Alright, let's turn to John chapter
6. This chapter is so full of information. It's one of the most referred
to chapters of the Gospels that I know of in the ministry, just
in my experience listening to men preach. Probably other than
John 3.16, I go to John Chapter 6, and so often referred to these
different statements as a basis for what they're saying because
it's so clearly stated in this chapter that you just can't hardly
misunderstand what he says. But let's read here beginning
in verse 35. And Jesus said unto them, I am
the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never
hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. But
I said unto you that ye also have seen me, and believed not. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise
cast out. For I came down from heaven not
to do my own will, 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 will raise him up
at the last day. The Jews then murmured at him
because he said, I am the bread which came down from heaven.
And they said, is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father
and mother we know? How is it that he saith, I came
down from heaven? Jesus therefore answered and
said unto them, murmur not among yourselves. No man can come to
me. except the Father which hath
sent me draw him, and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets,
and they shall all be taught of God. Every man therefore that
hath heard and hath learned of the Father cometh unto me. Not that any man hath seen the
Father, save he which is of God. He hath seen the Father. Verily,
verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me hath everlasting
life. I am the bread of life." Now,
this is his definition to them of his proclamation where he
told them way back in the beginning of these verses that he was the
bread of God. And he goes on all the way through
here that I've just read to you all of these things having to
do with that bread. And in these verses, the Lord
tells this multitude that what they have is not saving faith,
is not saving faith. He says back here in verse 36,
But I said unto you that ye also have seen me, and believe not. They came to him, they heard
him, They watched him. They saw what he did. They partook
of the food that he blessed. They saw the miracle. They did
all these things, but he said, you believe not. So all of what
they did did not constitute faith. That's what he's telling. Your
ancestors saw the bread. They gathered it. They ate the
bread. But in their seeing and gathering
and eating, they never discovered the bread of God. He said, I
am the bread. I am the bread. Now, just try
to put yourself in their shoes. Here's what he's telling them.
These were their ancestors back yonder in the wilderness. God
caused this manna to fall. They had no food. They cried
unto the Lord. He sent down this manna. And
they saw it. It was white like a coriander
seed in it. fell with the dew of the morning.
And they went out and they gathered it up. And they did different
things to it. And they made bread. And they
ate this bread. And God sustained them in that
wilderness. And they were throwing this up
to Christ. You're talking to us as though
we were unbelievers. You're talking to us as though
we didn't know God. You're addressing us as though
we were foolish. As though we were Gentiles, unbelievers
and heathens. And He said, just like your father,
who saw the bread, and gathered the bread, and ate the bread,
but they never saw the bread of God. I am the bread." Now
they murmured. Now they murmured. Two days before
they were ready to make Him king. Two days before they were happy
with Him, rejoicing over Him. Now they murmured because He
told them the truth. He told them the truth. He said, your fathers, what they
ate sustained them for a while, and then they died. And when
they died, they died in unbelief. What they ate, they had no appetite
for. They ate it because they didn't
have a choice. It was the only food there was. The only food there was. They were
in a wilderness. No weed out there, no corn, no gardens. Just desert. Just dry sand all
around. And God rained down this bread
from heaven and sustained them. Yet they saw it, ate it, gathered
it, died in unbelief. They saw the manna, and they
saw here before them the fulfillment of it. But they saw nothing more
in Christ than their fathers saw in the wilderness. They just
saw Him in the physical. natural shape. They saw him in
a body. They saw him as another man. That's all the farther they could
see. Yes, he did miracles. Yes, he did things they couldn't
explain. But they still, all they could see was the natural.
Even in their religious hope, all they could see is the natural. They looked for a natural kingdom,
a natural king. And that's what they were going
to do with him. Set him up as the king. I hope this morning
you'll give me your ear and look at these scriptures as we go
through them, and look at what he says in these
verses, because this is exactly what's going on all around, and
maybe even in your own hearts here this morning. Could be.
But although these verses we read this morning, we read through
these things, And I think a lot of times we read over things,
and especially what I want to call your attention to this morning
is this word, coming. Coming. All through these verses,
he keeps using this phrase, coming to me. Coming to me. He that cometh to me shall never
hunger. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. And him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. No man can come to me except
the Father which hath sent me draw him. Every man therefore
that hath heard and hath learned of the Father cometh unto me."
You see how many times he says that? Just over and over and
over. And this coming to Christ is
not a physical coming. It's not coming down an aisle
or coming to a preacher or coming in the physical. They had came
physically from one side of the lake to the other. They did come
to Him. They came to Him when He was
over there in the mountain before He performed that miracle of
the bread and fishes. They come to Him physically.
But this coming was not a physical thing. But this coming is of
the mind and heart. It's a work done in you. You
come to Christ, you don't move a muscle. Coming to Christ is
coming to faith. That's the subject of this whole
chapter. Saving faith. True faith. What is this faith? This coming
to Christ. It's a work in you, and it's
a work of the mind and heart. Now, the mind is the seed of
the understanding, and the heart is the seed of the affections,
and the heart is moved by the understanding. Until we understand
the truth, we're not going to act on it. Until we perceive
the love of God, we can't show that love. Herein, he said, is
manifested that love of God. And when you understand that,
that love of God will be shed abroad in your hearts. But not
until. Not until. He doesn't just crack
open the heart and pour in all these emotions and feelings.
They come through the understanding. And that's why we preach. Paul
wrote to the church at Ephesus, and he told them that ever since
he'd heard of their faith, he'd not ceased to pray for them.
Now, here's a whole church. full of brand new believers,
Babes in Christ, a whole multitude of them. And this great apostle
of God hears about their faith, and he goes before God and prays
for them. What's he going to ask for? What's
he going to ask? Does he say, Father, give them
strong evidence of Godliness? Does he say, Father, Give them
the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Cause them to come forth and
speak in tongues. Give them the gift of healing.
Give them these things. No, that's not what he prays
for. Not what he prays for. Listen to this. Over in Ephesians
chapter 1, verse 16, he said, I cease not to give thanks for
you, making mention of you in my prayers, verse 17, 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 that you may know what is the hope of his
calling, the hope of his calling, 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 who 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." Faith is
a work of the mind and heart, and Paul knew that. He knew that. His epistles are addressed to
your understanding. Not to the natural understanding,
but to that understanding of the Spirit, that new man, that
new creation. And you'll find over and over
and over where he talks about this thing of faith and uses
this word persuaded or concluded. Faith is of divine origin. And what the mind is awakened
to see cannot be found in the flesh. It's not in you. You're
not going to find it in you. Those of us who have experienced
this have looked. It's not there. In that flesh
dwelleth no good thing. There's things there, but they're
no good. They're no good, and that's what
you're going to find when you look. Turn with me to Hebrews
chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10, all through
the book of Hebrews, the Holy Ghost teaches us the truth about
Old Testament types and pictures, the priesthood, the sacrifices,
the tabernacle, the mercy seat, the blood. And he calls these
things figures for the time then present, patterns of things in
the heavens and shadows of good things to come. And in chapter
10, he brings these things to a close. He brings them to their
climax, to their fulfillment in Christ. And he shows us how
that he himself, by the will and decree of God, accomplished
this redemption, fulfilled all the types, satisfied God on the
behalf of all those that were given him before the world began.
He shows us that by this one sacrifice, he sanctified us forever. By this one sacrifice, He has
perfected forever them that are sanctified. He draws this thing
to a close, showing us that Christ has fulfilled the priesthood,
and He fulfilled the tabernacle, and He fulfilled the sacrifices.
He fulfilled all of these things. All of this righteousness that
God demanded, He fulfilled it. He accomplished it. It's over. It's done. And then in verse
15, He says this, Whereof, all of these things that he's been
teaching us from Hebrews chapter 1 to Hebrews chapter 10, whereof
the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us. For after that he had
said before, this is the covenant that I will make with them after
those days, saith the Lord, I'll put my laws into their hearts,
and in their minds will I write them. That's where they are. Now, what's he talking about? God the Father has sent him down
into this world. Christ is seated at his right
hand. He sends the Holy Spirit down. And now he says he's going
to establish his covenant with us. And he said, I'm going to
write in their hearts these commandments of God. I'm going to write them
on their minds. What in the world is he talking about? Is he talking
about the Ten Commandments? Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt
not commit adultery and all these things. Is that what he's talking
about? Loving your neighbor as yourself? Is that what he's going
to write on your mind and heart? No. Then what in the world is
he talking about? He's talking about that law satisfied. He's talking about that law fulfilled. He's talking about that law exalted
and honored in Christ. He's talking about the glory
of that law. He's talking about that righteousness
of that law fulfilled in Christ. And that's what he writes on
the minds and hearts of all those who believe. Unbelievers until they die. With any sense or knowledge of
the things of God, they run to the law, to the commandments
of God, and try in themselves and by their own power to fulfill
them things, and therefore create a righteousness before God. But
not in God's people. God the Holy Ghost comes down,
and He makes you to understand what Christ did. And He writes
it in your heart, and He writes it on your mind. And He awakens
the understanding. so that you understand these
things. And this is what they call in
the Scriptures, the mind of Christ. And only the Holy Spirit can
write those things. He says no man, back in John
chapter 6 verse 44, no man can, that has to do with ability. childhood English class, that
word can has to do with ability, and may has to do with permission.
And here he says, no man can come to me except the Father
which has sent me draw him, and I will raise him up at the last
day. And this cannot, now listen to
me, has to do with a will not. Men cannot because they will
not. And the will not has to do with
their ability to understand spiritual things. They walk in darkness. If they knew, they'd come. Now, ain't that what he says
in 1 Corinthians chapter 2? He said, which none of the preachers
of this world knew, for had they have known it, they would not
have crucified the Lord of Glory. Then what caused them to crucify?
They didn't know it. What keeps a man from coming
to Christ? He don't know any better. He don't know any better,
and he has nothing to draw from but the ignorance of a fallen
nature. No man can. The cannot has to
do with the will not. The will not has to do with their
ability to understand spiritual things. Listen to these scriptures. Solomon said this over in the
Proverbs. He said, The way of the wicked
is as darkness. They know not at what they stumble. He says this, there is a way
that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways
of death. The natural man, he says in 1
Corinthians 2, that man without intervention, that man without
assistance, without help from God, the natural man Receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness
to him." That's why he won't receive. It's not that he can,
it's that he won't. Why won't he? Because they're
foolish. They're foolish. Neither can he know them, for
they are spiritually understood. Sovereign grace is foolishness
to a man who doesn't believe he's dead. That's foolishness. Why would I need grace? If I
have ability, then I don't need life. If I have the potential
for righteousness, then I don't need imputed righteousness. It's foolishness. Substitute. Talk about substitution. That's
foolishness to a man who believes he can make his peace with God,
isn't it? Foolishness. And if God leaves us to ourselves,
we'll either live out our days in excess of pleasure or we'll
take up, as J.C. Ryle said, some useless kind
of religion and spend our days and go to our grave pretending
to know God. This multitude to whom Christ
was speaking was on their way to Jerusalem to a religious feast. These people were convinced that
they knew God. Convinced of it. Everybody around
them was convinced of it. Millions of them. There was just
multitudes of them. Hundreds of thousands of them.
Maybe into the millions. I don't know how many people
were on their way to Jerusalem. But all those Jews, no matter
where they were at, took a sojourn to Jerusalem to keep these things.
And that's what brought these multitudes to it. They were on
their way to keep this Feast of the Passover. They were practicing religious
people who didn't know God. And they stood before the Messiah,
and they believed in a Messiah. But they didn't know what the
Messiah was, and they didn't know who he was, just like the
woman at the well. She said, We know when Messiah
comes, he's going to teach us all things. He that standeth
before thee, he said, I'm he. That's me. This Messiah that
you think you know, you don't know, I'm he. This bread that
you think your fathers ate, I'm the bread. This water that you
think Moses gave your fathers in the rock, that rock was Christ,
I'm he. They must be taught of God, drawn
by the Father. And if I understand the Scriptures,
this drawing is a threefold work. And I'm not going to have time
this morning to get into all these, but let's look at a couple
of them. The first thing he's talking
about here is God's ordering of providence. He tells them
time and time and time again that the Father sent Him. He wasn't here of His own accord. He didn't come down here. It
wasn't just an accident. He wasn't here. He was here because
the Father sent Him. He sent Him at a specific time
and a specific place and a specific way. He was sent of the Father. And all through all of John's
writings, you'll just keep coming across that because he just hammered
on it time and time and time again that Christ was here on
purpose. And his message to the people
at that moment was on purpose. It's on purpose. Look back at
verse 37 of John chapter 6. The Lord told him, he said, All
that the Father giveth me shall come to me. Huh? They're all going to come. How
are they going to come? They are born dead in trespasses
and sins. They come forth from the womb
speaking lies. Their nature has no truth in
it to draw from. How are they going to come to
Him? God is going to providentially arrange it. That is how they
are going to come. That is the first part of it. He arranges
providentially for them to come and for them to hear. Paul teaches
that same thing over in Romans chapter 8 Y'all know that verse,
you don't have to turn to it. He said, For we know that all
things work together for good to them that love God, to them
who are the called according to his purpose. And God is he,
that Paul says in Ephesians 1, that worketh all things after
the counsel of his own will. All things. Providence, creation. All things, every vent, the heart
of the king is in the hand of the Lord. He turneth it whithersoever
he will. Providence. Why is it so hard
for us to conceive that the living God rules over providence? We want to write these things
off to good luck. Good luck. Listen to these scriptures. God
has saved us, Paul said, and called us with a holy calling,
not according to our works, but according to his own purpose
and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world
began. He came to his disciples, and
he came to that demoniac, and he came to the woman at the well,
and then some came to him. That leper came to him. That
woman with the issue of blood came to him. Some of them came
to him, and some of them were brought to him. Somebody, two
or three of them, gathered up a man and took him in and couldn't
get to Christ for the press and crawled up on top of the house
and took those thatches out of the roof and lowered him down.
They brought him to Christ. They brought him to Christ. That woman and adultery. Both
Jews had no intention of the salvation of this woman. They
brought her to Christ that she might be condemned. And they
brought her and they threw her down at his feet. And they said,
the law says that she ought to be stoned. What do you say? And
he just wrote, the first thing he told them, he said, let him
that was without sin get you stoned. Whichever one of you
doesn't have any sin, cast her first. Nobody picked up any rocks.
Then he got down and he started writing in the sand. One of these
days we're going to know what he wrote in the sand. Whatever
it was, they turned around and walked away. They brought her
to Christ. Providentially. They didn't bring
her there to be saved, but God did. You think those fellas that
was all out there conspiring together and and getting together
and hiring false witnesses and arranging these things and having
meetings and the priests and all them that were gathered in
there, do you think they had any intention or any knowledge
that the one that they were about to nail on that cross and sell
out to Caesar, that one that they despised, do you think they
had any notion that his dying on that cross was going to accomplish
salvation, was going to accomplish redemption? not the slightest
notion, but God in his providence through them did, that's what
the scripture says, what his hand and his counsel determined
before to be done. And I tell you this, this coming
to Christ is of the Father because he orders everything in his universe
to this end. And those days, those days of
suffering and delusion and ignorance and darkness, and persecution,
they're not going to be shortened except for what? The elect's
sake. That's what the Scripture says.
It's for his elect that he orders these things, and his elect is
for his glory. For his glory. The drawing of
the Father concerns the providence of time. And secondly, this drawing
has to do with the mind. Face, not a feeling, not a good
feeling or a bad feeling. Religion is geared to produce
a feeling. Faith is an act of the mind. Listen to what Christ
tells this multitude. He said, It is written in the
prophets, They shall be all taught of God. Every man, therefore,
that hath learned of the Father cometh unto me. He didn't mention
feelings, did he? He didn't really talk about an
experience, although it is one. But he says, he that is taught
of God, he that learns of the Father cometh unto me. And this
is not talking about the Father teaching us, but what it's telling
us here is what we learn in this coming to Christ. We learn of
the Father. We're taught of God, who God
is. He's talking not so much about
him who teaches, although God has decreed and arranged these
things, but no man has seen the Father. See that very next verse
there in John chapter 6, what is it, 45 or 46 there, where
he says, not that any man has seen the Father. He's not talking
there about the Father teaching us, but rather the Son revealing
to us who the Father is. In this coming to Christ, we
learn who God is. He said in his prayer in John
chapter 17, he said, This is life eternal, that they might
know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou sent. That's eternal life. That's how
you're going to know him. 1 John chapter 5 verse 20, We
know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding
that we may know him that is true, that we are in him that
is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God
and eternal life. Look with me over at Matthew
chapter 11, and I'll wind this thing up. While you're turning, let me
quote you this scripture. He said, No man has seen God
at any time. That's in John chapter 1. The only begotten Son, which
is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him. If you
know anything at all about the Father, you learned in Christ.
Because no man's ever seen the Father. And in our text there
in John 6, verse 46, not that any man hath seen the Father,
save he which is of God, he hath seen the Father. And then look
here in Matthew chapter 11, and let me tell you what's going
on here. He'd been to the great cities. He'd been down to the
coast, to all these big cities. performed undeniable miracles. God performed undeniable miracles
by him in those places, and he preached to them, and they wouldn't
have it. They wouldn't have it. And so he begins to pronounce
a woe on these cities. Woe unto thee, Chorazin. He begins to pronounce his woe
on these cities and upbraid them because of their unbelief. all these big cities and their
willful rebellion against such godly evidences and strong declarations
of the gospel. Now, watch this, verse 25, At
that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father,
Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from
the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even
so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight. All things
are delivered unto me of my Father, and no man knoweth the Son but
the Father, neither knoweth any man the Father save the Son,
and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him." Isn't that
something? Now watch what he says next.
Come unto me. That's what we've been talking
about, ain't it? Come unto me. What's he talking
about? He's talking about that understanding.
He's talking about that knowledge. of God. And he says, Come unto
me, all ye that labor and heavy laden, and I give you rest. Take
my yoke upon me, now watch it, and learn of me. For I am meek
and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your soul. For
my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. It's called the mind
of Christ. the mind of Christ. And I don't
have time to go through it today, but if you'll go through Romans
chapter 7, just go through there. Listen to what Paul talks about.
Talking about that inward struggle, that deception of sin that was
in him, that took the very commandments of God and wrought in him all
kinds of concupiscence, that is, evil desires, twisted the
things of God around had him convinced that he was alive by
righteousness that he accomplished by his own hand. And then the
commandment came, the understanding of it came in Christ. And he
began to see what he was, began to see that he couldn't do what
he would, and that he did the very thing that he wouldn't do.
That's exactly what he did. And he'd come to this place where
he said, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from
the body of this death? And he said, I thank God through
the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank God through the Lord
Jesus Christ. So then, Romans 7 verse 25, with
the mind, you see that? With the mind, I myself serve
the law of God. I serve it as God requires it
to be served in perfection. I serve it through a substitute. I serve it through an imputed
righteousness. I honor it. I serve it. I love
it. I cherish it. I don't fear it
because it's satisfying." You see that? With the mind, he says,
I serve the law of God. But with the flesh, the law of
sin. And that flesh, that's all it's
ever going to serve. Now, listen to this declaration.
How often you've read this and never applied it to what he said
back here in this last verse. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh
but after the Spirit. Verse 6, For to be carnally minded
is death, to be spiritually minded is life and peace. That's how
you know a justified man, because he walks in the spirit of his
mind by faith and serves the law of God in Christ.