Today I would like you to turn
in your Bible to the book of John, John's Gospel, chapter
6. I would encourage every one of
you to get your Bible this morning and let's read this scripture
together found in John, chapter 6, verse 44 and 45. Let's read these together. Our
Lord said, "'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, that is, in the book of Isaiah,
and they shall be all taught of God. Every man, therefore,
that hath heard and hath learned of the Father cometh to me, cometh
unto Christ." Now, these are the words of our Lord, and He
says plainly and absolutely that no man, no man, pretty definite,
isn't it? No man, regardless of his intellect,
regardless of his station or position in society, regardless
of his heritage or environment, he said, no man can, that is,
able in himself, has the ability, the power, the will or inclination
to come to me, that is, to believe on me, to receive me, to trust
Christ alone. No man will and can come to me
except the Father which sent me. The Father had purposed and
planned salvation and gave it unto the hand of the Lord Jesus
Christ to accomplish. The Father loveth the Son, and
hath given all things into his hand. No man," you see what he
is saying here? No man can, has the ability,
come to me to believe Christ except the Father which sent
me in the fullness of time. God sent forth his Son made of
a woman. made under the law to redeem
them that were under the law, except the Father, God Almighty,
who is holy and almighty and sovereign, draws him." That is,
compels or drags or enlightens and regenerates and sweetly allures
him by the Word and by the Spirit of God. Now, coming to Christ
is a very common phrase found in the Scripture. In this same
chapter, John 6, verses 35 and 36, listen to what the Lord says,
"...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 believed not. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will and know
wise, You see, coming to Christ is a very common phrase found
in the Scriptures, but there is nothing common or ordinary
about coming to Christ. Those who by God-given faith
receive Christ as everything in salvation come to Him as Lord
and receive His righteousness to be all, to be everything for
their covering before God, for their standing before God, and
receive His blood atonement as all their redemption. So this
coming to Christ, although this phrase is found throughout the
Scripture, there's nothing common or ordinary about it. No man
can come except God Almighty draws him by the Word and by
the Spirit of God. Coming to Christ is the very
first effect of regeneration. 1 John 5, 1 declares, Whosoever
believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. A man doesn't
believe to be born. He believes the gospel and comes
to Christ in faith alone because he has been born of God. No sooner than a soul is quickened
that it sees Christ as the only refuge and as altogether lovely. Now, know this, where there is
no quickening, there is no real coming to Christ. Coming to Christ
is described by some to be the easiest thing in the world. You
listen to Billy Graham and he says, come forward and make a
decision. You see, physically coming to
an altar or physically coming to the front is not a difficult
thing. Some say it's the easiest thing in the world. But the Word
of God teaches that apart from God's divine intervention, it
is impossible. Salvation is not coming forward
and making a decision. Salvation is not physically doing
anything. Salvation is the spiritual work
of God in the heart. You remember what the disciples
asked the Lord Jesus Christ? They said in Mark 10, verse 26,
Who then can be saved? And our Lord plainly replied,
With men it is impossible, but not with God. For with God all
things are possible. You see, going forward and making
a decision is not coming to Christ. Going forward and making a decision
does not constitute regeneration and coming to Christ. He said,
no man can come except the Father which sent me draw him. Now,
I don't doubt that some of you may be offended by what I've
just said. This is offensive to carnal human nature that is
so puffed up with sinful pride, but nevertheless, it's true. This is what our Lord has said,
no man. Now, that's absolute and definite,
isn't it? No man is coming except God Almighty
draws him to Christ. Now, let's take a good scriptural
look at man's inability. Why does not and why cannot a
man come savingly to Christ? Wherein does the problem lie?
Well, the problem is deep within man's fallen, debased, depraved
nature. Man is so totally corrupt and
so completely ruined by Adam's fall that by his own will and
power, he is unable to improve upon his condition. Now, let
me give you four reasons why. The human will is perverse, obstinate,
hard-hearted, and rebellious against God. This is the plain
teaching of Scripture. Back in John chapter 5, verse
39, our Lord told those self-righteous Pharisees in verse 39 of John
5, search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal
life. They are they which testify of
me, and you will not come to me that you might have life."
What's the problem? They had the Word. They had the
evidence. The problem was they had a hard-hearted, rebellious
will against God. Paul said in Romans 8-7, the
carnal mind is enmity against God. Men are unwilling by nature
to own their sin. They think they're well-off. rich and increased with goods,
and they don't know that they are blind and poor and miserable
and naked. Men are unwilling to seek God's
mercy in Christ. Oh, there is a way that seems
right unto men, the way of works and the way of good deeds, but
this is a way of death. Men are unwilling to bow to the
claims of a sovereign Christ, the sovereign God. God had given
Him power over all flesh that He should give eternal life to
as many as the Father hath given Him. The human will is so desperately
set on mischief, so inclined to everything that is evil, that
without the supernatural, irresistible influence of the Holy Spirit,
no man will ever be savingly drawn or constrained to the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now, let me ask you this question.
Are men sometimes willing to come to Christ without the Holy
Spirit drawing? Never. Absolutely never. Man, left to himself, his own
nature, his own will, is just like free-running water. It is
always and consistently downhill. Water never seeks the upward
course by itself. Man's fallen will is only self-ward
and downward, never God-ward and upward. Here is the second
reason why men will not seek God. Not only is the will perverse,
but the understanding is darkened. Paul said in Romans 3, there
is none righteous. No, not one. There is none that
understandeth. There is none that seeketh after
God. The understanding is darkened.
That's why Paul prayed for those Ephesian people, that God may
give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge
of Him. The eyes of your understanding
being enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of His
calling. Christ alone is the hope of God's
calling. You see, the understanding is
darkened. Understanding of man is so dull
and dead and darkened that he cannot by any means understand
the things of God until God has opened the eyes of his understanding.
The preaching of the cross, Christ crucified, substitution, salvation
through a substitute, the preaching of the cross is to them that
are perishing foolishness. But unto them which are saved
it is a power of God. The natural man does not receive
the things of the Spirit of God. For they are foolishness unto
him, neither can he know of them, because they are spiritually
discerned." 1 Corinthians 2, 14 declares. We are blind by
nature to the beauty of Christ and to the glory of the gospel.
Our understanding is darkened. That's why men don't naturally
come to God and seek the Lord Jesus Christ. These are two great
roadblocks against our coming to Christ, against any man coming
to Christ, but there's more. We have a rebellious will. Our
understanding is darkened. But thirdly, this is another
problem. The affections are depraved and
defiled as well. Man as he is, God leaving us
to ourselves will embrace anything and everything but that which
is truly spiritual. Men love darkness rather than
light. John 3, 19 declares, this is
condemnation, that light, that Christ, who is the light of the
world, is coming to the world. And men love darkness rather
than light because their deeds were evil. You see, our affections
are depraved and defiled. This is all the effect of our
fallen nature, that men should love sin better than righteousness,
that the ways of the world men love rather than the ways of
God. You see, our affections are depraved and defiled. Fourthly,
the conscience, too, is defiled by sin and overpowered with evil. Paul wrote to Titus in Titus
1.15, he said, Under them that are unbelieving is nothing pure,
but even their mind and their conscience is defiled. Our conscience
is defiled and affected by sin. There's not a single aspect of
our human nature that is not completely infected by sin. While the conscience is not destroyed,
it certainly is defiled. My conscience may tell me that
I am not as good as I should be, but it will never reveal
to me that I am a sinner. My conscience may lead me to
take up religion, but it will never savingly, effectually draw
me to Christ. You see, my friend, the will,
the understanding, the affection, and the conscience are so dramatically
affected by our sinful nature. Isaiah said the whole head is
sick, the whole heart is faint. Man has neither the will or power
to seek salvation in Christ alone. He is spiritually dead. That's
the problem. We may possess mental and physical
ability to do many things. have the mental ability to program
computers and the physical ability to play basketball just like
those UK Wildcats. But listen, coming to Christ
is neither physical nor mental. It's spiritual. That's why unless
God irresistibly draws us, we'll never come to Christ savingly. Oh man, they take up religion
for a while. but he'll never embrace the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now, let me ask you this question
in closing. How does a holy God draw men to Christ? And that's
obvious that if any man willingly, lovingly, obediently, savingly
embraces the Lord Jesus Christ, it is the working of God alone. Well, in verse 45 we have the
answer. He said, it is written, our Lord
said in the prophets, Isaiah 54, 13, and they shall be all
taught of God. Every man, therefore, that hath
heard and learned of the Father cometh unto me." Is a person
drawn by the preaching of the gospel alone? Is that all that is required
just to hear the preaching of the gospel alone? Absolutely
not. These people of Capernaum had
the gospel preached to them many times by Jesus Christ Himself,
yet they did not come to Christ. That person must not only hear
the true gospel, the gospel of God's grace and glory concerning
Christ, but it must be blessed and brought to the heart of the
sinner by the Spirit of God. Those who are effectively drawn
by God are those who have been taught. They don't come blindly
or ignorantly. They come because God has revealed
the gospel to them. They've heard the gospel, oh
yeah, but not in word only, but also in power. The Spirit of
God, my friend, teaches us basically these two things. Listen to me
carefully. Here's the first thing. The Spirit
of God, when He draws us, when He teaches us, those who have
heard and have learned of the Father, they learn these two
lessons. The sinfulness of sin. He invades our hearts, our minds,
our souls, and shows us something of what we are, that there is
none righteous, no, not one. We gladly own our sin before
God. We own, we fess up what we are
guilty. before God, depraved before God,
ungodly before Him, and we confess that that's our condition by
nature. The second lesson he teaches
us, not only that we're sinful, that we're guilty before God,
but thank God he doesn't stop there. Thank God he shows us
the glory of Christ. the beauty of Christ, the glory
of His sacrifice, the glory of the effectual atonement the Lord
Jesus Christ made on the behalf of sinners, that Christ is the
sinner's only remedy. He shows us how ugly we are,
and in the second lesson He teaches us, He shows us how glorious
and how beautiful the Lord Jesus Christ is. How the just suffered
for the unjust that He might bring us unto God. How Christ
bare our sin in His own body on the tree. When God the Spirit
reveals these things to a sinner, who we are and what Christ is
and who He is, they willingly embrace and believe and bow and
come to Christ and love Christ supremely. Above all things,
God, the Holy Spirit, irresistibly draws sinners to Christ. And
when he does this work, we say with the Apostle in 2 Timothy
1.9, it's God who saved us and called us with a holy calling,
not according to our works, but according to his own purpose
and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world
began. If you would like a copy of this
message, No man can come to me except the Father which sent
me. Draw him and I'll raise him up at the last day. If you would
like a copy of today's message, you write to me and I'll send
it to you absolutely free. No charge. You write to me. Here's
my address. 6088 Zebulon Highway, Pikesville,
Kentucky.