Then we'll jump to verse 44,
and then to verse 65 of this chapter, and then to chapter
10. This is just a few of the statements.
We'll look at a lot more about what our Lord taught. What was
His theology? What was the theological stand
of our Lord during his time upon the earth and his preaching in
his ministry. So let's begin with John 6. Look
at it, if you will. Verse 37, remembering that these
are the words of Christ. They were spoken in his teaching,
spoken openly and publicly when he preached. So look at verse
37 through 39. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. 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." Are you fastening on every word? All that he hath given me I should
lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. Now look
at 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. All right, now verse 65 out of
that same chapter 6 of John, and he said, Therefore said I
unto you that no man can come unto me except it were given
unto him of my father. All right, John chapter 10, and
let's just read verse 27 and 29, and then we'll be on our
way. My sheep hear My voice, and I
know them, and they follow Me. And I give unto them eternal
life. They shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them
out of My hand. My Father which gave Me is greater
than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of My Father's
hand." Now, I want to begin because, like we did this morning, much
we said this morning in our introduction is apropos to this same subject
of the evening, and that is that the gospel of John is unique
in that it sets forth the divinity, the deity of our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ like no other gospel does. This is the gospel that
was the last written, as we said this morning. And it was written,
many believe, by John to combat some of the errors that already
were being introduced on the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And John's gospel is this, that
the eternal Word became flesh. He became incarnate. He assumed
human nature and dwelt among men in the world. And in that
body that God had prepared for him, He died for our sins on
the cross. And John's Gospel, again I'll
repeat, is a little bit unique in that it wants to emphasize,
first and foremost, the deity of our Lord and Savior. It begins
with His eternality in John 1. John's Gospel gives us only two
parables, if we count that one of the blind, in John 15, and
the one of the shepherd that's called a parable in John chapter
10 and verse 6. John's selective on the miracles
that he includes in his gospel as opposed unto the other. And
usually he makes the miracles that he records in his gospel
correspond to one of the great I Am's. that are delivered unto
us in the book. I am the bread of life, John
6.33. I am the Good Shepherd, John
10.11. I am the resurrection and the
life, John 11.25. I am the way and the truth and
the life in John chapter 14 and verse 6. It is John only of the
gospel that gives us the words of our Lord as to the necessity
of regeneration, of the new birth. We have that in John chapter
3, that one cannot enter or see or participate in the kingdom
of God unless they are born of God, born from on high, born
of the Spirit. It was said of our Lord, never
man spake like this man. at His very words. People would
fall backwards at the power of His Word. It's seen in John 7,
and verse 46, and Matthew 7, and verse 29. He taught as one
having authority. Not like the scribes and the
Pharisees with their shallow, their traditions of men and the
commandments of men. John 18, 5 and 6. You may remember
when He said, I am. to those that came to arrest
Him, they were impelled backward and they fell down upon the ground
at His very Word, which showed, number one, the power of His
Word, and number two, that He freely gave Himself up to the
death of the cross. They never could have taken Him
had not our Lord laid His life down. Nicodemus. made this confession
unto the Lord in John chapter 3, we know that thou art a teacher
that's come from God. The Samaritan woman in John chapter
4, by her providential meeting of our Lord at Jacob's well,
said we know that when Messiah come, he will tell us all things. Yes, he spoke as one having authority. He spoke as one come from God. He spoke infallibly, and when
he spoke, he spoke the very words of God. But we want to narrow
down our study today, and in this study, we are pledged to
consider what the Lord taught in regard to the way of salvation,
the standing of sinners in the sight of God, and what must be
done in order that they might have everlasting life. Sometimes we call them the doctrines
of grace. And the question is, did our
Lord address these matters? Paul did. Did our Lord address
these matters? Did our Lord have anything to
say in His public teaching about the way of the saving of a sinner? Now, in dealing with that, first
of all, we're bound to acknowledge that the great Teacher Even the
Lord Jesus Christ taught the absolute necessity of regeneration,
of being born again, born of God or born of the Spirit. as a prerequisite for spiritual
life and entering into the Kingdom of God. You have that with Nicodemus
in John 3, 1 through 5. There is an implication that
all by nature and by volition are unready. and are unfit for
communion with God. That as they exist in their natural
state, as they exist in Adam, they must experience a very radical
change prior to their being able to understand, or come to know
God, or come to Christ, or come unto God. Furthermore, that this
is not something that lies within the power or the ability of man
to do or to accomplish. It is a work of the Spirit of
God. It is a work from above. It is a sovereign work of the
Holy Spirit of God that man can neither initiate nor resist because
it is an internal work of the Spirit of God. But we're especially
and particularly interested in what the Lord taught about certain
things. What did the Lord teach about
the sinful estate of man, about depravity? What did our Lord
teach about regeneration and salvation and faith and such
as that? This will lead us to consider
what our Lord taught about divine sovereignty. Did you ever give
it a thought whether or not our Lord stood upon the doctrine
of divine sovereignty? I say to you, who's stronger
than our Lord, more frequent than our Lord? The Lord did teach
about divine sovereignty, that God is the worker in salvation. He talked about the sovereignty
of God the Lord did, as it relates to spiritual life and to salvation
in the life of the individual sinner. Consider, for example,
John 5 and verse 21. We mentioned that this morning,
but the Son quickens whomsoever He will. By the way, if you'd
like to turn with me to the Gospel of Matthew, And chapter 11, and
I'd like to read a few verses here into the record. It will
be verse 25, verse 26 and verse 27 of Matthew's Gospel. Near the end of the Gospel, Matthew
11 and verse 25. And I want you to pay careful
attention to what is said here if you never have before. At
that time, Jesus answered and said, I thank Thee, O Father,
Lord of heaven and earth. because thou hast hid these things
from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.
Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight. All things
are delivered unto me of my Father. No man knoweth the Son, but the
Father. Neither knoweth any man the Father,
save or except the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal
Him." Now notice three things in that particular passage of
the Scripture. A. Notice in verse 25, the Son
thanks the Father that He hides divine truth from such as the
wise and the prudent, or the intelligent man. Then B. Notice
in verse 26, He attributes such action to the good pleasure of
God. It seemed good in the sight of
God. And then see, in verse 27, no
man can know the Father or the Son except there be a revelation
made of them. This knowledge comes by a divine
revelation. So, what did the Lord have to
say about such things as the ability of people to come to
Christ or to God? What did He have to say about
election? Did our Lord speak on anything
concerning the extent of the atonement? What about calling? unto salvation. What about the
preservation or the perseverance of the saints of God? Let's run
through those and we'll see that our Lord addressed them all in
His teaching and in His ministry. First of all, depravity. Let's
look at human depravity and the doctrine of Christ concerning
man's depravity. First of all, did the Lord teach
human depravity? Or did our Lord teach free will? Did our Lord teach that all have
the ability innately within them and in their own power to come
and to believe? There are two aspects of human
depravity that are emphasized in the Scripture. We must have
both of them to make up the whole. First of all, concerning depravity,
there is the corruption of the nature and all of the faculty
in people. Original sin, it has been called,
whereby every part and every member and every faculty of every
person is under the power of sin, the heart, the mind, the
understanding, the conscience, the will, the affection, so that
there is none righteous, no, not one, as Paul says in Romans
3, quoting from the psalm. So there is the depravity of
the nature of all. There is the inability, total
inability, the inability to believe, the inability to come unto the
Lord except it be as a result of a work of divine and inward
grace. This is a fruit of the first
depravity. Man is depraved, therefore all
of his faculties or to pray. Now, I want to point out that
the Lord Jesus Christ put heavy emphasis upon the moral, spiritual
inability of unregenerate souls to perform any saving faith or
acts whatsoever, or to come to God, or turning themselves. And this inability, as we read,
is total. There is nothing in man left
upright. Not one thing in man is left
untouched or uncorrupted by the fall. This is also universal. It is so with everyone. There
are passages from the Lord in the Gospel of John emphasizing
total inability. For again, look at John 6, verse
44. What did we read there? No man
can come to Me except there'd be something to cause it. John
6 and 66. No man can come unto Me except
the Father draw him, except it were given unto him of My Father. When we look at verse 44 and
verse 66 again. Can't come unless drawn. Can't
come unless it is given by My Father. Unless He is drawn. unless he is effectually enabled
by the grace of God. Please note, no man. That is all-inclusive. There
are no exceptions. And I want you to notice something
else, that our Lord spoke these words to religious Jews. He spoke them to those religious
Jews who were listening on that occasion. Also note, the Lord
spoke these things openly. He spoke them publicly and to
the face of those that stood in His hearing. It was not a
secret that He kept in the closet. It was not a secret that He kept
only for the apostles or a few or the inward circle. He said
publicly, they cannot come unto Me apart from a work of divine
grace. cannot come, and he spoke such
unto those that heard him. You cannot come to me apart from
a divine influence. You cannot come except it is
the result of the work of the Father. I said all that because
there are some today who say, don't preach these things in
public. Don't tell people these things
unto sinners because it will discourage them. It will cause
them to become fatalists in their view of life and of God. It will run them away. They'll
go off. They'll go somewhere else. They'll
be disheartened. They'll give up. And on and on
their arguments go. I say the exact opposite is the
truth. It will humble them before God
to see their true state and condition before Him. Again, consider John
8 and verse 43. Why do you not understand my
speech? Even because you cannot hear
my word. Now, it's not orally hearing
that is in view here, but it's understanding. It's a spiritual
perception of the word of the Lord. For none can understand
unless the Lord opens their understanding. None can hear unless the Lord
gives them a hearing ear. And the value of preaching this
is to drive sinners away from trusting in themselves and in
their own ability, to strip them of their confidence in their
flesh that none are coming except God savingly draws them. It has the effect of rob them
of any hope apart from the effectual and eternal grace of God. It
shuts them up to the work of God, the grace of God, the Spirit
of God, the Word of God, and such like. It destroys the falsehoods
of our minionism, that you can come any time you will. You can
decide at any time to become a Christian. You can make this
great decision on your own at any time that you will. So the
Lord taught depravity and He taught inability. In fact, He
approached it mainly from the standpoint of inability. No man
can come. Secondly, did our Lord have anything
to say about the doctrine of election? Do we find Him mentioning
it anywhere in His ministry? Did He have anything to say on
this particular subject? What do we read in John 6 and
verse 37 through verse 39? In fact, there are three doctrines
in this verse. In John 6 and 37 there are three
of the doctrines of grace in this one verse. Let's look at
them. A. There is election. Or what did Christ say? All that
the Father gives me. All the Father gives me. Then B. There is irresistible
grace and calling. Shall come to me. Shall come. Beyond question. All the Father gives me shall
come to me. And thirdly, there is the doctrine
here of preservation or of perseverance. I will in no wise cast out. And that's so emphatic they say
in the Greek. I will no, no never, in no wise,
ever cast out. Christ speaks of some given unto
Him, but note the order. It is not all that come that
my Father give me, but all come that my Father has given me,
they do come unto me. They come as a consequence of
their having been given unto the Son. We ought to notice the
contrast in John 6, 36 and 37, that in verse 36, you have seen
me and believe not. Now, they had seen his miracle.
In fact, they had just witnessed the miracle of the loaves of
bread And they reckoned him to be that promised prophet. In verse 14, John 6. And they
made a fair pretense of believing in verse 34. Yet in spite of
what they had seen, in spite of what they had heard, they
believe not. Now this does not frustrate God's
purpose of election. For verse 37 is the contract. Now watch verse 36. You heard,
you did not believe me. But verse 37, all that the Father
giveth me shall come to me. They therefore prove themselves
not to be God's elect by not believing and by not coming. In John 17, our Lord is heavy
upon those that thou hast given me. The Lord's high priestly
prayer for our profession, and he makes much of those that are
given unto him. I'll just run through it quickly.
In the second verse, John 17, as many as thou hast given him. Look at verse 6, the men that
you gave me out of the world, thine they were, thou gave them
unto me. Look at verse 9, I pray for them
which you have given me. Look at verse 11, those whom
you have given me. Look at verse 12, those thou
gavest me. And then look at verse 24, I
will that they whom thou hast given me be with me where I am
that they may behold my glory." Now, our Lord spoke of the elect. Matthew 24, 22. 24, 31. Mark 13-20 and Mark 13-27, Luke
18-7, all of those our Lord spoke of people called the elect. And He said that a special provident
attended the way of the elect. He spoke of My sheep and that
even before they believed, even before they were found, while
they were lost, They were the sheep of Christ as we saw last
week in the sermon on the Good Shepherd. Now, thirdly, let's
go along. What did the Lord say about His
atoning death? Here we are coming to the crown
of the mountain. Did the Lord say, anything about
the extent of his atoning death. Who were the intended beneficiaries
of his death? Well, the Lord first of all declared
that he came to die. John 3.14, As Moses lifted up
the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted
up to die. He became incarnate that He might
die. He would defeat Satan and overthrow
the power of death and sin. by His death. Secondly, our Lord
not only declared His death, but He declared His death to
be particular and effectual. Let's keep those words in our
mind. He would give His life in behalf
of a set number. Or, as George Smeaton put it,
the Lord sang to scribe His death in connection with manifold results,
effects, or ends which it was appointed But we only have time to consider
the Lord's testimonies concerning the extent of His death. If He spoke of it, let us hear
Him. What was the extent of the death
of our Lord? Our Lord's testimonies show us
that His death would be special, it would have an efficacious
connection to a specific and particular people which He came
to die and to save from their sin. He shall save His people
from their sin, Matthew 1 and verse 21. This is demonstrated
by the relation of the shepherd and of the sheep in John chapter
10, verse 11. The good shepherd gives his life
for the sheep. Verse 15, I lay down my life
for the sheep. Notice in verse 26 of John 10,
some he excludes as not being His sheep. Now sheep, as we learn,
is a common designation for the elect, for the people of God,
whether lost or found, whether scattered or whether gathered,
and the rest are not His sheep. And even when we were lost, were
we the sheep of God. He gave His life for the sheep
in the relation that He stood unto them. In their place He
died to save them. They had all gone astray, and
the Lord lay upon Him the iniquity of us all. It is not that He
gives His life by jumping between the sheep and the poachers or
whatever, but that He gives His life as a sacrifice for their
sin. Again, I would that you hear
Matthew 20 and verse 28. The Lord declared his death in
this manner or fashion. A, or one, he called it, a ransom. Now that's a purchase price.
His death and his blood is a price, and it is the price of redemption. It is a set and a demanded price
that is paid in order to buy one out of slavery. Buy a price,
the price being paid, and the price was his life or his blood. So he'd give his life a ransom. Secondly, notice the word for
many. This is my blood which is shed
as a ransom for many. Our Lord does not say the whole
world or every one but many. Now, ransoming and redeeming
has its roots, of course, in and throughout all of the Old
Testament. And never in the history of Old
Testament redemption was redemption made for all without exception. Always. It was a specific thing,
a piece of land or whatever. It was a specific person or a
specific thing. Always under the Old Testament
redemption. Christ died for the sheep. John
10. He died for many. Matthew 20
and verse 28. For His friends He laid down
His life. John 15 and 13. And once he said,
for you, speaking to the apostle in Luke 22 and verse 20. And this blood is the blood of
the New Testament or the New Covenant. And then fourthly,
let's see what our Lord had to say about effectual calling. What did the Lord say about such? Or did He breach the subject
at all? Did He ever mention it? Did He
have conversation about this matter with those that He taught
in this world? Or did He leave it in the hands
of free will? He said to those given to Him
by the Father, or of them given to him by the Father, they shall
come to me." Now, I know your argument. You're going to say,
well, when they come, they're given. That won't fit this. All
that the Father gives me shall come to me. John 10, 27. My sheep hear my voice and they
know me and they follow me. John 10, 16. Sheep I must bring. I must bring them. And there
will be one foal and one shepherd. Thus all given to Him in eternal
action shall in time and in experience come to Him and believe upon
Him. They cannot come and they cannot
believe of themselves or in their own strength or by their own
skill or in their own ability. but they shall come at a set
time, even though they were formerly unwilling and stood against the
word of God. But his people shall be willing
in the day of his power." Psalms 110, 1 through 3. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of Thy power. They shall surrender unto Him
through His power and march under His banner. This does not mean
that they come on their own. as a matter of free will, and
not attributed to any power or any ability in them, for our
text is clear. They are drawn, except they be
drawn of my Father." Is that word helco? Kind of like the
word drag, I seem to remember. finding that. The Father draws
them in John 6 and 44, and except unless the Father give it unto
them to come, we read there also in John chapter 6. So therefore,
there must be this internal work of God. There must be this sovereign
work of grace in the elect in order that they might be quickened
and that there might be faith given and they might be turned
and converted unto the Lord our God. This requires the spirits
quickening them. And in verse 63 of John chapter
6, it is the spirit that quickens, the flesh profits nothing. Our Lord said it and we believe
it. And then what the Lord said about
the preservation of the saints of God. In John 6 and 37, I will
in no wise cast them out. They shall never be separated
from their union in Christ and unto God. They shall never be
alienated from God. Nothing in this world, says Paul,
is able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ
Jesus our Lord in Romans Listen to John 10.28, I give unto them
eternal life, they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck
them out of my hand. And verse 29, no man is able
to pluck them out of my Father's hand. The Lord has died for them,
sought them when they were astray, returned them unto the fold,
and they will never be removed or plucked out of His hand. Never be separated from the blessedness
that they have in their wonderful Savior. Nothing can accomplish
their ruin. And Paul runs through several
things in the end of Romans chapter 8. These things the Lord said
under the image of sheep. They must and will be given eternal
life. He will sustain it in them. He
will keep them unto heavenly glory. Oh yeah, it is true. Satan desires to have them that
he might sift them like wheat. as our Lord once said unto impetuous
Simon Peter, but he intercedes on their behalf they are kept. How Peter must have recalled
when the Lord said to him, Satan hath asked repeatedly for you
that he might suit you like we, but I have prayed for you that
your faith fail not. He prays the Father to keep them
on the final glory. John chapter 17 and verse 24. So thus, in a nutshell, and very
quickly, we have seen that the Lord's Christ, the great teacher
come from God, did publicly teach what we call and love as the
doctrines of grace. And what's more? The Apostle,
and especially Paul, built upon that foundation laid by their
Lord in their inspired writings as well, they too declaring the
depravity of the race. Paul setting forth an election
of grace and a special efficacious atonement for sin that cannot
miscarry. a heavenly calling and the preservation
and the perseverance of those according to an eternal purpose,
purposed by God in Christ before the foundation of the world,
so that I hate to tell you this, but long before Augustine or
Calvin or Luther or Gil or Spurgeon, these doctrines were declared
by our Lord Jesus Christ and are recorded for us in the Holy
Scripture. Now you can slough it off and
say, oh well, that's Calvinism. That's what they call Calvinism
or Spurgeonism. But it's also taught by our Lord. Every one of them we have seen
from the Scripture our Lord spoke and our Lord taught them. Once
they were common doctrine in the churches. But now such an
apostasy has settled in upon what is called Christianity until
they're barely heard barely visible anymore, but they still stand
as the eternal Word of God. So that on every issue we can
say, thus saith the Lord, it is written what saith the Scripture. That again is our manifesto for
the doctrine of Christianity and the service of our Lord and
of our Savior.