I want you to take your Bibles
this morning and turn with me to John chapter 6. I titled the message this morning,
This is the work of God. This is the work of God. When you found your place there
in John 6, just put a marker there, hold your finger there,
and let me just talk to you a little bit about some of the events
that transpired that led up to what our Lord is telling His
disciples. Just three days before our text,
the Lord came to Jerusalem on the Sabbath of the feast days. And he went down to a pool called
Bethesda. And this pool had five porches. And there was great multitudes
gathered around this pool. One time a year, an angel came
down and troubled the waters. And the first one to go into
the waters was healed. And our Lord came down to this
pool. And there he found a great multitude
of impotent folk and blind and halt and withered. And he came
to a man paralyzed from his mother's womb. This man had stayed there, I
think it said, for 38 years. Paralyzed. And of all the people
in this great multitude, there's no telling how many people We're
around. Our Lord came to this one paralyzed
man. This man who couldn't walk. He couldn't wiggle. He couldn't
crawl. He couldn't roll. He couldn't
scoot. If he moved a half inch, somebody had to move him. He
could do nothing but lay there. And the Lord came to him and
He asked him this question, Will thou be made whole? You reckon it took him long to
answer that question? You reckon it took him about
six months? He said, Now just give me some
time. Give me some time now. I want
to think this thing. This man who had laid there all
this time. It didn't take him long to answer,
did it? Didn't take him long. He said, sir, I have no man to
put me in the water. He thought his only help, his
only hope was to go into the troubled waters. He said, I've got nobody to put
me in the water. Jesus said, rise. He couldn't. But he did. Well, you say even if he rose,
he couldn't walk. He'd been paralyzed for 38 years. His limbs had just been like
jello. He couldn't support himself. You can if the Master tells you
to. He said, rise, and he rose. He said, take up your bed and
walk. And he did. He did. And the Jews persecuted him over
that. Can you imagine? They persecuted
him over there. This man who was paralyzed from
his head to his toes, who couldn't move, who couldn't earn a living. He was just there. He was just
excess baggage. He was just limp. His life was
a mess. He was just a burden on society,
and he knew it. And he wanted nothing out of
this world more than to be made whole. And somebody took him
down there, but they didn't stay with him. And Jesus made him whole, and
the Jews persecuted him and sought to slay him. because he violated
their idea of the Sabbath day. Listen to what the Lord said
concerning these things. John 5 verse 17. He said, My
Father worketh hitherto, and I work. My Father worketh hitherto, and
I work. And then the next day, he went
over the Sea of Galilee and went up into a mountain. And he said
a great multitude followed him. And as the day progressed, he
said to the disciples, he said, which can we buy bread that these
may eat? Now there was 5,000 men plus
women and children. I'd say a conservative estimate
would be 15,000. And one of them said, there's
a lad here who's got five barley loaves and two fishes. And the
Lord took what they had, and He blessed it, and He fed the
multitude. And when they had eaten to the
full, the disciples gathered up twelve basketfuls of leftovers. And they that partook of this
miracle wanted to make Him their King right then, right there.
By force, we're going to make Him King. But the Lord departed out of
their midst and went on up a little further into the mountain alone
by Himself. And then that night, while His
disciples labored to cross the sea, a storm arose. And the ship that they were in
was about to go down. And out of the midst of this
thick darkness, The wind and the waves tossing that little
ship about, it was just a little, when he says ship, he wasn't
even talking about like they discovered America in, which
not all that big on a big ocean. But this was a little vessel,
but bigger than a rowboat. And they're out here and man,
this sea comes up and it's just tossing that little thing like
it's nothing, just tossing it about. And they can't see their
hand in front of them until the lightning flashes. And all of
a sudden a flash of lightning comes and they look and there's
the Master walking, not on a calm sea, but on a stormy sea. Walking and made like He's passing
by. And they were scared because
they thought it was a spirit. And he spoke to them and came
into the vessel. And when he came into the vessel,
immediately, they rode all night, hadn't gained anything. Immediately,
when he stepped into the vessel, they was where they wanted to
be. And that's the way it is, isn't
it? When he enters the vessel, you're
exactly where you want to be, wherever it is. And then on the following day,
the multitude found him, those ones that he had fed with those
fishes and loaves. And others had joined them. And
Jesus said to them, John 6, verse 26, 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. Labor not for the meat
which perishes, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting
life." Now listen, "...which the Son of Man shall give unto
you." He's going to give it to you. "...For him hath God the
Father sealed." And when they heard this, Ben said unto him,
what shall we do that we might work the works of God? Well,
I thought he said he was going to give it to them. He did. He said, you labor for this meat,
this meat that perisheth not. You labor for that. And I'm going
to give it to you. I'm going to give it to you.
And they said, what must we do to work the works of God? Now
listen to what he tells them here. Here's my take. Jesus answered
and said unto them, This is the work of God, that you believe
on Him whom He hath sent. That's the work of God. After
all that they had seen and heard, when the Lord spoke to them of
laboring for the meat that He would give them, their minds
were immediately turned to works. Isn't that something? Isn't that
something? I don't care how much grace you
preach. I don't care how much gospel
you preach. I don't care how much conviction the Holy Spirit
puts on a man's heart. When you start talking to him
about this thing of laboring for the meat that perisheth not,
his mind goes straight to works. What must I do? Here's a man singled out from
among every man, the rich young ruler. He was successful. He was wealthy. He was morally
upright. He paid his bills. Nobody had
anything. Nobody could accuse him of anything. He was just, old Barnard said,
straight as a pipe and just as hard. And he comes to the Lord, and
the Lord sends him away, turns him away. Why did He turn him away? Because
this man sought what our Lord was telling him by works. What good thing must I do to
inherit eternal life? Here's the one thing our Lord
told him, keep the law. You can't handle that. You can't
handle that. But he thought he could. He said,
all these things have I done from my youth up. And our Lord
said, well, you won't have no problem with this. Sell everything
that you have. Take up your cross and follow
Me. Put his head down and walk away. And when he did, the disciples
said, who then can be saved? Do you remember what our Lord
said? With man, it's impossible. It's
impossible. Now, I know you know that verse
of Scripture, but do you understand what he's saying? Have you ever
experienced that in your heart? With man, it is impossible. Impossible. What shall we do to work the
works of God? Are you here this morning having
read enough to stir up your interest? Have you heard enough to know
that there's something supernatural, something amazing, something
divine about this man called Jesus? But you're still confused
about this thing of faith. Does your mind still turn to
works? Is your mind still focused on
sacrifice, commitment, and decisions? Can you see yourself in this
multitude? Can you take your place with
them, asking, what shall we do to work the works of God? Do you ask yourself what His
words mean? What does this mean to come to
Christ? What does this mean to believe
on Christ? What does this mean to labor
for that meat which endureth to everlasting life? Is there
something I must learn? Is there something I must accept?
Is there something I must give? Is there something I must do?
What shall I do to work the works of God? Let me give you three
things this morning using John chapter 6 verse 39 as my outline. First of all, this is the work
of God. This thing of faith is not of
you. You can't produce it. You can't
work it up. You can't decide to have it.
It's the gift of God. By grace are you saved through
faith. And that, talking about that
faith, not of yourself. It is the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should bow. This is the work of God. The
work of God. What is? What is the work of
God? Was the Son of God manifesting
Himself to chosen sinners? Everybody don't know Christ.
Everybody don't know God. John said, and we know that we
are of God in the whole world, life and wickedness. We know
that. How did he know that? Through
God-given faith. That's how he knew that. Through
this revelation of Jesus Christ. The Son of God manifesting Himself
to chosen sinners. He's the meat. He's the bread. He's the unspeakable gift of
God. Faith is about seeing the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ. That's what true saving faith
is all about. It's about discovering God in
Christ. It's about finding hope in Him
when you can't find it anywhere else. A lost sinner is one who
has exhausted himself, just like the woman with the issue of blood,
when they've spent all they've had, when they weary themselves
to the end. One old preacher said, when he
comes to the end of himself, and that's where you have to
be, then he'll turn to Christ. He'll
look to Christ. It's about finding hope in Him
when you can't find it anywhere else. John 17.3 says this, This
is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God,
and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent. And John said, We know
that the Son of God hath come, and given to us an understanding
that we may know Him that's true, and that we're in Him that's
true, even in His Son, Jesus Christ. This is the true God,
and this is eternal life. Our Lord called His disciples
aside and began to tell them about His exodus, His leaving
this world, His suffering and His death, and His resurrection
and His ascension into glory. And in John 14, verse 1, He tells
them these words. He said, Let not your heart be
troubled. You believe in God, believe also
in Me. In My Father's house or many
mansions, if it were not so, I would have told you, I go to
prepare a place for you. A place of honor. A place of
distinction. A place of heavenly comfort and
blessing. A place of peace and rest. A
place in the presence and favor of God. Oh, blessed thought. A place for me in glory. And he said, if I go and prepare
a place for you, I'll come again and receive you unto myself that
where I am, there you may be also. And whether I go, you know. And the way you know. And Thomas
said, whoa, wait a minute. Wait a minute. Lord, we know
not where you go. And how can we know the way?
Heaven is so far past your comprehension. You can't comprehend glory. There's
no way. He uses all kinds of things to
describe heaven that you can relate to. But you can't comprehend
glory. You can't comprehend eternity.
You can't comprehend sitting in the presence of the Immaculate
God. It's so far past our comprehension,
it's mysteries, it's angelic creatures, the presence and power
of God. He said, we don't know where
you're going. Paul was caught up to the third
heaven and couldn't even tell you if he was in his body or
out of his body. John just saw it in a vision
and saw such things that he couldn't speak. And our Lord said to Nicodemus,
He said, Nicodemus, I've told you earthly things. I'll just
give you a little example here of a new birth, of the birth
of a child. And He said, you're having problems
with that. He said, what would you do if I told you these things
in heavenly terms? We don't know where you're going. You ever thought about it? We don't know where you're going and how we're going to know the
way. Are you with me so far? John 14, verse 6, Jesus saith
unto him, I am the way. I am the way. I am the truth. And I am the
life. No man cometh unto the Father,
but by Me. And if you had known Me, you
should have known My Father. And from henceforth you do know
Him, and you have seen Him. This is the work of God, that
you believe on Him whom He has sent. And all the great confessions
together cannot reveal God to the heart, Everything God has
for sinners is in the glorious person of Jesus Christ. It's
in Him. I've just got one goal when I
stand up here to preach. To bring those of you who do
know Him to inspire you by telling you over and over who He is. Telling you something about His
glory. And for those who don't know
Him, to set it before you in hope that God will open your
heart to receive Him. Because everything God has for
sinners is in Him. All of heaven's glory is wrapped
up in that one man, Jesus Christ. He that believeth on the Son
hath life. And he that believeth not the
Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. What does that mean? The wrath
of God abideth on him. It means God left you to yourself.
That's what that means. He left you to yourself. He said,
leave them alone. Leave them alone. God left him to himself and to
the dictates of his own fallen heart. This is the work of God. This thing of faith is the work
of God. It comes from Him. He is the
author and finisher of our faith. And then secondly, our text says,
this is the work of God that ye believe. It's the work of God in you that
brings you to repentance and faith. Turn with me to Ephesians
chapter 1. Let me show you something over
here. If I don't get anything else
across to you today, I want to get this across. Faith is the
miracle of God's grace. It is the miracle of God's grace. Every time a person's eyes light
up and their heart opens up, and all of a sudden it's like,
I get it! I get it! That's a miracle of
God's grace. Because this world will never
get it. They'll never get it. Our Lord
said it's not given unto them. It's given unto you. And when
it's given, you know that. You know that. It's a miracle
of God's grace. Paul likens faith to being raised
from the dead. Ephesians 1, verse 15. He said, Wherefore I also after
that I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. and love
unto all the saints. Cease not to give thanks for
you, making mention of you in my prayers, that the God of our
Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the
spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the
eyes of your understanding being enlightened, opened up, that you may know what is the
hope of His calling. and what the riches of the glory
of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness
of His power to us that believe according to the working of His
mighty power which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him
from the dead and set Him at His own right hand in heavenly
places. far above all principality and
power and might and dominion in every name that's named, not
only in this world but also in that which is to come. And have
put all things under His feet and gave Him to be the head over
all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of
Him that filleth all in all." How great is that work in that
man or woman that has caused you and sweetly brings you, sweetly
forces you, even to this very hour, to believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. Some have professed to begin
this walk, professed faith in Christ like demons. He was all
excited. I've met a lot of folks who get
all excited over Calvinism. I mean, just amazed that this
is what's being taught in the Scripture when it's on every
page. But they find their amazement
in Calvinism and not in Christ. And after a while, Demas has
left me. He's forsaken me, having loved
this present world. He got over the excitement. He
got over the enthusiasm. He got over the mysterious work
that he'd never heard. He got over it. And he went back
to doing whatever he did before. How great is that work in you
that has caused you and sweetly causes you even now to believe
on Christ alone. Paul thanked God for the saints
at Philippi. He said, having this confidence
that He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it unto
the day of Jesus Christ. Now God don't believe for you. Christ died for us. He lived
for us and provides us with a perfect righteousness. But God don't
believe for you. He enables you to believe. Do you understand the difference?
Are you making the distinction here? You don't sit around and
say, well, when God gets ready... No. No. When God gets ready, you'll get
ready. And if you're not ready, God's not in it. He's not in
it. He don't believe for you. But
He, by the presence and power of the Holy Ghost, enables you
to believe. Here's how it's written in doctrinal
form in the Scripture, sanctification of the spirit and belief of the
truth. That's the way it's stated there. And nobody's going to
believe until God Himself intervenes and creates life in the soul.
He said it's written in the prophets, and they shall all be taught
of God, every one of them. Every man, therefore, that hath
heard and hath learned of the Father cometh unto me." He comes
to Christ. He didn't say here, some of them
came to the Baptist church, and some of them came to the Catholic
church, and some of them came to the Methodist church, and
some of them came to this church or that church, because after
all, we're all just folks and we're all going to the same place.
That ain't what he said. He said, they all come to Christ. They all come to Him, because
that's where everything is. And God's Spirit is one Spirit.
I'm just sick of the religion of this world that says His Spirit
is here, but He's not teaching us the same thing He's teaching
you. He's teaching us something different over here. And over
here, He's teaching something a little different over here.
You know, actually, over in 1 John, when he talks about false prophets
and talks about that false profession of faith, that he calls that
a spirit. A spirit. This work is manifested in men,
and men believe, and it brings them to trust and rest and rejoice
in hope in Christ Jesus. Now, here's the third thing.
He said, this is the work of God that you believe on Him,
whom He hath sent. Jesus Christ is not a creature
of time. His beginning was not 2,000 years
ago when He was born of a virgin over there and laid in a manger
in Bethlehem. I know this is popular. It's popular. A lot of churches
are saying the same thing. But I know one who has this that
they say in their prayers, Mary, mother of God. Mary ain't the
mother of God. She's the mother of Jesus Christ.
She ain't the mother of God. Jesus Christ was preexistent. He was with the Father in the
beginning. He never ceased to be God. But when He took to Himself
human form, He was born of a woman, and made under the law, because
that's what He was chosen to do, that's what He was ordained
to do. Salvation could come no other way. This is He whom the Father has
sent. Our Lord kept telling that, and
telling that, and telling that to the Jews, and they wouldn't
hear Him. And neither will this world. He is the Son of God. That is
what the book of John is all about. John just keeps on telling
you who He is. He is the Son of God. Paul wrote
to the church at Colossae that this One who redeemed us by His
blood and forgave us of our sins is the firstborn of every creature
and the Creator of all things. And He is before all things and
by Him all things consist. All things were made by Him.
And He's the head of the body of the church who is the beginning.
And you can go on and on. He's the promised Redeemer, the
One Mediator, the Savior and High Priest of the Israel of
God. He was sent of God. And this
sending was of God. By His authority and according
to His purpose, He said, I come down. I am trying to stay in
John 6. To most of you, these verses are familiar. But our
Lord said, I came down not to do My own will, but the will
of Him that sent Me. And this is the will of Him that
sent Me, that of all which He hath given Me, I should lose
nothing, but raise it up at the last day. Scent of the Father. Set him forth in His Word and
in the old types and figures. Set him forth in allegory and
picture. He set him forth in prophecies
and promises of the prophets. Stephen said this, he said, you
do always resist the Holy Ghost concerning these prophets. And
these prophets showed before the coming of the Just One. Those who believe on Him in true
saving faith believe on Him as God has set Him forth in His
Word and in His Gospel. Our Lord said in the Great Commission,
and I think it is in the end of Matthew's account, He said,
All power is given unto Me in heaven and earth. Go ye therefore
and preach the Gospel. And he that believeth and is
baptized shall be saved. He that believeth not shall be
damned. We believe on Him as God has
set Him forth in His Word. And I'm going to be honest with
you, just believing in Jesus won't save a flake. It's not
going to save anybody. Mexico is full of Jesus's. They call them Jesus's down there.
It doesn't mean anything. Paul feared, he said, if I myself
or an angel from heaven come down and preach to you any other
gospel than the gospel I preached unto you, let him be accursed.
And then he warned the Corinthian church about another Jesus and
another gospel and another spirit. Didn't he? We believe on that Jesus that
God has sent. It must be that Jesus declared
in the Word of God and preached to the saints by those called
of God to do it. But how can we know this work
in us is the work of God? Because this divine work enters
into rest. This faith brings rest to the
soul. That faith that leads a man,
draws a man, sweetly forces a man to Christ, when he finds Christ,
he enters into rest. There's rest in him. There's
comfort in him. They find comfort in him. You
can't find comfort in walking an aisle, praying a prayer. You can't find rest in rededicating
and dedicating and renewing and all this kind of nonsense that
men do. There's no rest in that. There
is no rest in a man reading some Latin over top of you and sprinkling
some water on your head. There is no rest in that. The
rest is in Him. It is in knowing Him. It is in
confidence in Him as God has revealed Him in His Word. And
when you come to Him, you enter into rest. Isn't that what He
says in Hebrews chapter 4? The gospel was preached unto
them the same way it was preached unto us. But it didn't profit
them not being mixed with faith in them. For all those who believe
do enter into rest." This saving faith labors for
the meat that endureth unto everlasting life. It labors to know Him. It labors to know Him. It labors
to follow Him. It labors to hear Him. And it
labors to be like him. That's what he's talking about
when he talks about laboring. Laboring. Well, I'll just sit
out here on the lake and if God wants to save me, he will. He
won't. He won't. He'll just let you bob around
out there for the rest of your life and then send you to hell. God stirs up conviction in the
heart, and that man's troubled, and he can't find what he needs
in religion, and he labors to hear, to hear. I told somebody one time, I was
going to a Bible conference in Ashland, and that year they had
three speakers in the morning and two that night. So you had
five speakers each day. And they said, well, what do
y'all do? And I said, well, we listen to preachers. He said, preachers? I said, yeah. I said, we have
three messages in the morning and two at night. You know what? It's a sweet labor,
isn't it, once you hear the truth. Anybody had to twist my arm and
go up to Danville, I loved it. I enjoyed it. Ain't nobody has
to twist my arm and come here. I love the truth. I must have some of that meat
that perishes. I have to have it. But I labor
for the meat that don't. Can you see the difference? Sometimes it's labor just to
read the Word of God. Sometimes it's a labor to come
in here. It's always a labor to shut the door in my closet
and spend some time in prayer. And it's a labor to keep that
which you hear from being taken away. And it's a labor bearing all
the difficulties which always accompany those things and those
who seek the Lord. But he said, this is the work
of God, that you believe on Him whom He has sent.