It was almost a year ago that
I preached a message out of the same text that I've chosen this
morning. It was entitled, No Man Can Come. So you're almost 11 months later.
I'm going to preach the second part of that message. And it's entitled, Men Shall
Come. And if you'll turn with me to
the Gospel of John, chapter 6. We'll begin reading in verse
37. John chapter 6, verse 37. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. And him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. I have six points for you this
morning. They're all brief. And my first
is all believers, all the elect children of God, chosen before
the foundation of the world, shall come to the Lord Jesus
Christ. Our Lord does not say in this
verse that all the world will come to Him. That's not what
He says. Now allow me just to make a few
comments here. If our Lord and Savior died for
every man and woman in the world throughout all time, then every
man and woman that ever lived and shall ever live will be saved."
I said, if he did. If, is there any, I ask you,
that will perish for whom Christ died? But unregenerate men say, well,
that's not so, for the Scriptures speak of hell, the Scriptures
speak of unsaved, lost men and women, and they clearly speak
of a day of judgment that is coming, so not everyone is saved. But to say that He died for all,
all men and women ever born, and all are not saved, is to
say that somewhere and somehow God failed. Now that's exactly
right. That's exactly what that's saying.
But God has never failed, dear friends. God has never failed. There's something bad wrong with
that way of thinking. It's not according to the scriptures.
First and foremost, it's dishonoring to the one who is worthy of all
honor. It makes Christ's precious blood
dependent somehow upon something or someone else. And men will
tell you, religious men will tell you that that something
else is the free will of man. My will made the difference. I declare to you this morning
with no reservation, with all the seriousness that I can muster
up, that that is a blasphemous thing to say or to preach. Yet thousands of so-called preachers
meeting together today in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ
will tell sinners that salvation is somehow dependent upon them. I say, don't give ear to it.
It's a lie from the pits of hell. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians,
for who maketh thee to differ from another? There's a difference
and there's one who made that difference. And what hast thou
that thou did not receive? Salvation is a gift of God. He
received it by His grace. And the Apostle continues on
and says, Now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory as if
thou hast not received it? What is there for man to glory
about in this thing of salvation? Nothing, because he had nothing
to do with it. God saved him by His grace. Salvation
is of the Lord. Isaiah chapter 23 verse 9 says,
The Lord of hosts hath purposed it. And I was amazed at this
verse. I don't know that I'd ever read
it before. To stain the pride of all glory. Speaking of the
glory of men. And to bring into contempt all
the honorable, the so-called honorable, those that are honorable
in their own eyes of the earth, it says. Friends, God will not
share His glory with another. If you buy something, you purchased
it. If you earn something, you worked
for it. If you deserve something, you
somehow merited it. But when you receive something,
when you receive it, it is a free gift. That's what salvation is. Better read your Bibles. Better
ask God to show you the truth about His salvation. Concerning the salvation of sinners,
God said through the prophet Isaiah, He said, for mine own
sake, The Lord Jesus Christ is God. For my own sake, even for
my own sake, will I do it. Why does God save sinners? For
Christ's sake. For Christ's work. What Christ
did. Not what the sinner does. For how should my name be polluted,
God says. And I will not give my glory
unto another. You see, to preach man's will
is to pollute God's name. It's an endeavor by sinful men
to strip God of His glory and take credit for that that only
Christ accomplished. If man saves himself, then man
gets the glory. But God will never, ever give
His glory to another. So we're saved for Christ's sake,
for He is our salvation. Now I could go on and on, but
my intention this morning is not to tell you what the gospel
isn't. My desire is to show you by God's
grace and by His Holy Spirit through the Scriptures what the
Gospel and who, more importantly, the Gospel is. Look again at verse 37. It does
not say, all the world shall come to me, does it? It says,
all that the Father giveth me shall come to me. Now does there sound like there's
any doubt in that statement? All that the Father giveth me,
not all the world, not every man and woman, all that the Father
gave Christ before the foundation of the world shall, not might,
not maybe, not depending upon them, shall come to me." Notice
those two words, to me. Salvation is coming to a person,
and that person is God in the flesh, the Lord Jesus Christ. Where do men find the will of
the sinner in that passage of Scripture? That statement was
not made by me. It was made by Christ Himself.
The one and only Savior. He who is God in the flesh. He who is God's salvation. Now friends, we're either going
to believe God or we're going to believe man. Which is it? My advice to you this morning
is to believe and trust God. He's not a man that he should
lie or son of man that he should repent, change his mind. God
is the final authority on this matter. And this book that you
hold in your lap or in your hand this morning declares what I'm
telling you from beginning to end. And yet I tell you that
only God can reveal it to you. Only God can reveal it to you.
Well, one might say, well, but Christ said in John 3.16, For
God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son,
that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting
life. They'll say, Christ said that.
Well, Christ also said in John 17, I pray for them. I pray not for the world, but
for them which Thou hast given Me, for they are Thine. Now I must ask to those who have
made a whole gospel of salvation around the fact that Christ has
died for everybody, for God so loved the world. Would Christ
not pray for those in the world that God loved? Is that a characteristic
of our Lord and Savior that He would not pray for those that
God loved? He prayed for them. those that
Thou hast given Me." I pray for them, not for the world. God
loved the world, dear friends, because His elect were in that
world. The world was His creation, was
it not? Therefore, is it not understandable
and reasonable that God would love the works of His hand? For
God so loved the world. But do we read anywhere in John
3.16 that Christ said, God loved every man and woman in the world?
That's not what He said. He said that whosoever believeth
in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Friends, the Bible is clear that
whosoever will is whosoever God wills. I don't believe that's a stretch
at all to say that. It's not of him that willeth.
It's not of him that runneth. But it is of God that showeth
mercy. Is that what the Scriptures say? Whosoever will is whosoever God's
will. And you know what? Whosoever
God wills, they shall not perish. Redemption is not coming to religion.
Redemption is not coming to church. It's not coming to the preacher.
And it sure ain't coming down here in the front. It's not even coming to the doctrines
of grace. It's coming to Christ. To me! To me, he said. It's a certain and assured thing
when God gives all His elect to Christ that they shall come
and they shall not perish. Now that brings me to my second
point. Once saved, always saved. I was raised in Southern Baptist. That was a big issue with them.
There are people getting fist fights out in the church parking
lot, arguing over once saved, always saved. You believe once
saved, always saved? I'm not trying to be funny here.
I'm being serious. This was a major issue between
men. They talked about backsliding
and this and that. Let me tell you something. If
God saves you, you're saved forever. Is that not what our Lord says
here in verse 37? I will in no wise cast out. That phrase, in no wise cast
out, comes from the original word ume, which means never. I'll never cast them out. It
means certainly not we'll cast him out. It means I will not
at all cast him out. By no means will I cast him out. That's what that phrase means
in the original language. So if God saved you by His free
and sovereign grace in Christ, then you're saved forever. No chance of being cast out.
Well, some might say, well, what about those that quit? They never
were. Never were saved. You see, God knows the thoughts
and intents of a man's heart. Men can put on a good show outwardly
and impress other men and convince other men that they might be
saved, but God knows. God knows. Those that are saved
by His free and sovereign grace in Christ, my dear friends, He
will in no wise cast out. So I tell my Southern Baptist
friends, yes, if you're saved by Christ, you're saved by God
through the Lord Jesus Christ, you're always saved. You're always
saved. God's greater than all. Christ
Himself said, My Father, in John 10, He said, My Father which
gave them Me is greater than all. If He's greater than all,
then it's pretty evident why He says in the remainder of the
verse that no man is able to pluck them out of My Father's
hand. Hand. It don't take two hands.
God's hand keeps all His people throughout all the ages. And
it's no big thing to Him. God is able. He is able. Why do men preach that God is
not able? He's willing, but He's not able.
You've got to give Him your heart. Let me tell you something. God
doesn't want that wicked thing. He's going to give you a new
heart, one that beats and pants after Him and Him alone. God
is greater than all and no one can take His people from His
hand. Now listen, He has never failed
at anything. I have, miserably. But God has never failed at anything
that He's done. Let me tell you something else.
Just take it out of your vocabulary. God has never tried to do anything. There's a popular evangelist
TV preacher right in Houston and I tell you, I see him on
TV by mistake sometimes. I have it on that channel and
then he comes on. I can't wait to turn it off.
His thing is God wants you. to have a prosperous life, a
victorious life. God wants you, wants you. God
never wanted anything! Never! I'll tell you this, He never
wanted to do anything that He didn't do. He's done whatsoever He's pleased. My God is in the heavens, Dave
said. He's done whatsoever He's pleased. And you know what? I'm going to be honest with you.
I could not have peace and comfort in my heart if I did not know
that my God has done whatsoever He's pleased and that all that
He's pleased to do, He doeth well. That's where your comfort
lies. That's where your peace comes
from. and knowing that. Oh, don't cause me to look in
within. I'm not going to do it anymore.
I'm going to look to Him and Him alone. For He is my salvation. Brings me to my third point.
Salvation is by the will of God. It's by the Father's will. Look
at verse 38. For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own
will, Christ says, but the will of Him that sent me. And this
is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which He
hath given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it
up again at the last day. And 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'll raise Him up at
the last day." Friends, God's will always will come to pass. Always. The first indication
of this is found in our Lord's Word in verse 38. He says, "...for
I came down from heaven." Oh, if He came down from heaven,
friends, and he must be God. And he came down that we might
be risen up. The one who saves us and keeps
us is none other than God Himself. He came down from heaven. The psalmist wrote in Psalm 73,
25, he said, whom have I in heaven but thee? Did God send down a weak, helpless,
trying, begging, hoping, pleading, softly, tenderly calling Jesus? Or did He send down a sovereign
Savior? Which is it? That blind songwriter, Fanny
Crosby, saw much more than most men, unregenerate men, infinitely
more than most unregenerate men will ever see. She said, Thou
the spring of all my comfort, more than life to me. Whom have
I on earth beside Thee? Whom in heaven but Thee? You came down from heaven. It's God. It's God of the heaven
and earth with whom you have to do. What are you going to
plead? Are you going to plead your works? Your goodness? Your righteousness?
Or are you going to plead the one of a perfect, righteous,
and holy Savior? I recommend you plead the one
of Christ. And yet God has to reveal it
to you or you'll never, ever see it. Our Lord's will was to
do the will of God who sent Him. What was the Father's will? Well,
He tells us right here in verse 40. First He tells us in 39,
it's the Father's will which sent Him, that of all, He reiterates
what He had just said, of all, that the Father giveth Him, that
He wouldn't lose nothing. And then he says in verse 40,
he says, and this is the will of Him that sent me, that everyone
which seeth the Son, everyone that seeth me and believes on
me, believes that I am, I am, may have everlasting life. I'm
going to raise Him up on the last day. I'm going to raise
Him up. When a believer dies with Christ,
he will be raised up as sure as Christ Himself rose from the
dead. We must die to ourselves first
and foremost and live unto Him. And then when we die physically,
when we leave this life, when the breath of life leaves us,
physical death, we shall rise again with Him. That's what He
said in verse 39 and 40. He said it twice. He wants to
make sure we see that I will raise Him up the last day. You can write it down. He never
tried to do anything, never wanted to do anything. This is the will
of God Almighty. God sent His Son. He came down
from heaven. He's God in the flesh. And He
came down to do for sinners what they could not, and I might add,
would not do for themselves. This is God's will. that everyone
which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting
life." And I'm going to raise him up that last day. Do you see Christ? Do you believe Him? You must believe and worship
Him in spirit and in truth. In John chapter 4, our Lord told
the Samaritan woman, the hour cometh and now is, when the true
worshippers, that's what I want to be. I don't want to be a false
worshipper to you. There's no life in that. I want
to be a true worshipper. And Christ told her, the time
now is when true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit
and in truth. You can't worship God in a lie. You can't worship God in a false
gospel. God is a Spirit, and they that
worship Him must, must, must worship Him in Spirit and in
truth. To worship Him in Spirit and
in truth is to worship, love, and adore Him according as the
Holy Spirit has revealed Him through the Scriptures. God has never been dependent,
dear friends, on man for anything and never shall be. In the Gospel
of Matthew, Christ said that God is able
of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. And I'm going to
tell you, that's what He did. Because that's about what we
are. Just dead, lifeless, cold stones. But God is able to raise
them up. Whatever gave man the impression
that he could add anything to the work of God? I don't understand
it. Now I don't. I used to. I believed
that. Friends, I've decided to follow
Jesus. You didn't decide nothing. God with the same power that
He spoke before the foundation of the world and said, let there
be light is the same breath of life He breathed into you. The
same breath of life He formed out of the clay of the earth
and made Adam. It says He breathed into him
the breath of life. That same breath must be breathed
into you. or you remain a cold, lifeless
stone. What can a cold, lifeless stone
do? Can it even throw itself at somebody? No. Those stones that David took
up in that sling, they didn't just fly up out of the ground
and hit the old Philistine giant in the head. He had to pick them
up, take them, and throw them, didn't he? What is a cold, lifeless
stone other than just what it is? Dead. We're dead. God has to give us life. But
let me ask you, does that sound like a God that needs our help? Salvation is according to the
will and purpose of God. Salvation is by the Spirit of
God and by the Word of God. I'll give you my fourth thing,
and I'll hurry. of the self-righteous. That's
my fourth point. Self-righteous men will always
murmur against truth. You can write it down. Look at
verse 41. The Jews then murmured at him
because he said, I am the bread which came down from heaven.
Was that not true? Was he not the bread that came
down from heaven? And they said, Is not this Jesus,
the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How is it
then that he saith, I came down from heaven? And Jesus therefore answered
in verse 43 and said unto them, Murmur not among yourselves.
Christ is God's bread that came down from heaven. Look down at
verse 51. I am the living bread which came
down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread,
he shall live forever. And the bread that I will give
is my flesh which I will give for the life of the world. There
again, God's people win the world. Look down at verse 58. This is that bread which came
down from heaven, not as your fathers did eat manna and are
dead. He that eateth this bread shall
live forever." Do you see Him as the bread of life? Or do you see Him as the Pharisees
did? As the Son of Joseph? He's the Son of God. You see, they saw him only as
a man, but he's a God-man. True worshipers see him as God
in the flesh. With arrogance and pride, they
said, why, we know his mother and father. How can he say he came down from
heaven? Why, Rabbi Joe remembers him
when he was just a snotty-nosed kid. And Dr. Duguid remembers when he worked
in the carpenter's shop. And Rev. Lawman, while he's seen
him, conversed with publicans and sinners. Eat with them. We know his mother and father.
Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph? And you know what our
Lord said? He told them plainly. Murmur
not among yourselves. What he's saying here, I believe,
is just this. No need to murmur. Only my sheep
hear my voice. Only my sheep can hear my voice. We'll find it over in John 10
if you'll just turn a couple pages over there with me. In
verse 24, Then came the Jews round about
him, and said unto him, How long dost thou make us to doubt? If
thou be the Christ, tell us plainly. Well, he'd already told them,
hadn't he? And they said, well, that's Joseph, that's Jesus,
that's Joseph's son. Look at verse 25, and Jesus answered
them. He said, I told you and you believe
not. The works that I do in My Father's
name, they bear witness of Me. But you believe not because you
are not of My sheep. As I said unto you, you don't
need to murmur among yourselves. You're not one of My sheep. You're
not going to hear My voice. You're not going to follow Me.
Don't need to murmur. My sheep, verse 27, hear My voice. Do you hear His voice this morning?
Do you hear Him calling? Well, His sheep do. And He says,
and I know them. See friends, the issue is not
that you know God, the issue is does God know you? Someone asked Abraham Lincoln,
I believe I'm telling this right, forgive me if I'm not, but they
asked him, they said, do you, in the matter of the Civil War,
it says, do you believe that God is on our side? He said,
the issue is are we on God's side? My sheep hear my voice and I
know them and they follow me. Fifth point, no man has the ability
to come. Verse 44, back in John 6. Notice the simplicity and the
directness of these words. No man can come to me except
the Father which hath sent me draw him. And then notice those
words again. I'll raise him up at the last
day. Now, natural man cannot receive
the things of God because they are spiritually discerned. No
man can come. Mere, natural, unregenerate men
do not have the ability to come. You've heard the little story.
It happened to me in grade school. I raised my hand one day and
I said, Teacher, can I go to the bathroom? And she said, You
can, but you may not. In other words, you have the
ability You can walk down there. You can use the restroom. But
you may not. You see, man does not have the
ability. No man can come. No man can come. Can you come to Christ by your
own free will? According to Christ, you can't.
No man can come. Except, except, the Father which
hath sent me, draw him." Salvation is of the Lord, isn't it? That
word, accept, says it all. By nature and birth, you're dead
in trespasses and sin. You can't raise your hand. You're
dead. You can't get up out of your
seat and walk to the restroom. You're dead. You can't come to
Christ. Except. Except. Ephesians 2. My, what a passage of scripture. I'll just briefly go over a little
bit. And you hath he quickened. That
word means made alive. That means she is dead. who were dead in trespasses and
sins. Wherein in times past ye walked
according to the course of this world, according to the prince
of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the
children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversation
in times past, in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires
of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children
of wrath, even as others." Now there you are. That's where you
are. That's where you sit, right there.
So what must happen now? What must happen? Verse 4 of
that Ephesians 2, I'm sorry. But God, except the Father, but
God who is rich in mercy for His great love wherewith He loved
us, when we were dead in sins, He's quickened us, He's made
us alive together with Christ. By grace are you saved. You mark it down, you read it
when you get home, Ephesians 2, 1-5. That's exactly what it
says. Sixth and last point, and I'll
let you go. All those taught of God will
hear God and they'll learn from Him. Verse 45, it is written
in the prophets, and they shall be all. All the world? No. All that the Father giveth
me. All those that are going to come
to me. All those that I will and know wise cast out. They
shall be all what? Taught of God. If you leave here this morning
and you say, you know, I heard that preacher say something that
I never heard before. That wasn't taught to you by
me. God taught you that. God showed
you that. Every man therefore that hath
heard and hath learned of the Father cometh unto me." Every man and woman that God
gave to Christ shall come to Him. But you said they don't
have the ability, for no man can come. But friends, I'm here
to tell you right now that the God of this Bible, by divine
purpose and by His sovereign will, has made some alive when
they were dead. He's quickened some. He's taught
some. And some have heard and some
have learned of the Father. And we come unto Christ. That's the gospel. Simple as I know how to preach
it. Come to Christ.