Let's turn in our Bibles today
to the book of John. I'm going to read a passage of
scripture found in John chapter 6. The verses are verse 45, verse
44 and 45. Now my subject this morning is
taught of God, taught of God. Our Lord said in John 6, 44,
no man can come to me coming to Christ, believing on Christ,
receiving Christ, trusting Christ, obeying Christ, are all the same
thing. No man can come to me by faith
in salvation except the Father, certainly not excluding the Holy
Spirit nor the Son, except the Father which sent me draw him. And I will raise him up at the
last day. It's written in the Prophets. It's written in the
Old Testament Scriptures. And they shall be all taught
of God. And they shall be all taught
of God. And every man therefore that
hath heard and learned of the Father cometh unto me. You see how important is my subject
today. It's the very foundation of coming
to Christ. It's the very cause of coming
to Christ. They shall be taught of God,
and every man that hath learned of the Father, that hath been
taught of God, that hath heard the voice of God, will come to
me." Now, my friends, religion, religion is as much a part of
man's nature as any other emotion. All men, listen to me, all men,
wherever you find men, all men are religious to some degree.
Where you find men, you'll find religion. It doesn't matter where
you go, some form of religion will be there. Now, men by nature
do not know God. They by nature do not love the
true and living God. They do not by nature worship
the true and living God, but they are religious. You remember
the woman at the well? When our Lord spoke to this woman,
she began to talk about her religion. She said, now, your fathers say
to worship in Jerusalem, and our fathers say to worship in
this land. This woman was a very religious woman, not saved, didn't
know God, didn't have a living union with God at all, didn't
have a life of testimony of any sort, but she was very religious,
as most are today. And she said, she began to talk
to the Lord Jesus Christ about her religion, and He said, you
worship, you worship, but you don't know what you worship.
You don't know what you worship. It says in 2 Timothy 3, 5 that
they have a form of godliness, a form of godliness. That's the ceremony and the ritual
and the tradition and the customs of religion. We have that today
on every hand. We have a form of religion. It takes different forms and
different traditions and different ceremonies all over this country
and all over the world every Sunday morning or every Saturday,
Sabbath day, people go through the motions of religion, the
form of religion, but deny the power thereof. They have a form,
but they deny the power thereof. The difference in this religion,
which man has by nature, which is as common to him as any other
emotion, is as common as fear, or hate, or love, or jealousy,
or hunger, or thirst, or anything else. He's got to have something
to worship. He's got to have some form of
worship. He's got to have a God, a supreme
being. He's got to have some kind of
refuge, some kind of hope when he dies, some kind of hope of
living forever. And this natural religion is
not based on the Word. It's not based on a revelation
of God. It's based on human logic and human understanding and human
reason, not divine revelation at all. He doesn't go to the
Scripture. He goes to his thoughts. You hear them all the time. Well,
this is the way I see it. Or, I think this. Or, I believe
this. Or, our church believes this.
And all the time, the Lord God is saying, my thoughts are not
your thoughts, and my ways are not your ways, as the heavens
are high above the earth, so are my ways higher than your
ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. And all the time, God
is saying, there's a way that seems right to men, and the end
is death, destruction, damnation. The preaching of the cross, of
substitution, is foolishness to them that perish. It's sheer
nonsense. The natural man, God says, receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God. He'll receive the things
of man. Christ said, let another come
in his own name, with his own religion, and his own theology,
and his own custom, tradition. Him you will receive. I come
in my Father's name, and you receive me not. That's man's
natural religion. See, it's based on his logic.
It's based on his own natural understanding. Well, now, I believe
this, or I think this, or I see it this way. And all the time,
God is saying, can you, by searching, find out, God? Why, it's higher
than the heavens. What can you know? It's deeper
than hell. What can you imagine or find
out? It's broader than the sea. What can you know? His ways of
finding out. Our Lord charges that group of
religionists in John chapter 5 with four things. He said,
you will not come to me that you might have life. You're busy
searching the Scriptures. For in them you think you have
life, but you're twisting them. You're resting the Scriptures
to your own destruction. You've got your thoughts and
minds already made up, and then you come to the Scriptures to
prove it. And you will not come to me that you might have life.
The Scriptures testify of me. And then He charges them with
this. He said, you don't have the love of God in you. You don't
have a love for God or His glory or His honor. For you seek not
the honor that comes from God. You seek the honor that comes
from men. You love the uppermost seats in the synagogue. You love
to hear yourself called rabbi, or master, or doctor, or reverend,
or teacher, or deacon, or some other name, title. You love titles. You love the praise of men. You
love the recognition of men. When you say your prayers, you
pray to be seen of men. When you give your gifts, you
give to be seen of men. When you fast, you fast so that
everybody will know that you're holy and pious and religious,
and you put on a long face. And somebody says, what's your
problem? I'm fasting this week. You do it to be seen of men.
You seek not the honor that comes from God, but the honor that
comes from men. And he said, you believe not
my word. Now, that lays the foundation
for this message. Expect religion. Everybody's
religious to some degree, some to a greater extent than others.
But everybody's religion, but this religion is not based on
divine revelation. It's not based on the Holy Spirit's
teaching. It's not based on God Almighty's
teaching. It's based on, I think, I thought,
I believe, this is the way I see it, human reason, human logic,
and human understanding. And in the text right here before
us, when our Lord said, no man can come to me except my Father
which sent me, draw him. And I'll raise him up at the
last day. It's written in the prophets, they shall be all taught
of God. Every man that hath heard and
hath learned of the Father cometh to me. What brought this on?
Well, I'll tell you. In John 6, our Lord presented
himself. He presented himself as the bread
of life. The bread of life. In other words,
life is in Christ. It's in a living union with Christ.
It's in a vital union with the Son of God. It's by feeding on
Christ by faith. It's Christ in you, the hope
of glory. Christ is our life. Our life
is not in laws, or doctrines, or theology. Our life is not
in church membership, or morality, or good deeds. Our life is not
in ceremonies, ritualism, or legalism. Our life is not in
going through the motions of religion. Our life is Christ,
a person. And he presented himself as the
bread of life to the souls of men. Feed on me. Trust in me. Look to me. Believe on me. Build
upon me. Find in me your life and hope
and refuge and all things, strength and everything." And against
this truth, when he said, I am the bread of life, Moses gave
you not that bread from heaven. You ate that bread in the wilderness
and died. But he that eateth of me, my
flesh and my blood liveth forever. And to that they cried. How can
this man give us his flesh to eat? See this human reasoning?
See these human thoughts, see this, I think, I believe, this
is the way. I don't understand that. How
can this man give us his flesh to eat? Why, is not this Jesus? Is not this a man? Is not this
the carpenter? Well, we know his mother, and
we know his father, and we know his brothers and his sisters,
against his mysterious spiritual teaching. of the life of God
in the soul, of a living, vital union with the Son of God by
faith against this message of substitution, of satisfaction,
of regeneration, of the new birth, of the mysteries of the gospel.
They set their thoughts and their logic, and they said, we don't
understand that. This is a hard saying. We understand
the ceremony. We understand the law. We understand
the do's and don'ts. We understand the walking now
and shaking the hand and turning over a new leaf. We understand
the baptisms. We understand the sacraments.
And we understand all of these things. But we don't understand
this exactly. That's what I'm saying. And to
them, that's when Christ strikes at the root of their whole problem.
Ignorance. Ignorance. Spiritual ignorance. Spiritual blindness. He said,
you reject me and my words because you don't know me. And you don't
know me because you haven't been taught of God. No man can come
to me except my Father which sent me draw him. And I'll raise
him up at the last day. It's written in your law and
in your prophets, they shall be all taught of God. And every
man that hath heard and learned of the Father cometh unto me."
Now, the two things set forth in that text, two very positive
truths, two undeniable unfailing truths. Number one, no man will
come to Christ in saving faith, in living faith, in vital union,
unless he comes having been taught of God. Having learned of God,
the world by wisdom does not know God. The world by natural
wisdom knows their gods, their ideas of God, their thoughts
of God. They bow down to their graven
images and their idols and their conception of God Almighty, but
they do not know God unless God reveals Himself. The princes
of this world knew not who Christ was, or they wouldn't have crucified
him. Eye hath not seen, ear hath not heard, neither hath it entered
the heart of man the things God has prepared for them that love
him. But he hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit. The natural
man receiveth not the things of God. He'll receive anything
else. You tell him to eat certain things on a certain day, go to
certain places on a certain day, bow, sit, stand, lie prostrate,
burn candles, wear robes, confess his sins, count beads, tell him
to do anything, he'll do it, he'll do it. But to receive Christ,
and rest in Christ, and believe on Christ, and to come to Christ,
well, he hasn't been taught of God. He doesn't know who Christ
is. Christ said, you don't believe me because you don't know who
I am. And you don't know who I am because you haven't been
taught of God. That's the first truth he sets forth. You must
be taught of God. And the second truth is this,
and everyone that hath heard and learned of the Father will
come. God won't fail. He can't fail. Our Lord said, All that my 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 will, but the will of him that sent me. And this is
the will of him that sent me, that every one that the Father
hath given me I shall lose nothing, that of all which the Father
giveth me I lose nothing. Now, there are four questions
I want to ask this morning on this subject taught of God. I
believe I've established from the Scriptures clearly that no
man will come savingly and believingly to Jesus Christ unless God draws
him by His Spirit and teaches him. But here's the question.
How does God teach men? How does God teach me? Here's
the second question. What does He teach them? What
truths does He teach? And thirdly, how can I know if
it's God who's teaching me and not some man? How do I know it's
God's voice I'm hearing and not the voice of some man? And then
last of all, why is it impossible for men to come to Christ apart
from divine teaching? Why must I be taught of God?
Let's take these one at a time and see if by God's Spirit we
can make good on all of them, or at least some of them. First
of all, how does God teach men? Our Lord said, you must be taught
of God. No man will come to me except
he's taught of God, hath learned of the Father. And if he is taught,
if he's an object of God's work of grace, he'll come. He'll come. And I won't cast him out. Well,
how does God teach men? Threefold. Number one, He teaches
men by His Word. The Scripture says, These things
are written, that you may believe on the Son of God, and believing
you might have life through His name. That's why God wrote the
Scriptures. The Bible is a book of redemption.
It's not a book of etiquette. It's not just a book of law.
It's not a book of history. It's a book of redemption. It's
about Christ. Christ is the Bible, from Genesis
3, 15 to Revelation 22. Faith cometh by hearing, and
hearing by the Word of God. Isaiah wrote, If they speak not
according to the Word, It's because there's no light in them. A man
who does not preach the Word is a false preacher. He's a man
in whom there's nothing but darkness. He does not have any spiritual
light if he does not preach the Word. That's the advice that
Paul gave young Timothy. He said, Timothy, preach the
Word. The instant in season, out of season, rebuke, exhort
with all longsuffering for all Scripture is given by inspiration
of God. It's God breathed. And it's profitable
to all men for doctrine, reproof, for correction, instruction in
righteousness. Of his own will begat he us through
the word of truth. If you hear from God, it'll be
by his word. Not by dream and not by vision.
It'll be by God's word. My word will not return unto
me void, God said in Isaiah 55. It shall accomplish that unto
which I have sent it. It shall accomplish that which
pleases me, that which I purpose. It won't fail. God's word shall
not fail. So God teaches men by his word.
Secondly, by his ministers. That's right, he said, whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. But how
shall they call on him in whom they've not believed? And how
shall they believe in him of whom they've not heard? And how
shall they hear without a preacher? Our Lord sent Philip to the eunuchs. The eunuch was reading the scriptures
in his chariot, traveling from Jerusalem to Ethiopia, and God
sent him a minister. God sent Peter to Cornelius.
Cornelius, a devout man, a praying man, an anxious man. God sent
Peter. Why did He send Peter down there?
To preach the gospel to him. Even Saul of Tarsus, who was
ordained and anointed himself to be a prophet of God, a preacher
of the gospel, a minister of the Word of God, When God appeared
to him on the Damascus road, he sent Ananias to him to preach
to him the gospel. So God will send you a preacher.
God teaches men by His ministers. When our Lord ascended up on
high, He left some prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. And then thirdly, He teaches
men by His Spirit. By His Spirit. In John 16, 8,
And when He is come, Our Lord speaking of the Holy Spirit.
And when he has come, he will convince the world of sin, of
righteousness, and of judgment. Our Lord said to his own disciples,
he said, I've got many things to say to you, but you're not
able to bear them just yet. But when he, the Spirit of truth,
has come, he shall glorify me. He'll take the things of mine
and show them to you. He shall not speak of himself.
He's not going to glorify himself. He's going to glorify me and
take the things of mine. What are the things of Christ?
His person, His incarnation, His life, His teachings, His
death, His resurrection, His redemption, His ascension, His
return. How does God teach men? By His
Word, by His ministers, and by His Spirit. Now here's the second
question. What does God teach those whom
He calls? Well, there's so much here. I
could take the whole time this morning and talk about what God
teaches us. But let me just see if I can
sum it up briefly in four or five things. First of all, of
course, God teaches us His glory, His majesty, His might, His sovereignty,
His power. But God teaches us the great
evil of our natures and our conduct. Now, I know most everybody has
a general idea or notion of sin. But those who are taught of God
have a heart knowledge of the exceeding sinfulness of their
own sins." That's what Isaiah said when he saw the Lord. He
said, woe is me. I'm a man of unclean lips. That's
what Job said when he saw the Lord. He said, Lord, I've heard
of you, now mine eye seeth thee, wherefore I hate myself. I repent
in sackcloth and ashes. That's what Paul said. I have
not known sin, except the law said I shall not covet. And then
sin became a reality. Whose sin? The world's sin? No,
sir, my sin. Oh, wretched man that I am. God
teaches us the sinfulness of our nature, the sinfulness of
our attitude and spirit and imagination, the sinfulness of our deeds,
the sins of omission and commission, revealed sins, secret sins, all
kind of sins, with flesh. And that which is flesh, it cannot
please God. In the flesh dwelleth no good
thing. Man at his best state is altogether vanity. That's
what God teaches us. We mourn over our sin, which
is our nature. We mourn over our sins, which
is our conduct. We mourn over our righteousness,
which is full of sin too. And then he teaches us his holiness.
Now watch this and listen to me and remember this and think
about it. Men are convinced of sin in direct proportion to their
understanding of the holiness of God. Now your idea of sin,
I'm going to scare you a little bit here and upset you maybe.
You know the reason you have a small idea of conception of
sin and a small fear of sin and a small grief over sin because
you've got a small God? Your God's not very holy. Your
God's not very righteous. The more holy and righteous and
omnipotent and omniscient and omnipresent and almighty is your
God. The more awesome is the glory
of your God. the more wickedness you see in
yourself. The brighter the light, the clearer the vision. Now,
that's exactly right. And the brighter the holiness
of God shines upon your heart and soul, the more you tremble
and mourn over your sins, the more sins you see. The dimmer
the light, the happier you can be with your smut and dirt and
filth, and you can live in it when you can't see it. Men do
not fear what they do not see. But boy, I tell you, when the
holiness and righteousness of the omnipotent God, the awesomeness
of His holiness, the glory of His blessed name, if thou, O
Lord, shouldst mark iniquity, O Lord, who shall stand? And
then thirdly, He teaches us that forgiveness of sin and deliverance
from the curse of the law is the most important business in
the world. That's exactly right. And when you begin to see your
sinfulness, the certainty of death, the certainty of eternity,
the certainty of God's judgment, God's holiness, then you begin
to pant after God's righteousness and a right relationship with
Him. Our Lord said, what shall it profit a man if he gained
the whole world and lose his soul? Well, there are a lot of
people who would like to have the whole world because they
don't know the value of the soul. They'd gladly make that exchange.
But our Lord said, you shall seek me and find me when you
search for me with all your heart. When salvation becomes uppermost
to you, when salvation and a right relationship with God becomes
the one thing that you want above all things, that's when you'll
find it. And you'll find it in Christ.
The fashion of this world fadeth away. The Lord teaches us to
number our days, that we may apply our hearts to wisdom. And
then He teaches us that the works of religion and the deeds of
the flesh cannot save the soul. Our Lord condemned the most religious,
moral people of His day, to which His disciples replied, well,
who then can be saved? And He said, with men it's impossible.
So forget it. If you're trying to work your
way to heaven, forget it. If you're trying to establish
a righteousness with which God will be pleased and one He'll
accept, forget it. If you're trying to be good enough
to go to heaven when you die, forget it. If you're trying to
find your way into God's presence by your own efforts, forget it.
It's impossible. Christ said, with men it's impossible.
Who can be saved? With men it's impossible. But
with God all things are possible. If God be for you, who can be
against you? If God justifies you, who can
bring anything to your charge? If Christ died for you, who can
condemn you? By the deeds of the law shall
no flesh be justified, religious or otherwise. Not by works of
righteousness which we've done, but according to His mercy He
saves us. God teaches us the sufficiency of Christ. The sufficiency
of Christ to save. This is the message of the whole
Bible. Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom of God. He is
able and He is sufficient. He's able to save to the uttermost
them that come to God by Him. Nobody else. Them that come to
God by Him. He can save to the uttermost.
I know whom I have believed, Paul said, and I'm persuaded
he's able to keep that which I've committed to him. Now unto
him that's able to keep you from falling." How is Christ so able
to save so many of so much because of who He is? He's God, the God-man,
perfect God and perfect man, our eternal surety and our eternal
Savior. Because of what He did, He gave
Himself. He bore our sins in His body.
He was wounded for our transgression because of where He is, having
therefore boldness to come into the very presence of God by a
new and living way because we have a high priest. And He's
not a human down here on this earth with as much sin as we've
got or more. He's Christ the Lord who knew
no sin. How can I know this God teaching
me? How can I know that God speaks to me and not just some religious
nut or fanatic or radical or preacher or covetous prophet?
Well, number one, that's not easy to answer. I'm not saying
it is. Try the Spirit. But God teaches powerfully. God
doesn't just teach the ear and the mind and the intellect. God
hits the heart. Paul said, I know your election
of God because our gospel didn't come to you in word only to argue
and debate. It came to you in power in the
Holy Ghost and much assurance. You see what I'm saying? And
you became followers of the Lord. You turned from your idols. God
teaches men powerfully. He touches the heart. He convinces
the heart. God breaks the heart. He does
what no man can do. And then God teaches sweetly
and satisfactorily. His mouth is sweet to my taste. That's what the Song of Solomon
said. His Word meets my need. His Word speaks peace to my heart. He said to His disciples, Would
you go away? And they said, To whom? You have the words of life. That's how you can tell if it's
God who's teaching you. He has the words of life. His
words are not just empty, hollow, religious, mumbo-jumbo and nonsense. His word is the word of life.
And you recognize it as being the word of life. You know the
difference. You're not dumb. God teaches men plainly. Not
with enticing words of man's wisdom. Not with vain tradition
and philosophy. Not with entertaining music.
Not with ceremonialism. God teaches men plainly in words
they can understand. May not believe them, may not
like them, may not receive them, but they know it's God that speaks.
They came back after hearing Jesus Christ and they said, He
doesn't talk like you fellas, you scribes and Pharisees. He
speaks with authority. He speaks with authority. He
tells you who God is in no uncertain terms. He tells you what man
is. Low, depraved, wretched, and
no uncertain terms. He tells you who Christ is. God
Almighty in human flesh. The only Savior. He tells you
what salvation is. God's teaching changes men. Men who are taught of God can
never be the same. They'll come to Christ. He said,
everybody that's heard and everybody that's taught of God will come
to me. He'll come to me. Now, this message
is on cassette tape. I brought a message last week
I'd like you to hear. It's a message on the Beatitudes,
a sermon on the Beatitudes. And then this message, taught
of God, is on the same tape, two messages on the same cassette
tape. We sell these tapes for what
it costs us, or less than it costs us to produce, and we'll
mail them to you, postage page. Write to me, get the message,
taught of God, on the other side, a message on the Beatitudes,
and tune in next Sunday, 11 o'clock, over this channel. Until then,
God bless you, everyone.