Good evening. I'm honored and
thankful to be here. I don't know if after this conference
you'll ever see me again. And the reason I say that is
some months ago, Brother Fortner asked me if I would like to come
to Danville one more time before we die. I wonder if this dear brother
knows something about our appointed time of departure that I don't
know. Well, my wife and I are here
and we're thankful to be here. I can't think of any place I'd
rather be than with God's people. Amen. And we have a dear lady
in our church that last Sunday said, I just don't like it when
you leave. I'm glad you're going, but I don't like it when you
leave." I said, well, I love you too, but this is an opportunity
for me to be in a conference where other preachers are bringing
the word of God, and preachers need fed too, and I just need
it. I really am thankful to be going,
and I have been soaking it up. These messages have been great.
You know, I'm just honored to be numbered amongst those who've
been called to preach God's Word. I told some folks at our conference
last July, I'm living proof God has chosen the foolish things
in this world to confound the wise, and here I am. And if He's
pleased to use me, I'll be so thankful. Let me tell you a little
story while you turn to John chapter 6. Before I tell you
the story, I want to express my thanks and my gratitude to
you in this church body, your pastor and his wife, who've labored
so hard to have these conferences. This has been wonderful. Your hospitality and your love
and the way you treat us, just absolutely wonderful. So I thank
God for you, and I thank God for this pastor and his wife,
dear friends of ours. I thank God for all of God's
preachers and their congregations who love the gospel support that
gospel. What an honor. So I'm thankful
for you. Let me tell you this story to
help illustrate a point. There's a little boy, he's nine
years old by the name of Joey, who came home from Sunday school
one day and his mother said to him, ask him this question, what
did you learn in Sunday school? He said, well, mom, our teacher
told us how God sent Moses behind enemy lines on a rescue mission
to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. And when he got to the
Red Sea, he had his army build a pontoon bridge, and all the
people walked across safely. Then he radioed headquarters
for reinforcements, and they sent bombers to blow up the bridge,
and all the Israelites were saved. She said, now, Joey, is that
really what your teacher taught you? Well, no, mom, she didn't
teach it that way. But if I tell it the way she
taught it, nobody would believe it. False preachers. Most of them
are just as guilty as little Joey. Now, I know they're blind. I was there. I understand spiritual
blindness. But they read the same Bible
we read. They have to know, in reading
the scriptures, that what they preach and what they teach contradicts
what the Word of God said. The truths are not obscure. They're
on every page. Yet, they have some kind of fear
that if they tell it like it is, nobody will believe them.
Well, I've got news for them. You can tell it like it is, nobody's
going to believe you anyway. Unless God is your teacher, unless
God makes that heart transplant, unless God is pleased to enlighten
the mind, giving us an understanding of His saving grace through Christ
our Savior. Folks, listen, Jesus Christ did
not try to save anybody. He saved His people at Calvary
2,000 years ago. He saved them when He offered
Himself up as that perfect sacrifice for all of our sins, past, present,
and future. He came out of that grave. He's
declared to be the Son of God with power. Amen? All power in
heaven and earth has been given to Him. He's seated on His sovereign
throne of power ruling this whole universe and everything in it.
And He's the one who gives us an understanding of these glorious
truths. So here in John chapter 6 we
have before us some truths that are not obscure and God gives
his people faith to believe these things and true saving faith
is based upon the inerrant infallible Word of God, and no one could
be educated into the kingdom of God, nobody. You cannot educate
somebody into God's kingdom. We must be born again. But we
are translated into God's kingdom under the preaching of the truths
of God's gospel that he reveals to us. God is our teacher. It's
not blind faith. Faith is based upon what the
word of God says. I've titled this message, A Particular
People. This is the distinguishing characteristic
of Abraham's faith. Abraham believed God. Is that too deep? Abraham believed God. And here
in John 6, our Lord was speaking to some religious Jews who had
just witnessed his power in feeding over 5,000 people from five little
barley loaves of bread and two little small fishes. And they
sat very close. Those people sat very close to
God in human flesh and witnessed his power in creating that food. Yet they would not believe him
when he preached the truth. And most religious people of
this day are no different than those who saw our Lord Jesus
in the flesh and still would not believe Him. Jesus Christ
is the Word of God, and those who read the Holy Scriptures
are right beside the Word of God. You cannot separate the
written Word of God from the living Word of God. They're one
and the same. So when people read the Holy
Scriptures and refuse to believe the Holy Scriptures, they're
refusing to believe the Lord Jesus Christ who's the author
of this book. So what's the difference between
those who refuse to believe Him, who saw Him with their physical
eyes, and those who see His Word with their physical eyes? There's
only one hell. So if we refuse to believe and go out into that
place called eternity and unbelieve, then woe are those who enter
into eternal torment, I tell you, this is serious business,
and we're not playing games. Now, our Lord said to some unbelieving
Jews, he said, he that is of God heareth God's words, ye therefore
hear them not, because you're not of God. So he made a distinction
between his people and those who are not his people. Abraham
believed God because he heard the voice of God, Speaking personally
to him, we have the same faith that God gave Abraham. We've
heard the same voice. Now, Abraham may have heard an
audible voice. I've heard the voice inwardly. I've never heard
an audible voice. I kind of wonder about those
who say, well, I heard God speak audibly. I kind of wonder. Maybe they did. I don't know.
But I know I've never heard an audible voice, but I've heard
His voice speak to my heart. telling me what a wretched sinner
I am, and revealed to me my need of Christ, and how holy God is,
and how He cannot even look upon sin. I heard the gospel preached
by a man, but it was applied to my heart by God the Holy Spirit. When I heard about Jesus Christ,
who knew no sin becoming sin for me, that I might be made
the righteousness of God in Him, When I heard that all of my sins
were laid on Him, and because He paid the price in full for
all of my sins, not one thing can be laid to the charge of
God's elect, I rejoiced in that. I believed that. I embraced that.
And I loved God's Word. And with that in mind, with the
understanding of God as the One who reveals these wonderful truths,
let me read this passage of Scripture in this 6th chapter of John,
starting at verse 35. And Jesus said unto them, speaking
to those unbelievers who witnessed the power of Christ in creating
that food, He 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 believe 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 mine 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 then that he said,
I came down from heaven? Jesus therefore answered and
said unto him, 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 be all taught of God. Every man therefore that
hath heard and hath learned of the Father cometh unto me." Now let me share four points
from what we just read, four hooks to hang our thoughts on.
God has a particular people who will come to Jesus Christ. There's
only one way a holy God can receive sinners who come to Christ. Thirdly,
there's only one way any sinner can come to Christ. And lastly,
some encouraging promises from God himself for those who do
come to Christ. So first of all, let me emphasize
one more time those three words that define Abraham's faith.
Abraham believed God. My faith, your faith, anybody's
faith, if it be true saving faith, is Abraham's faith. We believe
God, the same as Abraham's faith. It's God's gift to us. Faith
is not the sinner's gift to God. It's God's gift to the sinner.
He gives us faith when He quickens us, when He gives us eternal
life, when He comes right down and touches us by His Spirit,
and in one syllable of the word says, live. Brethren, He gives
us that faith to believe Him, to embrace Him, to love Him,
and to serve Him. And so faith believes God. God
has a particular people who will come to Jesus Christ. Why call
them a particular people? Because God himself distinguishes
them from all of Adam's posterity. His people are called the elect
of God. And God tells us in his word
that election is according to his grace. His people are vessels
of mercy, which He before prepared for glory." I'm a vessel of mercy. I love that song we were just
singing, the mercy song. We're vessels of God's mercy.
He has mercy on whom He will have mercy. And He calls us vessels
of mercy. Our Lord calls us His chosen
people. We read in the first chapter
of Ephesians that we were chosen in Christ before the foundation
of the world. In love, God predestinated us
under the adoption of children. So we're a distinguished people
made that way by God himself. God's particular people are called
sheep, not goats. We never were goats. We acted
like them. ran with them. We loved them
and we did what they did, but we never were goats. God's not
in the business of changing goats into sheep. He's seeking His
lost sheep. And we were lost. And our Shepherd found us. Aren't
you thankful? So, we're His sheep. And our
Lord made a distinction between His sheep and His people in the
10th chapter of John when they said, If you be the Christ, tell
us. He said, I've already told you. You wouldn't believe me.
In the works that I do, bear witness of me. You believe not because
you're not my sheep. He didn't say you're not my sheep
because you don't believe. He said you believe not because
you're not my sheep. And he said my sheep hear my
voice and I know them and they follow me. And I give unto them
eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any
man pluck them out of my hand. My Father which gave them to
me is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out
of my Father's hand. I and my Father are one." So he makes
the distinction, our Lord makes the distinction, and there is
a particular people who will come to Jesus Christ. He said
so. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. Our Lord cannot lie. He is true. And if He said, all that the
Father giveth me shall come to me, they're going to come. Who's
going to stop Him from bringing them? He's God Almighty. Jesus
Christ is our blessed surety. And we've already heard at this
conference wonderful truths concerning our God who cannot fail. Jesus
Christ cannot, He will not, let one for whom He died slipped
from his loving hands. He will not. He's our surety.
I'll guarantee you, on the authority of God's Word, that nothing can
stop God from doing what he has willed, what he has purposed.
We read this in Isaiah 4611. God said, yea, I have spoken
it. I will also bring it to pass. I have purposed it. I will also
do it. I love that. Because I read in
the Scriptures that God has saved us 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. So if He purposed it, He's going
to do it. He said so, and I believe God.
We also read this in Daniel 4.35, all the inhabitants of the earth
are reputed as nothing and he, God, doeth according to his will
an army of heaven among the inhabitants of the earth and none can stay
his hand or say unto him, what doest thou? He didn't bring God
into question for what he does. He's going to do what he wills,
what he purposes, what he is pleased to do. And I'm thankful. that we serve a God who not only
has purposed what he does, but is able to do what he has purposed.
Abraham believed God and all of God's enlightened sheep have
the same faith that God gave Abraham. And this is a true definition
of all of us. We can put our name right there
where Abraham's name is. Abraham believed God. Don Fortner
believed God. Gene Harmon believed God. You
put your name in there and it just means something. We believe
God because God has given us a heart to believe Him. Now consider
this, there's only one way, only one way a holy God can receive
sinners who come to Christ. And we're sinners. We come to Christ just as we
are. We can't clean our act up and
then come to Christ. We'll never clean our act up.
We're sinners. From the top of our head to the
bottom of our feet and everything in between. And we've already
heard it's not just what we do, it's what we are. We do sin. We sin because we're sinners.
And we come to Christ that way. But how can a holy God receive
sinful people like me? How can He do that? Well, verse
38, our Lord tells us, I came down from heaven, not to do mine
own will, but the will of Him that sent me. He said that right
after He said, All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and
him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. Then He
said four, I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but
the will of Him that sent me. So, turn to Hebrews chapter 10. Hold your place here in John
6. We're coming back. Turn to Hebrews chapter 10. Let me... And I know you're familiar with
this. This passage of scripture is
so precious. I was talking with Brother Todd
Nybert some years back. He might remember this. We were
talking about this passage of scripture. Hebrews 10, he said,
I've almost worn that passage of scripture out. I know what
he meant. You can't wear it out, but I
know what he meant. We just refer to this a lot. Now, Jesus Christ
represented a particular people when he came to do his father's
will, a particular people who were given to him by God the
Father in the eternal covenant of grace. And our Lord became
surety for all of his elect and to make sure, to make sure God
the Father would accept all those who come to Christ. Our Lord
had to honor God's holy law perfectly for those he represented. And
he did that. He did that. From His mother's
womb to those last three words, it is finished. Everything He
did was pleasing in the sight of God the Father. He did always
that which pleased Him. He did not come to change the
law. He came to fulfill the law. And
He did that. He did not need to do that for
Himself. He's the Holy One of Israel. He's God Almighty. He
is holy. But He did that. He honored the
holy law of God for me, for His people. to establish a righteousness
for us that would make us acceptable in God's sight. So he had to
do that. Our Lord had to do that. If the
law was not honored, we could not come into a living union
with God. We must be as perfect as God
Himself. That's the truth. We've already
heard that. Well, in Christ we are. We have
honored God's law in our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. But also,
also, God's holy justice had to be perfectly satisfied for
those Christ represented, because all of us have sinned, and the
soul that's in it, it must surely die. So God's holy justice had
to be satisfied, and Jesus Christ satisfied the holy justice of
God when He laid down His life for His sheep. Our Lord Jesus said, 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 mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.
Now listen to Hebrews 10, verses 9 and 10. Then said he, Christ,
Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that
he may establish the second, by the which will, by the which
will, by God's will, He came to do God's will, by the which
will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus
Christ once for all. Brethren, when He hung there
on that cross, offering Himself as a sacrifice for His people,
He sanctified us, set us apart. We're perfectly sanctified in
Jesus Christ. We can't become any more sanctified
than what we already are. And there's those who are teaching
progressive sanctification, that you can just progressively get
more sanctified and more sanctified. Christ is our sanctification.
And by one offering, it says in that 10th verse, we are sanctified
in the sight of God. Then it says, look down in verse
14, for by one offering, He hath perfected forever them
that are sanctified. So when He sanctified a particular
people, His chosen people, those who were given to Him by God
the Father, He not only set us apart, made us acceptable in
God's sight, He perfected us. Can you improve upon perfection?
I tell you, we're perfect in our Savior. That's not our state. That's our standing in Him. We
are perfect in Him. And He did it at Calvary 2,000
years ago. We just didn't know anything
about it until the Holy Spirit came and enlightened our mind
and taught us these things. This is God's Word. This is the
truth that all of God's enlightened children believe. That Jesus
Christ sanctified us. He perfected us. He's our blessed
one and only hope. What a hope we have. Amen. Go
back to John chapter 6, please. I do believe what we just read
in Hebrews chapter 10. I believe our Lord Jesus was
obedient unto death, perfectly honoring God's holy law for me.
I believe Jesus Christ died as my substitute, perfectly satisfying
God's holy justice for me. I believe Jesus Christ, God's
darling Son, endured the wrath of God for me and in doing so
delivered me from the wrath to come. You all believe that? God
is a just God and He must punish sin. But He poured out His wrath on
His darling Son. It pleased the Father to bruise
Him. And that satisfied God's holy
justice. And God cannot demand payment
twice. And if Christ was punished for
my sins, I'm free from that wrath that's coming. And it is coming.
Run to Christ. Believe on Him. That's the only
place that we can find refuge, the only place we can find assurance
that God Himself has accepted us. We must be in Christ. I believe
it was the will of my Heavenly Father that I would be made perfect
and acceptable in His sight by the offering of His dear Son
2,000 years ago. Now, let's consider this very
important truth. One way any sinner can come to
Christ, one way, by the sovereign, irresistible, drawing power of
God Almighty. John 6.44, our Lord said, no
man can come to me. No man can come to me. Now that exposes the lies of
all of these freewill Armenian prophets of Baal Because they're
saying, you all come. You can come. It's up to you.
God's given everybody free will. It's your decision. Come on down. Right down here at the front.
Come on down. God's waiting for Jesus. Won't you give him a chance?
That's blasphemy. There's only one way. And it's
God's way or no way. Our Lord said, 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. There's only one way a spiritually
dead sinner can come to God. He must be made alive. But he
must be taught the truths too. We come to Christ with nothing
in our hands. That song that says, My hand
I bring simply to Jesus Christ. He says a cross, but Christ,
we cling to Him. We don't have anything to offer
God, but God teaches us that we're bankrupt and He'll only
accept that which His Son offered for us. Like Abraham, God came
to us when we were aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and
strangers from the covenant of promise having no hope. And without
God in the world. Aliens, I've heard that already.
It made sense when I heard it already too. And I know I was
an alien in God's sight. An alien from Him. And that I
had no hope. I know that now. And having no
hope means just that. Having no hope. We had no hope. If what is being taught from
most pulpits today is true, and it is not, then we do have hope
apart from God. But the Word of God teaches us
that we have no hope. That's the way we were when God
came to us without God, without hope. And when our God draws
us into His waiting arms, into the waiting arms of Christ our
Savior, He gives us a new heart, a heart to believe Him, faith
to believe Him, not blind faith, faith based upon the Word of
God, God Himself. Look at verse 45. It is written
in the prophets And they shall be all taught of God. Every man,
therefore, that hath heard and hath learned of the Father cometh
unto me. Every man, every man, every woman,
every one that God enlightens, every person that is drawn by
the irresistible drawing power of God and learns these truths,
they will come to Christ. Our God says so. So all of God's
enlightened children are taught of God. He teaches us. God's
preachers have the honor. Sunday school teachers have the
honor. We have the privilege of teaching from the Word of
God. But if God doesn't give us ears
of the heart, that word that we preach just goes in one ear
and out the other. It's just in vain. We must hear
His voice. That's what Abraham heard, the
voice of God. We must hear the voice of Jesus
Christ. And our Lord said, My sheep,
hear My voice. He didn't say, I hope they will.
If they'll just let Me have My way with them, maybe they might
hear. No, He said, My sheep, hear My
voice. And we hear because of the sovereign
power of God that has made that heart transplant giving us ears
to hear. Our Lord asked his disciples
this question, Whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and
said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus
answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, for
flesh and blood have not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which
is in heaven. The revelation, although we have
the honor of preaching, the word goes out, but it must come to
you in power. And it comes right from the throne
of grace, right from the throne of glory, right from God himself,
right to his people as the gospel is being preached. It must come
in power. But when it does, When it dies,
brethren, we will believe. God gives us a heart to believe.
Now, bear with me just a couple of more minutes. I want to share
this with you. A couple of promises for those who do come to Christ. Verse 37, the last part says,
Him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. Never, never. Never, never. Our Lord will never reject us,
never turn us away. We have a living union with Him. I know there are times when we
feel like He should reject us. I'm weak. You all might not have the weaknesses
I have. You might not have any. Liars. But even when we're weak, Even
when we do things we shouldn't do, we allow those sinful thoughts
to enter into our minds and we say, how can I be a child of
God and let that go through my mind? Not only let it go through
my mind, but entertain that evil thought for a while. How can
I be a child of God and let that happen to me? Brethren, listen,
our standing is perfect in Christ. Perfect. What we do or what we
do not do will not change that. David's sin, as awful as it was,
did not change his standing in Christ. Peter's denial of our
Lord Jesus, even to the point where he cursed, did not change
his standing in Christ. And Paul's zeal and his labor
in the kingdom of God did not add one stitch in the robe of
righteousness that he was wearing, not one thing added to his standing
in Christ. Brethren, our standing is one
of perfection. It's in Christ that God sees
us. And because he sees us in Christ,
we are as sure of heaven as if we're already there. Words of
Pastor Henry Mahan I heard years ago. from our pulpit there in
Rescue, California. Every child of God finds this
almost too good to be true, but we believe God, don't we? I bow
my head in shame almost every day, feeling like God should
cast me out. But I know He never will, because
I believe God. Thank God for faith. Thank God
for blessed assurance, for confidence in Christ. Look at verse 39. This is the Father's will which
has sent me, that of all which He hath given me, I should lose
nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. We're
living in a big world. A big world. Sometimes we're
in crowds of hundreds, maybe more. And it feels like we're
so insignificant and that one little individual and all this
crowd of people and God has his eye of omniscient love upon us
no matter where we are. And we have this blessed assurance
that he will be with us every step of the way. Nothing. Absolutely nothing can
separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus
our Lord. Our God says that in His Word
and I believe God. Now our appointed time of departure
is coming. This old corrupt body must die
and be put in the ground but there's a resurrection day coming
when every grave will open at the command of Jesus Christ our
Sovereign Lord and He will raise us up at the last day. Spirit
goes to be with him on that day of departure. Absent from the
body is present with the Lord, but there's a day coming when
we'll get a brand new glorified body. I don't understand all
of this, but I do know that I don't want anybody cremating me. I want my bones intact. Don't ask me to explain that. I know I'm coming out of that
grave. That body's coming out, a brand new glorified body, and
this body has something to do with that new glorified body.
Like I said, I can't explain it. But at the command of Jesus
Christ, that body's going to come out. This body's going to
come out. And we're going to be with Him. We're going to be
with the Lord Jesus Christ forever and forever and forever. Listen,
we see Him through the eye of faith right now. God has commanded
the light to shine out of darkness. That same light that He commanded
to shine out of darkness, He's commanded to shine in our hearts
to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. We, through the eye of faith,
see Him, Christ. We see the glory of God in the
face of Jesus Christ. Well, what is the face of Jesus
Christ? It's not this picture of Wild
Bill Hickok you see that some artist has drawn, saying this
is Jesus. Looks like some long-haired hippie.
If you have one of those, destroy it. Get rid of it. I believe
The face of Jesus Christ is seen on every page of Holy
Scripture. Jesus Christ is the express image
of God. Whatever my little peanut brain
can imagine concerning the majestic being of God, that's Christ.
All of the attributes of God are clearly declared in the Scripture. They all belong to Jesus Christ. If you see Him, you see God. And one of these days, right
now, we see Him through the eye of faith. One of these days we're
going to see Him in all of His glory with these eyes. What a
day of rejoicing that will be, all because of God's grace and
His mercy through Christ our Savior, who came to do His Father's
will, did it perfectly, satisfied God's holy justice by dying for
us, and because of His amazing grace that brings us into this
living union with Him, we have the promise from God that we
have everlasting life. He will never cast us out. And
we're going to see Him in all of His glory. Jude said, Now unto him that
is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless
before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only
wise God our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power. both right now and forever. Amen. God bless you. May He bless these
words for His glory and for your good. Thank you.