I invite you to turn back with
me now to John chapter 6. John chapter 6 to me is one of
those what I call go-to chapters. I use it a lot, I quote from
it a lot, and to me it's a go-to chapter just like Ephesians 1,
Colossians 1, Hebrews 10, Romans 9 and 10. It's one of those things
you go to a lot. And the Holy Ghost has inspired
these verses with such simplicity and such plainness that all you
have to do is just read them. They're self-explanatory. You
don't have to go through and start explaining these verses.
Like Paul said in Ephesians 1, he said, according as he hath
chosen us in him before the foundation of the world. I don't need to
explain that, do I? I think a child could understand
that. And so it is in John chapter six. He said, all that the Father's
given me gonna come to me. How many? All of them. All of
them. Who's gonna come? Those the Father
gave to me. And John chapter six is a chapter
about faith in Christ. Faith in Christ. In the first part of the chapter,
John records three miracles that all picture the work of faith. He shows us first that the way
of faith comes through the compassion of our Lord who will gather us
all together and feed us with that which is blessed with his
own hand. That's what faith is. Faith gathers
you together, and the Lord blesses his word, and he feeds you. He
feeds you. I'm the bread, you see. I'm the
bread. That's what faith is about, he
that heareth. He's adhering. Everywhere our
Lord went, He didn't go to somebody's house and buttonhole them in
the back and try to one-on-one with them. You won't find that.
You won't find His disciples doing that. You won't find Him
doing that. What did he do? He gathered them
together. He drew them to a place, whether
it was a synagogue or whether it was a mountainside or whether
he was out in a boat preaching to people on the bank. Wherever
it was, there was a group of people that he gathered together
and he preached to them. He preached to them. And so he
pictures that here as feeding this multitude. The second miracle
he performed was to come to them in the blackness of darkness
in the middle of the storm in a way that they weren't looking
for. There was a storm that night
and their vessel was about to go down and he came to them doing
what couldn't be done. Well preacher, you say if we're
totally depraved and If we can't do anything about our condition,
what's the point of preaching? Because I depend on Him to do
that which cannot be done. If He comes to you, that's how
He's going to come. He's going to come in a way that
you're not expecting, in a way that you're not looking for.
I hear all this stuff, well I sought the Lord for years. No you didn't.
Those who find Him are found of Him first. You remember, and I can't remember
the names, I can't get them straight, but I can remember what he said.
He findeth Philip. I think that's who it was. He
found Philip. And then Philip went over and
told his brothers, he said, come see the Lord whom I found. Well,
you didn't find him, he found you. And then you found him. He comes in a way that you're
not expecting. He comes in a supernatural way.
Faith is the gift of God. It's something he has to give.
An intervention has to be exercised by God. You're never going to
be saved on your own. God has to do a work. And it's
not in the way, I never in my life expected the Lord to save
sinners the way he did. Never, I would never have figured
it. I was taught to come down an aisle, kneel down at a mourner's
bench, all of these things. That's not how God saves sinners.
He comes to them through the preaching of the gospel. And
He makes them to do something they never thought could happen.
He makes them to understand the Word of God. And I'm telling
you, you can go tell your neighbor, I just knew after the Lord revealed
Himself to me, everybody around me, it's just a point of doctrine
they just don't understand. And I went, man, my dad was madder
than a wet hornet when I told him. Who told you that? You can't see this? Let me read
it for you." And I'd read, I don't mean that. You don't? He does something for you that
you can't do. That's how he comes, in a way you're not expecting,
in a supernatural way. He came defying nature. That's
what happens when the Lord comes with this gift of faith. He defies
nature. Old Barnard said, he'll save
you against your will with your full consent. And that's exactly
what he does. He came in a confident power
and authority, ordering the winds and the waves to be still. He came in power, and he came
in person, and he came in purpose. And his coming was effectual.
And then the third miracle that he did to demonstrate faith was
upon entering their vessel, they were immediately where they desired
to be. See, they were going to the other
side. The storm hit out in the center in the middle of the night.
He steps into that vessel. They're out in the middle of
the sea. He steps into the vessel, the fog clears, The waves go
down, oh, we're here. Immediately, the scripture said,
they were at their destination. When he steps into your vessel,
you're exactly where you need to be. That's right. You're exactly
where you need to be. God's elect in this world are
on a journey to the calling of God. They don't know it. They're
just going about life as usual. They're just going about their
jobs, and they've got families, and they've got jobs. They've
got bills to pay. They've got a government. All
of these things, their mind is full of this and full of that.
On top of that, some of them are filled with religious lies,
religious deceit. And they're going here, and they're
going there, and they're doing this, and they're doing that.
But in reality, they're on a journey to the calling of God. God's
going to call His elect. All that the Father giveth me,
Christ said, are going to come to me. Every one of them. Every one of them. He's chosen
them, Paul said, to salvation through sanctification of the
Spirit and belief of the truth. whereunto he called you by our
gospel. You're on a journey in this life
and you don't know it. I'm talking about unbelievers.
They don't know it. He has a people out here. They're on a journey.
They don't know they're on a journey. They're doing everything in their
life according to God's purpose. They don't know that. He's arranged
his providence all around you, protecting you, saving you from
physical harm. because you're on a journey to
the calling of God. Chosen them to salvation. In Ephesians 111 it said, in
whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated
according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after
the counsel of his own will. And there's no difference in
you and anybody else in this world. But we like to think there
is, though, don't we? Huh? We like to think there is. Well,
I'm not like that crazy nut in Washington. Oh, yeah, you are.
You just like him. You just like him. We're all
sinners, every one of us. All fallen in Adam, we're all
sinners, we've all transgressed, all have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. There's no difference in you
and anybody else. Who maketh thee to differ, Paul
said, from another? If there is a difference, who
made you to differ? What is it that makes you different?
You believe, and they don't. Well, who did that? Who maketh thee to differ? What
have you gotten that you haven't received? Do you have faith?
That's the gift of God. God gave it to you. We're just like everybody else. There was a time when we all
walked after the same ideas, motives, and desires as this
world, with this exception. God has determined to make an
intervention. God's going to get in the way. He's going to stand in the hedge.
He's going to intervene. He's not going to let you go
on. He said, that's enough. That's as far as you're going
to go. That's what he did with Paul. Ain't no telling how many
people Paul had already taken down there to be put to death.
And he was up there seeking papers. so he could go get some more.
He wasn't seeking the Lord, he wasn't seeking to be saved, he
wasn't seeking anything except papers to go persecute some more
Christians. And God said, Paul, that's far
enough. And he unhorsed him and threw
his face down in the mud and saved that old Saul of Tarsus. Let me quote this again, John
6, 37. All that the Father giveth me shall come to me. No ifs,
ands, and buts. They're coming. They're going
to come with a broken and a contrite heart. They're going to come
with a knowledge of the truth. They're going to come to a person
and not a creed or a denomination. They're going to come in submission. They're not going to be popping
gum walking down an aisle. They're gonna come in submission. But they will. They will, beyond
all doubt, come. What did our Lord tell those
Jews over there in John chapter 10? They said, Thou be the Messiah,
tell us plainly. He said, I told you. But you
believe not because you're not my sheep. As I said unto you,
my sheep, hear my voice. Now some of those who were fed
by the loaves and the fishes, they took shipping and come to
the other side Having been rebuked by the Lord for their bad motives
and wrong ideas, he said to them in John 6, 28, they said to him,
what shall we do that we might work the works of God? We want
to feed 5,000. We want to raise the dead. We
want to command the waves to be silent. We want to cast out
demons. What can we do that we might
work the works of God? And Jesus answered and said unto
them, this is the work of God, that you believe on him whom
he hath sent. And that's the title of my message
this morning. There's no work in my day more
mysterious than that work of faith. That work of faith in
a person's heart. God commands men everywhere. to believe. He's not telling
you this morning, the reason you're not seeing me whining
and crying and trying to get you down an aisle is because
this is not an invitation, it's a command. It's a command. And that command is to believe.
You're not going to repent until you believe. Repentance is a
work of faith. And no work in my day more mysterious
than this work of faith. God commands us to believe. I
must believe. God will not believe for you. You must believe. It is I that
must believe. Yet for me to believe is contrary
to my nature. It's contrary to my ability. That rich young ruler walked
away in unbelief, and the disciples meant everything about this man
from the time he was a child. In their mind, commended him
to God, and now he's walking away. And they said, well, who
then can be saved? And the Lord knew what they said
in their heart. And here's what he said to them.
With man, it is impossible. Didn't say it wasn't likely.
He said it was impossible. Impossible. But he didn't leave it there.
He said, with God, all things are possible. So preacher, what
is this thing called faith? Well, first of all, it's the
work of God. Isn't that what he says there in our text? This is the work of God. Ephesians 2.8 said, for by grace
are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. Well,
if it ain't of myself, who's it of? It's of the Lord. It's not of yourselves, it is
the gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should
boast, for we are his workmanship. This is the work of God. That's
what he's telling those men that came over. In Philippians 2, verse 12, Paul
writes, wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not
as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence. Boy,
Calvinists hate this. Work out your own salvation in
fear and trembling. Does that really say that? That's
what it says, isn't it? Work out your own salvation with
fear and trembling. That is, having received the
gospel, which you've heard, apply these truths to yourself. Truths
such as the death of Christ. Why did he come? What did he
do? Where is he now? Having heard
these things, apply these things rightfully now. His resurrection,
all of his eternal appointments, his incarnation and so on. He
says these things to the sinner. He says these things to needy
sinners, bankrupt sinners. And we're to see these things
as they apply to our salvation. Work out your own salvation in
fear and trembling. Now you have someone that you
bring with you or someone who comes in here or someone that
you love at home and you want to say something to them. Don't
you work out their salvation. You let them do it. Why? For it is God that worketh in
you, both to will and to do of his good pleasure. That's why. You can't work that work. You can't work that work. I can't
even work it in me, let alone in you. This thing of faith is
the work of God. This is the work of God. How simple can a statement be? Whatever this work of God in
you is, it is to will and to do. Isn't that what he says? Boy, I've heard that passage
applied to everything under the sun except this. But this is
what he's talking about in that chapter in Philippians. He tells him that at the very
start. If there's anything in you, if there's any kind of work
of God in you. Well, let me ask you something.
What is the will? Calvinists say the will's not
free. Armenians say the will is free.
What is the will? What are you talking about when
you're talking about a will? And you've heard all the arguments.
But what is it? Well, I looked it up in my dictionary.
I wanted a clear definition from someone other than myself. And
I looked it up in the dictionary, and here's what it says. It is
the mental faculty. by which one deliberately chooses
or decides upon a course of action. It is also a deliberate intention
or desire or conclusion that causes one to take a certain
course of action. That's the will. Now I'm gonna
ask you a question. If the will be a mental faculty,
then it cannot be free because the carnal mind is enmity against
God. Man has a carnal mind, he hates
God. He'll listen to anything you
gotta say until you say something about God and then he's mad as
fire. Huh? If the will be the conclusion,
or decision on a matter, then it cannot be a free will because
there's none that understandeth the way of peace they've not
known. It's never entered into the heart of man the things which
God have prepared for them that love him. How you gonna make
a right decision or have a right desire when all about you is
ignorance? You see what I'm saying? Man
has a will, but it's not free. It's biased by his nature. It's
biased by sin. He has a corrupt mind, a hostile
attitude, and he's filled with satanic religion. So what are you saying, preacher?
Are you saying that God just simply bypasses the will? Uh-uh. No. He said in Psalm 110, verse
three, by people, shall be willing in the day of
thy power. They gonna be willing. Willing
to what? Submit, listen, bow down to, huh? They gonna be willing. They gonna
be willing. How they gonna be willing? Because
it's God that worketh in you to will. He supplies us with what we're
missing. He gives us what you don't have
and cannot produce. We're His workmanship. But His working in you, it goes past the will. Paul argues this point in Romans
7, verse 18. He said, for the will is present
in me. Okay? I'm willing. But how to
perform that which is good, that's what I don't have. I know how
to act, but I don't act that way. I know where I belong, but
half the time I'm not there. I know what to give, most of
the time I don't give him. The will is present with me,
but how to perform that which is good, I find not. God's work doesn't stop with
the will, it goes on to do his good pleasure. And that good
pleasure, now listen to me, is to bring you to Christ. It's
to bring you to Christ. In each of the three miracles,
there's one common denominator, Christ. They followed him up the mountain.
He blessed the food. He fed the multitude. He walked
on water. He stepped in the vessel. He
had all the answers. Faith is all about Christ. Now you just set all these other
things over to the side. They'll find their place. But
I'm telling you, faith is about the Lord Jesus Christ and nothing
else. It's about Him. Until you see
Him as He is, sovereign, potentate, King of kings, Lord of lords,
until you see Him that way and that way as your Savior, you're
not gonna bow. When you see that sovereignty
engaged to save your soul, now you're going to bow and you're
going to be willing to do it. You see what I'm saying? It's all about Christ. It's about
finding Him, hearing Him, seeing Him, laying hold on Him, entering
into His wreath, trusting Him. Persevering in Him. There's never
a time in your life till the day you die that you don't need
Him with you constantly. Huh? In 1 John 5, 20, he said, and
we know that the Son of God hath come. Who did? The Son of God
hath come and given to us an understanding. Wow, you mean
I learned that in Christ? If you learned anything at all,
you learned it in Him. He given us an understanding
that we might know Him that's true, that we might know the
true God. He don't stop there. We also
learned that we're in Him. We're in Him that is true. This
whole thing was of God. He goes on there in John chapter
6, down there just a little bit. He told them Pharisees, they
went to murmuring about him. He said, he's God come down to
the flesh. He said, don't murmur. No man
can come to me except he's drawn to my Father. This whole thing's
of God. He's come, the Son of God's come.
He's given us an understanding that we might know Him that's
true, that we're in Him that's true. Even in His Son, Jesus
Christ, this is the true God and eternal life. What is this thing of faith?
Paul said that God would make known, this was his prayer, that
God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this
mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you. the hope of glory. He's our eternal hope being appointed
for us and us chosen in him before the world began. He's our hope
at the very beginning back in the garden immediately after
the fall of man, the lamb was introduced. A lamb's land, the
promise given, the woman's seed. He's our hope of judgment, one
ark, sealed by the atonement, preserving everything that God
intended to preserve. He's our hope in his appearance. When the fullness of the time
was come, God sent forth his son, made of a woman, made under
the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might
receive the adoption of children. He's our hope. He's our hope
of judgment, therefore is no condemnation right now in them
that are in Christ Jesus. He's our hope in His death at
the cross, delivered for our offenses, raised again for our
justification. He's our hope at this present
moment. He ever liveth to make intercession for the saints. And He's our hope for the future
and that day. in that day, all my soul. He's coming in the glory of his
Father's house in that day. Christ in you, the hope of glory. Now let me show you something
over here in Ephesians chapter four. I've referred to this in
our study on Luke, but I want you to see this. Luke chapter
four, and I want to talk to you a little bit about the means
of faith and the ministry in particular. And this is what
he says, they're given for, Ephesians 4.12, for the perfecting of the
saints, that is by showing us our perfection
in him, and for the work of the ministry, the calling out of
God's elect, and for the edifying of the body of Christ, for the
maturing of his saints, verse 13. till we all come in the unity
of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect
man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,
until there's nothing left but Christ. That's what he's talking
about. There was an old divine, oh,
this has been a long, long time ago, back when they had those
gravity pumps that they pumped gas out of, and he was traveling
up in the mountains of West Virginia. And gas stations were few and
far between back then. And he pulled into this gas station,
and while they was filling the old car up, he went inside. It was just like a little general
store, gas station, that kind of thing. And there was an old
fellow sitting out there barefooted in his overall, and he had a
chunk of firewood, and he was whittling on it, sitting there
whittling. He kind of nodded and went on
in the store. He got in there and paid for
his gas and started looking around. Man, he looked up there on the
shelf and this, there was a thing that somebody had carved that
was an old Jed Clampett hound dog. And he looked up there and
that thing was as real as it could be. And he got it down,
looked at it up close. Sure enough, this thing had been
whittled out of a piece of wood. And he looked at the price on
it. He said, I want to buy this. We gave him the money. He said,
can you tell me who in the world did this work? Well, yeah, old
Jed did it out there on the porch. He said, you passed right by
him on your way in. He said, you mean that fella out there
whittling? He said, yeah. He made this hound
dog? Yeah, he did. So he went out
on the porch, he introduced himself, and he said, can you tell me how you took
a piece of firewood and come up with something like this,
as perfect as this is? The old kid sitting there wiggling,
spitting. He said, yeah. He said, I cut
off everything that wasn't a hound dog. That's what gospel preaching
does to faith. Everything that ain't Christ,
it cuts it off. Cuts it off. You say, well, sometimes
you listen to me preach, and you say, well, man, he's against
them, and he's against them, and he's against that guy, and
he's against, no, I'm just cutting off everything that ain't Christ.
I want you to have him exactly as God has set him forth. And
if you find him that God has set forth, you have never in
your life experienced such peace and assurance as you're gonna
experience. He's all. That's what the scriptures
say. Paul said, for me to live is
Christ. It's Christ. My soul, that man
was brilliant. He could have come up with a
thousand things. But he didn't, Winston. He come
up with one thing. For me to live is Christ. And to die is gain. Because now
I'm in his presence. Now he's in my presence. That's what preaching is to faith.
It cuts off everything that's not Christ. This is the work
of God that you believe on Him whom He has sent. As Paul preached
to the church at Antioch and the Gentiles were given hearing
ears, it said in verse 48, Acts 13, 48, they were glad. When they heard that mystery
of God concerning the Gentiles, that they were partakers with
Christ, oh my soul, they were glad and they glorified the word
of the Lord. Now listen, and as many as were
ordained to eternal life believed. Isn't that something? Every son
of Adam chosen in Christ, redeemed by Christ, sanctified in Christ,
and justified in Christ, shall hear and shall believe. The only evidence of your election
in Christ is your faith in Him. All that the Father giveth me
gonna come to me. Faith is that work in you. Now
I want you to listen to me. Faith is that work in you that
produces the confidence to walk in it. We walk in Christ, period. To trust in it, to lay hold on
it, and turn everything else loose. Believing on Christ is
as great a miracle as the feeding of the multitude or the walking
on the water or the being translated to the other side. In fact, Paul
compares it to the resurrection of Christ. This is the work of God that
you believe on him whom he has sent. Here's what I want you to, I'm
gonna close with this. That work which God does in us
cannot detect any outward interference. You don't feel anything. We don't
see anything. I saw that hand, it touched me.
No, you didn't. You didn't do any such thing. Oh, I did this, I felt that,
I heard this. No, no, that work which God does
in us cannot detect any outside interference. It is as though
you did it all yourself. But it's not very long till we
see God's hand in it. And here's what he says in the
book of Proverbs. The preparation of the heart
in men and the answer of the tongue is of the Lord. But it's your tongue and it's
your heart. And you answer it just like God
wasn't in it at all. And afterward, after that you
have believed, he seals you with that Holy Spirit promise. That's
when you learn that this is the work of God. This is the work
of God, that you believe on Him whom He has sent. Thank you.