For those that are tuning in,
we apologize. We're not streaming to YouTube
this morning or to Sermon Audio as I had hoped. Tried to get
all that worked out but just ran out of time and wasn't able
to figure it out before today. So we kind of went back to the
old school way of doing it and I'll upload YouTube and Sermon
Audio later this week. So apologize in you youtubers
and sermon audio people but uh anyway we'll try to get it all
figured out here and eventually maybe get it all streamed out
i also noticed last week that our streaming to the two different
sites at the same time was kind of garbley and uh so that may
be because of the bandwidth so there may be an opportunity for
us to stream to uh sermon audio brother larry told me about this
Sermon Audio being able to stream to the other platforms, and that's
just a stream of that. So I'm gonna look into that,
and we can maybe do one stream, maybe not kill our bandwidth
and make things garbly, and stream to them, and then from Sermon
Audio, that will stream to Facebook and YouTube for us. So once I
get all this figured out and everything, then hopefully we'll
get all that, where all three platforms will be streaming at
the same time. But until then, we'll still upload
after the fact, until we can get it all figured out. So anyway,
my apologies to everybody. I put out a thing on the church's
deal saying we're going to try to do that this week. But anyway,
didn't get it all worked out and figured out. I tried a test
yesterday on it and it didn't work. So anyway, John chapter
6, if you would, this morning, we're going to start there. That's going to be the first
verse we're going to look at. Good to see everybody this morning
and have everybody this morning. I truly do love the time that
we have to share in the Word of God with each other. For those
who are watching, a lot of times before we come on to the live
stream, we have a conversation here. Sometimes that conversation
rolls into the whole service and we don't even start the live
stream. We just talk here. Sometimes
we talk about things that are personal, having to deal with
things mainly just within our church. Sometimes we don't feel
that would be public and everything. But we have singing and discussion
sometimes before we even start. But for you guys, you just kind
of get to see what you see. But we do enjoy the time to get
together and to visit and to talk about the Lord and bounce
things off of each other and encourage one another. This morning,
I thought we might look at something, and I've talked about this in
times past. In fact, I even went back and
tried to look to see when maybe the last time it was that I spoke
specifically on this subject as it pertains to what I'm going
to talk about today. And I think it was around 2016
or so that I spoke on this and everything. But the Lord had
kind of laid this on my heart. Actually, yesterday afternoon,
and I'd kind of been kicking things around in my head. And
this morning when I got up, I actually was wanting to look at something
else. And I got my Bible out this morning and started asking
the Lord what He wanted me to talk about. I already had mine
kind of what I wanted to talk about, but he can't bring me
back to what he was dealing with me about yesterday and everything. And so I probably ought to just
go ahead and go forth with that and talk about that. So I jotted
down a few verses of scripture and everything, and hopefully
the Spirit will be with me. in this, and hopefully the Lord
will edify all of you as we go through this. But let's go to
the Lord in prayer, and then we'll begin to look at a few
things. Heavenly Father, we thank you again for the day that you've
given to us together together, and we thank you for these brethren
that are brought here by your hand. We pray, Lord, this morning
as we come together in meeting that you might edify your people,
that you might feed your sheep, Lord, I pray that you would help
me to expound the word of God that you might be with me in
utterance. Father, Lord, I pray that Christ would be exalted
in all that we do and say. Lord, we just thank you so much
for Christ Jesus and the work that he has done on our behalf
as our substitute. And we exalt him this morning
as our savior, as our substitute, as our priest, as our king, as
our Lord, Savior. We thank you for the love that
you've given us, that everlasting love from Before the foundation
of the world, you called us to yourself, put us in union with
Christ Jesus, and blessed us with all spiritual blessings
in that heavenly place. And Father, that you have in
this time granted unto us repentance and faith that we might experience
the salvation that Christ has done for us. And Lord, we are
so grateful for that, and I pray now, Lord, that you might lead
us in this study. For it's in Christ's name that
we pray, amen. I got to thinking about faith
yesterday. We talk a lot about faith. Faith
is a big seller in modern Christianity. You go into any kind of bookstore,
and you look at the theology aisle, and you see just a few
shelves there. But you look at the self-help
aisles in those Christian bookstores, and there's like 15 shelves full
of self-help. And if you don't see those 15
shelves, you can't see them because of the 75 shelves of books that's
written about faith. And this faith that is so popular
among everybody is a faith that to me is not found in the scripture. It's a faith that is a natural
faith that men can build up or wane by their doing or not doing. This is a faith that they can
take in from one object, move it to another object. This is
a faith that if they so choose and if they're so ardent in it,
They can even back God into a corner and make Him do whatever they
want Him to do. They can ask down blessings.
They can bring forth any kind of thing that they want to bring
forth. And so what we have this modern Christianity preaches
is a faith that is not the faith of the Scriptures. Now, as it
pertains to the belief of the truth, that particular faith. We know that the Bible speaks
of the word faith in different ways. We know that the Bible
speaks of faith as a belief in truth, right? A belief in something. Faith is a trust or a yearning for or longing for something
that has been told, an earnest expectation of something. Faith
is something that, you know, my faith is that Christ is going
to come again. I have faith that Christ is going to come again.
Well, that's an earnest expectation that Christ is going to come
again. That word also can be used as
hope. I have a hope that Christ is going to come again. So we
have faith used as a belief of truth, Faith can even actually
mean doctrine in and of itself. The faith that was once delivered
to the saints, that was that body of doctrine that Christ
gave the church. We also know that the Bible personifies
faith in the man Jesus Christ. That he is faith whenever faith
comes. He's talking about whenever Christ
comes. So faith is used in different
ways in the scripture, but we must We must know that faith, there is a natural faith and
there is a spiritual faith, a supernatural faith. That faith that is natural
that all men has, and we've used the illustration before, you
know, I can go sit in the chair and I have faith that that chair
is going to hold me up, okay? Or I have faith that if I get
on this airplane, it's going to get me to my destination.
We use an exercise faith all the time. That's natural faith. That's not the faith that the
Bible is talking about. That's not the faith that you
move from one object to another. The faith that is talked about
in the Bible that receives the testimony of Christ, that receives
the testimony of salvation, and I would even say that receives
the testimony of oneself and who we are in Adam, that that
faith no man has, unless it's supernaturally given to him.
Now I've heard this said, and I'm gonna quote this, and I won't
mention who said this, but I had this told to me one time in a
discussion that was a debate back and forth that we were having
about some things. And I kept that, and this is
a direct quote It says, faith in anything comes from a person
hearing enough convincing truth about something that having been
convinced that what they are hearing is true, they then respond
to that truth by doing what they have been convinced about. Okay? Now, I'll just say, now I would
agree with some of that Content there. All right number one to
have faith in anything We for the most part do need to know
something about it, okay We don't have faith in nothing. We have
faith in something we have faith in something now I will say this
I believe that the Lord puts faith in us Even though we might
not know something about it yet. I That that faith has been put
in us and once heard about that, we trust in that and we believe
on that. So that faith is there, and I
will say this. I believe that John the Baptist
had been given faith in the Lord Jesus Christ in his mother's
womb. The Bible is clear that he was
filled with the Holy Spirit in the womb, and that even mention
of Christ's coming, The baby leapt in the mother's womb and
was excited about that. And so I would say that faith
is given even though the outward hearing of the gospel has not
yet been heard, there is this inward faith that has been instilled
that is ready and receptive to those truths. And that's for
another day. But so I would agree to some
of what this quote is saying. But if I take what this quote
is saying, it's saying that if we just give somebody enough
convincing truth, then that person's faith can be changed from one
thing to another, and they will start believing what they hear
about. So if we take that as, in this
conversation we're talking about believing upon Christ, If you
hear enough convincing truths about Christ, then that convincing
truth is going to cause you to move your faith away from what
you thought to what has been being told to you. So, just like
this morning, we were talking about some stuff eschatological. We were talking about the end
times. I mean, Brother Larry, before we came on the live stream,
Let's just say Larry takes the position of a dispensationalist. Now he isn't a dispensationalist,
I'll just let you know that. But let's just say Larry takes
the position of a dispensationalist and I take the position of one
who's not a dispensationalist. And I come to Larry and Larry
is like dug in dispensationalist. I give Larry enough information
and just the bombardment of that information and the convincing
nature of that information Larry looks at it and says, you know
what, I think that's true. I'm going to change my mind and I'm
going to not be a dispensationalist anymore. And he changes his mind
and becomes a dispensationalist. So now Larry has moved from being
a dispensationalist to moving to be whatever other category
you want to put in there and everything. But now he has been
moved because the preacher or whoever has given him enough
convincing evidence that he says, well, you know what? I'm going
to change my mind and I'm going to put my faith in that. And
so now that faith is put in something else. Okay? Now, who's to say
that later on down the line somebody can come and give him some more
convincing evidence to move to a different position? Even that,
say he moved from dispensationalism to historic premillennialism.
Now somebody comes along the way and tells him otherwise and
now he says, well, you know what? You convinced me, now I believe
that gospel millennialism is the right outlook on that, so
I'm gonna take a gospel millennial outlook on that. And then somebody
gives, now I'm not saying that that doesn't happen to us all,
because I've moved away on my eschatology all done, and everything. But is the fact that we can convince
somebody to believe upon Jesus Christ in such a way that as
the Bible teaches this faith is something that gives us hope
that we can continue to hope in and that it gives us assurance
that we can be assured of the things and even the fact that
the Bible says that the Spirit is given that we might know that
we are the children of God. If that faith that is given to
us or that faith that we're talking about can be convinced by outward
truths that then makes an internal change, then we're bound to whatever
convincing truth is being given to us. We're bound to whatever
men bring to us, books bring to us, whatever the outward things
are, then we're bound to that. But the Bible teaches that truth
comes by the Spirit of God, by revelation, that it is an internal
spiritual and supernatural thing and that man's believing, man's
trusting, man's hoping and man's assurance doesn't come from anything
from without, it only comes from within. So if what this person
says is true, then every man in all the world, if they are
just given enough evidence and enough truth then they can be
convinced to change their mind. Now, I know that this is what
people in modern quote-unquote Christianity believes because
that is what, as we talked about last week, is the gas in their
evangelism. Because they think that they
can go out there and get the whole world saved by their going
out and preaching because they believe that by their going and
preaching and reaching the nations that they are saving people.
See, salvation doesn't come that way. Salvation came as an objective
work of Christ alone. And it doesn't come from our
preaching. Yes, there is a aspect of salvation that comes from
preaching. We are saved from wrong knowledge. We are saved whenever we hear
the preaching of the gospel, when we are hearing the preaching
of the truth, We are saved from the wrong understanding, the
wrong knowledge of the Word of God. We are saved from the wrong
understanding of the Gospel. We are saved from wrong thinking,
whenever we are like that. Whenever we hear the Word of
God and its admonitions, and we seek to follow those admonitions,
we are saved from a lot of heartache. Just an example, with a husband
and wife, The Bible says that we are to be faithful to one
another and that sex is to be only within the confines of marriage.
That sex outside of a man and a woman being married together
is fornication and considered sin by God. Therefore, if we
look at the admonitions of Scripture and we follow those admonitions
and we are faithful to our spouse, then we are kept from a lot of
heartaches and a lot of griefs. Why? Well, number one, divorce. We're safe from divorce and all
that that brings. We're safe from arguing and fighting. We're safe from what possibly
could be some sort of a venereal disease or some sort of a baby
from out of wedlock. We can be saved from a lot of
things because we follow the admonition. So we can be saved
by the preaching in those aspects. But whenever we're talking about
the legal aspect of salvation, whenever we're talking about
justification, sanctification, redemption, forgiveness of sins,
whenever we're talking about all these things, we're talking
about the preaching of the gospel does not bring that. The work
of Christ alone brought that. So to convince people of truths
that Salvation, you need salvation, and that Jesus is the only way
to salvation, and if you'll believe upon Him, if you'll trust Him
as your Lord and Savior, then you'll be saved. Listen, just
to trust that Jesus died on the cross and is a Savior, and that
if I trust in Him that I'll be saved, that right there doesn't
actually change anything legally before God. The only thing that
changes anything legally before God is the blood of atonement. That Christ shed on behalf of
His people. That's what changed things legally
before God. What changed things legally before
God is the work of substitution. Christ in our place. His obedience,
His death, His resurrection. That is all done on our behalf. That is what saved anybody that
is ever saved. And so preaching of the gospel,
teaching of the gospel, reception of the gospel, believing the
gospel, all those things doesn't actually save us, but the belief
of the gospel is evidence that we have been saved. It is the
experience that God is giving us of our salvation. So that person that made that
comment was completely off-kilter in saying that because nobody
can convince anybody to, and it's wrong in a couple of ways.
Number one, we can't convince anybody of truth. Only the Holy
Spirit can do that, and I hope to show that this morning. Second
of all, nobody can put faith that they have that's in something
else onto Christ because whatever faith that they're putting in
something else isn't supernatural, God-given faith. Otherwise, it
wouldn't be in something else. The faith that God gives to His
elect is faith that only looks to Christ alone. That only sees
themselves as unprofitable servants. It is a faith that only sees
the work of Christ is the only salvation. That they have no
part in that. The faith that God gives to His
elect is a faith that trusts what the Bible says about sovereign
grace, about free will that we talked about last week. See,
those are the things that God teaches His people as He grows
them in grace and knowledge. He brings them to these understandings
of these truths and that faith that He has given to them receives
those. They see that that's truth. That's
truth. That's truth. the problem that
we have and the reason that we have this disconnect between
believers of the true gospel and professors of a false gospel
that's out there in this false Christianity and this modern
Christianity that we see in so many places is the fact that
we don't realize and that we don't understand is that this
revelation that is given to his people they will see this and
they will come as Jesus said that all Father, give of me,
shall come to me, or believe upon me. So we know that every
person that is the elect of God is going to be given a faith,
and that faith is a genuine kind of faith, unlike any other faith,
and that faith can only and will only look to one thing as its
source. It will not look to its will.
It will not look to its choice or its decisions. It will not
look to a church or to a denomination or to a theological system. It
will not look to creeds and confessions. It's a faith that will look only
towards Christ. But it's also a faith that will
look away from itself and say, I can't do anything. That person
in Romans 7 that Paul was there, O wretched man that I am, that
I can't do anything good, that everything that I do is bad and
every time I want to do good, there's always evil there that's
with me, and that all I can do in this flesh is serve the law
of sin. That man, that person, Paul, the chief of sinners, that
man there only saw that because he had faith. He had been given
faith to not believe on himself, but believe in Christ. Believe
upon Christ. See, faith works that way as
well. Faith not only looks to Christ and receives all that
Christ has done for that, and in doing so, that same faith
also denies that I have anything to do with anything of my salvation.
So that's why I say, those who have been truly given the faith
of Jesus Christ and those who have been born from above, That
faith is going to reject Arminianism and all that it is. It's going
to reject free willism. It's going to reject synergism,
all these words that are thrown around for believing that we
have a part in our salvation, that we have something, that
salvation is conditioned upon something that we do. Faith denies
that because it turns from that and turns to Christ alone. That's
called repentance. That's why faith and repentance
is so close together. Because when one is given faith,
that faith is only looking to Christ. Therefore, it turns,
that's repentance, it turns its back on everything behind. It's not just repentance of sin,
meaning the sins that I have committed, my transgressions,
it's repenting of wrong thinking that my righteousness and my
salvation has anything to do condition with me. It's turning
away from faith in things and my faith and it's turning and
looking to Christ alone because I've been given a supernatural
faith that turns away from myself and looks to Christ alone. So,
this faith, how do you get that faith? This person here says
that that faith is given to you by convincing you of truth. Multiple
times. Multiple ways, multiple evidences
will convince you of that truth. Well, if that's the case, then
every child of grace should spend every waking hour studying this
Bible and spending time speaking to every person that they do
with all the truth that they know. They should cease night,
not night and day, in sharing these things. Because the salvation
of any person that's out there lies upon your head. Do you see
the fallacy of that, brethren? Do you see the fallacy of that? That puts salvation upon man
and not upon Christ where it is. Now, in John chapter 6, if
you'll turn with me there, John chapter 6, we learn a few things
about faith. If you remember, Jesus said,
He who has an ear to hear, let him
hear. That kind of sounds funny to
some people probably, especially if they haven't grown up in church,
to hear a phrase like that. He who has an ear to hear, let
him hear. What are you talking about? If anybody has ears to
hear, they're going to hear, right? Well, what was Jesus saying
there? Whenever Jesus said, after he
spoke some theological sermon, some doctrine, some teaching
to the people, he would say, let he who have an ear to hear,
let him hear. in the book of Revelation, and as he wrote those
letters to those seven churches, and I believe to all of us, he
said, he who has an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit
says through the churches. So, whenever Jesus says that,
Jesus is saying that even though someone speaks and gives you
truth, You might not hear it. You may physically hear those
words. Just like today, I'm preaching
here and I'm sure my voice is raised because I talk loud. Everyone
in this room and in the next room and the other rooms that
are in there can probably hear what I am saying. But that doesn't
mean that you actually hear what is being said. Meaning you're
not hearing with understanding. You're not hearing with conviction.
You're not hearing with a change in your understanding. And Jesus
is saying, those who have an ear to hear, let him hear or
understand what is being said. So that tells me that somebody
can hear, and hear, and hear, and hear, but never hear. Is that what we find in Scripture?
Does the Scripture validate that? Or is the scripture speaking
those truths to us and whenever we preach these things, what
I'm saying right now, am I speaking the truth or am I speaking a
philosophy or a doctrinal perspective? Am I speaking a theological system?
Am I being a Calvinist? Am I being a old school Baptist
or whatever the name or moniker you want to call me or whatever,
okay? Am I speaking because I hold
that position? Well, again, as I always say
here, let's go to the Word of God and the Word of God is our
rule of faith. The Word of God is where we go and you don't
listen and believe things because I say it. You look at it and
what does the Bible say? And if the Spirit bears witness
with your spirit of the truth, then let that be your truth.
And say, Mike, I'm sorry. I just can't go with that. And
I'd be glad to be corrected from the Bible. But let's look and
see, does the Bible back these things that faith is not something
that we can convince anybody to do? Faith is not something
that happens because of an acclamation or a gathering of truth. That
faith in something only happens whenever there is a spiritual
power that is worked upon the heart and the mind of the person. That's the only thing that can
change that. Amassing knowledge doesn't change that. Amassing
information of truth doesn't change that. It doesn't fuel
your faith or change or give you faith. The only thing that
can give us faith is the Word of God, meaning the Christ of
God. God Himself must speak. Whenever the Bible says faith
comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God, faith comes
by hearing, but that hearing comes by the Word, not this,
by the Word of God. By the One who is the Word of
God, Christ Himself, speaking to them. That's what gives us
life. That's what gives us understanding. That's what gives us knowledge,
is when Christ, by His Spirit, is the teacher, then we have
faith. Faith comes by Christ and the
Spirit of Christ in us. And you have to have that first.
It isn't given to you because you moved your faith from this
subject to this subject. as most people preach today as
I once preached that if you give your life to Jesus Christ and
he'll save you and send his spirit and put his spirit in you. The
spirit comes after we make the choice and decision and place
our faith off of ourselves and onto Christ then we get the spirit.
That is completely opposite of what the Bible teaches. The Bible
teaches that no unless he is first made spiritual. That means the Holy Spirit has
caused us to be born from above, that the Holy Spirit himself
is inside of us, and the Holy Spirit himself is teaching us,
giving us faith. If that is not happening before
the gospel ever is presented to us, we will never hear the
gospel. If that is not going on in our
lives, and listen, it's meted out. Faith is meted out. The
Bible says that God is the one who gives the measure of faith,
and that God is the one who meets out, and that there may be some
Christians who are, you know, 30-fold, who are 60-fold, or
100-fold. There are some of these Christians
that are on different levels of understanding, and knowledge,
and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, and that is controlled also by
the Spirit of God. And so all of everything that
we have is dependent upon God. In our salvation, whether it's
the legal aspect or the experiential aspect of salvation, it's all
completely dependent upon God alone. But look with me, if you
would, in John chapter 6. I'm going to start reading in
verse 63. It says here, now remember, John
chapter 6 is a chapter of all chapters in John. John chapter
6 is the chapter where Jesus laid down all the doctrines of
grace are found in John chapter 6, by the way. You can look at
John chapter 6 and you can see all the doctrines of grace found
in John chapter 6. We don't preach the doctrines
of grace because we follow John Calvin. I mentioned it last week.
I don't care anything about John Calvin. As a matter of fact,
I disagree with most of what John Calvin says and who he was
as a person. I could care less about John
Calvin being a Calvinist or the word Calvinist, Calvinism, or
any creed from the Calvinistic understanding. My concern is
Jesus. Jesus is the one who I want to
listen to. Jesus is the doctrine I want
to follow. Jesus is the theologian that I want to listen to. And
Jesus in John, and specifically in John 6, laid out every aspect
of what we call sovereign grace. But in John chapter 6 and verse
63, Jesus says this, it is the spirit that quickeneth, not the
gospel, it is the spirit that quickeneth. The flesh profiteth
nothing. That means all the things the
flesh does profits nothing. Your preaching is flesh. The
preaching is my standing here today, and the works that I'm
doing in the flesh profits nothing. It's only the spiritual work
of God. That's why I prayed before we
started here. God, give me utterance. Why?
Because I can get up here and preach things that I think in
my head, but if the Spirit don't give me utterance, I won't speak
according to truth. I pray that I speak according
to truth. It's the Spirit that gives you understanding that
if I do speak truth, you recognize it as truth as you look into
God's Word and say, that is what the Word of God says. If you're
out there in video land, whenever someone preaches or you listen
to a sermon and you say, that is what the Word of God teaches.
Yes, I believe that that's what the truth is. That doesn't come
because I convinced you or because I said it really nicely and orderly
and scholarly. It came because the Spirit of
God testified to your spirit of what the Spirit of God said
to those men who wrote it down, that the Spirit of God had come
from the throne of God with the words of God. That's why we know
these things. That's why it's a spiritual thing.
And Jesus said, it's the spirit that quickeneth or brings to
life. The flesh profits nothing. And Jesus said the words that
who speaks? That he speaks. The words that
He speaks, the Word of God, THE Word of God, capital W, THE Word
of God, the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and
they are life. But notice in verse 64, here
Jesus is speaking to these people The truth. There is no error
mixed in anything that Jesus had been preaching to them. Not
one. There was not even a wrong connotation.
There was not even a wrong illustration. There was not a wrong parable. Everything that Jesus spoke was
correct. Right on the money. Enough truth to convince, right? Because it was truth. Pure truth. Complete truth. And it came from
the one who had authority to speak it. But there are some of you that
believe not. Now they just heard him. He who
has an ear to hear. There was a bunch of people that
heard him preach this message. And he said, but there are some
of you that believe not. For Jesus Now the writer John
is going to tell us why they believed not and why Jesus knew
these things for Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that
believed not and who should betray him. See, Jesus, while he was
preaching to these people, preaching the truth to these people, Was
it trying to woo them or offer them or compel them to come to
him? Why? Because from the beginning
he knew those who were his. Why? Because he was the one that
elected them. He was the one that was given to them. They
were his seed. They were his sheep. They were
his children. They were His generation. He
knew exactly those who were His, and they knew that those who
were not His. He knew those whose names He had written down in
the Book of Life, and He knew those names who were not written
down in the Book of Life. And there they was in the congregation
before Him that He preached to them. And He did not offer them
the Gospel. He did not hope that they would
be coming. He was not waiting at the altar earnestly, tenderly,
Jesus' calling, waiting for you and for me. He did not do that. What did he do? He said, I've
spoken the truth to you, but there are some of you that believe
not. Verse 65, and he said, therefore said I unto you that no man can
come unto me except it were given unto him of my father. Why was it that some of them
did not believe that truth, that convincing truth, that overwhelming
gushing amount of convincing truth. Why were they not believing
that? Well, number one, because they
were not his. He knew those who would not believe
and who would betray him. But second of all, he knew it
because no man can come. And that word come, as we've
talked before, especially in the context of John 6, the word
come means to believe upon him. No man can believe upon me except
it were given unto him. Who's the one who's doing the
giving? Christ. Christ is the one who's been
given power over all flesh to give eternal life. Jesus is the
one who's been given power over all men and by His Spirit to
speak life into them. Isn't He the one that says, The
words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are
life. So obviously in speaking to those people, he didn't speak
spirit and life into some of them. Some of them he did. Why? Because some of them didn't
believe and some of them did. See, faith wasn't some up in
the air thing that if they had just placed their faith over
on here or here enough convincing truth. Listen, you couldn't have
got more convincing truth than what Jesus just preached them.
But yet they didn't believe, why? Because it was not given
to them. Therefore said I unto you that
no man can come unto me except, except, that means there's no
other way, no way, except there's one way that people can believe
upon me if it were given to them of my Father. Look back at verse 44. See, Jesus had already said this
once before in His discourse to them. He said, No man can
come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw him.
See, you have to be drawn. Those people that were listening
heard all that convincing truth, but yet they did not believe.
Why? Because they weren't given to come. They weren't drawn by
the Father. So this notion that enough convincing
truth can cause somebody to change. If they hear enough convincing
truth, they put their faith in that. They change their faith
from this to that. That's not how faith works. Faith
doesn't work that way. Faith is something supernaturally
given to you because you don't have it. Therefore, it has to
be given to you. And once it's given to you, then
you are drawn by the truth. As these listeners that did believe
were. Look if you would back at John
chapter 8. John chapter 8. This is where
Jesus was telling who was the true children of Abraham. Verse 42, Jesus said unto them,
If God were your father, ye would love me, for I proceeded forth
and come from God, neither came I of myself, but he sent me. Why do ye not understand my speech? Even because ye cannot hear my
word." You cannot hear my word. So here, we have a principle
laid down in Scripture, that nobody can hear the Word unless
God gives them the hearing. Just to hear, to sit under preaching,
to sit under convincing truth, no matter how much or how effective
it might be, to listen to truth, is not going to cut it. He said,
why do you not understand my speech? How many of us has preached
to our family the truth and the gospel and they just don't understand
it? They don't get it. They just don't understand it. Or they just completely outright
hate it and reject it. Why is that? Why is that? Well, if we go by what the Scriptures
teaches us, they've not been given to believe, They've not
been drawn by God, and here they cannot hear. They cannot hear
His Word. Why? It says, Ye are of your
father the devil, and the lust of your father ye will do. He
was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth. because
there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh
of his own, for he is a liar and the father of it. And because
I tell you the truth, ye believe me not." See, they had no clue
what the truth actually was. They didn't know. They couldn't
hear the truth because they had no reference of truth. See, this
is where I get that the Spirit puts faith within our heart and
even though we have not maybe heard the truth. See, Cornelius
knew some truth. There was something that had
been put in Cornelius' heart, but he couldn't articulate it
very well and he couldn't practice it very well. But whenever Peter
came and preached unto him the gospel, what happened? That which
was already there began to be evidence to him that this is
truth and was received of him. Why? Because the truth that had
already been placed within his heart and it was attested to
by the preaching of the gospel. And here I believe is what this
is saying. These people didn't have truth in them to begin with
and therefore they didn't receive the truth when it came to them.
Why? Because they couldn't hear the truth. All they can hear
is lies. And so he goes on here and says,
And because I tell you the truth, you believe me not. Which of
you convinces me of sin? And if I say the truth, why do
ye not believe me? So Jesus is saying, listen, if
I'm telling you the truth, why aren't you believing me?
I mean, that was the proposition here at the beginning, right?
If we give them convincing truth, then they will be convinced of
that truth and then trust in the truth that they heard. Well,
what was that? Well, Jesus said here, He said,
if I tell you the truth, why do you not believe me? Now He's
going to give them a clear and decisive reason. He that is of
God, heareth God's words. Ye, therefore, hear them not,
because ye are not of God. You have to be of God. You have
to be one of His. You have to be His children,
His sheep, His elect. Now that's clear teaching of
Scripture, brethren. That's not me trying to follow a philosophy
or a denominational thing or some theologian. That is what
Jesus said. And the reason that we believe
those things is because Jesus said them. And so whenever we
hear these things, we need to put away the notion And again,
the putting away of the notion can only come if God gives us
repentance of the false truths that we believe. We repent and
we say that's the truth. If that's the truth, then that
means God has made a distinction among the men of this earth.
And I speak men in a general term, women included. That God
has an elect and a non-elect. that God has those who are His
and those that He has redeemed and those He has reprobated.
Those who are vessels of honor and those who are vessels of
dishonor. Those who are the wicked and those who are the righteous.
Those who are the wicked will continue to be wicked. The Bible
says if you are wicked, be wicked still. Those who are righteous,
be righteous still. There is no changing in the number.
God doesn't have an eraser. He doesn't have an ink pen that
he's adding more names. At the foundation of the world,
he wrote them down. Those who would be, those who
would be were not. Those who were not will never
be added to this line or this page. Those who are on this page
will never be taken off of it. Those who hear God's words, hear
them, not because they were convinced of the truth by somebody and
they changed their mind, and move their perspective of faith
from this object to this object, the reason they hear God's Word
and they believe what is being told is because the truth is
in them. And because the truth is in them,
that means they are His. And if they are His, then that
means they hear His words. That they are given to believe
and they are drawn of God. Those are the things we've read
so far in John. Look in John chapter 10. We'll
go a little bit further. John chapter 10. Verse 25. It says, Jesus answered
them, I told you and ye believed not. The works that I do in my
Father's name, they bear witness of me. So he's basically saying,
I told you the truth, but not only did I tell you the truth,
but even the very fact and the works that I have done before
you, should be enough evidence for you to believe who I am and
to believe on me. But he said, the worst that I
do in my father's name is they bear witness of me. But ye believe
not. And again, Jesus doesn't cloud
this. He doesn't try to beat around
the bush like some Calvinist preachers who don't like to come
out and just tell it the way that it is. They like to skirt
the issue. Jesus tells it plainly. Ye believe
not because ye are not my sheep. He didn't say it just the opposite.
You're not my sheep because you don't believe in me. That's what
the Calvinists will say. That's what the Armenian is saying. They will try to say, once you
become God's sheep, you will believe on Him. Once you believe
on Him, you'll be God's sheep. That's two different things.
If you are God's sheep, you believe. If you are not God's sheep, you
do not believe. It's not backwards. It's not,
if I believe, then I become God's sheep. If I don't believe, I
don't become God's sheep. No, no, no. The sheep and the
goats are forever separated, and they have been from all eternity.
The sheep have always been the sheep. The goats have always
been the goats. He says, but ye believe not,
because ye are not my sheep, as I said unto you. My sheep
hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. And I give
unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall
any man pluck them out of my hand. Now, they hear my voice,
and they follow me. And I give unto who? them who
hear my voice and follow me, those who believe me, who believe
on me, who trust in me, who come to me, those who have been given
the faith to hear my words and believe them, those are the ones
that I have given eternal life to. So this notion that there
are Christians out there who never come to the gospel truth
of sovereign grace, who ever believe on those, that they live
and die and reject this gospel. They reject God's election of
grace. They reject God's predestination. They reject that Christ has done
it all and that there is no free will and free choice and conditions
in salvation. Those who continue to believe
that and reject the true gospel and even have hate and vitriol
to that, and they die and go to their grace, we can't say
that those were brothers in Christ just because they were fervent
and that they were zealous in their religion. Brethren, we
don't have any way to give that stamp of approval. Now could
they be? I don't know. I don't know God's
people. I don't know God's book of life. I haven't seen it. But I know
one thing, the Bible clearly says that those who are his sheep
hear his voice, follow him, they are drawn, they are given to
believe, and what was it that Jesus was preaching in all these
preceding chapters? That he chooses, that he elects,
that he reprobates, And that he makes the distinction that
the only ones who get this are the ones that he gives it to.
And that lineage doesn't have nothing to do with it. You hearing
me doesn't have anything to do with it. Your understanding of
anything doesn't have anything to do with it. Being a child
of Abraham doesn't have nothing to do with it. The only thing
that has to do with you believing is God giving it to you. is something that is supernatural,
not something that is natural. And it has to be given by God.
And He only gives it to His sheep. Therefore, we can't say with
full assurance that those out there that are believing the
Arminian Gospel are believers. Now, I don't know, they might
be electing. The Lord may be giving them faith for some point. I don't know. But if they live
and die rejecting this and hating this, what did Christ say to
these people who rejected? And the Bible even said after
they heard this, they turned away and they didn't follow him anymore
after he taught these things. What did he say about them? He
said, you are of your father, the devil. He said that they
were Satan's children. And yet we and most people want
to press upon us that, oh, you should never talk like that about
people that don't believe. Well, Jesus did. Jesus said that
people were synagogues. He said the Jews were the synagogue
of Satan and that that whole religious system was a harlot
and a synagogue of Satan. He says in the book of Revelation
that anything that is not His church, His people, is a harlot. And that we are to come out from
among them and be separate and not partake of their evil doings
and their wickedness. What is their evil doing? their
zealous religion in doing their conditional salvation. See, the
Lord makes that distinction. Now, we should do that with meekness
and long-suffering? I don't ever presume who is God's
elect. I ain't gonna say, well, that
person's not the elect, or that person's not saved. See, we throw
that around, well, that person's not saved. Well, how do you know
that? Salvation doesn't have nothing to do with what someone's
doing or not doing, believing or not believing, because salvation
was in the objective work of Jesus Christ. He could have saved them, but
yet has not given them repentance and faith yet. So I can't say
anybody's saved or not, because Christ may give them repentance
and faith tomorrow and prove me wrong. But I can say whether
they're a believer or not, there's a difference, brethren. And I
hope people understand that. I hope people watching understand
that. Because among Calvinistic circles and Facebook groups,
this is debated all the time. People are calling people not
saved all the time because they don't believe certain doctrines.
That don't mean they're not saved. That just means that they're
not a gospel believer. There's a difference between being a
believer and being saved. Those who are saved will become
believers because we just read that all of them will come to
Him, follow Him, and listen to Him. but not all those who are saved believed it, just like
Cornelius, just like me at one time, just like all of us at
one time. We were saved because we were
in Christ Jesus, but we did not believe until God granted us
to come and drew us, give us repentance and faith. Look with me also at John chapter
12. Now this is just in John. This
is actually all over the Bible, but we're just hanging out in
John. John chapter 12, and if you would, look with me down
at verse 37, I believe. But though he had done so many
miracles before them, yet they believed not on him, that the
saying of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled which he spake,
Lord, who hath believed our report, and to whom hath the arm of the
Lord been revealed? Therefore they could not believe,
because that Isaiah said again, He hath blinded their eyes and
hardened their heart, that they should not see with their eyes,
nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should
heal them. These things said Isaiah when
he saw His glory and spake of Him. So here, brethren, we see
very plainly that the Bible says that they believed not when they
saw the miracles, they believed not whenever they heard the overwhelming
convincing truth from Jesus' own lips. Why? Because God had
hardened their heart that they should not see, that they should
not understand, that they should not be converted. But yet we have the modern Christianity
saying that God loves everybody and wants everybody to be saved.
There's another passage that we could go into discussion we've
been having with the gentleman that you sent an email about. Right there, we know that God
obviously doesn't want everybody to be saved. Why? Because there
are some that He hardens their hearts so they won't be converted. He blinds their eyes, deafens
their ears, hardens their hearts so they will not be Converted. Jesus prayed in, the verse just escaped me all of
a sudden, but he prayed, Father, I praise you that you've hidden
these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them unto
babe. That God actually has hidden truth from some people, but has
revealed them to others. The modern Christianity will
say, that doesn't happen. There is no such a God that will
not want people to be saved. There's no such a God that's
like that. God wants everybody to be saved. God wants everybody
to come to the knowledge of the truth. That is not the truth
of the Scripture. That's the truth of your religious
system that is an untruth. But the truth of God's Word says
that God does do those things. God does hide truth from some. God does hinder the gospel from
going to some at some periods of time. Now, granted, God has
sent His gospel to every man, every group kind, every nation,
language, and tribe, that there will be the elect from every
group of people. but even Paul himself was hindered
from going to preach to certain people. God didn't want the gospel
to go to them. In the Old Testament, there were
all kinds of people that God did not reveal unto them the
gospel, even though it was a hidden gospel, did not include them
in anything. People have lived and died that
have not known Christ, and it is not because the missionaries
didn't get to them in time. It was because God chose for
them to never know. They was made for another purpose. Look at John chapter 14 and verse
17. I'll start reading verse 16 so
you get the context here. Jesus here, He says, and I will
pray the Father and He shall give you another comforter. By
the way, that other comforter is Himself, not a second or third
or distinct person, but Himself. He's going to send Himself as
the Spirit. And I will pray the Father, He
shall give you another comforter that He may abide with you forever.
Why? Because Jesus in the flesh was
not going to abide with them during this time period. Now
there is going to come a day that we're going to abide with
Christ forever and ever. But He's speaking here. The Holy
Spirit, though, is going to be given to us to abide forever. Even the Spirit of truth whom
the world cannot receive. The world cannot receive these
things. Why? Because it seeth Him not.
Neither knoweth Him, but ye know Him, for He dwelleth with you
and shall be in you. And then Jesus says here, and
this is why I say Jesus is the one that's coming back to them.
But He's coming back as the Spirit. I will not leave you comfortless. I will come to you. There's a unity in the Godhead.
There's one God. Father, Word, and Holy Spirit
are one God. And they have made their fullness
known in the man Jesus Christ. All the fullness of the Godhead
dwells in Him. Now, let me quickly go through, because
that was all in John, but I want us to understand that this is
actually throughout all of Scripture. Peter teaches this, that faith
is something that has to be given to us, and that is only exerted
whenever God gives us the power to believe. In 2 Peter chapter
1 and verse 1, Peter writes, Simon Peter, a
servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained
like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and
our Savior Jesus Christ. We have obtained like precious
faith through the righteousness of God and Savior Jesus Christ. So faith isn't something that's
natural. It's something that has to be
given to us. Right? Paul wrote in Corinthians to
the Corinthian church in 1 Corinthians chapter 2. I want to go kind
of quick on these. 1 Corinthians chapter 2, starting
in verse 1. 1 Corinthians chapter 2 and verse
1. It says, And I, brethren, when
I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or wisdom,
declaring unto you the testimony of God. That's preaching Christ
to them, right? Declaring the testimony of God.
For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus
Christ and Him crucified. So, yeah, you were right, Pastor.
That was what you were talking about. The testimony of God is
preaching Christ and Him crucified. Okay? So the testimony of Christ
and Christ crucified is what Paul came and preached. He didn't
come with excellency of speech. He came with the truth that Christ
is what He is. who he is, who he said he was,
and did what he said he did, and did what he did. He said,
and I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling,
and my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of
man's wisdom, but in the demonstration of the Spirit and of power. Matter
of fact, Paul came preaching things that were contrary to
the thoughts and the beliefs of these people. But yet, all
of a sudden, these people believed them to be truth. Why? Because
the demonstration of the power of the Spirit of God came upon
them to cause them to believe the truth. That your faith should
not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. See
the reason God did it this way and not by enticing speech? See
that right there, matter of fact, and that came in my speech and
my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom. That right
there, just that verse right there completely debunks that
quote that I wrote. It doesn't come with overwhelmingly
convincing truth that you preach. I don't come with enticing words.
I'm trying to convince you of anything. No, we come and we
declare it, and those who have been given the truth in them
and the faith of God in them, they believe it and receive it.
I don't have to entice anybody. That's why we don't have invitations
at this church and beg people to come to the altar and try
to get people to make decisions and all this kind of stuff for
Jesus Christ. That is why my whole entire life
I have not pressured my children to become Christians and I trust
and wait upon the Lord to do that work in them. And when the
Lord has done that work in them, if he does that work in them,
that will come forth and be made manifest and evident in their
believing upon Christ, coming and being baptized and joining
the church and all that kind of stuff that comes in salvation. All that stuff. We don't have
to press and entice. Now, that doesn't mean that I
don't do my thing that God has called me to do, and that is
to raise my kids in the nurture and the admonition of the Lord,
and that I'm going to teach them these principles and always put
it before them, But never is that the thing that is going
to entice them to be anything. I can put as many scripture verses
on the wall and pictures on the wall, and I can preach to them
every morning, every night, have devotions 15 times a day, and
do all that, and it's never going to make them a Christian. Never
going to make you a Christian. Nobody's ever made a Christian
by enticing words of wisdom, but by the Spirit of God. Now, I pray that the Lord does
that to my children. I pray that he does that to all my family,
my friends. I pray that he does that. I pray
that they're among those people of God, but I'm not clouded in
my mind to think that they might not be. And that's hard to say
for a father to say that. But it's the truth of scripture.
And the truth is truth, and I can't change the truth because of my
emotions. I can't change the truth because of my love. I can't
change the convictions of Scripture because of heart strings that
are being tugged. It don't mean that they aren't
tugged. They are tugged. Very much so. But that is not how faith works.
Faith isn't something that you impose upon somebody, or convince
somebody, and Paul made that very clear when he says this.
He says, we speak wisdom among them that are perfect. Made perfect
in righteousness. Those who have already been made
perfect in righteousness. He's talking about the elect
of God here, brethren. The elect of God. We speak wisdom among
them, yet not the wisdom of this world, nor the princes of this
world that come to nought. We don't speak the wisdom that
this world preaches that if you'll just make a decision, if you'll
just choose Jesus. It's as simple as A-B-C. They
used to tell us that in Southern Baptist Sunday Schools. The Gospel
is A-B-C. You know? As if we were all just little
Mr. Rogers able to take the little puppets and all the little things
and teach these little children. And they're going to understand
and know and they're going to believe the Gospel and come to Jesus
Christ. No, if they come, and I'm not precluding that a young
person can't be given faith and believe on Jesus Christ. I'm
not saying that that can't. But I'm saying if it does, it's
because Christ has come and taught them. Christ has come and brought
them to life. Christ has given them spiritual
life. And Christ has given them to understand the gospel. He
says, none of which of the princes of this world knew... Oh, I'm
sorry, verse 7. But we speak the wisdom of God
in a mystery. Even the hidden wisdom which God ordained before
the world unto our glory. So even here God is saying, whenever
we speak the true gospel, it's a mystery, it's hidden. Well,
who is it hidden to? Well, it's hidden to those who
are not His sheep. It's hidden to those who do not believe.
It's hidden to those who are of their father, the devil. That's
who it's hidden to. It's hidden to the reprobate.
The reason that you don't hear my words is because you are not
my sheep. The reason that you don't hear
Michael's preaching of this gospel is because you are not his sheep.
Or any other preacher who is preaching the true gospel of
Jesus Christ. The reason that you don't hear
that and do not accept that is one of two reasons. Either you
are not his sheep or you have not yet been drawn and given
to come to him. I pray that He does give you
to come to Him. None of which of these princes
of this world knew, for had they known it, they would not have
crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written, I have
not seen nor ear heard, neither having entered in the heart of
man the things which God had prepared for them that love Him.
But God hath revealed them, here it is, God hath revealed them
unto us by His Spirit. See, the truth is given to us
by revelation. Not by indoctrination. The truth
isn't given to us by overwhelming convincing evidence. Apologetics. Man, I used to love apologetics.
Man, that was what I wanted to be. I wanted to be an apologist.
Boy, I thought Hank Hanegraaff, the Bible Instrument, was the
most awesome guy in the world. Lee Strobel, whenever he came
out with his book, The Case for Christ, and all this stuff, The
Case for Faith, and all that stuff. Listen, man, I was going
to be a guy like this. Red Comfort and those guys like
that that took with apologetics and just made people believe. Well, then you got back me into
the corner with so much facts and figures that I can't help
it. Exactly what that quote said.
They are given so much convincing information that they now believe
in what was convinced of them. Paul here is saying it's just
the complete opposite. He said it's completely and totally
the opposite of that. It has nothing to do with that. He said the truth is revealed
by the Spirit. That means I have no control
over it. I can't make it happen or not happen. There is no control
over the revelation of the Spirit except the working of the Spirit
Himself. For the Spirit searcheth all
things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth
the things of a man save the Spirit of man which is in him?
Even so the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God."
Now, we have received, that means that we've been revealed, we've
received not the Spirit of the world, those who are His people,
we do not have the Spirit of the world, we have the Spirit
which is of God. Therefore, having the Spirit
which is of God, we have been given that. Why? That we might
know the things that are freely given to us. We can't truly know
the free nature of the Gospel and that's what sovereign grace
is about. That's why it's also called free grace. A lot of times
we call ourselves free gracers, right? We believe in free grace. I said, well, we believe in free
grace. Grace is free to all people.
No, we're talking about grace is free in the fact that it isn't
bought, earned, or merited. It can't be done. There is no
conditions upon it. Grace is given only at God's
disposal. God doesn't have to give grace
to anybody. God doesn't give grace to everybody. That's free grace. And Paul here
is saying that we have been given the Spirit of God, and only if
those who have been given the Spirit of God will anybody ever
know the true Gospel, because it is only by the Spirit of God
that it is revealed that grace is free. that the things that
we have are freely given to us of God. It isn't me and my righteousness,
me and my earning, me and my merit, me and my choice, me and
my will, me and my acceptance, me and my baptism, me and my
church membership. It isn't any of that. It is all
about God gave it to me. It was a free gift. It was something
that was purchased by Him in His own money, blood, It was
something that was wrought by Him. He's the one who give it. And guess what? The only way
that it's enjoyed is by Him. Because unless His Spirit gives
me to know and understand it, I won't enjoy it. The enjoyment
and experience of my salvation comes only by His hand. So it
has absolutely nothing to do with this. Which things also
we speak not in the words which man's wisdom teaches. See, man's
wisdom cannot teach you anything, brethren. Thank God that God
has given us preachers and teachers. I'm thankful for that. But listen,
if they teach anything, if I teach you anything, and you know, you
guys say this all the time, and people write in and make comments
on the deal, thank you for that. You know, I learned a lot from
you. You've taught me a lot of things. Listen, I understand
what you mean, and I hope you understand what you mean when
you say that. That you understand that yes,
I may have been speaking that truth, But if you learn that
as truth, it wasn't me that taught you that, it was God that taught
you that. I don't teach anybody anything. I just proclaim and
declare the truth of God. It begins me to do that. And
if it is the truth and you understand it and receive it as truth, it
was because God give you that understanding and revelation
of that truth and give your experience to receive it and believe it
and love it and enjoy it. But the natural man, he receives
not the things of the Spirit of God for the foolishness unto
him. But look here, he says, neither can he know them. Why? Because they're spiritually discerned. See, the reception of Jesus Christ,
the reception of the gospel, the reception of all that Christ
has done for us and the believing and the hoping in it is something
that is spiritually discerned. And it is only something that
can be hoped upon because of the Spirit that lives in you.
And if the Spirit isn't in you, then there can be no faith. So
therefore, faith only works and comes and is activated and is
exercised in the person if they are first made spiritual. They
have to be first born of God. And they're only born of God
if they are His sheep, because it's only to them that He gives
eternal life. I lay down my sheep. I give my life for the sheep
of Jesus. John 3, 16 says, God so loved
the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever
believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. The reason
He gave His Son and He bore His life out for those who would
believe is that they might have eternal life. Not because they
believed, That's just a category of the persons that he's laying
down his life for. He's laying down his life for
believers. Believers in who? Believers in what? Believers
in Christ and what Christ did on the cross for them. So see, the ones who believe,
the ones who are known are spiritually discerning that because they're
his sheep. But he that is spiritual judges
all things, yet he himself is a judge of no man. For who hath
known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him, but we have
the mind of Christ. Well, there's several other verses,
and I probably won't get into that. I think we've said enough
on this today. But know this, that faith is not something that
I can muster up. It's not something that I can
just say, you know what, I'm gonna have faith today that I
can sit in that chair, and it's gonna save my soul, and I will
not go to hell because I sit in that chair right there. And
then all of a sudden, someone's gonna come in and say, comes
by Jesus alone oh well okay well I'm gonna change my mind now
I know that's stupid and I know that's silly and maybe childish
for me to even use that illustration but listen there's no that it's
no more sillier than thinking that someone can with natural
faith hope in a gospel that the Bible is very clear is hidden
a mystery and is only revealed by the Spirit there's no human
person can do that in the natural man No human person can do that
to another natural man. From a natural man to a natural
man. The only one that can do that is the Spirit of God. So
I pray that we continue to keep our understanding of faith biblical. That we keep our understanding
of salvation spiritual. It's a spiritual thing. It's
not a physical, fleshly activity that happens because men get
out and get to work for Jesus. But it's the work that Christ
has already done on behalf of His people And the experience
of that is being laid to those people as God grants them, as
the Bible says, to come to Him. As their spiritual eyes are opened,
their spiritual ears are opened, their spiritual heart is made
soft and receptive and that their mind is renewed and that God
has given them a new understanding of things and now taken that
mystery, that hidden aspect of all these things and taken it
away and given them the truth that is in Christ Jesus. All
right, does anybody have any questions or anything to add,
any comments? Any other passages that I might
have missed? I had some others that I want to prove, just proving
that it's all over the Bible, but it also was saying the same
thing. That's why I didn't think it was necessary to go to more
passages, but it was just to prove that faith is something
that's given to us by the power of God. But if anybody has any
more aspects or any things you'd like to add, Or corrections. There's something
you want to correct or review. I missed one in John 13. I missed
one in John 13? What is that? 18 through 20. 18 through 20. John 13, 18 through
20, says, I speak not of you all. I know of them I have chosen.
But that the Scripture may be fulfilled, he that eateth bread
with me hath lifted up his heel against me. Now I tell you before
it come, that when it is come to pass, you may believe that
I am he. Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that receiveth whomsoever
I send receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that
sent me." Well, that definitely is showing that he knows whom
he has chosen. It's true. He knows those that
he has chosen. And to preclude that, to say
that, well, God only knows it because He looks down in the
corridor of time and sees who will have faith in Him, again,
what we just learned this morning in those passages that we looked
at, proves that if God looked down and foreseen faith, the
only faith that He foresees is the faith that He gave them.
It still doesn't remove that aspect of God predestinating
all things and electing a people and not electing a people. If
God looks down the corridor of time and sees who will choose
Him or have faith in Him, as some people want to say, choosing
Him and accepting Him or whatever, again, the only reason they did
that is because of what the Bible says. God gave them to do that. So that doesn't support free
will. Poor knowledge of foreseen faith
does not hold up free will. As a matter of fact, it crashes
it on its head like every passage in the scripture crashes it on
its head. There is no free will of man. There is no free choice
of man. Salvation does not come by your
decision for Jesus, accepting Jesus, receiving Jesus as your
Lord and Savior, praying a prayer, anything that you do. It's not
conditioned upon anything that you do. Anything. Repentance
and faith even. The spiritual acts of repentance
and faith that truly is given to the child of grace. Repentance
and faith is not what saves you. Christ saved you if you are saved. Christ saved you. You're already
saved. Everybody that's out there, and
if this world continues to go on for another eon, every person
from now until the end of that eon, that is ever going to be
saved. Guess what? They're already saved.
They've not been born yet. They've not heard the gospel
yet. God's not raised up a man to go preach that gospel to them
yet. But they're already saved. Every one of us that has ever
lived was saved before we ever was born, before we ever heard
the gospel. Now, whether you believe in eternal
justification or not, The fact remains that from the cross of
Jesus Christ until today, every person was not born and was not
hearing the gospel, but yet they were saved already because of
what Jesus did. Not because of what they accepted
or believed or repented of. They were saved because of what
Jesus did. And I believe that that is the
line that is to be drawn in whether or not a gospel is the true gospel
or a false gospel. If you think that someone is
saved in time because of something that they have to go through
with or experience, then you have now preached the false gospel. The true gospel is, it is done. It is finished. It is complete. It's over. Christ has sat down
at the right hand of God. Why? Because He has, with one
sacrifice, already perfected them. Has already redeemed them. Has already forgiven them. has
already done everything on their behalf, there's nothing more
to do. Now we believe that that was declared upon God's people
before the foundation of the world, not waiting in time for
anything. But even if you hold to the,
at the cross justification, everybody ahead of time and everybody before
the cross, it was all justified. It was all saved. Not because of anything that
they did, but because of what Christ did. So I hope that we
all can at least find common ground in that, that it is based
upon the blood and righteousness, obedience of Jesus Christ alone.
All right, do you want to ask anything you'd like to add? Hebrews 12 too. I think that
was actually... He's the author and finisher of our faith for
the joy that was set before him. He endured the cross, despised
the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne
of God. That was actually the next verse on my list, is Hebrews
12, 2. Looking unto Jesus, the author
and the finisher of our faith. The author and the finisher of
our faith. If he's the author of our faith
and the finisher of our faith, that means he controls everything
in the aspects of our faith, when it begins and when it ends.
Okay? It isn't something that we have
naturally within us. He is the author and the finisher.
Amen. All right, anybody else? You believe that he's the author
of our faith? That's good, brother. All right, let's bow in that
word prayer. Graciously, Heavenly Father, we do thank you for all
that you've done for us. We thank you for Christ Jesus
and the Holy Spirit of God that causes us to believe. To many
men that is offensive, but we have to be caused to believe.
Father, we hold that and cherish that. It's truly a blessing because
we know exactly what the Bible teaches, that all men have not
faith. We know the Bible teaches that we will not come to Him,
that we cannot come to Him, that we will not come to Him. All
things the Bible explicitly says about our nature and who we are. Father, we know that if we come
to You and believe upon the truth of Jesus Christ and the truth
of the Gospel, It's only by grace and it's because you have given
us to do that, not because of any exercise of our own or any
merit of who we are. And we surely, Lord, even though
we come and we believe and we have hope that we are the people
of God, we surely don't boast because we know that we by nature
are children of wrath and we are deserving of eternal punishment. But yet you and your love and
your grace and your mercy has called us out of darkness into
light. us into the enjoyment and the inheritance of your own
son. And so, Father, we are grateful that you have given us these
things, and we pray, Lord, that we might continue to proclaim
the truth of them. And I pray, Lord, that this might
be found as a comfort to the people of God. And, Lord, I just
thank you again for this time together and the brethren that
you've gathered here together. May you be with them. Give them
safety as they go home throughout this week, Lord, that you might
provide for them as you have promised everything they have
need of.