Let us turn in our Bibles again
this evening to John chapter six. John chapter six and beginning
with verse 41, reading through 47. The Jews then murmured 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 came 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 learned 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. We've been looking at this chapter
now for several services and I want to point out that many
of the writers believe that there is a break at verse 41 where
we begin our reading this evening. And some of them suggest that
to this point the Lord Jesus had been speaking outside in
Capernaum. He had been speaking to those
who followed him across the lake to those he had fed the day before. Now from this point forward,
they see and they believe that we have him now speaking especially
to the Jews in the synagogue in Capernaum. And we see that
he was in the synagogue in verse 59. These things said he in the
synagogue as he taught in Capernaum. In John's gospel, the Jews, when
he uses that terminology, it almost always refers to the religious
leaders from Jerusalem. We see this if you look back
in John chapter 1, for instance. In John chapter 1 in verse 19,
and this is the record of John when the Jews, the Jews, when
the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, who
art thou? And if you follow that through
the gospel here, you will see that the term the Jews refers
to the religious leaders of the nation of Israel, those who headquartered
in Jerusalem. It really makes no difference,
but some see that there's a break here at verse 41 in our Lord's
discourse. Now I've mentioned several times
this is one of the longest of His recorded discourses, and
even if you divide it into two, that is still the case. The title
of my message tonight is Present present salvation, taken from
our Lord's words in verse 47, Verily, verily, or truly, truly,
I say unto you, he that believeth on me hath everlasting life. And I would venture to say tonight
that the vast majority of people in the world think that everlasting
life, that salvation, can and will only be known and be determined
sometime in the future. Many people, I would say most
people, believe that it shall be determined and known whether
or not a person has everlasting life only at the last day, the
day of judgment. But you see that flies in the
face of what the Lord Jesus Christ declares in these words. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
he that believeth on me hath, not shall have, but hath everlasting
life. He speaks of having everlasting
life now. Every person, everyone who believes
on Him. Present salvation. Present salvation. Remember reading a message by
Charles Spurgeon years ago when he preached from a text in 2
Corinthians chapter 1, the tenses of salvation. I think Paul there
says, he hath delivered us, he doth deliver us, and he will
deliver us. And the past, the present, and
the future of salvation. There's no doubt that's true.
He has delivered us. He has saved us from the penalty
of sin. He is delivering us or saving
us from the power of sin, and He shall one day save us from
the very presence of sin, past, present, and future. But my point
is that we may know that we have everlasting life. The Lord Jesus
Christ declared, Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth
on me hath everlasting life. As one young preacher one time
said, that word hath means he's got it, he's got it, or she's
got it. The Apostle Paul wrote similar
words, the same theme, when he said, there is therefore now,
Romans 8 and verse 1, there is therefore now, No condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh,
but after the Spirit. And everyone who is in Christ
Jesus, we walk after the Spirit, and not after the flesh. The
Spirit is that new man that is created in righteousness and
true holiness. And God's people walk after the
Spirit. and not after the flesh. Remember in Galatians chapter
5, I believe it is, when he describes, now the works of the flesh are
these. And then he lists a number of
sins and iniquities. And those, he says, who practice
those things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit
of the Spirit, the fruit of the Spirit is love and joy and peace,
those things that he mentions there. But the point is, there's
therefore now no condemnation. He that believeth in me hath
everlasting life. And the apostle John in his first
letter wrote this, These things have I written unto you that
believe on the name of the Son of God, that you may know that
you have eternal life. Present salvation. Now tonight
as we look at these few verses, I want us to look at two subjects,
and then the third subject will be present salvation. But first,
let's take note of the murmuring of the Jews. The murmuring of
the Jews in verses 41 and 42. The Jews then murmured at him,
because he said, I am the bread which came down from heaven.
They said, is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father
and mother we know? How is it then that he saith,
I came down from heaven? Murmuring Murmuring was a sin
of which the Jews who ate the bread in the wilderness were
often guilty. And we see that their children
now are guilty of the same sin, the sin of murmuring. We see this several times in
the chapter which tells us when God gave them bread. Let's look back, if you will,
to Exodus chapter 16. Exodus chapter 16. Here Moses has led this great
nation out into the wilderness, and they needed bread. They needed
food. Was God going to just leave them,
lead them out there and forget about them? Is that the kind
of God He is? Is He? Is that the kind of God
that we serve, who will just lead His people into a position
and desert them? The scripture says, He is a father
to the fatherless and a husband to the widows. He takes care
of His own, doesn't He? And here he is in chapter 16
of Exodus in verse 2. We'll just read a few of these
verses here. But we read in verse 2, And the
whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses
and Aaron in the wilderness. And then look down to verse 7.
And in the morning, God speaking, then you shall see the glory
of the Lord, for that he heareth your murmurings. Moses is conveying
the message from God to the people of Israel. And he tells them,
the Lord, he heareth your murmurings against the Lord. And what are
we that you murmur against us? They murmured, their accusation
was against Moses and Aaron. But actually it was against God. They only acted, Moses only acted
because God called him and sent him. And you know at first he
certainly didn't volunteer for the job. God called him and God
sent him. And they murmured against Moses
and Aaron, but literally, actually their murmuring was against the
Lord. And then notice in verses 14
and 15, And when the dew that lay was
gone up, this is the first day that God gave them the bread.
When the dew was gone up, behold, upon the face of the wilderness
there lay a small round thing, as small as a hoarfrost on the
ground. And when the children of Israel
saw it, they said one to another, It is manna. Now, if you have
a marginal reading, you see what they literally said? What is
it? What is it? Actually, there's
disdain in their voices. What is it? What is this? They called it manna, but Actually,
what they were saying, what is this? What is it that God has
given us? For they wished not what it was.
And Moses said unto them, notice, this is the bread which the Lord
hath given you. And one writer pointed out that
the Israelites always referred to this as manna. Now, I know
we are accustomed to thinking, well, manna means angel's food
or it means bread, but there was disgust in God's provision
when they said, what is this? God never calls it manna. The
only one time, the one time the nation of Israel called this
bread, it is in the verse which says, our soul loatheth this
light bread. That's the only time they ever
called this bread bread, which God gave them. Every other time
it was, what is this? Manna. Murmuring. Murmuring is a sin that you and
I must always guard against. We are just as prone to murmur
as we are to breathe. It may be the weather. You ever
murmur about the weather? It may be the weather. It may be any other thing in
providence. When our wills are crossed, and
our plans are somehow changed, we have a tendency and we're
tempted always to murmur. It is a wicked sin. We see it
easily, easily in these Israelites, these Jews. Isn't it easy when
you read through the Old Testament to see their sin? Isn't it easy? And how easy it is to look in
the mirror and not see our own. Look in the Word of God and not
see our own. How guilty are we? Now, in our
text back here in John, we read they murmured at him. He had said that he came down
from heaven. But they thought, these Jews,
they thought that they knew his father. And the reason they thought
that is because they thought that Joseph, the man who was
espoused to Mary, they did know his mother. They did know Mary. And they knew Joseph. But what
they did not know is his father. His father was not Joseph. His father is God. God Almighty. So first of all tonight, we see
the murmuring. And then secondly, I want us
to notice the response of Jesus to their murmuring. In verses
43 through 45, 46. Jesus therefore answered and
said unto them, excuse me, 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 learned of the Father cometh unto me.
Not that any man has seen the Father, save he which is of God.
He has seen the Father. The response of the Lord Jesus
Christ to their murmuring at Him. How He knew their murmuring,
we don't know, we're not told. But we do know this about Him,
about the eternal Son of God who came into this world. We
do know that as God, He is omniscient. And we do remember when they
let down that pallet into the place where the Lord Jesus Christ
was teaching in that house, and He spoke to that man and He said,
thy sins, are forgiven thee, and those who stood around, they
thought." They didn't say this out loud, but they thought. He's
blaspheming. Because none but God can forgive
sin. You remember our Lord spoke to
them, and he asked them, he read their thoughts, he knew their
thoughts. He said, which is easier to say, thy sins be forgiven
thee, arise, take up thy bed, and walk. I've always looked
at that and thought this. It's easier to say, Thy sins
be forgiven thee. And you see people all over the
world. They go and they bow down in a little box and look through
a grate and confess some of their transgressions and sins. And
He gives them some things to do. So many our fathers and Hail
Mary. And then he says, Thy sins are
forgiven they. Can anyone see if their sins
are forgiven? Are their sins forgiven? I know
this, that man doesn't have the power to forgive sin. I know
that. Which is easier to say. But to
say to a man who's crippled, who has to be carried into our
presence on a bed by four men, to say to him, Rise, take up
thy bed and walk. Now, you'll be shown to be an
imposter pretty quick when you tell a man that. But our Lord is no imposter. And that man took up his bed
and walked. Our Lord has the ability, had
the ability, still does, to read the thoughts of men. How He knew
they were murmuring I do not know. I know He is the omniscient
God. who knows all of our thoughts,
there cannot even be a word on our tongue. But He knows it all
together. But the important thing for us
to see is this. What was His response? What was
His response to their murmuring? They murmured at Him. His response
was, no surprise, and No disappointment. Murmur not among yourselves.
No man can come to me except the Father which has sent me
draw him. And I will raise him up at the
last day. Arthur Pink, and I like to read
Arthur Pink as well as some other men, but he made this, I think,
very important statement. He said it's very important for
us to notice in the Lord's words that he was emphasizing man's
responsibility. It is true that no man can, he
does not have the ability to come, but all men are responsible
to come. This is the commandment, that
you believe on Him whom He has sent. That's what the Apostle
tells us in 1st John. Arthur Pink said, by the words
that our Lord used on this occasion, He is emphasizing man's responsibility. And let me just put it like this.
If I, if you, if we go to heaven, God's going to get all the glory,
all the praise, 100%. If we go to hell, the blame is
all on us. Now that's just so. God is absolutely
sovereign and yet we are, men are absolutely responsible to
believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved. And Arthur Pinck
said, Our Lord here is emphasizing man's responsibility. He said,
Notice, notice, he did not say, No man can come to me, except
the Father hath given him to me. That's true, as Pinck said. That's true. But the emphasis
here is on human responsibility. And as he goes on to say, this
word from the Lord was not designed as a word to repel. Our Lord
did not speak these words here. No man can come to me except
the Father which has sent me draw him. These words are not
to be taken as to repel men from coming to Christ, but it is rather
to show us the door, to humble us, to humble us. It was intended not to be an
intimation that there was no hope for them, but to point out
to them the direction where their hope lay. Not in themselves,
not in their will, not in their ability, they had none. Their
hope lay in God, in God's sovereign power, in God's wonderful grace
and mercy. And he goes on to say, Who is
to say that among these murmuring Jews there were not some among
them who on the day of Pentecost made up some of those three thousand
souls who were drawn by the Father? Who's to say? Now this truth
we refer to as total depravity. That's one of the points of what
has come to be called the five points of grace, or the five
doctrines of grace. That's the first one, isn't it?
I attended a pastor's funeral and they had flyers and the man
who bought the flyers told me, we wonder what kind of flyers
we should get, he said, let's get tulips. They had a vase of
tulips on this side and a vase of tulips over here. Because
that's what the brother had preached. Total depravity, unconditional
election, limited atonement, irresistible grace, and perseverance
of the saints. No man can come to me except
the Father which has sent me draw him. J.C. Rowe. And this man, J.C. Rowe, he was a bishop in the
Church of England. And he was, at that time, maybe
one of the few bishops in that church that really believed the
word of God. He was a bishop at Liverpool,
I believe. If you get an opportunity to
read his life, it's a blessing. He was born to wealth. He was
born to wealth and influence, and God saved him. And he became
a preacher, ordained in the Church of England. And he had the creed. He preached what we call sovereign
grace. But he had the creed because
the Church of England has never changed their articles of faith. And they're just as solid today
as they were back, I believe, in the 1500s when they were drawn
up. And he said this, this is no
doubt a very humbling truth and one which in every age has called
forth the hatred and opposition of man. The favorite notion of
man is that he can do what he likes, repent or not repent. Believe or not believe. Come to Christ or not come. Entirely at his own discretion. In fact, man likes to think that
his salvation is in his own power. Such notions are flatly contradictory
to the text before us. The words of our Lord here are
clear and unmistakable and cannot be explained away. No man can
come to me except the Father which has sent me draw him. And again, can has to do with
ability. And then Bishop Rall went on
to say, we must not assume that the drawing means such a violent
Such a violent drawing as the drawing of a prisoner to jail.
You see them sometimes, they take the prisoner, you know,
he doesn't want to go. And the jailer or the policeman, they
drag him off to jail. Bishop Raul said, we're not to
assume that this drawing is such a violent drawing as the drawing
of a prisoner to jail, of an ox to the slaughterhouse. Have
you ever seen a calf or a steer being led to the slaughterhouse?
They don't want to go. They don't want to be led, period.
They had to be dragged in there. That's not the way we are to
think or to understand this drawing. It is a drawing not against man's
will. It is a drawing which the Father
effects through the man's own will by creating a new principle
within him. By the unseen agency of the Holy
Ghost, he works on the man's heart without the man himself
knowing it at the time, inclines him to think, induces him to
feel, shows him his sinfulness, and so leads him at length to
Christ. Everyone that comes to Christ
is so drawn. One writer put it like this.
The Father, as it were, cures the fever of the soul. He creates
the appetite. He sets the provisions before
the sinner. He convinces him they're wholesome
and pleasant, and that he is welcome, and thus the man is
drawn to come and eat and live forever. Everyone who comes to
Christ comes willingly. Comes willingly. not against
his will, but willingly. God so works on the will that
man wants to come. In fact, the kingdom of heaven
suffered violence, and the violent take it by force. The Lord Jesus quoted this scripture
from Isaiah 54 and verse 13. And all thy children shall be
taught of the Lord, and great shall be the peace of thy children. All are not taught of the Lord,
but all his children are. All his children are taught of
the Lord. All of those given to him in
the covenant of grace are taught of him. Remember, one of those
promises in that covenant is, they shall not teach every man
his neighbor, know the Lord, for they shall all know me. He
is the one who teaches all of his children. Now, it's very
important, I hope that maybe there's someone here tonight
that would even have this question that you want answered. How may
a person know if he has heard and learned of the Father? Isn't
that what the Lord Jesus Christ said? As it is written, and they
shall be all taught of God, every man therefore that hath heard
and hath learned of the Father cometh to me. How can we know
that we have heard and learned of the Father? Have you come
to Christ? Have you come to Christ? If you
have, you've heard and you've learned of the Father. has a will that is enslaved and
he will not, the Lord Jesus Christ, you will not come to me that
you might have life. When a person has a will to come,
it's because God has given that person the will. Worked in our
hearts, which includes the will. Do you believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ? All that are taught of the Father
are drawn to Christ. And then our Lord, as it were,
He sounds a word of warning. Verse 46, Because He had said,
Every man therefore that hath heard... And you know how people
are given to misunderstanding the Scripture. Oh, I heard a
voice. God spoke to me. I heard a voice,
God spoke to me. The Lord Jesus Christ sounds
a word of warning when he says, not that any man has seen the
Father, save he which is of God. He has seen the Father. Don't read into hearing and being
taught of God something like hearing an audible voice or some
special vision, some special vision of God. We hear And we
learn from the Father only through the written word. And let's,
this last point tonight, the Lord Jesus states a certain fact. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
he that believeth on me hath everlasting life. If you notice
up in verse 40, he used the word may. And that could be misunderstood. He said, and this is the will
of him that sent me that everyone which seeth the sun and believeth
on him may, may have everlasting life. Someone might misunderstand
that. But this word hath, to me at
least, is much stronger and almost impossible to misunderstand. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
he that believeth on me hath everlasting life." Here are six ways. Don't let
that scare you. Here are six ways that everyone
who believes in Christ has everlasting life. Number one, He has it in
Christ, His head and His representative. Number two, He has it in the
covenant of grace. This is His promise. Number three,
He has it in faith and hope. Number four, he has a right unto
it and a meekness for it. Number five, he has the earnest
of it, the grace and spirit of God. And number six, he has the
beginning and foretaste of it in his soul and shall certainly
enjoy it. Oh, taste and see that the Lord
is gracious. Those who have eternal life,
we have it in all these six ways. And I have verses of scripture,
but I'm not going to take our time tonight, that would illustrate
each one of those six ways in which we have everlasting life. Maybe you're here tonight and
you've never confessed Christ as your Lord and Savior. You
believe, but out of fear, you have held back from confessing
Christ publicly and following Him, identifying with Him in
baptism. I pray that God would bless this
message especially to you. Verily, these are the words of
him who cannot lie. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
he that believeth on me hath everlasting life. May the Lord
bless this word to all of us this evening. David.