Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening. And
now for today's program. Welcome to our program. I'm glad
you could join us today. If you'd like to follow along
in your Bibles, I'm continuing to preach from John chapter 6. I'm going to begin in John chapter
6, verse 59 today. And the title of the message
is Faith, the Gift of God. Faith, the Gift of God. I have spoken so many times over
the years on this TV program, and one of the verses that you
hear me quote quite often is Ephesians 2, 8 through 10. Because
those verses kind of, they're like a capsule, a summation of
salvation. And they teach us about the gift
of faith. Ephesians 2.8 says, For by grace
are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It
is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. So
in other words, this faith, which is believing the gospel, believing
in Christ, faith is not an entity in and of itself. Faith is a
body of truth. It's not just believing. It is
believing something that is true. You can have faith in a lot of
things that are false. There are many people in the
world who have faith in idols, but our faith, the Christian
faith, The faith that evidences salvation is faith in the glorious
person and finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ as he is identified
and distinguished in this book, in the gospel, in the Bible.
So when he says, for by grace are you saved, all of salvation
is by grace. That means it's not conditioned
on you or me. It's all conditioned on Christ.
because grace and truth comes by Jesus Christ. So it's all
on Him and He fulfilled those conditions. And that includes
the gift of faith. The graces and gifts of the Spirit
by which God connects us to Christ in the new birth are all gifts
from Him. Faith is a gift. Repentance is
a gift. Perseverance is a gift from God.
And He gives that gift to His people by which He brings them
to a saving knowledge of Christ and brings them unto glory. Not
by their power, but by His. Now our faith in this life is
yet imperfect, not because what God gives us is imperfect, but
because we're still in this body of flesh which wars against the
Spirit. and contaminates us, and so we
have times of doubt. You know, even the disciples,
they said, Lord, we believe, help thou our unbelief. We have
times of doubt when we get into bad circumstances or go through
trials and all of that. But those who have the gift of
faith, their tenor of life is this, they believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. They rest in Him for all salvation,
all forgiveness, all righteousness. Christ is my righteousness. I
find none in me. I find all that I need and all
that God requires in Him. So by grace are you saved, through
faith, that not of yourselves. It's the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. And verse 10 of Ephesians 2 says,
for we are His workmanship. If I'm saved by grace, I'm the
workmanship of God, created in Christ Jesus. Christ is the ground. He's the builder of the church.
He's the savior of his people, created in Christ Jesus. And
he says, we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus. And
he says, it's unto good works, not because of good works. In
other words, good works are the product, the fruit, the effect,
not the cause, not the ground. So it's unto good works which
God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Now that
speaks of the gift of faith. The Lord speaks of it here in
John chapter six. He'd been talking about himself
as being the bread of life. And many of those who started
out following him, left him. They said this was a hard saying.
Listen to this. Look at John 6 and verse 59.
It says, These things said he in the synagogue, as he taught
in Capernaum. Many, therefore, of his disciples,
when they heard this, said, This is an hard saying. Who can hear
it? These things are hard. And why
are they hard? I mentioned this last week. Because
they go against the natural grain of fallen, unregenerate sinners. And even in sinners saved by
grace, these things go against the flesh, the sinful tendencies
and nature that we have until we die and go to be with the
Lord. And that's why we're in a warfare, because we have two
warring faculties within us, the spirit and the flesh. And
they both are vying for prominence, rulership. Of course, the spirit
has rulership and he's gonna win out because that's the gift
of God. That's the power of God. That's
what grace is all about. It's not left up to me, it's
left up to God and he keeps me. Paul said, I know whom I have
believed, there's the gift of faith, and I'm persuaded that
he's able to keep that which I've committed unto him against
that day. That's 2 Timothy 1, 12. And what have I committed
unto Him? My whole salvation is committed
to Christ. He is not conditioned on me.
Even my final glory is not conditioned on my perseverance, but I will
persevere. Why? Because He saved me by His
grace. And he said, nobody's gonna take
them away. And he repeats that. He said,
I'll raise them up at the last day. But these people, they said,
it's a hard saying. Well, I can remember when I first
heard the true gospel. I was brought up in religion,
calling myself a Christian, but I had never heard the true gospel.
I had heard a false gospel, a false Christ. And when I heard a man
preach the true gospel, of God's free and sovereign grace through
the Lord Jesus Christ, who is God manifest in the flesh, based
upon His shed blood and His righteousness imputed. When I first heard that,
I could have said it just this way, that's a hard saying. I
never heard it before, but then the Spirit of God kept me under
that message and gave me new life and a new heart, new eyes
and new ears to hear. I was born again. So they said,
this is a hard saying. Who can hear it? Well, I'll tell
you who can hear it. Those whom God has given ears
to hear and eyes to see. But then look at verse 61. It
says, when Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at
it, he said unto them, does this offend you? Are you offended
by this? You see, the gospel is an offense
to the natural man. Another verse that I quote so
many times on this program is 1 Corinthians 2 and verse 14.
The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God,
neither can he know them. They're spiritually discerned,
understood, and received. And he can't know, they go against
him. They're hard sayings and they offend us because what they
actually tell us is that everything that we thought naturally that
was good and right and recommended us unto God in a relationship
of salvation was evil and wicked in the sight of God. Now that
doesn't mean that everything that we did was immoral and not
right in the eyes of men. But when it comes to a relationship
with God and salvation and how sinners are saved, man's works
aimed at salvation are wicked. Now, why? Because they do not
glorify God. You see, everything in salvation
is meant to glorify God, to set him apart as the God who saves
sinners, who justifies the ungodly. And they're wicked because they
do not exalt Christ as the glory of the Father, the Savior of
His people, the one and only righteousness that we have before
God. They don't exalt Him. Paul wrote
in Galatians 2.21, he said, if righteousness come by the law,
that is by our works, Christ is dead in vain. Do you realize
if you believe salvation is conditioned on you and you're saved because
you met that condition, That's salvation by works. And it's
a statement, whether you mean to say it this way or not, that
Christ died in vain because Christ came to fulfill those conditions
and to make his people righteous before God. That's the only way. They're evil because they give
the sinner room to boast. Listen, the Bible says that,
let he that glorieth, glorieth in this, that he knoweth and
understandeth the Lord God. that he's both just and justifier,
that no man glory in himself. Paul wrote, God forbid that I
should glory, boast, save in the cross of Christ. So these false gospels that we
naturally adhere to, they give us room to boast, and we're not
to have that. They're the product of unbelief.
So he says this, he says, does this offend you? Well, look at
verse 62, John six. What, and if you shall see the
son of man ascend up where he was before, it is the spirit
that quickeneth, verse 63, the flesh profiteth nothing. The
words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are
life. Now, what is he talking about?
What, and if you shall see the son of man ascend up where he
was before. Well, what's he talking about?
Well, he's talking about his resurrection and his ascension
under the father after he died for the sins of his people. And
what was all that for? Well, he stated it at his baptism. He told John when John refused
to baptize him, he said, John suffered to be so for us to fulfill
all righteousness. In other words, what he's telling
them this, if you're offended by this, then just consider this. Why did Jesus Christ, the son
of God come into this world? He came into this world to live
and to die, to be buried and raised again, to ascend unto
the Father, all in fulfillment of a perfect righteousness whereby
God could save and justify His people with no contribution from
them. In fact, we were instrumental
in murdering the Lord of glory, but it was God who put Him on
that cross. It pleased the Father to bruise
Him. Peter said that in Acts chapter two in his sermon at
Pentecost. He said, we did it with wicked hands, but we did
no more than what God had foreordained and determined to happen. This
was God's purpose from before time began, before the world
was created, before Adam even fell. And so he says, if you
see the Son of Man ascending up, what is that about? Here's
one who accomplished the work that the father gave him to do.
Now we all are sinners. We have no hope in ourselves.
We have no salvation, no possibility of salvation in ourselves. If
God were to condition salvation on us, we'd be doomed forever. But Christ, that's not the case
with him. He's God manifest in the flesh. He's God with us. He's the son
of God incarnate. And he kept the law perfectly. He told him, he said, I didn't
come to break the law, I came to keep it. And he said, accept
your righteousness, exceed the righteousness of the scribes
and the Pharisees. You can in no case, no wise enter the kingdom
of heaven. Well, what is it? His ascending
up, what's he doing? He's entering the kingdom of
heaven. He is as the representative of His people, as the surety
of His people, as the substitute, the Redeemer, the mediator and
intercessor, the complete Savior, the King of kings and Lord of
lords. That's what He's doing. And so He says in verse 63, He
says, it is the Spirit that quickeneth The flesh profiteth nothing.
The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are
life. Now, the words that he was speaking to them, they were
offended at it. I mentioned this last week. I
can remember when I first began to hear the gospel, I was offended
at it, highly offended, because it went against my natural grain,
my sinful natural grain. But God, in His good providence,
kept me under the preaching of the true gospel and he sent his
spirit to quicken me, to give me life from the dead. That's
the new birth. Remember in Ephesians 2, Paul
wrote, and you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and
sins? Well, that's what happens. When
God saves a sinner, saves one of his sheep, saves one of his
leg, He first brings them under the gospel, the gospel truth. The truth shall set you free.
The words that Christ is speaking of here, that our spirit and
our life, the Holy Spirit uses the word of God to give life
to His people. We're begotten again by the word
of truth, James said in James 1.18. And so the Spirit gives
life. The very words that offended
me, I found out they're my life. Because they, by the Spirit,
led me to Christ. The true Christ. Not the counterfeit
that I was depending on. But the true Christ of the Bible.
The true Christ of God. The true Christ by whose blood
my sins were washed away. by whose righteousness charged
to me, I'm justified. And the one who keeps me unto
the end, who can save me to the uttermost, not part of the way. You see this notion again, as
I told you, that you can be saved and then lost. That's what they're
saying, that they're Jesus, who is a counterfeit. He saves you
part of the way, but then you've got to do the rest. That's a
lie. That's a false gospel. That's
a denial of the true Christ. Christ saves His people. Christ
keeps His people. And Christ brings them to glory. His words. The flesh profits
nothing. What we do, what we choose, all
of that, that profits nothing. But His word is the word of life. It's the gospel. which is the
power of God unto salvation to everyone that believe it, the
Jew first, the Greek also, the Gentile also, for therein is
the righteousness of God revealed from faith, that's truth revealed,
to faith, that's truth believed, as it is written, the justified
shall live by faith. Those who are forgiven of their
sins in the blood of Christ, those who are righteous before
God in His righteousness imputed, they live by looking to Jesus,
the author and finisher of their faith. And that's a glory, that
gives God all the glory. We don't have any glory except
that which we have in Him as we point to Him and worship Him. Well, look at verse 64 of John
6. He says, but there are some of
you that believe not. In this crowd, for Jesus knew
from the beginning who they were that believe not and who should
betray him. Now he's referring there to Judas
who should betray him. But here's the thing about it.
In his deity, Christ is omniscient. He knows all. And he's not learning
anything. You know, a lot of people, they
look at God as if God is just learning things as time goes
on. No, God is omniscient. He knows all because He's determined
all. The God of this book is so high
and so it's a mind-boggling thing to us. But He knows everything. Well, He said in Isaiah chapter
46, He's the one who declares the end from the beginning. I believe that's Isaiah 46, 9
or 10. One of those verses. You look
it up. He is the God who knows the end from the beginning. Now, what does that mean? Well,
you know what that is. I know people don't like to hear
this, but that's okay. It's scriptural. That's predestination. That's the foreknowledge of God.
God didn't look down through a telescope of time and find
out what He didn't know or what was going to happen. That's not
in the Bible. That's a false God. That's an
idol. He's the God who declares the end from the beginning. Now
think about it this way. You and I, we can declare the
beginning from the end. We start out the day, and we
go through the day, and at the end of the day, we can tell you
how the day began, how it went along, and now we're going to
bed and going to sleep. This is how it ends. We can do
that because we live through it. But God, He can tell the
end from the beginning. He knows how it's all going to
come out because He's determined it. That's who He is. He said, I'll do all my pleasure.
I will do all my will. He's the God who works all things
after the counsel of His own will. Ephesians 111. He knows
the end from the beginning. So in His omniscience, Christ
knew those who did not believe on it. The Bible says in John
chapter seven that he knew their hearts. You see, I can look at
you and I don't know your heart. If you tell me you're a believer
and you tell me that you believe this gospel, my question to you
is, well, what is the gospel that you believe? Now, if you
tell me, well, I believe that salvation is conditioned on me,
that God gave me a boost, and now I'm the one who's responsible
to keep it up, then I know that your heart is not in the true
gospel. You believe a false gospel. But even if you tell me you believe
the true gospel, I can say, well, I know your heart, but your heart
could change. You might be one of those who
apostatize later. So all we can do is act upon
what we see and know. But God knows the end from the
beginning. Christ knew their hearts. And he said he knew. He knew from the beginning who
they were that believed not and who should betray him. Now we
know that's Judas. He knew Judas was gonna betray
him. And yet he chose him anyway. Why? Because that was God's purpose.
Judas was an instrument to bring Christ to the cross. Judas did
it out of his own sinful desire. And God holds him accountable,
but he was set up from the beginning. I know that's mind-boggling,
but that's the case. And verse 65, look at it, John
6, 65. He said, therefore said I unto you that no man can come
to me except it were given unto me of my father. He knew those
who believed not, but he said, here's the way he said it. He
said, I've told you, they can't come to me except the Father
which has sent me draw him. And then verse 66 says this,
from that time, many of his disciples went back and walked no more
with him. Many of those who started out
following him, called his disciples, they quit. And he says, they
didn't believe on him. Now, at first they said they
believed on him. They didn't lose their salvation, friend.
They just revealed what they were all along, false professors. And he turned to his disciples.
Look at John 6, 67. Then said Jesus unto the 12. Now, Judas
is included in the 12, but he's a false disciple. And he turned
to them, he said, will you go away, also go away? Are you going
to leave? And then verse 68, then Simon
Peter answered him. And he said, Lord, to whom shall
we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. Now there's the gift of faith.
We've got no place else to go. Somebody asked me one time, said,
how do you know you're saved according to the scripture? Because
Christ is my only hope and I've got nowhere else to go. I can't
turn to myself, I can't turn to my family, can't even turn
to my church, I turn to Christ. He is all and all to me. And that's what Peter's professing
here as the spokesman for the disciples. other than Judas,
and he points that out here. He says, to whom shall we go?
You can go to the law, but what's the law going to do? It's going
to condemn you. Remember he told the Pharisees back in John five,
he said, you trust in Moses, that is the law, your works.
Moses will be your judge, he'll condemn you. You can turn to
your profession, and your profession won't do you any good, You can
turn to your baptism. You can turn to an experience,
a dream, whatever. My friend, unless you turn to
Christ, it's all no good. To whom shall we go? Not to what
shall we go? To whom? You ask most people
today about salvation. A lot of times you'll get an
answer back, well, when I was 12, 13, 14, I gave my heart to
Jesus and I was baptized. My friend, that's nothing. What I'm saying is, do you believe
in the Lord Jesus Christ as He's identified in this word, in His
person, in His work? Look at verse 69. Peter went
on to say, and we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ,
the Son of the living God, the Christ of God, the Messiah. salvation,
the Lord our righteousness, the Redeemer, the surety of the covenant,
the substitute for sinners, the glorious sacrifice that Isaiah
spoke of in Isaiah 53, the Lamb of God, which beareth away the
sins of the world, God's people all over the world, the Redeemer. Job said, I know my Redeemer
liveth. I know I have a Redeemer. That's
the Messiah that God has promised. The one to whom Abraham looked. The one whom Jacob saw and wrestled
with. All of that we know. We believe
and are sure, the assurance of it, because of who he was and
what he did and why he did it in his word, that thou art that
Christ, the Messiah. the anointed one, the son of
the living God. And then it says, and Jesus answered
them, have not I chosen you 12, and one of you is a devil? Now
he knew that. Judas didn't take him by surprise.
And he spake of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, for he it was
that should betray him, being one of the 12. All of this according
to the determinant counsel and foreknowledge of God. And He
saves His people according to that will, that sovereign will,
and gives them the gift of faith to where they like Peter, to
whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal
life, and we're sure that you are Jesus, the Savior of His
people. Hope you'll join us next week
for another message from God's Word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of
Grace Media Ministries or Eager Avenue Grace Church, write us
at 1-1-0-2 Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia. Contact us by phone at 229-432-6969
or email us through our website at www.TheLetterRofGrace.com. Thank you again for listening
today and may the Lord be with you.