ye
my face. 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 how it happened. I said,
behold me. Now, why would God do this for
us? If all we are is nothing but
sin and rebellion against him, in the flesh, If we would not come to Him,
if we worshipped ourselves and worshipped our deeds, glorified
our flesh, rather than Him and His Word, why would God draw
us to salvation? Why would He do that? Look with
me at John 3. John 3 verse 16, it says, For
God so loved the world, not just the Jews, thank God the Gentiles
too. Here we see it. His love is amazing, it's amazing
love. For God so loved the world that
He gave His only begotten Son. You talk about love. His only begotten Son. Go with
me if you would to Romans 5. Romans 5 verse 6, it says, for
when we were yet without strength in due time, Christ died for
the good Christian folk. Christ died for the worthy. That's not who he died for, is
it? 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. Turn with me to Ephesians 2. Verse one says, and you hath
he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins, spiritually
dead, wherein in time past you walked according to the course
of this world. And we did, we did things we
shouldn't have been doing and we were all in the gutter, but
he's talking about spiritually speaking. The gutter of the pew is what
he's talking about. You walked according to the course
of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air,
the Spirit, that now worketh in the children of disobedience."
That's salvation by my own doing, and my own choice, and my own
works. Verse 3, "...among whom also we all had our conversation
in time past, in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires
of the flesh." That self-righteousness of and of the mind, and were by nature the children
of wrath, even as others. But God, who is rich in mercy
for his great love, wherewith he loved us, even when we were
dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ. By grace
you are saved. Oh, the love that drew salvation's
blueprint. God sent his Son to man. And God drew man to his Son. And the two of them met on the
cross of Calvary. The Father united Christ with
man's sin. And the Father united man with
Christ's righteousness. And in the joining of those two,
because of the joining of those two, Christ died with us and
we live with him. In John 10, he said, I lay down
my life for the sheep. All of them. All that the Father
giveth me. 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 by the life of the Spirit. And with that
life comes a brand new creation. A brand new creation. With the
life of the Spirit comes a brand new, redeemed, justified, sinless
creation. With the quickening of the Spirit
comes a brand new mind. It comes a brand new heart. There
comes a brand new will, a brand new desire. Those who would not
before are now willing in the day of His power. It was ever
a time where you heard the truth of this Word and you said, I
don't believe that. I don't like that. I won't have that. This
thing is in my hands. And then all of a sudden God
sent His Spirit into our hearts and pierced us and broke us and
we bowed and we said, He's Lord and I will have this and I do
like this. Matter of fact, I love this because
this is my only hope. He said, my people shall be willing
in the day of my power. Those who could not come before
are now able to walk right straight up to the throne of His grace. And this is what He has said
concerning every sinner that the Father has drawn to Christ
and the Spirit has quickened to Christ. Every sinner who has
been made willing now to come. Christ says, if you'll go back
to John 6, for every sinner made willing
to come, He says in John 6 verse 37, All that the Father giveth
Me shall come to Me, and him that cometh to me, I will in
no wise cast out. What a glorious thing to hear.
What a glorious thing to hear. He said in verse 39, 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. I'm not going to lose one. Verse 40, he said, this is the
will of him that sent me that everyone which seeth the Son
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. Every soul he gave to me is gonna
come to me. I will not cast him out. I'll
draw him to me, I'll cover him in my blood, I'll robe him in
my righteousness, and I'll take him up to glory. And he'll be
seated forever with me on the throne of this grace. That's
the greatest news I've ever heard in my life. Verse 44 says, 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 the truth
of how salvation takes place. That's the truth of it. May God
bring that truth to us. Bring it right here to this heart.
Alright, let's all stand together.