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. We're going to deal with 10 verses
this morning, just sort of show you where we're going. What we've
seen is Jesus feed these 5,000 people plus 5,000 men, 20,000
people. We've seen Jesus do that because He is the Bread of Life. He shows His
divinity through the creative power of this miracle. He also
shows the inability and the depravity of man who looks after the flesh
more than the Spirit. He shows that even when the natural
man has knowledge of spiritual things, like the Jews who were
there for Passover, and that is revealed to them in the physical
sense, they still cannot see spiritually unto salvation. We
see that the religious leaders of Galilee, these Jews here are
Galilee, and this is where Jesus grew up, by the way. It's where
He lived most of His life as a boy. They then wanted Jesus
to become king. They wanted a materialistic king.
They wanted a natural king. They weren't thinking about Messiah
being spiritual at all. And so when we start to see the
crowd follow Him over to Capernaum, Jesus rebukes them because they
follow after Him, not because of who He is, but because of
what He can give them. And then we've seen over the
last few weeks that Jesus then begins to teach them that they're
laboring for the wrong thing, they're striving for the wrong
thing, they're working toward, not working for in that sense,
they're working toward a perishing bread. And then He declares Himself
to be the bread of life. He declares Himself to be the
One who's come down from heaven. He declares Himself to be Messiah. He declares Himself to be God. And then they say, well, what
sign do you bring? What do you mean, what sign? I just gave
you the sign right here. I said it. That's the sign. But don't
you remember that I gave you a bunch of food just yesterday?
Is that not enough? But you see me, yet you do not
believe. Indeed, you cannot believe." And Jesus goes on to tell them
that He's the bread that gives eternal life. He's the bread
that if you feast upon, you will never thirst nor hunger again.
He's the only bread that gives sustenance and satisfaction.
He Himself. And so He reiterates this point
here in verses 41 through 51. Let's go there. I just skipped over to chapter
7 by accident. Here we go. So the Jews grumbled about him
because he said, I am the bread that came down from heaven. They
said, is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and
mother we know? How does he now say, I have come
down from heaven? Jesus answered them, Do not grumble
amongst yourselves. No one can come to Me unless
the Father who sent Me draws him, and I will raise him up
on the last day. It is written in the prophets,
and they all will be taught by God. Everyone who has heard and
learned from the Father comes to Me. Not that anyone has seen
the Father except he who is from God. He has seen the Father. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever
believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your
fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This
is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may
eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came
down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread,
he will live forever. And the bread that I will give
for the life of the world is my flesh." You see, what Jesus
is doing here, He's already told them because they're confused.
What sign do you give? What work must we be doing? This
is the work of God that you believe on the Son whom He has sent.
You believe in the one who He has sent down from heaven, the
bread of God for your sake that you might have life. That's what
Jesus is saying, is the power and the work of God. This is
the work of God. And they were still confused. They did not
grasp. And Jesus tried to show them
that you've seen me, but you do not believe because the Father
is going to give His people to me. And all that He gives me
will come, and all that come I will never cast out, but I
will raise them up on the last day. It's interesting that as
I posted that sermon, I didn't do it until yesterday. I posted
that sermon online. The very title of that sermon
was, Limited Atonement is the Gospel. Today's sermon is, Being Taught
by God is the Gospel. Because when I say stuff like
that, they're like, no that's not. It's not the gospel. Well, what is
the gospel? It's just Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. And that's true, but who is Jesus?
Remember last week when I said that words have meanings? Jesus by word is not heresy,
but the meaning behind that word can definitely be wrong. It's
just a word. It's just a name. The word Jesus
as a name is not powerful at all. It's only the one who is
the Son of God who is Jesus. Who is powerful? With all authority.
Why? Because He's come down from heaven. He has seen, as we'll
see today, the face of God. He has come from God and He is
God. And so therefore His Word and
work has power. So if we are to say, what is
the good news of God? Is it not that God has saved
His people particularly? That is the good news of God.
Amen. So therefore in our transliterated world, that's gospel. Is it not
good news that God has taught His people unto salvation? Hallelujah! And then that is the gospel!
You can't piecemeal the gospel to say, it's just the story of
Jesus. What part? That He was born in
a manger? Oh yeah, I believe that. Hallelujah,
it's the gospel! No, that's just part of it. And it's part of
it. It's the very part that these
people can't believe today in this text. They can't believe
that part of the Gospel, that this man who they saw grow up
is from God. Who are you? We know your daddy. We saw that chair you built.
It wasn't that nice. Glad you're preaching now, because
carpentry wasn't really your thing. I mean, I'm being funny. It's the gospel. Every aspect
of who Christ is is the gospel. It is through the learning of
Christ. It's not the presuppositions of Scripture in its systematic
theological sense that calls us life. It's the Spirit of God
who gives life through the hearing of who Christ is. And we hear
who Christ is through the teaching of what Christ says, which is
the powerful Word of God. You'd be surprised how many times
I have conversations with people about a confession of faith or
a commentary or et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
And I like to read, but I'm finding myself a little labored with
reading because when I read this guy over here and then I go back
over here and I just hear Jesus, this is really enough right now
for me. I don't need a whole lot. apart
from this. Not that that isn't important,
just as this... people say, well, we just need to read the Bible.
Well, that's what we're doing together today, are we not? But
at the same time, we're not just reading Scripture and then leaving.
We're reading Scripture and then, in the time that I've had this
week, I've put together a way of commentating what the Scripture
is saying in a way of encouraging and teaching us with more depth.
It's called a sermon. It's the exposition of Scripture.
In that same way, it's superfluous to Scripture if it's not contextual
with Scripture. But just in that, you don't need
what I have to say because when God shows us in His Word, we
believe. Then why preach? Because it's
commanded. It's commanded not only to do
it by those who are called, it's also commanded to assemble under
it by those who are called. It's also commanded to operate
administratively with it as a body. That's why we do what we do.
So that we might what? Prepare each other for the work
of the ministry, which is to proclaim it and to teach it and
to live it together. Here, I've got a couple of points
for this text this morning. Verses 41 and 42. So the Jews
grumbled. They grumbled about Him, because
He said... Remember, this is why they grumbled,
because He said, I'm the bread that came down from heaven. They
said, is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and
mother we know? How does He now say, I've come
down from heaven? He's already said this. And this is what I
think. I think man's imagination creates
a theological understanding of things. That man, in our imagination,
mankind, we can think up all sorts of things. We can think
of a God, and if you've ever watched good movies related to
divine beings like Greek or Roman gods, I mean, those are some
powerful beings, aren't they? I mean, so we can really, you know, get
a nice director and put some explosions and some lightning
bolts and stuff, and that's a really entertaining piece of work. So
we have an imagination that we can easily create what God is
just by having the idea that there's this powerful being.
Oh, I bet he can do this and he can do that. You know the
best ones to do that? Children. Talk about a superpower for a
few minutes when it comes to children. What's your favorite
superpower? They'll make up something great. I'd be Math Man. I could think of a billion numbers
at one time. Oh really? That's what you'd pick? The imagination
knows no end. Knows no end. But friends, man's
imaginative theology is divided in the face of truth. It is contradicted
by the face of truth, by the simplicity of Scripture. It is
not man's imagination that matters. It is the revelation of God fully.
God has revealed Himself through His written Word. Therefore,
I do not have to ponder and posit all the possibilities of God.
They are clearly spelled out for me. And quite honestly, that
which is spelled out is so incomprehensible to the fullest that I have a
hard time imagining that I could think of anything else. I can't
even grasp the simplicity of God's ineffability. But they grumbled. Why? Because
they had a great imagination. And then in that imagination,
it was so closed, they could not consider that what they were
taught from birth was before them. And so they imagined Jesus,
Messiah, being something different. So in that, they grumbled about
Him. This cannot be Messiah. It does
not fit our caricature. It does not fit our thoughts.
He does not fit our plans. He does not fit our will. He
does not fit our desires. He does not fit... Friends, do
you find God not fitting your plans and desires and will? I
hope so. But then by God's grace, through
the Word, God changes our will to be like His will. And then
the war is on. The war is on. It's in the hearts,
in the minds, in our feet, in our hands, in our eyes, in our
ears, in our stomachs. It's everywhere. The war is on. If you want to look at what that
looks like, you can go to our teaching of Romans 6. We're right in the
middle of this. It's just winding me up into a knot. It's good. But they grumbled about him because
he said he was the bread that came down from heaven. They're
like, give us this bread always. He goes, ta-da. And they're going,
Have you ever, I mean have you ever been, sad to say, I've been
in church services before when I've traveled and I've been invited
to speak at certain conferences and stuff and I'm sitting there
on the front row or worse up here, you know. Here you have
to really be an actor. When you're sitting on these
chairs and the heretic's standing up here about to introduce you
and he goes off on something that's just completely, I mean
you'd rather see someone have a diarrhea attack in front of
you. It'd be less offensive. I'm sorry, that was a little
off. But in comparison, I'd rather see someone get ill than hear
some of the things that they say. And you're having to just
smile and get ready to speak. And you're thinking going, you're
about to be sick. But you can't do that because
you're in front of everybody. And the people who are there
to support you, they know this guy's loony. And he's talking
stuff that you're going to get up and just rebuke. This is going
to be your last invite. So they're all looking at you. And we've been in those positions
and we're thinking, who is this guy? Who does he think he is? Who
does this guy think he is that Jesus disobeyed God? That's a
recent thing. Jesus broke the law of God in
order to save the law breakers. Let's take up an offering. I
got a million dollars. I got 50,000 people in my church. Let
me get my tighter pants on. But we're like, what are they
saying? You ever been so appalled that you wanted to, I had a conversation
yesterday, walk out of a service? Not because of anything but what
you heard. But what you heard. And you're
thinking, boy, this guy's crazy. You ought to be sitting up here
when that stuff happens and you got to preach and then they're
going to get some music started and the music is heretical. You
know what I do? I look at the Bible and I read
the Bible out loud in my head because I don't want to participate
in that stuff. It is very, very annoying. So if you're ever with me anywhere
and you see me sitting on the front row with my face in the Bible,
something's off. But the Jews felt like something
was off. They felt like something was off. This guy didn't match
our imaginative, our mindset. This God does not match our picture
of who God is, of who Messiah is, of what God would do. He's
speaking things that are contrary to what we know is true, so we're
going to stand here, and we're going to grumble about Him. But
the point I was making before I got off on that little tangent
is, have you ever been with people in that type of situation, and
instead of getting sick, you just sort of look at each other,
and you point to the Bible, or you might even say, This guy's crazy and just polite. That's what they were doing to
Jesus. They were grumbling amongst themselves. They were murmuring
amongst themselves going, Who's this guy? Did you hear what he
just said? I mean, imagine a crowd of 20-something thousand people
and they're mumbling amongst themselves on the bottom of the
hill. And Jesus hears them. How? Because He's God. He could
hear it before it came out of their mouth. He knew what their
minds were thinking. He knew what they were thinking
before they knew what they were thinking. And he said he was the bread
that came up from heaven. And they're going, the bread that
Moses gave, that's our hope, that's our treasure. What is
this dude? This dude is like messing up our Bible. He's blaspheming
God. He's saying he is the bread.
But these people are like, Moses gave us bread. Didn't they already
say that? And Jesus says, it was not Moses. It was the Father
that gave the bread. It's the bread of God. I want
you to see the comparison because Jesus does it twice more in this
text today. recapitulates this again. They would say that that bread
saved them and sustained them. Oh, that bread, show us the sign.
Show us some manna. That's really what they wanted.
Jesus is like, I am the true manna. It's like you're about
to go to the Passover for a false, false salvation. I'm the true
salvation that that points to. It's just a shadow. It's just
a preview. Jesus was claiming that role
to be the bread that sustained them and gave them life. How
dare He do this? Who does He think He is? See,
they loved the lore of the manna so much so that they worshipped
it as something special. They loved the lore of manna. They loved it. Their own ancestors
didn't love it. I mean, what's that passage in
Numbers? It said, when our strength is gone, all we have to do is
look at all this manna. There's nothing left but to look at all
this garbage bread. They hated it, but yet for some
reason generations passed. The curse of yesterday is the
treasure of today. A piece of junk that grandma
throws out because it no longer does well, we see it in the trash
can after she passes away, and we go, oh, I've got to save that.
It's precious. It's garbage. She threw it away, but it's precious. It's precious. They worship this manna as something
special, not the giver of the manna. They even subjected Moses
as greater than God, because Moses gave us this bread. Moses
was a buffoon. What is that? Figure it out.
Moses was just an instrument of God. Moses was just a man
walking around with a stick that could not speak well, that his
brother had to go and speak to the Pharaoh because he couldn't
even get the words to come out. You know that? That's what the
narrative says. One of Moses' arguments is that he didn't feel
like he could speak to the king. So he's like, well, take Aaron.
If you can't speak, I'll let him speak. And if Aaron can't
speak, here's a stick. I'll let it speak. He realized
the stick of Moses spoke for God. Stretch out the stick. The sea parted. Moses didn't
do a thing. Okay. Hit that rock. Water. Touch that
rock. Speak to the rock. Moses was
nothing. Aaron was nothing. The stick
was nothing. God was everything. The bread was nothing. The snake
in the wilderness was nothing. Jesus is everything. And that's
what he's saying here. That's a simple thing of what
we see in John 6. It is a sovereign gospel. Jesus
is everything. But how dare Jesus usurp their
traditions? How dare Jesus stand upon the
shoulders of Moses? He wasn't. He was standing on
his head. Moses. He stood on the head of
Abraham, too, because Abraham longed for his day and rejoiced
in it. We'll see that. We'll see that in chapters to
come. Even their own ancestors, yes, at Numbers 11, when their
strength was gone. Now our strength is gone and
all that remains is manna to behold. Jesus is the true bread, that
which the manna actually pointed to Him. It was not the true bread. He is the true bread. He gives
life. It did not give life. The Father
gives this bread. Moses did not give this bread.
Now the Father gives the true bread that gives true life that
comes down from heaven. But what did it do? Why did they
grumble? Why? Because when our idols are
confronted in the natural mind, anger is the result. It took me a long time to figure
that out, is that when I exposited Scripture, why did I feel disdain
sometimes when I would study it? Because that didn't fit with
my life. But by the grace of God, I was
given the eyes to see that I was wrong, and that Scripture would
teach us and prune us, and mature us, and grow us, and give us
the truth that we so long for as believers. But in these Jews,
it produced anger, and gossip, and ridicule. Violating their
own law and revealing their hearts of disdain, they grumbled against
Jesus. They spoke under their breath
about Him in unbelief. He was the child of Joseph. We
know his mom and dad. Who does he think he is? He grew
up here. He best get with our customs,
they would say. He best get in line with our
teaching. He's violating a thousand years of good Hebrew teaching. Who is this new reformer coming
out and speaking against what's historically... Friends, I am
going... not going to say much about it
today, but I have... I've been kicking a can back
on a doctrine for the last six months or so. and I am floored
at how long it has been wrong." Floored. I used to consider even Josephus,
not Josephus, excuse me, even Polycarp, who knew John. Yeah, you know, that's real close
to the vest. Who are you to be the arbiter
of what's wrong? Because I have the Bible. And friends, when people see
that historical tradition and historical theology is different
than what Paul teaches, you know what they do today? They say
Paul was wrong. You know, when they see the words
of Jesus in John's Gospel and other places of Scripture and
it violates historical theology, you know what people say today
as a mainstay? They say, oh, the Bible was mistranslated. Friends, when can we get the
picture that we're fallible people and that if we don't stick to
Christ, we're wrong? Christ is teaching things here
in John 6 that violate... I told you all this when we started
this text, that violate every natural inclination and every
logical inclination of man in the sense of salvation and
proper theology. Jesus had already taught And Jesus had already done enough
to show that He proved Himself the true and better bread, and
Scripture backed Jesus, but these Jews said, no. Our interpretation is the point,
not the Word of God. You realize by rejecting Jesus,
they spat in the face of the God they said they worshiped.
When we reject the Bible as the only authority of our faith,
we spit into the face of God as if He were sitting there like
a feeble old man telling us about days of old. And this is because in our mind,
in a natural sense, we are hostile. Paul says we are hostile. That's
not just that we disagree. That's not just that it makes
us feel a little icky. It means we resist, we hate,
we have animosity. Oh my goodness, did God not say
there would be enmity between Jesus and the sons of men, and
the serpent and the seed of the woman? Have we forgotten that Ephesians
6 is not talking about the cults? that the struggle in our lives
supernaturally comes first and foremost through the misapplication
and the misinterpretation of Scripture. Paul was not being confronted,
nor was the church of Ephesus being confronted with thinking
they might want to go back to paganism. They were being confronted
by people who were misteaching Scripture. The devil mistaught Scripture
in the garden. And the devil mistaught Scripture
in the temptation of Jesus. Friends, the devil's greatest
soldiers stand in pulpits this very hour. And the devil's greatest
minions publish Bibles. Jesus was a man naturally. And
this hostility in these natural men's mind show that it is impossible
in the natural man, listen to this, it is impossible in the
natural man to conquer unbelief. It's impossible. That's what
we want. Well, how can I... I've got to
get through this unbelief. What am I going to do? Just listen
to Jesus. Listen to the Christ. Listen
to the Scripture. Listen to the words of God that God in His
mercy might bring you to life through the hearing of these
things. Naturally, Jesus was a man. Naturally,
they knew His natural parents. Naturally, they heard His words
in their natural ears, saying, I came down from heaven. And
they were naturally opposed and hostile to this message. Jesus, for most of the world's
culture, is one of the greatest teachers, one of the greatest
prophets, and one of the greatest examples of love and humility
and benevolence that ever lived. But Jesus, according to Himself,
He is God, and He alone, no other way, can a man find salvation. And these people were upset because
Jesus is saying His birth, His origin, His existence came from
heaven. So when people like Andy Stanley
have talked several times on their pulpit, it doesn't matter
if the virgin birth is true. Jesus just rebuked that. He comes from heaven. He's got
a radio show. I don't care. The Bible says
that the devil is the prince of the power of the air. I'm
not being superstition there, but let's just be honest. Everything
is Babylon except the body of Christ. Even the dirt that men
so eloquently plot out and record in the courthouse that they own.
That plot, that deed is Babylon. It's going to go away. We're
not going to be divided up on our land when we have the new
creation. Christ is the King of it all
and we are His subjects. They grumbled. And Jesus says
to them, I've come down from heaven. Jesus is God. He was born of a virgin. He came
to earth as a man, and these men could not believe their ears.
In their ears, Jesus was crazy and blasphemous. He is out of
his mind. But Jesus answers them by commanding them. You notice
that? He knows what they're saying,
and he says to them, do not grumble amongst yourselves. Don't grumble
amongst yourself. Now, if you and I were sitting
at a cafe somewhere in Oakland, California, and we were talking
and gossiping about somebody, and then our phones beeped, and
some of our friends in Pennsylvania went, quit talking about me,
you'd be like, oh my goodness. Would we shut up? Yes. And we'd
probably try to backpedal our way out of that, and oh, I'm
so sorry. It would be a timed rebuke. Jesus, they're grumbling,
and He says, stop grumbling. It's like a group of teenagers,
summer camps in the years past, and they're all cutting the fool,
and you can hear them, but they don't know you can hear them.
And then you see them in the big group a little while later,
and you say, hey, y'all been doing good? Oh, yeah, everything's
good. Oh, really? So this didn't happen? And they
all look at each other like, how do you know that? or your children,
or your parents. My dad would say, well, tell
me about so-and-so. I'm like, how did you hear that? How did
you know that? Here's Jesus, who is God, who knows their very
hearts. That should have been enough to just stop them. But
it doesn't stop them, does it? Because hostility and anger and
zeal and passion overpower conviction in the natural sense. Without
the rebirth, without conversion, without salvation that comes
from God, there is no part of our human nature that will be
able to overcome unbelief. As a matter of fact, according
to Paul in Romans 1, not even to consider John 1, but according
to Paul in Romans 1, the more we see, the more our flesh rises
up against what we see, and then the more we hate God. And if
we don't want to be haters of God, because culturally it's
unacceptable to be a hater of God, like in our world, then
we become the inventor of a new God, of a new gospel, of several
different opportunities. Well, maybe this is what God
intended. Maybe this is what God meant.
Maybe this is how God really did it. Well, that works. Such as middle knowledge, or
free will. Sorry, had to put that one in
there. Or free will. Or decisional regeneration. or
anything else that comes in there. Grumbling and satisfying one's own mind
when it comes to our own truth doesn't make the truth go away,
and that's what the Jews thought. If we fuss about it, if we talk
about Jesus enough, we'll convince ourselves and others that He's
blasphemous, because that's what we really know, so let's do that.
Friends, we experienced that in 2012 as a church. Let's go
on a speaking campaign against this Grace Church and just tell
everybody what heretics they are. Nobody's listening. Let's
send out a letter to every church in town." That's what happened
in several towns. And it backfired. It had a result,
but in the end it backfired. And it surely backfired with
Christ. Because no matter what we say in error, it can't erase
truth. I can tell myself that I don't
have cancer. The doctor says, you got cancer
in your throat. Oh, no, I don't. No, it's not cancer. Let me get
some vitamin C. And I will vitamin C myself to
the coffin. You can't pretend that something
is not true and then it go away. These people could grumble all
they wanted, it would not push the truth of who Christ was.
Because this was not a movement in society, this was a movement
of God. And more importantly, it was
a mission of God's eternal decree that will not fail no matter
what man does. And the very thing that we need
to see as we continue in this gospel is that the disgruntled,
grumbling hatred of man in an attempt to thwart the plan of
God was actually the plan of God all along. That He would
produce such enmity in the hearts of man's natural state by the
proclamation of grace, by the way, Jesus could have gotten
up there and began to preach the Law, and everybody would
have come under conviction, and it would have changed their lives,
and there would have been a moral revival in Jerusalem, in Israel. But Jesus got up there and preached
sovereign grace, and they hated Him. The Law has never whatsoever
in any person's flesh ever brought the conviction of sin unto eternal
life. It never will, it never has,
and it has no power to do so. The Law in its essence is to
teach us of the inability of man to accommodate the holy requirements
of God's justice and righteousness. But what makes me see how vile
my sin is? that Jesus is the bread of life. Because see, I know what it says
down here. They didn't know what He was going to say. He says,
and this bread that I give to you is my flesh. You see? So Jesus reminds them, don't
grumble, verse 44, no one can come to me. Let's take these
in parts. What's that mean? no one. John 1, no one can come. John
2, many people believed, but no one could come. John 3, he
came to Jesus. Hey, we believe. You can't see
or enter into me unless you're born again. John 4, oh, I'm coming
to the place of my forefathers, Jacob. We're worshiping on this
mountain. Whether it's a time where now
you don't worship on that mountain or the other mountain, which
is Jerusalem and Gerizim, you don't worship on either mountain,
but you worship in spirit and in truth. I am Messiah. And she believes. John 5, and we have the Word. The Word's not in you. You seek
salvation, but you can't find it. Moses spoke of me. John 6,
what sign do you bring? Give us this bread. I am the
bread. No, that's a bunch of garbage. And so on, and so on,
and so on. Even people over in John 7 will
say, can this be the Christ? Is this the Christ? Maybe it's
the Christ. In their natural sense, they
knew the prophecy, they saw some things that were fulfilling,
but it still was not life eternal just because they recognized
who He was. They must be given a spiritual sight that comes
from God alone, and Jesus is the only means through which
that sight can come. no man can muster himself up
to Jesus. That is a lie perpetrated from
the enemy of God. His name is Lucifer. He was thrown
out of heaven and all the multitude of heavenly hosts with him. And
they awake a pending eternal damnation in the lake of fire
where the wrath and justice and righteousness of God will be
poured upon their souls for all of eternity with the people who
refuse to believe the gospel And then the question is, well,
how can we believe the gospel? And Jesus says, no man can come. Reminding them that no mere human
being can come and see and behold Him unto salvation, come to know
Him. They cannot come to believe in
Him. They cannot eat of His true bread, and they cannot live because
He is the source of life, not us. You can't make this bread, take
this bread, or eat this bread. I have to give you this bread.
I have to give my bread. Then give it, I'm it. Sola Fide is so much more than
a pillar of a movement of reform. We believe in the simplicity
of Christ as the only means through which you will live. It's so easy and so simple But it's impossible to see. So what does he say? Unless the
Father. It's impossible unless the Father.
Unless the Father what? The Father we've already seen.
The Father is the one acting. Until now the Father was working, now
I'm working. Until now the Father is speaking, now I'm speaking.
If you see me, you see the Father. The work of God is the work of
the Son. I come to do the will not of my own, but the one who
sent me. And so Jesus is saying, the Father is doing the work
of salvation, and this is the work of God that you believe
on the Son, whom He has sent. See, over and over again, Jesus
continues to say the same thing, and yet these people, even though
they have the intellect to grasp what He's teaching, they cannot
see past the absurdity of it. They're like, These guys, I mean, what are
they? They claim that the apostles are intoxicated after His resurrection
because they're preaching the same gospel and they're going,
these guys are drunk. These guys, you ever been around a drunk
person? They make no sense. They laugh at the wrong stuff.
They cry at the wrong stuff. They get angry at the wrong stuff.
They're happy about the wrong stuff. I mean, it's just, they
speak out of their minds. Tell you stories that aren't
true. And that's the way the natural man looks at the gospel.
As if we're a bunch of fools. And according to Paul we are. No one can come unless the Father...
The Father is the one acting. He is the mover. He is the one
who is fulfilling His decrees. Now listen very carefully. No
one can come to me unless the Father who sent me. He reminds
them again of who sent Him. He's reestablishing the fact
that though He's born of a mother, He was born of a virgin. He was
born of divine origins. He is not the seed of Adam. He
is the seed of God the Father. And don't go biological on me
on that. It's a spiritual thing. God created, Jesus created the
womb in which He was born and created for Himself a body in
the zygote that was inside the womb of His earthly mother. Unless the Father who sent me,
I came from heaven, sent by God, life is given by God from heaven,
The bread came from God, but it was temporary. It did not
give life, as we'll see. Who sent Me, unless the Father
who sent Me draws Him, no one can come to Me." That's the argument.
And so if we ever had an idea of what the drawing was, maybe
the drawing is just sort of supernatural wooing. Oh, we get to see all
the beauty of Jesus. Oh, wow. Now what do I do? Some
people teach something called pervenient grace, grace that
goes before grace. It's like pervenient wealth. What does that look like? Well,
I'm going to have a lot of money, and so the money that I get,
the lot of money that I get before I get the lot of money is really
what I want. Well, go cash that check somewhere. Is this check
good? No, but it will be, but it is.
Provenient grace is not real. It's not real. God doesn't draw
people, and it shows it here. Well, that's your opinion. No,
I am repeating the words of Jesus. Because there's an imperative
here that gives the consequence of the drawing, which is, I will
raise them to life. All who are drawn, I will raise. All who are drawn, they will
come. All who come are those who believe.
The believing ones. So here, I'm not working the
Bible to fit my Calvinism or my Baptist doctrine. I'm preaching
Christ. And anyone who does not believe
in this gospel is not born of God. Wow, that's dogmatic! Praise
the Lord, we got one thing right. Because the gospel of grace is
not something to divide, it's not something to devour academically. It is the spiritual decree of
God to save His elect. Friends, this is the only hope
we have. The Father draws him. The impossibility
of man's spiritual sight is revealed and answered here. You're grumbling.
Stop grumbling. Don't worry about what you're
thinking. Because why were they grumbling? Why were they grumbling?
Because Jesus is taking their disciples. And they're thinking,
this guy's taking our life away. This guy's messing up what we've
got going on here. This man is ruining our glory. And Jesus is like, don't worry
about it. Stop grumbling. Forget about me. Don't worry
about me. I'm not anything to worry about
because none of these people are going to follow after me."
And he proves it. They all leave. Spoiler alert. They all leave. They all leave. He says, don't worry about it.
And then they all leave. But they can't stand it. They
can't stand it. Man grumbles, and they grumbled
out of their own tradition and their imaginative theologies
because Jesus is not for their view. Jesus says, you don't need
to grumble. No one's tricking anyone to follow
after me. No one's going to lure them because no one can come
to me unless the one who sent me, your God, draws them to me. You don't have to worry about
me, you got to worry about your God. Now see, that's harsh, isn't
it? It's very harsh. Does that pacify
them? No, it doesn't pacify them. Are
we to use the Bible to pacify people in unbelief? No, we're
not to use the Bible to pacify people in unbelief. I don't usually
do this, but the Pope is just a running bag of heresies lately. Lately, true. And if you haven't
seen the, you know, if you're not one of the 300 million people
who have seen this video where he talks to this young boy in
Italy whose dad has died, who died on his deathbed as an atheist
hating God, but he also baptized his three sons in the Roman Church.
And the Pope stands after he talks to this young boy and says
that God would never cast a man like this into hell. That's false hope. It's a lie.
People say, well, that was just kind. No, it's not kind! If I'm a doctor, and I see you have
a terminal disease, and I see that you have some sickness,
and I can help you, and I go, nothing's wrong with you, son,
just go on home. You're going to be fine. You go home happy,
and then you die. Is that evil? Yes, that's evil. The Father must draw anyone who
comes to me. Stop worrying about it. Don't
grumble. because your God must draw them to me." The one who
sent me is your God, supposedly. And if He doesn't draw them to
me, then nothing, no one will come. I will then raise those
up who are drawn. I will do this. This imperative
shows that those who are given to the Son will come, and those
who come are drawn by the Father, and those who are drawn will
be raised. That's how we know there's no
such thing as pervenient grace. If God draws you, you will be
raised to life. And then Jesus in verse 45, I
could teach a whole sermon on verse 45, but then He says, it
is written in the prophets, and they will all be taught by God.
Now, when He said that, these people knew exactly what He was
talking about. These people knew exactly where He was talking
about. And these people thought to themselves,
now he's getting somewhere. Now he knows his audience. We
have been taught from God. We have been taught from God.
Do you know that apologetic is given to me a hundred times a
year with professing believers who want to stand and refute
the gospel? and excuse their disobedience
to the commands of God through the Apostles, and say, well,
you're not the only one that hears from the Spirit. And they will argue that they
know the truth. These Jews did the same thing.
See, God supernaturally regenerates the mind and faith as a gift.
Only those who hear and learn from the Father come to me. The
drawing then, as Jesus is explaining here, is the learning and hearing
from the Father about Jesus. It's about Christ. The Jews would argue they've
seen the truth, and that they know the truth, that they had
the answers, and that Jesus was not the answer. Man cannot be
persuaded to come in his natural state. Jesus is showing us that
very clearly. Man does not have enough wisdom or intellect to
come in his natural state. Man cannot be tricked into coming
to Christ or wooed into coming to Christ in his natural state.
He must be taught by God. Many men have taught the Bible
through the years of human life. They teach the words of Christ
and they do well. But so many more teach themselves and then
teach their own self to others. They teach their passions and
their zeal. More often these are not teachers at all, but
as Jesus would call the Pharisees, they are blind leaders. And all
they know to do is just rebuke those around them, saying what
is right while they hate the very ones who are listening. In my opinion, no, not in my
opinion, in my remembrance, Paul says these men should be silenced. Paul says these men should be
warned. We should silence them in the
sense that they should be disciplined to remove from the sight of the
sheep of Christ. We should not give time to these types of people.
Quit debating so much and just proclaim. People who are wanting
to learn, just teach them. People who decide to just make
you look bad, walk away humbly. And you know what I'm talking
about. You know who I'm talking about. For those of you who are on social
media, I see it all the time. It's okay to have good conversation.
But there comes a point when a Pharisee will come to you and
the only reason they're talking to you is to try to make you
look bad in front of somebody else. Just let it go. proclaim the gospel, let it sit,
and let it go. Many of you have family members,
and you have good conversations, but there have been times in
my life where family members have drawn the line and said,
this is, you know, instead of, let's talk about this, you are
an idiot. And every time you're around,
all they want to do is make you look like an idiot. You can just
stop throwing those pearls down. It's not easy, but by the Lord's
grace, maybe one day they'll come and say, I want to hear. I want to hear. We're not God.
In the same way we can't make someone see Christ, in the same
way no one can, they must be drawn by the Father. How are
they drawn by the Father? Through the teaching of the Word
of God. This is a half-holistic application in every aspect of
every one of our lives, but it will come sooner or later. But
all those who are called of God are taught of God. And the center
of the gospel truth in all of this, this is a little side thing
that I wanted to say today, is that God's love is effectual
for us. God has loved us, therefore He sent His Son to die for us.
That's why Jesus died, because God loves His people. It wasn't
that He wanted to straighten us out. He will straighten us
out when He glorifies us. He will straighten us out through
the spirits working and the good works that He planned beforehand
for us to walk in. He will straighten us out, but
none of those will ever measure to the measure of holiness. But
in the day of Christ we will be glorified, and until then
we will fight the good fight of faith by faith in the One
who loved us and gave Himself for us." So these teachers of Israel here,
they did not love Israel. That's the point I'm getting
at. They loved themselves. If they loved Israel, they could
have heard the words of Christ, and they could have come to the
place to turn around. See, what they should have done
is turned around and said, Behold, the Lamb of God. Listen to this man, for he is
Messiah. Every Jew in Israel would have
worshipped Jesus. But they didn't, number one,
because it was not God's decree. just as the bread was the shadow
of Jesus, just as the temple was the shadow of Christ, just
as the mercy seat was the shadow of Christ, just as all of that,
Israel is a shadow of Christ's redemption. It is not the true
The true are the beloved of God, the elect of all nations, tongues,
and tribes. Myriads of myriads and thousands
of thousands worshiping God with one tongue, one praise, one truth. Our love then should be evident
for those that we teach. We must be teachers who care
about the learning of our pupils, not in the correction of the
ignorant. And I will say this and then I will move on. Humility
is the first and the last attribute that is necessary for the teachers
of God. Some people think, well, you're
not very humble. I'm not. But God is very good at humbling
me. And I thank Him for it. I thank
Him for it. And the lowest places of humility
in the eyes and the heart and the mind of a teacher of God's
Word is knowing that if it were not for the grace of God, that
we would sit in judgment as arrogant, blind leaders. And then more
importantly than our own salvation, we would lead others to destruction. There is no room for harsh, quick,
judgmental minds in the teaching of God's Word. Jesus did not
display that here. He continued to give them the
gospel. and say to them, you can't see because you haven't
been brought by the Father. Some of these people in this
crowd were probably brought by the Father later. We don't know. It's not important as to who
and how many. The point is at this point in
time Jesus proves what He's teaching because they all walk away. The drawing of God to eternal
life is the teaching of God by the Spirit of God through the
Word of God. That's the next question. How
is someone to hear God through the Scripture? This is what Jesus
is doing this very moment in this text. He's teaching the
words of His own words, who are the words of God the Father,
that are effectual unto eternal life. He is giving them the truth. through which they can be saved.
Scripture never teaches a parallel of man's responsibility and ability
and God's sovereignty. Never! There's never a parallel
there. It's taught completely separately. When God's Word, when Jesus Christ
teaches of God's sovereignty and salvation, it is always showing
that God is the first and last actor and all the actors in between. He's the Sovereign Savior. He's the Sovereign Savior in
men's spiritual sight. He's the Sovereign Savior in
their spiritual hearing. He's the Sovereign Savior in
their knowledge, in their faith, in their believing, in their
trusting, and in their coming to Christ. No one comes to me
except the Father draw him, and all that the Father draws I will
raise up. And these Jews are thinking,
well, man, he's talking our language. We've seen the Father. Why do
we disagree with him? Or we've seen the Word of God.
And Jesus says, not that anyone has seen the Father. Because
they know they haven't seen the Father. Moses wanted to see the
Father, but he couldn't. It wasn't allowed. Joshua had
not seen the Father. But he says, only the one that
has come from God has seen the Father. So then he takes any
few seconds of like, well, okay, now we're getting somewhere to,
ah, again, blasphemy. Would you get off of yourself,
O Jesus of Nazareth? And Jesus is like, I am the bread
of life. No one has seen the Father except
me, because I come from the Father. Learning from God is done through
those who have seen God face to face. Now get this. This might
be an epiphany for some of you. Jesus has seen God face to face
because He is God and He's seen the Father because He has been
with the Father throughout all of eternity as God. So He comes
and He has the Word of God and He does the will of God and He
does the work of God so that everything that Jesus is, is
what? We have seen the fullness of
the glory of God. And now we have His Word written
down so that we can show it to each other. Jesus is the source
of knowing and learning and being drawn to the Father, and the
Word of God is what's left, powerfully, for that to continue. For that
to continue. So Jesus places His words, all
of them, as the only means through which one can be taught by God.
If Jesus' words are in us, we have been taught by God. We have
heard God. We have come to Jesus because
we cannot escape God's grace. That means that His hearers had
not heard the Word of God here. They were still in their sins.
They were still looking to try to figure this out on their own.
They were unable to see because God had not drawn them. Because
God draws through the teaching of His Son alone and they refuse
the teaching of His Son. So God teaches His people and
they will see. This is a supernatural and effectual
reality that comes by the will of God. That's the question as
we close today. Would any of us ever consider
it appropriate to subjugate holy writ, to subjugate the Bible,
to put the Bible under the authority of man's zeal or calling or passion
or knowledge. Now when we ask that question
directly, we all say, that's crazy. No, we would not put the
Word of God under the authority of man's zeal. But why is it
that man's zeal, passion, knowledge, and calling becomes the authority
so often in our culture. It's because that most of us,
if we're not careful, are just like these lost people. And how many of those 5,000 men
plus those families would hear Jesus and think to themselves,
I need to see this, but then look at their spiritual leaders
and go, God's Word is over me. And God's Word is over... Why
is it so easy for people with fame to be thought of as right
over the Bible? Popular. You know one of the
most popular objects? You know what popular means?
Everybody knows about it, and everybody needs it, and everybody
wants it. You know one of the most popular things in the world
is? Toilet paper. Don't believe me? Go home and
not find one. Roll up. I mean, you look like a crazy person
running off from the nut house. You'd be in your robe and your
slippers running out to the car to get out of the back of the truck.
Hoping your neighbors don't see. If they do, it's all right. Toilet
paper them. Oh, yeah, I understand. Fame, popularity, zeal, passion.
I don't care. We can say call of God. God's
called me to be the arbiter of truth on this matter. No, it
doesn't give me the right to subject God's Word underneath
my passion. But the other way is true. I
subject all that I am to God's Word. How do we do that? Because
God, through His Word, has drawn us to the Son and given us to
Him. So who gets the glory? I have
a lot of associates. I can't call them friends and
I can't call them brothers because I'm still wondering. I have a lot
of associates through the last two decades of my life who are
powerfully zealous about certain things, but yet they do all that
they do to teach those that they want to correct with hate. And I say to them that if you
were in my fellowship, you would be disciplined because you're
hateful. Well, I'm glad I'm not in your
church. You're harsh. Oh gosh, I'm harsh. And you're calling people idiots
to their face because they ask you a question from your pulpit. I mean, what would it feel like
if I called you all an idiot? I would hope that you would all
stand up and give me good greeting as I walked out the door. And
the next week it would be a good repentance meeting. It's not
that it's above me, but it's not what's in me. by the Lord's
grace. It's an absurd thing to ask,
but at the same time I think it's what's happening here. I
think it really boils down to the fact that we can all get
so invested in our zeal and our passion that we forget about
the passion of Christ as our effectual hope. That we get to
the place where we think that everything that we are is because
of us. and that what we are is worthy
to be exposed to everybody else so that they can see who we are
instead of seeing who Christ is. Now that could be small,
that could be large, but friends, we must fight against that. I
can do what I think is best, and I'm able to know the Lord,
and He teaches me in my heart. That's what people say a lot.
I hear that often. The Lord teaches me in my heart,
I know. But where in the Bible do you
know? If I say to you, contextually,
show me that, that means in the Bible's context, show me that. And very few people understand. People are quicker in the natural
state to follow zeal than they are Scripture. Human beings are
easily led down someone who's passionate and charismatic rather
than the truth. So some people who would come
and visit with us or even those who listen to sermons online
say, Pastor Tiffins, you know, I appreciated that word, but
that was boring. Good, thank you. I'm sorry. I mean, what am I supposed to
say? I mean, you want me to juggle fire as I do that? I'm just glad my pastor likes
to get things turned up. What does it mean to turn up?
When Jesus says, if I'll be lifted up, I'll draw all men to myself.
If I want you to be drawn to Christ and have the greatest
experience of joy and satisfaction and fullness in eternal life,
then I must just boringly teach you this. And then the hallelujahs
will come from truth and not emotion. The natural man does these things
to Jesus. And the unregenerate man does
these things to the gospel and to the children of God. They
grumble and they fuss and they reveal that they've not been
taught by God. And one must believe that belief must be through the
words of Christ. And they must believe that this
is a work of God. This is the gospel. Part of it. It's good news. Why? Because
if you and I sit down and say, well, I just, I believe today.
Now what about tomorrow? Our hope must be in the work
of God to save His people or there's no hope at all. Verse 47, truly, truly, I say
to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I don't have to
reteach this, but Jesus tells in the present tense that those
who believe in what I just said have eternal life. Those who
believe that they are taught by God through the One who comes
from God, who has seen God, have eternal life. Those who believe
that the Word of God is the authority and the arbiter of all things
spiritual, they have eternal life. When our trust is in Jesus,
it is the work of God that we believe is a gift of God. This
is not a possibility, see. It's a guarantee that belief
comes from God. And then Jesus, in verse 48,
just nails it down one more time. I am the bread of life. I am the true bread. Your fathers
ate in the wilderness, the manna. What does he show the comparison
there? And they died. You don't get it. They're dead, y'all. But I'm the true bread. so that
if you eat of it, you will not die. This false bread was the
manna. The true bread is Jesus. He says this, that through the
Spirit, by the will of God, He would draw them and give them
to Christ. God reveals Himself completely
through His Word. The being and doing of God is
absolutely clear. Thus the gospel of grace toward
His people is God's revealed mission, and beloved, it is accomplished. If anyone eats of this bread,
verse 51, that comes down from heaven, I am this living bread.
If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the
bread that I will give for him for the life of the world is
my flesh. He states this argument again,
but now he employs not only his coming from heaven in a spiritual
sense and in a divine sense, but he says that, and teaching
of God, but he employs his flesh, his physical body. eat of this, eat of me, believe
in me, have faith in me and my physical presence, my body, my
earthly humanity is also part of how you will live. As a matter
of fact, it is the bread that I will give for your life." The
bread that they so desperately asked for is the flesh of Jesus.
This flesh that Jesus had was prone to aging. You ever thought
about that? Jesus started out as an infant
and grew to a man. Learned to shave. Well, he probably
didn't. Learned to clothe himself. He
was a human being, but at the same time, fully God. This flesh, and their minds are
thinking, how can this man, this mere mortal, going to give us
life? He's in a meat suit. He's just like us. It's the gospel. Christ became a man. The God
of heaven took on flesh. obeyed the law, took on our sin
and guilt, and He satisfies the wrath of God for the souls of
men. This is the bread of life. This
is the true living bread, Jesus Christ, the living Word. Let's
pray. I pray, Father, that this truth
would resonate deeply within our souls And Lord, that the
teaching here of this Word would have efficacy, it would do the
work You intended it to do. Father, to encourage us and to
equip us and to grow us, and most importantly, Father, that
we might take it into our lives, into our homes, into our workplace,
to share as You call us to, not out of our own zeal, but Father,
out of Your direct call from Your Word by the Spirit, Father,
that we would take it into the world. And know that it is your
doing, not our doing, that will save the lost. Because you have
accomplished salvation. And you will draw those who are
yours to Christ. You will draw those for whom
Christ died to Him, for He has satisfied your wrath on their
behalf, that they may have life eternal. In Jesus' name we pray.
Thank you for listening. We hope that this message has
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