If you will, open your Bibles
with me to John chapter 6. John chapter 6. Had a pretty good do here yesterday.
It was wonderful, wonderful. And Kathleen's home from the
hospital and she's doing pretty good, a bit better. And hopefully
she's on the mend. She'll have to deal with some
things for a long time, but hopefully she's on the mend. I'm going
to start reading here in verse 37 and read down to verse 45. John 6, 37 through 45. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will, and no wives
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. And this is the will of Him that
sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth
on Him, may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up
at the last day. The Jews then murmured at him
because he said, I am the bread which came down from heaven.
And they said, is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father
and mother we know? How is it then that he saith,
I came down from heaven? Jesus therefore answered and
said unto them, murmur not among yourselves. 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. It is written in the prophets,
and they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that
hath heard and hath learned of the Father cometh unto me." Our Father, in the precious,
blessed, glorious name of your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, our
Savior, the one who bought us with his own precious blood,
the one who paid all our sin, all the debt we owed, every jot
and tittle that was against us, he took it out of the way and
nailed it to his blessed cross. And Lord, we've gathered here
to honor you, to worship you, and to bless you for your great
goodness and mercy given to us from before the foundation of
the world, given to us every day of our lives. And Lord, we'll
be continually given to us until you take us to another world.
And Lord, we thank you for what you've done for your people.
God bless Joe and Eleanor as they often join one another. time together their union. And
Lord, we thank you for what you've done for Kathleen and others
among us who have been so sick. Continue to bless, continue to
strengthen, continue to encourage. And Lord, I pray that it won't
be too long before Kathleen can come worship with us again. Meet
the needs of this congregation today as only you can do. You
know, ever heart, you know, ever mind, you know, ever need. Lord,
I know nothing but Christ and Him crucified, the gospel. And
may that be all I know among this people, for Christ's sake.
Amen. Turn with me back here now to
John's chapter 6. Let's look at this together for
a few minutes today. The title of my subject this
morning is God's Children Taught. God's children taught. It says in John 6, 45, it is
written in the prophets, they shall be all taught of God. They shall be all taught of God.
Now, everybody here has looked at a map, I'm sure, sometime
or another. Do you get any value from that,
literary value from that map? Any literary value at all? No. Maps are written to give directions.
It's written to give us directions, show us from where we're at to
where we want to go. It's given to find us the best,
the quickest way to our destination. And that's what I want to do
in my preaching. That's what I want to do in my preaching.
I want to show you the way to guide you to Christ by the simplest
way to get there. And I pray that the Lord would
help me to do that today. Our Lord always had a name in
His words. He didn't just, when He spoke,
He had a purpose behind it. He had a name. He was shooting
at something. And it says here in verse 41, these Jews were
murmuring at him. They were always murmuring. Jews
were famous for their murmuring. They did it in the wilderness.
They did it until God got so sick of it that he slew a bunch
of them over. They murmured, murmured, murmured.
They always whispering among themselves, always finding fault
with what our Lord Jesus Christ, who he was and what he did and
what he claimed. They whispered among themselves,
just murmured among themselves and talked among themselves about
what he was doing and what he was saying. And the Jews murmured
at him. And oh, and listen, thy Lord
Jesus Christ did not come down to their platform or their level.
And they said in verse 42, this is what they use for an excuse
and the reason they didn't believe on him. They said, Is not this
Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How
is it then that he said he came down from heaven? And they use
this, this as their trouble for not believing him. But listen
to what our Lord Jesus said to them in verse 43. Our Lord answers
said among them and said unto them, murmur not among yourselves.
Don't whisper among yourselves. Don't find fault among yourselves.
Don't just sit and just complain among yourselves and argue among
yourselves. Do you think that I'm disappointed
or frustrated because you don't believe in me? Do you think it
really bothers me and frustrates me? It's going to keep me from
doing my will and my purpose in this life because you murmur?
And you think that's going to frustrate my purpose and will
in this world? You think it's going to have
none effect on my word because you don't believe me? You think
that's going to change anything that's going to happen? Do you
think your unbelief will frustrate my father's purpose or surprise
him or cause him from quit doing his work in this world? You think
that's what's going to happen because you murmur at me? Find
fault with me? Don't believe who I am? You think
that's going to change anything at all? I'll tell you one thing,
I do know this, and our Lord's telling them this,
your rejection of me will make no difference to anyone but yourself. That's the only person it's going
to affect. It ain't going to affect God, it's going to affect
you. It ain't gonna change anything God's gonna do. It's gonna affect
you. If you don't believe, you're the one that's in trouble. If
you reject Christ, you're the one that's gonna be in trouble. And that's what our Lord said
to these fellas. On your own head shall be your guilt. On
your own head shall be your blood. Won't be on me. I've told you
who I am. Told you where I come from. Told
you what I came to do. And I tell you, and friends,
my beloved here, I plead with you. I plead, I plead with you,
and I do plead with you. Sometimes I weep over some of
you and have wept over some of you. I try to nourish you and
cherish you, and I do nourish and cherish you. But when you
or anybody else refuses to believe, to not have this man, the Lord
Jesus Christ, to reign over you, I fall back on this blessed thing,
on the eternal purpose of God. Our Lord says this, in John 6,
look at verse 37 first. Verse 37, then we'll go to verse...
All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that
cometh to me I shall in no wise cast out. There's a people going
to come to Christ. There's going to be people that's
going to come. Then in John 6 45 and it is written in the prophets.
They shall be all taught of God Now this is the thing everyone
that Jim comes to Christ and has God gave to Christ and has
coming to him the father promised to teach every one of those children
He says, as it is written in the prophets, they shall all
be, they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that
hath heard and learned of the father cometh to me. That's the
father's promise. He gonna teach it. He teaches
his children. And then it says it's written
in the prophets. Now, our Lord Jesus Christ could have spoken
upon his own authority, could have spoken upon his own word
without quoting any scripture. But he quoted the scripture,
and our Lord's the true and faithful witness, God's true prophet that
came, and he used the Old Testament, the law and the prophets often
to tell men what was going on. And what an authority, what an
authority, what a conclusion, it is written. That's what we're
dealing with, it is written. Not what the preacher said, or
the church said, or the vicar said, or the priest said, or
the church said, but what God said, it is written. And I tell
you, beloved, every man got to have an infallibility somewhere. Man has an infallibility, something
that he trusts in somewhere. Some people say the Pope's infallible. Some say the church is infallible.
But the only thing that's infallible in this world is the Word of
God. The rest of us is fallible. Everybody
else is fallible. The only man that was infallible
was the Lord Jesus Christ. And the only thing infallible
in this world is the Word of God. And I'll tell you what he
says, he said, and drop your anchor right there. When God
said it is written, you can drop your anchor right there and find
some comfort for your soul. Can't you? And look what he says
now over in John, look in Isaiah 54 with me. This is where our
Lord's quoting from, Isaiah 54 in verse 13. It is written in the prophets.
This is a promise. When God says, all thy children
shall be taught of God, that's a promise. There's no if, ands,
or doubt about it. It's gonna happen. And he says in Isaiah 54, 13,
and all thy children shall be taught of the Lord. And listen
to this, and great shall be the peace of thy children. And you know what? This follows
Isaiah 54, follows Isaiah 53. And what is Isaiah 53? What's it all about? It's about
our Lord Jesus Christ coming to be the lamb that was slain,
the lamb that was led to the slaughter. the man that bore
our sins in his own body, that was wounded for our transgressions,
bruised for our iniquities, whose chastisement of our peace was
on him, with whose stripes we're healed. And it was the one that
pleased the Lord to bruise him. It pleased the Lord to make his
soul an offering for sin. And then he said, he shall be
satisfied when he shall see of the travail of his soul, and
by his knowledge shall he justify many? Now who's these people
that he was wounded and bruised and chastised for and justified
me? Who is this man? Well, every
one of those that he was wounded for, bruised for, chastised for,
that's his children. John 6.37, all of them that was
given to him, comes to him and he says, this is the children
that I'm going to teach. They're going to learn something.
They're going to learn something and I'm going to be the one that's
going to teach them. You reckon God when he went when
he's going to teach somebody something, you know, I hear people
say this all time I believe the Lord's trying to teach you something
If the Lord ever tries to teach you something He's done been
out of business because if God go teach you something you're
gonna learn that lesson Now you're gonna learn it Now I may teach
you something and forget it just like that And I've done forgot
everything I learned in school except a little bit of math maybe
But I do know this, beloved, that immediately after that,
and look what it said here in Isaiah 54 1. This promises to the Lord's people,
Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. And right at
the end, right at the first verse of Isaiah 54, after Isaiah 53,
saying, O barren, thou that didst not bear. You see, this is talking
down to the Lord's church. Break forth into singing. Cry
aloud, thou that did not travail with child. The Jews thought
God ain't never gonna save the Gentiles, but here we are. For
more are the children of the desolate than the children of
the married one. Oh, listen. This promise is to
the elect, to the chosen, whose names are written in the book
of life, all who the Lord Jesus Christ redeemed by his blood,
they shall all in due time be taught by God himself. Look in Jeremiah 31 with me. Look in Jeremiah 31. Talking
about being taught of the Lord. Talking about God teaching us.
Look in Jeremiah 31. And look in verse 31, Jeremiah
31. Now, I tell you, it's written
in the prophets, and this is what we're talking about, written
in the prophets. It's written in the prophets, all thy children
shall be taught of the Lord, and oh, and grace shall be the
peace of them. And that's to the elect, that's
the promise to. Look in verse 31 here. Behold,
the days come, saith the Lord, that I'll make a new covenant
with the house of Israel, spiritual Israel, house of Judah, the children
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who's of the tribe of Judah. Not according
to that covenant, that law that I made with their fathers in
the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the
land of Egypt, which my covenant they break. Although I was in
husband unto them, saith the Lord, but this shall be the covenant
I will make with the house of Israel. After those days saith
the Lord, I'll put my law in their inward parts. That means
I'll put it in their minds. I'll put it in their souls. And
the law is not the 10 commandments. The law is not that. This is
the law. He said, I'll put my law, I'll
put my word. You know, that's what he's talking
about, the law, all the scriptures. There's three meanings of the
law in the scriptures. There's the Ten Commandments,
the moral law. There's the ceremonial law. And
then there's the law of the scriptures that says the law, all the Word
of God. And that's what he's talking
about here. He's not talking about, he writes the word in
our hearts, writes it in our minds. And listen to this, this
is as long and short of the covenant that God makes with his people.
And we'll be their God and they shall be my people. That's why they're called His
children. A fella told me one day, all
you talk about is the children and the people of God. You act
like, you know, there ain't nobody else but them. There ain't nobody
else but them as far as God's concerned. That's what He calls
them, My people. Ain't that right? Calls them
His children. Calls them His elect. Calls them His darlings. Calls them His peculiar people.
Calls them the apple of His eye. Calls them His beloved. So you know, what else we gonna
say about them? And oh, listen, this new covenant.
And listen, this is what I wanted to say right here, talking about
his people being taught of God. In verse 34, and they shall teach
no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, say,
know the Lord, for they shall all know me from the least of
them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord, for I will forgive
their iniquity and remember their sin no more. That's one thing
he teaches us, that he forgets our iniquity and remembers our
sin no more. He teaches us that. And oh, listen,
this new covenant, God made it with Christ and it's ordered
in all things ensured. And God made him with our Lord
Jesus Christ on our behalf. And all was represented by Christ
by virtue of their union with our Lord Jesus Christ. Our partakers
in all the blessings of this covenant that we're talking about.
On our side, God said it is finished. But now when far as God's concerned,
The side yet to be fulfilled is, I will and they shall. I'll put my fear in their hearts. I'll teach them so they don't
have to go around saying, know the Lord, for they ever one of
my children shall know me. They're all gonna know me. From
the least of them to the greatest of them, what a promise. Unconditional
promise. Freely made to who? The children. The children. It's a promise
made to each and every one of God's elect. And it says, they
shall be all, A-double-L-L, taught of God. There's not one child
of God shall be left out of God's school. They're going to be taught,
they're going to be trained by the Lord Himself. And the question
is, are you in this number? Are you one of God's children?
Are you one for whom God's taught anything or He's teaching you
anything? Have you truly been taught by
the Lord? Have you? Look back over in John
6 with me. John 6. You know, this is what's amazing
to me, is that you take people that's uneducated, You know, there was, it just,
this emphasis on education just been the last generation or so. Most folks way, way back there,
you know, folks that's passed on, they had very little education.
We had people in this congregation couldn't hardly write their own
name. How in the world did they, did
they learn anything? Who taught them, huh? Can't write their name, but they
know the Lord. How can that happen? I know an old man one time, and
he didn't, he couldn't even read. You know how he learned how to
read? Sitting in church, following along in song books. Couldn't
even read. And he would put his finger on,
when they would be singing the songs in the song book, he'd
put his finger on every song, and he would hear the words,
and then that's how he learned to read. Following along in song
books, he'd put his, he'd put in there, majestic sweetness,
sits enthroned upon the Savior's brow. And he done that, it took
him a long time to learn. And then when he read, it was
hard to listen to him sometimes because, you know, he stuttered
and stammered around. But now who in the world taught
him? Who taught him Christ? Who taught
him the gospel? Who taught him that? And let
me tell you something. You know the hardest people?
Now these Pharisees were the most educated people of their
generation. They were the doctors of divinity.
They were the masters. They were the ones who taught
in all the seminaries. These were the men who knew everything
there was to know. But they never knew a thing in
the world about God or about Christ. So that goes out whether you're
uneducated or you're one of the highest educated people in the
universe. If you're going to learn anything
at all spiritual, God's got to be the one to teach you. Whether
you're a dummy or a genius. And you know how many books they
got made out for dummies? We got a lot of books. A fellow
sent me a book, A Dummy for This and A Dummy for That. And that's
learning things of this world. But now, there ain't no dummies
when God teaches you. God don't take dummies and don't
teach dummies. You know, when God teaches you,
you know something. And I tell you, ain't nobody
can talk you out of it. Nobody can confuse you about
it. Nobody can twist you in knots about it. Nobody can back you
up and say, well, listen, I'm sorry. I believe that. No, you're
going to apologize for what God taught. Well, look here in John
6, 45. What does he teach? And look in, oh excuse me, verse
44. He says this, they shall be all taught of God. Well, he
says this, no man can come to me except the Father which hath
sent me, draw him. Now what does our Lord teach?
Teaching and drawing are the same thing. Teaching and drawing
are the same. Teaching and drawing are the
same thing. When God teaches, He's bringing
you to Himself. When God starts teaching a man,
He starts bringing that fellow just a little closer and a little
closer and a little closer. And I'll tell you where he ends
up at when he gets close enough. God draws us and teaches us by
instruction, not just persuasion. He doesn't draw us to the Lord
Jesus Christ by force that's contrary to our nature and our
will. What He does is He starts working
on our nature. He starts working on our will.
He starts working on our mind. He starts working on the part
of us that don't know anything about Him and starts working
on that nature and that will and starts bending that and changing
that, converting that and bringing that in line with Himself. We're
not stones. He deals with us as rational,
responsible people. But He draws men by teaching
them things. That's why we say to people all
the time, you know, people want to join the church or they want
to get baptized or something and they haven't learned anything.
And so you say, well, just sit here and listen to the gospel
for a while. Just sit here and listen to what God's got. Just
listen. Don't be in such a hurry. That's
why we don't have all the calls. That's why people don't get saved
instantly in these services like they do have all these other
churches. It's because God's got to teach a man something.
And I tell you, the first thing he teaches you, you know what
the first thing he teaches you? Anybody wanna take a shot at
it? I'll tell you what he teaches you. He teaches that you are
a sinner from the top of your head to the sole of your feet.
There's not a good thing about you in your mind, your heart,
your soul, your body, your thoughts, your words, your deeds. You are
a sinner inside, outside, and there's nothing about you that's
good or right in the sight of God. And when God makes you a
sinner, you are a sinner for the rest of your life. You're
a saved sinner, and you're a rejoicing sinner, and you're a thankful
sinner, and you're a sinner saved by grace, but you're a sinner.
And I tell you, you tell most folks that, and they'll say,
oh, no, not me. Oh, yes, you. If God ever teaches
you, you will be. And I tell you what, you can't
hire a man that God has taught that he's a sinner to ever admit
that he's anything else but that. You wouldn't take a million dollars
to say, no, I'm not a sinner, when God taught you you're a
sinner because you know that you're a sinner. And I don't have to, you know,
you're not a pretended sinner. It's not pretended sin. It's
not certain sins that he teaches you about. But he teaches you
that you're a sinner, that you're poor, that you're needy, that
you have no strength, that you have no ability, that without
Christ you can do nothing. You'll be like that publican
who smote his breast and wouldn't even lift his eyes to heaven
and all he asked for was mercy. And you know what he added up
at the end of when he said it? Be merciful to me, the sinner. How do you become a sinner? How do you become a sinner? I
was telling about the boy and girls the other day. Last night,
when they was all real, real young, everybody in this country
knew who the boy and girls were, and they knew this. The whole
family sang, and they knew these girls, and they said, they're
the finest girls that's ever been in this country. Some of them hadn't even dated,
or I'm telling you, Pam was so religious, you know, carried
a Bible when she was eight, nine years old, you know, going to
Bible camp. Oh my goodness, they just, they
had religion coming, and everybody thought they're the finest bunch. But how in the world did they
become sinners? They wasn't out in the world.
They wore women's clothing. They didn't wear jeans and Levi's
and they weren't out on dates and running wild. They was at
home. They was going to church all the time. How in the world
did they become sinners? How did such good girls become
such bad girls in the sight of God? How did that happen? Same way it happened. You know
why? God taught him. God taught him. And you know
what I know about this? I know this much about people.
I'm telling you, I know this much about people. If your conversation,
when you're with other people, is not about Christ, and you
talk about everything under the sun but him, you've never been
made a sinner yet. Huh? And, oh, listen, I tell
you what. He teaches us what? We stop being
Mr. Good Enough. We stop being Mr. Too Good. Stop being Not Too Bad, a person. Stop being a person who just
made a lot of mistakes in their life. We stop that foolishness. We stop this saying, they're
just a good person, they just need Jesus. If they're good,
they don't need Christ. He didn't come to call the righteous. He came to call sinners. Our
language betrays us a lot of times. And I'll tell you why,
and I'll tell you what else it says. Look what he said here.
In verse 45, it is written in the prophets, they shall all
be taught of God. Every man therefore that hath
heard and learned of the Father comes unto me. He teaches that
we're sinners. And then He teaches us that Christ
is the only hope we have. He teaches us that God sent His
Son into this world to be our representative. He didn't come
here for Himself, He came here for us. He came here to represent
us. To live a life before God that
you and I could not possibly ever live. He lived a life of
perfection, and sinlessness, and obedience. And we lived a
life of sin, and debauchery, and disobedience. And so our
Lord Jesus Christ, God sent Him here to be our representative
before God. And then in His death, God sent
Him to be our substitute. He was the Lamb of God that was
sent to take away sin, to take away our sin as the Lamb of God
bearing our sins there in His body without spot and without
blemish. He was sent as the one, the only
one who honored God and we can only honor God as we trust Him
and believe Him. He's the only one of God. And
as the Lord's teaching, and as the Lord's teaching, He's drawing.
He's drawing. I can cry out, believe, believe,
believe all I want to, but it'll do no good until I tell you what
you're to believe. And I tell you what, so He teaches
you a sin and He teaches you Christ. He starts teaching you
and drawing you to Christ. If you ever start seeing yourself
in all How many of you all, you don't have to answer this question,
but it's just a rhetorical question, but how many of you all sat in
a service and you remember when all of a sudden you said, that's
it. That's it. There's no way in
the world it can be any other way than that. Why didn't you see it before?
Why didn't you know it before? You went to church. You heard
lots of preaching. You've done lots of singing. And all of a sudden, you say,
what? What? Whoa, where'd that come
from? And that's what happens. The
Lord draws you and teaches you. And then all of a sudden, you're
taught. You say, I see it. I've got it. Oh, and I tell you, it's heavenly
teaching too, because it says they shall all be taught of the
Lord. They shall all be taught of God.
I know this, the best preachers, the best preachers, and I have
some good, good, good preachers. There's been good preachers,
there's some good preachers now, but the best preachers and the
best books without the teaching of God will avail you absolutely
nothing. But we didn't tell you something
else that we learned. We learned that we need to unlearn
what we've taught ourselves and our opinions and our feelings
and all the unlearn ourselves the things of God. We must learn
that we must be taught by the Spirit of God and unlearn what
we've And when God starts teaching you, He starts unlearning you.
You know, you wind up a spool and then you let it go and it
drops down, you know, and you lose all... Well, I tell you
what, He's got to unwind your mind. He's got to unwind it and
take all the junk out of it to put the right stuff in it. Is
that not true? Is that not true? And it's teaching
through means. Look what He says. Verse 45,
this teaching through means, every man therefore that hath
heard and learned of the Father. Huh? Every man that hath heard
and hath learned of the Father. You see, you gotta hear. He said,
every man that hath heard and hath learned, been taught of
God. So you see, there's a listening involved in it. There's some
hearing involved in this. Well, how can you hear? Faith
cometh by what? Hearing. And what is it you hear? By the Word of God. And so, you
see, that's what we've got to deal with. We've got to deal
with what God says. We don't have to go to some denomination
or something and find out what we're supposed to teach or preach.
There's places, you know, there's churches and that, that they
send out their Easter Sunday services and their Holy Week
services and they send out their books and this is the songs you
sang. And listen, how in the world is anybody going to learn
of God from something like that? Faith cometh by hearing, listening,
seeking, Oh, when you come to the services. Old Mr. Spurgeon
said when he was a child, he said somebody told him, that's
why they quote that, faith cometh by hearing, hearing by the word
of God. And every time I went to service, I listened intently
to see what the preacher said because I wanted to learn. God
saved him when he was 17 years old, 16, and he became a preacher
at 17. But he come with his ears cocked. Don't just be content with coming
to the services. Come to listen. And I tell you what, when the
preacher is preaching and the Word of God is going forth, you
say, Lord, teach me. That preacher said that you would
teach me. Well, teach me. Teach me. Teach me. Take me and teach me. Teach me
what I need to know. Teach me your will. Teach me
Christ. Teach me my need. Teach me my
weaknesses. Teach me my inabilities. Teach
me that my flesh is unprofitable for anything. Teach me that I
need to be taught it. Teach me that I need to be taught.
Teach me that I need eyes. Teach me that I need ears. Teach
me that I need faith. Teach me that I need Christ. Teach me. And I'll tell you something else
about this teaching. It's effectual. Look what it says there in verse
45. Every man that hath heard and
hath learned, learned. That's in the past tense, you
know. It's something that's been done. Hath learned. When He teaches, you learn. Oh
my, how you learn. You learn about sin and law. You learn about Christ. You learn
about His glory. You learn about His fullness.
You learn about His power. You learn about His grace. You
learn about the great love who are with Elijah. And I tell you
this much, I know that no one that's ever been taught of God
remained a fool. Don't remain a fool. No, no. And look what happens, the result
of this blessed teaching. Look what happens here. Verse 45 again. They shall be
all taught of God. All God's children are going
to be taught. Their peace is going to be great. No, you're
not going to have to run around saying, oh, no, the Lord. They're
all going to know me. Every one of them is going to
know me. And then every man that hath heard, gotta listen. Then
they learn, they have learned. And what do they learn? Cometh unto me. They learn that
Christ is the only place you can go to be accepted of God,
to be saved. Cometh unto me. He that's been
taught of God comes to me. These Pharisees didn't come to
Him. But you know who came to Him?
Oh, Simon the Pharisee, when our Lord was in his house. There's
a woman come in there and says, if this man was a prophet, he'd
know what manner of woman this is. She's a sinner. That's exactly
who Christ was in there for, to begin with, and she didn't
care what was going on right there. I'm going to get to the
feet of Christ. I don't care what Simon says and anybody else
around this table. I'm a sinner and I need Christ.
No, Simon said, oh boy, if he knew what manner of woman this
is. And I do know this, beloved,
everyone taught of God comes to Christ. comes to Christ. And any teaching, any preaching
that takes you anywhere else is not of the Father. If the Father teaches you, you're
going to end up trusting Christ. You're going to end up coming
to Christ. You're going to end up coming to the only place where
sinners can be saved and be safe and be Preserved and be taken
to glory Our Lord said of all that he gave me. I'm not going
to lose nothing, but I'm going to even raise them up at the
last day They said well, they're lost I said we don't even know
where their graves is God does They said you know what? I've been places, you know, and
there's been three or four places way out in the woods and stuff
that come up on graves and just little old stones that you can't
even read anymore. Nobody has an idea who they are. But if
they're the Lord's, He said, I ain't going to lose one of
them. So He's going to raise them up
at the last day, no matter where they're at. Not only is He not going to lose
us here, but He ain't going to lose us when we turn to nothing
but dust. If he took dust and made a man,
don't you think he can take dust and make a new man? And oh, coming to Christ is a
simple thing, yet no man does it till he's taught of the Father. Nobody does till he's taught
of the Father. It's like Naaman. He had leprosy, great man, famous
man. Powerful man. Run a whole army
by himself. And the prophet told him, said,
go down to Jordan and dip yourself in Jordan seven times and your
leprosy will leave you. He stamped his foot and he walked
away from there. I ain't gonna do that. Said, ain't the rivers far, far
and better rivers in Damascus than this Jordan over here?"
The boy's servant walked up to him and says, Master, if that
man would have told you something great to do, something hard to
do, get you a real hard task, he said, you would have tackled
it and not thought anything about it. But to tell you just to go
get in water? Just to go get in water? What's
water going to do for you? Well, if you go once, it ain't
going to do nothing. If he goes twice, it ain't going to do nothing.
If he goes three times, it ain't going to help him. He's got to
go in that water and go under seven times. He didn't want to do it. And
that's the way it is coming to Christ. A fella don't, he wants
to go under six times, he don't want to go that seventh time.
But that seventh time's got to come if you're going to come
to Christ. You got to, you know, just quit finding some way to
stop from coming. Don't say, well, I was converted
way back here, I was converted way back there. Listen, are you
trusting Christ right at this moment? Only God, only God can
humble the heart. Only God can make a man stoop
down. Only God can make a man willing
to be saved absolutely by the doing of another. And leave himself
out of it, lock, stock, and barrel. Trust everything he has and ever
will have in his eternal soul into what another man did without
offering anything of himself. But he's seeing, that's the only
thing he's got to bring to the table. Ain't that right? And you come
with that, Christ will receive you. You come with anything else
but yourself and nothing but yourself, he won't receive you.
Huh? And if you're taught the Lord,
you'll come to Christ and you'll trust him. And ain't that what
he says in verse 44, no man can come to me. except the Father
draw him, except the Father teach him. He ain't coming. Can't come. Can't come. And oh my! Teach him. And that's why Paul
said, I know whom I have believed. I know whom I have believed. And look what he says there again.
Every man that hath heard and learned of the Father cometh
unto me. Every man therefore that hath heard and learned of
the Father. And that word cometh means it's always in the present
tense. I don't know if I knew anything
about Greek, I could tell you what tense it was, but I don't. I just know that it means once
you start coming, you just keep on coming. Cometh, cometh. He keeps on coming. The faith
that saves is an all day, every day faith. We believe today,
we'll believe tomorrow, and we'll believe forever. We came to Christ,
we're coming to Christ, and we'll keep on coming to Christ. And
you know why? Because the Father taught us
that, and He just will not let us learn any other lesson. He
taught us this. Stay down, and look up. Everyone that's taught of the
Father, in the proportion as he is taught, he comes nearer
and nearer to Christ until he comes perfectly and one day Christ
will take that person and his glory will be revealed in him
when he takes him to glory. Huh? Oh my. It ain't gonna be as long as
it has been. Ain't gonna be as long as it has been. Oh, my. You been taught of the
Lord? God taught you anything? God taught you anything? Our Father, in the blessed, blessed,
blessed, blessed, blessed name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Thank
you for your teaching. Thank you for your drawing. Lord,
you continue to draw us, continue to teach us. And Lord, we want
to be taught. Oh, God, teach us. You've taught us, Lord, that
we've nowhere else to go but to our Lord Jesus Christ. You
taught us there's no other righteousness but His. You taught us that there's
no way sin can be put away. except by the sacrifice of yourself,
Lord Jesus. God save you people in this place. Your children here, teach them.
You teach them. Bring them to yourself. In Christ's
name, amen. Amen. Let's do 318 in the hymn.