Would you turn to John chapter
six once again? I picked up the wrong Bible,
I'll be back in a minute. Picked up the wrong Bible. John 6. Beginning in 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. 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 everyone 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, 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 be all 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. Let's pray. Lord, how we thank you for your
word, how we thank you for your son, how we thank you for who
you are, how we thank you for all your glorious attributes,
how we thank you for the revelation of yourself. Now, Lord, we ask
in Christ's name that you would be pleased to speak from your
word to our hearts, enable us to worship you. We confess our
sins. We pray for forgiveness and cleansing. We pray for the grace to truly
confess our sins before you. Bless us for the Lord's sake
and be with all your people wherever they meet together. And Lord,
we pray for your will to be done as we know it will in the world. We pray for our leaders that
you would direct them and guide them and order their steps. Bless
us for Christ's sake. In his name we pray. When the Lord says in verse 38,
for I came down from heaven, this was his explanation of verse
37 when 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 for I came down from heaven. Now that's where they got stuck.
I came down from heaven. I came down from heaven, look
what he says, not to do mine own will, but the will of him
that sent me. Now let's think just for a moment
about this concept, if I could call it that, of the will of
God. I came down from heaven not to
do my own will, but the will of him that sent me. He, the eternal son, came down
from heaven. I love thinking about that, don't
you? His preexistence as the eternal son of God. He came down
from heaven to this planet. Becoming flesh for this purpose.
I came down from heaven to do the will of Him that sent me
now There is such a thing as the will of God He doeth Daniel chapter 4 verse
35 he doeth I according to his will in the armies of heaven
and among the inhabitants of the earth." Everything that's
going on right now is his will. He doeth according to his will
in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth,
and there's none that can stay his hand. Nobody can stop it.
His will can't be thwarted. No one can stay his hand or say
unto him, what doest thou? Give an account of yourself.
He doesn't know anybody in explanation for what he does. There is such
a thing as the will of God. Now, this is very important. There's his will of command and
there's his will of decree. Are you making a distinction?
Yes, I am. There's his will of command,
and there's his will of decree. His will of command can be summarized
by the Ten Commandments. I love the Ten Commandments.
And that is his will of command. Nobody can say, well, it was
God's will for me to break that command. No, it wasn't. You can't
blame your sin. on His will. Well, He sovereignly
allowed me to do that. It's His fault. No, you can't
say that. If you sin, if I sin, it's a breaking of His will of
command. Don't ever say, well, God sovereignly
led me to do that. No, it's your sin. Amen. My sin is my fault. I can't blame God. Now, here's
the thing about His will of command. It's never kept. Never. Not once. Why do you say that? Because
not one man or woman or boy or girl has ever kept one of the
Ten Commandments. You believe that? Not once. His will of command is never
kept. What about his will of decree?
Everything that happens right now is his will of decree taking
place. His will of decree is always
kept. That's the will of God. It's
always kept. Nobody can stop it from taking
place. Now, the Lord says, I came down
from heaven. Don't give up thinking about
that. I came down from heaven not to do my own will. but the
will of him that sent me." Now, we don't have to guess as to
what that will is. His will of command, his will
of decree. We read of the purpose of him
who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will.
That's Ephesians 1.11. That's a reference to his will
of decree. All of his wills somehow centered
around this verse. Revelation 13, 8, Christ is called
the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. He created the
universe. He purposed the fall of Adam. For this purpose, the lamb slain
from the foundation of the world, everything God does has something
to do with this. The lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. Now he says in verse 39, and
this is the Father's will, which hath sent me, that of all which
he hath given me, I should lose nothing, but raise it up again
at the last day." Hold your finger there and turn with me to Hebrews
chapter 10. This is the Father's will which
is sent me. Now look in verse 5. Hebrews 10, verse 5, Wherefore,
when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice an offering
thou wouldst not, but a body hast thou prepared me. This is
the physical body he took on in the incarnation when he became
flesh. A body hast thou prepared me. In burnt offerings and sacrifices
for sin, thou hast had no pleasure. had satisfaction in the sacrifice
of an animal. Then said I, lo, I come, in the
volume of the book it's written of me, to do thy will, O God. Above, when he said sacrifice
and offering and burnt offering and offering for sin, thou wouldest
not neither hadst pleasure therein, which are offered by the law.
Then said he, lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away
the first, that first covenant of works, that he may establish
the second by the witch will, by God's will. We are sanctified
through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. That is his will. He's coming
to do God's will. Now, it's his will, according
to this verse of scripture, it's his will. for him to save all
of the elect. That's simple enough, isn't it? 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 sent me, that of all which he hath
given me, the elect, I should lose nothing, not one of them,
but should raise them up again at the last day. Now, this is
so critical for us to understand the gospel right here. This religious world of Christendom,
or whatever you want to call it, teaches that Jesus Christ
died to save everybody, all men without exception. That would
cover 99%. I don't think I'd be exaggerating
in saying that, of what, quote, Christianity believes. Jesus
Christ died for your sins to make salvation possible for you,
if you just do what you need to do in order to make what he
did work for you. Now, let me give you three. I don't want to say arguments
against it because there's no argument against that. It's just
the Bible teaches you save the elect and he died for the elect.
I realize that. But one, if you say that, if
a man says or believes that Jesus Christ died to save everybody,
three problems with that. Number one, it's a denial of
the attributes of God. What do you mean by that? Let's say he died for my sins
and paid for them. And then God turns around and
sends me to hell anyway. That's a denial of God's justice.
If he died for you, you must be saved. It's a denial of God's
immutability. It's saying he can intend to
save you and then turn around and send you to hell anyway.
Really, that's a denial of every attribute of God. That's how
important this is. It's a denial of the character
of God. Secondly, it says Christ is a failure. If he intended
to save somebody, if that was his intentions and they end up
in hell anyway, that means he failed in his intentions. Christ
is a failure. Thirdly, And this is, they're
all big, but from a personal point of view, this is the biggest
one to me. If he died for somebody and paid
for their sins and then go to hell anyway, that takes away
the only hope that I have of being saved because the only
hope I have of being saved is that Jesus Christ paid for my
sins. And I am saved because of that. That's my only hope. You take that away from me and
you take away the only hope I have. That's how important this is. Now Christ tells us in no uncertain
terms, I came down from heaven not to do my own will, but the
will of him that sent me. And I will raise him up. At the
last day, look in verse 40. And this is the will of him that
sent me. These two things go together. First, Christ dying
for the elect and accomplishing their salvation. We make no apology
for preaching that. It's what the Lord preached.
We love it. But look what else he says, and this is just as
important. And this is the will of him that sent me, that everyone
which seeth the sun. and believeth on him may have
everlasting life. And I will raise him up at the
last day." Now, listen to this. Not only is it the will of God
for Christ to save the elect, and that's what he did, it's
also his will that everyone who sees the son. and believes on him has everlasting
life. And Christ says, I'll raise him
up at the last day. Now, is there anybody thinking
I've never seen Christ? And I haven't either physically.
I've not seen him physically. I've not heard his voice audibly.
So what is the point? Everyone that seeth the son,
I mean, he's been gone for 2000 years. I can't see him physically.
What's that mean? You see the Son when you know
who He is. Is it that simple? Yes. You see the Son when you know
who He is. And if you know who He is, it's
because God has revealed that to you. You've had the living
God make Himself known to you. If you see who He is. Now here's the most powerful
example I can think of to illustrate what this is of seeing who he
is. Two thieves on either side of Christ. One didn't know who he was. He
cursed him. The other one, when he first
went to the cross, he didn't know who he was either. He was joining
with the other, his buddy in cursing Christ. But all of a
sudden something happened to that man. And he knew who Jesus
Christ was. And that is seen by what he said
about him. He said to his buddy, don't you
fear God? He knew Jesus Christ was God.
Do you know that? Do you know that Jesus Christ
is God? If you do, it's because God has revealed that to you.
Flesh and blood didn't reveal that to you, but my father, which
is in heaven, And he knew that he was getting exactly what we
deserve. Don't you fear God seeing you're
in the same condemnation? We're getting exactly what we
deserve. He understood something about
his own sinfulness. How? Because he knew who Christ
was. You will not understand and I
will not understand sin until we see who Jesus Christ is. And
when we see who he is, we'll have some inkling of our own
sinfulness. He said, this man has done nothing
amiss. He's never sinned. Now, I love thinking about this. He could look at Jesus Christ
and knew and know he'd never sinned. Well, how? He'd only
known him for an hour or two. How could he tell about his past
life? Because he knew who he was. If you know who Jesus Christ
is, you dead sure know that this man never committed a sin because
of who he is. He knew he was Lord. He said,
Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. He knew you're
not going to stay dead. You're going to come back as
a mighty reigning king because of who you are. Remember me. If you just remember me, if you
just remember my worthless names, everything's fine. How? He knew who he was. Now that's
the point. Everyone that seeth the Son,
you know who he is. And you know what's gonna happen
if you see him? You will believe. If you see who he is, you will
believe. And if you don't believe, it's
because you've never seen him. If you see who he is, you will believe. It'll come out. You can't help
it. You see who he is, look what he says. And this is the will
of him that sent me that everyone which seeth the son and believeth
on him may have everlasting life and I will raise him up at the
last day. Now, folks who see the son, here's what to do. They
believe on him. You really believe that he's all in your salvation.
You're looking nowhere else. Verse 41. The Jews then murmured
at him because he said, I am the bread which came down from
heaven. Now, when he said, I'm the bread
which came down from heaven, he's speaking of his pre-existence. And he's saying, I came down
from heaven. Now, if I said that to you, you would think I was
crazy and you'd be right in thinking that. What's wrong with him?
Is he that fool of himself? I came down from heaven. And
I'm sure they were thinking this about the Lord. Who does he think
he is? Well, he knew who he was, but
they didn't at this time. They said, what's this about
him saying I came down from heaven? And they said, verse 42, is not
this Jesus? The son of Joseph, whose father
and mother we know. We know his mom and dad. We know
his address. We know when he was born. He's
nothing more than a carpenter's son. And he's making this claim
with regard to himself. I came down from heaven, not
to do my own will, but the will of him that sent me. Who does
he think he is? They murmured at him. You can
almost feel the objections to what he said. They did not like
it. Verse 43. Jesus therefore answered and
said unto them, murmur not among yourselves. Now, he knew who he was. He knew who he was. He knew who
they were. And he looked at them murmuring
against him. And he said, murmur not among
yourselves. And then he makes this remarkable
statement. Look in verse 44. No man, that includes all of
humanity, no man can come to me. Now he doesn't say no man
may come to me. May has to do with permission.
Can has to do with ability. No man has the ability to come
to me. except the Father which has sent
me draw him. You're murmuring in unbelief.
You cannot come to me. You lack the ability to come
to me. It's not like you're saying,
I want to come. You say, no, you're not allowed to. No, you lack the ability
to come because of your sinful nature. Now that's what he's
saying. You lack the ability to come
to me because of your sinful nature. You see, here's the cry
of our hearts by nature. We will not have this man to
reign over us. It's our sinful nature, having
no love for him, having no esteem for him. We, by nature, hate
him. Now that, that's what we're guilty
of, being his enemy. being his enemy, not wanting
his glory, not wanting him to be Lord over all, putting ourselves
in that place. Inability is wickedness. Don't you feel sorry for him?
No, the sinner's to be blamed, not to be felt sorry for. In
this sense, my inability to come to him is from my own sinfulness. It's wicked. What if someone
says, I can't help but hate your child? It's just my nature. I hate your child. Or you can
say, well, you shouldn't be held responsible then. It's OK. No,
no, not at all. Oh, how evil is man's inability. No man can, no man has the ability
to come to me except the father which has sent me draw him. Now that word draw. It's the
same word James used in James 2, verse 6, do not rich men oppress
you and draw you before their judgment seats. There's the word. They drag you before the judgment
seat. You're not going willingly. They drag you before the judgment
seat. You won't come unless you're
drugged by the Father. And when the Father drags you,
you'll be willing. Thy people shall be willing. in the day of thy power. It's
not like you're kicking and screaming against, I don't want to come.
No, you're made willing in the day of his power. It's because
of his dragging grace. And that's the word. No man can
come to me except the father, which has sent me drag him. I want to be drugged, don't you?
Drag me. Drag me. No man can, no man has
the ability to come to me except the Father which has sent me
draw him. Why is this? Because men are
dead in sins and will not and cannot come to Christ. They have no love for him. They
don't want to. Therefore, you have to have this
almighty, irresistible work of grace. And that's what the Lord
is talking about. No man can come to me except
the Father which has sent me draw him. Lazarus, come forth. What happened? He that was dead
came forth. And that is the Father drawing. He draws with an irresistible,
invincible voice. Lazarus, come forth. You know,
there was a time, and you might not have heard the voice audibly,
but if you have life, there was a time when the Lord called you
by name. He called his own sheep by name. That's why he responded.
He spoke to you. If he would have said, come forth,
everybody in the graveyard would have come forth, but he just
used Lazarus's name. There was a time when he gave your name,
come forth. He that was dead came forth. I think it's so interesting he
still had grave clothes on. You know, every one of us still
have grave clothes on, don't we? The clothes of death still
with us and we spend the rest of our life hearing the second
command, loose him and let him go. Verse 45, it is written, Oh, the respect
the Lord Jesus Christ use with regard to the scriptures. It
is written. And what a powerful testimony
of the Lord with regard to the scriptures when he's going to
talk about what he said. He says, it's written. Here's
why I'm saying this. It's written. This is our only rule of faith
and practice, the holy scriptures. It is written. Don't you love the power of the
Lord saying that? You know, when the devil tempted him three times,
he answers with, it is written. It is written that, you know,
I would if I had the omnipotence he does, I would think if the
devil tried to tempt me, I would put him up in the air and torture
him and just show him. Not the Lord. He answers with
this reply, it is written. Oh, I hope the Lord gives us
this reverence for his holy word. It is written in the prophets
and they shall be all taught of God. Now that is what is taking place
when the Lord is drawing you. You're being taught of him. He's
teaching you who he is. He's teaching you who you are.
He's teaching you how he is salvation. They shall be all, no exceptions,
They shall be all taught of God. I don't know how many times I've
heard over the years people say God's trying to teach me something.
No, He's not. He never tries to do anything. If He teaches
you, you're taught. They shall be all taught of God.
Now here's what happens when God teaches. Every man Therefore,
that hath heard and hath learned of the Father cometh unto me."
There's what happens when God teaches you and you've heard
his voice and you've learned from him, you're going to come
to Christ. What's that mean? Verse 35, I
am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never
hunger. He that believeth on me shall
never thirst. Now what it means to come to
Christ, that means you're going to believe on him as your salvation. You look to everything in your
salvation for him. All that God requires of you,
he looks to Christ for. You believe that? Everything
he requires of you, he looks to Christ for. Everything God
requires of you, you look to Christ for. That's what faith
is, it's a reliance upon Him only. Now if God has taught you,
you're not gonna look to your works, you're not gonna look
to your experience, you're not gonna look to something that
took place in the past, you're not gonna look to something you
think you're gonna do in the future. Right now, you look to Christ
only. If you do that, God has taught
you. What a teacher, you haven't just
been taught by a man. God himself has taught you. Verse 46, not that any man has seen the
father safe. He, which is of God, he has seen
the father. Now, what does that mean? No man seen God at any time.
The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father,
he hath declared him." Now, remember when the Lord said, he that has
seen me has seen the Father. That's what that means. You've
only seen the Father when you see me. That's what the Lord
Jesus is saying. No man's seen God. He's got spirit.
There's nothing you can see as far as a physical sight. But
you've seen God when you've seen that Jesus Christ is God. You've seen the Father. And the only folks who see the
Father are people who the Lord says are of God. What's that mean? Turn back or
turn over to John chapter 8. Verse 45, and because I tell
you the truth, you believe not. Well, that's a sermon in itself,
isn't it? Which of you convinces me of
sin? And if I say the truth, why do
you not believe me? He that's of God. There it is.
He that's of God, heareth God's words. You therefore hear them
not because you are not of God. If somebody's of God, they're
going to hear. If they're not, they won't. Back to John six in closing. 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. Amen.