It's been quite a few years back. I was doing my best to pastor
a little church down in Ball, Louisiana. And I was talking with my oldest
sister. Now my, of the two sisters that
came to visit me here, it's the older one, Evelyn, that I'm talking
about. And I was raised, she had two
boys, one of them was just a few months apart from me, and the
other was a couple years older. But I spent my summers at their
house. We were very close when we were
children, grew up together. And then we kind of parted ways.
It was in the middle of the Vietnam War. I was in the Navy. This
one went off to the Air Force and then later on to college.
And I hadn't seen him since we were just teenagers. And I was
talking with my sister, and he now was a successful architect,
and he worked for the Department of the Interior, and he was managing
a bridge project down in Biloxi, Mississippi. Well, I was going
down there every week to meet Louisiana, preaching down there
to a little group. Biloxi was just an hour from
there. So I called him up and told him
I'd like to come by and see him. And he was glad to hear from
me. And so I went over there and we sat down and we talked
for hours, just hours on end. And finally he said, what in
the world are you, how did you wind up in Louisiana? And I said,
well, I believe the Lord sent me down there to pastor a small
church. He said, you're a preacher? Now
if you'd have known me as a child, you'd get a kick out of that.
You'd understand exactly where he was coming from. He was shocked.
You're a preacher? I said, yes, sir. It's the best
I know, to the best of my knowledge, I am. And so we talked, and we
talked about different things, and we talked about how I came
to 13th Street, and how from there I came down to Louisiana,
and all those things. And we talked about, for hours,
we talked about these things. At the end of the conversation,
he turned to me and he said, you know, I love for my children. He said, we don't belong to any
denomination anywhere. He said, I've never been able
to find anything I've been satisfied with. He said, but I have seen
people along the way in these different places that I admired,
you know. He said, I admired your father.
My father was a He was a man that our family loved greatly.
And he was a true father in every sense of the word. Brother Mahan
still talks about him. But he said, I admired him. He said, I'd love for my children
to have what that man had, whatever it is. He said, I would like
for them to have that. And he said, it sounds to me
like you found something similar. And he said, I'd love for my
children to have that. in a world full of people. Now
he asked me four questions. I preached on them when I got
back to Louisiana. But one question stands out in my mind that he
asked me that has to do with what we're talking about here
this morning. He said, in a world full of people all claiming to
know God, all of them, Catholics, Protestants, Mormons, whoever,
I don't care who you talk to. They're all claiming to know
God. They're all telling me the same thing you're telling me,
that they've been converted, that they've been turned, that
they know God, that they know the way. They learned the truth. In a world full of people all
claiming to know God, all claiming to know the way, all claiming
to be heirs of heaven, All these priests and preachers and rabbis
and bishops and pastors and evangelists and missionaries, all of them
waving their Bibles at me and quoting from the Bible, thus
saith the Lord. All of them saying the Scriptures
say this and shaking their Bible at me and claiming this and claiming
that and commanding this and commanding that. How can a man
like me, How can a man like me know who's
telling the truth and who's deceived? How can I know that? How can
I, based on so much diversity, make any kind of an intelligent
decision? I go here and they talk about
being buried in baptism, and I go over here and they sprinkle,
and over here they baptize babies, and over here they forbid it,
Over here, they won't serve wine. They serve grape juice. And over
here, they serve wine. And over here, they say the sacraments
are not sacraments. They don't physically turn into
the body and blood of Christ. And over here, they claim that
they do. And over here, they have a priest
and a priesthood and all these things. And over here, they don't.
How's a man like me to know the difference? I thought it was
a good question. Based on all this diversity,
based on all these varying opinions and all these ideas, it's like
a maze. You look at it, it's like a forest.
It's like a thick, grassy maze out there. And how in the world
can a man like me, I haven't been to seminary. I haven't studied the Bible for
40 years. How can I know? How can I go
in and sit down and trust my children to this man? Trust my
own soul to this man? How can I know the difference? How can I have any confidence
that the man I'm listening to is sin of God? And I tell you,
he shut my mouth. I sat there for the longest time. And finally, I gave him the only
answer there is. But for the grace of God, you
won't. You won't. You never will. You'd be lost
in the thicket. You'd be lost in the maze. Lost
in the maze. But for the grace of God, you
never will. Now there are some men recorded
in God's Word of whom we should not be suspicious. You might
be suspicious of me. I don't know if you are or not.
But you might be. I don't blame you. I don't blame
you. These men were called of God.
These men recorded in this book, they were called of God. The
Holy Spirit himself records their words and all of the things that
accompanied their ministry. And there was controversy that
surrounded these men. There was resistance, violent
opposition to what they preached. What they preached was contrary
to all the other religions of the world. Paul wrote to the Galatian church
and he told them that if we are an angel from heaven, That's a statement there. Though
if I come back to you, that's what he said, if I come back
to you on another occasion and I preach something or an angel
appears here out of heaven and preaches to you any other gospel
other than the one that I'm preaching to you right now, let him be
accursed. Huh? That's contrary anyway.
And that's all inclusive. John said, if there come any
unto you and bring not this doctrine, this doctrine of Christ, don't
you receive him into your house and don't even bid him Godspeed.
Don't say, well, the Lord bless you. Don't say nothing. Don't
let him in your house. Don't feed him. And then Paul
said in defense of his ministry that after the way the Jews called
heresy, he said, that's the way I worship God. That's controversial,
ain't it? Huh? That's the way I worship
God. And what these men preached was
violently opposed because it was contrary to all their traditional
concepts of religion. And what these men preached,
they left in the hands of God. That's what I want you to see
is going on here. They left it in the hands of
God. If you ever find a man called of God, he's not going to come
out there and take hold of your hand. He's not going to stand
up here and direct his message to you and start begging you
to do something for God. He's not going to direct his
message in any kind of appeal to you because you're dead. You're dead. Go out. Our Lord
took, He took His old prophet. I think it was Ezekiel. And He
took him out there in a valley. And He said, what do you see,
son of man? He said, bones. He said, can they live? Huh? Can they? Can they? He didn't know. And he was afraid
to say. He said, you know. He said, preach
to them. Now wait a minute. Preach to
Bones? Yeah. Preach to Bones. Has it ever dawned on you that
that's what's going on? That's what's going on up here
Sunday morning. That's what's going on up here Wednesday evening.
I come up here prepared to preach to bones. To bones. I got no power to do anything
to them. Do you? I don't. I'm going to
pin you up back there in the corner and say, now wait a minute.
I know that must have sounded pretty rough to you, but let
me explain myself. And now I stand back there for
three hours trying to explain to you what I already told you.
I can't make you receive it. I can't make you believe it.
I can't make you understand it. All I can do is stand up there.
He told that prophet, he said, tell them bones live. He didn't say explain to them
how they could. He said, tell them live. Live. Oh. what these men preached they
left in the hands of God to accomplish whatever He saw fit. It may be
a warning to them to flee the wrath to come. That's all the
gospel was to a lot in Paul's day. It was a warning. They didn't heed it. They didn't
heed it, but it was a warning. Flee the wrath to come. To some
it was a stumbling stone or a rock of offense. fell into perdition. Tripped
over the stumbling block and fell off into perdition. But
to some, it was the effectual calling of God to repentance
and faith. My friend, the Bible says something.
It doesn't say everything. It says something. And it says
it in particular. And what it says is contrary
to what's being preached And what it says, it says so dogmatically. It says so uncompromisingly that
our Lord said it separates husbands from wives. It separates fathers
from children. It separates brothers from sisters. Friends from friends. That's pretty dogmatic, ain't
it? Now here in John chapter 6 is
the account of Jesus Christ Himself. I want to call your attention
to that. This is not John. This is not Peter. We've got
no reason to doubt those men. Their ministry was of God. Peter
and John and Paul and all these men, their ministry sanctioned
by the Holy Spirit of God and everything they preached and
even men's reactions to what they preached and the organizing
of the local church and all the authority in that church and
all the means of God and grace, they're all that these men taught
are sanctioned by the Holy Spirit of God. I've got no reason to
doubt them. But what I want you to see here
in John chapter 6 is this is not something, this is not a
man sanctioned to preach. This is the eternal Word of God. This is God Himself. standing
before these men in human flesh. This is the Lord Jesus Christ
Himself who is the Gospel. And just scanning back over the
first five chapters of John, I just, you know, your Bibles,
if you've got little notes on the side, you can look over there
and it will tell you this and that. This is what's going on
in those few verses and so on. And just scan reading through
there. through those five chapters of John, I see where these men
that he's addressing heard the testimony of John the Baptist,
the forerunner of Christ, the one Isaiah said was going to
come before him and make straight the path. Make straight the way. He's going to make this way of
accomplished redemption clear. He's going to take your eyes
from the priesthood and from the sacrifices and from the ceremonial
worship of Israel. And He's going to take your eyes
and He's going to focus them on Christ. He's going to make
straight the way and the path. Clear as a bell. Nobody's going
to doubt it. So that when Christ comes and
appears, you're going to know who He is. They heard John the
Baptist. Our Lord said, the greatest man
born of woman, John the Baptist. They heard this man preach. They
were present at the baptism of Christ and heard the voice of
God testify, this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. I believe they saw the physical
presence of the dove descend out of heaven on him. in the
form of the Holy Spirit of God. And he received the Spirit of
God without measure. They attended the wedding where
he turned water into wine. He didn't make it look like wine
or smell like wine. He made it wine. They confirmed. They were standing
there watching, or their spies, was standing there watching when
the noble man came to Christ and told him about his son. And
Christ said, go home. He's OK. He's healed. They was
right there. They was right there. They was
there when he commanded that paralyzed man to take up his
bed and walk. And they were there when he fed
5,000 men with a few loaves and fishes. They was there when he
walked that dark, stormy sea. And when he calmed it with a
word. When he took that ship from the middle of that sea to
its port instantly. And how many other things did
they see? And look at the report. Everybody
in the land was talking about this man and his wisdom and listen
to the wisdom that he teaches them. And then on top of all these
things, his life of 30 plus years was a continuous fulfillment
of prophecy. Every step he took, Russell,
and the scriptures were fulfilled. Every time he turned his head,
every time he opened his mouth, every time something happened,
this happened that the scriptures might be fulfilled. Now, these
weren't people who were ignorant of the scriptures. They knew
the scriptures. They knew where he was supposed to be born. They
knew what the Scripture said, where he'd be raised. They knew
all of these things. And he was a walking fulfillment
of Scripture. That's where he went. Everything about this man gave
evidence that he was the long-awaited Christ of Scripture. And to nail
this thing down even more, he was a perfect man. I go home and mourn. I mourn
over my own attitude and spirit sometimes. I mourn over how I
try to deliver these things to you and say to you and how it
affects me. I mourn over those things. I'm
never satisfied with those things. I don't think on these things
the way I ought to think on them. They're not as serious to me
as they should be. I just thank God He's shown them
to me at all. But to nail this thing down even
more, he was a perfect man without a single glitch in his character
and attitude. He was a perfect man, perfect
love, perfect mercy, perfect. When he came into a crowd, his
heart was perfect. There are no flaws in him. He
didn't look back to see somebody and say, well, I ain't got nothing
to say to him. I didn't like him the first time
I seen him. He didn't say that. This was a perfect man. He said,
which of you convinces me of sin? Huh? And if you can't convict
me of sin, why don't you hear my word? Oh, this was a perfect man. He
was exactly what he ought to be in every situation and every
circumstance. And this man who is God incarnate
The Word made flesh, all-wise, all-knowing. This holy man who
did no sin with perfect attitude of heart and motive preached
to them the gospel. And he said, I'm the bread. I'm
the bread. I'm the bread of life, of which
that bread of Moses was but a figure. He said, I came down to do the
will of the Heavenly Father to manifest His love and mercy and
grace and show it to chosen sinners in His accomplished redemption.
Now look at John 6.41 and be amazed. But they murmured. Some of you mothers and some
of you fathers You tell your children, go pick
that up. Turn around and murmur all the
way in there and all the way back. Murmur. Murmur. That's what unbelievers do. Murmur. That's what those who are spiritually
dead do. They murmur. They murmur. They murmured at him because
he said, I'm the bread. We know you. We know your father. We know your mother. We know
Joseph and Mary. We know your brothers and sisters.
We know your whole family. And what in the world are you...
You're talking about coming down from heaven. You're talking about
being up there with God. You're talking about accomplishing
what no man can accomplish except God. How could you come down from
heaven? How could you be this heavenly bridge? When did you get the authority?
Huh? Who gave you the authority to
challenge our system of theology? When did you get the authority
to say the things that you're now saying? Who gave you the
right to say these things so contrary to what we believe?
Who gave you the right to point us out and say these men are
devils? Who gave you that authority?
Where did this come from? We know you. Well, I've got three things here
in John chapter 6, verses 37 through 45 that I want you to
look at. And by God's grace, apply to
our present situation. These three things are things
that I've learned in my own experience of grace and now see clearly
in the Word of God. And the first of these things
is just this. Apart from a divine revelation,
there's nothing that I can say Nothing that I can do to change
the course of any man, to alter the course of any man born of
Adam. Nothing. I don't care how clear
I say it. I don't care how much evidence
accompanies it. I don't care what's going on.
This man raised the dead, cleansed lepers. God spoke to him out
of heaven. Providence itself evidenced him
to be the Son of God, and they believe not. I'm telling you, I preach to
bones. I preach to dead men. Oh, the Scriptures. The Scriptures
testify that not all the revivals and arguments and appeals and
campaigns and programs in the world can cause a man to alter
his present direction. He's going in one direction.
You're not going to stop him. You're not going to stop him.
The scripture calls this course the broad road. That's right. The broad road, he said, that
leads to destruction. Men is on the road. Where are
they going? Well, it's a one-way street.
They just go one direction. And they're on it. They're headed
for hell, headlong, headlong. It's the broad road that leadeth
to destruction. The Bible calls it a way that
seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof is death. The
Holy Spirit identifies it in Ephesians chapter 2 as the course
of this world as led and influenced by the prince of the power of
the air. It's their course. It's the course. Let me tell you something the
Lord revealed to me by my own conversion. Man's dead. He's dead. He's dead. Until God speaks to him, he's
going to stay right on that course. Stay right on that course. He's dead in trespasses and sins,
not physically, but spiritually. He don't know God. He's not a
pretty good man. I get so sick of hearing that.
I've got a neighbor, and he's a pretty good fellow. No, he
ain't. He's a devil. He hates God. He ain't a pretty
good man. When we call somebody pretty
good, it's like one maggot comparing another maggot to himself. Ain't
he a pretty good maggot? Well, he is. He'd be like maggots. But he ain't God good. There's
none good but God. Well, I don't believe you, preacher.
Why do you believe God? God said he looked down from
heaven to see if there's any good. He said there wasn't any. Well, I don't believe it. Then
you just call God a liar. And that's what these men were
doing. Man's dead. He don't know God.
He's not pretty good. He has in himself nothing to
recommend himself to God. And I tell you this, some of
you right here this morning, some of you in here, you're still
playing this foolish game. You're still out here trying
to, you got the trap set. You got it all set in your mind
and you put, you go out here and you bait it with a question.
You go out here and you got this question all in mind and you're
going to bait this trap. So you put the bait in there
and then you take it over there and somebody looks at it. Boy,
they nibble on it. Pow! The door comes down. Now
I got him. What are you going to do with
him now? Now you got him, what are you
going to do with him? Brother Mahan told me one time,
he said that people do that, he said they're like dogs chasing
cars. If they ever caught one, they
wouldn't know what to do with it. What are you going to do with it when
you get it? Oh, we're going to slam the door on them and get
them in our little trap. Then what? What's next? You got any power to change his
nature? Because you ain't going to pet
a wolf. He'll take your arm off. You
going to train him? Huh? The carnal mind's enmity
against God, it's not subject to the law of God, neither indeed
can be. What are you going to do with him? You going to reform
him? You going to try to make a payout? What are you going
to do with him when you get him? That's what God has to teach
us. Oh, it's not possible. If it
were possible, let me tell you something. If it were possible,
by argument, if I could call you aside, and sit you down. And somehow you was in enough
trouble where you just shut up long enough to listen to me.
And I sit down and I talk to you a little bit. If it was possible
by argument to convince you of the gospel of God's sovereign
grace, if that were possible, everybody that talked to the
Lord Jesus Christ would have been converted. Ain't that right? Because we're not talking about
partial wisdom here. We're talking about incarnate
wisdom. And they weren't. These men heard
the Lord Jesus Christ Himself declare the Gospel, and they
murmured. And later on, in John chapter
7, it said, in spite of all the miracles, they believed not.
And when they saw Him with His climactic calling of Lazarus
forth out of the tomb, they went back and met together, and they
said, if we leave this man and go, everybody on earth is going
to believe him. We're going to lose our jobs. Unbelief. Unbelief. How can a man see those things
and hear those things and still not believe? Because he's dead. Dead. A man is depraved. He's spiritually dead. He is
by nature a child of wrath. The wrath of God is on him. What
does that mean? That means he wanders around
in darkness. He wanders around in spiritual
death. He wanders around in rebellion.
You can't teach him anything. You can't tell him anything.
You can't turn him any direction. He's dead. He's going to go on
and on and on. Can he get religious? Sure he
can. But, brethren, religion's not turning around. Religion's
just another path. We come out of Washington, D.C.,
and all them big highways all merged together, and we're going
down through there. And all of a sudden, I looked up, and the number changed.
I said, oh, no. I said, man, I've got off on
the wrong road. And we went down there a little
piece, and I looked up there, and there's my road again. What
happened is just another road merged in. That's what religion
does. You're going down this path,
down this broad road, and all of a sudden, it looks different
now. It's got a religious title up there on it instead of a worldly
title that says religion up there. It's just another road. It just
merged in with your road. They all go in the same place. Man is depraved. He is spiritually
dead. He is by nature the child of
wrath. Listen to this. John 3, verse
36. He that believeth not the Son. Huh? Believeth not the Son. Don't believe he was promised
of God. Don't believe he actually came.
Don't believe what he said. Don't believe why he came and
what he did. Don't believe what he accomplished.
or where he sits. Don't believe in the means that
he's ordained. Don't believe in the Holy Spirit
of God coming down and regenerating people and calling people, effectually,
out of darkness into light. Either believe it or not, the
Son, the wrath of God, abideth on him. Here's the condemnation. Lights
come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light.
It abides on him. It abides on him in his ignorance.
It abides on him in his darkness, and deadness, and lack of submission,
and superstition, and pride. It abides on him. And who but
a cursed man, a dead man, a possessed man would fly into the face of
God and say, that ain't fair. He can't do that. You're unjust. You know what Paul said? He said,
wait a minute. Wait a minute. Who art thou,
O vain man, that replies against God? Huh? Dead. Dead. John said, he that believeth
not God hath made him a liar. Now, I'm going to ask you something.
Do you believe this man who lives without shame before God going
to be shamed by you? Do you think you can shame him?
He ain't shamed before God. You going to shame him? You believe
this rebel who defies the living God going to obey you? Going
to be intimidated by you? You think this man who resists
God Not going to resist you. This man who can stand before
incarnate wisdom and all-knowing mediator and fly into his face
in his own ignorance. You think he's going to bow to
your wisdom? He'll laugh at you. He'll laugh at you. You believe this man who's rejected
every source of light that God's ever given him. going to suddenly
scratch his head at your arguments and say, oh, I get it now. Uh-uh. It ain't going to happen. Ain't
going to happen. And that's why preaching is a
declaration. It's not a question. It's a declaration. He didn't say, now, what do you
believe about the bread? He said, I'm the bread. Well,
I don't believe it. No reason to murmur. No reason
to murmur. Wrath of God abides on you. That's
why you can't believe. I'm telling you this, conversion
commands a divine intervention. It necessitates the work of God. And the best man, the perfect
man, stood before this crowd with every evidence in heaven
and earth. And when he'd done with his discourse,
they murmured and mocked and denied everything that he said
and everything that he stood for. The Lord gave a parable one day.
He said, there's this fellow, he went into town and he talked
to this man and he said, I've got a field out here and I'm
raising some things and I need somebody to work in my field.
And he said, I'm willing to pay five dollars a day. And he said,
I need to work. I need the money. I'll go out
there." And so he went out, and a few hours later, went down
to Marketplace, and there's a bunch of fellas over there standing
up against the fence, and he said, told them the same thing.
And he said, I'm willing to give $5 if you get out there and help.
I got a fella out there working now. Y'all go out there and help
him the rest of the day. I'll give you $5 a piece. And he waited
till dinner time, and he sent some more out there. And finally,
at the 11th hour, he sent a man out and told him the same thing.
When they all come in, he paid them everyone $5. You know what the first man did?
Huh? You need to look it up. He murmured. He murmured. He agreed to do it for $5. $5
is what he got, but he murmured. You know, the Lord was about
to go to the cross. He was about to give his life.
in our room instead on the cross. He was about to offer himself
up to God, had the wrath of God poured out on him. Bare things
that our minds can't even conceive. And Mary, this old converted
harlot, was the only one who knew him and knew exactly what
was going on. And she come in with this spice
and she broke it and she anointed his head and anointed him for
his burial. And you know what those Jews
said about that? This is a murmur, a murmur. Old tax collector sitting
down there with all of his key men in position and all of his
influence and intimidation. And he had it made. And the Lord
come by and said, Matthew, follow me. He opened Matthew's heart. He said, come on down to my house.
We're going to celebrate this. And he called all of his friends
in there to tell them about it and show them this man who called
him out of darkness. And they brought him in there.
And the Jews stood back. You know what they did? They
murmured. They said, why does he eat Republicans
and sinners? Murmured. That's what dead men
do. They murmur. They murmur. Apart from a divine revelation,
there's nothing I can say or do to alter the course of any
man. And the second thing I see in
these Scriptures here is that the eternal God has purposed
for some to hear. Huh? Listen to this. Verse 44. He told them, he said
back in the verse before that, he said, don't murmur. Don't
murmur. Oh, he said, except the Father
which has sent me draw him, no man can come to me. No man can. That doesn't say no man may.
It says no man can. He can't do it. Well, I tell
you what I'm going to do, preacher. I'm going to get me a Bible.
I'm going to go home and crawl up in the closet and get my flashlight,
and I'm going to figure this thing out. No man can come to
me. Can you hear me? Except my father, Drawhill. He
ain't coming. He ain't coming. Oh, he'll come
out of that closet talking about prophecy and end times and pre-post
and all the millenarians and all this. He's going to be talking
about all these things. He'll be an enlightened man. But he won't come to Christ.
He won't come to Christ. God the Father's purposed that
some do hear his gospel. And Christ said, don't murmur,
don't murmur. And I tell you, when he's talking
here about his Father drawing, that's not talking here about
the conscience tugging at the heartstrings. That's not what
that's talking about. Telling you things ain't right.
You've known the very first time you ever did anything wrong,
your conscience. Start tugging at those heartstrings
telling you, this ain't right. This ain't right. This ain't
right. Huh? Been telling you that all your
life. This ain't right. What you're doing ain't right.
After a while, you just sear that conscience like a hot iron
to where it don't even affect you anymore. You've suppressed
it so long and suppressed that light so long that you just...
The Bible said your conscience has been seared with a hot iron.
Heartstrings don't tug no more. It's not some preacher's showing
you a film about the burning hell and scaring you into a confession
of faith. And this is not some well-trained,
high-pressure evangelist talking you into a decision or joining
the church. This is the Father sending forth
the power and authority of heaven to release those that were purchased
by the death of His Son. He draws them. He draws them
the way Pharaoh did Joseph down in Israel. He said, go get him.
I command his presence. Go get him. Huh? They didn't
go down there and say, Joseph, would you please come out? Huh?
They went down and got him, didn't they? Said, you're coming with
me. You're coming with me. And you
ain't going up there looking like that. I'm going to wash
you. And they washed him. And they
brought him before Pharaoh. And he told Pharaoh the mystery
of his dreams. He told him those things that
troubled his heart. He told him the mystery. And
he said, I'm going to make you Lord of Egypt. This is the Father sending forth
the power and authority of heaven and earth to release those that
were purchased by the death of His Son. Providence itself is
so commanded to bring you into here and to bring a preacher
in standing before you. You think I'm up here by accident?
You think you're sitting there by accident? Huh? God the Father arranged
His providence, commanded His providence to make this so. This great God who's You can
read about it on Ephesians chapter 1. It tells you, it just clears
the veil. The great God who is gathering all things together
in Christ, in whom many have obtained an inheritance, is right
now, right now, He said, working all things after the counsel
of His own will. Do you believe that? What God said. What God said. Seated at his
right hand is the resurrected, glorified Christ and having all
power now in his hands. He sets in motion the very means
and methods to draw us unto himself. He said, if I be lifted up, he
said, I'll draw all men unto myself. The Holy Ghost around which so
much of today's charismatic churches center their worship is not the
sovereign spirit of Christ. When He has come, our Lord said
He won't speak of Himself. He's not going to talk about
Himself. I don't care where you go or what you hear. If they're
jumping up and down and doing this and talking about the Holy
Ghost, the Holy Ghost, the Holy Ghost, they don't know the Holy
Ghost. He's not going to speak of Himself. He's got one thing
in mind. He's going to take the things
of Christ and He's going to show them to you. You want to know if a church
has the Holy Ghost? Go in and sit down and shut up
and listen to the man preach. If he preaches Christ, if he
calls you to Christ, if he talks about that accomplished redemption
in Christ, he has the Holy Ghost. And you better listen to him.
You better hear him. Oh, this drawing of the Father
is inclusive. in the pouring out of His Holy
Spirit upon the church, of the assembly of His churches in this
earth as the pillar and ground of truth of all the pastors and
missionaries and apostles and prophets and evangelists that
He Himself separates and gives to the church and uses by the
circumstance of His providence. Everything accomplished by the
Lord Jesus Christ and by an innumerable company of angels sent to minister
to those who shall be heirs of salvation. We're not talking
about this little tingling in your heart. We're talking about
the order of God the Father. Go get them and bring them to
me. Bring them to me. They're mine. They're mine. I'll tell you what separated
you from the Fathers, your sins. Your sins. Huh? And there's only
one way back. And that's through that substitutionary
sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ and through His righteousness. That's it. There ain't no other
way. This drawing of the Father is not some timid, barely felt
emotion that whispers, you need. It's the irresistible power of
God's Holy Spirit releasing the prisoner out of darkness. He
said He called me out of darkness. Woo! How can you do that? I can't do that. But I tell you,
that's exactly where He found me and that's exactly why I come
out. He called me. He called me. I told some folks a week or so
ago on Wednesday night, we were studying old Joseph and we were
talking about these things. We were talking about that irresistible
call. I said, can you imagine Joseph
standing before Pharaoh of Egypt? And he's standing there in that
little gown they gave him. And Pharaoh said, I'm going to
make you Lord of the land. I'm going to turn everything
in my nation, everything under my considerable power, I'm going
to give it to you. I'm going to put the ring on
your finger. Nothing's going to be done here without that
seal. I'm putting the ring on your finger. You're not going
to be treated like a prisoner anymore. You're going to ride
in the second chariot, and I'm going to send out strong men
before you, and they're going to cry out, bow down. Jack-knife
pioneers coming. Bow down to the ground in honor
of it. Nothing gonna be done. Oh, Pharaoh,
we ain't got no bread. Go see Joseph. Now, I just want you to close
your eyes for a minute. See if in your wildest imagination,
can you imagine Joseph standing before Pharaoh hearing all that
good news? and saying, well, I don't think
I can. See, I got this job down at the
prison. Ain't that what men do? That's exactly what they do.
Oh, this call of the father. I'll tell you why you say stuff
like that, because you ain't standing before his royal presence.
That's why. That's exactly. You're still down in the prison.
You ain't going to stand before Him and talk like that. You're
not going to stand in the presence of His glory. Go through the
Scriptures sometimes and listen to these apostles talk about
standing in the presence. John fell down when he saw Him
in Revelation. He fell down like a dead man.
Daniel, one of the most honorable men who ever lived, he saw it
and he said his comeliness melted into corruption. Job put his
hand on his mouth and said, I'll never speak again. Isaiah, standing there, is a
prophet of God, inspired to write scriptures, woe and everything
coming and going. When he saw his glory, he said,
I'm a man of unclean lips. And everybody I know is the same
shape I am. Huh? I'll tell you why we talk
this way. I'll tell you why we murmur.
I'll tell you why we reject. We've never seen his glory. When
he causes you to stand before the presence of his glory, Russell,
we won't talk like this anymore. And when we go out to tell folks
about it, we ain't going to bait them. We ain't going to argue
with them. We ain't going to do that. I'll tell you what we're going to
do. We're going to go find out how God saved sinners. And we're
going to call men down and pray that God will bless the means
that he set apart to do it. Oh, they're not coming, Christ
said. They don't need to murmur. You can't come. I'm not disappointed. I'm not disappointed in your
unbelief. You can't come. Nobody can come except my Father
draw him. I'm satisfied with that. Are
you? I am. If I stand here till I
die, by the grace of God, I'll be satisfied if nobody else comes
through the door. They ain't coming unless He draws
them. I can't convert myself, let alone
you. This drawing of the Father is
what brings about your release. Listen to this, Psalm 105 verse
20, just talking about old Joseph. It said, the king sent loose
to him, even the ruler of the people, and let him go free.
That's what hearing the gospel is all about. He calls you to
hear it and he sets you free! You're free! You're not under
that bondage anymore. You're not under that wrath anymore. You're not under that judgment
anymore. You're free to hear, and to serve,
and to love, and to rejoice. Free to lay hold. Are you still murmuring? Don't murmur. Don't murmur. Oh, he said, all that the Father
giveth me don't come to me. You believe that? Boy, I do. He taught me in a way I can't
deny. You see, I heard preachers. I
heard the truth. I was raised under Brother Mahan's
ministry. I went down and preached for
years. I thought I knew something. I didn't know anything. I thought
I was somebody. I was nobody. I thought I was
full. I was empty. He showed me what
my rebellion was. He showed me my desertion, same
as He did Peter. He showed me my emptiness. And
when He got me empty, then He showed me His fullness. And I quit arguing. I quit arguing. This drawing
of the Father is what brings about your release. Set Him free. Set Him free. Christ said, I didn't come to
do my will, but the will of Him that sent me. And this is the
will of Him that sent me, that everyone that seeth the Son.
How are they going to see? When God gives them eyes. Ain't
that what He told those apostles? He said, blessed are your eyes,
they see. Blessed are your ears, they hear.
Huh? Can you hear? Then I say the
same thing to you. Blessed are your ears. How does the Father draw us?
by lifting up the Son. That's how he does it. Christ
lifted up is accomplished redemption. It's not a work in progress,
but a thing already done. Lifted up is the substitute for
sinners. Lifted up is the end of the law
for righteousness. Lifted up is the manifest love
of God. Lifted up as the serpent was
in the wilderness when the serpents, the fiery serpents was falling
down and biting men. And all these men were dying
around. God said, raise up the serpent.
Everybody looks on it, going to live. Can you see that cursed
serpent? Can you see him? Dying on the
cross. Lifted up. Can you see him? He
said, I was made a curse. Why? Because that's where my
people were under the curse. Lifted up out of the grave. Lifted up. The angels came and
took him and he stepped up on that cloud and ascended into
glory and was seated at the right hand of God. Christ lifted up. They shall all listen to this.
Every one of them is going to be taught of God. I can't teach
you unless God teaches you through me. All are going to be taught of
God. Every man, therefore, that hath heard and learned of the
Father, he comes to Christ, every last one of them. Huh? I know the truth. You don't if you don't come to
Christ. You don't know nothing. The Lord Jesus said to His disciples,
He said, if I go not away, the Comforter is not going to come.
And when He comes, He brings to light, through the preaching
of the Gospel and the Holy Scriptures, the full and gracious purpose
of the Father in the accomplished redemption of Christ. That's
what He brings. It's the Son lifted up. The drawing of the
Father is the arranging of all things after the counsel of His
own will. A preacher, I just don't believe
it. I just don't believe it. I'm not talking to you. I'm talking to those who believe.
Those who believe. Somebody said one time, won't
you just spit it out? Won't you just get it out? Won't
you just say it plainly? Won't you quit beating around
the bush? Won't you quit talking the mystery?
I'm going to tell you the same thing the Lord told those Jews.
I told you. I told you. I told you plainly.
I told you often. I told you. Here's the problem. You're not His sheep. That's right. Don't murmur. You're not going to come apart
from the power of God. You ain't going to come. You're
just going to stand there and talk. People come to me all the time.
I don't have to listen to you. I don't have to submit to you. There's lots of places I can
go. There's lots of preachers I can
go hear. None of them has this gospel. What are you going to do without
that? Aren't you going to be like the fellow that traps the
man in his trap? Now what? Now what are you going
to do? Huh? I'll tell you what Paul said,
how are you going to hear without a preacher? That's what he said.
I'll let you deal with that. And then the last thing I want
you to see here is that all that are taught of God, they come
to Christ. They don't come to the front. They don't come to
an organization. They don't come to a traditional
concept. They come to Christ, the living
Christ. He's alive. I tell you, when
they sent those things down, I told my wife I was going to
preach what I preached Wednesday night on Joseph, and then I didn't.
She was disappointed. But all these things, they went
down there to old Jacob, and they told Jacob, man, Joseph
is alive. He's alive. This one that we've
been talking about, this one who disappeared, he's alive.
This one we sold out, he's alive. And he's Lord of all Egypt. They
said Jacob's heart painted in him, and he believed them not.
And they said, come here. Come here. And old Jacob went
over there to the door of that tent. And he looked out, and as far
as he could see, Raw wagons. Wagons of grace and
mercy and kindness and love and purpose. Wagons of inheritance. Wagons of promise. Wagons of
means. The means Joseph sent down to
carry you back to him. And old Joseph, when he saw the
wagons, he said, it's enough. That's enough. When is it enough? I'll tell
you when, when you see the wagons. When you can see his wagons loaded
to the brim with all the good things, all these good precious
promises of Christ. When you can see the wagon. Oh,
he said, now I'm going to go see him before I die. Huh? I'll tell you there's nothing
on this earth I want more for you this morning. and for you
to see him before you die. There's no coming back from the
grave. You have to see him now. You
have to see him now.