All right, let's open there in
John chapter six. Brother Mark just read the main
verses that I'm really dealing with range from verse 37 to 45. But let me just begin by reading
the last two there, verses 44 and 45 of John chapter six. The subject is the drawing power
of God. drawing power of God. John 6,
44, the Lord Jesus Christ speaking.
And he says, no man can come to me except the father which
has sent me draw him. And I will raise him up at the
last day. It is written in the prophets.
Now here he begins to quote from the prophet Isaiah. You may have
a reference in your Bible there, Isaiah 54. It says, and they
shall be all taught of God. Who is the all there? Tell you
exactly who the all there is. All who are taught of God. And then how do you know you've
been taught of God? Look at the next line. Every
man therefore that hath heard. Do you have ears to hear? Do
you have eyes to see? Heard what? Something it says
in the line of, and hath learned of the Father. And then what
do they do? They cometh unto me, he says.
That's the drawing power of Almighty God, and we'll talk about that.
When he says no man can, that word can speaks of ability. It's
the word that is sometimes translated power. No man has the power to
come, he says. You might recognize it from Romans
1 16, the gospel is the power of God unto salvation to everyone
that believe. And that's what it is. We get our English word dynamite
from this word. Greek word dunamis, dynamite. And then that word draw, except
the father which has sent me draw him. You know what draw
means? It means to drag. Over in the book of John chapter
21 verse six, it refers to a net that they use to cast into the
water and they drug up fishes from that drag net to the shore. So he's talking about a power
which draws. Now clearly, the power of drawing
here is of God, not of man. This is the drawing power of
God. It's not the preacher's drawing
power. It's not the pianist or the organist's drawing power. It's not the invitation system
that's so popular today that gets people down an aisle emotionally.
It's not emotions that draw you. You may be emotional when you're
drawn, and that's okay. But it's not the emotions that
draw you. You see, if your emotions draw
you, that's emotionalism. That's not salvation. I remember the first emotion
that I had when I first heard the gospel. You know what my
first emotion was when I first heard the gospel? Anger. Hatred. No way I believed that. Sometime later on, God drew a
rebel to himself. This drawing power of God is
sometimes theologically or doctrinally put as the irresistible calling
or the invincible calling of the Holy Spirit. But this drawing
power of God is the drawing power of God to bring His people to
Christ. That's what it's talking about.
To bring a sinner seeking mercy, a sinner who's been taught some
things concerning the holiness and the justice of God, And in
light of that, who's come to learn by God through the preaching
of the gospel, his wretchedness, his sinfulness, his depravity,
his inability to know that he has nothing to
recommend himself to God. And a sinner who has been shown
by God through the preaching of the gospel that God's free
and sovereign grace in and by the Lord Jesus Christ, the God-man,
who died on that cross to put away the sins of his sheep, his
people, to bring righteousness into being for them to be right
with God, that Christ is their only hope. They've got no place
else to go, no one else to turn to. Everything else is damnation,
everything else is sin and iniquity. And when this happens, it's the
work of God. Now, does all this mean, now
listen to me very carefully, does all this mean that when
God draws, drags His people to Christ, does that mean that God
makes people come to Christ against their wills? And the answer is no. He does
not drag sinners to Christ against their will. You know what he
does? He changes their will. I read it when we opened the
service. Thy people shall be willing when? Well, whenever the preacher gets
real eloquent. Or whenever the organ plays softly.
and every head bowed and every eye closed. Now I'm not just
making fun, people. I want people to understand these
things. He makes his people willing in
the day of his what? His power. That's what this is
talking about. Now, number one, the source of
this drawing is the sovereign electing grace of Almighty God. How do you know that? Look over
verse 37. Verse 37, all that the Father giveth me shall come
to me. You see that? Now I'll come back
to that verse. Look at verse 39. I'm not skipping
over the second part of that verse. I'm coming back to it
now. But look at verse 39. This is the Father's will which
has sent me that of all which he hath given me, I should lose
nothing, none of them, but should raise it up at the last day.
You see that? That's God's electing grace.
All that the Father gave to Christ. When did that happen? according
to the scripture. Now I'm not talking about when
do you think it happened. I don't care what you think. It doesn't
matter what I think. What does the scripture say?
When did that happen? It happened before the foundation
of the world. That's what the Bible says. Election. God's electing grace.
Ephesians 1-3, blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in Christ Jesus it says. Then it goes on in that whole
chapter to tell us that all of this was predestinated by God
before the foundation of the world. Revelation chapter 13
speaks of those whose names were written in the Lamb's book of
life when? Before the world began. Isn't
that right? Somebody says, well wait a minute,
election robs men of their free will. No it doesn't, sin does. Why is the will of man in bondage? Why won't men and women of their
own will come to Christ? Why do they have to be drawn?
Because of sin. That's why. Look at John 17 with
me. This is the high priestly prayer
of the Lord Jesus Christ. You know what a high priestly
prayer is? You remember the high priest of Israel? Remember, on
the Day of Atonement, he would go into the tabernacle. He'd
go into the Holy of Holies with the blood of the Lamb for the
people of God. He didn't go in there for everybody
without exception. He had 12 names written on his
breastplate and 12 on his shoulder on the ambulance. The tribes
of Israel. Well, this is Christ, the great
high priest, the eternal high priest, praying for his people. God's elect, His sheep, His church,
that's who this is. And here's what He says, look
at verse 1 of John 17. He says, These words spake Jesus, lifted
up His eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour has come, glorify
Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify Thee, as Thou hast given
Him power over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to
as many as Thou hast given Him. You see that? And this is life
eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God, and
Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent. In verse six, he says,
you read, listen, sometime get by yourself and just read this
whole chapter. It'll bless you. He says in verse six, I have
manifested Thy name unto the men which Thou hast, Thou gavest
me out of the world. Thine they were, Thou gavest
them me, and they have kept Thy word. That's believers. Keeping
His word means believing in Him. Verse nine. I pray for them,
I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given
me, for they are thine. Look over verse 24. Father, I
will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where
I am, that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me,
for thou loves me before the foundation of the world. All
that the Father given me. Now go back to John six now.
Look back at that verse 37. You see, here's the issue, all
who desire, listen to him, all who desire salvation, and I want
you to underscore this, all who desire salvation, God's way of
salvation, God's way, not your way, not my way, not the denominator,
all who desire salvation, God's way, shall be saved. And what is God's way? It's the
way of His sovereign grace through the blood and righteousness of
His Son, who is the bread of life. Look at verse 37 again.
Now look at it. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise
cast out. Any sinner, every sinner who
comes to Him will never be turned away. How do you know that? Well, no man can come to me except
the Father which has sent me drawing. That's the drawing power
of God, friend. And here's where we find the
answers to such questions. Am I one of God's elect? Am I
one for whom Christ died? Am I one of his sheep? Or has
God drawn me to salvation in and by Christ? You know this
whole passage, Mark read it. Here the Lord is, he's speaking
to a group of people. Some of them are his disciples.
Some of them are unbelievers. Verse 28, look at John 6, 28. He says, they said in him, what
shall we do that we might work the works of God? I've heard people say, well,
I just want to work for God. I want to do the works of God.
Well, verse 29, Jesus answered and said unto them, this is the
work of God that you believe on him whom he had sent. Now
did you notice that? Several things. Number one, it's
believing not just something, but it's believing on He whom
God hath sent, Christ, as He's identified and distinguished
in this Word. Who is Jesus Christ? He's God
in human flesh, friend. He's the God man. His name shall
be called Jesus for he shall save his people from their sins.
His name shall be called Emmanuel, God with us. You say, well, that's
a mind boggling truth. Yes, it is. Just step back and
wonder. This is who he is. This is the
kind of person that it took to save sinners like his people,
like me, like you, who are saved. This is why we can say we stand
before God, not in the righteousness of man, but in the righteousness
of God, because it's what Christ accomplished. What did he do
on the cross? Did he just make people savable? Did he just make salvation possible
if you would cooperate? Well, man by nature will not
cooperate. No man can come to me except
the father which has sent me drawing and won't cooperate. He established the assurance
of the salvation of every sinner for whom he died. They're called
his sheep. Think about this, here's number
two. The power of this drawing, the ground and power of this
drawing is the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Look
back over at John chapter 12. Turn over a few pages. John chapter
12. What Christ is teaching up here
He begins back in verse 23 talking about planting a seed of wheat. He's using an illustration. And
he said, what happens now? And I'm, listen, I'm not a farmer.
I'm not an agriculturalist or a horticulturalist. I don't know
about all that. I just know what he says here. When you take a
seed of wheat, a corn of wheat, he said, and you plant it in
the ground, he said it dies. And then from that death springs
forth life, the stalk of wheat. And what he's talking about,
he's using that to illustrate his own death on the cross because
out of his death for the sins of his people imputed to him,
their debt charged to him, out of his death springs righteousness
which demands their life. And so, he's telling his disciples,
he said, this is why I came, I've got to go and die that you
might have life. There's no life without his death.
That's why he died. That's why he was buried. That's
why he arose again the third day. He established righteousness,
which demands life. The wages of sin is death, but
the gift of God is eternal life. How? Through Jesus Christ, our
Lord. You see, wages is what we earn. And that's what we earn,
death. That's why it's by grace. We
don't earn it. We don't deserve it. We don't merit it. Christ
did it all. And it says here, look at verse 32. of John 12. He says, and I, if
I be lifted up from the earth, he's talking about the cross.
He said, will draw all unto me. That word draw there. All who,
all of his people, all of God's elect, all of his sheep, all
whom the father gave him. He says in verse 33, this, or
John wrote, this he said signifying what death he should die. You
see the ground of a sinner's salvation is the imputed righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. His righteousness imputed. As
we were ruined by the fall, we must be redeemed by the blood,
and out of that comes life, regeneration by the Spirit. The power of this
drawing is the power of the cross, which is His righteousness. Over
there back in John chapter six, our text, God is, this is what
happens. In verse 45, look at it again.
It's written, and they shall be all taught of God. Every man
therefore that hath heard. Heard what? Heard this message
of God's grace in how God saves sinners. A holy God who must
punish sin. Who cannot ignore it or look
over it or deny it or just let it go. God is a just God. He can't listen. The moment a
preacher tells you that God forgives sins, he's telling you the truth,
but there's a problem. And that problem is this. The
Bible says that God is a holy, just, righteous God who must
punish sin. He cannot forgive you. He cannot
justify you. He cannot bless you. He cannot
save you. He cannot show mercy or love
or grace apart from justice being satisfied. How do I know that? Because Christ had to come and
do what? He had to die. He didn't die
as a love token. He didn't die as a Valentine
or a Hallmark card. He didn't die to make salvation
possible. He died as a propitiation, a
sin-bearing sacrifice who made what? Satisfaction to the law
of God. Yes, God is love, but His love
must provide what his justice demands. And he did in the Lord
Jesus Christ. He died the death that his people
earned and deserve. The gospel speaks of that holiness
and righteousness of God that must be satisfied. The gospel
speaks of our sinfulness and our depravity that shows us that
we cannot be saved, we cannot be blessed, we cannot be forgiven,
we cannot be preserved, we cannot be glorified based upon anything
that we offer to God from ourselves. It all comes to us by His grace
through the Lord Jesus Christ. Have you heard the gospel? and then hath learned of the
Father." How God can be both a just God and a Savior? That's
how you learn of the Father. How can God be a righteous judge
as well as a loving Father? How can He be both? Job asked
that question. Job's friends even. How can a
man be just with God? How can a sinner be clean? One
born of woman, born in sin, fallen in Adam, dead in trail. How in
the world can that happen? The Gospel has the answer. For
therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to
faith. Well, if you heard that, whether
it's from me or any other of God's preachers from the word
of God, and God's made you willing in the day of his power, you
know what? You're gonna come to Christ and nobody will be
able to stop you. You may never walk an aisle. But you'll come to Christ. That's
an act of faith. Back over here in John chapter
6, you know when Christ was speaking about the bread of God, He was
speaking of Himself, wasn't He? He's the bread of heaven. That
means He's our life. He's our sustenance. He says
in verse 33, look at it, He said, The bread of God is He which
cometh down from heaven and giveth life into the world. That's not
talking about everybody without exception, because everybody
without exception doesn't have life. You see, the Jews, they
thought that the Messiah was coming just for the Jews. Christ
said, you're wrong. God has a people out of every
tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation. Jew and Gentile. And verse 34,
listen to this. Then they said unto him, Lord
evermore give us this bread. Look at verse 35, Jesus said
to them, I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never
hunger. He's talking about faith in Christ, God-given faith. He
that believeth on me shall never thirst. He's the water of life.
Verse 36, but I said in you that you also have seen me and believe
not. You don't believe. But all that
the Father giveth me shall come to me. And him that cometh to
me I will in no wise cast out. You see, where God chooses a
people in Christ, He imputes righteousness to them, and where
God imputes righteousness at some point, He's gonna draw them
to Him through the preaching of the gospel. That's number
three. The reason for this drawing is the sinfulness of man by nature.
He doesn't want salvation God's way. Look at it again, verse
44. No man can come to me except
the Father which has sent me drawing. And I'll raise him up
again the last day. Turn to Romans chapter three.
You've heard that term, the total depravity of man. That's what
the Bible teaches. Now, the total depravity of man
does not mean that all of us are a bunch of raving lunatics
running around out here, robbing banks and killing people and
using drugs and all of that. There's that segment of society,
don't get me wrong, they're lost. That's not what total depravity
means. Let me show you what total depravity means. Look at Romans
chapter three, look at verse 10. It says, as it is written, this
is the word of God now. This is what God says. There's
none righteous, no not one. Now often I tell you when I read
passages like that, don't read it with what I call the accept
me syndrome. That's how most people read verses
like that. You know, over in Ecclesiastes 7 it says, there's
not a just man on earth that sinneth not. Except me. No, not except me. What this
is describing is all of us by nature without God, without God's
grace, without Christ. All right? There's none righteous.
Now it doesn't say there's none religious. It doesn't say there's
none moral, according to man's standard. It says there's none
righteous. There's none of us by nature
or by practice who have a righteousness that equals and answers the demands
of God. But go on. We'll look down at
verse 19 first. It says, now we know that what
things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under
the law, that every mouth may be stopped and all the world
may become guilty before God. That means deserving of condemnation.
Therefore, by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be
justified, be righteous in God's sight for by the law is the knowledge
of sin. That's the second part of depravity. Number one, we
don't have a righteousness. Number two, we cannot work one. We cannot work one, not even
with our best efforts. If you're a child of God, if
you've been regenerated and converted by the Spirit, let's say you've
been like that for 30 years, do you know something that I
can tell you about yourself right now? You still cannot work righteousness
by your efforts. You're still just as dependent
upon Christ for righteousness as you ever were. And really,
one of the biggest parts of growth in grace and knowledge of Christ
is realizing that more and more. Well, here's the third part of
depravity. Look back at verse 11 of Romans 3. There's none
that understandeth. You see, the gospel has to be
revealed by God. It has to be taught by God the
Holy Spirit in the preaching and the gospel. There's none
that seeketh after God. Now it doesn't say there's none
that seeketh after a God. The God. Verse 12, they are all
gone out of the way. What way is he talking about?
He's talking about the way of salvation in Christ by God's grace. They
are all together become unprofitable. That's because the way that we
choose naturally is unprofitable. There's none that doeth good,
no not one. That's according to God's standard
of goodness. Now that's why we have to be
drawn by God. Because we won't come by our
own. Man by nature, he has a conscience. He's religious. Listen, if we're one of God's
chosen people, do you know something? God has had his hand of sovereign
providence and power over us all our lives. even when we didn't
know him, even when we were in unbelief and enemies of God,
even in our false religion. I love the story of the prophet
Hosea and his wife Gomer. You ever read about that? Hosea
loved this woman. She was a prostitute. He loved
her and he married her. And she left him and went after
other men, sold herself. Later on, when she got older
and couldn't support herself by her chosen trade, she was
gonna be destitute, but you know what? Hosea, who loved her, kept
bringing her food. He'd lay food at her door, took
care of her. You know what she would do, old
Gomer? She would open the door and look down at that basket
of food, and she would say, oh, my husband, Hosea said, no. She said, oh, my lovers are so
good to me. You know what happened later
on? They put her on the slave block,
and Hosea came out and bought her. Now, let me tell you something.
That's a picture of the salvation of God's elect. I went through
my life, even religious. Oh, I sowed my wild oats like
all teenagers do and all that junk. But I got religious, and
Randy, we talked about how many times we rededicated. And then
all of a sudden we got serious. I ended up in the seminary, thought
I was seeking God. I wasn't seeking God. I was seeking
my idea of God. God blessed me even then, and
I didn't know it, and I was like Gomer. Oh, aren't my lovers good
to me? But then God brought me under
the preaching of the gospel, the truth. And at some point
in time, He made me willing in the day of His power. And that's
the last point I want to leave with you. The agent and the means
of this drawing is the Holy Spirit empowering the gospel truth.
That's where we come to see and be taught of God. We're by
the Spirit, what does He do? We're born again by the Spirit.
You must be born again. He gives us a new heart, a new
life. He makes us willing, a new will,
makes us willing. That which I before hated, now
I love, and I can't stop preaching it. That which I despised, You know, before I heard a gospel
message that really got my attention, I can remember the last words
that I spoke to my mother. I said, Mom, there's no way I'll
believe that. That's against everything that
I've been taught in the seminary and in the churches that I went
to. And so I set my mind to do one thing. I wanted to study
the Bible to prove that gospel preacher wrong. That was my first
mistake. It wasn't a mistake, was it?
There's no mistakes with God. No, that's when God showed me.
I began to read the Bible and study the Bible, and I said,
hey, what he's preaching, that's what the Bible teaches. Why hadn't
all these other preachers told me this that I grew up under
and asked questions? They didn't know it. They didn't
believe it. He says, it's written in the
prophets, John 6, they shall all be taught of God. Every man
therefore that hath heard, that's with the regenerate ear, the
hearing ear, and hath learned. Somebody says, well, you're saying
you've got to be an intellectual. Oh no, God's the teacher. He
can teach the dumbest. and he can teach the smartest.
But here's how you know it. They come to Christ. This Christ. He said, all ye that labor and
are heavy laden, come unto me and I'll give you rest. Isn't
that right? One more scripture and I'll quit.
Look at John chapter 1. Just turn back to John chapter
1. That's the drawing power of God. Are you drawn to Him in
the truth? of God's grace, of the gospel.
Well, look at John chapter one in verse 11. It's talking about
the coming of Christ into the world. And it says in verse 11, he came
unto his own and his own received him not. They didn't believe.
Some commentators say that's his own nation. I know it referred
to me for a time. I didn't receive him. But then
in verse 12, but as many as received him, it's believed in him, come
to him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God. Now
that word power there is a different word than power in Romans 1 16,
the power of God into salvation or the can of, that word power
there is the right or the privilege and here's what he's saying,
you see The Jews who rejected Christ, they claimed to be children
of God. Well, what right do you have
to make that claim? What authority? What power? What right? Do you claim to be
a child of God? Do I claim? What right or power?
Well, it says the only right or power that any of us have
to claim to be children of God has to do with receiving Christ. believing in Him, coming to Him.
And so He gave them power to become the sons of God, even
to them that believe on His name. That's not just a label, that's
who He is, what He did, why He did it, where He is now. And
look at verse 13, which were born, not of blood, that's natural
birth, descendancy. Doesn't matter what mom and dad
did or was. Nor the will of the flesh, that's
the works of the flesh. nor of the will of man." It wasn't
of your free will choice. If you're willing to come to
Christ, He's made you willing in the day of His power. He didn't
save you against your will, He changed your will. They were born of God, it says.
Isn't that right? How do I know I've been born
of God? Well, all that the Father giveth me, Christ said, shall
come to me. Him that cometh to me, I will
in no wise cast out." You come to Christ. I guarantee you, if
you come to Him, God's way, according to God's truth, you believe in
Him, it's because He's drawn you. Isn't that right? Like that
fish in a net. Those fishermen, they didn't
look at those fish and said, well, would you all just jump in the
net? No. Drew them up. And He makes us willing in the
day of His power.