Thank you, music ministry.
Have your Bibles turned with me to John
chapter 6, verse number 35.
I don't have the words to, I feel, properly
convey to you the weightiness, the gravity
of this section of John chapter 6.
This is some of the most weighty theology,
words from Jesus himself.
Consider that as we're reading this, that you
will ever read anywhere in the New Testament.
And so we're back into this sixth chapter that
I will remind you is 71 verses long.
And even though this chapter has many moving
parts, I want to take you back, it's been
a while since we've been in John, through the
reality of what the primary issue here
has been as we've been walking our way.
Remember the feeding of the 5,000 and they
follow Jesus back across the Sea of Galilee
and they're wanting to be fed and the whole
context, the whole main issue here is that
of false disciples, if you can think back.
And there were these disciples who were
following Jesus and then they're going to make
, we're
not there yet, but you're going to see toward
the end of the chapter, they make a decision
to walk away from Him, totally, completely.
And as we've been working our way through
these verses, we've been following this
outline,
which we're going to continue today of the
characteristics of a false disciple.
Remember back, just to kind of refresh your
memory, we saw first that the false disciples
are attracted by a big crowd, the bigger the
crowd, remember, the more interest they have.
And then second, they are fascinated with the
promise of the supernatural.
And that's true today, even with the shalitans
of the day that can't deliver anything
supernatural.
So people just go there in hope and they sadly
believe sometimes some of the nonsense that
we see out there.
Thirdly, they are interested only in earthly
benefits.
Remember, remember this crowd, they tried to
take Jesus by force and make Him a king
so that He could heal them, be their doctor
and feed them on a daily basis all the food
that they wanted.
They had no interest, particularly in Him.
They didn't have any interest in Him.
What they did have an interest in, mostly of
all, was what He could provide for them by
way of earthly temporal benefits.
And then we also saw how false disciples have
no interest at all in true, genuine worship.
When Jesus walked on water earlier here in
chapter six, what was the immediate response
of His true disciples in that boat?
The very first response that they had was to
declare Him to be the Son of God and to
worship Him.
That is the right response, the correct
response of a true disciple to Jesus.
And then lastly, we saw, or fifthly, we saw
false disciples seek, kind of connected to
the other one, personal prosperity.
We saw how the people that experienced the
miracle feeding, remember when you add women
and children, that would be over 25,000 people
, they followed Jesus back again across the
Sea of Galilee for one reason, that next
morning they wanted breakfast.
That's all they had on their mind.
You look what He told them, remember what He
told them in verse 27, "Do not work for
the food which perishes."
That's how He responds to them, "Stop chasing
me all over this lake to try to get another
meal."
Instead, keep looking, seek for the food which
endures to eternal life, which the Son of
Man will give to you for on Him the Father God
has set His seal.
Very clear.
And then last time we looked at the sixth
point, false disciples make demands on God.
It's incredible for me to watch that on
television or YouTube today.
They see God as a bank.
They see God as a repository for all that they
want on the earthly level.
And all they really want to know is, "Okay,
what is the mechanism?
What are the steps that I need to follow to
get my breakthrough?"
Right?
You've seen that.
You've heard that.
Remember what they asked Jesus in verse 28?
What shall we do so that we may work the works
of God?
They're demonstrating there, they wanted His
power.
How can we do what you do?
Give us the power so that we can feed
ourselves and heal ourselves.
And Jesus said, "No," verse 29, "this is the
work of God that you believe in Him whom
He sent."
Now, the only work you're going to be able to
participate in is to believe.
And that's all.
And so they said, "Next, okay, if you're not
going to give us the power," verse
30, "what then do you do for a sign so that we
may see and believe you?
What work do you perform?"
In other words, if you're not going to give us
the power to do these things ourselves,
then it's going to be up to you, dude, to do
another miracle.
You've got to keep the miracles coming, then
we'll believe.
So the false followers are the shallow and the
selfish.
They continue to make these demands on Jesus.
They are seekers of personal satisfaction only
, demanding, demanding that Jesus respond
to their needs.
That's the opposite of a true disciple.
False disciples think God exists to do what
they want, but them, true disciples,
understand
that the opposite is true.
True believers understand what it means to
confess Jesus as Lord.
That was one of Brother Ed's big deals in
Christ-centered evangelism.
When a person confesses Jesus as Lord in
saving faith, that is the first act of
recognition
of His divine dominion over our lives.
When you confess Jesus as Lord in salvation,
you give up your sovereignty over your life.
You were the sovereign in your own life, but
for saving faith, right?
You did what you wanted to do.
You got up every morning and did it all day
and all night, whatever you wanted to do.
You were the determiner of your destiny, but
that all changes when you truly come to Christ
on His terms, never again in the life of a
true disciple is life about what you want,
your goals.
It all becomes about what He wants.
He is the King.
You are the servant.
I am the servant.
I can guarantee you with 100% accuracy that I
would not be here doing this right here
today if He had not invaded my life and caused
me and made me willing to believe and I
surrendered
to the Lordship of Him as King over my life.
I would not be doing this today.
I can promise you.
I wouldn't even be here.
First let's be doing this.
But when He came and changed my life, I said,
"Whatever you want, whatever you want me
to do, I want to serve.
I'm so thankful that you got me out of this w
retched, pathetic life that I was living when
I was living life for my self-well-how
pathetic a job I was doing at it."
So here, take it.
You govern.
You do.
You do the opportunities.
And I'm currently in the same opportunity I've
been at for 15 years almost now.
And I'll be here as long as He wants me to be
here because He is the Sovereign.
He is the Lord.
He governs.
That's what my life is about.
And if you're a true disciple, that's what
your life is about, whatever He wants.
So false disciples have a completely selfish
preoccupation that causes them to view God
as the dispenser, the genie in the bottle of
all they want in the temporal life.
And again, they're just giving the steps how
to get there.
And I'll do those steps so I can get what I
need.
And all that brings us to number seven.
False disciples do not find their desires
fulfilled in Christ.
Back in verse 27, again, Jesus said, "Do not
work for the food which perishes, but for
the food which endures to eternal life, which
the Son of man will give to you."
Notice He says, "He will give it to them."
And in verse 35, guess what happens?
We find out what it is that He will give to
them.
Look next, Jesus said to them, "I am the bread
of life."
So He's saying, "I will give you myself."
He gets even more explicit later.
We're not going to get to it today, but we
will at some point where He's talks about,
"You have to eat my flesh and drink my blood,"
which drove them nuts.
Wait till we get to that passage, you'll see.
But Jesus is the soul-satisfying bread that He
is willing to give.
And for the true disciple, when you hear that,
that's all you need.
I say everything.
Christ says everything that the true disciple
seeks.
He is the primary satisfaction far above all
earthly things for every disciple's life.
Paul said, "Oh, that I may know Him."
Paul also said everything else was manure, d
ung when I met Christ.
He considered, think about all of the academic
achievements and all of the learning and all
of the things that he had to go through, toil
and struggle to become a Pharisee, and he
was at the top of the chain and everybody knew
who he was.
He said, "That's dumb."
When he came to Christ, he said, "For me to
what?
Live is Christ.
For me to die, that's nothing but gain.
That's all it means.
If things just get way better when I die,
right?
I am crucified but Christ nevertheless I live,
yet not I, but Christ lives in me."
He understood.
He's teaching us still today in 2025.
A true disciple like Paul, he knows whether
you have a little, whether you have a lot
in this earthly life, your contentment in life
is never found in the things of this
world.
If you're trying to find contentment in those
things, you will be on an endless search that
will never have an ending.
The only contentment that there is in this
world is found in Jesus Christ alone.
Everything earthly really is irrelevant
compared to Christ.
I don't care if you got billions of dollars, I
think I said this last time.
What will any of that count for when you stand
before him on the day of judgment?
It will have no meaning, whatever heights of
your secular job or in politics or anything
that you ever did where man praised you and
said, "Oh, how great this person is."
What will any of those accolades, any of that
money, will it have anything to do with
anything?
When you stand before God, no.
It'll all be done.
You won't even think about it anymore.
It'll be meaningless when you're standing
before the resurrected, glorified Christ.
Christ is the pearl of great price, that the
man in the parable went out and sold all that
he had to buy that pearl.
The pearl in the parable is Christ, the true
disciple.
Goes on this never, well, throughout life, let
me say it like this.
Just learning the supremacy and the supreme
value of Christ.
You learn it deeper and deeper and deeper and
deeper, and you never exhaust the meaning
and the wagginess of the supreme value of what
it means to be in union with Christ as
a believer.
In him we studied it are all the treasures of
wisdom and knowledge, remember that?
In Christ alone, what a redemption, wisdom,
imputed righteousness, blessed with all the
spiritual blessings in the heavenly places, in
Christ Jesus, true disciples understand
that there is nothing that this world has to
offer, nothing.
A true disciple knows this, I might have said
this before, I'll say it again.
If you're genuinely regenerate and somehow,
some way, there could be a legitimate offer
put on the table that you knew was legitimate,
and they said to you, I will give you $10
billion to spend for the rest of your life,
however you want to spend it, I'm just going
to hand you $10 billion, there's only one
thing you need to do for sake Christ, abandon
Christ.
There's not a true regenerate believer in the
world that should ever think, even have
to think about it, you can keep your money,
your money perish with you, like Peter said.
That is the value that a true disciple
understands, the supreme value, the supremacy
of Christ
and all of his goodness in our life, more than
content in Christ.
Your glory in Christ is on our mind, counted
righteous with his righteousness.
We look at everything like that, and
everything in the world, when we enjoy the
good things
of the world, no doubt about that, God wants
us to enjoy the good things of the world,
but compare to Christ, compare to our union
with Christ, dumb, new, counts for nothing.
The false disciple wants more of what already
he has from Jesus, more money, more success,
more fame, more stuff, right?
Eternal life is a free gift already purchased
by Christ, but in a sense, it will be costly
because you will be willing, may not be
necessary, but you will be willing to sell
everything
for him.
That was not a deal that the rich young ruler
was willing to make, remember?
He wanted to hang on to his money.
He wanted Jesus, if Jesus would only just give
him more of what he loved, or even if
he didn't have to part with what he already
had, just let me keep that, and then I'll
come with you, Jesus.
He went away sad, didn't he?
He loved his money.
True disciple says, "Hey, no problem, take it.
I don't need it, forsake everything."
That might not be necessary, that might not
ever be necessary for you, but if it did
become
necessary for you, you would be willing.
Go right now to China, go right now to Africa.
There are people who are forsaking their own
families to death, to uphold Christ, to uphold
the name of Christ.
That's happening in our world right now as we
speak.
They are giving evidence of true discipleship
when that happens.
We deny ourselves, take up our cross, even if
we face death.
True disciple counts the cost.
Jesus said, how about this one, even to the
point of hating father, mother, sister,
brother,
and even their own life, it's necessary.
Now understand, Jesus is making a comparison
there.
That's the intensity of it.
You would be willing, even for that, in order
to love me, to have me.
May not be necessary, probably won't be
necessary.
But you know the true worth of Jesus, if you
're a disciple, whenever the price is.
Why does investors don't put all their money
into one single investment, do they?
They don't do that.
But guess what?
That's what a true believer does.
We put all our investment in Christ.
So look next in verse 36.
This particular day, again, this group had no
real interest in Jesus himself.
Look in verse 36.
He's imploring with them.
Look how he says it.
What I said to you, that you have seen me,
this is a full disclosure.
You have seen me with your own eyes.
You have watched what I do with these miracles
.
This is more than face without sight.
You have sight.
You have what only a very small group of
people in human history had the unbelievable
privilege
of having, seeing Jesus when he was here.
That's what he's saying to them.
You've seen the miracles, hey, you just
participated in a miracle.
You ate the food that I created out of nothing
.
Look what he says.
You have seen me, and yet you do not believe.
They saw his miracles, they heard his words,
no man ever spake like this, and they still
did not believe in him.
That is the natural hardness of the human
heart.
They have no interest in him.
They only want what he can provide.
Give us this bread daily.
They want the power.
They want the provision, but they don't want
him.
This is a powerful blow to Jesus.
I want you to think about how we feel when we
have witnessed a somebody or discipled
even somebody, and they reject Christ and they
walk away.
How does that make you feel?
Think about how that made Jesus feel when he
was here.
This is far beyond anything that we could
experience, because not only is this Jesus,
of course, doing all these miracles daily for
a long time, and still this group doesn't
believe, even with all the clear evidence,
they are not interested in what Jesus is
really
offering.
Much of today's evangelism at this point, you
know what would happen?
Much of today's evangelism would just adjust
to start offering the people what they want,
which is a tragedy.
But how does Jesus handle this rejection?
Now, at this point, I want you to remember
this.
This is Jesus in his incarnation.
We understand he is God in human flesh, but
while he was here, he is also fully 100% human
.
In his humanity, this rejection, after all
that he's done, definitely affects him.
These next verses, starting in verse 37, are
verses that you know.
What we have here is some of the clearest
biblical proof for Reformed theology that
you will find anywhere in the Bible.
You really need to grasp these verses, and you
also really need to understand the context
that I'm bringing you through that's leading
up to what we're fixing to read here, because
this is profound.
This is mountain peak territory in the
mountain range of the Bible.
John MacArthur describes what starts in verse
37 as kind of a talking-to-yourself moment
for Jesus.
You ever talk to yourself?
I do, you know?
And they would have heard what Jesus said here
, but Jesus is also kind of talking to
himself here in light of this rejection.
That's the context, right?
And he's really speaking in a sorrowful way.
Kind of it's defensive.
These words that we're fixing to read from
Jesus in light of this rejection are really
helping Jesus just keep his balance in light
of the extreme rejections, light of these
circumstances, miracles, rejection that he is
experiencing.
Now let me make sure you understand this.
In his humanity, in his humanness as he's here
on this earth, this is during that time,
with all that he offered, Jesus was tempted in
all points as are we and yet without sin,
right?
This is one of those moments where our
substitute in his life is really feeling the
rejection,
the pain of the rejection of these people in
his Messiahship.
Now, I set that up for you to see with impact
how Jesus responds to this rejection.
It's so fascinating.
How does Jesus respond to this unbelievable
rejection that people aren't seeing these
miracles?
How does he respond to the rejection of verse
37?
All that the Father gives me will come to me.
Definite article, all that the Father gives to
me will come to me.
That is a huge theological statement right
there.
And let's flesh this out.
What is he doing right here?
What kind of response is that, Jesus, to these
people rejecting you?
Let me tell you, he's leaning hard on divine
election, the election of God's people.
Guess what he's doing?
He's doing what you and I have to do.
He's doing what we do in this same type of
circumstance.
At the end of the day, think about it, at the
end of the day, in the big picture, when
you go out to witness to your family members,
when you go out to witness to your friends
and they reject, what do you say?
Why don't they get it?
Why don't they come?
Why don't they accept?
Why don't they react?
It's inescapable.
When you go through all those questions at the
end of the day, what do you rest in?
You rest in the sovereign purpose of God when
they don't come.
God is sovereign over salvation.
He's going to have to do it.
He's going to have to draw them.
I can't do it.
I can't convince them.
All I can do is give them the gospel and God
has to do it.
We, in the same way, lean hard on sovereignty
when we face the rejection of others to our
gospel proclamation.
These verses here in John 6 are unmistakably
dealing with divine sovereign elections.
Sovereign calling.
I wouldn't be a very good debater, but I can
tell you what, there are very few things that
I'd be willing to do, a public debate.
I would do a debate with John 6.
If you don't believe that this is giving a
sovereign election, it's so clear.
Jesus knows that no human being could ever
possibly come to him unless, and that is a
big unless, the Father draws them.
Look here in verse 37.
The weight of this, I have a hard time
describing.
I really do.
All that the Father gives to me will, will
absolutely, definitely come to me and the
one who comes to me just to add a little more
to it, I will certainly not cast out.
This is just so clear.
You know what this does?
This leaves no wiggle room at all for any
human being who is not given by the Father.
Why?
Because all that the Father gives to the Son
will come to the Son, guaranteed, all will.
Look at the words.
Jesus adds, just make sure you get it, the
ones who come, I will certainly not cast them
out because they're all coming when the Father
gives them.
Verse 38, "For I have come down from heaven
not to do my own will, but the will of him
who sent me."
As we know, he always does the Father's will.
And what is the Father's will in this context
in which he is speaking?
Verse 39, "This is the will of him who sent me
, that of all that he has given be."
And there it is again, Father giving, I lose
nothing, but raise it up on the last day.
I lose nothing.
I lose none of them.
All that the Father gives the Son will come,
every one of them, every single one of them.
He will never cast them out.
It is the Father's will of that same group of
people that we're talking about here,
given by the Father to the Son that Jesus says
, I will lose none of them, not one of
them, and, and, and I will raise every single
one of them up on the last day.
How can you get around that?
Jesus is making so extremely clear here, this
massive, overwhelming doctrine of sovereign
election and salvation that people lose their
minds about, but it's so clear that no one
is ever going to believe in Jesus, savingly,
unless the Father decides they must believe.
And everyone that he decides will believe,
will most certainly absolutely no question
about it believe, because that's what Jesus
said.
It's not my opinion.
It's not my view.
That's what Jesus said.
He's going to continue to make this point in
verse 44.
Look at verse 44.
No one can, does that word say may, can, you
know this, ability, no one can, no one has
the ability to come to me, to come to Jesus,
unless, huge, unless, unless the Father who
sent me draws him, and then look in verse 65,
and he was saying, for this reason I have
said to you that no one can, no one has the
ability to come to me unless it has been
granted
by the Father.
Tell me wrong.
This is the very nucleus of reform theology
right here, what Jesus is saying.
How in the world can you come away from this
section of John 6 and not concede yourself
to the realities of the doctrines of grace is
certainly a mystery to me.
It really is.
It's not hard to understand this.
These words, it's just, it's just hard to
accept.
It is.
It's hard to accept that this is God's way in
our humanness we just, but let's go back.
Let's go back to the context in which Jesus
said this, these amazing words, again, in
his humanity, I really believe the reaction
here is because he is sad about the fact that
he has just overwhelmingly demonstrated his
deity, the validity of his message, really
for about a year at this point in Galilee, and
they do not be shocking.
So where does he go for comfort?
Where does he go to get his equilibrium, to
find his balance?
He rests in the Father's will, in the Father's
choice.
He rests in the Father's calling, and again,
again, is that not where you go and I go?
When we think about those who are closest to
us who just will not have anything to do
with Jesus, I don't know about you, but I have
to go to the big picture and God's sovereign
purposes all the time in my mind and say, Lord
, it's on you.
All I can do is feebly give the message, you
got to do it.
In the 10th chapter of John, there's a similar
text.
And once again, once again, in this text,
Jesus is facing rejection.
How does he respond will look in verses 26, 29
, but you do not believe because you are
not of my sheep.
My sheep hear my voice and I know them and
they follow me and I give eternal life to
them and they will never perish and no one
will snatch them out of my hand.
My father, there it is again, who has given
them to me is greater than all and no one
is able to snatch them out of the father's
hand.
Same scenario.
You don't believe and again, those who are the
fathers who are given to me, who then
become my sheep, they hear.
They will most certainly believe and I will
receive them and I will keep them and no one
will ever snatch them away from me, not from
me, nor from my father.
What a confidence Jesus has in sovereign
divine election.
Now go back to John 6, verse 40, you ready for
your head to spin?
Verse 40, "For this is the will of my father,
that everyone," that's a big everyone,
everyone
who beholds the Son and believes in him will
have eternal life and I myself will raise
him up on the last day.
It's the great apparent paradox here we have,
the two sides of the everlasting, never-ending
discussion between sovereignty and
responsibility, verses 37, 38, 39.
The Father gives, the Father wills, it's all
his plan and then verse 40, Jesus just looks
on the other side and he says, "Everyone who
believes."
And there is never, please notice, there's
never any effort to explain the mystery of
this great reality.
"Whosoever will may come."
He doesn't try to explain this but also at the
same time, chosen before the foundation
of the world.
Both things are true.
I will raise all that the Father gives me.
I will raise up everyone who believes.
Let me tell you something.
We should take great comfort in the fact that
even Jesus doesn't even attempt to explain
some middle ground between sovereignty and
responsibility like feeble people try to do
in our day to day.
He doesn't look for some bridge to make the
gap between these challenging realities but
the bottom line for us in this text is this,
they didn't believe.
And Jesus says over and over and over, whoever
believes has eternal life.
You don't believe but then again, no one can
unless the Father draws him.
Look, I can take you to no other place than
where Jesus is right here and have you find
comfort in both realities.
For you to know and for me to know that they
're clear to God even though they may not match
up in our minds to us, you know what that's a
good indication of?
That you're not God.
And that's really important for you to know.
So here are false disciples.
Do not believe drawn by the crowd, fascinated
by the supernatural.
They think of only the earthly things, no real
desire for true worship.
They seek personal prosperity.
See God as a bank, they want to make demands
on him.
They have no real interest in Christ.
This is a kind of superficiality that is
easily disillusioned, let astray, easily
influenced.
And then what happens?
What happens next is the Jews jump in.
Now remember, okay, when John uses that phrase
, the Jews, he's speaking about the Jewish
leadership,
not the local, regular Jewish people who were
not in the Sanhedrin, not the Jews as a whole,
but the Jewish leadership.
Next here, the Jewish leaders in the synagogue
.
All this now, this conversation is happening
in the synagogue in Capernaum.
And verse 39, 59 later tells us that you don't
find that out until verse 59.
So here we go.
We're back at this scene, Jesus in front of
these know it all Jewish leaders verse 41.
Before the Jews were grumbling.
The word for grumble here means to murmur.
You ever heard people murmur?
But they're kind of privately grumbling under
their breath about Jesus.
And of course, I think Jesus, he hears their m
umbling and he knows what they're mumbling
about.
It says next, because he said, this is why
they're grumbling, I am the bread that came
down from heaven.
This is a reinforcing of his incarnation,
verse 42.
This is how their mind is working.
They were saying it's not Jesus, the son of
Joseph, whose father and mother we know.
How does he now say, I have come down out of
heaven?
This is mockery.
This is ridicule.
They're laughing at him.
Isn't this Joseph's boy?
Talking about he came down out of heaven.
Jesus answered verse 43.
I love this and said to them, do not grumble.
Amongst yourselves, he knew what they were
saying.
I want you to just think for a second, of that
scene, of those men, can you just imagine
when that small little particular group of men
died and stood before God and instantly
before God, they were exposed to the full
reality of who Jesus is and then they played
that scene back in their minds that they went
through with Jesus in absolute horror, it
had to be, that they were standing right there
mocking the king.
Now in the context of the situation here, what
are they grumbling about?
Jesus has shattered their hope.
Their hope, free food, free Medicare, get rid
of the Romans, easy life, right?
I mean they would have made great social
gospel people who just want to fix the world
and
live a little better on the surface and listen
, let me tell you something on that subject.
I'm all for helping people, 100%.
I am for providing help for the community,
medical, care, food, social services.
That's a great thing for society.
Where do you think hospitals came from
historically?
You think they came from the Muslims?
No, they came from the Christian faith.
This is all great when churches are engaged in
these ministries, Mary's house of bread
that we give to and some of our people serve
at.
On down the line you can go.
But doing those things, serving the poor and
needy is not the gospel.
Sadly, some people are confused by that.
That's the kind of message everybody will
accept, right?
I mean they're going to like us Christians if
we give money and food to the poor.
They're going to like us if we do social
welfare in the community.
That's just part of being human.
Let me tell you, that's a good thing in and of
itself and it's right.
But I want you to make sure you understand.
I mean that is not the gospel.
There's a lot of things that people think is
the gospel and have nothing to do with
the gospel.
I don't care how poor they are and how much
you give them.
I don't have anything to do with the gospel.
If we had a big church, I would like to do
that on a grander scale, more than we do.
But if we did, along with those things, the
gospel would have to be preeminent or it would
have no eternal value whatsoever to what we
were doing.
It would have to be clearly and accurately
made known, the gospel, in any instance of
social ministry because it's the gospel that
we're called to preach.
Not just helping people with their earthly
needs and clearly here, Jesus was not
interested
in this kind of ministry.
Right here at this point in the text, this is
what Jesus is saying.
Look, he's saying, "I could keep on healing
you every day if I wanted to, but I'm done.
I could keep on feeding you every single day
that I'm here, but I'm done with that.
I'm not feeding you anything anymore.
They had no desire for repentance, no desire
for faith.
They only wanted their temporal means met and
in their minds they didn't need salvation."
Right?
They're the people of God.
They're the chosen people.
And right here in this scene, they're sitting
in this synagogue with scrolls from the Old
Testament that speak all about Jesus, that
prophesy all about this man standing right
here in front of them.
But they mock Jesus and Jesus says, "Stop gr
umbling."
So this is going from, "You don't believe," to
, "You mock."
And where does Jesus go to next with these
people?
He goes to the same place he went before.
Look at verse 44, very next verse, "No one can
come to me.
No one has the ability to come to me unless
the Father who sent me draws him and I will
raise him up on the last day."
Would you please notice that there isn't any
softening of the edges of biblical truth in
order to gain the favor of these people that
have rejected him?
None whatsoever.
He goes straight to divine sovereign election.
He rests on the Father's sovereign will.
He doesn't say, "Okay, if that's how you're
going to be, okay, I'll just keep on healing
people and I'll just keep on preparing your
meals so that you will at some point like
me and believe in me."
Remember, these Jewish leaders have gone from
not believing to mocking.
That's important to understand as we noted
before, because these leaders had huge
influence
over the crowd.
I've probably played a role in so many of the
disciples that we're going to see walk
away later in verse 66.
This problem shows up all throughout the
ministry of Jesus and with these leaders, they
have
to do more.
Really, they do.
They have to do more than not believe.
They have to mock.
They have to, because you have to do that kind
of thing in order to justify your rejection
of this man as clearly sent from God, as Nicod
emus said.
Clearly, there's no doubt about it.
You have to make a joke out of it if you're
going to reject him because they couldn't
carry the attitude that I mean, look at what
he just did.
He just fed 25,000 people out of nothing with
food out of nothing.
Nobody can do what he does.
This has got to come from God.
That's what Nicodemus reasoned and he speaks
like no man ever spoke.
We never heard a man talk like this with such
authority, I mean, and he seems to be worthy
of belief, but we just don't.
We reject him.
The only way we can really reject him is we've
got to mock him.
That's the justification for our ego.
Once you've walked away and refuse to believe,
especially after being there and seeing this,
you have to mock, but Jesus, he doesn't argue
with them at all.
And he doesn't change the message.
He doesn't tone anything down.
In fact, he does like Brother Moat used to do
when they get visitors for the first time.
Brother Moat, get up there and preach.
Just ramp it up, right?
He's very straightforwardly, okay, here's what
I got for you, divine election.
You can't come.
You have no ability to come unless the father
draws you.
And the obvious conclusion that no man can
state out of that statement is this.
If there are indeed people who go to hell when
they die and we believe that to be true,
unmistakable, unavoidable conclusion, then
clearly God doesn't draw everyone.
That's a hard reality, folks.
That's not hard for you.
Something's wrong.
He only draws something.
You can't escape it.
I want you to put it together.
Let's just go through it one more time.
I want to make sure you get this.
Verse 44, no one can come unless the father
who sent me draws him.
Verse 65, no one can come unless, to me,
unless it has been granted by the father.
And then verse 37, keep that in your mind, all
that the father gives me will come to me.
Then verse 39, of all that he has given me, I
lose nothing, but raise it up at the last
day.
Just put those verses right there together and
there's simply no way around it.
The father draws whom he will.
And the rest, all he has to do is just leave
them to their self.
He doesn't have to, like R.C. taught us, push
any kind of unbelief from his side in on them
like he has to invade and change and do a
miracle in us when we're saved.
No, all he has to do is leave them to their
self.
And they're going to go the way of their
natural inclination, of their natural heart.
But all, all, all who are drawn absolutely
will unquestionably come and will most
certainly
absolutely without fail be raised up by Jesus
on the last day to eternal life, but at the
same time, I can stand in here.
I can go outside on that corner and say, whoso
ever will come to the gospel of Jesus Christ
and
believe.
And if you do, you will be saved.
I can preach both things at the same time.
Don't pop a blood vessel in your brain trying
to work that out because you'll never do it.
Just accept the meaning of the words in God's
book.
Both of those things are equally true.
Next, Jesus validates this view from the Old
Testament in verse 45.
Look at it.
We're getting close to the landing ramp here.
It is written in the prophets and they shall
be taught of God.
Everyone who has heard and learned from the
Father comes to me.
So big picture, okay?
How does a person come to Christ?
The Father has to will it.
The Father has to grant it.
The Father has to draw and we learn here the
Father has to teach.
It's all God folks.
That Old Testament quote here in verse 45 is
from Isaiah 54-13 and there are similar
statements like it in Jeremiah and Micah and
they shall all be taught of God.
I can tell you, I've told you this before.
I just decided about four years into my being
a Christian and about the time that I went
into ministry, it's kind of like RC that my
understanding of the Christian faith was going
to have to come down to the meaning of the
words of the book no matter how I might feel
otherwise.
That's what it come down to for me.
That's why I am where I am, doctrinally today
and I have found no way around the reality
that it is just not in a person's power to
repent and believe on their own.
It's just not.
I see it all the time.
The Father must draw them and what part of
that drawing is, is what Jesus is saying here
in verse 45.
They shall all be taught of God.
Part of the Father's drawing is when he
internally teaches a person's mind the
convincing truth
of the gospel and all of a sudden, pow, yes,
yes, that's the truth and I mean you just
put every fiber of your being, you know it.
Now for sure, again, faith can't come except
through hearing and hearing by the word of
Christ, just not the external hearing, it's
the internal hearing, right?
Those who come are the ones the Father wills
to come, the one who the Father gives to the
Son, the one who are drawn by the fire and the
one who the Father teaches.
There is divine instruction from God himself
going on in the mind and the heart that makes
one who is absolutely unwilling become nothing
but willing and hungry for the bread of life.
How does the Father teach?
Well, verse 46, not that anyone has seen the
Father except the one who is from God.
He has seen the Father.
No one has seen the Father, you don't go to
heaven and see him and come back and write
a stupid book about it.
Nobody does that.
Please don't read those stupid books about the
people who went to heaven, okay?
Most of the best-selling ones have all been
found out to be frauds anyway and they are.
I mean even Paul did get to glimpse of heaven
and he came back and said, "I'm not permitted
to say anything," and that was Paul, okay?
So don't fall for that.
How are you going to get taught by the Father?
Jesus said, "Well, there is one from God who
has seen the Father."
So if you're going to be taught by the Father,
you have to be taught by the one who alone
knows the Father and that's the Father's Son.
Verse 47, "Truly, truly I say to you, he who
believes has eternal life."
Verse 48, "I am the bread of life."
The Father teaches through the Son, through
the Gospel of the Son and the Spirit while
we're in the neighborhood here explaining how
all this works, but that's another sermon
for another day.
Hebrews 1, 1 to 2, "God after he spoke long
ago to the fathers and the prophets in many
portions and in many ways in these last days
has spoken to us in his Son."
Faith comes by hearing the Word concerning
Christ.
It is comforting to me and I hope it is to you
to understand that Jesus finds this great
confidence in the middle of this heart-
breaking rejection by leaning on the absolute
reality,
the liabilities of the Father's will, the
Father's call, and the Father's instruction
in the heart of a sinner who deserves nothing
but wrath.
All that the Father draws will come.
Jesus says, "I will receive them, I will keep
them, and guess what?
I will raise them up on the last day, every
single one of them."
What Jesus offers, I don't have anything to do
with the here and now, it's about the
next life to come, salvation, forgiveness,
security, eternal life, it doesn't matter
if you have all of the American dream in this
life that you can absorb, it doesn't matter
if you're well-known or you're completely
obscure while you live here, whether you've
got a little or a lot, whether you're healthy
or sick, if you are a Christian, guess what
you have?
You have Christ and he is sufficient.
That's what a true disciple knows, that's what
a true disciple believes, and we'll pick
it up right there after that verse, next time
we're in the Gospel of John.