The Mystery of Grace: Why We Cannot Come to Christ

• The Bread of Life Discourse 00:01:02 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor introduces John 6:41-47 as part of Jesus' discourse following the feeding of the 5,000, establishing Jesus as the sustainer of eternal life.
• Sovereign Election and Drawing 00:03:43 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor explains that no one can come to Jesus unless the Father draws them, referencing John 6:44 and Ephesians 1 to support the doctrine of election.
• Repentance and Faith 00:11:08 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor defines salvation as requiring two actions: coming to Jesus (repentance) and believing in Him (faith), citing Acts 20:21.
• Rejection of Works-Based Salvation 00:11:40 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor explicitly denies that justification comes through works of righteousness, sacraments, church affiliation, or birth, affirming sola fide.
• Inclusive Salvation and Election 00:12:18 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor explains that 'all' who come to Christ are those the Father has given, citing John 6:37 and Ephesians 1:3-6 to establish that salvation is for the elect, not literally every individual.
• Exclusivity of Christ 00:15:15 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor introduces the 'negative side' or exclusivity of coming to Christ, noting that no one can come except the Father gives them the ability.
• Grumbling of Unbelieving Leadership 00:15:59 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor analyzes the 'continuous grumbling' of the Jewish leadership (Pharisees, Sadducees, etc.) against Jesus, linking it to their opposition to His claim of being the bread from heaven.
• Historical Parallel of Grumbling 00:18:10 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor draws a parallel between the Jewish leadership's grumbling and the Israelites' grumbling in the wilderness of Sin after the Exodus, highlighting the pattern of ingratitude despite miraculous provision.
• Personal Conviction on Grumbling 00:21:05 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor shares a personal conviction about his own tendency to grumble when things do not go his way, contrasting this with the reality of God's sovereign plan and salvation from hell.
• Biblical Antidote to Grumbling 00:23:43 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor cites Philippians 2:14-16 and 4:6-9 to teach that believers should do all things without grumbling, focusing on what is true and honorable, and relying on prayer and thanksgiving.
• Grumbling and Contentment 00:25:40 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor identifies grumbling as a result of focusing on one's situation rather than Christ, prescribing contentment and gratitude as the antidote.
• Rejection of the Gospel 00:29:30 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor notes that believers should expect rejection and condescension from the world, citing Jesus' rejection by those who knew his earthly family as a precedent.
• Divine Drawing and Human Inability 00:32:27 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor explains that 'no one can come' to Christ, emphasizing the Greek word 'dunamai' (power/ability) to show that humans lack the inherent power to believe without God's intervention.
• The Nature of Divine Drawing 00:37:35 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor clarifies that 'draw' implies a forceful action ('drag') rather than a mere enticement, necessary because humans are naturally opposed to God.
• Divine Drawing and Regeneration 00:37:59 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor explains that God 'drags' or draws sinners to Himself because they are too full of sin to come on their own, using the analogy of a child being swatted to prevent death.
• Internal Teaching by the Holy Spirit 00:41:43 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor interprets Isaiah 54:13 as referring to the internal teaching of the Holy Spirit, which brings conviction and regeneration, fulfilling the promise of the law written on hearts.
• Human Responsibility vs. Divine Sovereignty 00:44:27 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor asserts that while salvation is God's business, the believer's business is to preach the gospel to everyone, as no one knows who is elect.
• The Gospel Call and Assurance 00:46:40 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor issues a direct call to repentance and faith, emphasizing that eternal life is received through belief in Jesus, who satisfied God's justice on the cross.

• Sermon Illustration 00:07:23 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor shares a personal anecdote about watching a Sight and Sound Theater production about the Great Awakening with his family, noting the emotional impact and the historical relationship between George Whitefield and Benjamin Franklin.
• Sermon Illustration 00:08:17 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor uses the historical example of George Whitefield preaching to tens of thousands while Benjamin Franklin remained an unbeliever, and Judas Iscariot spending time with Jesus yet remaining the 'son of the devil,' to illustrate that hearing the gospel does not guarantee salvation.
• Sermon Illustration 00:13:34 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor uses an analogy of a sign at the border of heaven: one side invites 'whosoever will' to believe, while the back side reveals that only those 'chosen from the foundation of the world' will respond.
• Sermon Illustration 00:18:51 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor references the historical event of the Israelites setting out from Elim and grumbling against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness of Sin, complaining about hunger despite God's previous miracles.
• Sermon Illustration 00:22:27 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor lists various mundane examples of modern grumbling, such as complaining about the preacher, church songs, room temperature, or lack of acknowledgment from others, to illustrate how easily believers become discontent.
• Sermon Illustration 00:29:48 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor references Bill Maher's movie 'Religulous' as an example of someone grasping at straws to reject God, illustrating the condescending rejection believers face.
• Sermon Illustration 00:38:14 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor uses the analogy of a dog returning to its vomit or a pig to mud to describe how humans, full of sin, would naturally return to sin without God's intervention.
• Sermon Illustration 00:38:38 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor compares God's drawing of sinners to a parent swatting a child's behind to prevent them from running into danger, illustrating necessary discipline for salvation.
• Sermon Illustration 00:38:14 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor uses the analogy of a dog returning to its vomit or a pig to the mud to illustrate how full of sin humans are, making it impossible for them to come to Christ without God dragging them.
• Sermon Illustration 00:38:31 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor compares God's drawing of sinners to a parent swatting a toddler who is about to run into the road, explaining that the pain of the swat saves the child from death, just as God's drawing saves the sinner.
• Sermon Illustration 00:46:17 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor references Adrian Rogers' illustration of two signs: one side saying 'whosoever will' and the other side saying 'saved from the foundation of the world' to highlight the tension between human choice and divine election.

• Pastoral Charge 00:18:10 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor asks the congregation to turn their Bibles to Exodus 16:1-3 to read the scripture passage.
• Pastoral Charge 00:25:04 ▶️ 📄
  > The pastor instructs the congregation to turn to Philippians 4:6.
• Pastoral Charge 00:46:04 ▶️ 📄
  > Proclaim the gospel to those who seem reprobate.
• Pastoral Charge 00:46:04 ▶️ 📄
  > Intercede in prayer for the unsaved.
• Pastoral Charge 00:46:04 ▶️ 📄
  > Demonstrate love to the unsaved to foster belief.
• Pastoral Charge 00:46:49 ▶️ 📄
  > Repent and place faith in Jesus Christ.
• Pastoral Charge 00:47:52 ▶️ 📄
  > Place personal faith and trust in Jesus Christ.

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:00:00] As you are being seated would you take your copy of the scriptures and turn with me to the gospel according to John chapter 6. That's where we'll be this morning. As I come up here I always like to own up to my shortcomings and my mistakes and one of them was as I gave the wrong reading for your New Testament reading this morning. It was my fault. Katie put the right thing in the bulletin what I told her and I just, it's my fault. That was supposed to be Acts chapter 2 verses 1 through 13 because this is Pentecost Sunday.
[00:00:30] So, just in case if you were wondering whether that sounded like the reading that we did last week plus a little extra stuff that didn't seem to make much sense to go with the day, that's the reason why. It's because I did the wrong thing. So, thank you for reading what I wrote incorrectly still and it was still the word of God and obviously edifying to us all.
[00:00:52] As we are coming to this chapter 6, I want to remind us all of the fact that this is one large discourse of Christ that follows the feeding of the 5,000.
[00:01:02] We're taking it in small sections because the small sections are so rich and full of so much doctrine and incredible teaching and help to all of us.
[00:01:12] And so we're going to be focusing on 41 through 47.
[00:01:15] But the idea this morning is that the Lord Jesus Christ has fed the people, and this is part of this passage as well, at the feeding of the 5,000.
[00:01:25] It's the only miracle outside of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ that's recorded in all four Gospels, the feeding of the 5,000.
[00:01:33] It was seen, obviously, as something magnificent.
[00:01:36] It's one of the few miracles that Jesus did, the signs that he did to accompany his proclamation of ministry, the gospel ministry, that was a creative event.
[00:01:48] That's something where Jesus creates something.
[00:01:51] And Gavin, a number of weeks ago, did a great job of drawing out that idea.
[00:01:56] And so it was astounding, and it was reminding people of the past.
[00:02:03] It was meant to hearken them back to the days in the wilderness when the Lord God showered manna upon the people as he delivered them from Egypt and also fed them and supplied their needs and kept them alive, so to speak, through their time in the wilderness wandering.
[00:02:20] Even in the midst of judgment, which I think is amazing to think about, that in the midst of judgment, and even though people would die in the wilderness, a second generation was brought up, but God continued to supply their needs, continued to feed them, gave them water
[00:02:34] from the rock from time to time and gave them, continued to sustain their life. And so Jesus uses this idea, this concept of sustaining life, of the food, the bread that we eat, the water that
[00:02:49] we drink continues to sustain our life physically. Jesus is going to use that as a metaphor for himself who is the bread of life. As he said, we talked about that last week. He says, I am the
[00:03:02] bread of life. And so by doing that, he is saying, I am the one who sustains you to life and not just life temporally, but life eternally. And so that's the context of what we see this morning of the
[00:03:17] passage. That's where we find ourselves in the gospel of John. And Jesus is going to continue that discourse this week as we continue to speak on this concept of coming to Jesus. So if you
[00:03:29] would stand with me for the reading of God's word, I want to look at verses 41 through 47 this morning in the gospel of John chapter six. Thus says the word of God. So the Jews grumbled about him
[00:03:43] because he said, I am the bread that came down from heaven. And they said, is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, I have come down from
[00:03:56] heaven? And Jesus answered them, do not grumble amongst yourselves. No one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day. It is written in the
[00:04:09] prophets, and they will all be taught by God. Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me. Not that anyone has seen the Father except he who is from God, he has seen the
[00:04:23] Father. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. These are the very words of God given to us under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and penned by the Apostle Paul. Please
[00:04:38] receive them with the authority that they carry because this is the Word of God. You may be seated.
[00:04:43] let us pray our heavenly father as we bow before you lord we know from this passage of scripture that you are the one who gives to the son all who are to be saved and you are the author of salvation lord
[00:05:03] and we thank you heavenly father that as we come to you this morning to ask your blessing upon this time we pray that through the proclamation of your word through the foolishness of preaching that you have ordained
[00:05:15] according to your own very wise counsel that you would bring about conviction of sin, Lord, encouragement of the saints.
[00:05:24] I pray that you would help us to see you more clearly, Lord.
[00:05:28] I pray, Heavenly Father, that confession and repentance would be brought forth through the proclamation of your word this morning.
[00:05:34] I pray, Heavenly Father, that life will be given to those, maybe someone in here is not yet a follower of Christ, and today would be the day of their salvation through the proclamation of your holy word, Lord.
[00:05:46] In all things, Father, we pray that your word would go forth and not return unto you void, and we thank you for the promise that it won't.
[00:05:54] So I pray, Grant, that we may decrease, and that Jesus Christ may increase this morning, that we would recognize that we are nothing and you are everything, Lord, and that we would come to you seeking life, and that we would find it in Jesus Christ our Lord.
[00:06:09] So we pray that you would please bless this time of the proclamation of your word, in Jesus' name, amen.
[00:06:16] One of the great thoughts, I guess, that was kind of attributed to Augustine is the thought of, why is it that whenever a person proclaims the Word of God, they go out and they proclaim the
[00:06:29] gospel to a crowd of people, such as we are here in this room, or suppose you're out doing some evangelism and you're preaching on a street corner to a crowd of people, or you've gone into an area
[00:06:40] where you have the opportunity to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ.
[00:06:45] Why is it that the same gospel can go forth to a whole group of people, some of the people within that crowd may hear the gospel of Jesus Christ, receive it, and be saved?
[00:06:58] And why is it that others, hearing that same gospel, that gospel that is proclaimed, that offers eternal life for all those who repent of their sins and place their faith and trust in Jesus Christ as Lord,
[00:07:12] why is it that that same gospel, some people refuse to respond?
[00:07:17] It's a very interesting concept, an interesting thought.
[00:07:21] We had a privilege.
[00:07:23] By the way, I am not being paid by Sight and Sound Theater at all.
[00:07:27] So I just wanna say that from the very beginning, this has not anything to do with that, but they put together a production that we watched on Friday night with our family about the great awakening. It's a whole story of, wow, now his name just jumped right out.
[00:07:45] I'm sorry, what? George Whitefield. Thank you very much. Yeah, that happens from time to time.
[00:07:51] And George Whitefield, magnificent. Highly recommend. Highly recommend. Like I said, not a paid sponsor of Sight and Sound Theater, but boy, do I recommend you watching that movie with your family. It was just magnificent. And somebody was cutting onions in the other room
[00:08:09] right next to it while we were watching it and stuff. So there's like tears coming out of my eyes and everything. So it was really, really good, really good. But one of the things that
[00:08:17] they portray accurately is how there was this interesting relationship between George Whitefield and Benjamin Franklin. Now we know Benjamin Franklin was pretty much a reprobate, right?
[00:08:27] He was a deist guy. And here's George Whitefield proclaiming to literally tens of thousands of people at one time and many of them hearing and receiving the gospel, believing in Christ. And yet here's this guy, his whole life and the whole ministry of George Whitefield and times after
[00:08:49] who remained an unbeliever, who continued not to believe in Christ. How is it that that is the case. How is it that somebody like Judas Iscariot, who spent his entire, he spent almost the entire
[00:09:06] time with Christ in his ministry. He was one of the 12 apostles, and yet he was the son of the devil. Here he is. Jesus is a better preacher than anybody who's ever lived on the face of the
[00:09:17] planet. So Judas had the greatest teacher, the greatest example. There was nothing that he could say about Christ that, well, he preaches the gospel, but he's kind of a hypocrite, you know?
[00:09:29] It's like, me? Well, I am a hypocrite. I'm a sinner saved by grace. You can find plenty of things to find about me, but Judas could never find anything wrong with Christ, and yet Judas never believes.
[00:09:43] And that's what we find in the midst of this passage this morning, as we're continuing through this discourse that Jesus is speaking, talking about being the bread of life, and there are people, there's a whole crowd gathered around him. Some of the crowd are people who genuinely
[00:10:00] believe in him. Some of them are the apostles. We'll find out by the end of the chapter that there were people that remained with him, people who were being drawn and called and all of these
[00:10:10] things, who were believing in Jesus. But then we had other people who were following him merely because of the bread that he provided for them, that he fed them, and they were coming back to
[00:10:19] find more bread. And then we know that there are actually people who are antagonistic toward Christ, who are all here in the midst of the crowd. All of these people are hearing Christ, but not all of these people are coming to Christ to be saved. By way of reminder, I want to remind
[00:10:40] us of the fact that in verse 35, this was last week, we talked about this. Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. And then he gives these two statements after that, phrases. He says,
[00:10:51] whoever comes to me shall not hunger. Whoever believes in me shall never thirst. So in order to receive Christ in the eternal life that comes to us through him, we must come to him first,
[00:11:05] and then we must believe in him.
[00:11:08] That's repentance and faith.
[00:11:11] Acts chapter 20, verse 21, he talks about testifying to both Jews and Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.
[00:11:21] How is a person saved?
[00:11:22] How does a person have eternal life?
[00:11:25] How is a person redeemed?
[00:11:26] By doing two things, turning toward God, that's repentance toward God, that's coming to Jesus as it says here and believing in him, having faith in him.
[00:11:38] That is how a person is saved.
[00:11:40] We're not saved, we're not justified by the works of righteousness that we might think that we can do.
[00:11:44] We're not justified by any other means through sacraments, through the church, through birth, through anything.
[00:11:50] We are justified only through faith in Jesus Christ.
[00:11:54] So how does a person come to him and how are they to have faith in him?
[00:12:00] Last week, we talked about, I guess, maybe the positive side or the inclusion of people where Jesus says a couple verses down in verse 37, he says, all that the father gives to me will come to me and whoever comes to me, I will
[00:12:18] never cast out. So that's sort of the inclusive understanding of who are the people who are going to be saved. And we talked about that those people who are going to be saved are the ones whom the
[00:12:29] father has given to the son. Those are the people who are going to be saved. All of them who come to me will be saved, right? All that the father gives me will come to me. Those are the people who are
[00:12:42] being saved. We know in places like Ephesians chapter one, verses three through six, it says this, blessed be God, be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ
[00:12:55] with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world.
[00:13:04] He chose us in him before the foundation of the world.
[00:13:08] That is the same as all that the father gives to me, right?
[00:13:12] We're chosen in him.
[00:13:14] That we should be holy and blameless before him in love.
[00:13:17] He predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace with which he has blessed us in the beloved. I liked the way that Adrian Rogers put it. I thought
[00:13:34] this was really good. He wasn't even a Calvinist, but at the same time, he understood something about being chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. He talked about it as like a sign
[00:13:44] at the border of heaven. And the sign facing this way from the border of heaven says this, whosoever will this is a this is an invitation given to all that whosoever will believe in jesus
[00:13:57] christ whosoever will repent and place their faith and trust in christ have eternal life they will have eternal life but on the back side of heaven you see on the back side of the sign it
[00:14:08] says save from the foundation of the world so the call is offered to all people but who will respond Those who will respond are those whom God, the Father, has given to God, the Son, to be saved.
[00:14:23] You see?
[00:14:23] So that is the picture.
[00:14:25] That's the inclusive thing.
[00:14:27] This all does not mean all as in all people, but all of a certain kind.
[00:14:36] All what?
[00:14:37] The caveat is what?
[00:14:38] All whom the Father has given to the Son.
[00:14:42] Those are the ones who will be saved.
[00:14:44] So this is what we talked about.
[00:14:46] last week, this inclusive understanding. And that's a great assurance. That's also what we talked about last week, such a great assurance of the fact that if we have been given to Christ by the Father, then there's nobody who can remove us that. That God the Father holds on to us,
[00:15:03] God the Son holds on to us, and of course we know from further passages that God the Holy Spirit holds on to us. And so we have a great assurance of the faith. Well, this week is going to be
[00:15:15] talking about, I guess, the sort of the negative side. I don't want to, I don't even like to say the negative side, but the exclusivity of coming to Christ, right? The exclusivity of coming to
[00:15:27] Christ. And that's what we're going to be speaking about this morning. This idea of all whom the Father gives will come, but then we're going to see here, but no one can come. We're going to talk
[00:15:39] about that in a few minutes, except the father gives him the ability to do so. All right, so that's what we're talking about. Let's get into the text. Verses 41 and 42, the continuous grumbling of unbelieving people. So the Jews grumbled about him because he said,
[00:15:59] I am the bread that came down from heaven. And they said, is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know how does he now say I have come down from heaven notice a group
[00:16:12] of people become identified here this is no longer just the casual sort of conversation between Jesus and a big crowd of people when we see the word the Jews written there from John's perspective he's talking about the Jewish leadership that unbelieving Jewish leadership who consistently
[00:16:33] and constantly oppose Jesus Christ and his mission and his ministry. So now this is probably encompassing Pharisees, Sadducees, Herodians, various people, lawyers, scribes, you know, all of these people are coming now. Those Jewish leadership that we see in other parts of the
[00:16:51] Gospels, like Matthew's Gospel, how the Pharisees tested him here and the Sadducees tested him here and all this stuff. Now we see this becomes more of a debate between these unbelieving Jews, these leaders amongst the Jewish people and now Jesus Christ. So the Jews grumbled about him. And so
[00:17:09] this word grumbled here is a very interesting word. When you say it, I'm not going to try to say it because I have to find it in my Greek notes. I have Greek notes in here, but I don't
[00:17:20] want to look for it real quick. But it's almost like an onomatopoeic word. It sounds like when you say the Greek word, it almost sounds like grumble, grumble, you know, like grumbling sound.
[00:17:28] but this is in an imperfect tense in the Greek.
[00:17:32] And what that means is not that they just like, they got upset at this one point in time and they grumbled against Christ, but it means this constant stream.
[00:17:43] These people who have in their hearts and in their minds, this continuous, constant grumbling against Christ and how they're opposed to him.
[00:17:55] And why are they opposed to him?
[00:17:56] because he says, I am the bread that came down from heaven.
[00:18:00] What I find interesting about this is this is nothing new, especially amongst the Jewish people whom God had redeemed to himself.
[00:18:10] But turn with me, if you would, to Exodus chapter 16, and we're going to look at verses 1 through 3, that we find that history has a way of repeating itself because this grumbling amongst the Jews against God who has redeemed them is a very ancient
[00:18:31] practice. In Exodus chapter 16, verses one through three, the scripture says this, they set out from Elim. By the way, just to give you context here, this is after the Exodus from Egypt, correct? This is Exodus 13 is the actual leaving of the Israelites from under Egypt,
[00:18:51] captivity. Exodus chapter 14, they went through the Red Sea. So God, through miraculous signs, showed his power in Egypt. Then through an even greater miraculous sign, showed his power by parting the Red Sea and everybody going through on dry land. In chapter 15 of Exodus, Moses writes
[00:19:11] a song. And in that song, all the people, we've got Miriam with like girls and tambourines and stuff. And all the people are singing the great praises of God. The Lord is a man of war. Horse
[00:19:25] and rider he has thrown into the sea. All of this great salvation has been accomplished by God before their very eyes. And what do we find them doing next? They set out from Elim and all the
[00:19:40] congregation of the people of Israel came to the wilderness of sin, which is between Elim and Sinai on the 15th day of the second month after they had departed from the land of Egypt and the whole congregation of the people of Israel
[00:19:54] grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness.
[00:20:01] And the people of Israel said to them, would that we have died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full
[00:20:13] for you have brought us into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.
[00:20:20] I just find that interesting because this miracle of the feeding of the 5,000 mirrors the miracle of showering bread from heaven upon the people.
[00:20:31] And even though God had brought about great salvation, and this is, by the way, if you go ahead and just read the whole book of Numbers, the grumbling doesn't stop, right?
[00:20:40] Even though God brings them out of slavery, even though God shows them an amazing amount of his miraculous, mighty power, that even though God fed them in the wilderness with manna and quail and water from the rock,
[00:20:52] even though he had done all of these things, how do they respond whenever just a little bit of inconvenience comes along?
[00:21:01] They start grumbling.
[00:21:05] I was terribly convicted by this this week to think about all of the ways in which I grumble, that God has saved me from hell, literal hell.
[00:21:17] The wrath of God brought against me, which I deserve because I have violently offended a holy God with my terrible, terrible wicked sin.
[00:21:31] And then whenever something doesn't go my way, what do I start doing?
[00:21:35] I start complaining about it.
[00:21:38] I start grumbling about it.
[00:21:42] Grumbling comes from various sources.
[00:21:44] It comes from an unbelief, like an unbelief of the fact that our sovereign God has orchestrated things according to his sovereign plan.
[00:21:51] And I'm right in the place where I am at this present moment, according to his perfect, wise, sovereign plan.
[00:21:58] And so how do I respond?
[00:22:00] Do I respond with grumbling because I don't like where I am?
[00:22:04] I think about how grumbling comes together because of disagreement, disagreement amongst brethren, right?
[00:22:10] Grumbling comes because of displeasure, right?
[00:22:13] Things are not going well.
[00:22:15] I don't, I don't have, it's not a good time for me or whatever. And so what do I do? I grumble about that. Somebody has offended me. I grumble about it. God, I, I, I had to, you know, it rained
[00:22:27] on my way to work today and I grumble about it. You know, think of all of the ways that we do that.
[00:22:32] I don't like the way that Steve preaches. So I grumble about that. Why do we pick these songs every Sunday? I grumble about that. Why, how come the air is not as cool in here or not as warm in
[00:22:42] here as I wish it would be, so I grumble about that. Man, Bill and Steve didn't even acknowledge the fact that I, you know, went to the doctor the other day. I grumble about that. Or Ryan,
[00:22:52] you know? Like, I think about all the ways in which we're so good at being grumblers, complainers, being people who are discontented about things, and how if things just don't go the way that I think that they should go, me, because somehow I became God of my life instead
[00:23:13] of God being God of my life. And so if I don't like the way things go for me, I grumble about it.
[00:23:22] What's the attitude to grumbling then? The attitude to grumbling and complaining and mumbling are things like contentment, being content and remembering the fact that things like, in fact, turn with me over to Philippians chapter two. This is really good. Paul's got a few things
[00:23:43] to say about grumbling and contentment and things in Philippians chapter 2. In fact, let me just turn here because I actually am thinking of different things now, more than just what's in my notes. Philippians chapter 2, verse 14, 15, and 16 says this, do all things, how many things?
[00:24:07] Some things, few things, all things without grumbling or disputing. Why? That you may be blameless and innocent children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation among whom you shine as lights in the world holding fast to the word of life so that in
[00:24:32] the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain not only is it a testimony within the church it's a testimony of the outside world as he says right here he says
[00:24:44] you shine as lights in the world it's inconsistent for you to be a complaining grumbling uh unthankful, unhappy people, right? This is not the life of a believer. This is not what a believer should look like. Turn over a couple chapters to Philippians chapter four, verse six. It says this,
[00:25:04] do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
[00:25:19] man we can just keep reading finally brothers whatever is true whatever is honorable whatever is just whatever is pure whatever is lovely whatever is commendable if there's any excellence if there's anything worthy of praise what does he say think about these things see because we
[00:25:40] start grumbling when we when we when we take our focus off to christ off of christ and and our and and we put it on our situation or we put it on ourselves or something along those lines and he
[00:25:50] says the antidote to that is to not be thinking about these things negatively and grumbling about them, but instead to put off, right? Paul is always saying that. Put off the negative thinking, the grumbling, the complaining, the bad attitude, and to put on what? Thinking on things that are
[00:26:11] honorable, things that are lovely, things that are noble, things that are praiseworthy. These are the things that we've been called to put on instead. And he talks about in verse seven, that the peace of Christ, right? Or sorry, in verse nine. Sorry, sorry. Think on these things, man. I'm all over
[00:26:28] the place. If you go a little bit further, he talks about, I've learned to be abased. I've learned to abound. I've known what it means to have plenty. I've known what it means to be poor,
[00:26:42] right? And what does he say? I've learned to be content in all those things. Why? Because here's the real context of the verse that's taken out of context so often? Because I can do everything
[00:26:52] through Christ who gives me strength, right? That's the real context. So I can have strength to be content in the difficult times. I can have strength to not be a complainer. I can have strength to not be someone who grumbles or backbites or any of that because of Christ.
[00:27:14] All right, you can turn back.
[00:27:16] I just want to mention one other.
[00:27:17] James 5 mentions, do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged.
[00:27:24] Behold, the judge is standing at the door.
[00:27:27] So we have a lot of scripture given to us about grumbling.
[00:27:29] And the antidote of that is contentment and gratitude.
[00:27:32] And I would also argue that the antidote of that is belief, trusting, putting our faith in Christ, looking to him to be our strength and all of that. Because I, first of all, I'm really full of myself. I'm really full of my
[00:27:51] own selfishness. And I'm really full of my own selfish desires. And I think everybody in this room could look at ourselves in the mirror and say, yep, me too. And so the antidote to that is
[00:28:02] to get our minds off of ourself and put it off of Christ. So they're grumbling, okay? They're grumbling. But then they mentioned things like, they're grumbling against Christ and they said, is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say,
[00:28:18] I have come down from heaven? And so now they've got their minds on the natural things, right?
[00:28:23] They understand this is Galilee, right? So this is probably around Capernaum about this time, you know, but Bethsaida, Capernaum, Chorazin, all of these towns are where Jesus ministered. And that's not that terribly far from Nazareth. So my guess is that the people around the Sea of Galilee
[00:28:40] really knew the people from Nazareth, they knew who Jesus was. They knew where he came from.
[00:28:46] And they're offended by the fact that Jesus would say, I'm the bread that came down from heaven.
[00:28:51] And so they're not getting it that Jesus is doing these things or what he's saying. So it's a very condescending thought that they have toward him. How can this guy say that he's come down from
[00:29:01] heaven when we know he grew up in Nazareth? How can we say he came down from heaven when I know his mother is named Mary, his father is named Joseph. And so they're coming up with reasons
[00:29:13] why not to believe in Jesus, you see. And I think about that from the perspective of as we engage the world. Number one, as Jesus is being rejected here, don't be surprised that we are
[00:29:30] rejected whenever we go into the world with the gospel. Don't be surprised by the fact that people respond in a condescending way. Don't be surprised by the fact that people reject Christ and come up with all manner of reasons for why they reject Christ. This past Wednesday, we had
[00:29:48] our men's fire pit night, and that was one of the things that came up. There's this guy by the name of Bill Maher who came up with a movie called Religulous or Religious or whatever, however you
[00:29:57] say it. And it's just a farcical thing to watch because this guy is just grasping at straws to try to come up with the reason why he can't believe in God, period, or Jesus Christ.
[00:30:09] And it's just the most ridiculous sort of thing.
[00:30:11] And when he's taken a task and when he's taken to, and when a good answer is given back to him, he just goes, oh, those people are crazy, you know?
[00:30:20] And so that's what's happening here.
[00:30:23] They're finding every reason under the sun not to believe in Jesus.
[00:30:26] But we should take heart in the fact that if Jesus was rejected and condescended and despised for his proclamation, we should be ready to face the same sort of things.
[00:30:38] That as Christ was rejected, we should be prepared to be rejected.
[00:30:42] And that's okay.
[00:30:44] It's okay.
[00:30:45] Faithfulness is what matters, not results.
[00:30:48] God's gonna bring about the results.
[00:30:49] The results belong to him.
[00:30:51] We've been called to be faithful to proclaim the gospel.
[00:30:55] And so they didn't know that Joseph was not Jesus's real father.
[00:30:59] they didn't know that on his mother's side yeah he was about you know 30 something years old but on his father's side he had no beginning you see and so Jesus uh they didn't see that that he is
[00:31:13] who he is okay so then that sort of leads into the question of then okay these people are finding every reason to reject Christ why do they refuse to believe in him or maybe more you know a broader
[00:31:26] point would be how then can a person come to the father? How is it that a person does come to the father? And so Jesus answers them in verse 43. He answers them, do not grumble against amongst
[00:31:40] yourselves. Then he says this, a very, very famous verse that we're going to take word by word here in a moment. No one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him and I will raise
[00:31:54] him up on the last day. So I mentioned in verse 37, he talks about all that the Father has given to me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out, right? And he goes on to say
[00:32:05] I'll raise him up the last day a couple verses later. This is the exclusive part. Now this is, although the all in that verse 37 is talking about all of a subset of people, all of the people that
[00:32:19] the Father has given to the Son. This no one is completely applicable to all of humanity.
[00:32:27] When we say no one here, we mean no one. That there is not one person by an act of their own volition that can come to Jesus Christ in saving faith. It is impossible for them to do so on their
[00:32:44] own. Jesus says right here, not even one, no one. He's very clear in the Greek text, there's an emphasis of the no one, no one, not even one. And that's where we all find ourselves in all of
[00:32:59] humanity. That's where you once were before you came to faith in Christ. That's who everybody out there who is lost is. None of the people of the world, none of us here in this room, no one,
[00:33:12] no one and then the next verse or the next word is the word can okay can it is not a subjunctive as it if is a may no one may in the sense of like you know maybe i could maybe i couldn't
[00:33:28] something along those lines the word here is the greek word dunamai okay sounds a lot like a word that we use in english called dynamite which it is it's the same word um in the sense that the word
[00:33:41] dynamite or dunamite means power okay so this is this is not talking about subjective subjectivity or a subjunctive understanding of him maybe you could maybe you couldn't think he's this is an ability word no one can no one is able no one has the power no one has the power or the ability
[00:34:07] that he can come to Christ, you see?
[00:34:11] No one can, okay?
[00:34:13] The next word we see is the word come.
[00:34:15] And that's the whole point of what he talked about at the beginning of when he said, I am the bread of life.
[00:34:20] Anyone who comes to me, right?
[00:34:23] He says that no one can do that coming that he calls people to do.
[00:34:28] The gospel goes forth and is proclaimed to every creature as it says at the end of Mark's gospel.
[00:34:35] He goes, go proclaim the gospel to every creature, right?
[00:34:38] Go to all the world, proclaim the gospel to all nations.
[00:34:43] But the people who will respond to that gospel, the people who have the ability to believe or to come to Jesus Christ are those whom he himself gives the ability to come to him, okay?
[00:34:58] So he says, to me, after that, he is the source of our salvation.
[00:35:03] No one can come, who?
[00:35:05] to me. The source of our salvation is not religious activity. The source of our salvation is not baptism. The source of our salvation is not the good works that we do. It's not the family
[00:35:19] that we're born into. The source of our salvation is the Lord Jesus Christ. And he says, no one can come to me, to me. Now, if we stopped right there, that is holy damning to all of creation.
[00:35:36] That's every person.
[00:35:38] If he just stopped there, no one can come to me.
[00:35:43] Imagine if Jesus stopped there.
[00:35:46] That brings us to that question that people always ask.
[00:35:49] How can a good God and a loving God send people to hell?
[00:35:53] Well, if he stopped right there, that question right there would be, how can a holy and righteous God ever show mercy to anybody who has so violently and horribly offended him with their total sinfulness and rebellion against him.
[00:36:13] No one can come to me.
[00:36:16] That's where we belong.
[00:36:19] That's where it should stop in God's perfect justice.
[00:36:24] If Christ did not come for us, you see, that is our state.
[00:36:30] That's who we are.
[00:36:33] We are all of us separated from God.
[00:36:36] and none of us can come to him and all of us deserve his wrath but just like in ephesians chapter 2 that wonderful but god who is rich in mercy but god even while we were dead in our
[00:36:55] trespasses and sin now we see unless or except as it says in the good old king jimmy right except this exception clause is is is to no one having the ability to come to Christ except the
[00:37:10] father so the father who we talked about the author of salvation the one who gave us the bread from heaven the one who who gave us to the son the father who sent me has the bread come from heaven
[00:37:23] this is a great word this next one draws him draws this word draw is a little bit more than is simply an enticement, okay?
[00:37:35] Some people will say that this is like, you know, well, yeah, God's gonna, he's gonna like give us this beautiful picture of the gospel and we taste and see that he's good.
[00:37:46] And so we wanna come to him.
[00:37:48] And part of that is correct in the sense that he does give us a new heart to see him.
[00:37:52] But this word draw, another way of translating this might be the word drag.
[00:37:59] So in other words, he drags us in.
[00:38:03] Which is a beautiful picture of God giving us not only what we don't deserve, but he gives us what we don't in our natural minds even once.
[00:38:14] We're so full of our sins that it's kind of like a dog going back to its own vomit or a pig going back to the mud.
[00:38:21] That we're so full of sin and darkness that we would never come to Christ unless he drags us.
[00:38:29] It's almost like a little child.
[00:38:31] Those of you who have little children and have seen the incredible tantrum, right?
[00:38:38] Like, just the tantrum that, like, they want to run headlong into what they want to do, even if it might kill them, right?
[00:38:46] Why do you have to give them a little swat on the behind if they go out into the road?
[00:38:51] It's because the little swat on the behind might hurt, but it keeps them from dying, you see?
[00:38:56] and so we do for our children the things that they don't even know or want or can do you know because they're they're foolish and they're thinking and we train them up well that's what
[00:39:08] God does for us that unless the Lord God drags us into the kingdom so to speak and gives us what we don't deserve and might not even want then none of us would be saved and then when he opens
[00:39:22] our eyes he sees oh then we that's when we realize oh my gosh jesus christ is my lord and my king and my savior and he died for me and i believe in him why because god gave me the ability to do so
[00:39:38] no one can except the father who sent me draws him and i will raise him up the last day i love how it concludes with the finality of our salvation like this isn't just he draws us in
[00:39:57] so that we might believe in jesus which of course we know that that's what's happening but but this is that picture of this is the full completion of our salvation that god gives to us
[00:40:08] not just believing in him in the here and now but a reminder of the fact that they accomplish that the salvation that he began in us, he will accomplish in us and he will raise us up on
[00:40:21] the last day. And so this is the sure promise of God that he will give us, he draws us to himself that we might believe in Jesus Christ and we might be raised up the last day. Then he continues on
[00:40:37] verses 45 and 46. As it is written, and they will all be taught by God. Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me. Not that anyone has seen the Father except he who is from
[00:40:52] God. He has seen the Father. Jesus quotes Isaiah 54 verse 13. That scripture reads, all your children shall be taught by the Lord and great shall be the peace of your children. Now that tricked me up. I
[00:41:07] was having a hard time sort of figuring out what does that mean all of you will be taught by God well in one sense here we are Jesus who is God in human flesh standing before them and he's teaching
[00:41:18] them right so they're all being taught by God in this sense but I think it's a little bit more than that I think what it means is this this is a verse that accompanies the previous verse right
[00:41:29] no one can come to me except the father who sent me draw him and I will raise him up the last day the father is the one who draws us the father is the one that teaches us so i think what he's
[00:41:43] saying is this and i thought this is um from a desiring god um this is what it says in the old testament context this points to a future time the covenant era when god's people would experience
[00:41:54] direct internal teaching and transformation by god himself through his spirit rather than only external law or human instruction. Jesus applies it to himself. God the Father draws people to the Son by teaching them. Hearing and learning from the Father means an internal spiritual illumination
[00:42:16] or conviction that opens a person's heart to recognize Jesus as the true bread of life, the one sent from God. Everyone who genuinely receives the divine teaching responds by coming to Jesus in faith. I thought that was pretty good. This idea that this external thing that has
[00:42:36] happened up to this point in time was to draw people, but now we see the internal call that comes through the what? Through the power of the Holy Spirit. That takes us right to Pentecost,
[00:42:45] doesn't it? Takes us right to Pentecost. If we think of that Jeremiah passage, where he talks about no one will have to say, know the Lord, for they will all know the Lord. This idea of the law
[00:42:55] of God not merely being written externally but now the law of God is written on our hearts and that was the promise that was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost that the Holy Spirit now
[00:43:06] brings that internal drawing that internal conviction it says later on in John chapter 14 15 and 16 and I love this passage that the Holy Spirit he's come to do things like testify to Christ so what does he do what is the whole what is the ministry of the Holy Spirit it's to point
[00:43:23] us to Jesus. It's to take us to Christ that we may believe in him. He brings conviction. It says he's going to convict the world of sin and righteousness and of judgment. We know from
[00:43:34] chapter three, he's the one that brings regeneration, right? That the Holy Spirit is the one that gives us the new birth that causes us to believe in Jesus. And all of these are what? All of these
[00:43:44] are being taught by God. That internal teaching that comes from God, the Holy Spirit, the Father and the Son. The Father draws us. Jesus is the one that accomplishes our salvation. The Holy Spirit is what applies it to our lives. And so that's what we see happening. So he concludes with this
[00:44:01] statement, truly, truly, or amen, amen, or verily, verily, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. So I want to issue a couple of things. Number one, I am not God. You are not God. I
[00:44:27] have no idea who will be saved and who won't be. You have no idea who will be saved and who won't be. We know that salvation is all of God. He is the one that regenerates us. He is the one that
[00:44:47] brings us to Christ. He is the one that draws us to himself. But that's God's business. Our business is to proclaim to the world repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.
[00:45:04] Our business is to not be the judges of who is going to enter into eternal life and who isn't gonna enter into eternal life.
[00:45:14] Our job is to preach the gospel to every creature.
[00:45:17] And whom God will save is whom God will save.
[00:45:19] And whom he doesn't is whom he doesn't.
[00:45:22] And that's all up to him.
[00:45:24] But we, the Lord Jesus Christ, commands us to go and proclaim the gospel.
[00:45:30] What does that mean?
[00:45:31] it means that your neighbor or your family member or a child who seems to be reprobate who seems to be not walking with Christ and you're concerned for their salvation you think to yourself I don't know if this person's ever going to be saved or even if they can be saved
[00:45:50] well you have no idea you have no idea God still may elect them or may bring them to Christ they may be an elect, we just don't know it yet, you see? So what do you do? Preach the gospel to them.
[00:46:04] Keep praying for them. Keep loving them in the hopes that they would believe, right? Because it's not up to us to know who are the people whom God is drawing and whom the ones he isn't, you see?
[00:46:17] It's not up to us. It's up to us to be faithful, to proclaim the gospel. As Adrian Rogers said, On this side, there's that sign that says, whosoever will.
[00:46:29] And on that other side, it's saved from the foundation of the world.
[00:46:32] God knows who his elect are, right?
[00:46:35] So whoever believes has eternal life.
[00:46:40] Are you believing in Jesus for eternal life?
[00:46:46] I call you to repentance.
[00:46:49] I call you to faith.
[00:46:51] The Lord Jesus Christ gave himself up for us.
[00:46:54] The Lord Jesus Christ is the bread that came down from heaven.
[00:46:58] He is the one that showed himself to be the perfect spotless lamb of God by living according to the law, under the law, fulfilling the law on our behalf.
[00:47:09] He is the one who yielded himself to the plan of God the Father that in the justice of God, it might be that something would in fact die.
[00:47:20] Something would experience the wrath of God, even for people who would be set free.
[00:47:24] You see, we're saved by the work of somebody else if you're in Christ.
[00:47:31] And Jesus died on our behalf, in our place on the cross and then rose again the third day.
[00:47:37] He did that so that people like you and me might be reconciled to God, having satisfied his justice by pouring his wrath out on Christ and demonstrating his mercy and grace toward us by offering us the free gift of life
[00:47:52] eternal through Jesus Christ our Lord. Have you placed your faith, trust in Jesus? He says right there, if you believe, you have eternal life. We know it's accomplished by God. We know it's his business. But for us in here, do you believe? Have you believed in Jesus Christ as Lord?
[00:48:16] Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for this passage of scripture, which is so magnificent it reveals the understanding the doctrine of how you are sovereign over salvation lord and we trust in your sovereignty and we know lord that you will
[00:48:34] bring about your ends according to your perfect will and i thank you that even amongst unbelievers jesus is teaching this to to people lord this is this is how this is how you're saved this is how
[00:48:47] you come to faith continue to draw people to yourself lord if there's someone in here who does not know Christ, draw them to yourself, I pray, that you might bring them to salvation, that they may be redeemed to you, Lord. For the people who are in our lives, Lord, all of us in
[00:49:05] this room, I guarantee we're thinking of somebody right now, or we can, a family member, maybe a father or mother or grandparent, aunt or uncle, cousins, maybe children for some of us in this room who are not walking with Christ, Lord. We pray, Heavenly Father, have mercy upon them.
[00:49:25] Grant them grace. Draw them to yourself that they may repent of their sins and become a follower of Christ. Pray, Heavenly Father, that your great work of salvation would continue to go forth.
[00:49:37] You would draw all people to yourself, Lord. We pray now that as we gather together for this time of communion with you, Lord, may you be worshiped and glorified. May we rejoice with thanksgiving.
[00:49:49] through the broken body and shed blood of our Lord Jesus Christ that was what accomplished our salvation.
[00:49:57] Thank you for this time.
[00:49:59] We pray in Christ's name, amen.