on the person and work of the
Holy Spirit. There is so much to say about
it, and yet there will be some repetition, as there always is. Here in John 6.44, our Lord Jesus
Christ, this is what He tells the multitude. No man, 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 look down here in verse 63
of John chapter 6. It is the Spirit that quickeneth,
or gives life. The flesh profits nothing. The
flesh adds nothing to this business of salvation. The words that
I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life. But there
are some of you that believe not. This is what Christ is telling
us in the end. Some of you believe not. For Jesus knew from the
beginning who they were that believed not and who should betray
him. And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come
unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father. Now, I
want to talk about the Spirit's drawing to Christ, continuing
on the work of the Holy Spirit in His person, the third person
of the Godhead. Last week, we talked about effectual
calling. This evening, the Holy Spirit's
drawing. And why must men be drawn to
Christ? Why must men be drawn? He says,
drawn. The Holy Spirit draws you. The
Father draws you. Why does someone have to be taught?
And we've seen last week that that means to compel, to persuade,
and to force. Well, I'll tell you why. Because
of man's utter helplessness and inability to come, to believe,
to know, or perform any spiritual act whatsoever. When he says,
no man can come, that has to do with ability. Can. He says no man may come, but he says no man can. So it
has to do with ability. Now I tell you, when he says
no man can come, now there's no physical defect in a man to
keep him from coming. There's no physical defect in
any man to keep him from coming to a service. There's no physical
defect in a man to keep him from coming here in the gospel. Is
that right? He's got legs to carry him there.
No lack of physical power. He's got the power. He's got
the ability. He's got the natural ability.
He can come, he can look, he can listen, he can hear. He can
come and avail himself of the means. And then there's nothing
lacking in his mental ability. No. You know, a man can believe
the Bible to be true as any other book, he thinks to be true. If
there's his mind, in his mind he'd say, I believe the Bible's
true as much as any other Bible. So it's not a lack of mental
deficiency that a person doesn't come, that he has to be drawn.
You see, and believing is an act of the mind. Believing is
an act of the mind. The mind and the heart and that,
they all want. And when we talk about the mind, that's us. That's
us. And bleeding is an act of the
mind. I can bleed Christ and the statements about Himself
as I would anyone else. So it's not this mental deficiency. It's not a lack of anything within
the person. But he says no man can come.
No man can come. He's got an intellectual ability
to understand. You know, he can believe the
statements concerning Christ as well as he can believe his
own daddy. Let me tell you something else.
The truth alone can't draw a man to Christ. The scriptures alone
cannot draw a man to Christ. The gospel cannot draw a man
to Christ. And we love these things, we
cherish these things, feel our necessity of these things. But
multitudes upon multitudes hear the truth. People say, if we
could just get the truth to him, you can carry the truth from
one end of the world to the next end of the world. And if God
don't do something for a man's nature, the truth won't have
no effect on him. You can quote scripture to him,
take the Bible and show him what the Bible says, and it'll have
no effect on him. Because it may not agree, you
know, and it won't have no effect on him. And multitudes have heard
the gospel, and yet they're not saved. They're not converted.
What's the problem? What's the problem? A divine
drawing must take place before the truth will ever be effectual
in a man's heart, before the truth will ever be effectual
in a man's mind. There must be a divine drawing
the Holy Spirit must bring, must start drawing a man to Christ.
The human heart, now you hear me now, the human heart, when
it hears the truth, and hears the same truth as somebody that
knows it, believes it, and loves it, when he hears the truth,
it's just a wayside here, stony ground here. He doesn't love
it, he doesn't need it, he doesn't seek it. That's why this Romans 3 says
this, none seeks after God. None seeks after God. Ain't that
right? None. Well, how in the world
are they going to find Him? Huh? Oh, my goodness. In fact, when they hear the truth,
they'd rather believe a lie that they've told themselves, or somebody
else has told them, and defend themselves in that lie before
they'll believe the truth. They'll defend themselves in
their false concept before they'll believe the gospel. What's the
problem? What's the problem? The nature. The nature must be changed. When
the Lord Jesus here says no man can come, why can he come? Because he has no ability to
come. No ability. You see, deep, deep,
deep in man's nature, something took place back In the beginning,
when God created Adam, and when Adam rebelled against God and
sinned against God, all of his descendants, from then on, got
a deep-seated nature in their heart, down in their very soul,
down deep in them, that's a verse to God, a verse to spiritual
faith, a verse to the need of a righteousness, and it's impossible,
impossible to come to Christ without the Holy Spirit. It's
just impossible. If you take a sheep, will a sheep eat what a lion
eats? Will a sheep eat what a dog eats? Why not? Because they've got different
natures. They'll do what they do according to their nature. Josh and his wife, they've got
a little old bitty dog. I mean, anything ain't no bigger
than a minute. And I was following me around the field the other
day, and he come up on a big old cow pile and just went to
eat. He's just a pup. And it's a house dog. But what
I'm telling you is, sheep won't do that. What's the difference? The cows
won't even do it. Isn't that true? Let me tell you something. All of you here are mothers,
grandmothers. If somebody, when you was young
and you had one of your babies, somebody says, listen, I'm going
to give you a life, and I want you to take that baby of yours,
and I want you to draw back and stab it in the heart. And your
nature would just cringe. You say, no, I can't do that. It's impossible for me to do
that. Well, she's got the physical ability to do it. And the baby
cannot resist it. But why won't she? Why can't
she do it? Because it's not her nature as
a mother. She couldn't do it as a mother.
Now, if God gave her a nature that was a murderer's heart,
she would have no problem. But what I'm telling you is your
nature must be changed. I tell you, the child, why can't
she do it? Because her nature as a mother
won't let her. And coming to Christ is just
as hard and distasteful to a natural man as it is distasteful for
a mother to even think about hurting one of her own children.
It's just distasteful. And remember, not only has he
got it in his nature, he's unable in every way. That's why he's
got a problem with his nature. And this ability, this inability,
is in every faculty of this person. In every faculty. You know how
many faculties we have? You say, that fellow's not got
all of his faculties. That means he's lacking someplace. But how about all your faculties?
First of all, let's take the will. The will. He says, you cannot come. Everybody
stands up and says, well, everybody's got a free will. I said, I believe
that a man can come to Christ if he will. Well, listen, that's
the problem. That's the problem. Where's he
going to get the will? If he will come, yes. But that's the
problem. Where's he get the will? He don't
have it. One guy, Lord Jesus Christ, look
with me over here in John 5.39, just a moment. Oh, man may be saved. I believe
he can be saved if he makes the right, you know, if his free
will's got all this power. Man's free will can't even just,
the top lady said, cure a toothache, much less do anything spiritual. If man's will was as powerful
as people say it is, man would be able to do incredible things
by the will. Huh? But look what our Lord said
here in John 5.39, search the Scriptures, look at them, go
in through them, look at them, garden Genesis and come through
to Malachi. In them you think you have eternal
life. You look at them and say, I've got life. And he said, they
are they which testify of me. If you don't see me in them,
and watch that, and though they testify of me, watch it now,
you will not. You will not. You will not come
to me that you might have life. Oh, listen. Men make so much
of the will, but let me tell you something about the will. The will is the last part to
act in anything you do. Do you know that? Men make the
will to be paramount in salvation, but the will is the last thing
to act. Something has to be presented
to the mind, to the understanding. and believed and accepted, and
the will's the last thing to act. Well, they make will to
be the first thing to act. But it can't act unless it's
got choices to make. And unless the nature's changed,
it cannot make any choice. That's right. What can a sinner
choose to do if he ain't got a new nature? Sin. Now, they say, well, listen, as you know, it's time for you
to know you can choose. Make a choice. Choose. A man
cannot make a choice unless he's presented different things to
choose from. And he'll only choose what's
good for his nature. And, oh, not only is the will
No ability in the will. There's no ability in the understanding. The understanding is darkened.
Look with me over in Ephesians 4.18, just a moment. We're talking,
you know, in Bunyan's holy war, you know who was the Lord Mayor
of the city of Mansoul? Understanding. If you can get
understanding on your side, If you just get understanding,
if you just get the understanding in light and get some light on
the understanding. And look what he says here in
Ephesians 4.18, having the understanding darkened. being alienated from
the life of God through the ignorance that's in them. What ignorance?
Ignorance of God. Ignorance of the Scriptures.
Ignorance of themselves. Ignorance of their inability.
Ignorance of their depravity. Ignorance of grace. Ignorance
of righteousness. Ignorance of Christ. Through
the blindness of the heart, who, being past feeling, have given
themselves over unto lasciviousness to work all uncleanness. Oh,
you see, the understanding is darkened. And Romans 3.11 says
that there's none that understands, no, not one. Huh? And oh, beloved, and he is by
nature blind within. The Lord Jesus says, you know,
He says, man, love darkness rather than light, because he understands
that if he comes to the light, he has to admit that all of his
deeds are evil. And as long as he's in darkness,
he can't see those beads of truth. But when they're brought into
the light, then you see how awful they are. You know, I know all
of you've done this, you've experienced this. You'd be sitting in a room,
and then all of a sudden you open your shades, and let the sunlight
in. There's all kinds of dust all
over the place, and you'll see it. Dust is always there. You couldn't see it until you
had the light filtering through there and seeing it. And that's
the way we are. We just mud, mud, mud, and gut
until God turns on the light, and then we see all that goes
on in us. Now, listen, I'm going to read
something to you. You don't have to look at it.
I'll read it to you myself. So the Holy Spirit has to draw
man. Our Lord Jesus says this, Therefore
speak out of them in parables, because seeing they don't see. Hearing they don't hear, neither
do they understand. And in them is fulfilled the
prophecy of Isaiah which said, By hearing ye shall hear, and
shall not understand. And seeing ye shall see, and
shall not perceive. This people's heart is waxed
gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have
they closed, lest that any time they should see with their eyes,
hear with their ears, understand with their heart, and believe."
And me heal. Prophecies never made them like
that. God said that's the way they was. And they ain't going
to change unless He changes. And oh, beloved, he by nature
is blind within. There's no beauty in Christ that
he sees that he should desire Him. He doesn't see anything
in the cross but a pitiful man's suffering. And we're going to
come up on Easter, and everybody's going to have a new Easter bonnet
and a new Easter outfit, and they're going to hunt eggs, and
they're going to see the Easter bunny, and they're going to have
a big time, and the churches are going to pull up, and everybody's
going to have on the best and the finest finery, and everything
like that. And all they're going to be interested
in is showing off what they wear, and they are not interested in
seeing the beauty of Christ. The natural man receiveth part
of the things of the Spirit of God, and neither can he know. Why? The foolishness to him.
They say, boy, I don't know why in the world they want to talk
about man being sinful. I'm not sinful. I don't know
why they want to talk about man not having no ability. I can
do anything I set my mind to. Well, then set your mind to be
a believer and see how good it gets you. Set your mind that
I'm going to be a new creature, and see what that happens to
you. Set your mind that I'm going to give myself a new heart, and
turn over a new leaf, and see what that gets you. And not only is the will have
no ability, it affects us all. The understanding is dark, and
the affections. Oh, we've all got affections.
Born with a heart, we got a natural heart, God blessed us with a
natural heart, we're born with a heart to love. We're born with
a heart we must love. A baby loves, and a person loves
the baby. And we grow up, we have this
great need to love and show affection. And not only show affection,
but to receive affection. God give us affections, give
us a heart to love. But oh, my soul, what in the
world is wrong with the affections of the natural man when it comes
to Christ and God and the scriptures and his relationship with Christ?
Huh? What's his love? Where's his
heart at? Where's his heart at? Where's
his affections at? Where's his loves at? Before regeneration,
before the Holy Ghost opens the heart, The heart loves everything
and anything other than spiritual things. And all you've got to
do is look around and you see monuments to the depravity of
the human heart everywhere. You look at how many homes, how
many homes have been destroyed because somebody's affections,
while they had divorces because somebody's affections were alienated. But to all you who look in the
home, how many homes have been destroyed because a man has a
love for something else, or a woman has a love for something else.
A love for drugs. Love for another man. Walk off
and leave children. What about in the workplace?
A man will go in his heart so depraved that he won't even give
an honest hour. I won't give an eight-hour day for a full
day on the job. You know why? Because he loves
himself enough that he's going to get by with as little as he
possibly can. Selfishness. Selfishness. Losing
to please self at the expense of others. Even if they love
the person, they still are so selfish that they will Do for
self, even at the expense of the people they love. Do you all agree with that? How
often do we say, why don't people just flock in here to hear the
gospel? Why is not their heart saying,
oh, I need to go hear somebody tell me what the Bible says? Why don't they read their Bibles?
They woke up to you and started asking you questions. They go
where they want to go, and they do what they want to do, and
they go and do what they love the most. And even most man's
religion is selfish religion. They only have it for what they
can get out of it. If I can keep from going to hell, I'll join
the church. If I can get a position in the
church, I'll join the church. If they'll recognize me and let
me sit up on the front pier and make me a deacon, I'll join the
church. Oh, boy. Oh, man. And then let me tell you, not
only is our affections, our understanding, our will, the cause of our depraved
nature, this sinful nature, that's why we must be drawn, the Holy
Spirit must draw us. And what about the conscience?
The conscience. Oh, my. The conscience is affected
by the sin ability. This is false. When man failed,
the whole man failed. Now, let me ask you some questions.
When man sins, does his conscience bother him? Only, only if he gets caught. But now, you take Saul of Tarsus,
for instance. He was making havoc of the church.
and his conscience never bothered him the first time. He was hailing
men and women to jail who believed on Christ, and his conscience
never bothered him at all. But when he got converted and
God saved him by His grace and made him into an apostle, you
know what he says? Now have a void, a conscience
void of offense toward God and man. He didn't have that toward
man before. He didn't have it toward God. Does the conscience, listen to
me now, does the conscience without the Holy Spirit tell a man he
deserves hell for his sins? Without the Holy Spirit, will
it tell him he deserves hell for his sins? No. Does the natural
man's conscience make him abhor sin? No. Oh, my. So what in the world's got to
happen? Our Lord says no man can come except he be drawn,
except he be compelled, except he be persuaded, except he be
forced. And I tell you, and here's what
I'm going to tell you this, beloved, and I'll hurry. Everyone who
has been drawn to Christ by the Holy Spirit, readily admit that
the only reason they come is they were brought. Every single
one of them. It is not that I did choose thee,
Lord, for that could not be. If thou hast not chosen me, I
never would have chosen thee. Now, if anybody in here would
say that you came to Christ without the Holy Spirit bringing you,
you wouldn't have come, would you? You know, you didn't have
no problem coming to religion. But boy, when you and every God
start tearing your religious playhouse down, that becomes
a different force for a different cause. Huh? Oh, and then when we admit that
the Holy Spirit brought them, you know what? You start crying
that out. Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief. Help my unbelief. Every believer feels and knows
their spiritual inability. The natural man doesn't know
his inability. The spiritual man, the new man,
that man brought to Christ, he feels and knows there is spiritual
inability. But the natural man doesn't.
Let me ask you these questions, you that are believers. Is your
power equal to your will? Is your power equal to your will? Oh, it's in your will to love
Christ perfectly. It's in your will to think on
Christ constantly and continually. It's in your will to never fail
to read the Scriptures. It's in your will never to fail
to pray. Lord, I'm willing. Oh, I'm willing. But where is my power? My flesh is so weak, so weak. But thank God. Thank God, no
man can come to me except the Father which sent me to draw
him, and that Holy Spirit. He will bring people to Christ.
Now let me show you Psalm 110 real quick, verse 3. Psalm 110,
verse 3. If the Holy Spirit doesn't draw
men to Christ, none would ever come. And you know why I found
out where Scott got that? You know, we're saved with our
full consent against our will. Ralph Erskine said that. I read
that yesterday. Ralph Erskine said years ago,
Mr. Scourges, quote, it says, Christ saved us with our full
consent against our will. He's talking about his natural
will, but he says, God gave me a new will. And that's why he
gets our full consent. Psalm 110, verse 3. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. Listen, that's why we don't have
all the calls. That's why we don't just, you know, I'll beg
a man. But the Holy Spirit doesn't do
it. I'll plead with a man. But when the Holy Spirit gets
on a man, he's coming. And it's the Holy Spirit that
has to bring him. And I've preached the truth here for all these
years. All these years. And there's been a multitude
of people come through here. And there's people even now, that they've heard the truth,
they've heard the gospel, they've read the scriptures, they've
got the physical ability, they've got no mental deficiency. But
what's the problem? Has the Holy Spirit ever brought
them to Christ? And that's the thing you ask
yourself, has the Holy Spirit ever brought me to Christ? Do
I have these new affections? Do I understand that I have the
will to do, but how to perform, I don't know how. You know, God
gave us a new will. He gave us new affections. He
purged our conscience from dead works to serve the living God,
and turned the light on in our understanding, and won our affection with cords
of loving kindness have a what? Drawn you in. Drawn you in. Oh, blessed Lord Jesus, thank
you for giving us another day. Oh, God, I bless you for this
time that you gave us with the children of God here tonight.
Pray that you would be pleased to make the truth effectual.
You're the only one who can do it. You're the only one who can
make the truth quickening. My flesh profits nothing. Their
flesh profits nothing. It's the Spirit and it's the
Word. So Lord Jesus, Holy Spirit, take
the things that we spoke tonight. Make them real and live and vital
to hearts. We ask in Christ's name. Amen.