This message is from the teaching
ministry of James Tippins, pastor of Grace Truth Church. More information
can be found online at gracetruth.org and anchoringfaith.org. A people
for His glory, by His grace. The words that you just heard
this morning is of course a continuation of that teaching that we've been
in over the last few weeks. And I would encourage you so
that you could keep the context in light to go back in and listen
to these other sermons. Go back in and watch the messages
or listen to the audio so that you can, especially if you've
missed a Sunday, so that you can stay the course in this discourse
and understand exactly what it is that Jesus is doing. Jesus
is not teaching in a vacuum. He's not coming to a place where
there is something new. That's not how the Scripture
is written in the narrative. We see that Jesus teaches and
what John has written in his expansion of this gospel message,
he continues to build upon the outline of this teaching. So
it's not like Jesus is teaching in this section a theological
truth and then now He's going to teach in this. The Gospel
of John is not a systematic theology. The Gospel of John is not something
where we can just say, okay, hey, here's this doctrine and
this doctrine and that doctrine, but it is the narrative of Christ. exposure of Christ that is the
exposition of the gospel through the life of Christ and the teaching
of Christ. And without the context, listen to me, without the context,
we miss it. And without the context, not
only do we miss it, we misapply it. And when we misapply it,
we miss live it. We misunderstand it and we miss
teach it. I say something like this, I've
gone back and listened to my last three sermons this past
week just so that I could also keep in mind what I say. And it never fails, I say every
week about being in the Word of God constantly. So much so
that I think out of 72 sermons in John, maybe that it becomes
redundant. Maybe it's that ring in our ears that we don't even
hear anymore because we're so used to it. And I also believe that We live
in a day and age, as I went back through and looked at some of
my journal entries over the last year, and I see the things that
take place continually, over and over and over and over
again, in the world that we live in, and
the people who are frustrated by the gospel, people who don't want to hear
the truth, They just can't hear the truth.
And that's where we are today. And I see that there is a condition
in the world where we're easy to say, oh, there's a lot of
unbelievers and these unbelievers are the ones who are living in
evil sin. And yes, that could be definitely the case. But friends,
most unbelievers are those who confess the gospel. The majority
of people who confess the gospel are unbelievers. And we've come to this narrative,
and if it weren't here, and it weren't holistic in this teaching,
and if it weren't holistic in the Scripture, and if it weren't
for the Apostles reiterating and continually pressing the
teaching of Christ in this way, it could easily be argued, this
is your interpretation. Well friends, we don't interpret
Scripture. Scripture interprets Scripture. Scripture says what
Scripture says, and Scripture proves what Scripture proves,
and Scripture argues what Scripture argues within itself in the context. There's been a little debate
with a couple of folks this week, and one in particular who has
asserted that it doesn't necessarily matter what the meaning of a
word is. But that's not true. A word has a meaning, and a word
is a meaning. But we can use the word wrongly,
can't we? We can misapply the word outside of its context and
thus misdefine it. And everybody in the world would
say, oh yeah, we know what you mean, but they don't know what
we mean. That is true for the sake of the term gospel. That
is true for the sake of the term grace. That is true for the idea
of the love of God and faith and salvation and redemption.
Because, beloved, here is the reality of what... I've just
sort of come to see it this way. It's not an epiphany, it's not
new, but it's simply this. The reason so few people have
the gospel in their mouths is because they've never had it
put in their ears. Okay? And that's just in a worldly
way, in a humanistic way. You could teach me neurosurgery,
I could regurgitate neurosurgery. It's not a very difficult concept
for some of us. You could learn the data and
the details. People can learn the data and the details of the
gospel. It doesn't mean that they trust in the gospel. I've
had a conversation just this week with someone who has said
to me that for years of holding fast to the Scriptures and learning
the Scriptures, that it was nothing but an excitement about a topic
that they enjoyed discussing. And they stood in pulpits for
years. Do not be deceived, beloved. It is not what we do for salvation,
it is what God has done to save us. See how silly that sounds? Nothing you do will affect your
salvation. Nothing. For the good or the
bad. You must only trust, believe,
have faith. Words are interchangeable. They're
all the same thing. Hear, receive, acknowledge, embrace,
come to the truth of Christ, who is your only hope. Christ is your only hope. And
if you're trusting in you, in one minute, small, microscopic,
whatever of measurement, you have no hope. If you're trusting
in the measurement of your life, if you're trusting in the strength
of your faith, if you're trusting in the good deeds of your salvation,
if you're trusting in the feeling of your love for God and Christ, You have no hope. You have no
hope. I pray that it's there. I pray
that the fruitfulness of your salvation is there. I pray that
the joy of your salvation is there. But if it's not, Christ
is still there. He's still atoned for your sins
on the cross. He's still paid for the judgment
that we do not deserve. I mean, that He did not deserve,
that we deserve. It's a soundbiter. Get me in
trouble. And verse 45, look at this. Jesus
has already told them, He says, you will die in your sins. Keep that in mind. I think it
was three weeks ago we preached that. Keep that in mind as we
go through this text. 45, but because I tell you the
truth, you do not believe me. He's already told them that they
are the children of Satan. Remember the context here, many
believed in him and Jesus turned to those who believed and said,
you're the children of the devil. You see that, that's the context
of this discourse. But because I tell you the truth,
you do not believe me. See, the truth will not be heard
by all. In Romans 10, verse 17, Paul,
in this really beautiful expression of how people are to be saved,
how are they to believe on whom they've never heard? Or excuse
me, how are they to cry out on whom they have not believed?
Whoever, what? Cries out to the Lord shall be
saved. How are they to cry out if they
have not believed? See, crying out is not salvation,
folks. Crying out will not save you. Crying out will not cause
God to give you mercy. It doesn't work that way. How
are they to confess or to call Anyone who calls on the name
of the Lord shall be saved. How are they to call on whom they have not
believed already? And how are they to believe if
they have not heard? And how are they to hear if there
is no one preached to them? Oh, blessed are the feet of those
who preach the gospel. I said last week that there's
a famine in the land, not of Bibles, not of preachers, not
of religion, not of American Christianity, and not of evangelical
cults. There's a famine of the Word
of God in America because there's a famine of contextual exposition
and truth. And it causes a worldly person
to run the other way. It causes a worldly religious
person to hate the message of the gospel. This is review, we've
already seen this. But we often ask, and in our
evangelical world, it's all about just planting seeds and asking
for responses. Never did Jesus ask for a response
in the proclamation of His good news. Never do the apostles ever
say, now what are you going to do with it? You're going to receive
Christ today? You're going to believe today? Won't you believe? Won't you come? No, it's a lie.
It's the devil's lie. And no one in 17 years has ever
been able to prove to me any small pretext of Scripture except
those who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved, but
finish the sentence. Those who call are already believing. Those
who call are already. What is the context there? They
were dying by the sword when they professed Christ in the
hillside of the Roman Empire. And when they saw these soldiers
walking toward them, Paul was reminding these Romans. If you
want to learn Romans, we're teaching it on Wednesday night, 7 o'clock.
Paul reminded these Christians that they would not die, even
when their heads were taken from their body, for whoever calls
on the name of the Lord will be saved, not the name of Caesar. How do you know that? How do
you have such resolve? Because I believe in the gospel
of grace. See, that was Paul's argument.
Jesus says, I tell you the truth, you do not believe Me because
I tell you the truth. In other words, you cannot believe
Me because I tell you the truth. You see that? Jesus preaches
the truth of the gospel, and because it is the truth of God,
they cannot believe Him. Why? Because they are of the
essence of the nature of Satan, their father, and he is a liar,
and he is a murderer, and they love the lie, so therefore they
hate the truth. Because it is the truth, they
cannot believe Him. Because they are not of God,
they are of the devil. This isn't my interpretation,
this is the exact words that Jesus says in context. It doesn't
take a hundred hours to figure that out. It takes like six seconds. That may take us a lifetime to
work through it. And what we need to learn from that is that
the truth will not be heard by all people. There is no such
thing as a Oh gosh, a common grace given out to all men and
effecting their ability to come and believe. Known as prevenient
grace. There's no such thing. That's
an invention of Arminius. That's an invention of other
heretics throughout the centuries to try to explain why Jesus said
what He said here and then judge Christ in the fairness doctrine
of humanism. Rather, than stand on his own
two feet. Now see, if you start with John
8, you miss a lot because Jesus is revealing here the reality
of John 6. And we'll go through that again.
We've got four or five verses. As a matter of fact, five verses
in John 6 we'll look at again this morning in this context.
He's already spoken to this crowd before. He's already told them
why they cannot believe. Because this, because you haven't
done this, because, I mean, you haven't been given this, that,
and the other, and so on and so forth. But this is something
that we need to grab, church, that these Jews could not believe
because Jesus speaks the truth to them. Because their nature
is totally depraved. Their nature is totally unable
to believe. There is no wooing of God. Who
made that up? Satan in the garden. God wants
to hide something from you. God, this is a wooing. The wooing
is the spirit of Satan. That's who woos. God does not
woo. God is not hoping, begging, wishing,
drawing in that way. I'll show you what the word draw
means in a minute. God is snatching. God is saving. God is pulling. God is dragging His people to
salvation. Those who belong to the enemy
are unable to believe because they are depraved in spiritual
matters. Our condition before we are believers is that we are
unable to come to the knowledge of the truth. We don't seek after
God. We don't do good. Romans 3. There is none who are good. None
who obey God. None who seek after God. I remember
back in 2000, no, 98. I remember that time when I first heard the term
seeker-sensitive. And I remember being on campus
at Saddleback and hearing someone tell us that what you have to
do is you have to embrace the culture at large and to find
their felt need and bring them into the folds of the church.
And then as they're there, then you begin to disciple them that
they may become core believers. And that sounded so good. See,
psychology is a hobby, like painting our nails. It's really cool,
but we don't want to keep it that way, so we just keep taking
it off. I don't paint my nails, but you know, you ladies. You
men, you see it. I don't know anything that men
do that's sort of like that. Rewire the truck or upgrade the
tires. I don't know. I don't know what
we do. I'm not going to get into firearms because that's a touchy
subject. Psychology tells us that we can
make people different. Philosophy tells us that we can
embrace the differences of unbelievers and find a commonality, which
is a felt need, and bring them into the core of Christ through
making them love Jesus. Jesus says something very different.
Jesus says that an unbeliever cannot believe on his own. No
matter how hard we beg, no matter how many stories we tell, no
matter what we offer, But see, we've misunderstood the function
of the body of Christ gathered together, the church. We've misunderstood
the function of that. We're not coming to do a spiritual
thing, we're coming to be a spiritual people. So if we're not born
of the Spirit and we're all together, then we're not a spiritual people
at all. But we in our culture have misplaced the idea that
being together in a building means being in Christ. I remember in the mid-80s, apologists
at that time, it was real high-brow apologetics in the 80s, you know. Oh, you think you're saved because
you're in church? Well, being in church is like
saying you're a car if you're in a garage. I mean, you know,
that was the depth of it. And even then, no matter how
deep apologetics goes, it's not going to save anyone. It's not
going to cause anyone to believe. It is good talk. It's good table
talk. It's good reinforcement for the saints to have their
minds sharpened through thinking through things, but in the end,
it's the simplicity of the gospel of Christ that causes us to believe. It's the simplicity of the gospel
of Christ, the Spirit of God that gives us hope. It's the
simplicity of the gospel and the work of God through Jesus
Christ to finish the work of salvation for His people and
that we trust. And no matter what kind of evidence
or argument or philosophy or anything else comes, we're not
shaken. We resolve in some childlike
way to go, I don't care what they say, I believe. Jesus even illustrates that,
doesn't He? Unless your faith is like these children, you cannot
enter the kingdom of heaven. There are some things you cannot
tell children are not real. Like whatever is not there in
the dark at night, It doesn't matter how strong we are, how
powerful we are, how many lights we turn on. If they're scared,
they're scared, and there's nothing that can change it. Now, I'm
not equating saving faith with ridiculous fear of an immature
mind, but I am telling you that resolve for the believer is just
that simple. And it is not something that
comes with a long line of expressive defenses that we carry around
as a tool kit. I've been taught that before,
too. Oh, son, you need to get your tool kit finished. And when
you get your tool kit fully equipped, you'll be a good teacher. What's
a tool kit? Paul's tool kit is salvation
for one, the Holy Spirit for two, and humility. And it took
a long time for God to start the humbling process for me.
And by His mercy, He's still working on it. Those who belong to the enemy
are unable to believe because they are depraved in spiritual
matters. The natural mind is hostile to God. And so because
they are so adept in lies, they're so stirred in lies, they have
to reject the truth because it is the truth. You see that? That's the argument
that Jesus gives. Because you are in essence and
by nature children of lies, and everything about you and your
father is that it's just constant lies. You cannot accept the truth
because it's against the very thing that you believe is true. And what is the truth? Verse
46. What's he saying? Which one of
you convicts me of sin? Which one of you proves that
I'm a sinner? Come on. Let's hear you. Come on! I'm standing here. Look at what
I say. Look at what I do. Look at how
I live my life. You've known me since I was 12. Don't start
this. Prove I'm a sinner." You see
those cop shows, you know? Are you just harassing me or
am I under arrest? If I'm under arrest, let's go. If not, quit
bothering me. That's what I sort of envisioned
Jesus the first time I ever read this. Oh, he's calling their
bluff. No, he's actually telling them, prove that I'm a sinner.
Which one of you can prove that I'm a sinner? Where have I ever
sinned? Now, they've already said in chapter 6 what? Chapter
5, he claims to be God, they took up stones to kill him. And everywhere that he makes
himself equal with God, and he's going to do it again in verse
48, he's going to really make them mad. I mean, not 48, 50, somewhere
down in there. You'll get it. You'll see it.
This is proof. See, God speaks, and Jesus says
that when He speaks, God speaks because He speaks the words of
God. He speaks the words of the Father, and so the Father speaks
concerning His Son. This is the testimony of God,
the Father, concerning His Son. And one of those is that Jesus
is sinless. And they've already said, we
weren't conceived in sexual immorality. We weren't conceived out of wedlock.
Insinuating that Jesus was this product of infidelity, adultery
even. At best, fornication. So, as what God says concerning
His Son, those who hear the truth of Christ but hate the truth,
because everything they are is a liar, are apt to what? To consider
Jesus a liar. So in that sense, they're saying
Jesus is a liar. Jesus, you're a liar, you call
us a liar, but you're a liar. Because you don't speak the truth.
Now friends, I don't know if you recognize this in your own
life, but as we share the faith, And you hear me say that a lot
and hear me talk about the many people that I talk to throughout
the week. And you might envision that I just get up every day
at four o'clock and I just walk outside and start talking to
people and just talk, talk, talk all day long. It's as we are
going in our normal lives. Someone passes you and they're
not making eye contact, I don't run up to them and say, hey!
You know. Don't worry, you're going, I gotta tell you something.
I mean, I have friends who do that, more power to them, but
they usually get banned from shopping malls. And if God's
called you to that, great. But I'll tell you this, I've
never been in a supermarket where somebody didn't talk to me, and
I've never been in a restaurant where somebody didn't talk to
me. I've never been in a gas pump where somebody doesn't walk across
the sidewalk to where I am and talk to me. And I've never been
online where people just don't inundate me with comments and
questions and thoughts and things. And everywhere you go, people
wanna talk. In my body language, because
I'm interested in people, I'm always looking at people's faces. and he used to get me in trouble
when I was younger. What you looking at? Nothing. You saying
I'm nothing? And then he beat me up. I mean,
you know, I don't learn martial arts and I've never gotten in
a fight since. So it's just one of those things that, you know,
you just, you have to engage. Are you engaging in the culture?
And if you are, you engage in the culture where you are. You
engage just where you are. Have ready your heart and your
mouth to speak about those things. I love election time, not because
of the fodder of politics, because that makes me sick to my stomach,
it really does. It drives me to insanity, literally. But I
love it because everybody loves to talk about politics. And sometimes,
like the day after the election, I just avoided certain areas.
Café, didn't go. I don't want to hear it. Oh,
but you know, a couple of days later, I mean, what do you think
about the election? I'm glad you asked. This is what
I think about the election, and I talk about the sovereignty
of God, and I talk about the gospel, and I talk about the
kingdoms and the nations that God purposes for His glory, and
the greater thing is that God has established a people for
Himself, the kingdom of Christ, and that we, by the mercy of
God, through the finished work of Christ, are set before Him
righteous, and there's nothing we can do about it except the
trust and the fullness of what Christ did, and so on. They go,
so who'd you vote for? I mean, you know. There's opportunity to share
the faith in every aspect, every dilemma, every conflict, every
good thing. Imagine you being in the newspaper
about something that happened to you good. You find a long
lost relative and you were reunited after two generations of not
knowing each other. And all of a sudden somebody
comes and wants to talk about that. Oh, I saw in the paper that you
and I, I mean, wonderful. Talk a few minutes about those
things. And then all of a sudden, what can you do? What is the
greatest union that we've ever had? What is the greatest reconciliation
that's ever come to the face of humanity? It is the reconciliation
of God with his people through Jesus Christ. That is the better
subject. If you win a billion dollars
in some sweepstakes that you didn't enter and they call you
and say, hey, if you send us a thousand, we'll send you a
billion. You know, if you fall for that, great. What if it were
true? Or those poor Nigerian kings that are just wanting to
give this gold bullion away. They've got so much gold stacked
up, nobody believes them. They're tripping over gold. They're
brushing their teeth with gold now. But what if you just decided
to enter into that agreement and you got a billion dollars
in gold? I mean, people will be like, oh wow, what a wonderful
story about all the wealth that you received. It's just amazing.
Man, this wealth is nothing compared to the inexpressible riches of
God's glorious grace. Do you see the comparison? How do I get there? Read the
Word of God. That's how you get there. God speaks, and Christ speaks
as God, and God says His Son is the truth, is the way, is
the life, and no one can prove that He has sin. And He asked
Him to bring the evidence, and no one says a word. Now, them
not saying a word does not give us the defense of saying, see,
Jesus is holy. They're not the judge of righteousness
anyway. But even in their judgment that
accused Him of blasphemy, they still could not come up with
evidence that He was wrong. They just hated Him because they
were liars. Why were they liars? They were
unregenerate. And then Jesus asks a question.
What's He say? If I tell you the truth, why
do you not believe me? Oh, nobody's convicted me of sin, nobody's
proven I have sin, then why are you not believing me if I tell
you the truth? Now, I love it when people pretext this. A pretext
is a piece of a sentence taken out of its context and it can
be set up in any way you want it. So they'll pretext it and
say, Jesus didn't know, He's not omniscient. He was asking,
He was really inquiring. No, He wasn't. It's a rhetorical
question. Do we not use them all the time as parents? Why
did you do that? We don't really want to know why. We don't care,
because when they say something, they say, don't talk back. I
mean, you know, we don't really want them to answer these things.
Jesus isn't wanting the answer. He's wanting them to think. And more than that, He wants
us to see. I tell you the truth. Why don't
you believe me? Why? Because they're not able to believe Him.
Because they're not of the truth. See, we must hear the Word and
know the truth. Many things, as I said in my
introduction, are wrong in this culture concerning the gospel
of grace. And grace, believe it or not, is an enemy of man. Man wants to lead. Man wants to be in control. We want to have access to our
own domain. We want to have access to the
power of our own future. We're taught as Americans, if
you want anything, you can do it, it's at your fingertip. That's
the biggest lie that ever been purveyed to a generation. When I was in high school, it's
where there's a will, there's a way. Really? Well, by golly, I will
it. Oh, there's no way. Because there's
no road to get there. Maybe I'll build the road. There's
no workers to build the road. Maybe I'll hire the workers,
but I don't have money. I guess I have to go work somewhere to get some
money to hire workers. But in all that foolishness, we come
to what? We are in control. We're not
in control of our salvation. We're not in control of our regeneration.
We're not in control of God's work of redemption. We're not
in control of our own lives. As a matter of fact, the cause
of our depravity, our total inability to not sin, you hear that? It doesn't mean that we can't
do something that's morally good. I mean, I don't speed. I do not
speed. I do not violate the speed limit.
I just don't do it. Drive five miles below the speed
limit everywhere I go and every street that I ever drive on.
And if you wanna know why, you can ask me afterward. But the
law says not to, and I don't want to. But wearing my seatbelt,
eh, it's a little sketchy. Half and half. Sometimes I forget,
sometimes I'm just too sore to reach over there and get it.
When I get into the truck, and sometimes I just don't wanna
wear it, it's rebellion. And I'm making that as a light
joke. Don't go home and say, man, I
was really convicted about speeding today. That's not the point of the sermon. Jesus says that grace, or He
shows us here that grace is something that man hates. And I'll be honest
with you, beloved, sometimes we are caught up in the lies
against grace. Grace says that man has to be
the recipient of everything. that everything has to be done
for him. I was teaching Ruby this morning about holding the
doors, opening the door. I opened the door so she could
get in the truck. You think about it. Some people
say that that's not good, that it's demeaning, etc. And I'm
thinking, well, I've never seen the president open a door. I've
never seen a king open a door. I've never seen, you know, members
of Congress and members of the Parliament and members of the
House and everywhere else that you look around the world, I've
never seen them open doors. Somebody else is opening doors.
They open the door to come in and out. They open the door to
the car. They don't even sit in the front. They get in the
back and they close the door. And everywhere you go, they walk
into a building and people open every door. Bathroom, door, stand
outside of it. I mean, why? Because there's
somebody. In that same way, I think we
ought to treat each other as somebody. We ought to treat each
other as somebody. But we don't want that. In the
systemic part of our nature, we want to be in control of everything. Even to the point that someone
opening doors for some people is offensive. And Jesus says
there's only one remedy. See, verse 46 is talking about
unbelief only. You cannot believe me because I tell you the truth.
Why is that? He asks. And he answers it in
verse 47. I'm going to read it so you have
the answer. Then I'm going to go back and
deal with John 6. Whoever is of God hears the words
of God. The reason you do not hear them
is that you are not of God. And so the question that comes
is, what's the remedy for this? Well, Christ is the remedy. The
Word of God is the remedy. But Jesus just says they couldn't
hear because they're not of God, so how do they say they hear
something that they cannot hear? I'm glad you asked. John 6, if
you remember the teaching there, You don't have to turn there,
I'm just going to be referring to them and move, you can write
them down if you want. But John 6.44 teaches us that
in order for someone to hear and believe the Word of God,
they must be drawn by the Father. No one can come to Me. Who? No
one. Who can? No one can come to Me
unless the Father who sent Me draws Him. and all who are drawn
by the Father will live forever. I will raise him up in the last
days. You see that? Same wording Jesus
uses here. This is why they could not believe,
because they had not been drawn by the Father. Now I want to
spend just a few minutes on this. People have told me over and
over again throughout the years with drawing, and I've already
referred to it as a wooing. It's like romance, having a flower
on your desk at work, or a secret admirer, a card in the windshield
wiper of your vehicle, or something like that. Oh, who is this from?
My secret admirer. And then you see them, and you're
like, never mind. Your heart is swelling with the
idea of someone giving you affection, and then you, nah, don't choose
that one. But if that guy had been doing
it, some of you ladies, that would have been the, you know.
Guys aren't as fickle as girls in those types of things. So
we say. Jesus, God does not draw us like
that. Matter of fact, if you use the
word draw, and Eddie Dalcor and I will publish a podcast number
11 on TheologyAnswers.com tomorrow, we've already recorded it. It's
on Total Inability. What the Bible talks about in
drawing, that word there, is to draw by force, to pull, to
drag by force. It is illustrative as the idea
of drawing a five-gallon bucket of water out of a well. Have
you ever done that? I have. And matter of fact, I've
poured grout with Luke's father when I was 21 years old, and
the grout pump broke in these 12-foot cement block walls. And
so what was the answer? Not rent another grout pump.
Oh, heavens no. Let's just put that grout, that
cement, into five-gallon buckets and hoist it up on a pulley and
let James dump it in the hole. That's not good. That's evil.
I mean, I don't think the slaves of Egypt worked that hard on
the pyramids. I mean, that was terrible. I
left that job much more quickly than I took it. But that was
difficult. That is drawing. When we're pulling
up a bucket that weighs, I don't know, 200 pounds, That bucket's
not helping me. As a matter of fact, the laws
of gravity says that bucket is hindering me and I must draw
that thing up with all my force against its very nature, which
is to hang down low to the center of the earth. The nature of humanity
in its unregenerate state is to drag to the center of the
spiritual gravity of our nature. And only God can drag us out
of it. If the Father does not drag you
from the pit of destruction, you cannot come to Me." Eugene Patterson had a great
opportunity there and he almost got it. The message, it's better
than most people actually read the real text. Drag. Drawing is not an option of wooing
to give you the choice. Look at that. See, that was dragging. I didn't woo that microphone
down, I just knocked it down. It's not wooing, beloved. Don't let people get away with
that who say they're your brothers and sisters in Christ. Don't
let them get away with that in their evangelism. Don't let them
get out there and preach about how awesome God is and how desperate
God is and how amazingly loving God is. He wants you all just
to come to the cross, just come to the cross, just come. No,
God will drag you. What's that look like? John 3.
The Spirit blows where it wishes and makes you alive in an instant.
This is the work of God. I told you John's gospel would
damage your theology, but it's not damaging your theology, it's
damaging the lies of your theology and it's correcting you. They must be drawn. They must
be drugged by God. They must be dragged out of that
position of death. While we were dead in our trespasses,
God made us alive in Christ. It doesn't say God threw down
a ladder, or threw down a net, or threw down a hoop, or threw
down a rope. Grab it! Just grab it! Hurry,
grab it! No. We're swimming to the bottom
of the sea, and God snatches us out of it. So not only must
they be drawn in order to believe, I didn't mean to spend that much
time on that, But John 6 37, it says all that the father gives
me will come to me and whoever comes to me, I will never cast
out. So look at these, look at these, look at this argument.
In order to come to Me, God must drag you to Me. And those He
drags to Me, they will come to Me, and I will raise them up
on the last day. I will give them eternal life.
Those the Father draws will come, they will live, and they will
never escape." Where in the world is that resistible? It's not. And you'll see what
happens. What happens in verse 48, which
is why it's sort of the close of the sermon today, the attack
on Jesus, the ad hominem, is the fact that what? You have
a demon. Have you ever been accused of
being demonic? I have, often. You ever accused of teaching
what people so passionately say and phrase the doctrine of demon?
Demons? And the first time I saw that,
I'm like, this is horrible. I've got to fix this. So I'm
running around everywhere that I can find all these letters
and emails, and I'm trying to circumvent all this demonic labeling. No, no, no, I'm not demonic.
I'm not cheating. This is good. And then I realized, what am
I doing? I'm fighting in my flesh against the principalities and
the powers of darkness with people who claim to be in Christ, who
refuse the gospel, who refuse the truth of Christ, who refuse
the Word of God, who actually refuse God ultimately. because they've not been drawn
and they've not been given. You must be drawn, you must be
given, and then you will never be cast out. And in John 6, verse
45, it says it is written in the prophets, and they will all
be taught by God. Listen to what Jesus says. Everyone
who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me. So this means that in order for
one to be a child of God, in order for one to be saved by
God, they must be taught by God. How does that work? It is the
Holy Spirit's job through the teaching of the Word of God in
context to draw His people to Himself. divinely and powerfully,
forcibly, rebirthing them that their new disposition, which
is now, what, alive, that was dead, believes fully and wholeheartedly,
passionately, and here's the word, willfully, in Jesus Christ. I've never met a believer who
says, man, I wish I wasn't a believer. God's making me believe, I swear.
Terrible, I get up every day and I'm trusting in Jesus, I
just can't stand Him. I mean, that's my apologetic
to people saying, oh, God just doesn't give us a choice, He
just forces us to believe. If you hate Him that much, I guess
not. Well, I don't hate God, I just hate your God. You see? I hate the God you're talking
about. That's what people say. I'll never serve a God like that.
Now, that's said in ignorance. That has been said by many of
us who have come to start being students of Scripture and learning
the reality of the Gospel of Grace. But let me tell you where
the difference in ignorance and rejection comes from. When the
Bible shows it to you and you continue to say, not me. They
will all be taught by God. You want me to make an assertion
that might be out of touch? I don't believe it is from the
way I deal with the world and you as a congregation, those
who continually reject the truth of God's grace, I count them
as unbelievers. And I pray for them in that same
light. And I evangelize them, not that they could get their
theology right, but that they could believe in Christ. They must be taught by God. And
Jesus in John 6, verse 70 says, Did I not choose you, the twelve?
Yet one of you is the devil. So there's a choosing that Christ
does. There's a giving that's done
by the Father. There's a drawing that's done
by the Father. And the teaching that's done
by the Father. And then we see the work of redemption fully
in the hand of God. Because those who hear the Word
of God have passed from death to life. Those who hear the Word of God
have been made alive. We've got it wrong in our culture
to think if you hear and you believe, then you will be made
alive. The Bible says when you believe, you've been made alive
so that you can believe. In the circles of Reformedom
and Christendom, we say regeneration precedes faith. It's true. But the sons of God hear His
Word, verse 47. Those who cannot hear, what does
He say there in verse 47? Whoever is of God hears the words
of God, and the reason why you do not hear them is that you
are not of God. That's pretty cut and dry. You can't hear me
because you're not of God. You say you're of God, but you're
not of God. Why is it that I continue to
labor on the reality of people who are religious and confessing
to be believers? Because that's the context of
this dialogue. Many people who believe and say
that they are God's people in our culture are not God's people
because they do not receive the Word of God. Those who cannot hear are not
of God. Those who refuse to hear are
not of God. No matter what they claim about
their lives, what's the argument of most people? Well, I've been
a Christian my whole life, or I've been a Christian since 1986,
or 1972, or 1959, or whatever. Some dates I've heard recently.
People argue their lineage. Well, my dad was a Christian,
my granddad was a Christian, my grandma was a Christian. I've
been in a Christian family. My great-great-grandfather helped
found the ministry of this church. My great-uncle was an evangelist. Good! I was a pirate in my former
life. Arg! What's that got to do with
anything? And I don't eat Cheetos. I mean,
do you say stuff? I mean, I say stuff like that
sometimes. People go, what's that got to do with anything?
He said, exactly. That's the Socratic comedic method. You all got that one too. Some
people argue that they know what they're talking about because
of their authority, because of their scholarship. The more initials
behind your name, the more authoritative you are. That's a fallacy to
begin with, for us to appeal to someone who has a bunch of
degrees. In the medical community, people with a lot of degrees
are sick. You know, elevated temperature. My jokes aren't working. It's
okay. It's too grave of an issue to
be joking anyway, right? Scholarship. Well, I know I've studied. Are
you not the teacher of all Israel yet? You do not understand these
things? That's the words of Jesus to Nicodemus in John 3, who was
the premier teacher of the Jews. He was the theologian of the
Pharisees. and yet he didn't understand
these things. Why? Jesus said he didn't understand these things
because he was of the flesh and had not been born of the Spirit.
For that which is flesh and flesh, and that which is spirit of the
Spirit, and if you are not born of the Spirit, you cannot understand
spiritual things. But I can tell you spiritual
things because I come from the Father, and I've come from heaven,
and I've come down to you, and I'm explaining these things to
you, and we've been explaining these things to you for millennia.
Remember Moses, Nicodemus? He lifted the serpent into the
desert so that those who believed God would save them. They would
live in the same way. I, the Son of Man, will be crucified
and hanged into the air so that anyone who looks at Me will also
have life. But those who are believing in
Me today are alive already, but those who are not believing are
condemned already, for the wrath of God remains on them. People argue scholarship. People
argue longevity. I had somebody tell me the other
day, I know I'm a Christian because I've been sober for 34 years.
So everyone who's sober is a believer? I know some believers who can't
be sober. And I know unbelievers who are sober. Well, I know I'm a Christian
because I've been studying the Bible and teaching Sunday school
and pastoring in church. Sure, I'm a believer. Why would
you say I'm not a believer? I didn't say you weren't a believer. I
asked you if you believed. See that fine line? When we step
back and take our emotions and just sort of sit them on a shelf
a little bit, and we objectively look at a circumstance, when
we hear people talk, they tell on themselves so often. When
we ask questions of a believer who's eating the Word of God,
they immediately want to respond with a proclamation and a testimony
of God's goodness and grace toward them through Christ. Many false
converts want to fight that and think that you're charging them
with not being a Christian. And then they want to prove to
you all the things and all the reasons why you should know they're
Christians. Longevity, good deeds, scholarship, teaching, ministry,
all these things. Friends, unregenerate people
shared the gospel during Paul's imprisonment. God will use lost
people to share the gospel at times. Now that's hard for me
to get around, I'm going to be honest with you. But the Mormon Tabernacle Choir
shares the gospel when they sing certain songs. And yet, they
believe not Christ. Is this your heart in the evangel?
Is this your heart in the gospel? Do you grasp the reality of these
things? Do you pray in this light? Have you graduated? Have you
matured out of this reality that any man can just believe? That
God offers the Gospel to all people and He's just hoping everybody
will come in? That's not the way it works. God saves a particular
people for Himself and He proclaims that through the Word of God.
And the sheep come. And we should love all peoples,
every people, every people group, and we should compel them through
our message to hear the Word of God and to believe on Christ. but we should know and know well
that only God will cause them to come. And that that coming
to Christ is not any action of their will or any action of their
body or any action of their alignment or praying, that is absolute
faith alone in the finished work of Christ who satisfied the wrath
of God for His people. Jesus came to save His people
from their sins and that's exactly what He did. The Jews of his
day were not his people. They were the devil's people. I used to say as a young teenager,
being a real smart aleck, the truth is the truth no matter
what you think the truth is. And it is the truth. No man, no woman, no child will
believe until he hears the truth of Christ by the Holy Spirit
in the rebirth. And what's the response? What
do these people say to Jesus? They start attacking this person. Don't let the distractions bother
you. They start attacking this person.
They say, you have a demon. Oh, that's a demonic doctrine.
You're lost. A lot of what I've gotten in
my day is that they mock people who share the faith. They mock
you. Like one has said before, oh, you have to pray a lot harder
than I do with the God you serve, with the gospel you preach. And I started to say, you're
right, I pray harder than you do. But I didn't. I said it in
here. You see, in John 4 we see the
dialogue with Jesus and the woman from Sychar, the Samaritan. These
unclean, unregenerate dogs. That's what Jews called them,
dogs. They were dogs. They weren't worthy. You would
go out of your way and double back and extend your trip by
double rather than walk in the presence or on the same side
of the street as a Samaritan. Why? Because they were a false
Jew. They built a replica of Solomon's
temple on Mount Gerizim and they worshipped in sort of the same
way. They followed the traditions of Jacob. We saw that in John
4. And so they tell Jesus that he's
got a demon and then that he's a Samaritan. That's insulting
to a Jew. You're a Samaritan. You have
a demon. Because that's the only thing
they could figure in their minds. The only reason Jesus would say
what he's saying and do what he's doing is that he was demonically
possessed and surely he wasn't a Jew because he did go out and
proselytize to the what? To the Samaritan people. Right
after the people, the Jewish, the chief priests kicked him
out. Not really kicked him out, but confronted him about his
cleansing of the temple. But they could not prove that
Jesus had sinned in His cleansing when He cleansed that temple,
because it was a sign from God's Word, but yet they could not
come to believe. This man must be demonic. This
must be demonic teaching. When people cannot stand under
the authority of God's Word in belief, they will run to efforts
of destroying the message, mocking the message, attacking the person
through whom the message comes. Sometimes we as believers are
guilty of acting the same way, and I won't say anything else
about that, but when we mock unbelief, when we mock misbelief,
when we mock heresy, we're really practicing sin. So let that sit
there. When we believe in Christ, the
Spirit teaches us through the Word. and our flesh can sin and
it can rise up and we can be hateful at times, but the Word
of God will temper these things as God teaches us and matures
us and grows us. Those who remain in hatred toward
the gospel are not to be considered in intimate fellowship. As a
matter of fact, there's two things that the Scripture shows us in
church discipline that is one of those immediate excommunications.
What is it? Sexual sin that's not stopped? and doctrinal divisiveness. It's
not stopped. People start being divisive over
the gospel, over doctrine, and they start stirring it, you warn
them one time, and the very next time they do it, you kick them
out. Until they are humble and come back and say, I'm sorry.
Why? Because the body of Christ is labored and burdened with
intimacy. We want to be okay. But it's
not easy, is it? Friends, we haven't seen that
yet, but it could come. Somebody among us could come
and say, I'm just not going to stand for this so-called gospel
you preach anymore. We give them one opportunity.
Are you renouncing grace? Are you renouncing Christ? Are
you renouncing the gospel that saves, you see? And to the world that looks impulsive, but to The Lord, it looks pure. What does that mean? Some of
you may be sitting there going, oh my goodness, I don't really
grasp all this, I'm not sure if I agree with every jot and tittle.
It's okay, just don't be divisive. We can grow together, we can
learn together. By all means, none of us are
where we need to be in the context of our knowledge of God's grace,
myself included. We all grow, but when we start
trying to twist and turn people, against the gospel, we are doing
a great evil. And it happens in the world of
Christendom. It happens in the world of evangelicalism. People hate the gospel of grace
and they call themselves Christ's people. And they hate Jesus or
that God or that gospel. And they never believe. In verse
49, Jesus says, you dishonor me. You dishonor me. You attack me and you dishonor
me. Now what would we do if we were Jesus? Had all power, we
were God. Something like off of a Star
Wars movie, like The Force. You'd choke that guy just a little
bit, not too much. Just a little bit and let him
know that you were powerful. Oh, I'm sorry Jesus, we'll never
dishonor you again. No, he does nothing. He does
nothing but say, I'm not here to seek my own glory, though
you dishonor me, but there is One who seeks my glory and He
will vindicate me. You see? That's pretty strong. Who is the One? God the Father.
God the Father. I do not have a demon. I have the Spirit of God the
Father. You dishonor me by calling me a Samaritan. You dishonor
me by calling me demonic. When I have the Spirit of my
Father, I and the Father are one. and you will die in your
sins. Remember, I told you as we started
to keep that in mind. You will die in your sins. But what does
He say now? Those who dishonor the Son dishonor
the Father, and because they say that the Spirit inside Jesus
is a demon, when it is the Spirit of God, they dishonor the Spirit.
They dishonor God completely. The Father, the Son, the Spirit.
But Jesus tells them, the Father will vindicate me. He is the
judge. You ever been in trouble? You
ever got a speeding ticket? Back to that. You ever got a no-seat
bill ticket? I have. I just paid the no-seat
bill ticket. I didn't go to court. You ever
been in court and seen people stand before a judge? That's
a frightening thing. No matter if it's for, you know, even something
small or whatever. There are people there, when
you're in a courtroom, You see people on drug charges and DUI
charges and all these other things, and that judge gets up there
and says, you know, 26 years. Next, gets another folder. Dude's
carried off. That man said 26 years, and then
they carry him off for 26 years. That's some authority right there.
And Jesus is like, I don't worry about what you say to me. The
one who seeks to glorify me is your judge. That should have
frightened them. They can't see it because they're
not of God. So they continue to labor in
this dishonoring thing. Friends, there's a personal application
here, beloved. We don't have to vindicate ourselves. Don't
you hear that? We do not have to vindicate ourselves
when people come against us. Whether it's over the grass,
the property line, the dog, our parking place. That was a big
one in California. You're in my parking place, you know, about
three inches. Oh my gosh, okay. We don't have to vindicate ourselves
in the faith. We don't have to vindicate ourselves and be right. We can just trust in the Lord.
We can just trust in the mighty Judge who is our Father, who
saved us by the mighty work of Christ. We can trust in Him. We don't have to argue with people
who are wrong. We don't have to run after these people who
claim to be our brothers and sisters and rope us into these
arguments to cause us to look stupid. And when they make us
look stupid, we have to swallow our pride and we just trust in
the Lord. Because was Christ not made to
look stupid? How is it that the King of kings
and the Lord of lords and the God of all creation was stripped
of His clothing and beaten like a criminal and hanged on a cross
till He died? How stupid is that? And they
mocked Him. They said, see, if you're the
Son of God, come down. If you're the Son of God, call
your angels down. If you're the king, what are
you? Oh, now look at the king. Look at the king. And they mocked
Him. He didn't seek His own glory.
God glorified Him. Jesus wasn't concerned with the scoffers.
He wasn't concerned with the evil teaching of the unregenerate.
God the Father would vindicate him, and God would raise him
to life, and God would save His people from their sins. I know this is hard to swallow, but Jesus answers the question.
Some of you might be saying, okay, well, how do I know that
I am a believer? He answers that question, 51. Truly, truly, I say to you, if
anyone keeps My word, he will never see death. Now, I've already
taught about what the word abiding, keeping, what is it? Let's answer
simply, faith in Jesus Christ alone. The teaching of Jesus,
of His work of redemption, that He atoned for our sins, and He
died to save His people from their sins. This message we call
the gospel, this is keeping the word and abiding in the word
of Christ. There's no other meaning in the totality of Scripture.
Anybody who tells you there's something else when Jesus says,
Abide in My Word and keep My Word, other than believing what
Jesus says with His mouth, His Word, they're running you down
a rabbit trail of self-assurance that you cannot pass the test. That is, we hear and believe
the truth of Christ by faith. These are the ones who are the
children of God. We then who believe, verse 50,
will never see death. Jesus says to them, you will
die on your sins. Our father is Abraham. No, if your father
was Abraham, you wouldn't be doing what your father wants
to do, which is lie and murder. Your father's the devil, not
Abraham. We weren't the ones born into
sexual immorality. Well, who here convicts me of
sin? You're doing that which is congruent with your nature,
because your Father is the Father of lives and He's been lying
from the beginning, so you're doing exactly what He does. I'm
doing what my Father does, who you say you know, but you reject
who I say I am, because you're not of the Father, so you're
of the devil. Who here is going to convict
me of sin? Bring it. Prove it. The bottom line is,
is you're going to die in your sin because you cannot believe.
Because you've not been given to Me. You've not been saved.
You've not been drawn. You have not been atoned for. You will not be atoned for if
you live in unbelief. And that's a really strange way
to say that. It's probably a little bit inaccurate. You have not
been atoned for if you live in unbelief. That's a better way
of putting it. But if you have been atoned for, you will hear
the Word of God. God the Holy Spirit will give
you the truth, and you will believe, and you can mock me, you can
call me anything you want, but I am not the judge, the Father
is, and He has judged you guilty. But those who believe me will
never see death. You understand that, but you're
going to die in your sins. This is sort of like a little recap
of what Jesus has said in this text. And then what do they say? We
know that you have a demon. How do they know? Because Abraham
died, as did the prophets. And you say, if anyone keeps
my word, he will never taste death. See, that's a good argument. It's one that Jesus answers,
and that's what we'll talk about next week. But for this week,
we need to recognize that God gives peace through Christ. And
we can have peace, beloved, as the church, as the body of Christ.
We have peace because God has reconciled us to Himself through
the body and the blood of Christ. Christ's obedience is credited
to us as if we obeyed the law. Right now. And Christ's death
is satisfactory for us in that Christ took our guilt on Himself.
And then God vindicated him and raised him from the dead. Trusting
in this work as hope is life. Abiding in this teaching is life. We cannot rest. Some of us fight
off the norm when it comes to our faith. And we're looking
for that rest. Friends, that rest is only found
in Christ. That rest is only found in believing
in and only in the finished work of Jesus, period. There is no
and, there is no other, there is no but. It is only in the
work of Christ alone, alone, alone. Christ has saved you. That is what faith is all about. Believing in Him. And when you go to bed at night
and the accusation of the enemy and the truth of your flesh and
the labor of this life drowns you, your only resolve for peace
is to say, hallelujah, Christ paid my debt and made me alive. You're alive, beloved, and no
one can snatch you out of the hands of your Savior. We love You, Father. We thank
You for this truth. We thank You for the Gospel,
for the cross. Lord, many things, but for our
time, Lord, for our attention, for our focus, may Your Word
seep deeply by the Spirit in our hearts and minds today, that
we can remember the truth. that is so powerfully at work
within us. The power that you have in raising
Christ from the dead resides in us. And so we love you and
we celebrate this in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you for listening. We hope that this message has
encouraged you in the faith. Subscribe to these messages and
other teaching resources and podcasts at anchoringfaith.org.
More information about the church can be found at gracetruth.org.