John chapter 6, the book of John chapter 6, where
we were this morning only back in the 6th chapter. I want to try just to emphasize
this thought this afternoon. We're going to look at verses
44 and verse 45. of man's inability to come to
Christ. Here's a message the Lord Jesus
was preaching, and they began to murmur against Him. How can
this man give us his blood to eat and so on? And He tells them
in verse 43, murmur not among yourselves. And then verse 44,
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,
they shall be all taught of God. Every man, therefore, that hath
heard and hath learned of the Father, he cometh unto me." I
want to look at this just for a few minutes, try to leave you
this thought. Inability has been the grounds for assurance. Our inability really is the ground
for our assurance. But when we look at Scripture,
not only this Scripture but all Scripture, there are some things
we seek when we interpret Scripture. We always must seek these three
things. When we read the Scripture and
as we interpret Scripture, the first thing we must realize is
Scriptures are written for God's glory. And when we interpret
the scripture, we must interpret them first and foremost in a
way that glorifies God. The Holy Spirit would have never
moved upon these men of old to write anything that dishonored
God in His eternal attributes. It honors His justice, it honors
His grace, it honors His mercy, it honors His love, it honors
God. We preach anything or interpret
any scriptures in any way that does dishonor to God, then we've
got the wrong interpretation of scripture. Secondly, as we
read the scriptures and try to discern the meaning of these
verses, we must interpret them in a way that exalts the Lord
Jesus Christ as the mediator and redeemer of His people. This book is about Him. It is
concerning Him. And when we look at a verse of
Scripture to interpret it, we must interpret it in such a way
that gives Jesus Christ His proper place. He that honors the Son
honors the Father which hath sent Him. And thirdly, we must
interpret the Scriptures to do men good. The Scriptures do men
good. And you know it's good to humble
the flesh. That's good for a man. The voice
said, cry. And he said, what shall I cry?
All flesh is grass. And when we preach and interpret
Scripture to humble flesh, we do men good. Men are done no
eternal good when they're puffed up in the flesh. When we brag
on the flesh, when we exalt flesh, we do men harm and not good.
We must interpret the scriptures to do the souls of men good. The Bible does that. God did
not send His Son into this world to destroy men's lives, but to
save them. I came not to condemn the world,
but that the world through me might be saved. And as we go
preaching the gospel, it does the souls of men good. However
I interpret this passage this evening, concerning a man not
being able to come to God, these three things must be evident.
God is honored in it, Christ is glorified in it, and you are
helped. I seek your good in it. Not to
discourage anybody, but to seek your good. There is a common phrase in the
Scripture. You and I see it in the Old Testament
as well as in the New Testament. And our Lord Jesus uses it here
in His sermon at different times. He says here in verse 44 and
verse 45, Come to me. Did you notice that? No man can
come to me. And He says there in verse 45,
that every man that hath heard and learned of the Father, he
cometh unto me." Coming unto me. And he says it there again
in verse 37. All that the Father gives to
me shall come to me. And we see this all through the
Old as well as the New Testament. Ho, every one that thirsteth,
come ye to the water. Let the wicked forsake his way,
and let him Return unto the Lord. Return now. Return now. Come now and let us reason together,
saith the Lord. And we come to the New Testament
and what do we find? All of these scriptures. If any
man thirst, let him come to me and drink. Are you burdened? Come to me and find rest. The
Bible closes with that, doesn't it? If any man will, let him
come and take of the water of life freely. But coming to the
Lord Jesus Christ is not something that is done physically. We know that because here in
John chapter 6 there was a multitude of people that came to Him. They
came seeking Him and they found Him and they went away from Him. So coming to Christ is not coming
to Him physically. It is not moving the body from
the back to the front. We do not come to Him physically. And coming to Christ is not coming
with a mere portion of the heart. And by that I mean we don't come
to Him just with the intellect. It's more than that, isn't it?
There are some people that are very, very strong on Knowing
Christ intellectually, well, that's good. But if we just come
to Him with an intellect, then we've not really come. There
are those who have a knowledge of Christ, but it's all in their
head. Remember the sow that was washed,
returned to her water in the mire? The dog that vomited up
everything, he turned back to it again? They had a knowledge
of the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. To come to Christ is
more than just coming in our intellect. It's more than just
coming with our affections. There are a lot of people that
talk about Christ, and they cry when they talk about Him. They're
sincere when they talk about Him. And I imagine they're sincere
when they think about Him. But you know, there's a lot of
people sincerely wrong. So it's more than just the affection,
it's more than the intellect, and it's more than just coming
to Him with the will. There was a man who came to the
Lord Jesus one day, and he says, I'll follow you wherever you
go. And the Lord said, you better
be careful what you say. I know you think you have a will
to follow me, but tonight when the sun goes down, I don't have
any place to lay my head. You'd be better off following
a fox. He has a hole to get in. The bird has a nest to get in.
I have nowhere to lay my head. I wonder if that fellow didn't
lose a great measure of his will to follow Christ. So it's not
just a portion of the heart that comes to Christ, but it's the
whole heart. Coming to Christ includes the
intellect. It includes the affections. And
it includes the will. When you seek Me with what? All
your heart. All your heart, you'll find Me.
And no man ever come to Christ with all of his heart apart from
the Father drawing him. And when the Father draws us
to Christ, He would never draw us with an intellect only. or with the affections only,
or with a will only, but He draws the whole of the man. He brings
the whole heart to the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the way a man
comes to Christ, with his heart, with a whole heart seeking. Last week, you and I looked at
John chapter 5 and verse 40. We looked there how the will
was adverse to coming to Christ. He said, You will not come to
me that you might have life. You will not come to me. And
this unwillingness to come to Christ, now listen to this. If
you don't understand this verse, what it means not to be able
to come, inability, here's what it means. This unwillingness
to come to Christ is what renders us unable to come to Christ. Our unwillingness to come to
Christ renders us unable. Our hearts are depraved with
sin. Are they not? The whole of the
heart. The whole head is sick. The whole
heart is faint. And I reminded you of this last
week. That means all the faculties. These three faculties that we
talk about. The intellect. The understanding. It's darkened. It's darkened. The affections are warped. We
love darkness rather than light. And the will is so adverse it
will not come to the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, we will not
come because of our natural hearts. We will not come. And because
we will not come, that renders us unable to come. Unable to
come. You say, Bruce, what in the world
are you trying to say? Well, if a man understood Jesus Christ,
would he not come to Him? If a man loved Christ, would
he not come to Him? If a man's will was to come to
Christ, would he not come to Him? But here's the problem. We are so depraved, we are so
ruined, that we don't understand Christ. We have no affection
for Christ. Our will is not to come to Christ. And that disables us. It puts us in the condition we
have no ability to come, because we cannot render, we cannot remedy
the depravity of our hearts. We don't want to come, and we
can't do anything about it. We don't understand Him, and
we can't do anything about it. We don't have any affection for
Christ, and we can't make ourselves love Christ. I don't want Christ
by nature, therefore I can't come, because I can't give myself
a desire to come. See what I'm saying? You won't
come, therefore you can't come, because you can't remedy your
desire to come, or lack of it. Does that make any sense? The Holy Spirit said the Ethiopian,
talking about the Ethiopian leopard, can the Ethiopian change his
skin? Why no, he can't can he? Can
the leopard change his spots? No. When that happens, then may
you also do good, who are accustomed to do evil. We can't do good. We won't do good, and we can't
do good. This tells us how the Father
draws us, doesn't it? When we realize that by nature
we don't understand, by nature we don't have any love for Christ,
for God, for the Holy Spirit, by nature we're adverse to coming,
we will not come. And this tells us how then the
Father must draw us. He must open our understanding. He must give light to our understanding. That's what we need. We need
knowledge, don't we? We need effectual knowledge.
And we need affection. We need affection. And we need
a will that's bent, that's courted. You court a woman. A woman courts
a man. And you win him. That's the way
the Lord does the will. He wins the will. He valves the
will. He sends light into our dark
hearts. He makes us see what the multitude
of these people never saw, that the Son of God came down from
heaven and took our humanity, and in His broken body and shed
blood, He brought to us eternal life. Don't we see that? They never saw that, did they?
I come down from heaven, He said. And what did they say? We know who this is. This is
Joseph's son. What's he saying he come down
from heaven? I'm here to give you my blood, to give you my
flesh. And you eat my flesh and drink
my blood, you have eternal life. What did they say? This is a
hard saying. We can't understand this. But
I tell you, when the Father teaches you, when the Father teaches
you, don't you understand where He's from? Don't you understand
what He came to do? That's the way the Father teaches
us. He invades our darkness with light. He gives us knowledge. But He doesn't stop there, does
He? It's not just about the intellect alone. It's about the affections. How does He get us to come to
Christ? How does He get us to come to eat this bread and to
drink this blood? He gives us a hunger, does He
not? He gives us a felt need. He gives us a desire. He healed
those who had need of being healed. And men cannot come to Christ
because they see no need of Christ. They don't see their need of
this blood to cleanse them and give them life. So there must
be a need created. And that's the way He draws us.
That's the way He wins our affection. But he doesn't stop there, does
he? He bends the will. He vows the
will to come and eat. Because it's the whole heart.
If a man has some understanding, if he has some desires, and he
don't have a will, he will come. It's the whole heart. It's the
whole heart. He said there in verse 35, I
am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never
hunger. He that believeth on me shall
never thirst. So we must come to Christ, and
we must eat, and we must drink, and we must come willingly. And
this is a work of God. And until He does this work,
and as He does this work, we're unable to come to Him because
we don't want to come, and we can't change our will to. No
man ever did. No man ever did. God may do this work suddenly
and overwhelmingly, like He did the Saul of Tarsus, and it becomes
so clear in the heart that He's done it. But other times, He
may do it slowly, He may do it secretly, and He may do it very
gently so that we have to examine ourselves to make sure that the
work is begun in us. But where He does it, like He
does it to the Apostle Paul, or where He does it gently and
slowly, it's Him that must do it. And if He don't begin the
work and keep up the work, then we will not come. And we cannot
go. See where I've got my title?
Inability, the grounds for assurance. If you've come to Jesus Christ,
if you've come into Him with your intellect, you know Him,
you know what He's done for you, you have affection for Him, you
love Him, you need Him, you have a will to come to Him, then that's
the work of the Father in your heart. That's not a work of nature.
Nature never did that, and never will do it. That's God's work,
and it's the ground for our service. Now, there are many who are taught
who never come to Christ. Christ Himself taught this multitude
here, and they went away. We're not saying that everyone
God teaches We look last week at Proverbs chapter 1, where
the Lord taught them. He said, I called you. I called
you. And I reproved you. And He gave
them that precious promise. Turn you at my reproof, and I'll
pour out my Spirit unto you. So He called them in different
ways. But what was the problem? You
refused. You said it in all my counsels. You would none of my reproof."
So God does teach people that never come to Christ. He teaches
them with creation. He teaches them from His Word.
He teaches them through His providence. But in John chapter 6 and verse
45, Christ is saying that every man without exception who so
hears and so learns of the Father. He comes. He comes. God may teach a man and let him
go on in his rebellion, but He don't do everybody that way.
He teaches some people effectually. He teaches them in such a manner
that they cannot live their lives without coming to Christ. They
may not even know that He's teaching them. He's doing it so secretly. He's doing it so slowly. But
this desire, this need, this understanding, this will to come
to Christ finally is so effectual, they can't stay away from Christ. Everybody's taught that way,
comes to Christ. If you can stay away from Him,
you will stay away from Him. And man will try everything and
go everywhere before he comes to Christ. But those whom the
Father so teaches and so draws as Christ is preaching here,
they'll come. They'll come. We call this effectual
calling. It has the power to gain the
ends desired. And what does God desire? To
bring His elect to Christ. And he has the power to fulfill
that desire. This truth here had great comfort
to the Lord Jesus Christ. He is preaching to this multitude
and he says, I know that you don't believe me. He knew from
the beginning who believed him and who would go away. Most of
his preaching he labored in vain. Did he not? Sometime read Isaiah
chapter 59, I think it is, where he said, I've labored in vain,
I've spent my strength for naught. Look at his preaching in this
chapter alone. And these men went away. And
the Lord Jesus found great comfort in this doctrine that I'm teaching
to you this afternoon. He found great comfort in this
truth. Though these multitudes would
go away and walk with Him no more at all, yet there was a
remnant of them that the Father would so teach that they would
come to Christ and bow to Him and have life at His hands. He
did the same thing over here in verse 37. Look what He said
in verse 36. You almost feel this in His heart.
I said unto you that you also have seen Me And believe not. You've seen my miracles. You've
heard me preach. But you don't believe me. And
you won't come to me. And then he comes to verse 37. He says, but listen to this.
All that the Father giveth me, they shall come. He took great
comfort in that, didn't he? And I tell you, I do too. Don't
you? I want you to look over here in Isaiah 54. Look in Isaiah
54 and verse 1. Isaiah chapter 54 and verse 1. This was a promise that the Lord
made to the church, and this is where the Lord quoted this. They shall all be taught of God.
It's found here in Isaiah chapter 54. And he's speaking here to
the church of old, and this is a promise that he made to the
church. The Jewish church was a church that was greatly afflicted
in the Old Testament, especially at this time. And look here what
he says to the church of old, the promise. Verse 1, Sing, O
barren, thou that didst not bear. Break forth unto singing, and
cry aloud, thou that didst not to prevail with child? For more
are the children of the desolate than the children of the married
wife, saith the Lord. Enlarge the place of your tent,
and let them stretch forth the curtains of thy habitation. Spare not, strengthen thy cords,
and strengthen your stake." He is telling them, you better build
your bigger sanctuary. I am getting ready to fill it
up. That is what he is telling them. Lengthen your temps, and
you better strengthen your strength, because I'm getting ready to
add to your number. For thou shalt break forth on
the right hand and on the left, and your seed shall inherit the
Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited. Fear
not, for thou shalt not be ashamed. Neither be thou confounded, for
thou shalt not be put to shame, for thou shalt forget the shame
of thy youth. Thou shalt not remember the reproach
of thy widowhood any more. For thy master is your husband,
the Lord of hosts is his name. Thy Redeemer, the Holy One of
Israel, the God of all the earth, shall he be called. For the Lord
hath called you as a woman forsaken, destitute, forsaken, and grieved
in spirit a wife of youth. whom thou wast refused, saith
thy God. For a small moment even I have
forsaken thee, but with great mercies will I gather thee. In
a little wrath I hid my face from you for a moment, but with
everlasting kindness will I have mercy on you, saith the Lord
thy Redeemer. For this is as the waters of
Noah unto me, these promises that I am promising you. For
as I have sworn that the waters Of Noah shall no more cover the
earth, so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with you any more,
nor rebuke thee. For the mountains shall depart,
and the hills be removed, but my kindness shall not depart
from thee, his church. Neither shall the covenant of
my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee.
O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted, behold,
I will lay your stones with fair colors and lay thy foundations
with sapphires, and I will make your windows of agates, and the
gates of carbuncle, and all thy borders of pleasant stones, and
all thy children shall be taught of the Lord, and great shall
be the peace of thy children." What a promise to the church
of old who lay desolate small in number and small in strength. But when the Lord came and He
began to preach and the multitudes went away, He reminded His disciples
of this particular scripture that was promised to the church. But it wasn't long after this
message in John chapter 6, the church did indeed have to enlarge
her tent. 3,000, 5,000 multitudes, lengthening your
cords, strengthening your stakes. How can you be sure? Because
they're going to be taught of God. They're coming. They're coming. When God teaches
them effectually, they come. That's so encouraging to me,
a preacher. And that ought to be encouraging
to you as you witness to people. If God takes the little sermon
that you have and the few words from His Word and teaches people
with it, they'll come to Christ. They'll come to Christ. This
is a soul-comforting thing for our Master. And I tell you, it's
a comforting thing for the church. It's a promise to the church.
That's a promise itself, isn't it? All thy children shall be
taught of God. That's a promise. That's a covenant
promise. And they shall. Look back over
here in my text one more time, and we'll close. Here's another
promise. This is a wonderful promise about
being taught of God. In verse 37, I just read it to
you. All that the Father giveth me
shall come Now, how can he be sure of that? They're drawn of
the Father. All that the Father draws, all
that the Father teaches, they shall come to me. And what happens
when they come to Christ? They have this promise. I'll
in no wise cast you out. You think Christ would ever cast
anybody out that the Father draws to Him? That'd make no sense,
would it? And you know, this is not a one-time
coming. Now, we are not talking about
just a one-time coming. You may approach unto Jesus Christ
a thousand times a day, and you do so because the Father is drawing
you to Him. And you approach unto Him a thousand
times a day, not one time will He cast you out. This word, knowwise,
means for any cause. There's never been a sinner come
to Jesus Christ truly and was turned away. He will not cast
out those who come to Him. That's a promise. That's a promise. We come when the Father draws
us. Always coming. To whom coming? And He'll never
cast us out. And here's another promise in
verse 35 that's connected with coming to Him, being drawn to
Him. He says, Jesus said, I am the bread of life. He that cometh
to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall
never thirst." Once you've had this bread and this blood that
you eat and drink, you'll never be destitute of life again. Oh, you want more. He didn't say, he didn't mean
that you'd never hunger for the bread and the blood. Man, we
live off of it, don't we? But you'll never be destitute.
You'll never hunger for that life that you've got. You'll
never lose it. It's eternal life. And in verse
44, we'll close with this one. Look at this promise. Come to
Christ. Come to me. Look at this promise
upon our coming. No man can come to me except
my Father which sent me draw him. And look at this promise.
And I will raise him up at the last That's a promise. Grace begun is heaven won. You come to Christ now, you'll wind up in His heaven
at last. Isn't this grounds for assurance therefore? I can't
come. My very nature keeps me from
coming. And yet I'm coming. Then why
am I coming? He's drawn me. If you're coming
to Christ, He's drawn you. What a ground, for sure. All
that the Father gives to me shall come to me. Let's pray.