Taking a little break in our
study of the church. We finished up talking off the
officers of the church the week before last. And then last week
and this week, we've kind of taken a break to look at a few
things. Hearing the scriptures as it pertains to the gospel
and Last week we looked at Ephesians 2, and we've seen what does the that mean in, for
by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves,
it is a gift of God. We've seen that the word that
there refers to everything preceding that, salvation, grace, and faith,
are all things that are gifts of God, that is not of our own
self, it's not of our own works that we do those things. We cannot
do those things unless faith is given to us or granted to
us. In the new birth, we will not
be able to trust or believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. And we
saw that in those passages that, that we need to, that the natural
man cannot have faith, right? And so until the Lord imparts
new life, a spiritual life, then we cannot trust or believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ. And I kind of thought I'd follow
up with that today in how this takes place. Turn in John chapter
six, if you would, that's where we're going to be. and I will
get there here in just a few minutes, but we know that everyone
has knowledge of God, okay? We know that everyone has knowledge
of God. We're told by that God tells
us that. In Romans chapter one, verse
21, the scripture says, because that when they knew God, they
glorified him not as God, Neither were thankful, but became vain
in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened."
Okay, and so we see that the scripture tells us that every
man, every woman, every child knows that there is a God. They have knowledge of God. The
atheists that are out there that said they believe that there
is no God, that God does not exist, they're just deceiving
themselves and they're foolish. in the dark of their heart, in
the corners of their mind, in the dark of night, whenever they're
laying there and things are going through their head, their religion
of atheism really doesn't mean much to them because they have
a God of some sort that they worship. Whether it's the God
of atheism or the God of something, they realize that there is something
outside of themselves that is greater than themselves, if not
themselves, who they make to be God. But either way, they
believe that there is this understanding or this knowledge of God, and
we believe that because the Bible tells us that, okay? And I know
a lot of people may disagree with that, and they say, well,
no, these people really don't believe there is a God, how can
you say that? I say that because God says that, and I take God's
word over anybody else's word from it. But the Bible says that
everyone has the knowledge of God. However, though, not everyone
knows him in the same way. Also in Romans chapter one, and
just back a couple of verses, the Bible says, for the wrath of God is revealed
from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who
hold the truth in unrighteousness. So there are some who understand
God, they know that there is a God, but they hold that truth
in unrighteousness. These atheists that are out here
that are saying that there is no God, their conscience bears
witness to them that there is a higher power, there is a God,
there is something that's out there, yet they hold that truth
in unrighteousness. They think of it, they suppress
it, they put it down, and they say, I don't believe that that's
gonna be true, okay? But yet we know that the scripture
says that God has put it in their heart to know that God exists,
that every man will be without excuse because God has given
that knowledge that he exists. But what I want you to understand,
brethren, is knowing that God exists or acknowledging that
God exists is not the same as believing the gospel. Believing
upon the Lord Jesus Christ, these are two separate things. To have
an innate and ingrained knowledge of God through creation is different
than knowing the gospel and believing on the gospel, trusting in Christ
alone for salvation. Those are two different things.
And so while yes, everybody can know who God is, acknowledge
a God, that does not mean that they believe upon Christ, trust
the gospel, that does not mean that they even believe that God
has given in the scriptures. Matter of fact, it's just the
opposite. While they know that there is
a God, and they will try to worship God in some fashion or form,
until they are born again, they will not do that rightly. They'll
not do that correctly. Their zeal for a God is not according
to knowledge. Why? Because they have just a
base knowledge of God and not a spiritual knowledge of God.
So there is a difference in the spiritual knowledge of God and
the spiritual acceptance and belief and trust in the gospel
and the natural knowledge of God and the natural acceptance
of a God, okay? And so we must understand that
there are two categories here of belief. John 3, 19 says this,
And this is the condemnation, that light is coming to the world,
and men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds
were evil. For everyone that doeth evil,
hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds
should be reproved." Okay? And so even though these people
know that there is a God, even though these people may understand
that there is a gospel, and even be religious in so-called churches
out there, They love darkness rather than light. They love
a God that is not the God of the Bible, a Jesus that's not
of the Bible, and a gospel that's not of the Bible, okay? So the
question then comes up, then why is it that some persons come
to Christ and love the gospel, and others find it foolish and
despise it? What is it that makes people
differ in their response to the promise of the gospel. Well, what I want us to look
at this morning, I'm gonna put forth that it is grace and grace
alone that makes a person to differ, not your intellect, not
your understanding, not your heredity, okay? It's not your
lineage. You know, just because you're
a child of a Christian, it's not got anything to do with your
nationality, okay? People say that this is a Christian
nation. I don't believe that this is a Christian nation, but
some people say this is a Christian nation and because, and other
countries will call us Christians because we're from America, okay? And like a lot of, sometimes,
you know, Muslims things like that and may call us Christians
just because we come from supposedly a nation that is a Christian
nation. That's not true, okay? That is not what causes us to
differ. It isn't theological training.
You can go to a theological school, you can have children that grow
up in a Christian school, quote-unquote Christian school. They can get
out of that Christian school and go to a Christian college
go to a Christian college, and may even go on into a Christian
seminary, and all of that and still never come to know God,
still never come to know the true gospel, still not know and
understand spiritual things because it takes one to be born again
before they can understand these things. And so the thing that
causes people to differ in their response to the gospel, whether
they believe or reject it, is the grace of God alone, and that's
what we saw last week, that grace and faith, salvation, is a gift
of God. It's not something that everybody
has, okay? If, say, okay, we're coming up
in April, it's gonna be Cateman's birthday, all right? He's the
kid that was born out of due time. All the rest of the kids
were all born around the same time. Cateman, his pelican, Showed
up late to the doorstep. He came around April 2nd, okay? In April, it's going to be Caveman's
birthday. If I get a gift and give it to
Caveman and say, happy birthday, this gift is for you, but then
I turn around and give everybody else on the face of the earth
a gift, okay, then that's really not a gift. It's just something
that everybody else has. A gift is something that is special,
that is particular for that particular person. If I get a gift and I
give it to Cateman, I said, this gift is for you, it's yours,
Cateman, okay? It belongs to him. Well, grace,
faith, and salvation is a gift of God to the sinner, and it's
a gift that he gives to them personally. It's a gift that
he gives to them directly, okay? Yes, is there salvation for all
of the elect of God? Absolutely it is. But it is each
individual that make up the elect of God, each individual Christ
died for. He took on each sin of every
individual within the elect of God. Each elect was personally
died for for Christ, was taken the wrath of God by Christ. Each one of them is quickened
in the exact moment that God desires that individual person
to be quickened. That person experiences salvation
in this life different than any other person does. They go through
tribulation and trials that is common to all, but the inward
working of the spirit in conforming that person to Christ in that
timely salvation, if someone wants to put it that way, is
different in each person's life as they experience it. Some at
different levels, some in different circumstances. Yes, we all have
the same sins and same trials and there's nothing new to man,
but yet every individual experience is different as God works in
us and brings us closer to him. And so everything that has to
do with your salvation, not only is individualized, but and personalized,
but it is a gift, it is granted by grace alone, and it doesn't
come from you. There's nothing that you can
do to give it. There is nothing that Caitlyn
can do to get me to give him a gift. If I give him a gift,
I give it to him because I want to, I have the means to do so,
and because I love him, and I want to give him a gift, okay? And
so that's my prerogative. If he forces me, by hand, putting
a gun to my head and say, here, go get me that gift, okay? That's really not a gift, is
it? Okay? That means I've given him something
out of derision. It's been a barter or it's been
by blackmail or something like that. It's not a true gift. And
there's a lot of people that says that God wants to give you
a gift, but he can't give it to you until you letting give
it to you. Well, if you are the one doing
that, then it's really not a gift anymore, right? Now, what is it that makes a
person differ in their response to the gospel? Well, we say that
it's grace alone. It's grace alone. It's not your
faith, it's grace alone. Now, we're gonna see how Jesus
insists that This is true. Unless God grants his omnipotent
grace, no one's ever gonna believe the gospel. And everyone, everyone,
all persons that whom he grants this grace will come to him believing,
I believe, according to the scripture. We'll see that here in just a
minute. Now, look with me, if you would, in John chapter six.
Now here in John chapter six, we find Jesus speaking to the
Jews of one of the most strongest, I believe, sovereign grace messages
in the word of God. Paul writes a lot of strong stuff
in Romans and everything, but here we see Jesus. And if you're
one that says Jesus never preached doctrines of grace or sovereign
grace, well, you really hadn't read the scripture thing. And
here we see in John chapter six, probably one of the strongest,
Sovereign Grace Messages ever preached. But here Jesus is preaching,
and he gives no room for human boasting in what he's talking
about. In this discourse, Jesus speaks two truths that we're
gonna find, and whenever we put these two truths together, then
we come to a third conclusion, or it brings us to a conclusion
as a consequence of these two truths. Okay? And so in John
chapter six here, we see Jesus calling the Jews to believe the
gospel about him. Let's start reading, if you would,
at verse 25. John chapter six, verse
25. And when they found him on the
other side of the sea, they said unto him, Rabbi, when camest
thou hither? Jesus answered them and said,
Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me not because ye saw
the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves and were
filled. Labor not for the meat which perisheth, but for that
meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of Man shall
give unto you. Okay? Labor for that meat which
endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of Man shall give
unto you, for him hath God the Father sealed. Okay? Now, we've
talked about this in the past, and I don't want to spend a lot
of time here, but what he's talking about here, him that hath the
Father sealed, that means that he has sent him to the seal,
that he has set him for the task. God the Father has sent the Son
for this specific purpose. This specific purpose is to give
them these things that the Father has desired for them to have,
this life, this quickening, this spiritual understanding, the
knowledge of him, these things the father has sent the son and
sealed him as the one who is going to bring this about. Verse
28, then said they unto him, what shall we do that we might
work the works of God? So see their first thought is,
okay, what do we need to do? And that is always the misunderstanding
of the modern day gospel of the religionist, okay? The child
of grace who has been born of God and who has been converted
of the gospel and has been given faith to believe and rest in
Christ alone does not ask, what must I do? Because they have
learned from the Father through the Holy Spirit that it has nothing
to do with them. If they truly believe the gospel,
the gospel says it's nothing that you do but all of what Christ
has done. Okay? That's what the gospel
says. And so if anybody is believing
something, that there is something that you must do, they have yet
to come to believe the gospel. They have still left unconverted. Could they be elect? Absolutely.
They may not have been brought to faith yet, but they are unconverted. Okay? And so that's why we do
not call them brothers in Christ until they begin to believe the
gospel, then we can call them brothers in Christ. But until
then, We don't know, we don't know if they are or not. And
just because they are religious and zealous for God and talking
about Jesus and believing upon a man who died on the cross doesn't
necessarily mean they've come to rest in Christ and trusting
in him alone as their salvation, okay? So we don't need to be
confused about those things. But here Jesus is giving them
this, in verse 28 he says, Or they say, what must we do to
do the works of God? See, their understanding is we
have to do something. And Jesus says this, verse 29,
Jesus answered and said unto them, this is the work of God
that ye believe on him whom he hath sent. Now, was Jesus saying,
okay, now you go out and believe on him that's sin? No, he's saying
this is the work of God. The works that God require for
what Jesus is talking about in verse 27, okay? Labor not for the meat that perishes,
but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life. And they
say, well, what is it that we have to do? And Jesus said, it's
not what you do, it's what God does. The only way that you can
do that is if God does something first. This is the work of God
that you believe on Him. So he's equating this coming
and eating of the meat, the taking of the meat, he's equating that
with believing, okay? This is the work of God that
ye believe on him whom he hath sent. They said therefore unto
him, what signs showeth thou then that we may see and believe
thee? What doest thou? So here again,
their mind is going to religious matters. The religionist always
wants to see, well, let me see something. Well, give me something
to see. Give me something to see that
I can believe on it, okay? Seeing is believing, right? Isn't
that the old adage that we've heard all of our lives? Well,
seeing is believing. If you show me, I'll believe
it. Well, that's really not what belief is all about. That's not
what trust is all about. The Bible says that faith is
not something that we see, okay? Faith is not something that we
see, it's invisible, it's not there. Faith is the substance
of things hoped for, okay? Faith is not in the scene, it's
not tangible. Faith is something that we have,
that we trust, even though we have not yet seen. And here,
they're saying, well, show us something and we'll believe it.
And see, that's what the people of today wanna see. What do they
want to see? Well, Lord, bless me. If you'll bless me, then
I'll believe in you. But guess what? Whenever it seems
that God's not blessing them, what happens to their faith?
It becomes weak and it goes away, don't it? It goes away. Then they start questioning,
well, where's God? What's happening? How come God's doing this to
me? Why am I having to do this? Why am I being put through all
this? Because it's not spiritual faith, it's manly faith that
they've had. The faith that they've had is a natural faith and not
a spiritual faith because the spiritual faith never looks to
what must I do? And it never wavers because I
don't get blessed. Well, I can't say it never wavers.
We do waver and have doubts, okay? I don't mean to say that.
But what I'm saying is that we understand that it isn't about
what we do, it's about what God does. But what do they want? They want to see something. It's
not good enough just to hear the promise of God. Brethren,
listen, we hear the promise of God, why? Because his word says
so. We trust it because God said it, not because he shows us something
so that we might believe it. God's word is sufficient for
us. God's word is enough for us to
go on. If God gives us this promise,
then we can trust it. We can rest in it. We can rest
on the fact that Christ and what He did is enough for our salvation. And if we just rest in that and
don't have to worry about all the work that we have to do,
guess what? The work will come because the
Holy Spirit is given to us. And the Holy Spirit works in
us to will and to do God's good pleasure. All those works that
God has ordained before the foundation of the world. So these men are
looking at, well, what can we do? Give us a list. Give us a
list. And that's what religionists
do today, brethren. They want a list. Well, you tell me what
I need to do so I can go off and I can check off my list so
that once I get it all checked off, I can know that I'm doing
righteous. That's why a lot of people still
want to be under the law. They want to have a law so that
they can try to keep the law, which they cannot do. But in
what they think is keeping of the law, it makes them feel good
about themselves because they can check off that, hey, doing
good for Jesus, but yet they've not come to be able to rest in
Him. Verse 31, our fathers did eat
manna in the desert, and it is written, he gave them bread from
heaven to eat. Then Jesus said to them, verily,
verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from
heaven, but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven,
for the bread of God is He which cometh down from heaven, okay? So the bread of God or the meat
of God is that which come down. Now, for anyone who's getting
confused, when the Bible uses the word meat, give us meat to
eat, it doesn't always mean even like steak or something like
that, you know. Whenever it uses the word meat,
it just means something to eat, okay? Give us meat to eat, give
us something to eat, okay? It doesn't always mean protein-enriched,
fibrous muscle tissue that's being cooked over a fire, all
right? So he says, the true bread that
comes down from heaven is the man who came down from heaven,
Jesus. Look at verse 34. Then said they
unto him, Lord evermore, give us this bread. And Jesus said
unto them, I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me, okay,
bear witness of that word there, cometh, remember it. He that cometh to me shall never
hunger. And he that believeth on me shall
never thirst. So here we have hungering and
thirsting. You want your belly full and
your thirst quenched. And Jesus said, come, and he
used the word believe. And he used those two words interchangeably. To come is to believe. To eat
is to believe. To drink is to believe. Okay,
he's using all these things interchangeably. Do I need to stop for anything? Okay,
let's cut that out. So whenever Jesus tells somebody
to come unto me, all ye who are heavy laden, or for all those
who thirst, I'll give you drink. He's talking about believing.
Okay, so the context here is he's talking to people about
believing upon himself, This is the context of our passages.
And he says, but I said unto you that ye also have seen me.
Now, didn't they just say, show us something and we'll believe,
right? And Jesus is saying, here I am. I'm showing you something. I'm the one. So they have the
work. He's already told them the work
of God is that they believe. So it's God's working that causes
one to believe. And he said, here I am in front
of you, the object to believe in is here. If you want to see
something, this is what you are to believe in, me. Okay? They said, if you'll just tell
us what's the worst that we need to do and show us, we'll get
her done. And Jesus is saying, it's already
happened and here you are, but what does he say there? That
you don't believe. You believe not. Why are these
Jews not believing upon Jesus, but yet some do? And that's the
question we've been asking here this morning, right? Why is it
that some believe and some don't? What causes us to differ? Why
do some come to Christ and some don't? See, the majority of the Jews
here do not believe. And so he gives them two profound
statements here, and we're gonna apply these statements together,
and we're gonna see what He tells us, when we put those two statements
together, we're gonna come to a conclusion, all right? And
I'll show you that it's the conclusion that I said at the very beginning,
that the only thing that causes us to differ is grace alone. It isn't your works, it isn't
your knowledge, it isn't anything that you do, okay? Now, look
what he says here in verse 37. Here's the first statement, statement
number one. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. Now remember, he used the word
come interchangeably with believe in the previous verse, right?
So come means to believe. All that the Father giveth me
shall believe me. And him that believeth on me,
I will in no wise cast out. Now, I used to preach a false
gospel for many years, and I used to preach this verse, only I
preached the second half. I would always say, come, you
know, we'd always extend an invitation at the end of our messages. We'd
have a song, and we'd encourage people to come and receive Jesus
as their Lord and Savior, to repent of their sins, and to
ask Jesus in their heart. And one of the things I would
always say is, if you come to Him, all that come to Him, He
will in no wise cast out. Don't worry. If you come to Him,
Jesus will not... People may ditch you and go away
from you, but Jesus will never leave. If you come to Him, and
we would plead with them on their conscience and upon their emotions,
that here's a friend that is closer than a brother. Now that's
true, and that truly blesses my heart to know that Jesus is
a friend that's closer than a brother. It's true that Jesus loves us
with an everlasting loving and never will cast us out. But the
grounds upon which we come is not the fact that we have a friend
that's not gonna go away from us. That's not what causes a
person to believe. To give them that information
is not what causes them to come and decide upon Jesus. He says,
all that the Father giveth me shall come to me or believe. And him that cometh to me or
believes, I will know why he's cast out. So the ones that Jesus
doesn't cast out are the ones who believe. And the ones who
believe are the ones who have been given by the Father, okay? So statement number one is that
coming to Christ is given by the Father. All that the Father
giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. So he claims that those to whom
the Spirit quickens will infallibly believe the gospel. I know there's
much debate on there. There's people that says, well,
you're saying that all the elect of God will always come to faith
in Christ, that they will believe on Christ. Well, what about the,
What about the person who is mentally ill that can't discern
these things? Hey, I don't know about that.
I have no idea about that. I'm just trusting what the gospel
says. The gospel says that all that the Father giveth me shall
come to me. And right before that, he equated
coming with believing. So in whatever capacity it is
that that, person that has a mental issue that may not outwardly
be able to do stuff, there is a lot of stuff that goes on inwardly
that we don't have a clue about. And I'm not gonna pre, I'm not
gonna suppose upon God and what he can and can't do in those
situations. Well, what about the young child?
Well, what about them? Hey, listen, whatever capacity
it is that God gives him to understand this, he can do that. He can
do that. And I'm not gonna say that he
can't. Because he says, all that the Father giveth me shall come
to me. Now, so grace and faith, therefore,
are not the same things, okay? Grace and faith are not the same
things. When it comes down to why some
have faith and not others, Jesus always comes down on the side
of grace, and so should we. Jesus authoritatively communicates
this truth, and it should end all arguments about this issue. Now, let's look at statement
number two. Look at statement number two. Drop down with me
to verse 65. John chapter six, verse 65. Let's look at the section. What
was the first statement? Verse 37. All that the Father
gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me, I will in
no wise cast out, right? 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. You say, well, wait a minute,
that sounds diametrically opposed. Here Jesus is saying, all men
come, come, come, come to me. All ye who are weary and heavy
laden, I shall give you rest. The Spirit and the bride say,
come. But yet here, Jesus says, no man can come to me. You say,
well, what's up with that, Jesus? I don't understand. Well, look
what it says. Therefore said I unto you that
no man can come. Now this is speaking about ability
again, remember. We've talked about this many
times in the past, and for those that may not have heard what
I've preached about this or in other passages, when we've talked
about this, messages that we've talked about this, whenever it
says that no man can come, when it says that the natural man
receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, nor can he, the
word can is not talking about whether God's up there saying,
nope, I'm not gonna let you, that there's people that's wanting
to come to Jesus But God said, nope, you can't come because
you're not my elect. That's not what the Bible is
teaching. That's not what we teach. Now, that's what we're
falsely accused of saying. I've been accused of saying that,
you know, there are people that wanna get saved, but because
they're not elect, you know, I've never preached that, never
taught that. That's not what the Bible says. The word can
is a word of ability. No man has the ability to come. Why? Because the things of God
are spiritual in nature. And so one must be first spiritually
born again before they can understand those things of the spirit. Verse
65, therefore said I to you that no man can or has the ability
to come to me except it were given unto him of my father. Now pay close attention there,
brethren. that these verses here and in
the context of what's being said just prior to verse 37, he says,
I'm the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall not
hunger and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. But I
said unto you that you have seen me and yet you do not believe.
So here Jesus uses the phrase, believe in me, come to me interchangeably. Now, you'll find that actually
all through the Bible, not just here in John as well. But anyway,
with this in mind, and the context of unbelief that is in John,
as a matter of fact, look at verse 64. Again, now we've seen
this also in verse 36. But I said unto you that ye have
also seen me and believe not, verse 64, but there are some
of you that believe not, okay, for Jesus knew from the beginning
they, or from the beginning who they were that believed not and
who should betray him, okay? So the context here is those
who are not believing the message that Jesus is saying. And so
Jesus issues a universal negative. No one can come to me unless
God grants it, okay? No man can come unto me except
That word except means that's to the exclusion of everything
else. There's only one way and one way only that anybody can
come to Christ. It has to be given of the Father. Your belief has to be given of
the Father. If it's not given of the Father,
you will never and can never come. Why? Because of your nature. You were born of Adam with a
natural nature of the earth earthy. You were born without any capacity
for spiritual things and you cannot come. It's an inability
that we have in our nature to come. And so we're beholden to
God to exert invincible, overcoming grace upon us to change us from
that natural man and born us again as a spiritual man. Until
we are born again as a spiritual man, we cannot ever come and
no one will ever be able to come. And Jesus, he teaches that universal
negative. No one can come unto me unless
God grants it. So Jesus is telling us that no
one can believe on him unless God grants it. Now look at verse
63. He says, it is the spirit that quickeneth, or makes alive. It is the spirit that quickeneth,
the flesh profiteth nothing. The words that I speak unto you,
they are spirit and they are alive. Okay, so Jesus here is
saying that a man is made alive, quickened, born again by the
spirit of God. So now, In verse 37, we see a
universal positive. So we see a universal negative
and a universal positive. I've told you there was two truths,
and that's them. A universal positive, universal
negative. The universal positive in verse
37, all that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him
that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. All that the Father
giveth to me shall come to me. That's a universal positive.
What do I mean by universal positive? meaning that it applies to everybody
for whom it's intended to, right, okay? Everybody of that group,
meaning the elect of God, or in this case of the passages
that we're reading here, those who are given of God, those who
are given of the Father. And then the universal negative
is no one can come, okay? All that do come and none can
come. Two truths, one, universal positive,
one universal negative. So if we look at what Jesus is
explicitly teaching concerning who will believe by putting these
two concepts together, he says, no one will believe in me unless
God grants it, and all to whom God does grant it will believe. So Jesus is making sure that
no one thinks that anything apart from grace is what saves them. It is only grace. Why? Because no man can. Except. Except what? Except God granted. Well, what's
God granting them? Well, he's granting them grace. He's granting them grace. He's
granting them life. He's granting them repentance.
He's granting them belief in the truth. See, even the very desire for
faith that we have is a gift of God. Didn't the disciples
say, you know, increase our faith, you know? Didn't the disciples
say that I believe, help thou my unbelief? Increase our faith,
Lord. Help us. Well, what give them
the desire to do that? Well, they were born again. God
give them the desire for faith. So all this running around trying
to get people to exercise their faith so that they can get saved
or get born again or get redeemed or whatever the case is, whatever
passage or not passage, whatever salvific term you wanna use there. If you're saying do this, All
you're doing is saying what the unbelieving Jews were saying.
What must we do to get this? Show us and we'll do it. And
Jesus is saying it hasn't got nothing to do with any of that
because here, even if I do show you, because I'm here, even if
you do see it, you're not gonna believe. You remember whenever
Jesus gives the story of the rich man and Lazarus, Lazarus? And he said that that rich man
was in hell and Lazarus was in the bosom. And that rich man
looked up and asked God to give him mercy and just give him a
drop of water upon his tongue. And God said that he couldn't
do that. There was a great gulf fixed between them, that he can't
come to them and that guy can't come to God. And that he was
gonna be in torment forever. And what did that rich man ask
God to do? He said, I have some brothers and Go to them and raise
up Lazarus to go to them and tell them about this place that
I'm in so that they won't come here too. And what was God's
answer to the rich man? He said, they have Moses and
the prophets. If they won't listen to that,
then they won't listen even if one were to rise from the dead
and tell them. What's he saying? He said, faith
isn't something that is seen. Coming back and it isn't about
turning the understanding so that someone logically can understand
it. It isn't about scaring somebody.
We have all these churches around the area, so-called churches
around the area. And every year around Halloween,
what do they do? They set up these scare houses
at their churches and take kids through there. What? To try to
scare them into getting saved. You know, they take them through,
and I'm guilty. I've been through some of those things. I've went
to many of them before in the past. I used to take youth to
it whenever I was an Armenian youth leader, and we'd take them
in there, and what would they see? They would see a scene of
these people on drugs and what it does to you, or a drunk driving
accident, or abuse in the family, or they'll show all these things
that are out there, all these worldly things, and they will
scare you, and at the end, what do they do? They catch you as
you go out, trying to get you to accept Jesus as your Savior.
Listen, even if somebody were smoldering from the pits of hell,
would come up and talk to somebody, or even if somebody from heaven
came down and said, hey, I've been to heaven, and I've also
seen hell, you don't wanna go there. Your brother's in there
right now, and he sent me a message to tell you You don't wanna come
here, believe on Jesus. Guess what? That won't convince
anybody. It's not gonna convince anybody.
See, believing upon Jesus cannot be from convincing. It has to
be by a spiritual change in your nature. And so Jesus is telling
them that the only thing that can cause one person to believe,
or one person to come to him, or one person to trust in him,
is the grace of God alone. This is why just prior to saying
that no one can come to me except to be granted or given unto him
of the Father, Jesus says it is the Spirit who gives life.
The flesh is of no avail. Everything the flesh does or
can do can never do it. That's why we believe that repentance
and faith comes after you're born again, not before you're
born again. And anybody who teaches otherwise
is just teaching contradictory to the word of God, the plain
rendering of the word of God. This hasn't got to do with us
making, you know, all these circular reasoning and Calvinism or some
kind of a, we're twisting a theological system to fit a theological system,
that's the plain reading. Jesus said, here, no man can
come except it were given of him of the Father. And then he
said, before that, everyone who is given by the Father will come. I mean, we're just taking Jesus
at his word. All those other verses that you're gonna encounter,
in the Word of God that says to believe upon Him, to receive
upon Him, and ye shall be saved, all those things, they have to
be interpreted in light of the main and plain Scriptures that
says that believing, no man can believe or come to Christ except
it were given to him of the Father. And that everyone who has, so
why, well, preacher, why couldn't you keep making that distinction?
Well, yeah, it's given to every man to come to Jesus. We're to
preach Jesus indiscriminately to all men. I agree. We should
preach Jesus indiscriminately because we do not know who the
sheep of God are out there that are lost. That's not what I'm
saying. What I'm saying is that whenever
Jesus says all, no man can come, no man, that's all of them, can
come, except it were given to him by the Father, then when
we go to 37, it says, all that the Father giveth me shall come. Well, the ones who are given
come. So you can't say that it's given
to every man because not every man comes. So this giving is
talking about something different than the indiscriminate preaching
of the gospel. The indiscriminate preaching
of the gospel never brings anyone to life. There are some that believe in
gospel quickening or what they would call gospel regeneration.
That is by the preaching of the gospel that infuses into the
heart and makes one live again or that God uses that as the
instrument in which he brings that together. That's not necessarily
true. The Bible says it is the spirit that quickeneth. The Bible
says that the Spirit is the one that gives life, and He gives
life whenever He wants. And we have record in Scripture
of those who have been born again, who have never yet heard the
gospel yet. But yet, whenever they do hear
the gospel, they are converted to the gospel, and they believe
upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Why? Because they have already
been made spiritual by the new birth, by the Holy Spirit. And so, whether you wanna get
into this argument by, you know, you know, the logical order or
whatever of salvation. You know, none of that stuff
means anything to me. I don't care what theological systems say.
I don't care what theological arguments are that are out there
and systematic theology junk. I don't care about that. What
does the Word of God say? The Word of God says, until one
is already quickened by the Spirit, and it is the Spirit who does
the immediate quickening. The Spirit does that in His time
at that moment that He decides, and He doesn't infuse the Word
of God into you to get you there. It isn't taking the Word of God
and applying it to your heart to make you come alive. No, He
gives you life because He takes out your heart of stone, puts
it in the heart of flesh so that you can hear the Word of God. The Word of God is always gonna
come after the immediate work of the Holy Spirit. It's always
going to be listened and heard and responded to but only after
the Holy Spirit has already done his work. And that's what Jesus
is saying here. The Spirit is the one that quickened
him. The flesh profiteth nothing. And then he says, the words that
I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are alive, but none
of you guys are believing. So that even tells me there that
even whenever Jesus, the preacher of preachers, speaks the truth,
that the spoken word, which are spirit and life, doesn't make
them come alive, it's only the spirit that makes them come alive.
Jesus here is speaking to a crowd of people, and if it's the words
or the gospel that he's preaching, then how come all these people
aren't getting saved? Well, it's because it's the spirit
that quickeneth. Even though the words of spirit
and life are being brought forth and proclaimed That doesn't mean
that they're gonna respond. The only ones who are gonna respond
and believe are those who are given grace in the new birth
to hear, to understand. So how do I know this is what
this means? Well, because the entire context of both sides
of this verse is Jesus speaking to of the Jews' unbelief. He's
saying that faith is not a product of our unquickened human natures.
It's rather the spirit alone who can give life to our dead
souls that we may believe. Jesus said the same thing to
Nicodemus in John chapter three. And in verse six, he says, that
which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born
of the spirit is spirit. He uses that exact same language. Unless one is born this way,
he can neither see nor enter the kingdom of God. See, Jesus
never gave Nicodemus an imperative command. Now, I know a lot of
people say that the gospel is a command, okay? The gospel is
a command. You know, I don't wanna nitpick
on that. You know, I agree to some degree
that it is a command, a command to those who have been quickened
to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, whatever Peter said,
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be baptized or repent and
believe, whenever they talked about the gospel and they called
for men to repent, you know, that is not the gospel though. Repent and believe is not the
gospel. That's what a lot of, That's
what a lot of Protestant reform thinking says, is that the gospel
is repent and believe. That's not the gospel. That is
the result of the gospel, okay? The gospel is the work of Christ
alone. Repenting and believing is the
result of the work of Christ being applied to you. But repent
and believe is not the gospel. We don't go around saying, well,
repent and believe, and that's the gospel. That's not the gospel.
The gospel is that Christ died for his people, effectually died
for his people, sufficiently died for his people, that his
death brought salvation, in fact, for every one of God's elect,
and that his imputed righteousness is given to us if we are his. and that we are no longer under
death and sin, that we are no longer have to worry about those
things, that the condemnation that sin brought, that we don't
have any condemnation. There is no condemnation to those
in Christ Jesus, that there is no wrath of God abiding upon
us, that there is no account that we're gonna have to give
of ourselves. The account will be of what he has done. And so
that which is born of flesh is flesh, and that which is born
of spirit is spirit. The flesh can only do those things
to the flesh. The spirit can only do the things
of the spirit. And so Jesus never gave Nicodemus an imperative
command to be born again. He just told him what must happen
for eternal life to be a reality, okay? You have to be born again
for there to be eternal life. Belief springs from a change
of nature. We've read this a hundred times,
and you can turn there if you want to with me, but in 1 Corinthians
chapter two and verse 14, we see that the Bible says that
the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God
for or because they are foolishness unto him. So that tells me that,
again, brethren, I hate to keep getting off track here, but I
wanna try to make it as as plain to us as we can understand here, it doesn't matter what your grandma
says, or your mama says, or your daddy says, or your uncle says,
or your favorite preacher or theologian says, or your confession
or creed that you might have in a nice little booklet on your
nightstand that you read and maybe give 10 mantras over every
night, okay? It doesn't matter what anybody
says. The Word of God here says that
the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God,
for they are foolishness unto him, no matter what anybody thinks
they think. You may say, well, what about
my grandma or my mom or my aunt or uncle? They don't believe
the gospel, but they're very religious. They're still zealous
for God. You know, they just don't understand. They're ignorant
of the gospel maybe, but yet they're still, you know, they
just haven't learned it yet. Okay, well, that doesn't mean
that they're converted. It doesn't mean that they've
been quickened yet. Okay, the religious man will
do everything that he can to be religious to get his way. They have a zeal for God, but
not according to knowledge. They may be able to do zealous
religious things, but yet they do not understand the spiritual
applications of these things, or understanding of these things.
And you say, well, it sure does look like it. I mean, they go
to church every Sunday morning, they go to Sunday school, and
to worship, discipleship training at night, Worship, they go on
Wednesdays. The men go on Men's Day Bible
study. The women go to the Women's Day
Bible study. Every time they have a revival,
they don't miss a night. They volunteer to go out and
do whatever in the town. You know, they tithe, they sing
in the choir, they teach Sunday school, you know. It doesn't
matter. It doesn't matter. Give me all
the list that you want to give me. That doesn't matter. That
doesn't change the fact of what the Bible says. The natural man
receiveth not. And if they do not believe the
gospel, then they've not been given spiritual understanding.
If they do not believe the gospel of Jesus Christ, His gospel,
not this man-made, will-worshipping gospel, but the gospel of imputed
righteousness, of a finished work of Jesus Christ being sufficient
and efficient. If they do not believe that,
then they still are in their natural thinking, and it's foolishness
to believe, and that's why they're not believing it. That's why
they're not agreeing with you whenever you try to talk to them
about these things. They still want to hold on to
their good works, their good deeds, their believing, their
repenting, what they did at an old fashioned altar many years
ago. They want to hold on to their law keeping. Well, I go
and I praise the Lord. I like to sing and praise the
Lord. And I like to go and follow him
and do all kinds. I stand out at the abortion clinic
or I go down and I pick up the Muslim mosque or, you know, Oh,
here's all these good works that I do. I even keep Rosh Hashanah
and Hanukkah and all this stuff, you know, the Feast of Tabernacles
and Trumpets and all these things. You know, Passover, we do the
Passover. It doesn't matter. It doesn't
matter. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God for their foolishness unto him.
So there's the statement, but look what he goes on, he uses
the same language as Jesus, why? Because the Holy Spirit's the
author, right? Just because there's many penmen of these things,
there's only one author, the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit is speaking
the same things that Jesus said in John 6. Neither can he know
them because they are spiritually discerned. There is a spiritual
inability and they cannot know them because they are spiritually
discerned. I've heard preachers say to people,
all you need to do is believe. All you need to do is believe.
Matter of fact, we went to a funeral yesterday, and the preacher was
up there preaching, and he got into this message, and I guess
the term now among all the young people is triggered. People can
say something and it triggers you. There's another word that
you guys use that's cringy, and I don't really understand that
fully what that means, but anyway, they say that you're triggered.
Well, anyway, this preacher was preaching along, and in his message,
he's talking about believing on Jesus, but he said, but of
course, it's all according to our free will, that God gives
us free will to choose or not to choose. And then a few minutes
later, he goes on to start saying that we have to allow God to
do this, allow God Allow Jesus to be our shepherd. Allow Jesus
to be our leader. Allow Jesus to be our savior.
Allow, allow, allow, allow. And to me, it's become offensive
even to let's tell Sister Louetta this before we talk. Going back
and listening on this type of preaching after coming to understand
the truth, it really is offensive. It really is offensive to speak
of my Lord as somebody that cannot accomplish what he desires to
accomplish. and to think that man's will is superior to God's
sovereignty and that all of salvation hinges upon what you do in your
work. And it just, it really is offensive. And my kids were
all looking at me when the guy said that, I guess, to see whether
or not I was triggered. Is that the right word? To see
whether I was triggered. And I was triggered. I didn't
jump up and scream, but I did roll my eyes a couple of times,
I'm pretty sure. But anyway, I've heard preachers
say that all you need to do is believe as if this were the easiest
thing in the world. But the scripture says that the
natural man is unwilling to submit to the gospel's terms. See, brethren,
it's a massive affront to our pride to believe that we have
no hope except in Jesus alone. See, we think that there's something
that we can do. In fact, we see this at work in this passage
back in John Let me get back to our passage here in John chapter
six. We see this very prideful affront
happening. See, at the end of John chapter six,
we see those who previously were with Jesus left Jesus because
of his doctrine of grace teaching here. They left Jesus. His teaching was too hard. Look
at it. He says, verse 65, therefore
said I unto you that no man can come unto me except it were given
unto him of my father. From that time, many of his disciples
went back and walked no more with him. Then said Jesus unto
the 12, will ye go also away? Then Simon Peter answered him,
Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. And we believe and are sure that Thou art that Christ,
the Son of the living God. Jesus answered them, have not
I chosen you 12 and one of you is a devil? He spake of Jesus
as scary at the sun sign, for he it was that should betray
him, being one of the 12. So we see that whenever you preach
the gospel, it's gonna be It's going to be offensive to those
who are not born from above. It's going to be offensive to
their pride. Because it says you mean to tell
me that there's nothing like what must I do to do the works
of God? Show me and will believe. And you say, well, there's nothing
to see. There's nothing for you to do. Just believe that Jesus
did it for you. Well, you mean that's it? You
mean to tell me that, well, surely you don't mean that because surely
you mean we still have to be religious, right? We still have
to be holy. We still have to live righteous.
We still gotta keep the law, right? No, that's not what that
means. That's not what that means. To
trust in Christ is not to mean all those things. Will those
things come from us if we're born from above? Surely they
will as the Lord works in us. But that is not how we get it,
and that is not how we keep it. We are not justified by faith
in Christ, and we are not sanctified by the means of grace. We're
not sanctified by the works of good works. We are not made more
holy by what we do, and we're not saved by what we do. But you see here, whenever it
was preached, and listen, it was preached by the man who could
preach it better than anybody else. And what happened? Everybody left. And listen, I
can tell you right now, we know this for a fact here at our church. We've experienced this on many
occasions, that whenever you hold to God's word and you preach
God's word and let that be your deciding factor, instead of our
emotions and our feelings and our wrong thinking that we've
been taught over all the years. Whenever we hold to God's word,
that becomes offensive to people, and eventually they leave. They
don't want to hear it no more. And Jesus says here, will ye
go away also? Those who were given to believe
didn't go away. Why? Because it was meat. Just
what Jesus had started off this conversation for. It was meat
for them. It was food. It was bread from
heaven. It was water to quench their
thirst. To those who are born from above, to hear that message
of free and sovereign grace is a joyful thing. To hear of God's
sovereign work over all things, his control over all things,
his predestination, his election, All these things, these aren't
things that we need to keep quiet until they've been here long
enough and then start teaching them once they become more mature.
This is the meat and potatoes. This is the things that they
need to understand and hear. Why? Because this is the gospel.
This is the gospel. But some are gonna go away. And
I don't want us to be discouraged when that happens. See, there's
nothing that we can do to stop them and there's nothing that
we can do to keep them, okay? Let's not get discouraged. Does
it get discouraging sometimes to see that? Absolutely. We love
people and we don't wanna see them go. We love to see people
here and we want people to come, but we don't want people to come
and stay at the expense of compromising the word of God and the gospel.
We need to stay true and hold it. fast that faith once delivered
to the saints. By God's grace, we pray that
he keeps us in that faith. Peter here confesses. He says,
hey, where are we gonna go? You're the one that, we know
that you are the Christ. We know that you are the son
of the living God. And notice Jesus' answer there.
He says, have not I chosen you, the 12? See, even that confession that
you make there, Peter, it didn't come from you. That confession
came because I chose you. And because of that spiritual
work that's been done in you, you can believe this. That's
why you're not going away. Matter of fact, isn't that the
proof of what Jesus said just at the beginning of our conversation?
All that the Father giveth me shall come to me. and him that
cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out." See, they've come
to Jesus and they don't go away. And Jesus doesn't cast them out.
Jesus didn't cast them out. They casted themselves out. All
those people that left, they cast themselves. Jesus didn't
cast them out. See, we don't, here at our church,
we don't try to cast people out. Now, there are times when discipline
has to be done. I will say that. But see, we
don't try to cast people out. A lot of times they cast themselves
out. Why? Because they're at odds with
God's word. They're at odds with God's word. See, it's hard because the gospel of grace alone
strips man of all hope that he can ever contribute anything
to it. Brethren, don't underestimate
the reality of your sinful nature. The gospel forces us to see our
own spiritual impotence. The gospel forces us to see our
bankruptcy in contributing anything or even lifting a finger towards
our salvation. Those who do believe the gospel,
we can know with certainty that the Holy Spirit has quickened
us and is doing a work of grace in us. We know that to be a fact,
that was the promise of God. And John says in his first epistle,
John 1, John 5, 1, he says, everyone who believes that Jesus is the
Christ has been born of God. Do you see that? Belief came
after being born of God. Everyone who believes that Jesus
is the Christ has been, past tense, have been born of God. See, that's the result of the
new birth. So it's important to understand
that Jesus will never cast out those that the Father has given
him. Now, this is very important,
brethren, because those who reject the perseverance of the saints,
see, they believe that, okay, well, I understand that to get
in, but now to keep it going, we have to follow the law, we
have to do We have to read our Bibles, we have to pray, we have
to come to church, we have to do the law, we have to be in
right standing with God, keep our standing in right with God
if we're gonna stay and persevere. Matter of fact, there's a lot
of preaching in so-called even sovereign grace circles of this
Lordship salvation, that we have to persevere in good works and
obedience, and if we don't, then we won't be saved in the end,
that only those who endure to the end by good works and things
such as that are gonna be saved. Now, I'm not saying that we're
not gonna have works and we don't do good works. I'm not saying
that, okay? But what I'm saying is that's
not what keeps us. See, we are not preserved because
of what we do. See, to believe that Jesus' atonement
is for us, that's sufficient. But Jesus's work is efficient,
it's effectual. That means it took care of everything
that was needed to be taken care of. Those who say that you have
to have this ongoing progressiveness in becoming holy is denying the
work of Christ. This becoming more and more holy
in yourself I asked this question, me and brother J.C. Fulton was
talking about this the other night when we was visiting with
him at their house. The flesh is flesh and cannot
please God. The spirit is spirit, and the
Bible says that in 1 John, that that which is born of the spirit,
that it cannot sin. If the flesh, that part of us
that is of Adam, can only sin, and that which is born of God
and from God cannot sin, then what is it that gets better?
If you're thinking that you're getting more and more holy in
sanctification by doing the means of grace, reading your Bible,
obeying the law, whatever you're doing, how is that making you
more righteous? If your flesh is totally flesh
and cannot please God and your inner man, all it does is please
God, then what is getting better? Do we grow in the grace and knowledge
of God? Absolutely we do. But do we grow in our flesh and
become more holy? Absolutely not. We grow in our
grace and knowledge of God to look unto Him. We see Him more
and more in His provision that He made for us. The efficacy
of His atonement, the efficacy of His salvation. See, to believe
that we have more things that we have to continue to do What
must we do to do the works of God is actually the heretical
view that is the same, no different than what the Roman Catholics
believe. That it's some kind of a maintenance of justification
or sanctification that the work of a man has to do to stay with
Christ. But Jesus tells us that all those
whom God gives to the Son will believe in the Son and no one
will believe in the Son who God does not grant so. And so I bring
all this passage up to you guys and on the heels of what we talked
about last week, because this is one of the most forceful passages
in all the scripture relating to the invincibility of God's
grace. You know, we talk about irresistible
grace and people don't like that term. Matter of fact, I used
to hate that term. I hated the term irresistible
grace. When anybody ever talked about
God had irresistible grace, I hated that. You mean God dragging somebody,
kicking and screaming against their will? to love him, to accept
him? Absolutely not. But he did irresistibly,
without asking them, change their nature, give them a nature that
they didn't ask for or want or have. And then that nature, guess
what? It turns and loves God, loves
Christ, comes to Christ. The grace of the Holy Spirit
and quickening is not only sufficient, It does its job, it quickens,
it brings to life. But it's efficient, it's unfailing. It always brings about God's
desired result. The grace of the Holy Spirit
always brings about the desired result of what God wants. And so we may resist the gospel
when hearing that outward call. And we have, all of us here,
have resisted that over and over and over again. We've resisted
those stirrings of the Holy Spirit, so to speak. But listen, no one
resists the inward calling of God. The Bible says in Romans 8.30,
it says, moreover, whom he did predestinate, then he also called,
and whom he called, then he also justified, and whom he justified,
then he also glorified. If God calls you, it's gonna
happen. In 1 Corinthians 1, verse 22,
the Bible says, for the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks
seek after wisdom. But we preach Christ crucified,
both unto the Jews, a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks, foolishness.
But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ,
the power of God, and the wisdom of God. See, in the Old Testament,
sometimes God would discipline Israel by telling them that their
Crops would fail even though they labor to sow seed. Matter
of fact, in the New Testament, we see the same thing brought
into the spiritual realm. Paul says, I planted, Apollos
watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor
he who waters is anything but only God who giveth the increase. See, we can preach, brethren,
until we're blue in the face. But till God sovereignly applies
these things by giving us life to understand them, ears to hear
them, they're gonna fall on fallow ground. The seed will not find
good soil until God makes the soil good. Ezekiel says this,
I will sprinkle clean water on you and you will be clean. I
will cleanse you from all impurities and from all your idols. I will
give you a new heart and a new spirit in you. I will remove
from your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And
I'll put my spirit in you." Notice that in order for obedience
to take place, matter of fact, let me just turn to Ezekiel,
kind of paraphrase that. Let me turn to Ezekiel, so I
don't misquote here. Ezekiel chapter 36, and it's
in verses 25. It says, then will I sprinkle clean water
upon you and ye shall be clean from all your filthiness and
from all your idols will I cleanse you. Okay, now listen, listen
to what that says. Whenever the Lord quickens us,
okay, we begin to understand these
things. Not in the physical, but in the spiritual realm. He
says, then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall
be clean, and all your filthiness, and from all your idols will
I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give
you, and a new spirit will I put within you. I want you to take
notice that the sprinkling with the clean water, making clean,
and removing the filth is not the same as the giving of the
new heart, right there. That's a different thing. A new heart also will I give
you, and a new spirit will I put within you, and will take away
the stony heart out of your flesh, and will give you a heart of
flesh. And I will put my spirit within
you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep
my judgments and do them." Now you notice in every bit of that,
he says, I will, I will, I will, not you will, not if you will,
If you'll do this, then I'll do that. No, he said, I will.
I will do this. In the midst of your filthiness
and uncleanness, in the midst of your hard heartedness, guess
what I'll do? I will take it out. I will change
it. I will do the work. And at the
result of me doing the work, guess what? You will walk in
my statues. He says, he will cause you to
walk in my statues and ye shall keep my judgments. We trust in
that as much as we trust in his invincible grace to quicken us
as he desires. We trust in that as much as we
trust in him dying for us. We trust in that as much as we
trust in him imputing righteousness to us. We trust in him causing
us to work and do his statutes and judgments. We trust he is
doing that as much as we trusted what he did with his eternal
declaration of Christ's salvation. We trust that he's doing that
too. And as much as we don't have
to work to get eternal salvation, we do not have to do anything
for our sanctification. We don't have to do anything
for our preservation. We don't have to do anything
God is doing it and He's doing it as He sees fit in us by His
power. No one believes and obeys while
their heart is still stone. Blind eyes have to be opened,
deaf ears have to be unstuck. A new nature must be supernaturally
put in the person for man to begin to have any good and right
thoughts about Christ. And this is because of God's
invincible, omnipotent, almighty, irresistible grace. Now, some
of y'all might be asking, and those who's listening may ask,
why does God do it that way? Or why does God do it that way?
Why don't he give us free will? That way that we're responsible. We have to be responsible, you
know. It isn't about responsibility
because we don't have an ability to respond. We do have accountability,
I agree with that. Why does God do it this way?
Daniel 435 says, all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing.
It's kind of a hard thing to hear, right? All the inhabitants
of the earth are reputed as nothing, and he doeth according to his
will. He doesn't do according to your
will. All these preachers that's out here saying that God will
do this, if you will do this. It's your will, your free will
to choose him. And if you do choose him, he
will do it. No, no, no. He doeth according to his will
in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. And none can stay in his hand
or say unto him, what doest thou? So if God desires to take your
heart out and put in a heart of flesh, he's gonna do that.
And you can't stop him. Isaiah 46 10 says this. declaring
the end from the beginning and from ancient times the things
that are not yet done, saying, my counsel shall stand, I will
do all my pleasure. If it pleases the Lord to bring
one to new life and to convert them to trust in the Lord Jesus
Christ, guess what? His counsel's gonna stand. Romans
9, 15 says this. So then it is, I didn't type it down here. Turn
to it real quick. I didn't put it in my notes.
Romans nine, verse 15. It says, for he said to Moses,
I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy and I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that
willeth. No, no, no. It's not got about nothing about
your will. nor of him that runneth, it's
not about your actions, your working, your doing, but of God
that show of mercy. For the scripture sayeth, that's
what it's all about, right? We don't care what man says,
it's what does the scripture say. For the scripture sayeth
unto Pharaoh, even for this same purpose, have I raised thee up
that I might show my power in thee and that my name might be
declared throughout all the earth. You think it was Pharaoh's will
that God did that? No, it was God's will to do that
in Pharaoh for God's purposes of showing His glory in Pharaoh,
His power. Pharaoh didn't have any choice
in the matter. He was created, raised up, put into place for
the exact purpose of God showing His power in hardening Pharaoh's
heart, delivering those children of Israel, and bringing glory
to Himself in doing so. And you say, well, that doesn't
seem fair that God, you mean God just raised him up to be
a tool? Exactly. He raised him up for that purpose.
He said it. God said it. I didn't say it.
God said it. I'm just reading what God says.
God says, for this purpose have I, God, raised thee, Pharaoh,
up, that I, God, might show my power in you, Pharaoh, that my
name might be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore, have
he, God, mercy, on whom he, God, will have mercy, and whom he,
God, will he, God, hardeneth. God will give mercy to whom he
will give mercy, and he will harden, God will harden, God
will harden, okay? God does the hardening. Why? Because he's the potter, and
we're the clay. Thou wilt say unto me, well,
why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will? Men say that day after day after
day, shaking their fist in the face of God, who is their creator. Nay, but, O man, who art thou
that replyest against God? Shall the thing formed say to
him that formed it, why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the
potter power over the clay of the same lump to make one vessel
into honor? and another under dishonor, we
talked about that last week. There's one lump, and in one
lump of natural man, God has made vessels of honor and vessels
of dishonor. He goes on to say, what if God,
willing to show his wrath and to make his power known, which
he does, he has willed that, he is doing that, endured with
much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted for destruction,
why aren't they obliterated the minute they transgress God? Because
God is reserving the wicked for the day that he designs to show
his power and show his wrath and justice on. And that he might
make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy,
which he had aforeprepared unto glory. He aforeprepared what? Vessels of mercy, aforeprepared. That means before anything, God
prepared the vessels of mercy. The vessels of wrath were fitted
to destruction, but the vessels of mercy were given before. So
then it's only by grace that we're saved, brethren. 1 Corinthians
129, two verses and we'll be done. 1 Corinthians chapter one. Verse 29, that no flesh should
glory in his presence, but of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who
of God, but of him, you're in Christ Jesus, not of your own
works or will, but of him, who of God has made unto us wisdom
and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. Here it is, verse
31, that according as it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory.
in the Lord. Why is grace by grace? Why is it that some believe and
some don't believe? So that no flesh should glory
in his presence, but him that glorieth, they will glory in
the Lord. Amen? All right. Anybody have any questions? Comments? All right. Let's bow and have
a word of prayer. Our gracious Heavenly Father,
we thank you for this day. We thank you for the Word of
God, once again, that has been given to us to show you. Father,
we thank you for the gift of quickening, the gift of life,
the gift of spiritual understanding. We thank you, Father, for giving
us ears to hear, eyes to see if we've been called of you.
Father, we thank you for giving us to Christ, We thank you for
the Holy Spirit who comes and quickens our hearts, gives us
understanding, teaches us the gospel and the truth, and brings
us to rest in Christ alone. We thank Christ for his work
on the cross, the basis for which every bit of this is given unto
us. Without his work on the cross, we never could be given love.
We never could be given grace and mercy. It's all because of
what he has done for us and we praise him today. We thank heaven
today because Christ has died for his people and that that
spirit of God comes and quickens the sinner so that we might know
the things freely given to us. And Father Lord, we thank you
for this church that you've given to us to come and fellowship
in and to hear the word of God Lord, we just pray for our church.
We pray that you would build your church here, Lord, that
you would add to it, that you would bring others daily such
as should be saved from this wayward and untoward generation.
Lord, those who are desiring the gospel of Jesus Christ to
come here and to help in the labors of the gospel. Father,
we pray for those who have been among us before and those who
have left because of their desire to leave, and Lord, for
their misunderstanding and for their hatred towards the things
of God in the gospel. Lord, we pray that you give them
right understanding and that you would give them love for
the gospel and for the word of God, that they might understand
these things in a spiritual way and not in a natural way. Father,
Lord, we pray that you would help us here to be more loving
and to be more long-suffering. Father, that you would help me
to be a better pastor, to be a better preacher. Lord, that
you would give me the words to say each time I stand before
these people to preach, Lord, that it may be the words of God
from the scriptures and that it might be truth. Lord, I pray
that those who are listening, that you might edify them through
this preaching and ministry. that we have here at this church.
And Father Lord, we pray for the food that we're about to
eat now. We ask that you would bless it to the nourishment of
our bodies. Bless the fellowship around the
table that we'll have now. Lord, may it be pleasing to you
and be honoring to Christ for it's in his precious name that
we pray, amen.