This book describes a hideous,
ugly monster, a beast, a beast that's risen up in the world. He'd been around for a long,
long time. We read about him earlier in
Revelation chapter 13. I would urge you to read Revelation
12, 13 and 14 at one setting and see clearly what John teaches
us about this beast. He arose from the sea. That is,
he arose from the pagan, idolatrous Gentile world. He has many names,
but the name by which he is always called is blasphemy. His name is called blasphemy
because wherever this beast goes, wherever he has influence, wherever
he is found, he ascribes to man. that which God alone can perform. He's called blasphemy because
he ascribes to man that which God alone can perform. You see,
this beast is not a physical beast at all. He is a beast of
spiritual proportions that employs men to speak for him. A beast
found only in religious circles. This beast is found in every
part of the world. John said he had seven heads.
He's found in high places. He had 10 crowns and he's very
powerful. He's a beast with 10 horns. He
is deceitful like a leopard destructive. walking through the forest of
darkness with the feet of a bear and furious, devouring the souls
of men as a lion devours her prey. Multitudes have perished
by him. But his number, oh, when you
read his number, rejoice. When you read his number, give
thanks to God. His number is 666. Now, If you have email, every little
whip stitch, you get a letter from somebody warning you not
to do something because credit cards or social security or the
government somehow, they're getting everything down so you got to
have this certain number to do stuff. That's not the number.
Go ahead. You can write 666 on my mailbox
any day. I don't care. I don't care. That's insignificant. That's
insignificant. This number is significant. God
numbered his days. God numbered his work. God numbered
his end. His number is failure. His number
is incompletion. His number is frustration. His
number is defeat. He's God's beast. Did you get
it? He's God's beast. And when God
gets done with him, he's gonna dump him in hell. He's God's
beast. and he will do no harm. When
you finish reading about the beast, there are some people
Christ covenanted to say before the world began, called 140 and
4,000 people of every nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue of
the earth called the Israel of God. And when the beast is done
and cast into hell, There can be 144,000 standing with Christ
at the throne of God. The beast must be slain and he
will be slain not by might nor by power, but by the spirit of
God. He must be slain and he will
be slain. Not by forming the moral majority
and throwing the liberals out of government, but by the spirit
of God. He must be slain and he will
be slain. Not by organizing committees
and figuring out a way to overcome the sting of the serpent and
the mark of the beast, but by the spirit of God. He must be
slain and he will be slain. by the preaching of the everlasting
gospel, just as we read about in Revelation 14. The Philistines,
we read earlier today, took their god Dagon, their fish god, and
propped him up again and again in his house. But their god fell
with his face before the ark of the Lord, with his hands broken
off his arms and his head broken off of his body. And so it is
that free will must fall before our Savior as the Ark of God
was exalted in the house of Dagon. And as the Ark of God was exalted
when Dagon lay before it, so Christ shall be exalted when
the religion of the beast, all free will works religion, is
laid in the dirt before him. As Dagon and the Ark of God could
not abide in the same house, So this beast, this beast of
free will, this beast of works religion, cannot abide in the
same house as Christ and the gospel of God's free grace. One
or the other must be pushed out. In this place, we make it our
business regularly to push the beast out. regularly to push
out free will, regularly to push out works religion and trample
it under our feet as worthless dirt. That's the business I'm
about this morning. I was preaching down in Western
Kentucky a few weeks ago. And down there where Brother
Wilbur Johnson preached for many, many years, and I asked, somebody
asked one of the preachers who was at one of the meetings, I
said, did you know Brother Wilbur Johnson? You folks remember him,
some of you do. Oh, who doesn't know Wilbur Johnson?
Yeah, I remember him. He kindly went to seed on this
thing of sovereign grace. I said to him, it's time somebody
does. Somebody needs to go to seed. and preaching the free
grace of God and denouncing free will until free will is no longer
heard in the land. Nothing in all this world is
more foolish, more debasing to humanity, and more dishonoring
to God. Nothing more assuredly damning
to the souls of men than idolatry. It's pathetic. It is sad to see
men and women kneeling before and worshiping gods that other
men had made with their hands. It is sad. That's sad. Go down
to Mexico and wherever I get a chance to, if they're having
one of their holy days, I'll go in one of those Roman cathedrals
and watch men kneel down before images of Mary and images of
Jesus, gods that other men had made. We were in Paris a few
weeks ago, had to go see Notre Dame. I know it's called Notre
Dame, but it's Notre Dame to me. And this is a tourist attraction
now. It's a tourist attraction. It's
like the Eiffel Tower. And folks just running in and
out, running out. You know what folks would do?
Folks who obviously didn't know which way to cross themselves
still went in, pulled their hats off, and made some kind of a
religious site, bowing before gods that other men had made. We spent, you know, off those
Mayan ruins and the images and the religious idolatry, the filth
of it. But the most abominable form
of idolatry in the world goes on in Danville, Kentucky, every
week in churches all over this town, all over this county, all
over this state, all over this country, throughout the United
States, throughout the world. It's what Paul describes in Colossians
2.23 as will worship. It's the religion of the beast.
Now, I know some of you sitting where you are, you listen to
me and you think, Brother Don does not mean for us to understand
that all these other religions are false religions and everybody's
going to hell. That's exactly what Brother Don
means for you to understand. That's exactly what I mean for
you to understand. Will worship ascribing to the will of man
what God alone can do is blasphemy. It is blasphemy. Telling men
that they birth themselves into the kingdom of God. Telling men
that they give merit and power and efficacy to the blood of
Christ. Telling men that they make the
call of God effectual for themselves by the choice of their will. They set man up in the house
of God and demand that men worship man as God. It's what Paul calls
will worship. It's the religion of the beast.
Those who attribute salvation in whole or in part to the will,
the work, or the worth of man at any point practice the most
abominable form of idolatry there is. You can laugh at men who
worship stumps. We read about Dagon, the fish
god, and we had a good laugh reading about him. You can laugh
about men worshiping all the various forms of gods that men
made throughout history in the Gentile world. We now look back
at our ancestors and we call it mythology. That sure makes
it sound better, doesn't it? It's Greek mythology. It's pagan
idolatry. Might as well have a bone in
your nose, run around in the jungles of Africa and drink holy
water out of a stump. It's idolatry. But I'm telling
you, None compares with real worship. The worship of man. What's wrong with free will religion?
I'll give you three things by which you can always identify.
You can always identify. Free will religion always. Makes man more than he is. Free will religion ascribes to
man. God's attributes. Rather than
declaring that God is omnipotent, free will religion declares that
the will of man is omnipotent. You can do whatever you will.
Now, it's strange that folks talk like that. Lay's Potato
Chips, when I was a boy, made a lot of money with one commercial. Bet you can't eat one. Try eating just one. Eat one,
you're going to eat two, because you don't have the will to resist.
Don't tell me I can't do that. I have a lot of willpower. Free will religion tells you
that you have the power to resist God. That you have the power to overcome
God's will. that you have the power to defeat
God's purpose, that you have the power by the mere choice
and decision of your own will to overthrow the counsel of God. Does it all the time, everywhere.
Oh, the Lord wants to save you, but he can't without your permission. The Lord's done all he can to
save you, now the rest is up to you. Won't you let Jesus have
his way? Won't you turn your life over
to God? I've got news for you. God turned
your life over to God before ever he made you. Free will religion
always abases God. Always makes God something less
than God. Always gives God the attributes
of a man. Free will religion sets man on
the throne and puts God as a beggar before the throne of man. Free
will religion, thirdly, always puts you on the footing of works. Now, there are lots of people
who, out of the left side of their mouth, will whisper, free
case. And out of the right side of
their mouth, shout, free will. Let me tell you how they do it.
They'll talk to you about election and predestination, and they'll
talk to you about sanctification and regeneration. They'll talk
to you about the irresistible call of the spirit and limited
atonement. But when they get done talking
about all those things, they whisper out of the left side
of their mouth, Now, we believe in election. Yes, sir. We believe
in predestination. Yes, sir. We do. We do. We do.
But don't let that make you think there's not something for you
to do. And they will always leave you
looking to you. Now, listen to me. Listen to
me. You go sit down in church. I don't care whether it's reformed
or unreformed. I don't care whether it's Calvinistic
or Armenian. I don't care whether it's Baptist
or Buddhist. You go sit down in a church building and listen
to a preacher. And when he gets done, when he
gets done, I don't care what he's talking about. When he gets
done, you walk out the door looking at you. Merle Hart, you've been
listening to a false prophet. You've been listening to a false
prophet. You listen to a man when he gets done. You walk out
the door, you look into the Savior. That's a different man. That's
a different gospel. Free will religion is utter idolatry. I want to go directly to the
dark, idolatrous chambers of man's heart and destroy the gods
of men. The title of my message this
morning is Free Will Crushed. free grace exalted. John chapter
6, John chapter 6, verses 41 through
51. Gospel truths of the greatest
importance and magnitude follow one another in rapid succession
in this chapter. And I'm sure there's much, much more in the
verses before us that I will get said this morning, but I
want to call your attention to five distinct and obvious things
in these verses. Here's the first one, verses
41 and 42. Here's the fulfillment of one of Isaiah's prophecies.
You remember Tuesday night, I think it was, we looked at Isaiah 14,
or 8, chapter 8, verse 14. And Isaiah prophesied that the
Lord Jesus, that one born of the Virgin, the Messiah, when
he came, he would be to many a djinn and a snare, a stone
of stumbling and a rock of offense. You mean the Savior will be to
some a djinn? The Redeemer will be to many
a snare? The foundation rock on which
we are built will be to some a rock of offense over which
they will stumble into hell. That's what Isaiah said. And
here he who is our savior, the sanctuary in whom we take refuge
and hide. He who is to us. Salvation. Shows himself to some to be a
gin and a snare by which these Jews were entrapped. Verse 41,
the Jews then murmured, how come? In the preceding verses, our
Lord had drawn a very simple picture, a simple picture that
could not possibly be misunderstood. He said, I'm the bread of life. I'm the bread of life. Eat this
bread, live forever. You believe on me? Just like
those Israelites were saved from death in the wilderness because
they received bread from heaven that God gave them, and God sent
them out to gather the bread, and they gathered the bread,
and God kept the bread fresh for them while they ate the bread,
and God sustained their lives by the bread. He said, I'm the
bread of life. The Jews then murmured at him,
watch this, because he said, I am the bread which came down
from heaven. Well, it looks like they've been tickled to death.
Their commentators spoke of that bread as representing the Messiah.
The commentators all spoke of that, those things that happened
in the Old Testament as being anticipation acts of God by which
he portrayed the coming of Christ, the Messiah. And now the Messiah
is standing in front of us and says, fellas, I'm the bread.
I'm the one you've been looking for. I'm the Messiah. I'm the
one you've been hoping in. I'm the one who's come to save
Israel from his sins. And they murmured at him. And
they said. Is not this Jesus? The son of
Joseph? Man, his daddy owns a carpet
shop on the back alley down there. I mean, it ain't much to him.
It's not Jesus. This Jesus, the son of Joseph,
whose father and mother we know. We know him well. Man, they shop
at the same consignment shops we do. They go to the same flea
markets we go to. This is Jesus, the son of Joseph
and Mary. How is it then that he saith
I came down from heaven? They stumbled at that which makes
our hearts rejoice. You know the grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ, how that though he was rich, yet for our sakes
he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be made rich.
He who is God the Son came down here, the son of Joseph. He didn't come as a king. He
didn't come as an educator. He didn't come as a philosopher.
He didn't come as a doctor. He came the son of a carpenter. A poor man, a man raised on the
wrong side of the tracks, a man despised by most his whole family,
a man whose family had a rich, rich history of constant decline. They went from Abraham to David
to Solomon to Joseph and Mary. This man, Jesus, he comes not
only to make himself a poor man of flesh, but entered himself
who knew no sin and has made sin for us that we might be made
the righteousness of God in him. And we rejoice in that. We rejoice
to declare it. We rejoice to believe it. We
sing about it. We think about it. We give praise
to God for it. And the rest of the world hears
the message we preach and they say, how can you say that thing
came down from heaven? Now they admire our saviors,
what they call his moral principles. They just despise his doctrine.
They admire his self-denial and his acts of self-denial. They
despise his propitiation. They delight to hear about his
examples of doing good to men. feeding the poor, and taking
in the homeless, such as that. They just despise the declaration
that he's the only home for your soul. The same thing going on
today as went on in this day. Turn to Romans chapter 9. Let
me show you. What makes the difference between
you and them? How come you rejoice to know
him? while others despise him because God from the beginning
has chosen you to salvation. That's all. Look at Romans 9
verse 30. What shall we say then? That
the Gentiles which followed not after righteousness, that's me
and you. That's our family tree. The Gentiles
that followed not after righteousness. Don't get too smug about yourself
and your family history till you go back and read about the
Gentile world. They weren't known for doing
good stuff. They weren't known for being righteous. But yet
they have attained to righteousness. They didn't do anything good.
They didn't do anything righteous, but they, some folks in the Gentile
world, have attained righteousness. Even the righteousness which
is of faith. That is the righteousness of
God which is of the faith of Jesus Christ. But Israel, the
Jews, which followed after the law of righteousness, they had
the commandments and kept them, still do. Hath not attained to
the law of righteousness. Wherefore? How come? Why is it
that those who seek to be saved by keeping the law can't do it?
Because they sought it not by faith. They sought righteousness
by works, not by faith. But as it were, by the works
of the law. for they stumbled at that stumbling stone as it
is written behold I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and a rock
of offense a stumbling stone and a rock of offense yeah and
whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed bless God to you
who believe he's precious not ashamed verse 1 chapter 10 brethren
my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they
might be saved Now, sometimes we're accused of having no evangelistic
zeal, no missionary spirit. And I say nothing about that
when folks start yakking that way about me. But they start
yakking that way about you. Start yakking that way about
faithful men. I get a little more than upset.
I get plumb angry. And let them know in a heartbeat
that's not the case. We give ourselves relentlessly. to the business of preaching
the gospel because our heart's desire is that these folks who
are lost might be saved. For I bear them record, they
have a zeal of God. They're zealous. Religiouses
all get out. They're just ignorant, not according
to knowledge. And I'm not talking about intellectual
ignorance. I'm talking about spiritual ignorance. For they
being ignorant of God's righteousness, ignorant of the fact that righteousness
is finished. Ignorant of the fact that righteousness
is finished, finished by Jesus Christ, whose name is Jehovah,
said, Can you, the Lord, our righteousness? They go about
to establish their own righteousness. and will not, have not, will
not, do not, cannot submit themselves to the righteousness of God.
And here's the reason. Here's the reason they just can't
get it. They just can't get it. They just can't get it. They
just can't get it. Here's the reason. Four. That means you got to give up
your works. That means you got to give up
your righteousness. That means you got to give up
your claim on God. That means you got to give up
the basis of your hope. For Christ is the end. He's the finishing. He's the
termination. He's the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believe it. That means Rex Bartlett. If this
day, for the first time, right this minute, God gives you faith
in Christ Jesus. If right now, for the first time,
you would look on the Son of God, that means right now, you've
come to the end of works. Well, it takes us a while. It
takes us a while. No, it doesn't. No, it doesn't
either. No, you get to the end of the period, you know you're
there. You get to the end of the road, you know you're there.
Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone
that believeth. All right, here's the second
thing. Verse 44. Our Lord plainly declares man's
inability, his complete helplessness, his utter inability to believe
on him. No man can. In chapter 5, verse 40, he said,
and you will not come to me that you might have life. Here he
says something else. Here, Sam is talking about ability.
He said, no man can come unto me, except the Father which has
sent me draw him. Now, this is too obvious to need
comment. Coming to Christ is just another word for believing
on Christ. Coming to Christ is not physical.
It's not physical. It's not physical. These folks
in these religious crusades, Charles Finney started it, so
it's nothing new. These folks in these religious crusades all
over the world, they're meeting auditoriums or they're meeting
church buildings. Little buildings like this are huge coliseums
and they meet with thousands and thousands of people and they
will plant folks out in the congregation. You can't believe this. We were
taught to use tricks. When I was taught evangelism
in both colleges I went to, we were taught to use tricks. Use
tricks to get a fella to profess faith in Christ before he knows
what he's doing. Get him to make a decision before they realize
what happened. Sneak up on the blind side and catch him quick.
That's it, folks, out in the audience. And when they start
to see him just as I am, Well, Merle would get up and start
walking from the back. And Mark would get up and start walking
from back to back. And that just kind of put folks in the notion
of walking up front. And as they walk up front, then
they'll get saved. Bless God! No, they'll go to hell thinking
they're saved. Poor soul. Poor soul. Now, coming to Christ
is not a physical thing. It's a matter of the heart. You
come to Christ right now. Right where you are. Believe
on Christ right now. No man, however, in his natural
state can do so because the carnal mind is enmity against God. The carnal mind is enmity against
God. Fallen man has neither the power
nor the will to come to Christ. He's dead in trespasses and in
sins. He has no power to give himself
life. And now, if you will just believe, the Lord will save you.
Now, if the Lord saves you, you'll believe. There's a big difference.
There's a big difference. The fact is, man by nature has
no ability. The papists have a tradition. They've long since given it up,
but there's a tradition, a legend. There's a fellow by the name
of St. Dennis who was supposed to have been beheaded in France
many, many years ago. And the legend is that when St.
Dennis was beheaded, He picked up his head and walked for two
miles preaching all the way. I read it again just the other
day. I'm not lying to you. He picked up his head and walked
for two miles preaching all the way. You know, I can believe
that. If I saw him pick up his head. He's dead. He didn't pick up
his head. Well, if you'll just take the
first step, God will do the rest. If you can take the first step,
what do you need God for? No, no. Man has no ability. He cannot come. Men boast and
brag about the will. I like to listen to Mr. O'Reilly
on television when I go home late at night sometimes. I get
a little sick of it most of the time, but sometimes I like to
listen. I get real sick of it when his papacy religion starts
popping through, and it doesn't pop through much. He's not what
you'd call a real strict papist, but he's real strict about one
thing. He believes in free will. He believes in free will. Doggone
it, man has a free will. He can do what he wants to. He
can do what he wants to. I've heard him say so many times,
I believe God gave man free will. Men everywhere, Papist, pagans,
and Pentecostals. Buddhist, Brahmists, and Baptists. Methodist, Moravians, and Mennonites.
All of them love man's free will. The problem is you don't have
one. Folks that have, hear folks say
man's a free moral agent. There's just three things wrong
with the statement. He's not free, not moral, and nobody's agent.
There's nothing free about you. Man's bound by his nature. He's
bound by his nature. I see some things I'd like to
be able to do. I'd like to be able to do. But
the last few months have taken a toll on my physical ability
to do them. And it doesn't matter what I
want. It doesn't change what I can do. It just doesn't change
it. Man's bound by his nature. All
people still defend the doctrine, the teaching of man's free will. Even atheistic philosophers defend
the blasphemous notion of free will. But our Lord tells us plainly,
you cannot come. You cannot come. Now, the problem
is with the will. Your inability is not a moral
inability. Your inability to come is not
a physical inability. Your inability to come is just
this, you will not come. You will not come. You have in
you no will to come to Christ. Now, I hear folks all the time,
they yak and belittle the gospel of God's free grace and say,
well, it's not fair. God wouldn't save me if I wanted
to be saved. Now, whoever heard, tell somebody griping because
you couldn't get what you didn't want. If you wanted to come,
you could come. If you would come, you could
come. If you had a desire to come, you could come. But you
won't, and you can't, because no man can come to me, except
the Father which has sent me draw him. No man can come to
Christ by nature, because faith is the gift of God. How can I state this sufficiently? I can't persuade anybody to believe
on Christ. I'm sent to preach the everlasting
gospel, to proclaim glad tidings to poor sinners who need God's
grace. But your believing the gospel
does not in any measure depend on my ability to preach it. Oh, I thank God for that. God's
called me to preach, and I can preach as God enables me. And I want to be the best preacher
I can possibly be. I study, I prepare, I want to
come here and have a fresh message for you every time I stand here.
But God uses stammering tongues, unlearned men, poor, illiterate
creatures just as easily as he uses me or any other man. Matter
of fact, if God's so pleased, he can take a jackass and make
him speak to a man. He did, didn't he? He did. He did. You see, it takes something
more than the power of a man to give you faith. You're not
born by the will of the flesh or by the will of man. Not by
your own will, not by the will of mom and daddy, not by the
will of the preacher, but by the will of God. Here's the third
thing then. Our Lord sets before us the divine
efficacy of God's free sovereign saving grace. And he shows it
to us in three things. In verse 44, He shows it to us
in the drawing of the Father. In verse 45, the teaching of
the Father. And in verse 46, the revelation
of the Father. First, if ever you come to Christ, you're going to come to Christ
because the Father has drawn you. 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. Brother Don, we all believe that
the Holy Spirit must draw a man, but still he has a free will.
No, that's not the word draw. That's not the word draw. This
is not the word draw. I urge you to come. Oh, won't
you please come to Jesus? Oh, won't you please come let
Jesus save you? That's not it. Here's the word. I'll show you from scripture.
That's the word. That's the word. When I was a boy, I'd go visit
my grandparents and they still had wells and spring houses.
And when they sent me out as a little boy to draw water, Do
you know I never one time dreamed, I never thought that they meant
for me to go out there and stand at the mouth of the well and
say, water, water, come get in my bucket, please. I never dreamed
that's what they intended. Rather, I presume they meant
for me to drop my pail into the well and drop some water and
fetch it home. That's the word. Let me show
you how it's used in scripture. In Acts 16, 19, you just listen,
you can look at it later. Those who were enriched by that
demon-possessed girl who made money on her witchcraft caught
Paul and Silas and drew them into the marketplace to the rulers. They didn't invite them to come,
they took them. In Acts 21, 30, the Jews took Paul and drew him
out of the temple and went about to kill him. They didn't invite
him to exact execution. They drew him. James two verse
six speaks and warns us of rich men who draw believers before
the judgment seats to have them imprisoned. God, the Holy Spirit
is sent to the father. To draw sinners to Christ. Oh, blessed exception. You cannot
no man can come to me. except the Father which has sent
me. Lay hold of him by the omnipotent power of the
irresistible grace of his Holy Spirit and draw him. Like Ziba was sent to fetch Mephibosheth
to David. like our Lord drew Lazarus, or
drew Zacchaeus out of the tree and drew Lazarus out of the grave
by the mere power of his call. Look at verse 45. If ever you're
saved, you got to be taught of God. The grace of God that bring
us salvation hath appeared unto all men, teaching us, teaching
us. 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.
Where is it written in the prophets? It's written in Isaiah 54, 13.
It's written in Jeremiah 31, 34. It's written in Micah chapter
4, verse 2. It's written in the prophets.
They'll be taught of God. They'll be taught of God. God will give
them a new heart, a new nature, a new spirit. He will write his
word on their hearts. They'll be taught of God. And
you know what will happen when you're taught of God? Every man,
therefore, that hath heard and learned of the Father cometh
to me. I have never, never, I have never,
I thought that it were possible that I could labor without success
in the cause of Christ. I've never dreamed that. I've
never dreamed that. Because God's word will not return
to him void. It will accomplish that which
he pleases. It will prosper in the thing where to God sends
it. And if God teaches you, If God somehow in the supernatural
wondrous work of his grace condescends here this morning and speaks
through this dirty vessel to your dirty heart and causes you
to believe, you'll come to Christ. You'll come to Christ. Every
man taught of God. If God teaches you, you'll get
the lesson. You'll get the lesson. He doesn't try to teach. He teaches.
And here's the third thing. If ever you come to Christ. It
will be because he has become the revelation of God to you.
Verse 46. Not that any man hath seen the
father. Save he which is of God. He has seen the father. These,
he is that one who has seen the father and declares him to you. Verse 47. Here's the fourth thing.
Our blessed savior here gives a word of assurance to faith.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me. We hope we'll have everlasting
life. May have everlasting life. Well, let's read it better than
that. Shall have everlasting life. But that's not the way it reads,
is it? He that believeth on me hath
everlasting life. Hath everlasting life. I can't say many things with
with certainty. I know I have a reputation for
speaking with certainty. I can speak with certainty about
what this book teaches, but that's about it. But in my experience
and in my life, I can't speak about many things with certainty.
But Merle Hart, this one thing I know, I believe on the Son of God. I really do. I have no hope but
Him. I have no righteousness but Him.
I have no atonement but Him. I have no access to God but Him.
I have no claim at the throne of grace but Him. I believe on
the Son of God. And God says, He that believeth on me hath. He's got it. I've got it. I've got it. I've got it right now. And it's
never going to end. It can't be hindered. It can't
be disrupted. It can't be dwarfed. It can't
be mutilated. It can't be harmed. It can't
be made ill. It can't be made sick. It can't
be destroyed. Not by me, not by hell, and not
by you. He that believeth on the Son
of God hath everlasting life. Well, Brother Don, what evidence
do you have that you're a true believer? I believe on the Son
of God. But what about your experience?
Well, I've had some. I've had some great ones, and
I've had some I don't want to talk about. But what about your walking
with God? Sometimes I think maybe. I think
maybe. What about your prayer life? Ain't much to it. What about your devotional life?
My devotion to my Redeemer is how He's devoted to me. And I
want to be devoted to Him. Well, where's your evidence?
I believe on the son of God. And he says, I have everlasting
life. I believe he's right. I believe
he's right. One last thing. I'll wrap it
up. In verses 48 through 51, our savior speaks of himself. as bread for the hungry. By the
most simple picture imaginable, he declares himself to be the
bread of life, living bread for hungry souls. I am the bread
of life. Your fathers did eat manna in
the wilderness and are dead. This is the bread that came down
from heaven that a man may eat thereof and not die. I am the
living bread which came down from heaven. If any man eat this
bread, if any man eat this bread, he shall live forever. And the
bread that I will give is my flesh, my life, my life, which
I will give for the life of the world. Some of you will be going out
to lunch this afternoon. I was informed just a little while
ago I'm going home. Eat the best place in the world. I don't know
what I'm going to have. I want to have some eggs and
sausage and gravy and biscuits. And I'm going to willingly indulge
myself. And I will pick up a piece of
bread Maybe I'll use a fork before I dip it into the gravy, and
I will put it in my mouth, and I will devour it. And that bread
and that gravy and the little sausage mixed with it becomes
mine. You can have some of what's left
over, but you can't have that. It's mine. You can't get it. It's mine. Just give it a little
while. You can't get it. It's mine.
Permanently, my everything of value is mine! It's become part
of me. That's what it is to believe
on the Son of God. To receive Him. That's mine. That's mine. But Brother Don, to be honest
with you, I just don't need Him. I know. I understand. I understand. And if you can, you'll go to
hell without Him. If you can. Oh, brother Todd, I've got to
have Christ. I've got to have Him. I need
His righteousness. I need His blood. I need His
atonement. I need Him to give me acceptance with God. conscience,
my guilty, told me in conscience, I've got to have him. Well, eat
the bread. The life he gave for the world
is his life. Take it. And his life is yours. If you can, it's because God
the Father has drawn you to his son. Amen.