Turn back with me to John chapter
6. As I go about this business of preparing
to preach and seeking God's message for you for this hour, this hour
in which we're gathered here this morning, I try to picture
you in my mind who may be here, who may be sitting here. and
those that we may minister to that I've talked to over the
internet and in other means that have gone out and touched men's
and women's hearts. And I'm excited. When I sit in
my study, I'm excited. But at the same time, I'm troubled.
I'm troubled. And I go back and forth, back
and forth. as I try to prepare the message.
I'm excited, but I'm troubled. I'm excited knowing that God
has promised to use what I'm doing, what I'm preparing to
do, what I've asked Him to do. There's no pretense. Thank God we've been delivered
from that. And I know that God has promised,
this is the means that He's going to use to call out His elect.
This is the means that He's going to use to feed His sheep. The
just shall live by faith. Faith cometh by hearing, hearing
by the Word of God. And I'm excited knowing that
God has promised to use what I'm preparing to do to call chosen
sinners to Himself and give them life from the dead. light out
of darkness, freedom out of captivity, and wisdom out of ignorance.
But at the same time, I'm also troubled. I'm troubled for those
who reject it, those who despise it, those who are indifferent
to it. I'm troubled. I'm troubled for
those who treat these things as commonplace, who can take
it or leave it, just take it or leave it. My friend, there's
consequences involved in your attitude and actions concerning
the gospel. Our Lord told His disciples,
He said, all power in heaven and earth is given unto Me. Go
ye therefore and preach the gospel to every creature. He that heareth,
he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. He that believeth
not shall be damned. There's consequences to this
thing of Erie. And I tell you, most people know
that there's consequences out there, out there at judgment,
out there at the last day. But I'm telling you this, there's
immediate consequences to our attitudes and conduct toward
the gospel. There's immediate consequences.
Men grow. harder in their hearts every
time they reject that message, every time they treat God's means
as commonplace, and these things that God has purposed to manifest
His glory in these things, and we just spit on them. We just
treat them like common, just like drinking water. I can have
it or leave it, you know. There's consequences. Consequences. It might be one of these days
God will just take the opportunity away altogether. Just send you
strong delusion like He talked about over there in 2 Thessalonians
2 to believe a lie and be damned. So I'm troubled when I pray,
but I'm excited at the same time. Knowing this, there's nothing
more that I can do for you than what I'm doing. Nothing more. I can pray for you in my study.
And I can stand and preach to you if God will give me the opportunity. And the rest of it is out of
my hands. Out of my hands. Isn't that what he's talking
about? I'm an ambassador. And if I am a preacher sent from
God, then I'm an ambassador of God as though God did beseech
you by me. Isn't that what the Scripture
says? Over there in 2 Corinthians 5
verse 20, we pray you in Christ's stead be ye reconciled to God.
And we're not playing religious games here. We're not trying
to get you to join something or give something or do something
for God. I'm laboring to show you the
glory of God in Christ. That's what I'm trying to do.
I'm laboring to show you the necessity of His offices, His
incarnation as a man, His accomplished redemption and His victorious
reign in glory. And I do the best I can to show
you the danger of false religion, its author, its effects, its
effects on your mind and heart and its awful end. I labor to
do those things to warn you. And sometimes folks get mad.
They get mad and they just Stare at the floor. Y'all don't get to see that.
I get to see that. But they get angry. And I know why. I know
why. And they stare at the floor.
They look out the window. Sometimes they just get mad and
look out the window. Or look straight ahead. And then
others just totally indifferent. I was cleaning out the church
the other night and found a fishing magazine. Somebody reads fishing
magazines. while the gospel is being preached.
Explain that to the Lord at judgment. You might enjoy it now, but you
won't then. And while they're not troubled
for their own soul, I am. I am. Paul wrote to the Corinthians
and he said, knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. But we're made manifest unto
God, and I trust, he said, also to your consciences. You know, today's not the last
time we're going to see one another. That's right. Everybody in here is going to
see everybody else at the judgment. Not the last time we're going
to see each other. And I know that I have to look into your
eyes at judgment, and I want to be sure in my own heart that
I've told you everything that God would have me to say to you,
not only to warn you, but to show you the salvation of God
in Christ. I want to do everything within
my little ability to do that, to do that. And it's troublesome
to you. You see what I'm talking about?
It's troublesome. I'm excited, but I'm troubled.
And I'm this way at the same time. And I wonder, as I look out here
this morning at your faces, if you'll listen to what I have
to say. Will you listen? Can you just
put aside everything for just a little while, just about 45
minutes, and I'll be done? And listen to what I have to
tell you? And let me ask you this, will
you, can you submit your faith to the Word of God? Can you do
that? Can you believe God? Is He worthy
to be believed? Can you believe what He wrote
in His book? Will you submit your faith to
that? Will you listen to what I've
got to say in the light of Holy Scripture? Well, I tell you this,
you will if the Holy Spirit of God will enable you. And that's
my prayer as I enter the pulpit this morning, that the Holy Spirit
of God open the hearts of His elect and show them His glory
in His Son. And my purpose, having warned
you of the consequences, is to encourage those of you who do
believe, and hopefully to convince some of you who never have. And
my message this morning is about coming to Christ. This is what
He's telling these men and women. It's what He told them on the
mountain when He fed them. It's what He showed to His disciples
out on that sea. And now these people have went
around that body of water and come back to Him and still under
a falsehood coming to Him, not really knowing why they're coming.
And He's telling them again what it means to come to Him, to come
to Him. So my message this morning is
about coming to Christ. And throughout the Scriptures,
faith is described as coming to Christ. Coming to Christ. And this coming is portrayed
in all the needy who came to Christ, in all those miracles
that He performed, those men and women who came to Him. Every
one of them came to Him. Some He came to, but most of
them came to Him. A woman, diseased with an issue
of blood, 12 years, came and touched the hem of his garment. And when he came to Capernaum,
there came to him a centurion. Where did he go? He came to Christ.
He came to Christ. When he arrived at Gadara, there
came to him two men possessed with devils, came to him. A leper
came to Christ and cast himself prostrate at his feet and said,
Lord, if you will, You can make me clean. Coming to Christ is pictured
in all the needy who came to Christ by faith. And coming to
Christ is clearly described as the work of faith in the ministry
of Christ. That's what Christ told them
over and over and over again. Come unto Me, He said, all you
that labor and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. He said
to the unbelieving Jews in John 5.40, You will not come to me
that you might have life. You come to the Scriptures, you
come to the temple, you come to Jerusalem, but you won't come
to me. In John 7, 37, he said, if any man thirst, let him come
unto me. Let him come unto me. And then
coming to Christ is how faith is set before men and women by
the preaching of the Gospel and the revelation of God's Spirit.
Listen to this in Revelation 22, 17. Getting down toward the
very end of the Bible. Some of the very last words that
were spoken. Listen to what he says here. And the Spirit and
the Bride say what? Come. Isn't that what they say?
The Spirit of God, Him who makes these things known to sinners,
and the Bride of Christ to whom He has revealed these things,
they say come. Not come to them, but come to
Christ. Come. And let him that heareth say,
come. What can I do, pastor? What can
I tell men and women? What can I tell my neighbors?
What can I tell my relatives? Tell them to come. Tell them
to come. That's not hard, is it? That's not complicated. We get
things all sideways and upside down and so complicated we don't
even understand what we're trying to tell somebody. Come. That's what he says. There's
your message. Come. Come. Let him that hear us say
come. And let him that is a thirst
come. Let him come and whosoever will let him take of the water
of life freely. The church in the wilderness.
Old Israel back there under that tabernacle. They came to the
rock Christ Jesus and drank. And they came to the heavenly
bread and they ate. And they came to the heavenly
meat and they gathered and ate as God provided for them. They
came to the altar. They came to the laver. They
came to the tabernacle. They came to the high priest.
And all these things were types and symbols of Christ. Men and
women come. All through the Bible, throughout
the Scriptures, faith is described as coming to Christ. Coming to
Christ. Our Lord said over there, when
He was talking to the Jews back in John chapter 5, toward the
end of the chapter, He said, You search the Scriptures, for
in them you think you have eternal life. And they are they which
testify of Me. But you won't come to Me that
you might have life. And then they started talking
about Moses. He said, if you'd believe Moses, you'd believe
me, because he wrote of me. You see what I'm saying? All
through the Scriptures, he's come. Come to Christ. Come to
Christ. And faith is the subject. I said
all that to say this. Faith is the subject here in
John 6, verses 37 through 45. That's what he's talking about.
Saving faith. Saving faith. Faith is coming
to Christ, and coming to Christ is faith. Now, with this in mind,
there's five things concerning this coming to Christ that I
want you to see. Five things clearly defined in
very simple terms in verse 37, and then further expounded as
the chapter proceeds. And these five things have been
a vital part of gospel preaching in every age, beginning with
the apostles and then continuing until this very day. May God
write these blessed things upon our hearts that we might, with
all the elect of God, stand in that great congregation in that
day with His redeemed. Here are five fundamental things
concerning the faith of God's elect. The first thing we are
told in our text in verse 37 about our coming to Christ by
faith is that it began in the purpose of God. that the Father
giveth me." Isn't that what he says? I'll tell you the first
time I heard about election and predestination and that type
of thing and God the Father ordaining these things before the foundation
of the world. Oh, don't do that. Don't preach
that. Don't get into that. Boy, you're
getting ready to fall off the deep end. That's what they tell
me. Well, that's the very first thing
he said. This is Christ. Now, you might accuse me of doing
stupid things, but this is Christ talking here. And here's the
very first thing He said, all that the Father giveth me. Huh? I'll tell you, if you ever find
yourself a sinner, convinced of the Holy Spirit of your sins,
without hope, helpless, hopeless in this world, without God in
this world, if you ever find yourself there, that'll be the
sweetest word you've ever heard in your life. All that the Father
giveth me. He gave some to Christ to be
redeemed. There's hope for some. And this
hope begins with the Father. It begins in God. All that the
Father giveth me shall come to me. It's directly related, these
two things. I don't see any reason to preach
an election. Well, here it is, right here. Here it is. This
coming to Christ is directly connected with the gift of the
Father, all that He gave to the Son. They are going to come to
Him, every last one of them. Coming to Christ does not begin
with the will of men, but with the will of God. Coming to Christ
does not spring from the decisions of man, but the decision of God. Brother Mahan said one time,
the greatest thing you're ever going to have to deal with when
you come to know Him as Lord is what my Lord is going to do
with me. Not what you're going to do with Him. What's He going
to do with you? If God had not made preparation
for men in eternity past, no man would ever come to Christ
in time. Look down here at our text in John 6, verse 41. The Jews murmured at Him. Murmured
at Him. Because He said, I am the bread
which come down from heaven. Heavenly bread. Bread made in
sin of God. Bread prepared of God in heaven
and then sent to Him. They murmured at that. Verse
42, And they said, Is not this Jesus, the Son of Joseph, whose
father and mother we know? Why, He is just a man. How is
it then that He saith, I come down from heaven? Jesus answered
and said unto them, Murmur not among yourselves. No man, are
you listening? No man can come to me except
the Father which sent me draw him. He can't do it. He won't do it. He won't do it. And that man, he said, who comes
to Christ, I'll raise up at the last day. At the last day. In Antioch, the Jews rejected
Christ. Three Sabbath days, Paul reasoned
with them from the Scriptures, showing them the necessity of
the coming of Christ and who He was and the glory of His person
and the fact that He was foretold by the old prophets. Three Sabbath
days, he reasoned with them out of the Scriptures, but they wouldn't
listen to him. And he said, Lo, since you judge
yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, he said, I'll turn to the
Gentiles. And boy, when the Gentiles heard
that, they were glad. And they blessed God, and they
rejoiced in the preaching of Christ. And then in Acts 13,
verse 48, it says, as many as were ordained to eternal life
believed. All that the Father giveth me.
They're all going to come. Every one of them. Every one
of them. Faith does not begin with the
will of man. John 6, verse 40. He said, this
is the will of Him that sent me. that every one which seeth
the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life, and
I raise him up at the last day." That's the will of the Father.
And they all will. They all will. So first of all,
this coming to Christ begins in the purpose of God. He has
blessed us with all spiritual blessings. I was fishing one
time in a creek. I don't know what brought this
to mind, but I was fishing in that creek, and I'd been there
for, I guess, four or five hours, and it's an old creek that they
dump diesel fuel and everything else in, but a kid don't know
that, and I'm just fishing away in this thing. I hadn't caught
nothing. The guy come along, he said,
buddy, there ain't no fish in there. You're fishing in the
wrong place. And that's what we do. We're
fishing in the wrong place because we're looking in here and we're
looking at the world. We're fishing in a hole where
there is no fish. We're fishing in the wrong place.
This thing begins with God. It begins with God. So first
of all, this coming to Christ begins in the purpose of God.
He has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places
in Christ. And that's according as He has
chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world. And then the second
thing I want you to see here concerning the faith of God's
elect is direction. Direction. All that the Father
giveth me shall come to me. Isn't that what He says? They're
going to come to me. Christ is the object of faith,
and those who come, come to Him. They come to Him. And some of
you out there may be having trouble coming because you're going in
the wrong direction. You're going in the wrong direction.
You're attempting to come to traditional religion, trying
to justify their traditions and customs and ceremonial worship
and all these things. And some of you are still trying
to come to an experience. Boy, if I could just get this
experience. Some preacher told you if you
didn't come by his experience, you couldn't come. And you're
trying to get to it. Trying to find that feeling he
talked about and all those things. Still trying to come to an experience
or a feeling or a vision or some idea or concept. And then some
of you are trying to come to Christ by an act. You're trying
to walk down an aisle. Or you're trying to go to the
baptistry. Or you're trying to do this or
trying to do that. You're trying to do something
as an act. salvation and somewhere you went. But true saving faith
comes to Christ by the revelation of God's Spirit. It comes to
Christ. It comes to Him. John said, and
we know that the Son of God has come and given to us an understanding. We come to Him and we see in
Him, we understand in Him what's going on. We understand in Him
how our sins can be blotted out. We understand in Him how God
can be God and still justify sinners. How do you understand
that? You understand it in Him. In
Him. And true saving faith comes to
Christ by the revelation of the Spirit giving us an understanding
of who Christ is and why He came and what He accomplished and
did and where He's at at this very hour. Look back at our text
here. Look at verse 45. It is written in the prophets, and
they shall all be taught of God. They are going to be taught.
This generation is not teaching anything. They are appealing
to your emotions. They are appealing to your will.
They are appealing to everything. They shall all be taught of God.
Every man that comes to Christ is going to be taught of God.
What's he going to teach him? He's going to teach him how he
set Christ forth in the Old Testament as the propitiation for our sins.
That's what he's going to teach you. You know anybody else teaching
that? I don't. I don't. I read every pamphlet
I can find when I'm out and about over in the hospital or over
there where she gets her MRI or over at the cancer hospital.
I read all them pamphlets. Ain't nobody talking about these
things. All that come to Christ is going to be taught of God.
Every last one of them is going to be taught of God. Every man
therefore that has heard, has heard from God and has learned
of the Father cometh unto me. Faith is a learning process,
but submission to learn requires a new birth. You see, the natural
man's not going to receive it. He's not going to bow to it. He's not going to submit to it.
And after a while, when you pin him in a corner, they'll tell
you, just like they told some of our folks in here, I don't
care what that book says. You better think about that.
You better think about that. That's that natural man, though.
He's not going to receive the things of the Spirit of God.
They're foolishness to him. What does faith see in Christ?
Well, it sees the character of God in him. It sees the character
of God in him. Faith sees the way to God. Christ said, I am the way. His
disciples said, now wait a minute, wait a minute. 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. I am the life. He's the propitiation for our
sins, that which makes it possible for us to come to God. And faith
sees Christ justifying the name of God in the salvation of sinners.
He's both just and justifier. Faith sees the grace of God being
justified freely by His grace through the redemption that's
in Christ Jesus. By grace are you saved through
faith. All these apostles, grace was
at the forefront of their message. Whenever they talked about Christ,
great big words out there, grace, grace, grace. That's why grace
is the preeminent word on our sign out here. We're Baptist
by tradition, but we're grace Baptists. And we preach the grace
of God in Christ. Faith has direction, and that
direction is in Christ, in the Christ of God, who was sent into
this world to accomplish the will of God, and to raise up
all that was given to Him of the Father in the last day. And then thirdly, I see here
in our text that this coming to Christ is effectual. What
does that say there? It says, all that the Father
giveth me, what shall. Ain't that what that says? It
didn't say might. Didn't say mine. I hear preachers
talking about, well, if you don't come, then the blood of Christ
that was offered for you is going to all be for naught. That's
the most ridiculous, damning heresy I ever heard in my life.
His blood is effectual. It's effectual. And His Spirit
is effectual. His Gospel is effectual. But
it's in the effectual hearts of them that believe. And those
that He gives, it's a gift to fail. It's effectual. All that the
Father giveth me shall come to me. And as plainly as words can
be used, our Lord said to those unbelieving Jews in John 10,
26, He said, you believe not because you're not of My sheep.
That's pretty plain, isn't it? That's pretty plain. He said,
My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. There's
a general call and there's an effectual call. That general
call is a call when men are left to themselves to act in their
own accord toward the Gospel. That's the general call. The
effectual call is when God works in them, both to will and to
do of His good pleasure. When God begins that work in
you, That's how the apostles talked about it. That effect shall cause a call
in which God intervenes and works in the heart and begins that
work and maintains that work and finishes that work. Paul
said, I thank God also for you without ceasing. This is over
in 1 Thessalonians 2 and verse 13. He said, I thank God also for
you without ceasing, because when you receive the Word of
God which you heard of us, you received it not as the Word of
men, but as it is in truth, the Word of God. Now watch this.
Which affectionately worketh also in you that believe. How
does it work? Affectionately. What's that mean? That means they shall come. That's
what that means. That's what our Lord said. They
shall come. And what a wonderful, encouraging
word of truth this is, both to the preacher and to the believer.
They shall come. They shall. And then, fourthly,
I want you to see in our text how God identifies His elect
in this world. Him that cometh to me. Well, how would I know if I'm
one of God's elect? You come to Christ. Isn't that
right? I don't have any other evidence.
I've never walked on water. I've never raised the dead. I've
never done any of those things. I don't speak in tongues. This
is the only evidence I have. I came to Christ. I'm still coming
to Christ. Him that cometh. Him that cometh
to me. God's elect are not identified
by something they once did, but something they are doing. The
whole idea of free will decisionism that spawned this idea of faith
as some kind of isolated act. Walking down an aisle, now you're
all fixed up. Shake the preacher's hand. Sign
the pledge card. Now you're fixed up. And that's
what spawned that other heresy that they accuse us of preaching
once in grace, always in grace. They call that grace. That's
not grace. Grace reigns unto righteousness. It reigns in the hearts of all
God's believers. It reigns, that grace does. It's
not an isolated act. It's a living principle. It's
a living principle. It's an active principle of the
heart. Listen to these Scriptures. Hebrews 10, verse 38, Now the
just shall live by faith, but if any man draw back, my soul
shall have no pleasure in him. We are not of them that draw
back to perdition, but of them that believe to the saving of
the soul. Hebrews 3, 6, but Christ as a
Son over His own house, whose house are we if we hold fast
the confidence and rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end. And we are reconciled in Christ
and blameless in Him if we continue in the faith, as we studied this
morning in our Sunday school lesson, if we continue in the
faith, grounded and settled and be not moved away from the hope
of the gospel. Paul said, I preached the gospel
to you over in 1 Corinthians 15. I preached it unto you and
you received it. And even now you're standing
in it and you'll be saved by it if you keep in memory what
I preached unto you. Otherwise, it was all in vain.
It was all just an empty profession. The Scriptures know nothing of
a decision that guarantees eternal pardon and bliss. Never talks
about it even. But they do teach a new birth,
a new creation which is alive and which believes to the saving
of the soul. Him that cometh. Him that cometh. And to come to Him because in
Him they have life and pardon and peace and understanding.
And then lastly, let me show you the results of this coming.
Him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. I'm going
to cast him out. Yeah, but what if he stumbles?
I'm not going to cast him out. What if he has periods of unbelief?
I'm not going to cast him out. I'm not going to cast him out.
Why? Because he comes to Him. He comes to Christ. That's His
righteousness, that's His life, that's His salvation. It's all
in Him. All in Him. And this statement
says two things to the sinner. First of all, it says to the
doubting sinner, the man who sees what he is by
nature and choice and practice, that sinner who can't see any
reason for Christ to be merciful to him, it says, come. It says,
come. Him that cometh to me, I will
in no wise cast out." Oh, but you don't know my sins. No, I
don't, but he does. And he who knows your sins, he
says, come on. You come to me, I will in no
wise cast you out. And then secondly, it says to
the weak believer whose foot slips a hundred times a week,
him that cometh to me, he said, I will in no wise cast out. Why
won't he cast him out? Because God purposed to save
him in Christ. God purposed his coming to Christ.
Because it is the life's work of Christ to redeem him. And
because it's the purpose of Christ to reign over all things and
secure him. And because it's God who worketh
in him both to will and to do of his good pleasure. I will
in no wise Cast him out. He that cometh, cometh. That's
pretty simple, isn't it? We just want to turn everything
all around upside down. All these preconceived notions
we get and all this rhetoric we hear. It's embedded even in
people who don't go to church. It's embedded in them. And they
talk about things they don't even understand. And after a
while, we don't even understand what we're saying. But our Lord
just cut right through the nonsense, didn't He? And He said, all that
the Father giveth me, is going to come to me. And him that cometh
to me, I will in no wise cast out. The Father is going to see
to it that He is taught. He is going to see to it that
He is drawn. He is going to see to it that He is justified. He
is going to see to it that He dies in faith and that He is
glorified in the last day. Oh, God help us to feed this
saving grace.