John Six Fortyfour

I want you to look with your undivided attention
as much concentration as God is pleased to give you
for the next few moments at John 6, 44. That's my text and that's my
topic. John 6, 44. No man. can come to me, except the Father
which hath sent me drawing, and I will raise him up at the last
day." Now, coming to Christ is a very common phrase in the Word
of God. In the verses which I read a
moment ago, just a few short verses, it's used four times.
Go back to verse 37. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me, coming to Christ. And him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. Now verse 44, no man can come
to me except the Father which sent me drawing. Verse 45, and
it is written in the prophets they shall be taught of God,
all taught of God. Every man, every man therefore
that hath heard and hath learned of the Father cometh unto me."
And this is used over and over again in the Word of God, coming
to Christ. Faith in Christ as Redeemer,
faith in Christ as our Savior and Lord, is simply and truly
described as coming to Christ. Away from things to a person. Away from my works to his righteousness. away from my religion to his
faith, away from my feelings to his peace, away from the ceremonies
of religion to his one sacrifice, away from my will and my way
to his glory, away from my sin to his holiness, away from my
righteousness and merit to his righteousness and his merit,
coming to Christ. Now coming to Christ is coming
to him, now listen to this, this is very important, coming to
Christ as set forth in the word of God is coming to him personally. Personally, not coming to a church,
not coming to a building, not coming to a doctrine, is not
coming to an altar, is not coming to a preacher, is not coming
to a creed, is not coming to a ceremony, is coming to a person.
He said in Matthew 11, 28, come to me. and I'll give you rest. Him that
cometh to me I'll in no wise cast out. Every man that hath
heard and hath learned of the Father cometh to me. Cometh to
me. Now I want you to look at a verse
of scripture, Psalms 130 verse 7. And if God the Holy Spirit
will give us a little understanding here, we'll learn something.
We'll learn something. And God does not work apart from
the mind. Faith in Christ is not just an
emotional thing. It involves the emotions. Everything
we do involves the emotions and the feelings and experience.
But brethren, how are they going to call on Him in whom they've
not believed? And how are they going to believe
in Him of whom they've not heard? And how are they going to hear
without a preacher? God doesn't work apart from the mind. He
works with the mind and the heart. He teaches us, teaches us. Psalm 130, verse 7. Now watch
this. Coming to Christ is coming to
him personally. Psalm 130, verse 7. Look at this. Let Israel hope
in the Lord. For with the Lord there is mercy. Let Israel hope in the Lord.
With him is plenteous redemption. It does not say, let Israel hope
for mercy. It says, let Israel hope in the
Lord. With him there is mercy. It does
not say, let Israel hope for redemption. It says, let Israel
hope in the Lord. With him there is plenty of redemption. Our thoughts are not to be for
the benefits alone. Our thoughts are not to be for
the blessings alone. Our thoughts are to be for himself,
for the Lord. He is the fountain. What I'm
saying is this. Look for the tree, and you'll
have the fruit. Don't look for the fruit, look
for the tree, and you'll have the fruit. Look for the physician,
and you'll find the cure. The cure is with the physician.
Look for the giver, and then you'll have the gift. Don't look
for the gift, You may be deceived by others. You may be deceived
by Satan. He may give you a counterfeit
gift. He may give you a counterfeit cure. He may give you imitation
fruit. Look for the tree. He has the
true fruit. If you find the tree, if you
possess the tree, you'll possess the fruit. If the position is
yours, you'll find the cure. It's in him. He's the fountain. It's an era, it's an absolute
era, and preachers are leading people into absolute era, having
them seek for mercy. Seek the Lord, with him there's
mercy. Let Israel hope in the Lord,
with him there's mercy. Find the tree, you'll have the
fruit. You find the physician, you'll
have the cure. Christ said, you come to me,
I'll give you rest. You come to me, I'll give you
rest." Now listen, coming to Christ is coming to him personally. That's very important. Secondly,
coming to Christ is coming to him as he is. Now brethren, I
don't often take issue with other preachers from the pulpit, and
I don't think it's always in good taste, but I feel obliged
to take issue with an article that appeared in the paper this
past week. Because I absolutely deny this. This is not true. It's just not
true. And anyone who believes it and
receives it is being deceived. But this is the religion of today. This is what's being preached.
Now, coming to Christ is coming to him personally. We know that.
Come to me. Not to my Bible, not to my doctrine,
to me. If you can embrace Christ, if
you can be joined with the living vine, you'll find in him all
things. And then coming to Christ is
coming to him as he is. Who is he? Well, first of all,
he's Lord. He's Lord. Now you look at John
13, verse 13. Now listen to this. Our Lord, our Savior, is Lord. He is supreme, sovereign, absolute
Lord. He said in John 13 to his disciples,
you call me master and Lord, and you say, well, for so I am. I am your master. I am your Lord. The scripture teaches us that
the gateway to the kingdom of God is the Lordship of Christ.
If thou shalt confess with our mouth Jesus to be Lord, I've
said over and over again that Christ is not just a fire escape
from hell. He's not just an insurance policy. He's not just someone you accept
and look to to save you from sin and save you from hell and
have nothing to do with your life. Christ is our Lord. His words are our command. His
will is our command. His law is our command. His purpose is our command. We
bow to Him. We submit to Him. We surrender
to Him. He's our Lord. He's the King. I'm not saying that we always
please Him. I'm not saying that we always
do those things pleasing in His sight. None of us are perfect
by any means, but He is our indisputable, immutable, sovereign Lord. And a man cannot have Jesus Christ
as Savior who will not bow to him as Lord. Now that's so. Now I want you to listen to this
article. The writer, the person who's
writing to the preacher, says, What is entailed in accepting
Jesus as Lord as distinct from receiving him as Savior? Now,
this person's very observant. He knows that's what preachers
are preaching. Come and accept Jesus as your Savior. If it's
convenient, if you are so moved, if you are so led later on to
bow to him as Lord or accept him as your Lord, then that'll
be fine. But you can have him as Savior
and not have him as Lord. Is that true? Well, this is what
the preacher answers. A Lord is one who rules over
us, which is true. We therefore have the status
of servants when confronted by our Lord. That's so true. The function of a servant is
primarily that of obedience. The servant will never say no
to his Lord, but he always answers yes to his Lord's every command. That's true. That's the Lordship
of Christ. The distinction between accepting
Jesus as Savior and owning him as Lord is this. It is possible
to be saved from the penalty of sin by Jesus, and yet for
you to live in complete disobedience to his commands. Do you believe
that? That's not so. That is not so. It is possible for you to accept
Jesus as your Savior, and from the penalty of sin, and yet to
live, to walk the tenor of your life, the bent of your will,
to live in complete disobedience to his command. That's not true. Coming to Christ is coming to
him personally, and it's coming to him as he is. He is the Lord.
He is the King. He says that over and over again.
He said, if any man loved father, mother, husband, wife, brother,
sister more than me, he can't be my disciple. No man, having
put his hand to the plow and looks back, is fit for the kingdom
of God. He that will save his life will
lose it. He that will lose his life for
my sake shall find it. He's the only way to God. He's
the only mediator. He's the only sin offering. He's
the only righteousness. He's the only justifier. He is
the supreme Lord. If thou shalt confess with our
mouth Jesus to be Lord." Alright, in the next place, coming to
Christ is coming to him personally. It's coming to him as he is,
Lord. If you can't bow to his Lordship,
if you can't bow to his supreme rule, then you certainly cannot
have him as Savior from hell. Coming to Christ is coming to
him continually. Turn to 1 Peter 2. 1 Peter 2. I want you to look carefully
at this verse of Scripture. 1 Peter 2 beginning with verse
1. 1 Peter 2.1. Is it possible to have Jesus
as your Savior from sin and live in complete disobedience to his
command? He commands you to love one another.
I will not do it. He commands you to walk in righteousness
and integrity. I will not do it. He commands
you to repent. I will not do it. He commands
you to believe, I will not do it. No, my friends, a man cannot
have Christ Jesus as Savior who will not bow to his Lordship.
Coming to Christ is coming to him continually. 1 Peter 2, wherefore,
verse 1, laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies,
and envies, and all evil speaking, as newborn babes desire the sincere
milk of the word, that you may grow thereby. If so be you have
tasted that the Lord is gracious. to whom coming, as unto a living
stone, to whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed,
but chosen of God, and precious, coming to him." To whom? Coming. This thing of coming to Christ
is a continual coming. Repentance is not an isolated
act. Faith is not an isolated We are
repenting, we are believing, we are leaning upon him, we are
coming to Christ. It's continually coming. And
then coming to Christ is coming to him to obtain all that I need
in him. He's made unto me wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption. I'm complete in him. Coming to
Christ is coming to him for all things. All right, I must hurry.
Coming to Christ, now turn back to the text. In John 6, verse
44, no man can come to me. Coming to Christ, I've tried
to show you what it is. Reality. Intelligent, willing,
loving submission to as many as receive him, as he is. Not as you think he is, not as
you want him to be, as he is revealed in God's Word. Coming to Christ is described
by some people as the easiest thing in the world. Yet in our
text, coming to Christ is described as a thing utterly—listen to
me, I may offend you, but don't leave—coming to Christ according
to the Word of God is a thing utterly and entirely impossible. for any person unless he's drawn
by the Father, that's what it says. No man can come to me except
my Father which sent me to draw him. That's what it says. And I want in the next few minutes
to enlarge upon that declaration. Now what I say may be offensive
to human nature, but one man said one time, the offending
of human nature is usually the first step toward bringing a
rebel to repentance. The offending of human nature
is usually the first step of the Holy Spirit in bringing a
man to bow to Christ. No man can come to me, no man. can come to me, except my Father
which sent me drawing. Wherein does this inability lie?"
Why did God say that? Wherein does this inability lie? Well, first of all, it's not
a physical inability. If Christ were here in person,
I could walk to him as well as I could walk to you. I can walk
to the house of God as well as I can walk to the house of Satan.
There's no physical inability. I can say prayers this morning
as well as I can blaspheme God's name. I can say either one. I
can say, Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
Or I can say the profanest words that man can utter. I can say
either one. I've got the ability to say either one. I can submit
to ceremonies of religion. I can walk up into this baptistery
and walk down those steps into that water as well as I can walk
into a honky-tonk and no physical inability. I can take part in
the rituals of religion as well as I can take part in the righteous
living of sin. All right, when he says no man
can come to me except my Father draw him, he's not talking about
physical inability. Secondly, he's not talking about
mental inability. You listening? I can study this
Bible as well as I can study encyclopedia. I went to the first
grade, the second grade, the third grade, and on through school,
and I learned to read, and you did too. And I can read this
Bible as well as I can read Sears and Roebuck catalog. And I can
see these words here. You can see them, can't you?
Jesus said, no man can come... See those words? Well, yes, I
see those words. You see what they're saying?
I see exactly what they're saying. I can believe Christ died on
the cross as well as I can believe Columbus discovered America.
I wasn't there when either one of them happened. My teacher
told me when I was in the second or third grade in 1492, Columbus
sailed the ocean blue, and I believed it ever since. I believed it
ever since. And the preacher down at the
church told me that Jesus Christ, God's Son, came into this world
and died on the cross, and I believed it ever since. Man's inability, when Christ
said, No man can come to me, he's not talking about physical
inability, he's not talking about mental inability. Man's inability
to come to Christ does not lie in his body or in his mind, but
in his nature, in his nature. Through the fall of Adam, that
young in the garden, and through our own Our natures have become
so depraved and so debased and so corrupt that we don't love
Christ, we love evil. He said this is condemnation.
Men love darkness. Light is coming to this world,
but they love darkness. They see the light, but they
don't love the light, they love the darkness. John 5.42. Turn back one page. John 5.42. I know you, Christ
said. I know you. You have not God's
love in you. You don't love integrity and
holiness and righteousness and truth and beauty. The beauty
of holiness, you love darkness. You love suggestive things. You
love evil. You love the corrupt things of
life. You have not got love in you.
I've come in my Father's name and you won't receive me. Let
another come in his own name, him you receive. You receive
darkness and reject light. You receive error. You receive
error and reject truth. A man will lie to you and you
accept it. A man will tell you the truth and you reject it.
What's wrong? Your nature. Your nature is warped
and twisted. The natural man receives not
the things of God, they are foolishness to him, neither can he know them,"
Paul said, they are spiritually understood. The natural mind
is enmity against God. Now, stay with me. Here is a
sheep. That sheep is eating grass, he
loves it. You can take that sheep out there, well, just have him
over there and put the grass down. Call him, he just runs
to the grass. There's a wolf over here. Put
some grass down for him. He won't eat the grass. He won't
come to the grass. He doesn't care for the grass.
It's not his nature. It's the nature of that sheep
to love grass and to come to grass and to seek out grass and
to look up grass and to eat grass. The nature of that wolf is to
eat flesh. That sheep won't bother your
chickens. That wolf will kill them and
eat them. He won't come to the grass. Here's the shepherd, and
there's the sheep over there, and the shepherd calls, Queenie,
come over here. She knows her shepherd's voice,
and she just runs. She hears his voice, and she
runs to him. She comes to him. It's her nature. Call the wolf. He hears the voice of the shepherd.
Wolf, come here. He goes the other way. He goes
the other way. The wolf can't eat grass. Are
you going to kick him away from the grass? No. Are you going
to refuse him the right to eat the grass? No. Are you going
to say he can't have any grass? No. He doesn't want it. It's
not his nature. Now, if you ever see that wolf
eating grass, somebody's changed his nature. Can the Ethiopian
change his skin? No, sir. Can it be changed? Yes,
sir. God can change it. Can the leper change his spots?
No, sir. Can they be changed? Yes, sir.
God can change them. All right, here's a mother sitting
holding her baby. Now, I said the wolf can eat
grass. There's nobody stopping him. He doesn't want to. He doesn't
want to. His inability lies in his unwillingness,
his nature. Here's a mother holding her baby.
You walk up to the mother and hand her a knife, and she takes
it in her hand. And you say, Mother, stab that
baby. She says, I can't do that. Why can't you? You've got a nerve. You've got the strength. The
baby's not going to resist you. If nothing the baby can do, go
ahead. You can do it too. No, I cannot. You can. I cannot. Why can't you? It's
not my nature. I'm unwilling to. That's what
our Lord is saying here in John 6. No man can. come to me. God Almighty hasn't
got the door shut. God Almighty's not running sinners
away. God Almighty's not refusing them the right. They're unwilling. No wolf can eat grice. No mother
with any love in her heart can stab her own child. You say,
she can do it. Yes, she can, but she can't because
it's not her nature. And that's what our Lord is saying
here. This is the problem with a natural man. Look back at John
5.40. You will not come to me, Christ said, that you might have
life. But I believe any man can be saved if he will. My dear
sir, that's not the problem at all. That's not the question.
Of course any man can be saved if he will. But that's his whole
problem. He's not willing. You see that? He's not willing. It's not his
nature. He doesn't delight in the things
of God, he delights in the things of the world. It's his world. God's world is not his world. God's word is not his delight.
God's presence is not his joy. It's not his nature. The sheep
love the shepherd. He loves to rub against his legs.
He loves to be petted by him. He loves to eat grass. He loves
these things. That's his nature. The wolf doesn't
want to even be around the shepherd. He won't come to the shepherd.
He won't eat the grass. It's not his nature. And that's what Christ is saying,
and no man can come to me except my Father which sent me. Draw
him now then quickly. What is this drawing of the Father?
Well, it doesn't say no man can come to me except the minister
draw him. I don't have that power. I don't have that power. I think
I'm supposed to tell you the truth, I'm supposed to tell you
what God says, but I don't have the power to convince you that
it's so. Turn to Psalm 110, verse 3. Here it is, right here, Psalm
110, verse 3. If the problem is the will, then
the will is going to have to be changed. If the problem is
in the nature, then the nature is going to have to be changed.
So it says in Psalm 110, verse 3, "...thy people shall be willing
in the day of thy power." They'll be willing. They'll be willing
to come to the shepherd. They'll be willing to eat the
grass of his grace. They'll be willing in the day
of his power when God performs an operation of grace. That's
the reason Christ said, You can't understand the kingdom of God.
You can't see the kingdom of God unless you're born again,
unless God gives you a new nature. And that's what God does to the
sinner, you who were dead in sin, who walked according to
the course of this world. Has he quickened, made alive? Has he given life, awakened,
regenerated? The sinner is convinced of sin.
The Holy Spirit comes and He convinces us of sin. Paul said,
I didn't know what the law was. I was alive without the law.
And then it came and I died. I died, Paul said. God slew me. God stripped me. God knocked
all my foundations out from under me. God Almighty laid me down
in the dust. He laid me bare. took all my
pride away from me and my haughtiness and shut me up to divine mercy
and I cried with the public and in the temple, God be merciful
to me a sinner. Now your nature won't let you
do that. It won't do it. Your nature is a proud nature
and it won't let you cry for mercy. Your nature won't let you submit
to Christ. Your nature won't let you be
humbled in the presence of of your family and your friends
and your neighbors. You're a proud person and your
nature will not let you be humble. God has to do for you what he
did for Saul of Tarsus. He'll have to lay you bare. He'll have to wield upon you
a crippling blow. Strip you like he did old Naaman. And the sinner is stripped and
he's convinced of his inability and his sin. He's shut up to
divine mercy and he cries, Lord save me or I perish. And then Christ is revealed to
his heart, and Christ becomes his King, his Lord, his Master. He no longer, the man who really
comes to Christ and submits to Christ as a naked sinner, he,
God changes his, God gives him a new nature, a new heart. He
doesn't go to church on Sunday because a Christian ought to
go to church on Sunday. He says, I was glad when they
said to me, let's go to the house of the Lord. He doesn't read
the Bible because a Christian ought to read the Bible. He reads
the Bible because I love thy law, O Lord. Thy word is a light
unto my path and a lamp unto my feet. He doesn't pray because
a Christian ought to pray. He prays because he lusts to
talk with his Father. He doesn't give because the preacher
says Christians ought to tithe. He gives because God has given
to him. He knows something about grace.
He doesn't forgive people and show mercy because the Christian
ought to forgive people. He forgives because that's his
nature. He no longer can hate. That's
right. Because Christ can't live where
hate lives. All he can fly up, and he can
say things he shouldn't say, and he thinks things he shouldn't
think, and he can have an attitude of malice and so forth, but he
can't abide in that state, because that's not his nature. He has
a new nature. And these preachers can say this,
all they want to, it's not true. That's just not true. Christ
is Lord. We're the most imperfect of creatures
when we know that, but Christ is our Lord. We delight in his
word and delight in his people and delight in his presence.
And if that delight is not there, it's because you've still got
a wolf nature. That's so. All right, look at that verse
again. Now close. And they shall be taught of God. Taught of God. What does the
Father teach men? He teaches men who he is, all
of his divine attributes, his righteousness and holiness, his
mercy and his love. He teaches men who they are.
That's right, he shows us what we are, sinners saved by grace. He teaches men who Christ is,
the necessity and person of the person and work of Christ. He
teaches men who Christ is. He teaches men what redemption
is. He teaches men the true values of life, the true values. That a bowl of beans is not worth
a birthright. He teaches a man that. Every
man therefore that hath learned of the Father, that hath heard
with hearing ears, every man that hath heard, he heard. Now, wait a minute. He heard
a voice other than the voice of the minister that Sunday.
He heard. And he heard not with these ears,
but he heard with the heart. God spoke to him. Adam, where
art thou? Cain, where is your brother? God spoke. And he learned of
God. He learned of the God. Brethren,
listen to him. We've got our catechisms out,
and we've read, and we've learned of men. We learned in the seminary,
and we learned in the college, and we learned in the Sunday
school, and we learned... You know who comes to Christ?
The man who learned of God. Oh, God uses men, God uses faithful
men and women to teach his Word and to preach his Word, But brethren,
if my voice is the only voice you hear, nothing of any eternal
value is going to be accomplished for you, me, or anybody else.
We're going to have to hear from God, hear from the Holy Spirit. And I wish we could become students,
not of creeds and catechisms and doctrines and the old Puritans
and our teachers, but students of the Lord, students of the
scripture. Lord, be my teacher. Teach me
to eat the hay and leave the briars. Teach me to hear thy
voice and turn out the voices of this world. Teach me, Lord,
to bow to thy word and to thy will and turn away from the commandments
and doctrines of men. Every man, every man, without
exception. Now watch it, no man, no man
can come to me except my Father which sent me drawing. And every
man without exception who has heard from the Father and has
been taught of the Father, he's coming. He's coming. Our Father, we thank Thee for
the promise of eternal life in Christ our Lord. We thank Thee
for Christ who is our sufficiency and our righteousness. We thank
Thee, Father, that Thou hast given us a new nature, a nature
that loves this book. A nature that loves the Savior. Lord, thou knowest all things,
thou knowest we love thee. A nature that loves thy people
and rejoices in the fellowship of the saints. A nature that
tunes to heavenly things. We regret And we weep over, and
we mourn over, and we confess that we have a nature also that
tunes to the things of this world. And oh, the conflict, oh, the
battle, the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against
the flesh, and these conflicts are there. But our Father, we
love Thee, and we love Thy presence, and we love Thy word. Help us
to love Thee more. Help us to overcome. Give us
the victory. Christ is our victory. Use this
message for thy glory. Grant that I, and these who are
with me in the worship of thy person, shall be taught of the
Father, and learn of the Father, and come to Christ in saving
faith. In his name we pray, amen.

John Six Fortyfour

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John Six Fortyfour

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