This chapter begins, as you well
know, with the feeding of the 5,000 men in addition to the
women and children. And it's noteworthy, this is
the only miracle that is recorded in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. And it was such a public miracle. I mean, it was done before the
eyes of all of these people who were blessed to receive this
meal from our Lord Jesus Christ. And of course, this is another
one of the very public miracles that validated his identity as
being the Son of God. Now, you know what the word providence
means, God directing all things to the end that he has appointed. And this is In this miracle,
you just think about the wonderful providence of God that is easily
seen just reading the miracle itself. You see, before the world
ever began, our God had appointed that on this particular day,
a great crowd of people would become hungry, having followed
the Savior out into the wilderness. And he appointed that a little
boy would bring his lunch. And that that lunch would consist
of just a few barley loaves and a couple of fishes. Our God purposed
all that. Isn't that amazing? He did it
before the world began. And every detail, every person
who was there all 5,000 men, plus the women and children,
everyone was there because God, before the world began, before
He ever made creation, He ordained that they'd all be there. And
that the Son of God would then take the loaves and the fishes,
and He would miraculously multiply the food and give it to his disciples. And they would distribute it
to all these hungry people, thousands of people. Behold the providence
of God at work. There was no, this is not an
accident that so many people were there, and it wasn't just
good luck that this little boy brought his lunch that day, and
one of the disciples told the Lord Jesus about it. He already
knew about it. Well, he knew that fellow by
name. He had designed all of this himself in order to use
this as an object lesson to teach these people and his own disciples
the very next day of the true bread that came down from heaven,
that is himself. And of course, our Lord Jesus,
he goes on to state one of the great I am's used in the gospel
of John. He said, I am the bread of life.
and we feast on Him, the bread that God has sent. Because you
see, God designed this before the foundation of the world,
that He would cause a people to be hungry for the Son of God. And then we would be given an
appetite to feast on Him when we hear about Him and we hear
that He is the Son of God with power. and that He is Himself
the Son of Man, the only Savior of sinners. And the Lord gives
an appetite to His children, to His people, to feast on the
Lord Jesus Christ. Are you hungry? If you're hungry
to hear about Christ and to feast upon Christ, that hunger in your
heart is a blessed thing. Because blessed are those who
hunger and thirst after righteousness, God says they shall be filled. And just as these people were
filled with physical bread, our Lord Jesus, by His Spirit, feeds
us with bread from heaven. He told them, I am the true bread
that came down from heaven. Now, I want to focus in, especially
beginning at verse 44. Now he's talking to these people,
and most of them have no real interest in him. They're only
there because they got a free meal. They're not hungry for him. They
don't need the Savior. They don't need his salvation.
They just want another handout. Sure was convenient for him to
feed them when they were in the desert. Maybe he'll perform another
miracle that would be to their advantage and help them out.
That's the reason they're sticking around. But the Savior says to
them, because the people are murmuring, they're grumbling,
They're conferring secretly among themselves as to the identity
of this miracle worker. Who is this? Isn't this Jesus,
the son of Joseph and Mary? Don't we know him? Well, what is this that he's
saying, I'm the true bread come down from heaven? I don't believe
that. Do you believe that? He said, no, I wouldn't believe
it either. Why is he talking like that? Why is he talking
about coming to him? And the Savior says in verse
44, no man can come to me. And that would have been an obnoxious
statement to them, even as it is to many people today. No man
can come to me. What do you mean? I can come
to him if I want to, that's what people say. But the master who
knows all things, and he knows man's sinfulness, and he knows
man's depravity, he says, no man, no man has the ability to come
to me in faith except, except the father which hath sent me
draw him. and I will raise him up at the
last day. So this subject is drawing grace. Grace that draws. Grace that
pulls us irresistibly to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I give
you a simple little outline. It consists of four questions.
Number one, what is it to come to Christ? What does that mean,
to come to Christ? It's a very common phrase used
in the New Testament, especially in the Gospel of John, and it
is used to teach us or to express those acts of the soul in which a person leaves their
own perceived self-righteousness, they leave their own perceived
goodness, They leave their false religion. They leave everything
that is opposed to grace, to God, and the Lord Jesus Christ. They cease trying to merit anything
from God by their own doings, and then they run in the heart,
from the heart, by faith, to the Lord Jesus Christ, and receive
his righteousness to be their covering, and receive his bloody
death for the pardon of sin. That's coming to Christ, coming
to Christ. Therefore, coming to Christ embraces
both repentance and faith. Because when you come to Christ,
and I admonish all of you, you who are watching, come to Christ.
If you come to Christ, you must necessarily leave where you are. You can't stay where you're at
if you're coming to Christ. That old religion you were instructed
in, you leave that. Your own thoughts about personal
goodness in light of the Word of God that says, all have sinned
and come short of the glory of God. You leave that, that idea that you're really
basically a good person. You've made a few mistakes, but
you're basically good. You leave that, you leave all
of that behind. and you run as fast as you can
in your soul, in your heart to the only Savior of sinners for
refuge before a holy God, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ.
Repentance is leaving that. Faith is coming to the Lord Jesus
Christ. You see, coming to the Savior,
is the one essential thing of salvation when it comes to us. You've got to come to Christ. This includes a belief of the
truth. You bow to what the word of God
says. We're not talking about bowing
to what the denomination says, or what some creed says, or what
some confession of faith says. You bow to the word of God. You
bow to who God is. God is as he says he is in his
word. Holy, righteous, just, gracious,
merciful. But he's not gonna be merciful
by compromising his justice. That's why Christ came, and you
bow to the authority of the Word of God that says we gotta have
a mediator, we gotta have a great high priest, we gotta have a
savior. And you bow to the Word of God
that says salvation's not by words, it's not by anything you
do. It's by grace. It's by grace,
and you bow to that. and you forsake all perceived
personal goodness and you run or flee to the Lord Jesus Christ
as a sinner who needs the Savior. And you say in your heart something
like what the publican said there in the temple. God be merciful
to me. Be propitious to me. Be a mercy
seat to me on account of the sacrifice, because I'm the sinner. And you, for the first time in
your life, you deal honestly with God about your condition. Your mama told you is good. Your
daddy told you is a good boy. You're not good, mom was wrong
and dad was wrong. Ain't none of us any good in
the eyes of God. And I know we use the word good
in a general way. You're good people, you're fine
folks. And as we perceive goodness,
that's true. But in the eyes of God, there's none good and none that
doeth good. No, not one. You see, our Lord
has looked down from heaven, and he's inspected the hearts
of everybody who's ever lived, and he said, no, they're all
ruined. That's what happened to us in
Adam's fall. So when it comes to this matter
of coming to Christ Jesus, That is when we as needy people, we
flee to Him. I need Him, don't you? I need
the Savior. I need His righteousness. I need
His blood. I need Him to save me. I need
Him to bring me to God. You see, it says in 1 Peter 3,
the just died for the unjust to do what? Bring us to God. I need Him to bring me. I can't
go on my own. I don't have any goodness to
merit God receiving me. Why should God receive me? Why
should God welcome me? Well, there's no reason for Him
to welcome me in and of myself. I have to be brought to Him.
Oh, Savior, bring me to the Father. Bring me to God. That's the only
way I can be accepted. It's the only way you can be
accepted or anybody else too. And let me tell you this about
coming to Christ. It's the very first effect of being born again. It's the very first result of
the quickening power of the Spirit of God, because no sooner is
a soul quickened than it at once recognizes its lost estate is
horrified at the justice of God and looks for a refuge. And finding
the Lord Jesus Christ to be a suitable refuge reposes the soul in Him. And where there is not this coming
to Christ, it is certain that there has been no regeneration.
There has been no quickening. There has been no work of the
Holy Spirit. The soul is still dead in trespasses
and sins. The Savior said, come to me.
Come to me. Do you want to come to Christ?
If you want to come to Christ, you can come to Christ. Because
you wouldn't want to Were it not for that secretive, almighty
power of the Holy Spirit, what is it to come to Christ?
It's used to express those acts of the soul by which we draw
near to the Savior by faith. Second question. It's so important to come to
Christ. Why won't people come to Him?
I think that's a good question to answer. What's the reason
people won't come to Him? If life's in Him, everlasting
life's in Him, eternal life's in Him, if forgiveness is in
Him, if righteousness is in Him, if salvation is in Christ, if
a knowledge of God is in Him, if holiness is in Him, why don't
people come to Christ when the preacher says, come to the Lord
Jesus Christ by faith? Why won't people come? We have before us in that verse
I read you, there in verse 44, an announcement that is very
startling. And some say very obnoxious. Because there are some people
who say coming to Christ is the easiest thing in the world. It's
nothing to it. But our text says, that this
is something that is utterly and entirely impossible to man
unless the father who sent the son draws him. You're not gonna
come to Christ unless the father does something for you. And here's what's more, he doesn't
have to do anything for you. And a lot of people get choked
on that. So why won't people come to Christ? I'll give you several reasons.
Number one, because dead in sin. People are spiritually dead.
None will and none can come to Christ apart from divine life
being imparted to us. The Spirit of God uses the incorruptible
seed, the good word of God, to cause cause life to be formed
within us, spiritual life. The Savior said, you must be
born again. In Adam, we all died. In Christ, we're made alive. We're dead in sins, that's the
problem. And I don't believe any dead
person can raise himself from a grave. Not physically and not
spiritually either. Poor old Lazarus, he died. John
11, and they wept over him. Mary and Martha wept over him.
Our Lord Jesus wept at his tomb. But no earthly power could cause
him to live again, and he couldn't cause himself to live again.
He had no ability. What's wrong with Lazarus? Well,
he's dead. What do you think's wrong with
him? Whatever sickness he had took its toll on his physical
life and rendered him lifeless. And though Mary and Martha wept
over him and hugged him and kissed him, oh, Lazarus, come back to
us, that's an impossibility. And finally, Before too many
hours passed by, they had to bury him, put him in the tomb. You know who goes in the tomb?
Dead people. I'm not mocking death at all.
It's not a funny matter. But it's like Abraham said about
Sarah, I must bury my dead out of my sight. And there Lazarus lay in the
darkness and in the silence of the tomb until a voice spoke, the voice of one who is life. And he said, Lazarus, come forth. And he which was bound came forth. And I'm telling you, Nobody's
gonna come to the Lord Jesus Christ until that divine call
comes forth from the very throne of God through the preaching
of the gospel. Come forth! And then they'll
come forth. And once you're made to be a
living soul in Christ Jesus, you'll come to him by faith.
Why won't people come that are spiritually dead? I'll give you
another reason, number two, they're spiritually blind. Christ said you must be born
again or you can't see the kingdom of God. Who can't see? Blind people can't see. We was
up in Michigan last couple of weeks and further up north the
leaves are beginning to change and some of them just beautiful,
just beautiful. Blind person can't appreciate
that beauty. And you can try to describe it
to them, but they can't see it. They can't see it. A blind person has no appreciation
for a beautiful work of art. Can't see it. And a spiritually blind person
has no appreciation for the glories of Christ Jesus, the necessity
of his sacrifice. They have no awareness, no sight,
no perception of their own guilty state before God. What is the
problem? Blindness, blindness. Scripture says, Paul says in
2 Corinthians 4, if the gospel be hid, it's hid to them that
are lost in whom the God of this world has done, what? What has
the God of this world done? Blinded their minds. They believe not. Lest the light
of the glorious gospel of Christ should shine in. Blind people
can't see. I want to help them. Somebody
who's physically blind, you wanna help them. And somebody who's
spiritually blind, I wanna help you, but all I can do is preach
the truth to you. I can't give sight. Brother Allen's a pastor, he
can't give sight. Only the Lord of glory can give
sight, the great physician. He has to give sight, so they
won't come because they're spiritually blind. Number three, because
of spiritual enmity. Scripture says the carnal mind
is enmity against God. People get upset with the God
of the Bible. They get mad at Him. When the
preacher reads and tells them that God says you're doomed and
damned, You're a dead sinner without any ability to come in. People get upset with that kind
of preaching. Well, that's the doctrine of total depravity. And men hate the fact that salvation
is by the will and choice of God alone. That's the doctrine
of unconditional election. And people hate that salvation
is only by the merits of the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. But that's the doctrine of particular
redemption. And sinners everywhere despise,
despise being told that salvation comes only through the effectual
call of the Holy Spirit. That's irresistible grace. And
sinners don't want to be told that the only security you've
got is for God to preserve you. They don't want to be told that
either. You see, there are two kinds
of faith. Hang with me here. Let me see if I can teach you
a little something. There are two kinds of faith. There's a
faith that centers in me and what I can get from God.
And that's the faith that's being preached from most all the pulpits
in this country. That's a false faith. It's a
faith that centers in me and what I can get from God. And then there's the faith that
centers in the Lord Jesus Christ and his glory. That's God-given
faith. You see, if my faith is concerned
with me and what I want and what I need, then really the central
object of my faith is me. I really worship myself if that's
the case. But if my faith is occupied with
the Son of God and His majesty, His beauty, and His glory, then
the object of my faith is the one I worship, and it's all centered
in Him. See the difference? And you know
yourself if you listen to preaching on the radio or on the television,
Most all of it is about what can I get from God. And there's
no interest, little if any interest, in the glory of God in Christ
Jesus. I read something by Martin Luther,
one of your German friends of years gone by, of course. Martin
Luther, he wants to define salvation as, quote, the realization of
God's will and purpose, whatever it might be, rather than the
satisfaction of human need. Let me read that to you again.
He defines salvation as the realization of God's will and purpose, whatever
that might be, rather than the satisfaction of human need. He saw that true faith is not
seeking something from God, but bowing to the glory and the honor
and the person of God Himself. You see, we're so focused on
self, we put ourselves right in the middle. And only the sovereign grace
of God can in our own minds, take us out of the middle and
put Christ in the middle to where we focus our love and our attention
and our confidence and our faith only upon Him. That's true faith
right there. That's the only kind of faith
that's worth having. I read something by John Calvin. He said, quote, true faith is
having confidence in God regardless of profit or loss to me. That's a pretty powerful quote.
Think about that, I'll give that to you again. True faith is having
confidence in God regardless of profit or loss to me. You see, here's what true faith
is. It's the bowing to God and acknowledging
God is God and he's got every right to be God and conduct himself
as God and do as he pleases. That's true faith. I sure want
that kind of faith. And why won't people come to
Christ? Well, because most of them have got a refuge that they're
satisfied with. They're hiding in something that
they've done. They're taking refuge in something
they've experienced or something they felt. They consider themselves
to be safe and saved. They're okay, and if you don't
believe it, just ask them. Are you okay with God? Yeah,
I made my decision. I made things right with God
long time ago. They got a false refuge. If you have a refuge anywhere
else except in the Lord Jesus Christ and his substitutionary
death, you got a false refuge. And you are, as the Lord said
in Matthew chapter seven, building on a sandy foundation and not
gonna hold you up. Why won't people come to Christ?
Number five, because the will is set against him. Your will
is distorted, it's messed up. You want what's bad for you and
you don't want what's good for you, spiritually. Christ said
in John 5.40, and you will not come to me that you might have
life. Don't tell me man will come. Christ said you won't come. You
won't come until He quickens you by His grace. You see, we're
shut up, as it were, to the sovereign will of God. The Lord's got to
do something for us. And if He doesn't, We're gone
Jesse's. And there's nothing we can do
about it. You can't argue with the sovereign. Why don't people come to Christ?
I'll give you another reason, because they just don't need
him. Christ said the whole need not
a physician, but those that are sick. Now you go learn what that
means, he said. Who goes to a doctor? Who says
take me to the doctor? Call the ambulance. Call the
ambulance, take me to the doctor. Who says it? Somebody who's sick. And the Lord's gotta show us
we're sick. We're needy. Why won't people come to Christ?
Here's the bottom line, number seven. Because they don't have
the grace of God. That's the bottom line. Graceless
souls are unbelieving souls. That's the way it is. Why won't
people come to Christ? It's not a lack of physical ability. You see, because if salvation
involves a physical movement, that's no problem. We just come
down the aisle. We just raise a hand. We'll just verbally say the sinner's,
so-called sinner's prayer. But see, it isn't a physical
defect. That's not what we're talking
about. It's a deep inward problem. So
you've got a problem and I've got a problem down in the heart
where we can't get to. There's only one surgeon who
can reach the soul. That's the Son of God. The Spirit of Christ. But he
can take the scalpel, the sword of the Word of God and do surgery
on us. And I'll tell you what, when
his knife hits our innermost being, death gives way to life. It's just a miracle. It's a miracle
of grace. Well, let me ask the third question.
I gotta go quickly here. Here's the third question. Who
will come to Christ? That's a good question to ask.
Who will come to Christ? And I'll tell you, back up here,
look at verse 36 and seven. Our Lord said to these people
who quibbled about him coming from heaven and they wouldn't
come to him, He says, ye also have seen me, you've seen the
miracle, you ate of the loaves, you ate of the fishes, you've
seen me, and you don't believe, you don't come to me. But, verse
37, all that the Father giveth me, now they'll come to me. Who will come? All of God's chosen
people will come. And when they come, they keep
on coming, because you see there in verse 37, him that cometh
to me, him that comes and keeps on coming. See, what we call
saving faith is not a one-time, get it over with, get it done,
finished, and wrap up your salvation experience in a little box and
wrap it up in paper and put a bow upon it and set it over on the
counter or something. Say, well, I got my experience.
I'm saved now. It's a matter of coming to Christ
never ends. To whom? Peter says, coming. We just keep on coming to him.
Who'll come to Christ? Those chosen of God in divine
election. See, if you've come to Christ,
and I know many of you have, many of you who are watching,
and I've come to Christ, I'm still coming, is because long
before God ever made this world, in fact, way back in eternity,
forever, God chose us to be his people. And we consequently have
a Redeemer who paid for our sin debt, and the Spirit of God has
done a work of grace in the heart. Who'll come to Christ? All that
the Father gave him. And here's the fourth question. I wanna ask, why will they come
to Christ? And our Lord sits before us here
in verse 44, that great divine power as the reason why we come
to him. No man can come to me except
the Father which hath sent me, draw him. Draw him and I'll raise
him up at the last day. If ever you're saved, If ever
you come to Christ, you've gotta be drawn by God's sovereign,
irresistible, effectual grace. If the Father draws you, you'll
come. If he doesn't draw you, you won't come. Now, the word
draw suggests the idea. Have you ever done this? Some of you have. You have a
bucket, and you go to a shallow well, And you dip that bucket
down and you scoop up that water. But if you lower that bucket
down, I guarantee you that water's not gonna jump in the bucket.
Because it's passive. You're the active one. And you
see, that's the way it is in salvation. The reason people
come to Christ Jesus is because they're drawn. The Lord, He lowers
down the bucket of salvation, but then He scoops us up and
He rescues us. The word draw presents the idea
of that which is drawn is passive or not active. And the one who
is active is the Father who draws us. And a couple of good illustrations, later on in the Gospel of John
chapter 18, Peter drew his sword out of his sheath. The sword
didn't jump out. He had to pull it out. Pull that
sword out. Draw. Draw the sword. The sword's
passive. It was Peter who was active.
And that's what I'm saying in this matter of salvation. It's
the Lord who is active and we're passive. We will be passive till
he raises us from the dead, then we'll be active and believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ. Who's gonna come? Those who are
drawn. Verse 45, those who are taught. It says it's written in the prophets,
they shall all be taught of God. Every man therefore that hath
heard and hath learned of the Father cometh unto me. And they'll
find out there's one who is equal with the Father. Verse 46, not
that any man hath seen the Father save he which is God of God,
he hath seen the Father. And then Christ gives you this
assurance. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
he that believeth on me, he that cometh to me, are you coming? Are you coming to him? I'm coming
to him. And Christ says, he that believeth
on me, he who keeps on coming to me, he hath everlasting life. That's the Lord's assurance. Draw in grace. That's what it
takes.