John 6:37-40; John 6:60-65

The point: Be willing to go wherever the Bible leads us and breathe the atmosphere of faith when studying this doctrine.

Martin uses the analogy of faith swimming where reason and understanding only wade to illustrate that believers can embrace truths about God that they cannot fully comprehend rationally, finding joy in God's bigness.

And as with all revealed doctrines, we must not only go down any path that the Bible leads us, but we must move down that path in a climate of faith. Ever remembering that faith may swim where reason and understanding may only wade. And blessed is the man whose God is too big to comprehend fully. Blessed is the man who can rejoice in truth that he cannot rationally understand in the sense that he can explain.

1:30 - 2:00 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Is the Father's giving the dog and my coming the tail? According to our Lord, which is obvious, isn't it? All that the Father did shall come.

This analogy illustrates the correct order of salvation: the Father's giving is the 'dog' that wags the 'tail' of the sinner's coming, not the other way around. It emphasizes that the Father's sovereign initiative precedes and enables human response.

All that the Father gives, they shall come, and those that come, they shall be received. And you dare not mix those things. Most of you have at one time or another had a dog, haven't you? How many of you have a dog right now?

19:58 - 20:15 Read in full sermon

Driving home: He cannot because he will not, in the same sense that I cannot strike my wife because I will not.

Martin uses the example of saying 'I can't strike my wife' to explain moral inability, distinguishing it from physical inability. This clarifies that man's inability to come to Christ is due to a lack of will, not a physical constraint.

No man can come, the word can is a word of ability. And our Lord is saying to these people, you do not have of yourself what it takes to see me and to embrace my claims and to embrace me. Now immediately let me state that that is not a physical inability, but it's a moral inability. If I would say to you tonight, if you would say to me in the presence of my wife, Pastor, why don't you double up your fist and kiss your wife?

31:54 - 32:23 Read in full sermon

Driving home: He cannot because he will not, in the same sense that I cannot strike my wife because I will not.

This metaphor corrects a caricature of God's drawing, explaining that God does not force sinners against their will like a wild horse with a bit, but rather changes their disposition so they willingly embrace Christ.

The sinner comes freely, willingly embracing Christ. So the drawing of the Father is not the picture that I sometimes get when people talk of these things, as though the sinner's got the bit in his mouth, and the reins are laid upon the neck to his lust and his rebellion against God, and he's chomping on the bit, and he's going at breakneck speed in this direction, and without changing his disposition and attitude to the bit, or to the reins, or anything else, God just by sheer force turns him around, and with the bit still in his teeth wanting to go this way, and the reins still laying upon h...

35:39 - 36:23 Read in full sermon

Driving home: He cannot because he will not, in the same sense that I cannot strike my wife because I will not.

The conversion of Paul on the road to Damascus is used as an example of God's sovereign work in changing a rebellious heart, illustrating that God works in the 'deep hidden springs' to reveal His Son.

So that it takes the bit out of its teeth, and it's turned and yielded to Jesus Christ, so that freely and willingly we cry out to the Apostle Paul, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? If ever there was a man with a bit in his teeth, and the reins on his neck on the way to Damascus, then that's all, breathing out threatenings and slaughters against the church. Servant of Christ, you ought to blot out the very name of Christ, finding the believers, submitting them to prison and even to death. Now, what does God do?

36:23 - 36:59 Read in full sermon