John's Gospel, chapter 6. I've
got a lengthy reading, all 71 verses of this chapter I want
to read to us. And I want to make a full day
out of this one thought. And I hope you can stay and listen
to the afternoon message. But I want to read this chapter,
and mainly, I want to, especially this afternoon, Look at verses
44 and 45 on the necessity of being drawn. The necessity of
being drawn. And I want us to look at it this
morning and tonight we will finish it. The necessity of being drawn.
But I want to read this whole chapter to us beginning in John
chapter 6 and verse 1. After these things, Jesus went
over the Sea of Galilee which is the Sea of Tiberias. And a
great multitude, we know there was at least 5,000 of them, they
followed Him because they saw the miracles which He did on
them that were diseased. And Jesus went up into a mountain,
and there He sat with His disciples. And the Passover, a feast of
the Jews, was near. When Jesus then lifted up his
eyes and saw a great company coming to him, he said unto Philip,
Whence shall we buy bread that these may eat? And this he said
to prove him, for he himself knew what he would do. Philip
answered him, Two hundred penny worth of bread is not sufficient
for them that every one of them may eat a little. One of His
disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said unto him, There
is a lad here which hath five barley loaves, and two small
fishes, but what are they among so many? And Jesus said, Make
the men set down. Now there was much grass in the
place, so the men set down in number about five thousand. And
Jesus took the loaves, and when He had Given thanks, he distributed
to the disciples, and the disciples to them that were set down, and
likewise all the fishes, as much as they would. When they were
filled, he said unto his disciples, Gather up the fragments that
remain, that nothing be lost. Therefore they gathered them
together, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five
barley loaves, which remained over and above unto them that
had eaten. Then those men, when they had
seen the miracle that Jesus did, said, This is of a truth, that
prophet that should come into the world. When Jesus therefore
perceived that they would come and take him by force to make
him a king, he departed again into a mountain himself alone.
And when evening was now come, his disciples went down into
the ship, and entered into a ship, down into the sea, and entered
into a ship and went over the sea towards Capernaum. And it
was now dark, and Jesus was not come to them. And the sea arose
by reason of a great wind that blew. So when they had rowed
about five or twenty or thirty furlongs, they see Jesus walking
on the sea and drawing near unto the ship, and they were afraid.
But he said unto them, It is I, be not afraid. And they willingly
received him unto the ship. And immediately the ship was
at the land where they went. The day following, when the people
which stood on the other side of the sea saw that there was
none other boat there, except that one were unto his disciples
were entered, and that Jesus went not with his disciples unto
the boat, but that his disciples were gone away along, Howbeit
there came other boasts from Tiberias, nigh unto the place
where they did eat bread, after that Jesus had given thanks.
When the people therefore saw that the Lord was not there,
neither his disciples, they also took shipping, and came to Capernaum,
seeking for Jesus. And when they had found him on
the other side of the sea, they said unto him, Rabbi, Teacher,
when comest thou hither? And Jesus said unto them, Verily,
verily, I say unto you, You seek me not because you saw the miracles,
but because you did eat of the loaves, and were filled. Labor
not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endeareth
unto everlasting life, which the Son of Man shall give unto
you. For him hath God the Father sealed. Then said they unto him, What
shall we do, that we might work the works of God? Jesus answered
and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe
on him whom he hath sent. They said therefore unto him,
What sign showest thou then, that we may see and believe thee?
What dost thou work? Our fathers did eat manna in
the desert, as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven
to eat. Then Jesus said unto them, Verily,
verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from
heaven, but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven.
For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven and giveth
life unto the world. Then said they unto him, Lord
evermore, give us this bread. And Jesus said unto them, I am
the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never
hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. But
I said unto you that ye also have seen me, and 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 my own will, but the will of him that sent me. And
this is the Father's will which hath sent me. that of all which
he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it
up again at the last day. And this is the will of him that
sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth
on him, may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up
at the last day. The Jews then murmured, they
grumbled 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 saith, I come 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 learnt of the Father cometh unto me. Not that any man hath seen the
Father, save he which is of God. He hath seen the Father. Verily,
verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me hath everlasting
life. I am that bread of life. Your
fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This
is the bread which cometh 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 of this bread,
he shall live forever. And the bread that I will give
is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. The
Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give
us his flesh to eat? And Jesus said unto them, Verily,
verily, I say unto you, Except you eat the flesh of the Son
of Man, and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whosoever
eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life,
and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat
indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh,
and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living
Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father, so he that eateth
me, even he shall live by me. This is that bread which came
down from heaven, not as your fathers did eat manna and are
dead. He that eateth of this bread
shall live forever. These things said he in the synagogue
as he taught in Capernaum. Many, therefore, of his disciples,
when they heard this, said, This is an unheard saying. Who can
hear it? When Jesus knew in Himself that
His disciples murmured at it, He said unto them, Does this
offend you? What, and if you see the Son
of Man, ascend up where He was before? It is the Spirit that
quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing. The words that I speak
unto you, they are Spirit, and they are life. 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 unto you, that no man can come unto
me, except it were given unto him of my father. From that time
many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.
Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will you also go away? Then Simon
Peter answered Him, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the
words of eternal life, and we believe and are sure that Thou
art that Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered
them, Have not I chosen you, twelve, and one of you is the
devil? He spake of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, for he it was
that should betray him, being one of the twelve." Now that's
the message. Go home, go back and eat now,
and you've got the best part of the message. I've got to try
to follow Him. That's a difficult task, isn't
it? But I want us to look at this
this morning. If you want to read the parallel
passages with this, sometimes it gives you just a little bit
more light on this. The Scripture says in Matthew
and Mark that the Lord saw this great company of people coming
to Him. And when He saw them, He had
compassion on them. Because He said they were like
sheep having no shepherd. And He did three things for these
people. He taught them. He sat down and taught 5,000
people. And then the Scripture says that
He healed. He healed those who had need
of being healed. He healed the sick ones. And
then the passage I read to you here that He fed them. He fed
them. He performed this miracle. They
were hungry. And another place, he said, if
you send them back into town to get something to eat, some
of them are going to faint. They're hungry. And so he took these
five loaves and two fishes and fed 5,000 men. And they all ate and took up
12 baskets full of fragments of that food. This is a miracle.
And they said, my soul, this is the prophet. Let's go make
him a king. So what he does, he sends his
Apostles down to the seaside and tells them to go across to
the other side. And then He goes up to the mountain
to pray. And then after it's dark, the
storm comes down on the sea and the waters rise and the disciples
think they're going to die, think they're going to drown. And the
Lord Jesus, we're told in Matthew and in Mark, that He comes to
them walking on the water. Now that's amazing, isn't it?
walking on the water. But He can do things like that,
you see, because He created the water. And Peter said, Lord,
it scared me to death. I think you're a ghost or something.
And if it's really you, bid me come to you. Well, Peter got
out of the boat, and Peter began to walk on the water until he
saw the waves, and then down he went. Down he went. He took
his eyes off the Lord Jesus, and down he went. The Lord gets
them back in the ship, and then they came across here. to the
other side. And the Lord Jesus begins now
to teach them. I tell you, this day He had labored,
He had taught them, He had fed them, and now He comes back here
to bestow some more labor upon them. He begins here in verse
26 to teach them. And the only difference between
This time of teaching them as opposed to other times, there
was something that happened at this time that never happened
before. He had taught these same people
before. But this time, this message is
going to fill their little ships. It's going to fill their wagons.
And they said, we can't take this anymore. This is a hard
saying. We can't understand what he's
saying. And they went away to walk with him no more. And that's
why I want to look at the message this morning and this afternoon
on the necessity of God drawing men through the message. But
He says here in verse 26, Verily, verily, I say unto you, you seek
Me not because you saw the miracle, but because you did eat of the
loaves and were filled. And then notice the labor now. And that's what I want you to
notice for a few minutes. The labor. The work. the Son of God bestowed upon
these men. Labor not for the meat which
perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting
life, which the Son of Man shall give unto you. For him hath God
the Father sealed." And what he is saying here, don't be overly
anxious and set your heart upon anything of this world. They
were anxious about Eden. I don't know if they didn't have
things at home to eat. I don't know if they were men
of great appetite. But they were anxious about being fed again.
And the Lord Jesus said, Don't labor for the meat which perisheth. Well, He tells us in another
place not to be anxious about that, doesn't He? Don't you be
anxious about what you're going to eat today, what you're going
to drink today. Don't be anxious about what you're
going to wear today. He said the body is more than
raiment. And the life is more than food. In another place,
he tells us to labor not to be rich, doesn't he? Don't labor
to be rich. Don't be anxious about being
rich, because he said, I'll tell you what happens to riches. They're
like little birds sitting on a fence, and they just fly away.
They fly back up to heaven to the one who gave them. Don't
be anxious about anything. Don't be anxious about riches.
Don't be anxious about food. Don't be anxious about fame.
Don't be anxious about power. Don't be anxious about some vain
religious hope of heaven. All of these things are going
to perish, aren't they? Everything, brothers and sisters,
you and I see, everything we feel, everything we know naturally
is going to vanish away. We've got it for just a few days.
And one old man often said, hold it lightly. Hold it lightly. There's something more important.
And here's what he's going to tell them. Notice the instruction.
But he says, labor, seek for that meat which endeareth unto
everlasting life. And the context tells us what
that is, doesn't it? That's the body of Christ that's
broken. That's true meat, isn't it? And
His blood that He has shed for the remission of sins. That's
true nourishment. Listen, he says, salvation is
available. I don't mind that word, do you?
Salvation is available, an eternal life is to be obtained for those
who truly seek after that life. Let your heart be set upon seeking
that life. And how do you seek it? Well,
when we seek it, we seek it through one person, don't we? Through
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. He is the one we seek it from.
And you notice here He said, we are to seek it not only from
Him, but seek it as a free and sovereign gift, which the Son
of Man shall give unto you. Nobody can earn it. Nobody can
merit it. Nobody can work for it. It is
not only in Jesus Christ, but it comes from Jesus Christ. And
when we seek it, knowing that it is God's will, how we seek
it and who we seek it from. And that He sent His Son into
this world to accomplish our salvation. And when we put our
trust in Him, we know this, that that pleases God. Because God
is pleased in His Son. He sent His Son to accomplish
salvation. He accomplished that salvation.
The Bible says here that him hath God the Father sealed. When
you want to preserve something, what do you do? You put it in
a container, don't you? You put it in the bank. You put
it in a vault. You put it in some kind of container
and freeze it or seal it up. And when God sent us salvation,
He put it in this one person. He preserved it in this one person.
He put His seal of approval upon this one person. And how often
did He look down and say, My son and you, I am well pleased. He accomplished the Father's
will, didn't He? In everything, He accomplished
the Father's will. He said, My need is to do the
will of Him that sent Me and to finish His work. And on the
cross of Calvary, He said, It's finished. It's finished. And He says, My Father approves
of Me. He has sealed Me. I love that passage in John 3
where it says, The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things
unto His hand. Jesus upon the throne is the
possessor of everything. everything natural, everything
carnal, everything physical that we see. You know the Bible says
that the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. Everything
belongs to Jesus Christ. But here is the most important
thing. Salvation belongs to Him. God has given it into the hands
of His Son. Eternal life, forgiveness of
sins, grace to help us in the time of need, God has put it
in His hands. God has sealed it in Jesus Christ
the Lord. Oh, that meat which endures to
everlasting life is a very precious gift, and God has preserved it
in His Son. For everybody who needs it, for
everybody who needs it, it's there in the Son of God. And
everybody who seeks it at His gracious hands shall obtain it."
That's a wonderful God, isn't it? That's what the Son of God
is telling these people here. That's the meat, He said, to
labor for. Don't be anxious about this world.
Don't let this world fill your heart with anxiety and seeking
after the things that's going to perish. You need life. You need salvation. You need
forgiveness of your sins. And it's in me! It is me! And
come and seek it at my gracious and loving hands. It's a heart-awakening thing,
brothers and sisters, to come to the realization that we have
sent away any claims on God, isn't it? We have no claims on
God anymore. We had claims on Him back there
in the garden, but we've sent away any and all claims to His
blessing. It's a sobering thing to come
to this realization that we have already earned His wrath by sinning. And now if we are saved from
that wrath, it must be a salvation that is free, worked out for
us by another, and freely given to us by another. That's a hard realization to
come to, isn't it? that we have ruined ourselves
by sinning, and now we must be saved by another freely by His
sovereign gift. That's why He says, labor for
it. Labor to come to the knowledge of this, and labor to come to
Him, and labor to receive it freely at His hand. Because the Father loves and
longs to honor His Son, and not only secretly but openly in our
hearts. He has put this salvation in
Him. And you know why He has put it
in Him? To give to others. Seek this meat which the Son
of Man shall give unto you. And think of this. The Son earned
the Father's trust. No wonder He sealed it. No wonder
He approves of it. He earned His trust. He said,
I have laid help upon one that is mighty. That's what the Father
said to the Son. You can't help yourself, but
I've laid help upon one that is mighty. I've laid help upon
one that is faithful and shall never fail or grow discouraged. He shall accomplish that whereunto
I have sent Him. And that He did. Did He not?
He did that. No wonder the Father chose Him.
No wonder the Father sent Him into this world to accomplish
this work. And Jesus earned the right to
give this gift of life to all of those who truly seek it at
His hand. Notice what He's saying here
in verse 27. If you seek this meat from Me,
I will give it to you. Isn't this amazing? Now here's
what's amazing. Did He give it to them? But why didn't He give it to
them? Because they never sought it. Not once through all of these
verses of Scripture do you see them seeking this salvation at
His hands for His sake. They never did it, did they? And something here in verses
32 and verse 33. For the bread of life is He which
cometh down from heaven. He says there in verse 32, Verily
I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven. But
look at this, My Father giveth you the true bread from heaven. But they had no idea what this
was. But listen, Jesus Christ said,
Seek it at My hands, I will give it to you. But He never gave
it to them. What's His meaning then? He said,
I'll give it to you on My terms. You seek it on My terms. I'll give it to you. And then
He says here in verse 32, the Father giveth you the true bread
from heaven. But He never gave it to them,
did He? They never ate of it. Then what in the world does He
mean? He means the Father's given you this bread on His to eat
of it, to eat of it. What I'm saying is this, there's
some debate today concerning whether or not the gospel can
be freely offered to everybody who's sitting under it. And be
careful with this silly debate, because all it'll do is just
confuse you and harden your heart. Go to the Bible if you want to
know these things. None of us have offered Christ
and His salvation as freely as He has offered Himself. But here it is. He does it on
His terms. He does it on His terms. You
must seek it from Him and you must seek it as a free gift. He has not come to bargain, has
He? He is not to be put up on auction
for the highest bidder. When you seek Me with all your
heart on My terms, you'll find Me. My Father has given you the
true bread on His terms. What are those terms? You eat
it. You eat it. I think it's safe to say this,
brothers and sisters. that nobody in hell suffers the
degree of torment as these Jews now do, who heard of this gift
of life from this heaven-sent preacher, from his very lips
and from his heart too. They heard this. Seek life from
me. The Father has given you the
true bread. Eat it and live. But they went
away to walk with Him no more at all. And is there anybody
in hell this morning who has suffered the degree that these
men are suffering in their conscience, that they heard these very words
from the lips of the Son of God and went away to walk with Him
no more? Ralph Barnes says something like
this, about those who sit under the
gospel and refuse to hear it, refuse to seek Him who gives
it. He said what a man needs to do is to buy him a plane ticket
to the far off country that he can get to. And when he gets
there, get him a truck and drive it as far as he can. When he
can't drive any farther, get him a mule and ride it as far
as that mule can take him. And when that mule can take him
no farther, get on a little path and walk until he's in the middle
of nowhere, and then get him a shovel and dig him a deep hole
and pull it in over his head and die, rather than to sit under
the gospel and hear the words of life freely offered to you
and reject it and leave Him who gives it. If the Lord Jesus had not gotten
so personal with these men, perhaps they could have found some ground
for their grumbling and leaving Him. If He had said something
like this, I am not speaking to you. This is none of your
concern. Go on about your business and
enjoy the pleasures of this world while you can. Stop your ears
and harden your hearts. There is no hope for you anyway.
If he had said that, they would have had some reason and probably
some rest in hell this morning. But boy, when he gets personal,
when he gets personal and says such things like this, the Son
of Man shall give unto you. The Father gives you that true
bread on His terms. Seek it on His terms. And He says here in verse 50,
look in verse 50 what He says to them. This is the bread which cometh
down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof and not die. A man may eat. He may eat. One of the things I learned in
high school, and I didn't learn very much. I should have learned
in grade school, but I was a slow learner. The difference between
can and may. And may means you have permission.
You have my permission. The Son of God keeps no man from
eating, does He? He bars the door against no man
from coming. How unreasonable would it have
been? If a generous man set a meal before a starving and dying body
and give him permission to eat and live and not die, and he
refused to eat because he wasn't hungry, wouldn't that be ridiculous? Man, you're starving to death.
Eat! I'm not hungry. Wouldn't you
say that such a person was in a desperate condition and would
soon die? The cause of it? For Jesus Christ, the Bread of
Life, to sit right before a dying soul, and for that man to say,
No, thank you, I'm not hungry. That man is in a desperate condition
and will soon die for all eternity. To hear Jesus Christ, the Son
of God, plainly and loudly say, if any man thirsts, let him come
unto Me and drink. And yet a man refused to drink
of Him because he says, I am not thirsty. That man's condition
is utterly beyond explanation. For Christ to say, Come unto
Me, all ye that labor, and I will give you rest. And for a man
to say, I don't have a burden to rest from, you don't have
any yoke to be relieved of, that man's condition is desperate,
is it not? And he's likely to perish. He's
likely to perish. You and I will have to admit,
we'll have to admit, salvation must come. as a free
offer. When we preach it to men and
women, it must come just as the Lord Jesus preached it, as a
free offer. And men's utter rejection of
it shows the awful condition that they are in. That meat which endureth to everlasting
life, the water of life which satisfies the thirsty soul, the
rest which will endure for all eternity, and undisturbed. And yet men say, I'm not thirsty,
I'm not hungry, and I'm not burdened. No, thank you. If I don't preach the gospel
to you as freely as the Lord Jesus did, then you may leave
here this morning and think within yourself I've got a reason. I've
gotten an excuse for not embracing Jesus Christ. But when I tell
you this morning that He has died, that His body has been
broken, He has obtained eternal redemption for all of those who
truly and wholeheartedly seek Him, including you! Including
you! And if you can leave then, you'll
leave with a heart loaded with guilt. and condemnation. Because
not only am I speaking to everybody here this morning without exception,
but so was He. Listen! For those who went away
and walked with Him no more at all. Can you imagine how weary the
Master was at this time? He's been up the day before preaching
to these people. He's fed them. He has been up
all night because they spent the night crossing the sea. And
now in our text here, He is laboring for the souls of this multitude
of people. And what would they do in the
end? They went away and walked with
Him no more. Verse 66 says no more. They went
away to walk no more. They'd never see His face again.
They'd never hear His voice again in this world. The next time
they saw Him, He would be on His throne, not as a Savior,
but as a Judge, to judge them. He had to be worn out, didn't
He? He had to be worn out. Hold our text for just a minute
and look over in Isaiah chapter 49 because we are told exactly
how He felt at this time. Isaiah chapter 49 tells us how
the Lord Jesus was feeling in John chapter 6 when He was preaching
to these men and women and what He thought when they went away.
Look here what He says in Isaiah 49 and look in verse 1. Listen, you owls, unto me, and
hearken, you people, from far. The Lord hath called me from
the womb. From the bowels of my mother
hath He made mention of my name. His name shall be called Jesus."
That is who is speaking about Him. And He hath made my mouth
like a sharp sword. In the shadow of His hand hath
He hid me and made me a polished shaft. In his quiver hath he
hit me, and said unto me, Thou art my servant, O Israel, O Christ,
in whom I will be glorified. And notice what he says here
in verse 4. Then said I, I have labored in vain, and I have spent
my strength for naught, and in vain. Yet surely my judgment
is with the Lord, and my work is with My God! Now isn't that
amazing? He said, I've labored in vain. I'm so glad He said this. I'm
so glad He felt this. Because He was laboring, wasn't
He? Nobody that's ever did what He did could say that's not much
work. Man, He put His soul into it,
didn't He? He put His affection in it. And after he had preached
to them with all his heart, they went away. And he saw their backs
and not their faces. And he says, I've labored in
vain for those people. You know why I'm so happy he
said that? He could have saved everybody he preached to if he
willed it to be so. But he didn't. It wasn't his
purpose, was it? By him telling us here how he
felt about this, it's so encouraging to preachers. Because how many
times do poor preachers get up and they preach their heart out,
and they see people's backs and not their face? I was talking with dear John
Mitchell. He's dead now. I pastored out in Great Falls,
Montana for years. And I was talking to him one
day, and I said, John, how are you? And he said, I feel like
I'm just spinning my wheel. I feel like I'm just spinning
my wheels. Every believer in here has felt that, haven't you?
Just spinning your wheels. That's basically what our Master
said, and He felt it too. I've labored for these souls,
and they've all went away to walk with Me no more at all. But go on and read. Look in verse
5. And now thus saith the Lord,
that farmed me from the womb," this is what the Father said,
"...to be his servant, to be his preacher, to bring Jacob
again to him, though Israel be not gathered." Natural Israel
was not gathered, was it? Brother Larry was talking about
it this morning, him calling them apostles, and he is getting
ready to set these guys aside, these rebels. These hard-hearted
murmurs, they're not going to be gathered. Ain't that what
He said? Yet shall all be glorious in
the eyes of the Lord, and my God shall be my strength. And
He said, this is what the Father said to the Son. It is a light
thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes
of Jacob and restore the preserved of Israel. I will also give thee
for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation
to the ends of the earth. Thus saith the Lord, the Redeemer
of Israel, and is holy one to him whom men despiseth, to him
whom the nation abhorreth. To a servant of rulers kings
shall see, and they'll arise. Princes shall worship because
the Lord that is faithful. and the Holy One of Israel, and
He shall choose thee." Look in another place. Look in 2 Corinthians
with me. Here it tells us also something
that was going on when the Master was preaching to these men. Look
in 2 Corinthians chapter 2 and look in verse 14. I'm just trying to lay just a
little bit of a foundation why it's Absolutely necessary for
the Father to draw. He said in 2 Corinthians chapter
2 and verse 14, now here's some mysteries. Now thanks be unto God which
always causes us to triumph in Christ. And He makes manifest
the fragrance, the savor of His knowledge by us in every place. But we are unto God a sweet savor
of Christ as we preach the gospel. You know what the Father smells?
He smells this sweet fragrance. We often talk about how the angels
listen while we preach. They have never heard anything
like this. They can't enter into what you and I as poor sinners
enter into. We talk about the forgiveness
of sins, and the angels say, What's that? We talk about the
Lord giving us His life. They said, How could that be?
We talk about being reconciled to God. And they said, How in
the world could any man, fallen sinner, be reconciled to God?
And they learn from us. And they love to hear us preach.
Angels desire to look into this thing. But here we are told when
we preach, we are a sweet fragrance. The message is a sweet fragrance
to God. Is it to you? Is the gospel a
sweet fragrance to your heart? But look at this, now here is
a mystery. For we are unto God a sweet Savior of Christ in them
that are saved, and in them that perish. To the one we are the
saver of death unto death, and to the other the saver of life
unto life, and who is sufficient for these things." What does
that mean? That's a mystery. How could preaching
the gospel be a saver of death unto death? But we have a good
example of that in our text this morning, don't we? These men
heard the gospel, and they didn't understand it. And they murmured
about it. And they went away. They went
away. And what else did they do? They
died. They died not only once, but
they died twice, folks. They died physically, and they
died spiritually. They're twice dead. without any
hope of ever being saved. When men hear the gospel freely
preached to them, and they do not understand it, and they will
seek for life and faith to believe it, but they go away from it,
they are more guilty than anybody else. They are more condemned
than those who would have never heard the gospel to begin with. That is what it means, a saver
of death. Death. This is a hard saying. Who can hear it? Boy, that's
evidence right there of death, is it not? And the Savior of
life. Well, we can understand that,
can't we? When the Lord Jesus was preaching and some of these
men were grumbling, Peter said this, Thou hast the words of
eternal life. This is life to me. When I hear
of your body that's broken, And your blood poured out for my
sin. That's life. That's life to me. And there
ain't nowhere else I can go and there's nowhere else I want to
go. Life. Life eternal. And this is the
way it must be when the gospel is preached. It was this way
when Christ preached it and it's this way now. It brings life
to those who hear it and believe it with all their hearts. and
embrace it, and to those who reject it, it just further adds
to their condemnation and eternal death. So rejecting the gospel reveals
to us abundant need, abundant need, and we'll see this afternoon,
the abundant need of being effectually drawn I don't care who preaches the
gospel. I hope you understand me when I say this. It doesn't
matter if the Son of God Himself preaches the gospel. Something
must be done in the sinner's heart for him to embrace that
gospel or he will go away from it and be lost and die forever. If the gospel is preached ever
so sincerely and earnestly, and God the Holy Spirit does not
work in the heart to make it effectual in drawing that person,
in the end they will not be saved. They will not be saved. And that's
why we'll look this afternoon at the necessity. And I hope
you can come back and listen to this. I hope you can listen
to this because it's wonderful. I spent all day yesterday and
late in the evening almost shouting when I saw this. So I hope you
can listen. May God bless His Word. Let's
pray.