I'd like for you to open your
Bibles to John chapter 6. This is a passage that is special
to me and I know probably to many of you. It's where the Lord
spoke very plainly about his message and his mission as the
Messiah, the true Christ of God. who came into the world to save
his people from their sins. A people who had been given to
him by the Father before the foundation of the world, whose
names were written in the Lamb's Book of Life. The names of the
Lamb that was slain. And their names written before
the foundation of the world. And he speaks of himself as the
bread of life. He reaches back into the Old
Testament and talks about Moses leading the Hebrew children out
of Egypt and into the wilderness where they got hungry and God
brought manna from heaven. And manna was called the bread
of life and that manna kept them from starving to death. And of
course that manna was a picture. a prophecy of Christ, the true
spiritual manna, bread of his people. And he tells them, look
at verse 27 of John 6. He says, labor not for the meat
which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting
life, which the Son of Man shall give unto you, for him hath God
the Father sealed. And listen to what happens here.
Then said they unto him, what shall we do that we might work
the works of God? That's an interesting question.
What shall I do that I might work the works of God? Verse
29, Christ gives the answer. Jesus answered and said unto
them, this is the work of God, that you believe on him whom
he hath sent. Pointing to himself as the salvation
of his people. And all of this, as he says,
look over in verse 35, he says unto them, I am the bread of
life. He that cometh to me shall never
hunger. He that believeth on me shall
never thirst. Christ identified himself back
in John chapter four as the water of life. Here as the bread of
life. In other words, he's the complete
spiritual sustenance for all of his people. And he is everything. He is our wisdom, our righteousness,
our sanctification, our redemption. All of our salvation was and
is conditioned on Him, not on ourselves. And that's why salvation
is by grace that reigns through righteousness unto eternal life
by Jesus Christ our Lord. Look at verse 36. He says, but
I said unto you that you also have seen me and believe not. The multitudes, even those who
followed Him because of the loaves and the fishes. You remember
how He fed so many thousands? with just a few loaves and a
few fish. And those who followed him for
the miracles. He says, you've seen me, but you don't believe.
You've seen these miracles. You've heard his message, but
you don't believe. But look what he says in verse
37. All that the Father giveth me shall come to me. And him
that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. And who are those
who were given to him? Well, that's the elect of God.
And I often say, I say this on our TV program, I know people
don't want to hear that, but that's what the Bible teaches.
And you cannot deny it. You cannot just ignore it. He
said in his high priestly prayer in John 17, he said, he said,
I've come into this earth that I might give eternal life to
as many as thou hast given me. And what you need to be concerned
with in light of that is this, do I, do I believe in him as
he is identified and distinguished in the word of God? Because there
are counterfeits. Paul spoke of that in 2 Corinthians
11 when preachers who come preaching another Jesus. That word another
in the original Greek means another of a different kind. Or preaching
another gospel. A message that's not true. A
message that's not God's grace. But he says all that the Father
giveth me shall come to me. And he says, him that cometh
to me, I will in no wise cast out. Verse 38, I came down from
heaven not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent
me. Now Christ is God manifest in the flesh. He's the second
person of the Trinity, co-equal with the Father and with the
Spirit in every attribute of deity. But for the purposes of
redemption, redeeming his people, saving his people from their
sins, he made himself subservient to the Father according to the
covenant of grace. And he basically said, I'll save
all those whom you give me. And so he says in verse 39, this
is the father's will, which has sent me that of all which he
has given me, I should lose nothing, but raise it up again at the
last day. That's the security of the believer. Not one who can be saved one
day and lost the next. He says in verse 40, and this
is the will of him that sent me, that everyone which seeth
the Son. Now, he's not just talking about
seeing a picture that people call Jesus. I told you about
that last week, about the lady who painted the picture and asked
me who I thought it was, and I highly offended her. I didn't
mean to, but I did, because I thought it looked like Charlie Manson.
But she thought it was Jesus. But nobody knows what Jesus looked
like. There are no photographs of him. There are men who speculate
and paint paintings. But to see the son is to see
him with the eye of God-given faith. Again, as he is identified
and distinguished in the scripture. Who is Jesus Christ? He's not
just a good prophet, as the Muslims say. He's not just a miracle
worker, as the Pentecostals say. He is God manifest in the flesh. The word made flesh and dwelt
among us. He is God-man. He had to be God
in order to give life, to create and give life. He had to be man
in order to die for the sins of his people and satisfy justice. and bring forth an everlasting
righteousness, which the gospel reveals as the righteousness
of God." That's his righteousness imputed to us, to his people.
And so that's who he is. And what did he accomplish when
he died on the cross? He didn't die to make us savable.
He didn't die just to bring a mere possibility of salvation. The
angel said to Joseph, you shall call his name Jesus for he shall
save his people from their sins. is he able to do it? Well he
went on to say his name shall be called Immanuel which being
interpreted is God with us. So he says, verse 40, everyone
who seeth the son and believeth on him, this is God-given faith. Bible tells us that by grace
are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves, it's
the gift of God, not of works. lest any man should boast. Believeth
on him may have everlasting life and I'll raise him up at the
last day." There's no possibility that he can perish. Well, look
at verse 41. Now, leading up to what I'm gonna
just give you briefly on our text. The Jews then murmured
at him because he said, I am the bread which came down from
heaven. And they said, is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph,
whose father and mother we know? How is it then that he saith
he came down from heaven? I came down from heaven. They
didn't understand. They knew Joseph. Joseph was
his stepdad. He had no earthly father. He
was conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary by the Holy Spirit.
And it says in verse 43, Jesus therefore answered and said unto
them, murmur not among yourselves. Now here's what I wanna get to.
I've entitled this message, The School of Invincible Grace. And basically what I want you
to understand is that you're hearing me preach, but it takes
the Lord God by the power of the Spirit to teach you unto
salvation. I cannot save you. I can't even
save myself. I'm just a sinner saved by grace,
just like any other person in this congregation who is saved.
I'm just as much dependent upon the grace and the power and the
goodness of God to save me from my sins as you are. So when I'm
preaching the gospel and you check it out with the word of
God, if what I'm telling you is the truth, it's gonna take
somebody greater than me more powerful than me to bring you
to believe it. And if you do, if you are brought
to believe it, it's a miracle of God's grace and power. It's
not something that you, some preacher found a spark of goodness
in you and fanned it enough to get you to walk on ice and shake
his hand and get into the baptistry. That's not what it is. It's an
act of God. What did we read over in verse
29? This is the work of God that
you believe on him whom he has sent. So if you're a believer,
a true believer now, according to the scriptures, not just a
professor, not just you go to church or you got a pen or whatever,
I'm talking about if you're a true believer, you're a walking, talking
miracle of God's grace and power, and you don't have anything to
boast in of yourself. Neither do I. It's all God. Apostle Paul said, by the grace
of God, I am what I am. So let me show you where he brings
us to, this school of invincible grace. Verse 44. No man can come
to me except the Father which hath sent me draw him, and I'll
raise him up at the last day. That word can in verse 44, it
means ability. It's a Greek word that we get
our word dynamite from, it's power. No man has the power,
no woman. And why is that? Because of the
inability and depravity of man naturally as we fell in Adam
into a state of sin and death, depravity and spiritual death.
And here's the fact of the matter according to the Bible. No person
born into this world, fallen in Adam, no man by nature, when
I say man by nature, now I'm talking about as we're naturally
born, you will not come to Christ for salvation. If left to yourself. If I was left to myself, I wouldn't
do it. It's almost like I heard one preacher said, he said, if
God came down to earth and had the whole human race before him,
and he said, without doing a work of grace, without bringing them
to the school of invincible grace, which I'll show you in a minute.
And he said, now how many of you will choose me? Nobody would
raise their hand. You want me to show you that
in scripture? Look at Romans chapter three. And this is what
the apostle Paul's doing in the book of Romans. He starts out
in the book of Romans showing that salvation is by the grace
and power of God in and by the Lord Jesus Christ wherein is
the righteousness of God revealed. Now what is the righteousness
of God? It's the entire merit, value, worthiness of the obedience
unto death of Christ to ensure the salvation of his people,
his sheep, who were given him before the foundation of the
world. And it's his righteousness. In other words, let me put it
to you this way. In order to be accepted with
God and to be saved and to go to heaven, you've got to be righteous. And the problem is that you're
not. Neither am I. Not in ourselves. And we cannot
work it. He says in Romans chapter three,
he says in verse 20, he says, therefore by deeds of the law,
there shall no flesh be justified, be declared righteous, be forgiven
in God's sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. I told
you last week, I said, you know, I hope that today, tomorrow,
the next day, our future, I hope we strive to be the best people
we can be, morally, Sincerely, charitably, I hope we can all
do that. Now, I've got my doubts that
we're all gonna do that, but I hope we can. Today, let's start
today. Let's be the best we can be.
You husbands, be the best husband you can be. You wives, be the
best wife, mothers and daughters, fathers, grandfathers. I hope
I can be the best pastor that I can be, the best preacher that
I can be, all of that. I want to do that, and it's good
to do that. But here's the point. None of that, at your best, will
make you righteous before God. Do you understand that? None
of that will equal what God requires. Somebody says, well, that's not
fair of God not to take what, you know, to reject us for doing
our best. No, it's not unfair for God.
God's holy. He can accept no less than perfect
righteousness but God has provided the way of righteousness but
it's in his Son. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and you shall be saved. But that's what he's saying here.
Look over at verse 10 of Romans chapter 3. Now, here's what I
said. If left to ourselves, people
talk about free will. Well, we've got a will and we
make choices, but left to ourselves in our natural state, we won't
choose God, his way. And that's what this is teaching.
Romans 3.10, as it is written, there's none righteous, no not
one. Now, is there any exceptions to that? Well, there's only one
that I know of, and that's Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. But
among men, that's what he's saying, Jew and Gentile, all under sin,
there's none righteous, no, not one. Verse 11, there's none that
understandeth. Well, what is it we don't understand? We understand a lot of things
in this life, but what we by nature do not understand is God's
way of salvation. Man has no understanding of that.
He always thinks that he can gain or attain it or maintain
it by his works, by his decisions, and that's a wrong way. Doesn't
the Bible say man at his best state is altogether what? Vanity. So yes, be the best you can be,
but realize that's not gonna save you. And he says, there's
none that seeketh after God, verse 11. What in the world does
that mean? It doesn't say there's none that
seeketh after a God. There's none that seeketh after
the true and living God. If you're gonna seek the true
and living God, you've gotta go to his word, not what you
think naturally. And he says in verse 12, He says,
they are all gone out of the way. What is the way? Christ
said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto
the Father but by me. They are together become unprofitable.
Man's ways of salvation concocted by his own way is unprofitable. It will not work. That's what
I'm telling you. And that didn't originate with
me. That's God's word. No person can be forgiven of
their sins based upon their works. You can cry all night, you can
grovel in the ground, that will not wash away your sins. There's
only one thing that'll wash away my sins, the blood of Jesus Christ. See that? Nobody, nobody, no
person can make themselves righteous
before God, can measure up by their works. That's why our best
efforts, when aimed at the ground of salvation, you know what it's
called? Iniquity. Doesn't balance out. If you think you're gonna stand
before God and be weighed in the balance and your good works
weighed with your bad works to see which outweighs the, if that's
what you think, you're gonna be like that old Babylonian king
Was he Babylonian? I think he was Babylonian. But
he's named Belshazzar. You're found weighed in the balance
and found lacking. That's the way it is. And that
applies to the best of us, the worst of us, and everybody in
between. What are you saying, preacher? I'm saying salvation
is by grace. based on the righteousness of
another, Jesus Christ. And look back here. He says there,
verse 12, there's none that doeth good, no not one. What do you
mean none that doeth good? There's none that doeth good
according to God's standard of goodness. You see, man has his
standard of goodness, and it's way lower than God's standard. God's standard is measured by
Christ. You remember the rich young man
that came to Christ? And he didn't believe that Christ,
he didn't believe that Jesus of Nazareth was God manifested
in the flesh. He just thought this is a good
man, a good prophet. And he came to him and he said,
good master, what good thing must I do to have eternal life? And Christ answered him this
way. It's like he said, well, you don't believe I'm God. He
said, well, then why do you call me good? He said, there's none
good but God. And this man thought he was good
because he kept, as he thought, the Ten Commandments. Well, he
didn't keep them, but he thought he did. That's the way a lot
of people think. A lot of people think this way.
They say, well, I'm not perfect, but I've done enough to get to
heaven. No, you haven't. Christ has done all for his people. There's none good, no, not one
in God's standard. None good, no not one. Now let
me show you another passage. Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter
two. And these are important. You
need to take the word of God for what it says. And I know
there's all kinds of different scriptures and people have different
interpretations of them. I know that, I've been there. There are rules, incidentally,
there are rules of scriptural interpretation that people disregard. But look here, look at verse
14 of 1 Corinthians chapter two. He says, but the natural man
receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. Now what is the
natural man? That's any man and woman as they
are naturally born into this world, fallen in Adam into a
state of sin and death and depravity. Now, if you don't think you're
in that state, let me tell you something about yourself. You
don't need salvation. Why do I need to be saved? Because
I'm a sinner. And that's the way I was born.
Somebody said, well, you're not a sinner until you make your
first bad choice. Well, that's not true according to the Bible,
but if it were, the first choice you make in God's eyes is gonna
be bad. That's the thing, the natural
man. Look at it, verse 14. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit, for they are foolishness unto him.
For they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them,
because they are spiritually discerned. Now go back to our text, John
6, 44. No man can come to me, Christ says, except the Father
which has sent me draw him. And I'll raise him up at the
last day. Now here's the question. How does the Father draw his
people? How does God draw them to Christ? And here's the point. He sends
them to the school of invincible grace. And that's described in
verse 45. This is from the Old Testament. Same salvation from the Old Testament
to the New Testament. All by grace. And here's what
he said, he takes them to the school of invincible, irresistible
grace, where under the revelation of the gospel, they're born again
by the Spirit, and their wills and their desires, their hearts
are changed by God. And he brings them to Christ.
Look at verse 45, it is written in the prophets. There's several
places in the Old Testament where this is stated. They shall all
be taught of God. It's quoted from Isaiah 54. It's
quoted in other places. God's gonna teach them. Now he
may use a man as an instrument preaching the gospel. First Corinthians
chapter one says, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching
to save them that believe. But if salvation is the result,
if the new birth is the result, it's God doing the teaching. I'm not saying I'm God, but I
am preaching the word of God. And if it's empowered by the
spirit, it'll work to your salvation. They shall all be taught of God. Now how does God teach him? What
does he do? Look at the next line, verse 45. Every man therefore
that hath heard, heard what? The gospel. Romans 1, 16 and
17. It's the power of God unto salvation
to everyone that believeth. Jew first, the Greek also, for
therein is the righteousness of God revealed. So everyone
that hath heard and hath learned of the Father, learned of the
Father, not only learned as the Father through the Spirit teaches
us, but learn who the Father is. And if you hear this with
the ear of faith, the Bible says, faith cometh by hearing and hearing
by the word of God, and God has taught you and you've learned
of the Father, The inevitable result of that is you will come
to Christ. You will not resist it. You can't
resist it. Why? Because God's given you
ears to hear and he's taught you. That's right. And if he teaches you, he's a
master teacher. I taught middle school for eight
years. I look back on it and I wonder
how many of those kids did I really get through to? And I have to admit, I thought
I was a good teacher and it wasn't that, but you know, I can't open
their, I wish I could open their heads and pour it in. Couldn't
do it. But that's not the way it is
with God. If he teaches, you're taught. If you hear You may hear
what I'm saying, but you may not believe it. Well, that means
you haven't really heard it. Turn to Matthew 13. Christ here's talking about the
ministry of the gospel throughout the world after he's gone, sends
his disciples out. And he begins giving the parables
of the kingdom. The first parable of the kingdom
he gave was what we call the parable of the seed and the sower.
The seed is the word of God. The preacher goes out, he sows
the seed. Some of it falls on stony ground,
some of it on thorny ground, some of it on the wayside. Then
some of it falls on good ground. Now that doesn't mean that when
we go out to preach the gospel, everybody rejects it except a
certain few good people. The good ground is the new heart
that God gives in the new birth. And what he does when he does
that, he imparts spiritual life to a dead person, spiritually
dead. And he gives them eyes to see
things that they didn't see before. I was blind, now I see. He gives
them spiritual ears to hear things and believe them, heed them,
live by them, walk in them that they didn't hear before. his
disciples, he began to speak in parables here, and his disciples
asked, look at verse 10. The disciples came and said to
him, why speakest thou unto them in parables? You know a lot of
people think that parables are just children's stories, they're
not. They were in actuality a judgment against unbelievers who refused
to hear the plain speakings of the word of truth. he says, verse
11, he answered and said unto them, because it is given unto
you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven but to
them it is not given. God hadn't taught them, that's
their problem. And he says in verse 12, for
whosoever hath to him shall be given he shall have more abundance
but whosoever hath not from him shall be taken away even that
he hath. Therefore speak I to them in parables because they
seen See not. And hearing, they hear not, neither
do they understand. And that's a prophecy. Verse
14, in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah, which saith,
by hearing you shall hear and shall not understand, and seeing
you shall see and shall not perceive. For this people's heart, their
mind, their affection, their will, their conscience is waxed
gross, grown hard. And their ears dull of hearing,
and their eyes they have closed, lest at any time they should
see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and should understand
with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal
them. But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears,
for they hear." The Bible tells us that the seeing eye and the
hearing ear is of God. back here in John 6 45 that's
exactly what it's talking about. God's going to teach his people
the realities of who God is in his holiness, his justice, his
power, his mercy, his grace, his love which is to his people
not to everybody without exception. That's what the scripture teaches.
Every man therefore that hath heard, heard the gospel of God's
grace and salvation through the blood and righteousness of Christ,
and have learned of the Father. You know what the issue of this
is? It's not the universal fatherhood of God as creator, but it is
the fatherhood of God as the Redeemer, the Savior of His people. And that begs a question that
was posed in the book of Job several times. And that's this,
how can a just, righteous God who is holy and judges according
to truth, how can he save a sinner like me in mercy and grace and
love and still be true to himself? It was put like this in the book
of Job. How can a man, a sinful man, be justified in the eyes
of God? God knows me. He knows you. He knows our hearts. He knows
our thoughts. That thought that just shot through
your mind, I didn't see it, God did. He knows it. He knows our frame. And here's
the point. That if God were to judge me,
or any of us, based upon our best efforts at any time, we
would all be condemned. You understand that? So how can
he look at a sinner like me and say in mercy and grace and love,
I forgive you. How can he look at me and say,
you're righteous, and be true to himself, not be lying, not
be dishonoring. And if you ever learn how that
happens, you'll learn of the father, that he's both a just
judge and a loving father, a righteous judge and a merciful parent. How can he be both just and justified? And there's only one way. and
that is based upon the blood and the righteousness of the
Lord Jesus Christ. That's why God sent him into
the world, to do for me and his people, all his people, what
we cannot do for ourselves. We must be justified. You remember
I read that in John 3, or Romans 3. By deeds of law shall no flesh
be justified in God's sight. By the law is the knowledge of
sin. How can God forgive me of all
my sins, past, present, future? He must do it on a just ground.
And what is the only just ground? The blood of Jesus Christ. How
can God be right and just and honorable and declare me a sinner
righteous in his sight? Does he pretend? Does he lie?
No, he must do it on a just ground and that's the righteousness
of Christ imputed. Look at Romans four and I'll
close with this. Talking about Abraham. How was Abraham justified before
God? Well, was it by his works? No,
he says in verse two, if Abraham were justified by works, he hath
whereof to glory or boast, but not before God. If you can be
forgiven and declared righteous by your works, you've got room
to brag. I'm serious. But you need to understand who
you're going to meet when you go to judgment. You're gonna
meet a holy God who knows you more than anybody else. He knows
your sins. He knows mine. So not before
God. But he says in verse three, for
what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God. Now what
did Abraham, what God promised him, or what did God promise
Abraham? He promised Abraham that he would send the Messiah
into the world to save him from his sins. And that's what this
is talking about. Abraham believed God and it was
counted to him for righteous. It was imputed, charged, accounted,
reckoned him for righteous. What was it? What is the it?
Christ and his power and his work. Verse four, now to him
that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of death.
If you can work and gain it from God, then it's not grace. You
know, a lot of people say grace is God enabling you to do what
you need to do. Well that's not grace. That's
just what God would owe you. But God doesn't owe us anything
but condemnation. That's the only thing we've earned.
But he says in verse five, but to him that worketh not, but
believeth on him that justifieth, who? The ungodly. His faith,
and what is his faith? It's in Christ. is counted for
righteousness. Now look at verse six. Even as
David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth
righteousness without works. There's your hope. The righteousness of another
accounted to your account. That's the only hope you have.
And there is no other. And that's why the scripture
says, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved.
And that's why people need to understand that grace reigns
through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord,
not by what we do. And if God ever shows us that,
if he ever teaches us, you will come to Christ. You will not
resist, because you see you've got nowhere else to go. It's
got no other salvation. It's Christ or die. And that's
what it is.