Turn with me this evening to
John chapter six. John chapter six. While you're turning, let me
kind of refresh your memories as to the events that lead up
to my text, which is going to be found in verses 28 and 29. Our Lord had been preaching to
the Jews and to a multitude on the side of a mountain. And these
people looked for a Messiah. Now we hear many women today
talking about the coming back of the Messiah. They looked for
a Messiah and Israel looked for a Messiah. And they look for
a Messiah because the Old Testament scriptures prophesied and promised
his coming. In fact, Brother Mahan said the
entire Old Testament weaves a garment that'll just fit one man, and
that man is the Lord Jesus Christ. And so they look for Messiah.
They even had a high council, if I understand their purpose
correctly, whose purpose was to look for and to be able to
identify that coming Messiah, the Sanhedrin. They had other
functions, but their primary function was to look for the
Messiah. And they would recognize him
because they were schooled highly in these prophecies concerning
the Messiah. And so our Lord was out on this
hillside, and they looked for His coming, but with all their
training and expertise, they really knew nothing about who
He was or why He was coming or what He was coming to do. They
were ignorant of those things, and the folks in our day are
ignorant of those things. They know that the Lord is coming
back, but they don't know who He is, and they don't know what
He's coming back to do. And so they're ignorant of those
things, and that's the way these people work. They knew nothing
about his coming, nor even of the throne. They knew nothing
of that, that throne upon which God would raise him up to sit. They had in their vision an earthly
throne, like David sat upon and Solomon. And so they looked for
him, but they were ignorant of all these things. They thought
that every blood relative of Abraham was a child of God. If
he could trace his lineage and they were careful to keep these
lineages and they watched them carefully because that's how
they got their hope that they were children of God through
that lineage. We'd be Abraham's children. That's
what they told our Lord. We'd be Abraham's children. And they thought that all his
earthly kin were God's elect and thereby partakers of the
covenant promises which God gave to Abraham. And they believed
in an earthly kingdom with an earthly king and earthly blessings. And they believed that God would
raise up from their midst another David. And this man after David
would deliver Israel and return them to the former glory days
under David and Solomon. They'd lead Israel back into
world prominence and the glory their fathers once know. And
so, when this man called Jesus began to preach and perform miracles,
Undeniable miracles. We hear about miracles today. Somebody gets a cold and somebody
tells them they're cured, you know, and they quit rubbing their
nose and that's a miracle. That's not a miracle. Or somebody
hits somebody on the forehead and they fall out on the floor. That's not God's gifts to men.
When our Lord raised the dead, Now, I'll listen to you if you
go out to the cemetery and you raise a dead man, I'll listen
to you, you've got my attention. He raised the dead. He took lepers
whose skin was falling off and he cleansed them with a word.
That old leper fell down on his feet and he said, Lord, if you
will, you can make me clean. He said, I will. And he was clean. He was indeed, and this man Jesus
Christ was indeed the Christ. Now he had fed these 5,000 people
on this hillside with a little lunch bucket of a few fishes
and a few loaves. He fed 5,000 men plus the women
and children. No telling how many thousands
ate that day. And they were so convinced that
he was the Messiah, but they had the wrong vision of what
this Messiah was, and they were gonna take him by force and make
him their king. They were gonna begin this thing.
They were behind it. But they were ignorant. They
were ignorant about who the Christ was. And he was the Christ. He was indeed the virgin-born
son of Isaiah, which Isaiah prophesied, but not the Christ of their imagination. And so after feeding these 5,000,
when they would have physically taken him and made him their
king, he slipped away from them and gave his disciples instruction
to cross over that sea. And I won't get into that tonight. But on the following day, they
realized when he had gone, They began to ask some questions
and they found out where he was going and they kind of put two
and two together and some other ships from the storm had came
over to that shore and they got on there and they went over to
the other side to Capernaum seeking after the Lord on that following
day. And the Lord said to this people
when they came to him, he said, you don't seek me for the right
reasons. You don't seek me because you
saw these miracles and you're convinced that I'm the coming
Messiah and you know who this Messiah is. He said, you're following
me because you ate of the loaves and were filled. You're following
me for the benefits. And so they said to him this
in their excitement. They said unto him, look here
in John 6 verse 28. They said unto him, what shall
we do that we might work the works of God? What can we do? What can we? I get that response
from more people than you know. What can I do? What can I do? And what they're saying is, what
can we do that we might work the works of God? Like Israel
in the sea. All they read about their history
and Israel passing through that sea and God working through Moses
caused the waves of that sea to stand upright and caused his
wind to dry that sea out and they walked across on dry land. Like Israel in the sea, like
David with Goliath out in the valley with nothing but a sling. like Samson between the pillars,
like Elijah and the 400 prophets of Baal. What can we do? What
are we going to do? We know that you're the Messiah,
now what are you gonna have us to do? What should we do that
we might work the works of God? What should we do to evidence
our calling and election? What will you do through us to
prove to the world that we're your children? to let this world
know that we are the covenant people. What shall we do to make
manifest our relationship with the living God? Shall we organize
a great army and overthrow our enemies? Shall we build again
the nation as it once was? Shall we refuse to pay tribute
to, what would you have us to do? What shall we do that we
might work the works of God? Verse 29. Jesus answered and
said unto them, this is the work of God, that
you believe on him whom he has sent. Would you do the works of God? Would you evident your calling? Do you have a desire in your
heart to do what God would do through you? believe on Him whom
God has sent. There's so much controversy in
our day as to what is and what is not the work of God. Our men
in free will religion says that getting men and women to accept
Jesus as their personal Savior is the work of God. Getting you to choose your destiny
and to exercise your so-called free will is to do the work of
God. To compass sea and land like
the Jews of old and make proselytes who are twofold more the child
of hell than those who made them. And they say that's to do the
work of God. To get folks to count beads and
repeat certain prayers and pray to the saints and eat wafers
and drink a little bit of wine and call that salvation. to be
sprinkled by a priest and they call all of these things the
work of God. Others believe a strict obedience
to the law and Sabbath keeping and tithing and so on is the
work of God. And yet others believe in a moral
reform that by law and punishment, by warning and fear that men
can be morally reformed and in so doing they're working the
works of God. and others believe in supernatural
gifts and gifts of healings and tongues and prophecy and this,
they say, is evidencing the work of God. And with all of organized
religion, with all of their claims and traditional understanding,
with all of their prophecies and practices, what is and what
isn't the work of God? This is the work of God, our
Lord said. This is, this is, not that. This is the work of God that
you believe on him whom he has sent. I wonder is there someone
here tonight like those Jews who can see something supernatural,
something majestic, something divine about this man called
Jesus. something divine, something not
of this world. But you're confused about things,
you're confused about faith, you're confused about what is
the ministry and what is this work of God. Do you ask yourself
what it is to come to Christ? What is that? I hear men every
day, come to Christ, come to Christ. Some say come to the
front, but that's not coming to Christ. What is it to come
to Christ? To believe on Him? To labor for
that meat? That's what our Lord said for
Him to do. Labor for that meat that endureth
unto everlasting life. But what is that? Is there something
I must hear? Something I must learn? Something
I must give? Something I must do? What shall
we do to work the works of God? Well, let me give you three things
this evening using John chapter 6 verse 39 as my outline. And let me see if I can show
you the answer to this question. First of all, listen to what
our Lord says here. This. This. Not that. This. Hear what he tells them. This
is This is, this ignorant religious world under the influence and
deception of Satan would either change or mix our Lord's commandments
concerning the faith of God's elect. But he said this, not
something else, this, not what seems logical to you. This, not
what religion by their traditional understanding and logic promote
as the work of God. This is the work of God. What
is? What is the Son of God manifesting
himself to chosen sinners according to God's eternal purpose of grace? This is the work of God. And
it's a greater miracle, David, than the splitting of that sea.
It's a greater miracle than that manna that came down from heaven. You know, those Jews told our
Lord, they said, our fathers ate manna in the wilderness. Christ said, I'm the bread. I'm
the bread. Your fathers ate manna and they're
dead. I'm the bread. You eat of this
bread, you'll live forever. It's the Son of God manifesting
Himself to chosen sinners according to God's eternal purpose of grace. I'll never forget Brother Scott
Richardson one day. I forget where he was preaching
from, but he said, if you'll take your hymn book and turn
to hymn 1146 or something, and everybody was looking at each
other and scrambling for their hymn book, and he said, no, he
said, hymn book, H-I-M. And that's what this is. It's
a hymn book. It's not a history book. And
it's not a book of science or a book of genealogy. It's a book
of redemption through the righteousness and substitutionary sacrifice
of our Lord Jesus Christ. And faith is about receiving
the testimony of God concerning His Son. I don't have anything
to preach other than that. I have to preach God's testimony. concerning his son. I've not
done anything. If I stand up here and go on
for hours and hours about whose grandfather this was and whose
grandmother this was and all of that, I've not done anything.
I've not done anything. To preach the gospel is to preach
the testimony of this book, the testimony of God concerning His
Son and the redemption of His people. It's about receiving
the testimony of God. And to reject the gospel is to
make God a liar if I preach that testimony. Isn't that what Paul
said over there? He said, you receive the testimony
of men, And you will if you ever hear from God. But the testimony
of God is greater than the man who gives it. He's just an earthen
pot, David said. And that's right. But oh, he
carries the treasure of God. And faith is about receiving
that testimony of God. He's the meat. He's the bread. He's the good shepherd. He's
the way. Thomas said, we don't know where you're going and we
don't know the way. He said, I am the way. I am the way. I am the truth. Would you know
the truth? Not apart from him you won't.
He is the truth. He is the truth. He is the way.
He is the life. What is eternal life? Eternal
life was in that man. To know him is eternal life.
Isn't that what the scripture says? And faith is about seeing
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. It's the manifestation
of God's character in that person. In that person. It's about seeing
God in him and man in him and finding hope and help in time
of need. It's about seeing him. It's about
a person. It's about seeing him whom God
has set forth to be the propitiation for our sins through faith in
his blood, to declare his righteousness. Not only for New Testament sins,
but for Old Testament sins. It's about seeing him whom God
has set forth. It's seeing him who's sent of
God. And when you think of Christ,
do you think of him who sent of God? Is that how you think
of it? Why would God send his son into
this world? My soul, they despised him. They
despised him. Why would God send his son into
this world? Why must he be born of a woman?
Why must he come through the womb of a virgin? We celebrate
that every Christmas. You go out here and it's on every
block and they're all singing about this virgin born son of
God and all these things. You could ask any one of them
why you had to be born through the womb of a virgin and they
couldn't tell you. Why must he take on himself the
form of a servant and live under the law? Why must he be convicted of crimes
he didn't do and die a death of suffering and shame? Why must
he be raised the third day and then be received into heaven
and seated at the right hand of God? Because this is the way
God chose to save sinners. And it's the only way that God
can save sinners and still be God. That's why. That's exactly
why Jesus Christ was appointed by God as the one to mediate
his sovereign will in the redemption of fallen sinners. And he is
the way, he is the truth, and he is the life. And he said,
no man, listen to me, no man cometh unto the Father but by
me. Well, that's before we had the
Pope. You bet it was. And it'd be long after the Pope's
dead. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. You're not
going to come to any understanding of the Father apart from Him. You're not going to come under
any of the blessings of the Father but by Him. The work of God is in the hearing
of the gospel and the enabling of a sinner to receive God's
testimony and rest on the person of Jesus Christ and rejoice in
Him. That's a miracle of God's grace. I haven't seen it that many times
in my lifetime, but every time I have, it's a miracle. And I'm reminded of it. I'm just
reminded. Most men, oh, they rebel, and
they shake their fist in the face of God, and they don't want
any part of the, well, that don't seem right. That can't be right. Yeah, but it says right here,
and one guy got angry at me the other day, and he said, I don't
care what it says in that book. Ooh, you better be careful about
that. You better be careful about that.
This is the Word of God. But this is how he figured if
what I was saying was so, his dear old grandmother whom he
was close to, then she wasn't a saved person. And I said, I
didn't say anything about your grandma. I said, what I told
you was about Christ and about what happened in the garden.
But if it fits your grandma, it fits your grandma. I mean,
that's just the way it is. Turn with me to Philippians chapter
two. This is the work of God. And
then secondly, our text says, this is the work of God that
ye believe, that ye believe. It's the work of God in you that
brings you to repentance and faith. Paul begins this epistle
of Philippians by telling them that he recognized in them the
beginning of a work of God. You remember that over in verse
six, he said, here's my confidence that he which hath begun a good
work in you. How'd he know that? He recognized
it. There's ways. And he recognized
it and he had a confidence that if God had begun the work, he's
gonna finish it. So he begins this epistle by
telling them that and then he exhorts them who had some consolation
in Christ. He said if there be any consolation
in Christ, do you have a consolation in Christ? If there be any comfort
of love, any fellowship of the Spirit, somebody who knew something
in their hearts of the mercy of God to think and act and be
motivated by the mind of Christ, if there's any of those things,
and then he says to them this in Philippians 2.12, he said,
wherefore my beloved, as you've always obeyed, not as in my presence
only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation
with fear and trembling. And somebody said, well he's
talking about working out your morality, that ain't what it
says. He said, work out your own salvation.
Well, I thought you were a grace preacher, I am. I am. And I say the same thing
to you that He said to them, let every man work out his own
salvation in fear and trembling. For it's God who worketh in you. both the will and to do of His
good pleasure. And he's not talking here about
working out redemption. Christ accomplished redemption.
Anybody with enough sense to get in out of the rain who's
ever read the Word of God ought to know that Christ accomplished
these things. He accomplished these things.
He bled and died on the cross for us. He gave Himself. He bore
our sins in His own body on the tree. And God justified His elect
publicly declaring his acceptance of all that Christ did when he
raised him from the dead. He tells us that over in Romans
4. And seated, we're seated with him, tells us in Ephesians 2,
all God's elect, seated with him in the heavens. But he tells us to work out our
salvation, that is to work out how this salvation applies to
you. How do I fit into this thing?
That's what you have to work out. And I tell you, when you
begin to work it out, the first thing God reveals to you is how
ignorant you are. That's right, you're dumber than
a box of rocks, Donnie Bell said. We are, we're so ignorant of
God, ignorant of all that Christ has done, and he begins to show
us that, and then the next thing he shows you is how easily deceived
you are. Oh my soul, we swallow anything.
Just anything. Now what y'all have to do is
all get together and march around the room. We'll call it a Jericho
march. And you can march around the
room. And then, if you really get worked up and the band's
going and you begin to speak in tongues, you'll swallow anything. I will
too. Now if you can live holy enough,
You can reach that plateau, Donna. And you can be sinless. We'll
swallow anything. I'm telling you, we're just so
ignorant. We'll swallow anything. And God
begins to reveal to you how... And then He begins to reveal
to you how sinful you are. You're so sinful. And how holy
He is. And while you're working these
things out, you begin to fear and tremble. You reckon this
is the right thing? You didn't question them other
things, did you? Come down front, boy, here we go. But boy, you question this, and
you begin to look inside with fear and trembling. And you begin
to work these things, and God, the Holy Spirit, begins to work
in you. And for the first time in your
life, you actually read the Word of God with some understanding. And you see there's no other
way for God to save a sinner than through His Son. And all
of a sudden you recognize that old man that you hated his guts
because of the way he preached. He offended you, he offended
everything about you. All of a sudden he got pretty
feet. Oh, how beautiful the feet of
them that preach the gospel of peace. It is, if you've never
heard it, And God gives you ears to hear. Oh, how sweet it is
to hear that gospel. Work out your own salvation.
And my friend, the way of salvation is Christ. It's not in our own
imaginations and interpretations of Him, but Jesus Christ as He
set forth in the Word of God and the preaching of the Gospel.
And when this Gospel falls on the ears of chosen sinners, God
the Holy Spirit does a work in Him which enables Him to do what
no other son of Adam can possibly do. He can believe. He can believe. The Lord makes him willing. Some of you tried to make your
friends and relatives willing. Did it work? I don't really. But they will be in the day of
his power. They'd be willing. They'd be willing to read and
willing to seek and willing to be taught. And then secondly,
he enables him to understand. You know, I never understood
salvation. I never understood one minute you're saved and the
next minute you're lost and you're backsliding and all these things
that religion talks about. I never understood any of it.
I just figured I was so ignorant that I'd be better off just keeping
my mouth shut and just believe what they told me, you know,
and I'd just swallow those things and go on. Oh, we begin to understand. John said, we know that the Son
of God has come and given to us an understanding. He prayed
for those Ephesian, for the Ephesian church, that the eyes of their
understanding might be enlightened. Made us meet, he tells us over
in Colossians chapter 1, made us meet to be partakers of the
saints in light. You know what that is? Enlightened
saints. All these people that you've
been despising, what they couldn't possibly... Oh, all of a sudden
you're partakers with them. Partakers with the saint in light. He enables us to do that. He
makes us meet. Natural men walk in the vanities
of their minds, having their understanding darkened, being
alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that's
in them because of the blindness of their heart. But God gets
through all that and gives you an understanding. And when God works in a person,
they're made meat. They're given the ability, given
the right and privilege to be partakers of these things. And God makes him willing Willing,
whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely.
I like that word let. You know what that means? Get
out of his way. Quit hindering him. If he's heard and he's willing,
get out of the way. Let him come and take that water.
Let him come and be a partaker. When God works in him, giving
him an understanding, he knows why Christ came, he knows why
Christ died, he knows who Christ is, and he knows where he is
right now. God makes him submissive. He'll
take an old proud religionist like Paul, like old Saul of Tarsus,
who the day before wouldn't have given a Christian a time of day.
and he sends him down to his house and he calls his servant
in there to preach to him and Paul just sits there and listens. Paul wrote to the Thessalonians
and he told them, he said, I know your election of God because
you've become followers of us and the Lord, my soul. And you will too if he ever works
in you. God enables chosen sinners to
hear the truth, to believe the truth, to understand the truth,
and submit to the truth. And these things are reasoned.
This is what I want you to hear. This is the heart of what I'm
trying to preach to you tonight. These things are reasoned in
your mind. They're reasoned in your mind.
They're reasoned in your heart. And believers work out their
own salvation because God works in them and enables them to reason. You know what he said over there
in Isaiah chapter 1, I believe it is. After he told them all
about their foolishness and all these things they were involved
in, he said, come now let us reason together. And boy, you
can when he comes in. You can reason. God enables chosen sinners to
hear the truth, to believe the truth, to understand it, and
submit to it. And He allows him to reason in
his mind and heart. And to work out his salvation
in fear and trembling. It's not by visions. I had a
young preacher stand up at a meeting I was in not too long ago, and
he said, and this was in denial of the message that I just preached
to him, but he said this, he said, I was 10 years old, or
12 years old, or whatever what he said, it was something ridiculous,
and he said, I wasn't reading my Bible, and I wasn't listening
to anybody, and the Lord saved me, and I knew I saved right
then. And he said, and two years later,
he called me to preach. And then some years later he
taught him the truth. That's foolishness. That's foolishness. I tell you, he talks in, I think
it's the book of Titus, about a washing of regeneration. And that washing washes away
those cobwebs of religion and it washes away that ignorance
and it enables men to reason and understand and hear what's
being preached to them. And it makes them willing to
read the Word of God and receive the testimony of God. Paul said,
when you receive the gospel, which was preached of me, you
received it not as the Word of men, but as it is in truth, the
Word of God, which affectionately worketh also in you. And that's
exactly what happens. That's exactly what happens.
I went by and seen Brother Mahan a few years ago. You know, he's
only about that tall. And I'll tell you, the first
time I heard that man, I thought he was that tall. He put a fear, I'm telling you,
God put a fear in me of that man. I knew that man had the
message of God. I knew he did. And I listened
to preachers all my life. And I never had that before.
I never had that before. All right, I'll hurry. Thirdly,
he tells us that the work of God is to believe on him. Now
listen, whom God has sent. Everything that Christ did and
said and manifested in his person and work is of God. Of God. Now he is God, but that's
not what our Lord's saying here. It's not what he's saying here.
Or at least not so much as it is that he's telling us that
his blessed presence and work has been sent of God. This thing
is of my Father. I came not to do my own will,
but the will of Him that sent me. And over and over and over
he tells us that. God appointed him to his offices. And when he came, he was God
incarnate. And as he accomplished the redemption
of God's people, he manifested the living God to us. When he
came to his disciples and put his arm around them and allowed
them to lay their head on his breast, this is God. Can you
get a hold of that? This is God cradling a sinner
in his arms to his breast. This love that you cannot be
separated from, not present or to come or events or devils or
principalities or powers, none of those things. You know what
he says about that love? That love of God, which was in
Christ Jesus, our Lord. That's God the Father loving
his children. That prodigal son came home,
who ran out to meet him? The Father. The Father. Well, how do I know he'll do
all them things? Because Christ did. His disciples said, just show
us the Father and we'll be satisfied. He said, have you been so long
time with me? And do you not know the Father?
Have you not seen the Father? All my soul. The Father gave
His Son on that cross. The Father loves us even as He
loves Christ. Isn't that what the Scripture
says? I can't even imagine that. He
loves me as He loves His own Son. But that's what Christ manifested. That's what he manifested. How
did I know God will save sinners? Because he did in his son. Oh, God's eternal purpose of
grace was given us. Now listen, now we're talking
about God's purpose. God's eternal purpose of grace
was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, 2 Timothy
1 verse 9. working through our representative
and substitute. God shows us the riches of His
grace and His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. Will God be kind to sinners?
He was in Christ. And John said, we know that the
Son of God has come and given to us an understanding that we
may know Him that is true, that we're in Him that's true, even
in His Son, Jesus Christ. And this is the true God and
eternal life. And then he tells us in John
17 in his prayer in verse three, that this is life eternal, that
they might know thee, the only true God in Jesus Christ, whom
he hath sent. Wouldn't it be something here
tonight if God were pleased to call some poor sinner to do what
no other son of Adam can possibly do? work the works of God and
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. May God enable you to do it tonight. Our Father, we thank you. We
thank you first of all for your providence which has brought
us here and assembled us together. We know there's no accidents,
and that we're all here tonight by the providence of God. And
we thank you for this blessed book that opens to us the way
of life, who testifies of your son and of that glorious redemption
that he accomplished. And we thank you for the folks
that you've brought out here to hear. Lord, would you be merciful
tonight to some poor sinner Open their minds and eyes, those
spiritual eyes. Give them those eyes to see the
glory of God in our Lord Jesus Christ. We ask it for Christ's
sake.