I did choose thee, Lord, O Lord,
that could not be. Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Nider. We are located at 4137 Todd's
Road, two miles outside of Manowar Boulevard. Sunday services are
at 1030 a.m. and 6 p.m. Bible study is at
945 a.m. Wednesday services are at 7 p.m. Nursery is provided for all services.
For more information, visit our website at toddsroadgracechurch.com. Now here's our pastor, Todd Nyberg. I've entitled the message for
this morning, Nowhere Else to Go. In John chapter 6, verse
59, we read, These things said he in the synagogue, as he taught
in Capernaum. Many, therefore, of his disciples,
when they had heard this, said, this is a hard saying. Who can hear it? Who can be expected
to listen to such sayings as these? Now, what did the Lord
say that they called hard sayings. If you're familiar with John
chapter 6, you know that the Lord taught very clearly what
is known as the doctrine of grace. The doctrine of grace. I'm going to show you that from
this passage of Scripture. The Bible is the inspired, infallible
Word of God. And we believe what the Bible
says. Now, the Bible presents man as
a fallen creature. When Adam fell, he lost his righteousness. He became dead in trespasses
and sins. We believe the Bible's testimony
regarding man, dead in sins, a sinful creature. We also believe
the biblical testimony of salvation. How the salvation of fallen man
is the work of God alone. God the Father chose who He would
save before time began. It's called election. God the
Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, redeemed those people. When He said it
is finished, everybody He died for was saved. He put away the
sins of the elect. Salvation is of God the Holy
Spirit in giving grace and giving life. He irresistibly and invincibly
begets life in those that the Father elected and the Son redeemed.
And those sinners that the Father elected, the Son redeemed, and
God the Holy Spirit calls, they will persevere all the way to
the end, walking with Christ. They will not leave. Now, in
this passage in John 6, our Lord clearly taught those things.
Let me show you this. In verse 44 of John 6, He said,
No man can come to Me, except the Father which has sent Me
draw him. Now, here we see the complete
sinfulness of man. We can't even come to Christ
unless drawn by the Father. We will not come to Christ. unless
drawn by the Father, because we're dead in sins. God has to
do something for us. And then in verse 37 of John
chapter 6, the Lord said, All that the Father giveth Me shall
come to Me, and him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast
out. There we have the election of
the Father, giving the Son a people. All that the Father giveth Me
shall come to Me. You know, he said in John chapter
17, verse 9, I pray for them. I pray not for the world, but
for them which you've given me, for they are thine. And then
in verse 39, we read where the Lord said to this group of people
who found these hard sayings, He said, This is the Father's
will which is sent me, that of all which He hath given me, I
should lose nothing, but raise it up again at the last day.
Everybody the Father gave me, everybody I'm going to die for,
they will be saved. I give them eternal life. They
will be saved. There's nothing that can prevent
their salvation because I'm dying for them and putting away their
sins. And then we read in verse 45
of this same chapter, it's 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 to me." There we
have the invincible, irresistible grace of God teaching them and
causing them to come to the Lord Jesus. And then in verse 54 he
said, "...whoso eateth my flesh, and bringeth my blood, hath eternal
life." And I will raise him up at the last day." They have eternal
life and they will continue in the faith. And I'll raise them
up at the last day. Now there we have clearly what
is known as the doctrine of grace. That's what our Lord taught in
this sermon. Now let's go on reading. Here's
the people's response. These things, what I just repeated,
these things said He in the synagogue as He taught in Capernaum, many
therefore of His disciples When they heard this, they heard what
he was saying. They said, this is a hard saying,
harsh, austere. Who can be expected to listen
to something like this? This is hard. This is not what
we want to hear. This is a harsh, hard saying. Who can hear it? Verse 61, when
Jesus knew in Himself that His disciples murmured at it. You
see, He knows what's going on in our hearts. And remember,
these people claim to be His disciples. But when Jesus knew
in Himself that His disciples murmured at it, He said to them,
does this offend you? Are you offended by what I've
just said? That men can't come to Me? Except
God drawn that men are totally depraved, unable, inability,
unable to believe, unable to repent, unable to come to Christ
unless God does something for them. Are you offended by the
fact that I said that all that the Father gives me shall come
to me? Are you offended by the fact that everybody I die for,
I'm not going to lose one of them. They're all going to be
saved. Are you offended by the fact that my grace is invincible
and irresistible and everybody that's taught by God comes to
me? Are you offended by the fact that my people will persevere
all the way to the end? They will not leave me. Now,
are you offended by these sayings? He said in verse 62, what and
if you should see the Son of Man ascend up where he was before?
Now, what the Lord is saying there is if you're offended now,
you'll really be offended then. When you see me in my glory as
the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth, the
one who has all control and all power, when you see who I really
am, you'll really be offended then. Verse 63, it's the spirit
that quickens. It's the spirit that gives life. The flesh, what we are by nature,
man's fallen human nature, Prophets, nothing. It has no part in this
thing of life. The words that I speak unto you,
these words that you find harsh and austere, they are in fact
spirit. The words that I speak unto you,
they are spirit and they are life. There's life in these words. Verse 64, But there are some
of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning
who they were that believed not, and who should betray Him. And
He said, Therefore said I to you, this is why I said, that
no man can come to Me except it were given him, given him
of My Father. Verse 66, From that time many
of His disciples went back. and walked no more with Him."
They no longer were His disciples. They went back. There was a great deception at
that time. They went back, literally went
away to the before. They went back to what they had
been before. and walk no more with him as
the dog returns to its own vomit and the pig that was washed to
her wallowing in the mire." Now, why did these disciples leave? It says they were his disciples,
followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. Why did his disciples leave?
Well, I can answer that with this. They weren't true disciples. The Lord said in John chapter
8, verse 31, if you continue in My Word. If you continue in
My Word, these words of spirit and life, if you continue in
My Word, then are you My disciples indeed. But if you don't continue,
you're not My disciples. In 1 John 2, verse 19, the Apostle
John said, They went out from us, but they were not all of
us. For if they had been of us, they
would no doubt have continued with us. But they went out that
they might be made manifest that they were not all of us. Now, it is a sad, sad fact that
many, most who seem to begin do not end. They start, but they
do not finish. I have seen this so much at the
church in which I pastor. People leave. People come for
a while. They seem to believe. And then they leave. And if somebody's
looking for a reason to leave, they can always find one. The
Lord will let you find a reason to leave when you leave after
hearing the gospel. But most people who begin do
not continue. Now, why? Why would the disciples
leave the Lord and walk no more with him? Well, in the context,
they did not like his doctrine. They did not love what he said.
Now, if you're a believer, you'll love the doctrine of grace. I
don't mean simply give a cent to it. You'll love it because
you need the truth that's declared in that. You need for God to
do these things for you. You need for God to choose you.
You need for Christ to die for you and put away your sins. You
need for His grace to be invincible. You need to be enabled to persevere. You need these things, and you
love this because you see it's what you need. But these disciples
saw no need in this. They said these are harsh sayings,
this is disagreeable, this is inhumane almost, cruel, harsh. How can you expect us to listen
to this? Sometimes people are drawn away
and seduced by false doctrine. They'll hear something and it
has some appeal to the flesh, it will pull them away. Some
people leave the Lord Jesus Christ because of gain. They see that
following Him, Receiving his words, preaching his word won't
be of any social or economic gain to them. As a matter of
fact, it's going to cost them, so they leave. Some leave because
of persecution. Like the stone, not the stoning
ground here, but the shallow ground here. He leaves because
of persecution. He receives the word. He loves
it. But then when he's persecuted
for what he believes, he thought, I didn't sign up for this. It's
not worth this. I don't want to go in that direction.
Some leave because of evil companions. Paul said evil communications
corrupt good manners. How many times have I seen someone
drawn away by the unbelief of someone they made their friend?
Some leave because the pleasure of sin has more of an attraction
than the pleasures of knowing Christ. Some just become thorn
choked through the cares and the deceitfulness of this world
and the lusts of other things the Lord said when he talked
about the thorn choked here. They heard for a while, but they
bore no fruit because they were just concerned with the things
of this world. Some leave because of a change in circumstances,
perhaps a promotion, perhaps prosperity. And they forget Christ. They don't need Him anymore.
They don't need His grace anymore. Some through adversity. Sometimes
people go through hard times, and they say, well, why am I
going through this? And they leave. You see them
no more. Some are just slothful and lazy, and they don't want
to take the effort that is involved in following the Lord Jesus Christ.
So these people went back and walked no more within. But you know something I find
very scary about this passage of Scripture? He didn't ask them to return.
He didn't ask them to reconsider. He simply watched them walk away. And He didn't say, let me rephrase
this. No, He watched these people leave. And then in verse 67 we
read, Then said Jesus unto the twelve. Now, at least 5,000 people
left at this time because these were the people that He fed,
5,000. You can read about it in the earlier part of the chapter.
So at least 5,000 people left. And he looked at the 12 and he
asked this question. Will you also go away? Is that
your desire? Do you wish to leave? And the
word go away means to depart without noise or notice. Will you also go away? Is that
your desire? Now's your chance if that's what
you're looking for. Will you also go away? You see,
the Lord will not have an unwilling disciple. Thy people shall be
willing in the day of thy power. Now, I don't believe, and the
Bible doesn't teach free will at all. But that doesn't mean
we don't have a will. You see, when God does something
for somebody, He gives them a new will. It's God that worketh in
you, both to will and to do His good pleasure. And God's people
want to be with the Lord Jesus Christ. They want to walk with
him. They want to always be with him. They always want to be found
in him. So he looks at the twelve and
he says, will you also go away? And look at Peter's answer. Peter
acts as the spokesman for every believer. Then Simon Peter answered
him, Lord. To whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. To whom shall we go? Back to
the law? Why, that's a yoke that neither
we nor our fathers were able to bear. All it does is condemn
us. Back to human religion and works
religion? Why, there's no rest in that.
I don't find any true peace of conscience in that. No rest? I don't want to go in that direction. Back to this present evil world?
Well, we've seen by Your grace the world for what it is, the
lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life,
the pleasure, the prosperity, Popularity, the power of this
world, is nothing. It means nothing, and we see
it for what it is. Where would we go? Thou hast
the words of eternal life. These words that this crowd finds
to be harsh and austere, we find to be words of eternal life. We believe, and here's what he
says in verse 69, and we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the
Son of the living God." We believe and we are sure. Now this was his response. The
world's response was they left, these false disciples, they left
the Lord Jesus Christ. But Peter's response and the
response of the Twelve is where would we go? Thou hast the words
of eternal life. Now what Peter is saying is,
the fact of the matter is, We have no other options. We have
nowhere else to go. When you say, will you go away?
We don't have a choice in this thing. There's nowhere else to
go. When will a man come to Christ? When he has nowhere else to go.
When he has no other options. When there's no choice involved. When will a man believe? When
he has no choice but to believe. That's his only option. Faith
is not a choice. You don't choose to believe.
You know, when our first parents were in the garden, we read of
Satan coming and deceiving them. Remember where Paul said to the
Corinthians, I fear, lest by any means, as Satan beguiled
Eve to his subtlety, so your minds would be corrupted from
the simplicity that's in Christ. Now, what did Satan do? Satan
looked at Eve and he said, There's nothing to your obedience because
there's no choice involved. You're just obeying your nature.
But if you eat of this fruit, your eyes will be opened. And
you'll know the difference between good and evil. And you'll be
able to choose the good over the evil, and that's what will
make you like God. You see, you're not like God
right now because there's no choice involved. You're just
obeying the nature that He made you with. But if you choose the
good over the evil, that's what will make you like God. And that
seemed very plausible to Eve. She thought, well, that sounds
good. So she ate of the fruit, and you know what happened after
that. And she got her husband to eat. And you know what happened
after that? Hence the fall of our first parents and death and
sins. The Lord said, in the day you
eat thereof, you shall surely die. But Peter's saying, Lord,
we don't have any other options. We don't have anywhere else to
go. It's not like we even have a choice. You have the words
of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that
Thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God. We believe
and are sure that thou art that Christ, God's prophet, God's
priest, God's king, and you have the words of eternal life. Now,
this is the difference between receiving the word in the letter
and in the spirit. We read quite often in the scripture
of the letter and the spirit, the letter of the law, the spirit
of the law. If you receive something in the
letter, and that's the way these temporary disciples did at first,
You give a sense, but you don't have a need of what is said.
The letter knows how to spell something, but it doesn't know
the meaning. You know, I always had a great ambition when I was
a kid to win a spelling bee. I never did. I was always envious
of the people who won and won less standing, but sometimes
they would spell words correctly, but had no idea what they meant.
The letter is knowing how to spell correctly, maybe even knowing
how to pronounce it correctly and give the right emphasis,
but not knowing the meaning. The letter does not know the
intent of what is said. And you receive the spirit of
the words when they're words of life. Thou hast the words
of life. When you speak of total depravity,
when you speak of a man being unable to come to Christ, I know
that's me and it causes me to cry out to you. Give me the grace
to come. When you talk about The Father
choosing a people, I say, Lord, choose me. You don't find fault
with it. You don't criticize it. You say,
Lord, choose me. When you hear of Christ dying
to the elect and accomplishing their salvation, you know that
the only hope you have is if He dies for you. The only way
your sins can be put away is if He died for you and you believe
that He must be successful in what He did. That's believing
in the Spirit. That's believing not just the
letter of the law, but the Spirit. There's a need of what is being
said. I don't disagree with the doctrine of grace. I need the
doctrine of grace. It can just as well be called
the doctrine of need. Need. We believe and are sure
that thou art that Christ. Christ, God's anointed, God's
prophet, priest, and king. He's the Christ. He's the prophet.
I need Him to be my prophet to bring me the Word of God. I need
Him to be my priest to represent me before God. I need Him to
be my king to rule and reign over me. We believe and are sure
that our Christ, the son of the living God. Now, what I want
to call to your attention is how he said we believe and are
sure. We believe and are sure. The word sure is the word that's
generally translated to know. To know. It is the same word
that was used when Joseph knew not Mary. It means more than
a scent. It means an intimate relationship
with what is known, with who is known. We believe and we know. That's what sure means. We believe
and we know that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living
God. Now, there's an order. I will
not know something until I first believe. And when I believe,
I'll know. And when I know, I'll love. I don't first know that the Bible
is the Word of God. I don't have proofs given to
me where I become satisfied, yeah, it must be the Word of
God because blah, blah, blah. No, no, I believe the Bible is
the inspired Word of God. And when I believe the Bible
is the inspired Word of God, I know the Bible is the inspired
Word of God. And when I know the Bible is
the inspired Word of God, I love what the inspired Word says to
me. These sayings are not harsh sayings,
but they're words of eternal life. I believe that God is as
the Bible presents Him to be. So, I know He is as the Bible
presents Him to be. I've got to believe first, and
in believing, I know. You don't know first, then believe. I think of what our Lord said
to Mary. He said, if you would believe, John 11, 40, if you
would believe, you would see the glory of God. And if you
don't see, it's because you don't believe. If you did believe,
you would see the glory of God. If I would believe. See, this
is not something I figure out. No, I believe. And in believing,
I know. I believe that God elected the
people. I know He did. And I love the
fact that He did. I believe that Christ died for
the elect and to accomplish their salvation. I believe that with
all my heart and soul. I believe that whatever He did
must be successful and to know it. I'm speaking what I know,
not what I think. What I know. And I love that. I believe that God's grace is
irresistible and invincible and saving and that it must save.
It's not an offer, it's salvation. I believe that and I know it
and I love it. I believe that Jesus Christ is
the Son of God. I know He is and I love that
He is. I believe what Colossians 2.9
says concerning Him. In Him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead in a body. I believe that. And believing
that, I know all the fullness of God does dwell in Him. And
I believe what Colossians 2.10 says also. And you are complete
in Him. Nothing lacking. I believe that. And because I believe it, I know
it. And because I know it, I love it. I believe that who He is
And what He did is all that is needed to save me. I believe
that. I know it. And I love it. And I say, Lord, to whom shall
we go? There can't be any reserve. To
whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. We believe and are sure that
Thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God. About a hundred
years ago, There was a young man who wanted to be a foreign
missionary, and his parents were dead set against it. So he felt
like this is what he must do. So when he got to where it was
he was going to be a missionary, within three weeks he caught
some kind of disease of that land and he died. Was his life
a waste? Was that a waste of time? Well,
his father went to retrieve his body. and he was thumbing through
his Bible, and he found in the back of his Bible these three
words, no reserve, no retreat, and no
regret. No reserve. I follow Christ whatever
He says with no reserve. No retreat. No going back. and no regret. Now may I, may
you, be enabled to follow the Lord just like this. Not like
these temporary disciples who went back and walked no more
with Him. May I be someone, may you be
someone who follows the Lord with no reserve, with no retreating,
and no regret. May we be enabled to say with
all the apostles, I know whom I have believed, And I'm persuaded
that He is able to keep that which I've committed to Him against
that day. Now, we'd like to invite you
to services at Todd Grove Grace Church. Our services begin this
morning at 10.30, Bible study at 9.45, but this morning at
10.30 or this evening at 6 o'clock. I'd love to see you come out
and hear the Gospel preached. And we have this message on DVD,
CD. If you call the church, write
or email, we'll send you a copy. This is Todd Knoppers, praying
that God will be pleased to make Himself known to you. That's
our prayer.