over in john's gospel chapter
six gospel john chapter six i want to uh... thank you dear
ladies it is so good to sit after service and partake of a meal
and fellowship one with another and you ladies are so kind to
make that possible and some of the best food i've ever ate It
was just so good. Thank you. Thank you A familiar
scripture in John chapter 6 in verse 43 verse 45 John chapter 6 in verse 43 Jesus
therefore answered and said unto them Murmur not grumble not stop
your grumbling murmur not among yourselves No man can come to
me except the Father which hath sent me draw him, and I will
raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets,
and they shall all be taught of God. Every man therefore that
hath heard and learned of the Father, he cometh unto me." Thousands of people had been
following our Lord. He had done this wonderful miracle. He had fed at least 5,000 people
with five loaves and two fishes, and they'd taken up 12 baskets
of fragments left over from what he fed them. Great miracle. And when the Jews that he fed
realized what a miracle this was, they said, we need a king. And what we need to do is make
him our king. And the Lord Jesus had no interest
in that. He had no interest to be their
king. He was born a king. They couldn't make him a king.
But he didn't come to be their king and rule that nation. He came to die and atone for
sins. So our Master gets off by himself.
He goes up in the mountains by himself to pray. And it was dark
and the disciples were going across the Sea of Galilee. Somewhere
out in the mist this wind came up. The waves got boisterous. They were paddling but going
nowhere. The Lord Jesus appears to them walking on the water.
What a miracle that was. Nature's subject to him even
in his humanity. And they were scared to death.
They received him into the ship and the scripture says immediately
they were at the land. And then this same group of people,
5,000 or so, came across that sea and found him there and began
to question him how he got there and when he came over there.
And the Lord Jesus, the first thing he does to these people,
here in verse 26 and verse 27, he reproves them. And then he
instructs them, look what he says to them in verse 26 and
verse 27. And Jesus said unto them, verily,
verily, I say unto you, you seek me not because you saw the miracles,
but because you did eat of the loaves and were filled. That's
your motive. Then he instructs them, 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, for him hath God the Father sealed. He calls it here meat. I guess if we were reading this
or writing this, interpreting this, we'd call it food. Labor
for the food. What he called meat here in verse
26 and verse 27, up here in verse 32 and verse 33, he calls it
bread. Look at this. 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 and gives life unto
the world. And these Jews had two problems
with this. First of all, because he said,
I am the bread which came down from heaven. See what he says
down here in verse 42? Look in verse 41. And the Jews then murmured at
him because he said, I am the bread which came down from heaven. And in verse 42, they said, is
this not Jesus, the son of Joseph? Don't we know his father and
mother? How can he say, I come down from heaven? And boy, this
disturbed them to no end. Why, we know him. We know his
dad and his mom and his brothers and sisters. This man is mad. And not only did that cause them
to murmur, but when he said that he was the bread of life that
they must eat, that disturbed them. They murmured about that.
And especially when he went on to tell them what he tells them
in verse 51. Look at this. He first begins
with the meat and then the bread. And now he said, this meat, this
bread is my flesh. Look what he said in verse 51.
I am the living bread which come down from heaven. If any man
eat of this bread, he shall live forever. And the bread that I
will give is my flesh. which I will give for the life
of the world. And then the Jews quarreled.
They strove among themselves saying, how can this man give
us of his flesh to eat? And then to add on top of that,
when he went on to say in verse 53, not only must you eat my
flesh, but drink my blood. Look what he said in verse 53.
He said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, except ye eat
the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his blood, you have
no life in you. They said, this is not even lawful
for us to do. Moses commanded us never to drink
blood. This man's telling us we must
eat his flesh, and now he's telling us we must drink his blood. And man, were they ever offended.
Look what he says over in verse 60 and verse 61. Many therefore
of his disciples, those that were following him, when they
heard this, they said, this is a hard saying. Who can hear this? Who can understand this? And
when Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it,
he said unto them, doth this offend you? Yes, it did. It insulted their intelligence. that he would make such a statement
to them. And I tell you, it's insulted
them to the point that in verse 66, from that time, many of his
disciples, they went away, they went back and they never looked
at him again. They never heard him preach again.
They went back, denied him, denied their profession of him, refused
to follow him anymore and perished in their sin. And here's the sad thing about
their murmuring. He was telling them the truth.
He came down from Heaven. He told us several times that
the Father had sent Him from Heaven. He wasn't Joseph's son
as they supposed. He was indeed the Eternal Son
of the Living God. Look what he says on in verse
67. Jesus said to his apostles, this
12, will you also go away? And Simon Peter answered him,
Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal
life. And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ,
not the son of Joseph, but the son of the living God. And you know, they're not the
only ones that profess that. Remember the blind man that the
Lord gave sight to him there in the temple? The Pharisees
put him out of the temple? And the Lord found him and said,
do you believe in the Son of God? He said, who is he, Lord,
that I might believe on him? He said, I that speak to you
am he. I am the Son of God. And he bowed
his head and worshiped and believed, this is the Son of God. And Martha
confessed this, didn't she? When the Lord told her, I'm the
resurrection, I'm the life. He said, do you believe this?
She said, yea Lord, I believe. That you're that Christ, you're
the Son of God that should come into the world. Who is this Jesus
of Nazareth? He is indeed the Son of God. They misunderstood completely
what it meant when the Lord Jesus said, you must eat my flesh and
drank my blood. They were simply looking at this
from a natural standpoint. Carnal standpoint. Literal standpoint. And that wasn't the meaning of
what Art Ward said at all. Why didn't they simply ask him? You and I don't understand everything.
We understand very little. But when we begin Didn't we go
to the Lord as we do now and say, Lord, I don't understand
this. Would you teach me? Ask and you
shall receive. Why didn't they ask him? You
and I know what this means, don't we? Eat in the flesh of the Son
of God and drink in his blood. We know exactly what that means.
Why didn't they ask? On the night of the Passover,
the Lord took bread and he break it and gave it to his apostles.
And he said, this represents my body. Ain't that what he said?
This is my body that's broken for you. He wasn't talking about literally
eating his flesh, but his flesh that was broken upon the cross
for our redemption. suffering unto death to atone
for our sins. That's what he was talking about.
And he took the cup and he said, drink you all of it. This cup,
this wine, represents my blood which is shed for many for the
remission of their sins. We don't eat his flesh literally.
We eat it in a spiritual sense and we partake of it by faith.
as we believe in him and we'll come after the service and this
is what we'll do. We'll take this broken bread
and we'll look upon it, something we can handle and taste and get
in our stomachs and we'll say, this is the body of Christ. It
was broken for me and now I'm partaking of that. By faith,
I'm drinking his blood for the remission of my sins. Christ wasn't speaking literally
or natural, but he was speaking spiritually. He died for our
sins, and we become partakers of his redeeming death by believing
on him, and we continue to live by faith in him. And you know,
here's a lesson for all of us, I think. We don't understand spiritual
things by nature. We don't. And if we lean to our
own understanding, we'll err. We'll err greatly just like these
men did. This is why we have so many books
and movies on the book of Revelation that the world understands. The great late planet Earth and
all of those books, the world to see those movies because it
looks at a spiritual book through natural eyes. The best and safest thing you
and I can do is go to the Word of God, read it prayerfully,
and ask the Lord to open our understanding. Ask Him again,
read it again, And I'm not talking about to find out what the mark
of the beast is and to be all upset about the locust coming
out of the bottomless pit. But these things that the Lord
was preaching about, that's what we're concerned about. And if
he doesn't answer you, keep on asking him. And boy, when he
shows you, you'll see it. The Lord had just performed a
great miracle before these people. He had fed these 5,000 with five
loaves and two small fishes. If He told them that He was from
heaven, at least give Him the benefit of the doubt. Huh? Here's a man that had performed
a great miracle, and you've seen it with your own eyes. At least
give him the benefit of the doubt. At least ask him to clarify this. At least go search the scriptures
and don't jump to conclusions. Boy, we're living in a day where
people you can read a passage of scripture to them and they're
so quick to say, that makes me mad, that offends me. I was reading the Bible to a
young lady the other day. And she just hollered that out.
That makes me angry, she said. That's repulsive to me. That
offends me, that's what she said. That offends me. You know what
I told her? You better be careful that you
don't offend Him. We better be careful, haven't
we? They were offended in Him? My soul, who do they think they
are? We better be careful when we
go to the scriptures and read these things to get repulsed
and offended and upset at what the Son of God says to us. Go ask Him. Go humble yourself
before Him and ask Him, Lord, what does this mean? He reproves these Jews here in
verse 43. Stop your murmuring, He says.
Stop your complaining. And then I come here to my text
right quickly. Boy, he confronts them with one
of the most serious and awakening realities between the eternities. Look in verse 44. No man can come to me. Boy, no man can come to me. No man can. Man, he's not awakened. No man can come to me. In the
fifth chapter he said, you will not come to me. But he's dealing
there with their flat-out rebellion, their hard heart. You will not
come to me. But here he's dealing with an
utter inability. In a man's unregenerate state,
he cannot come to Jesus Christ to be saved by Him. He cannot. I'm sure that it's around here,
like it is at home, you hear a lot about total depravity. The preacher says a lot about
total depravity. I know him, so I know he does.
What do we mean by total depravity? We mean a man's morally depraved. A man can't do one thing that's
acceptable to God in his natural state. He can't perform one act,
have one thought that God will approve of. The plowing of the
wicked is sin. A man is out plowing his field
to feed his family and he's sinning against God. The heart is deceitful
above all things and desperately wicked and everything that comes
from that heart is unacceptable to God. It's sinful in God's
sight. That's what we mean by total
depravity. But we mean more than that. We mean total inability. This is the worst aspect of total
depravity. A man cannot come to Jesus Christ
to be saved by Him. He cannot. That's what the first
thing our Savior said. No man can come to me. Boy, if moral depravity is bad,
this inability is worse. If a man falls in a sewer pit
and he's laying there in that filth and he can get out and
get to the water hole and wash himself off, he's all right.
But here's the dilemma, brothers and sisters, that we face. Here's
the dilemma this fallen world faces. It's in a pit of sin. It's perishing. And it can't
even get out to come to the Savior to be saved by Him. left to himself. A man can not come to Jesus Christ
and to God by him to be saved by him. Why is that? Let me give you two or three
reasons. Coming to Christ to be saved by him is not coming
to him physically. It's a spiritual coming. These
men here came to him in a physical way. And they left him physically
and were never saved. Coming to Jesus Christ is coming
to him spiritually. He's in heaven. We're upon this
earth. And when we come to him, we must
come to him in a spiritual sense. And here is why man cannot come
spiritually. Man is dead. What do we expect out of dead
men? I say this almost every time I go to a funeral. I walk
up to the casket, and there's this person laying in the casket,
and if I know them, I'll usually put my hand there and pat them,
and I know that they don't feel that. I've talked to them, and
I know they don't hear me. And they never get up. They don't
breathe. They don't participate in this life. Why? They're dead. Why can't a man come to Christ?
He's dead. Lazarus could not get up and
come out of the tomb until he heard the voice of life. No man can come to Jesus Christ
until God the Father draws him and draws him affectionately.
The second reason is this. Man is a natural being. And the
natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God,
for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them."
He don't know anything about Christ, and to come to Christ,
and how to come to Christ. He's a natural being. You know
the knowledge, the saving knowledge of the Lord is not a carnal knowledge. It's a spiritual knowledge. We
know the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding
that we may know Him. It's something that's given to
us. Thirdly is this, a man cannot
come to Jesus Christ and to God by Him to be saved because the
carnal mind, the unregenerate mind, is at enmity against God. I was watching a documentary
on World War II, and they were showing the account of Adolf
Eichmann. He was Adolf Hitler's right-hand
man. He's responsible for killing
probably several million people, two or three million people.
Adolf Eichmann. They captured him. And this one
lady came, a young lady who wanted to see him in prison, wanted
to visit him in prison. because Adolf Eichmann had killed
her whole family right before her eyes. He killed all of her
family. And they led her in to talk with
Adolf Eichmann. And she said there was no way
that she could bring her mind to have any sympathy for that
man. Could you blame her? But this is the way the natural
mind is to God. We can understand how God could
be repulsed by us, but how can we be repulsed towards Him? But the natural mind is. It cannot
endure to think about Jesus Christ. Light is coming to the world.
Jesus Christ is coming to the world. And men love darkness
rather than light because their deeds are evil. And listen, neither
cometh they to the light. Why won't men come to Christ?
They're repulsed. That's the saddest and worst
condemnation in this world, is it not? Why won't you come to Christ? Men won't admit that, will they?
They won't admit that, but that's what the Lord says. The carnal
mind is enmity against God. And it can't come. It cannot
come. There must be a work of grace.
There must be a new heart that will come. And we've got Satan, the enemy
of Christ and the enemy of soul. He's involved in this disability. inability. If our gospel be hid,
it's hid to them that are lost, in whom the God of this world
hath blinded their minds, lest the light of the glorious gospel
of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
Satan is depicted in the scriptures as a strong man who keeps his
house. He keeps the heart. And man has no power over the
devil. And he keeps the heart, and they can't get out of there.
They can't get him out of there until one stronger than him comes
and drags him out and sets upon the throne. There's more reasons,
isn't there? Somebody's gonna say, Bruce,
I've come here this morning, and bless your heart, I'm just suffering
all these problems and trouble at home and work and everything,
and you've not told me a thing to help me. Well, listen, listen. I know what it means to go through
some problems. We've got these problems at home
and work and physical, but you know we're going to have them
until we die. But these are essential things
to talk about. These things that concern the
salvation of our souls. This is what we need to hear
about, isn't it? No man can come to me. What a
chilling, despairing, heart-wrenching statement. Left to ourselves,
our situation is hopeless. We are hopeless. No man can come to me. You cannot come to me. Hopeless. Utterly hopeless. And the world
don't even care. The world's just like these men.
We don't care that we can't come. We're going away to walk with
you no more. That's the world. And they'll
never care until it's too late. Oh, but you care, don't you?
You care. I can see it on your faces. You're
concerned about this. Well, look at this. Accept. Accept. No man can come to me
except The Father which sent me draw him. Oh, here's the accept
of hope, isn't it? Here is where our hope begins. Accept. We're descending in this
dark pit. No man can come to me. And suddenly
our descent is stopped by this little word. Accept. Oh, what hope the Gospel brings. Accept. You're going to be separated
from God eternally. From all comfort and all that's
good. Accept. This is like that little word,
but, that we read about in the scriptures, isn't it? But God. That's our hope, isn't
it? But God. And this hope is not
found in us. Not in us at all. It's found
in the Father. Except my Father. Except my Father. You know, we have family members.
I was just telling Pat about my children. None of my children
are converted. None of my grandbabies are converted.
That's an awful burden to me. I pray for them, witness to them.
I got friends, neighbors that's not converted, and you do too.
And you know something? Their salvation rests in what
I'm telling you right here. Their salvation rests in this
little word, except the Father draw them. You can weep over
them. You can witness to them. You
can pray for them. But it comes down to this, their
eternal salvation rests in this, except the Father. I tell you what, that's an awakening
thing, isn't it? That's something that grips the very core of our
being. But you know something that would
grip my core worse than ever? If this is not so. Without this, there is no salvation. Yes, it's limited. It's limited
to those whom the Father draws effectually and teaches and brings
to the Son. It's limited, yes, but without
it, there's none saved. Hell will enlarge itself. It
may sound kind for me to tell you this morning, oh, God is
drawing everybody. God is sending the word out to
everybody the same. It's this influence that's going
out over the world. That may sound so kind. I saw a bridge the other day.
Went halfway across the interstate. Beautiful bridge. And you can
get a bunch of people on it. But you can't get anybody across
the interstate. I may come to you and say, it
sounds very kind to tell you God is just drawing everybody
and He's willing for everybody to be saved. And yet nobody's saved. That
sounds good. Here's the only sure salvation,
brothers and sisters. Accept my Father drawing you. That makes it sure. Not for all,
but for those whom He calls. That's what I'm concerned about. This little word is the only
thing that stands between us and hell, between us and eternal
misery, except my Father. And look down in verse 64 and
65 again quickly. Look at this. There are some of you that believe
not, for Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that
believed not, and who should betray Him. And He said, Therefore
said I unto you that no man can come to Me, except it were given
unto him of My Father. He gives just a little bit more
light on this. He said up there in our text,
except the father draw him, and now he says, when the father
draws him, it's a gift. It's not anything that God is
obligated to do for them because of anything he sees in them.
It's a gift of God. That's wonderful, isn't it? haven't
we heard, and I don't mean to be so negative about this, but
sometimes we learn a lot by being negative. Haven't we heard all
of our life, where I was raised at, Donnie, in your area down
there, I heard that all my life. God owes you one chance. Ain't that, you hear that, don't
you? Well then, he's just paying you
what he owes you. One chance, one chance. Well,
I guess then if you took advantage of the one chance the first time,
then He's just giving you what He owes you, isn't He? That's
not what the Bible says. Oh, if you come to Jesus Christ
to be saved by Him, you've come and you've given yourself up
to Jesus Christ the Lord. You believe Him with all your
heart. That's the gift of God. The Father's
just bestowed upon you His wondrous gift. You have come to Jesus
Christ. What a gift. Unmerited, unearned
gift of God. Oh, I'll never get over it, brothers
and sisters. I just love to and take the verse like this and
just roll it around in my mind. And just, we have an old dog
and I had a meat bone and I threw it out to him. He had a little
bit of meat on it and the next day I went out and looked at
that old bone and it was as white as it could be. He licked all
the meat off of that bone and just, that's the way I love to
do with these verses. Just put it in your spiritual
mouth and just roll it over and over and get all the good out
of it. It's a gift of God. And just
live in the light of it and the joy of it. Why did I come to
Jesus Christ? Why do I still come to Christ?
The gift of the Father. That's why. That's why. Just give unto the Lord. Thirdly, let's look
at this one more time. How does the Father draw us to
Christ? No man can come to me except
my Father which sent me draw him. And then he goes on in verse
45. It is written in the prophets,
and they shall all be taught of God. Every man therefore that
hath heard and learned of the Father, he comes unto me. He
comes because the Father teaches him. The Father teaches us to
come to Christ. Look over in the twelfth chapter
right quickly in verse thirty-two, verse thirty-one and thirty-two,
the twelfth chapter of John. He mentions this somewhat of a different way in
verse thirty-one and thirty-two of John chapter twelve. John
12, 31, now is the judgment of this world. Now shall the prince
of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from
the earth, will draw all men unto me. Here he calls it a drawing. And it's in light of the cross.
So if we put these two together, that God teaches us and draws
us through this teaching. And Christ said, it's through
my being lifted up that I'm drawn. Then I think we could reach this
conclusion that he draws us to Christ by teaching us of the
cross. Christ being lifted up, Christ
crucified. That's the way he draws us. They used to have debtors prison.
I don't know if they ever had them in our country. I imagine
they did. In England, they had what they called debtor's prison.
Our Lord mentioned that in His Gospels. That where if you owed
somebody something and you couldn't pay, they'd put you in debtor's
prison. Spurgeon talked about the debtor's prison there in
England. And you couldn't come out until you paid that debt
or you were forgiven of that debt. And there were men that
would run from the law to save their own skin. If you got put
in there, your family would suffer. They had no way. How would you
pay if you're in prison? Made no sense, but they did that.
And their family suffered and they suffered. So some men turned
to a life of crime. They ran from the law. They'd
hide out to make enough living to support their family. And
the law was on their trail to put them in debtor's prison. You had to be forgiven or you
had to have your debt paid. Well, that's the way it is with
us. What if you were going to have
to go to debtor's prison and you said, I'm not going there.
Or come and face the consequences. Ain't no way I'm coming. That's
what man said one time. Come and just face the consequences
of what you've done against God. Ain't no way I'm doing that,
bud. Ain't no way I'm coming to God and facing my consequences. He'll put me in hell. I'm not
coming. That's why I didn't come before
I did. I wouldn't come into God facing the consequences of my
sin against him. What would you do if they was
gonna put you in debtor's prison and you ran out and hid? And
then you heard by some miraculous thing that somebody had paid
all your debt. And they said, did you know that
it was all forgiven? I think I'll go surrender then.
Wouldn't you? They gonna put me in debtor's
prison. My debt's been paid. I'm going and just giving myself
up there. I'm tired of hiding out in these
shadows. I'm tired of not being able to sleep. I'm tired of looking
over my shoulder. Boy, a man's tired of living
in his enmity against God. Oh, I need to be saved. But I'm
afraid to face up to God. Oh, He's going to damn me. If
I go confess to Him what I've done, He's going to damn me.
Listen, the death's been paid. It's been paid. There's a passage
of scripture and I wrote it down so I wouldn't forget it. One
of the most wonderful passages. Isaiah 42, 44 and verse 22. Listen to this. I have blotted
out as a thick cloud thy transgressions and I have blotted out as a cloud
thy sins. Listen to this. Return unto me. I have redeemed thee. That's why we return. When we
find out that our Savior has been lifted up, the penalty's
been suffered, the debt's been paid, I can return to God. I don't have to be afraid. Jesus, I come. Jesus, I come. Turn back over quickly my text,
one more thing and I'll close. John chapter six. And look in verse 44 one more
time. No man can come to me except
my Father which sent me draw him and I'll raise him up at
the last day. Boy, this chapter's just got
all these wonderful promises in it. It seems to me as we read
this chapter, There's a promise here of the Father to the Son.
You see it in verse 37. All that the Father giveth to
me shall come to me. That's a promise to the Son,
isn't it? There's a promise in there. My
Son, I know these multitudes are going to go away. They're
not coming to you. But listen, I promise you this. Everyone
I've given to you, they shall come to you. Take courage, my
Son. That's a promise of the Father to the Son. And here is
the promise of Christ to those who come. And I will in no wise
cast him out. The first promise secures our
coming, doesn't it? And the second promise secures
our reception. And both of these promises together
secures our hope. I will raise him up at the last
day. Isn't that wonderful? And what
I like about what the Lord Jesus did here, and you'll notice this,
this promise that's given here secures our hope of a resurrection. He didn't even deal with the
Christian life, did he? Look at it, look back in verse
37. Verse 38, I come down from heaven
not to do my own will, but the will of Him that sent me. And
this is the will of Him that sent me. Of all which given me,
I should lose nothing, but raise it up again at the last day. And this is the will of Him that
sent me. If everyone would seeeth the Son, and believeth on him
may have everlasting life and I'll raise him up at the last
day. And he says the same thing in our text in verse 44, except
the father draw him and I'll raise him up at the last day.
He says, by virtue of your just coming to me, I'll raise you
up at the last day. But Lord, what about my Christian
life? What about all I've got to go
through before the last day? What about my fallings and failings,
and my trials, and my heartaches, and my doubts, and my fears,
and my uncertainties? What about all of that? He deals
with that in other places. But boy, right here, he says,
just because you've come to me, that secures your home. Isn't that wonderful? You talk
about a grounds for assurance. You've come to Christ. That secures
your resurrection at the last day. There's going to be a resurrection.
Some are coming out of their graves with shame and contempt.
Others are coming out with the immortal bodies. Some are coming
out clothed in death. Others clothed in life. Some
will be clothed in garments pure and white. Others in filthy rags. Some will have the perfect image
of Jesus Christ. Others will be defaced with sin.
Some will go to be with Christ forever. Others will go to be
with Satan. Some will have the company of
saints and angels. Others the company of damned
spirits. Some will be raised to eternal happiness and rest.
Others to eternal misery and torment. Oh, don't this make you so thankful.
Father, thank you for drawing me to the Savior. Thank you,
Savior, for receiving me and securing my hope. Lord bless you. Thank you, Pastor.