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

Introduction to the Sovereignty of God in Grace

0:00 Tonight, our series of Sunday evening studies in the general theme, or specific, really, as it's unfolded, of the sovereignty of God. This theme, this aspect of God's eternal truth, which has been the focus of much controversy, more confusion, battles have raged over it. And yet, in the midst of all of this, God's humble believing children have sucked great sweetness from this flower of God's eternal truth.

0:40 Now, because some of you who are with us tonight have not been with us to catch the main drift of where we've been going in our studies, I'll try to condense our review into about five minutes and cover seven or eight hours of study material in five minutes. Now, that's quite a task. I don't know how well I'll succeed, but I'll make a very...

1:00 ...earnest and serious attempt to do that.

1:04 Our whole approach to this subject, as with all subjects dealt with in the Word of God, but particularly this subject, is that we must be willing to go wherever the Bible leads us. Willing to walk down any path that is marked out by the stakes of divine revelation. As we go down that path, we must breathe the atmosphere of faith. As we study this doctrine.

1:30 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.

2:00 ...and understand in the sense that he can explain.

2:00 Why it should be that way, but he embraces it in that attitude of faith. And then last of all, we must study with the posture of little children. We do not come as judges of the divine revelation, but we come as students of that revelation. And our Lord demands of each one who would be his follower, that there must be that child-likeness of mind and disposition of spirit, or we will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

2:29 Now what do we mean? By the theme, the sovereignty of God.

2:34 Everything that comes into the picture of God as Lord and King in his world, the one who rules all things after the counsel of his own will, ordering every event to the fulfilling of his own eternal plan. In studying the sovereignty of God, we are focusing our attention upon those portions of the word of God which declare the Godhood of God. That he is not only the creator of his world, and the sustainer of his world, but he is the governor of his world. And this is basically what we are studying.

3:07 Now our method? Well, we've been following the proof-text method. Because the subject is so vast, we could spend a millennium trying to begin to exhaust it. And so we've been seeking to go by the proof-text method, the right use of it, in which a given text is a wonderful embodiment of what the entire book of God teaches, on that given point.

3:31 Now proof-text teaching can be terribly abused. You can prove almost anything from the text of the Bible. But we're seeking, under God, to use it in its right sense. The Bible teaches from Genesis to Revelation certain themes that are wonderfully summarized in a verse, or two, or a paragraph.

3:49 And this is our method. We've looked at some general assertions in the Old and New Testament concerning the sovereignty of God. And then we looked at the specific areas in which His sovereignty is exercised, creation and providence. And we are presently studying the sovereignty of God in the realm of grace.

4:09 The fact that God, in the realm of grace, in the realm of saving men, acts sovereignly according to the disposition of His own will. Having tried to clear aside some of the abuses and misrepresentations of this doctrine, we are now establishing this doctrine in the light of the Scripture, in the light of the Scriptures. First of all, we considered four key words. The word elect, or chosen, election.

4:38 Then the word predestinate, the word called, and the word foreknown. And the conclusion, as we studied these words in the different passages where they are found, is that every one of them points to this grand and glorious truth that God works in grace according to His own sovereign purpose. Now, tonight, we are picking up the thread of our teaching as we further consider some key passages of the Word of God. Having looked at the key words, four of them, which set forth this doctrine, we are now looking at some key passages.

5:16 God has embodied in a wonderful way certain general truths in specific passages. You think of love, and immediately 1 Corinthians 13 comes to mind. Resurrection, 1 Corinthians 15. And so, when we think of the sovereignty of God, there are certain key passages, both in the words of our Lord and the words of the Apostles, that should come to mind, and about which we should have some heart as well as head acquaintance.

5:44 We considered just two in our last study, Matthew 11 and John 3. And now, the Lord willing, tonight we shall look at several more in the sixth chapter of the Gospel of John. Well, it took me six minutes. But I tried to stick to the fun, all right?

The Twofold Reaction to Christ's Hard Sayings

6:07 Now, lest we fail to see the woods for the trees, remember what we're seeking to do. We're trying to discover what the Scripture says about the sovereignty of God in the realm of grace, and particularly what our Lord Himself declares in certain key passages concerning this truth. The sixth chapter of John is another one of those chapters that I mentioned a few weeks ago, that, in my natural state, I was fighting this glorious truth of the Bible. I did not particularly care for this chapter.

6:41 This was one of those chapters that I was so glad when the telephone would ring or I'd get kind of noddy or have an interruption, so I'd have some reason to leave it until the next time. For this chapter is filled with some of the most plain and unmistakable assertions of the absolute sovereignty of God in the realm of grace. Now, let's look at the first section in John 6, verses 37 to 40. Now, I might mention, just by way of introduction, something that I think is noteworthy, that after our Lord finished uttering these truths that are recorded in John 6, there was a twofold reaction.

7:25 In verse 60 we read, Many therefore of His disciples, when they heard this, said, This is a hard saying. Who can hear it? Verse 66, Upon this many of His disciples went back and walked no more with Him. Our Lord preached truth that drove men away.

7:50 Now, notice the next few verses. Verse 67, Jesus said unto the twelve, Will He also go away? Simon Peter answered Him, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life.

8:05 Some were offended and left Him. Others were drawn into a deeper attachment. And this glad confession, To whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life.

8:18 Even the hard words, they're life-giving words. And Lord, we're going to cling to You and to Your truth. Now, there'll be that twofold reaction here tonight. I'm absolutely confident of that.

8:29 Some of you at the conclusion of our study are going to say, This is a hard saying. Who can bear it? And God forbid that it should be true, but we should not be surprised if it is. Some of you may in your hearts go back and walk with Him no more.

8:45 Or you may continue to come to church. You may continue to sing the hymns. You may continue to go through the motions. But to walk with Him in loving attachment, an attachment in which your mind is subject to His truth as well as your will, subject to His precepts, you may go back.

9:02 But I do trust that the greater measure or greater number of you tonight will be like Peter, speaking on behalf of the others, beholding the Lord's words tonight and hearing them, that they will be an instrument of drawing you into a deeper attachment to Himself. Now, what were these words that were hard sayings? Cause some to leave Him. Cause others to cleave to Him with a greater tenacity than ever.

John 6:37-40: The Father's Giving, Sinner's Coming, Savior's Receiving

9:30 Well, let's look at the first section, verses 37 to 40. All that the Father giveth me shall come to me. Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. For I am come down from heaven not to do mine own will, but the will of Him that sent me.

9:48 And this is the will of Him that sent me, that of all which He hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that every one that beholdeth the Son and believeth on Him should have eternal life, and I should raise Him up at the last day. Now, let's look briefly at the context of this paragraph, or section of the paragraph, then we shall look at the content of the paragraph itself. Now, what is the context of this paragraph in which our Lord talks about the Father giving certain ones to Him, and that He would receive such,

10:31 and that in doing the will of the Father He would not lose any of that which was given to Him by the Father? What is the context of this passage? Well, backing up just a few verses, you will notice, in verse 33, He was talking about Himself as the bread come down from heaven that gives life to the world, the wonderful gospel invitation and a gospel offer. For the bread of God is that which cometh down out of heaven and giveth life to the world.

11:02 Here was this broad and glorious gospel declaration that as the bread of life, the Lord Jesus was sincerely offered and available not just to some little group, the Jews, but to the world. He is the world's Savior, the world's bread. Any sinner in the world will find the needs of his soul met in Jesus Christ. Verse 34, Then they said therefore unto Him, Lord, evermore give us this bread.

11:33 Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never hunger. He that believeth on me shall never thirst. And not only is there this proclamation of how the needs of men may be met by the bread of life, but here is this tremendous promise that those that come and those that believe, coming is approaching to Christ, believing is laying hold of Christ, and He gives this sure word of promise that the coming one shall never hunger, that the believing one shall never thirst.

12:06 So the context of verses 37 to 40 is a context in which our Lord has set forth the sufficiency of the gospel offer and then the promise of God to receive sinners who come. But notice verse 36, after that broad statement of gospel privilege and that sure word of gospel promise, notice verse 36, but I said unto you that ye have not, ye have seen me and yet believe not.

12:41 In spite of that tremendous provision and that sure promise, there is the problem of rejection and unbelief. In spite of this, he said, though you've seen me or looked upon me, you haven't believed. Now it's in this context of the free offer of the gospel and the sure promise of the gospel being followed by a rejection of that offer and a failure to lay hold of the promise that we have this strong statement of the sovereignty of God in grace. All that the Father giveth me shall come to me.

13:18 What's the connection then between verses 34 to 36 and verses 37 to 40? May I read from Bishop Ryle a paragraph that I could have copied or digested and made my own, but in the interest of time, I thought I would just take it from Bishop Ryle. Plus the fact I hope this will get some of you convinced that you ought to have this in your own personal library. Ryle's expository thoughts on the gospel.

13:50 The connection of this verse with the preceding one seems to be this. Your unbelief does not move me or surprise me. I foresaw it and have been aware of it. Nevertheless, your unbelief will not prevent God's purposes taking effect.

14:05 Some will believe, though you remain unbelieving. Everything that the Father gives me will come to me in due time. Believe and be saved. In spite of your unbelief, all my sheep shall sooner or later come to me by faith and be gathered within my fold.

14:23 I see your unbelief with sorrow, but not with anxiety and surprise. I am prepared for it. I know that you cannot alter God's purposes and in accordance with those purposes a people will come to me, though you do not. I believe that's the sense of the connection.

14:41 Here's the marvelous provision, the sure promise in the face of that rejection. And our Lord, as it were, is drawing comfort for his own soul in this tremendous declaration, though you will not come and have not come, all that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that comes to me I will in no wise cast out. Then he declares in verse 38 the reason why this is true, because of the purpose of the Father. And then in verses 39 to 40 he breaks that down into the Father's secret purpose and the Father's revealed purpose.

Analyzing John 6:37: The Order of Salvation

15:17 Now let's think our way through this paragraph, phrase by phrase. All that the Father giveth me shall come to me. And it's interesting, in the original, our Lord does not say all those, speaking of individuals, but he uses the Newton, speaking of the great mass of God's people as one great lump. All that which the Father giveth me shall come to me.

15:48 Picturing the great body of his redeemed as one group, that group spoken of in Ephesians 1, for whom God has chosen in Christ. And he says that will or shall come to me. Now what does he mean by the Father giving them? Well, in this passage the meaning is not too clear as it is in others, not as clear, because the present tense is used.

16:14 He doesn't say all that which the Father gave me, past tense, but he says all that which the Father giveth me, present tense. So it can mean one of two things. It can mean either that gift of the Father, of those whom he chose in Christ, that gift given to the Son in eternity, as those whom he was to redeem, or it could mean, because of the present tense, that the present giving of the Father, as the Father draws men and gives them the grace and enables them to see in Jesus Christ their only hope of mercy. And as he enables them to lay hold of him and his salvation,

16:56 verse 44 touches on this, the Father's drawing. But in either case, whether it is a giving in time past, the giving in eternity, spoken of in John 17, thou hast given him authority over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast, past tense, given him. There's a past giving. It could be that, or it could be a present giving, that present giving of grace by which men are drawn to the Son.

17:27 But in either case, this is clear. It is a giving of the Father, and the time is not important. Our Lord is talking about people who are given by the Father, whether in that immediate context or referring back to eternity, there is a giving, and the Father does the giving. Now, what does he say of these?

17:54 Well, he says, all that the Father gives me shall come to me. Now, the word coming obviously is used synonymously with believing. Look at verse 35. He that cometh to me shall not hunger.

18:09 He that believeth in me shall not thirst. And so coming is but another way of describing believing, resting the weight of the guilty soul upon Jesus Christ as he is offered to us in the Gospel. Notice now the certainty of this. He faces these men to whom he's given this word of tremendous promise, following that word of adequate provision, and in the face of their rejection, our Lord says, this rejection does not move me.

18:39 This does not discourage me, for all that the Father gives shall come. They shall come. They shall come. They shall come.

18:51 And coming, what will happen? He says, and him that comes to me, though they're given by the Father to the Son, the ones he's to redeem, they are brought one by one. And him that comes to me, I will in no wise cast out. I will fully receive them, and I will powerfully keep them.

19:18 Now, can you put this together? And see some order? You have in the first phrase, the Father's giving, all that the Father gives. You have in the second phrase, the sinner's coming, shall come.

19:32 And in the third phrase, you have the Savior's receiving. I will in no wise cast out. The Father's giving, the sinner's coming, the Savior's receiving. Now, don't mix up that order.

19:46 Does the Savior receive sinners? Ah, yes. Well, what sinners does he receive? Those who come.

19:53 Well, do sinners come? Yes. Why do they come? Because the Father gives.

19:58 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?

20:16 I mean a real dog. I don't mean you're angry with your husband or wife, but I mean you have a real dog. How many of you have a dog? All right.

20:22 Now, I'm going to ask you a very simple question. I don't want you to raise your hand because this would be an insult to your intelligence to ask you to raise your hand. Now, if your dog's tail, well, even a clipped tail, even those poor little beagles where they clip the tail of other dogs, they've got that little stud that still wiggles. Now, does the tail wag the dog or the dog the tail?

20:43 Why, you say anybody knows that. The dog wags the tail, of course.

20:48 The tail doesn't wag the dog. Now, the tail wags, and the wagging is a very real activity. Our dog, mixed collie with a long, bushy tail, and her tail comes right about the height of Beth's face, and it's really interesting sometimes to see Beth chasing the dog, wanting to pet it and show her affection, and the dog trying to get away all the while swashing her tail, and it just catches Beth right about the nose here. So the wagging of a dog's tail is a very real, feverish activity.

21:16 But it's not that tail that's wagging the dog, but it's the dog that wags the tail. Now, in this verse, which is the dog and which is the tail? Is the sinner's coming the dog which determines the Father's giving? Does he give because I come, or is it the other way around?

21:36 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. Now, the sinner comes just as surely as the activity of that tail is very real.

21:57 Sinners are not dragged to Christ against their will, they don't go to bed cursing His name and somehow wake up the next morning loving His name and loving His will by some mysterious process. Sinners come! Their coming is likened to drinking, to eating of Christ. Sure, sinners come!

22:16 No one questions that. Sinners come! They flee to Christ. They lay hold of Christ.

22:22 They embrace Christ. They turn from sin.

22:26 That's the tail. It's all that the Father's given that shall come, and the word of promise is the sure word of promise the Savior receives.

22:43 Oh, I trust that just that simple homily illustration will burn into your heart the truth of this text. Don't separate the sinner's coming and the Savior's receiving from that which initiates it all, the Father's giving. Now, this is the clear teaching of verse 37. Now, why is it so?

John 6:38-40: The Father's Secret and Revealed Will

23:04 Why should there be this inseparable relationship between the Father's giving, the sinner's coming, and the Savior's receiving? Well, verse 38, our Lord gives us a summary of the reason why.

23:19 Sure, He's going to explain why this is all true. For I am come down from heaven not to do mine own will, but the will of Him that sent me. Oh, so the reason why there is this inseparable relationship does not rest upon the whim and fancy of the sinner. It rests upon the determination of the God who sent the Savior who received sinners.

23:49 He says, for, this is why this is true, for I came down from heaven to do my Father's will. Now, what is the Father's will? You'll notice in verses 39 and 40, they both begin with this phrase. This is the will of Him that sent me.

24:05 Verse 39, verse 40, this is the will of my Father. Is the Lord repeating Himself here? No. I never saw this until preparing for the message tonight, and I believe this is what our Lord is doing.

24:19 He gives us in verse 39 one aspect of the will of God that we might call the secret will of God's purpose, which Christ is fulfilling, and in verse 40, the revealed will of God's promise, which Christ is also revealing. Notice. The secret will of God's purpose. What is it? Notice.

24:44 And this is the will of Him that sent me, that of all that which He hath given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. Why is it true that Christ received sinners, and that those whom He receives He'll never cast out? Because He was here to do the Father's will, which was clearly expressed in these words, that all that were given to Him, He should lose none of them, but raise them up. That's the only reason why believers are kept.

25:17 They're not kept because their decision was genuine. I get so tired when I hear people say, well, so-and-so made a profession, but he hadn't stuck. He must not have really meant it,

25:30 or so-and-so really meant his decision. But if my being kept rested upon the strength or weakness of my intentions, I'd have been an apostate a long time ago. Oh, our Lord said the reason why those who come are kept and received and never cast out is because this is the secret will of God's eternal purpose, that all the elect who are given to the Son, none should be lost, but should be raised up at the last day. All that are given shall be drawn.

26:06 All that are drawn will be kept. But you say, ah, where do I fit into that secret will of God's eternal purpose? It's as though the Lord anticipates that question, and He says, listen, I've not only come to accomplish the will of God, the secret intents of His heart, His secret will of purpose, but I've come to declare His revealed will of promise. And what is it? Look at verse 40.

26:31 For this is the will of my Father, that every one that beholdeth the Son and believeth on Him should have eternal life, and I'll raise him up at the last day. And so you're looking at these things from two sides, this whole matter of sinners coming to Christ and never being cast out, from God's perspective, it's the result of His eternal purpose. This is His will, that all that He's given me I should lose nothing but raise them up. Now looking at it from the human side, the revealed will of promise, this is the Father's will, that every one that beholds me, believes in me, should have eternal life, and I'll raise him up.

27:14 Dear ones, woe be unto us if we neglect either side. The secret will of God's purpose for our instruction and our consolation, the revealed will of His promise for the stability and for the hope of our needy hearts. This is the only reason why verse 37 is true. The only reason why it's true, that all who come are received and are never cast out.

27:43 The secret will of purpose, the revealed will of promise. Now it's interesting. The King James doesn't bring this out, but the word used in verse 40 for seeing, for this is the will of my Father that every one that seeth the Son, the word there is behold. It's a different word from that used in verse 36, where Jesus said to these unbelieving Jews, I said unto you, you have seen me and yet believe not.

28:09 Here He uses a different word, a stronger word. It's the word for a spectator looking with great intent to discern what's going on, whereas the other word simply means to see, to observe something. And so our Lord declares here, here's the promise, all who see in Him their only hope of mercy, all who discern in Jesus Christ the bread of life, all whose eyes are open to perceive in Him all that they will ever need for time and eternity to be right with God, all who see and all who believe will be raised up at the last day. The beholding precedes the believing.

28:50 There cannot be the embrace of faith until there's the illumination of the darkened eyes. You cannot believe on an unrevealed Savior. You cannot embrace a hidden Christ. So God who commanded light to shine out of darkness shines in the sinner's heart to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

29:13 And the sinner embraces, he comes, he comes because the Father can hear him, the eyes he can listen, and he lays hold of that Savior within him. Why do we assert the scriptural doctrine or the doctrine that God is sovereign and great? Because of the teaching of our Lord here in John 6, verses 37 to 40, which clearly reveals this truth. Now look at the second section, verses 44 and 45, and we'll handle them in a similar passage.

John 6:44-45: No Man Can Come Unless Drawn by the Father

29:46 In a similar manner, read the verses, look at the context, then look at the content, and draw one or two conclusions. No man can come to me except the Father that sent me draw him, and I will raise him up in the last day. It is written in the prophets, and they shall all be taught of God. Everyone that hath heard from the Father and hath learned cometh unto me.

30:16 Now what is the context of these two verses? Well, notice back to 41, 43. It's the context again of unbelief. The Jews therefore murmured concerning him because he said, I'm the bread that came down from heaven.

30:32 And they said, isn't this Jesus, the son of Joseph? We know his mom and dad. What's he talking about, come down from heaven? He's come over from Nazareth, just a few miles from us.

30:43 We've heard about it. Now he's talking about coming down from heaven. What kind of wild claims is this fellow making? You see, they were offended in their unbelief and in their spiritual blindness.

30:54 Now it's in that context again of unbelief and spiritual blindness that Jesus says, murmur not among yourselves, no man can come to me except the Father that sent me draw him. Do you find it difficult, he said, to believe my claims that I am come down from heaven? Because you cannot believe my claims, you feel you cannot come to me. He said, no, the real reason is not that my claims are out of reach, it's that your spiritual state is such that unless the Father is pleased to do a work to draw you to me, you can't come.

31:32 You think it's just a matter of having a few ideas about me adjusted so they suit your own prejudices? Oh no, our Lord says, your problem is far deeper than that. The state of your heart and mind by nature are such that unless the Father is pleased to powerfully draw me, you cannot come. Not you will not, you cannot.

31:54 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?

32:23 I'd say, I can't, I can't. Well, you know immediately what I mean by those words, and I'm using them in the right sense, I can't do that. That doesn't mean that I'm physically unable to double up my fist and to strike her. Thank God I've never done that.

32:39 But I'm not physically unable. If someone should come into my presence two minutes later and seek to harm my wife, I'd see very quickly how my ability was there to do something. So when you say I can't, you're not speaking of a physical inability, you're speaking of a moral inability. You cannot, you're constrained by other motives that make it impossible for you to do this.

33:02 And when I say I can't jump over the church and I say I can't hit my wife, both statements are equally valid, but you have more sense than to put the same meaning in both instances. When I say I can't jump over the church, you know that that's a physical inability. If we were on the moon, where gravity is only one-sixteenth what it is here, we might be able to do it, but we're not there. When I say I cannot strike my wife, this is something entirely different.

33:29 And our Lord, when He says here, no man can come to Me, He is not speaking of a physical inability, but a moral inability. It's not the picture of a sinner who wants to come, but he can't because there's some big obstacle, or that coming to Christ is such a complicated, difficult thing, that unless he's got a PhD in theology, he'll never make it. No, no. It's not the picture of the man who wills to come, but cannot.

33:54 It's the picture of the man who will not. That's why he cannot. He cannot because he will not, in the same sense that I cannot strike my wife because I will not. And so when our Lord says no man can come, He is speaking of that terrible state in which the fall of man has left us, and in which the call of the Gospel finds us, and no man can come except, and that's one of the most precious little accepts in all the Bible.

34:28 If our good friend Mr. Riesinger were preaching on this verse tonight, he'd say, oh, blessed except. Blessed except. Blessed except.

34:37 Except. Here's the rule. No man, I don't care who you are tonight, I don't care how advanced are the expressions of your depravity in terms of outward licentiousness of life, ignorance of divine truth, profanity of lips, or how hidden may be the manifestations of your sin. You may have a very workable acquaintance with the Bible, its doctrines, its truth, and all the rest.

35:07 No man, regardless of background, attainments, no man, this is a universal principle, can come, there is that moral inability, except the Father, now notice what word our Lord uses, except the Father bludgeon him, except the Father force him, no, except the Father what? Except the Father draw. I don't read things into the passage that are not this. All that the Father giveth me shall come to me.

35:39 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 his neck, God somehow forces him kicking and screaming to embrace Christ. Oh, what a caricature of the truth of God. No, what God does is He does something in that wild horse.

36:23 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?

36:59 Well, in the deep hidden springs, where Paul could not discern God's working, comes, working by His Spirit, revealing His Son, and He says in Galatians 1-15, when He leaves God to separate me from my mother's womb, to reveal His Son in me. And the first conscious reaction of Paul was a groan, a groaning, and God knew that groan was divine.

37:44 It is written in the Prophets, and they shall all be taught of God. Everyone that hath heard from the Father and hath learned cometh to me. Now, put the two things together. No man can come except the Father draw.

38:00 All that hear and are taught do come. So the drawing is equated with this having heard from the Father and having learned of Him. So the drawing is not a physical work, of course, but that drawing is the drawing of an illuminated mind and heart. God opens the blinded mind to perceive its own lostness, opens the blinded eyes to perceive the wisdom of God in the cross of Christ, opens the darkened mind to perceive the beauty of Christ, so that that person who is thus taught of God comes to Christ.

38:43 That drawing is a drawing by illumination, by revelation, by the opening of the eyes. And I go back again to that key text in 2 Corinthians 4, 6, where Paul, having said in verse 4 that the God of this world has what? Blinded the minds of unbelieving men, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ should dawn upon them. But he says, God who commanded light to shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts to give the light or the illumination of the glory of God in the face of Jesus.

John 6:65: Reinforcing Divine Giving

39:15 And so that work of drawing is a work of revelation, a work of illumination, a work of instruction. And so when the Father instructs and opens the eyes, the sinner is drawn and embraces Christ. Now you have the century of the same in verse 65. You can study it too on your own, this strong statement of our Lord.

39:39 For this cause I said unto you, no man can come to me except to be given unto him of the Father. You look at the setting of it, and again you find unbelief, rejection, and in the midst of that setting, this statement of our Lord that man will not come except to be given of the Father. But I want to spend the remainder of our time tonight answering a very basic and important question. Of what use is all this teaching?

Practical Implications: A Humbling Teaching

40:05 Well, even if I didn't know the use of it as long as it's in the Bible and I'm called upon to declare the whole counsel of God, I'd have to preach it sooner or later. It's not up to me to justify the ways of God to men in all instances. But there are some very practical, practical implications of this truth of the sovereignty of God in grace as set forth by our Lord in John chapter 6. And I would like to suggest two things.

40:29 First of all, it is a very humbling teaching. It's humbling, first of all, to the unconverted sinner. There are some of you sitting here tonight who may be, at least of average intelligence, I mean, many of you are, let me finish before I go off and fool many of you, more than average intelligence. You find that you have no problem acquiring this world's knowledge and perhaps you even pride yourself at being fairly well acquainted with Christianity, the substance of its doctrines and all the rest.

41:02 And God comes to you tonight and says this,

41:06 you can't safely embrace the Son unless the Father streams to you. To lift the blind from your poor darkened heart and to take off the shackles from your poor devilish slain figure. Oh, wait, I'm a free man! Who are you? Start loving God right now.

41:31 Just sit there in your seat and say, I shall love Him with a free heart. Start loving holiness and hating sin and loving God's law. Determine right now that you'll see a beauty in Christ that will make you willing to die for Him if you are called upon to do so tomorrow. Oh, you say, wait a minute.

41:51 I'm not too sure. Oh, that's right. No man can come to me. The man who truly comes sees a beauty in Christ, a beauty in Christ that if he's called upon by the grace of God, he's willing to give his very life for that Christ.

42:10 And this doctrine cuts the very nerve of man's pride. Proud, self-determining man, master in his own fate, captain of his own soul, Jesus Christ is. No man can come except to follow God. No man can come except to be given Him a very humbling teaching that causes you to fall down before this God and cry to Him.

42:37 By His grace, He might open the eyes of your understanding to perceive your desperate need of the Christ who will one day be your judge to enable you to see Him as your only hope of mercy. But it's also a humbling teaching to the saint. Have you come? Have you come to Christ with all the richness of that biblical term?

43:00 Have you come to Christ guilty, vile, depraved, condemned? Have you fled to Christ, rested the weight of your soul upon Him? Tonight can you say, as you think of Him and your relationship to Him, Thou, O Christ, art all I want, more than all in me I find. Can you say that?

43:22 Have you come? Have you come? Having come, have you found that He received you? Hmm? Haven't you?

43:29 Have you found the last two parts of verse 37, please? Him that comes, I will know I have passed out. Have you found that true? Remember, that's the case.

43:43 So thank God that the Lord prostrated upon your face and said, Lord, the only reason a sinner like me would ever have come is I was part of that which you gave to the Sabbath. All that the Father giveth shall come, and him that comes, and no wise man. My friend, listen. If you're not willing to gladly acknowledge that the only reason you came and were received is that the Father gave you, you'd better check the reality of your coming.

44:16 If you're not willing to ascribe all the glory and praise of it to God, maybe the basic root of a dammit pride has never really been

44:28 by the sword of divinity. I'm not saying this is infallibly the reason, but it could be. What a humbling doctrine, a humbling teaching. But in the second place, it's a hopeful teaching.

Practical Implications: A Hopeful Teaching

44:42 One of the most hopeful teachings in all the Bible is the sovereignty of God and grace. Hopeful to the sinner! For as I look out into the faces of you men and women tonight, some of you young people, visitors,

44:58 I know that if you are tonight what Adam and your mom and dad made you, that you're dead in trespasses and sins. That you're blind to the glory of my Christ. That you see no beauty in Christ. That you love your sin.

45:19 You love the service of self. Oh, what a hopeful doctrine to you to declare to you that there's a God who by His power can overcome the disposition and bent of your heart to sin and darkness and uncleanness and pride and self. Turn your heart to Himself. No person here tonight who knows a little a little, a little of something of that emptiness, that aching void of a life that is severed from God and from Christ and the life of God in Christ.

45:57 What a delight it is for me to declare to you His words. Him that cometh unto me shall never hunger. He that believeth on me shall never thirst. And this is a hopeful doctrine.

46:10 There's a God who can overcome every disposition in your heart in the opposite direction. Make you a willing loved slave of Jesus Christ. No man can come except. This is a hopeful teaching to the sinner.

46:25 And oh, what a hopeful teaching to the saint. Now give it up on some of those lovelings. They've been able to withstand every overture of the gospel that you've given them. You've had them to meetings where servants of God have prayed and preached and maybe even shed tears and they seem to be as adamant and hardened in their resistance to the gospel as ever, but already throw in the towel.

46:54 No man can come except. What a hopeful doctrine. What a hopeful doctrine. You see all the evidence, all the evidence of the rebellion of that heart, of its resistance to grace and to light and everything else.

47:12 Oh, that tonight God will help you to see Him who is able to break all of that down by one stroke of His own mighty power. This is a hopeful doctrine. Paul states it in 2 Corinthians 2.26 where he says, The servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle toward all men.

47:33 Act to teach in meekness, instructing those that oppose themselves. If God, for adventure, will give them repentance to the acknowledgment of the truth, that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil who were taken captive by him unto his will. Here's a person in snare. He's tired by the devil, impenitent, resisting the claims of truth and of Christ.

48:02 And now Paul says to Timothy, Timothy, don't strive, don't be argumentative, just in meekness, in gentleness, just teach the truth. Oh, wait a minute. If men are to be overcome by the sheer weight of human persuasion, if it's His will, His free, autonomous will pitted against the will of the preacher or the personal worker, this is no place for meekness. This is no place for patience.

48:30 This is a call to amass all the powers of human personality and bring them like a mighty army to siege that will and bring it captive. No, that isn't how Paul viewed it. He didn't view that sinner out there as a man floating around with a will that could be turned left or right like a directional signal on the car. He viewed that man as a will that was in captive, in captivity to the devil.

48:57 And he said, Timothy, recognizing full well his terrible plight, Timothy, never forget this. You go on faithfully in meekness, demonstrating the spirit of Christ. You teach the truth. You preach the truth.

49:12 Instruct those that oppose themselves in the continual hope that if it please God, He can grant them repentance to the acknowledgement of the truth. And they shall then recover themselves from the snare of the devil. Isn't that a hopeful thought? You see, it puts the weight of your responsibility where it ought to be, in that you are driven to pray and you're driven to proclaim the message in the spirit of meekness.

Responsibility in Light of Sovereignty

49:42 You're shut up to prayer and to teaching and proclaiming and preaching the word of God.

49:51 You sit back and say, oh, well, since God alone can draw him, he'll draw him. Now, how does he draw? He draws by teaching everyone that hath heard of the Father. And so my ability is to teach that truth, to communicate that truth in the hope, in the expectation, in the prayer that God will be pleased to make it effective.

50:11 And so tonight, as we face this doctrine, may God help us not only to face it in its precept, but also to adorn it in its practical implications. If you're here tonight severed from Christ, I hope this doctrine has cut you to the quick and made you feel what's the use. It's helpless, it's hopeless. We fear hopelessness like it was the next thing to the Black Plague.

50:35 Somebody begins to get hopelessly under conviction, and everybody wants to run around and help the poor fellow. Isn't that terrible? Poor fellow's mourning all the day long. He feels there's no hope.

50:46 Would to God we'd have a baptism of hopeless, helpless, a hopeless, helpless spirit to good men. They'd be ready to be saved by an almighty Son.

50:58 Dear child of God, if you haven't been humbled and brought down to worship God, as the God of absolute sovereignty in the realm of grace, there cannot help but be something, to some measure, defective to the original. I didn't say it was insincere, but there must be something defective. For the lowest place before the throne of God is that place found in a man realizing that if I'm drawn, I'm drawn for nothing in Him, but simply because of his own sovereign departure.

51:34 And then may we feel its hopeful aspects, if you feel helpless, listen to his promise. This is the will of Him that sent me, that all that behold the Son and believe, He should raise up at the last day. You say, but I don't know if I'm given. God says, that's none of your business.

51:51 What you need to know is if you come, He'll receive. That's your business. That's your business. That's your business.

Closing Prayer and Hymn

51:59 Come in. He'll receive. Lord our God, we thank you for the truth of your word. Be pleased, oh God, be pleased to give us understanding, give us grace to adorn its truth in our inner and in our outward experience.

52:31 Where men and women should be cut and slain tonight, oh Lord, be pleased to do that slain work. Where there should be the balm of encouragement, pour that into the heart of others for your glory. Oh Lord, we thank you for your eternal truth. Be pleased to seal it to our hearts for your glory.

52:56 Let us sing in closing tonight several verses of a hymn that embodies the last aspect of this, of these passages, hymn that comes to me, I will no wise cast out. God calling yet shall I not hear. Hymn number 531, 531. Let us stand and sing stanzas one, two, and four, stanzas one, two, and four.

53:41 Go on. God calling yet shall I not hear.

55:51 My closing prayer was produced by the Trinity Poetry Society.