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A Hard Teaching By Peter Jeffrey

 hearing this sermon, this teaching of the Lord Jesus, many of his disciples said
this is a hard teaching, who can accept it? This is a hard teaching, this is a
hard sermon, this is hard doctrine, who can accept it? Our text then very simply
calls upon us to consider a sermon that Jesus preached and particularly the
reaction of the hearers, or one group of the hearers, to that sermon. And let's
just get the background to the sermon, let's see the congregation, and let's see
why that sermon caused such an offence, and that's the word that Jesus used, and
it does this offend you also, why that sermon caused such an offence to these
people, and to ask the question why the same teaching still causes offence to
many who call themselves Christians. Well the sermon we are told in verse 4
was preached just before the Passover, that means it was preached almost
exactly one year before the crucifixion. We are told in verse 59 that it was
preached at Capernaum, at the synagogue at Capernaum, that means it was preached
in the town where the Lord Jesus Christ had his greatest support. Capernaum is
described by Matthew as his own city. Jesus spent more time in Capernaum
than anywhere else. He did more miracles in Capernaum than anywhere else. The people
of Capernaum saw things from Jesus that no one else saw. They heard teaching that
is obviously not recorded in the scriptures. John says if everything was
recorded, even the world couldn't contain the book that would have to be written
so it was preached a year before he died, it was preached in a place where he
had his greatest support. And there were three distinct groups of listeners to
that sermon. There were the Jews, verse 41 we are told there were the Jews, that
means there were these people who are part of the religious establishment of
the day. Almost certainly Pharisees from Jerusalem, people who followed the Lord
Jesus Christ everywhere, not to benefit from his teaching, but simply to catch
him up, to pick up thoughts, to trick him, to report back and come back again with
their trick question. There were the Jews, probably not too many of them, but they
certainly were part of that congregation. There were, according to verse 67, the
Twelve, that means the Apostles, Peter, James, John, the Twelve Apostles. And there
were also, according to our text, the Disciples, and you must distinguish
between the Apostles and the Disciples. There were the Disciples, that is, the
bulk of the hearers, and it is of these people that our text is talking about. It
is these people, the Disciples, who said this was a hard teaching and couldn't
accept it. They were the bulk of the Lord Jesus Christ. They were people who
followed Jesus everywhere. Verse 24, and if you've got your Bibles then you'll
have to do a little bit of work this morning and follow these verses through.
We must understand the people and the situation before we can understand why
the sermon was such an offence. Verse 24, once the crowd realized that neither
Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into the brooks and they went to
the Capernaum in search of Jesus. This was the crowd, this was the disciples.
Everywhere Jesus went, they went. They were excited by Jesus. They were people
who had been blessed by Jesus, and indeed many of them were part of the five
thousand who had been miraculously healed with that small group of fish and
bread. And they were people who had a high regard for Jesus. We are told in
verse 15 that they would have made him king. They had such a regard for the
Lord Jesus Christ that they would have made him king by force. They would have
taken up swords, they would have taken up arms for Jesus. Such were they a theme of
Jesus. They would have put him on the throne, they would have kicked Herod off, they would have
fought the Romans even. They had such a regard for Jesus, they would have made him
king if they could. And from these people there came a tremendous popular
adoration for the Lord Jesus Christ. But Jesus wasn't a bit impressed by this.
And he says of these people in verse 26, he says, I tell you the truth, you were
looking for me not because you saw miraculous signs, but because you ate the
loaves and had your fill. In other words, he says, your response is purely a carnal
one. Your response to me, with all this adoration, with all this seeking after me,
is purely a carnal, a purely a fleshy response, and there's no spiritual
content in it at all. That's what he said about the response. You see, for these
disciples, as long as things were happening, as long as there was
excitement, as long as there was activity, as long as there was drama and
great events, then these people were happy and these people were there. Look
at verse 2 again. And a great crowd of people followed him because they saw the
miraculous signs. And in verse 14, you have the same reaction. After the people
saw the miraculous sign that Jesus did, they said, surely this is the prophet, and
that's why they would have made him king. They were responding to the activity of
the Lord Jesus Christ, and as long as these activities were going on, so they
were happy and so they were excited. But Jesus didn't encourage this at all. He
didn't encourage this sort of response to his miraculous signs. Look at verse 25.
Verse 25 is very interesting. When they found him, that's this crowd again, these
disciples, when they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him,
Rabbi, when did you get here? Now they asked that, you see, because of verse 22.
Go back to 22. The next day, the crowd that had stayed on the opposite shore of
the lake realized that only one boat had been taken, and that Jesus had not
entered it with his disciples. They realized only one boat had crossed the
lake, Jesus wasn't in that boat. But when they get the other side, he's there. And
they said, Jesus, but when did you get there? They knew nothing of the walking
on the water which had took place, but they sensed something. They were a crowd
whose aunt and I were going out, miracles were happening, great, let's run
and see these things. They were excited, they sensed these things, and they wanted
to know how he got there. And immediately Jesus poured a bucket of cold water on
them in verse 26. That's what verse 26 is, isn't it, he says. I tell you the truth,
you're not following me because of the miraculous signs, but because you ate the
loaves and had your fill. Your response, he said, is purely a carnal response,
purely a fleshly response. But that didn't stop these people. They were still
hankering for the spectacular. They were still hankering for the exciting. And in
verse 30, you see them again, what miraculous sign then will you give us
that we may see and that we may believe. Now it's from that point, when these
people have been seeking the miraculous, when they've been seeking the spectacular
and the dramatic and the exciting, from that point, from verse 30 on, Jesus now
begins to change his tact. He begins now to teach them basic, solid, essential
doctrine. In fact, he takes up their own statement about the fathers having a
bread in the wilderness and he takes that very thought up and he begins to
apply that to them in true spiritual application and he begins to make
demands upon these people to think and to ponder. Their reaction up to this
point has been purely a physical, carnal reaction to the miraculous. Now he says,
this isn't man, you've got to think. And he begins to bring doctrine to them and
teaching to them. He demands that these people think. The miracles should have
made them think, but they didn't. As he says in verse 26, now he says, men, you
start thinking for a change. You see, any Christianity that does not make us think
is not a biblical Christianity, whatever it is. Any Christianity that purely
panders to the physical and doesn't pass through our minds, that merely excites
our heart, excites our emotion, and doesn't make us think and consider is
not biblical Christianity, it's not the Christianity of the Lord Jesus. God never
bypasses a man's mind in dealing with his heart, never. God deals with the
heart, God deals with the mind, but never a nice solution. And he demands now that
these people think. Doctrine is brought to them. And during this teaching session,
the Jews become more vocal, and these disciples are quiet, and they just
listen. They listen, but they don't like it. They don't like what they're hearing.
They say, this is hard, this is hard doctrine, this is hard teaching, who can
accept it? And the text really before us this morning refers to the whole of the
discourse that has taken place in John 6. They think they understand. They've got
no doubts that they understand. They don't say, this is hard teaching, who can
understand it? That's how you and I would normally use the word hard, didn't we? We
would say, that was hard this morning, I couldn't understand the word he was
talking about. They don't say that. They said, this is hard, who can accept it? Who
can accept it? They think they understand, but they cannot accept. And at this point,
their reaction is the same now as the Jews' reaction in verse 52. In verse 52,
when Jesus began this doctrinal discourse about the bread, the Jews
began to argue sharply among themselves, how can this man give us his flesh to
eat? How come this man give us his flesh to eat? And of course, in essence, you see,
that's exactly the same reaction of these disciples in our text. They think
they understand. They think that Jesus is teaching some sort of cannibalism. He
wants us to eat his flesh. They think they understand. They don't ask questions.
They don't say, now, what do you mean by this Jesus? Have we got this clear in
our mind? They're clear as far as they can estimate their own
understanding. And the Jews' reaction when opposed to Jesus now becomes the
reaction of the disciples who are supposed to be supporters of Jesus. And
the reaction is the same because, in essence, the people are the same. And
these disciples, though there's a tremendous popular adoration, though they
would have made Jesus king, they were not believers. They were not regenerate men
and women. They were really no different than those who were in open opposition
to the Lord. And the whole of the passage makes that very clear. Now, verse 52 is
very, very interesting. Listen to 52 again. How can this man give us his flesh to
eat? He'd been talking about the bread. They'd raised the subject of the bread.
Jesus takes it up and says, listen, I am the true bread, and my flesh I give for
the life of the world. And they say, how can this man give us his flesh to eat?
They were taking Jesus literally. And they thought he was teaching, as I say,
some sort of cannibalism. In other words, they were misunderstanding the teaching
of Jesus. They were misunderstanding his doctrine. Now, for any ordinary little
fellow who's a preacher, that's a great encouragement, because we all get
misunderstood from the pulpit, and we think perhaps it's us. Well, sometimes it
is us. But if they can misunderstand Jesus, the greatest teacher of them all,
well, there's not hope for the rest of us, I think. We'll all get misunderstood at
times. But it's interesting that when they misunderstood Jesus, he didn't
change his approach. Our modern approach to Jesus at this point would be something
like this. Here are the people misunderstanding, obviously
misunderstanding what he was saying. And we would say something like this to
Jesus. Well, I wouldn't say it, but many evangelicals would. They would say, now,
Jesus, you are not communicating. That's the great evangelical word of the last
ten years. You are not communicating Jesus. This doctrinal approach you're
taking is not helping Jesus. Tone down your doctrine, Jesus. Water down your
saying so that these people can grasp it and make it a bit more acceptable. Now,
that would be a modern evangelical approach to a situation like this where
the people were misunderstanding. Now, what does Jesus do? Well, if verse 52 was
difficult, verse 53 is impossible. He says to them, I tell you the truth, unless you
eat the flesh of the Son of Man and, he goes further, and drink his blood, you
have no life in you. He was making it virtually impossible for these people.
Now, drinking blood to the Jew, as you know, was the greatest offense possible.
The greatest offense possible. And yet, they're having difficulty at this concept
of eating his flesh, and he pours it on. He says, listen, not only must you eat my
flesh, you must drink my blood also. Now, why did Jesus do this? Why didn't he water
his doctrine down? Why didn't he make it more acceptable? Why didn't he rephrase
it in such a way that they could grasp it and understand it? Why did he almost, it
seems, go out of his way to make it difficult for these people? Why did he do
that? One could I suggest it's this, that even though Jesus is debating here with
the Jews, his aim is to speak to the crowd of previously enthusiastic
disciples. He wants to show them where they are spiritually. He's debating with
the Jews, but his eye is on this other crowd, the vast crowd. There were 12
apostles there. He wasn't too concerned about them. There were these Jews who
were always opposed to him. He wasn't too concerned about them. His eye was on this
vast crowd of disciples who would have made him king. He's already criticized
them for being carnal in their response to him, and he wants to teach them
something. He wants to show them where they are spiritually. They think they
would have died for Jesus. That's what he says in verse 15. They would have made
him king by force. They thought they would give their lives for him, but they
really weren't in tune with him at all, and he wants to show them where they are
spiritually, because a man's true spiritual condition is not revealed by
his reaction to the works of Jesus. Who can quarrel with the sick being healed?
Who can quarrel if you're hungry and he gives you a little loaf of bread and it
feeds you and a thousand people sitting around you? Who can quarrel with that? Who
can quarrel with the miracles that Jesus did? But those reactions to those things
will teach you nothing at all about a man's spiritual condition. A man's true
spiritual condition is revealed by his reaction to the doctrine of Jesus and to
the teaching of Jesus. That sifts them out. That sorts out the sheep from the
goats. How does a man react to the doctrine, to the teaching of the Lord
Jesus Christ? And how relevant that is today. We are living in days today in
England, in Wales, in Australia, churches will be filled with people who love to
hear of Jesus doing miraculous things. They love to hear of the healing of the
sick. They love to hear of all the tremendous things that the Lord Jesus
Christ is doing, and that's okay. I'm not criticizing them. They like his behavior,
but when it comes to his teaching, when it comes to the doctrine of Jesus, and
particularly, as we have in the context here, the doctrine of Jesus with regard
to salvation, they are offended. That's the perfect truth. They are offended. You
show them Jesus doing great things and they're excited, and they're tremendously
excited, and they'll run anywhere to see these things, like these four, but you
present them with the doctrine of Jesus, with the teaching of Jesus, and they
don't want to know. And not only don't they want to know, but they are, as these
people were, offended, and they say, we cannot accept this. Now the question I
want to ask you this morning is this, are you like that? Are you the sort of
Christian, in inverted commas, because you're not really Christian if you are,
who is only aroused by the dramatic, by the spectacular, who's only aroused by
activity and great things going on, and you're not really interested in what the
Lord Jesus Christ has got to say when it comes to his teaching, and particularly
his teaching on salvation. I want you to test this this morning. I want you to be
honest with yourself and be honest with God, and test your own spiritual
condition by asking this question, am I offended, are you offended, by what the
Lord Jesus Christ teaches about salvation. He teaches in this passage
three things about salvation. It was a hard sermon. That's what they say. It was
hard teaching. Why was it a hard sermon? Why was it hard teaching? Well, what
offended them? What was the doctrine? What was the teaching? Didn't offend them if
they thought that Jesus had walked in the water, they'd have been walking up
the walls at the thought of that. It didn't offend them that he healed the
sick. They loved that. Didn't offend them that they fed people with few laws, few
fishes, didn't offend them. But when he started talking about how a man is saved,
how a man comes into a living relationship with God, how a man gets
eternal life, that offended them. What was the teaching that offended? Three things.
Three aspects here of salvation. I'll take the first two together because it's
really difficult to separate them. The first thing here is the sovereignty of
God in salvation, and you have to link with that the second thing which Jesus
teaches here, and that is the helplessness of man in salvation. The
sovereignty of God in salvation and the helplessness of man in salvation, 37, 39,
and 44. 37, Jesus says this, all that the Father gives me, all that the Father
gives me shall come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. Have
you ever noticed that that's one of the verse that evangelical Christians always
quote the second half of and always forget the first part? Always. I very
rarely hear that verse quoted fully. We quote all the Father, I will, whoever
comes to me I will in no way cast out, but there's a bit before that. All that
the Father gives me will come to me, and him who comes to me I will never cast
out, or I will never drive away. You have the same truth again in verse 39. Jesus
says, and this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all
that he has given me. I will lose none of those that he has given me. Jesus repeats
it again in verse 44. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws
him, and that verse is repeated again, or that truth is repeated by Jesus in
verse 65. Now those are the truths of Jesus. He says a man cannot come unless
he's drawn by God, and he says no one can come unless God in the first place has
given them to me. Now it's amazing, it's frightening, not amazing, how these basic
biblical truths, and they are basic biblical truths, you find them right
throughout the Old Testament. They weren't invented by the Apostle Paul. You
find them clearly in the Gospels and in the Epistles. It's amazing how these
basic biblical truths offend people today. To be told that you cannot save
yourself, to be told that you cannot deal with your own sin, to be told that you
cannot make yourself right with God, that offends people. I don't know what
Australia is like, but I've discovered this in England, that we have an
evangelical church very similar to yours, very similar sort of congregation, and a
congregation this morning would be a little bit bigger than yours perhaps, but a
similar sort of age range, similar sort of people I suppose in many ways, and we
preach the same sort of doctrines, but I find that when people come into us who've
not normally come into an evangelical church, and they're from a Baptist Church,
or a Methodist Church, or an Anglican Church, or a Catholic Church even, where
the gospel isn't preached, you always get the same reaction when they come in
first. Who is he to tell me I'm a sinner? Always the same reaction. Who is he to
tell me I can't do anything to make myself right with God? Always the same
reaction. They react and it sticks and they gullet to be told that they're
sinners, and they can do nothing to make themselves right with God. It offends
them, and I've seen it many times. I remember one woman coming to our church
from an Anglican background. I can see her now. She's dead now, but she was saved
before she was dead, thank God. She was woman in her 60s, and she said, I am not a
sinner, and she said it like that too. I was the other side of the church and I
could hear it. I am not a sinner. She'd been an Anglican all her life. She'd been told she was
good all her life. She'd been told all that needs to be a Christian is take a
communion three or four times a year and put a contribution in the plate now
and again. Typical religion of this day and age. She was confronted with the
truths of God, and she was offended. I wonder if you were in that category,
offended, but you know that's what the gospel says very clearly, and I haven't
come 10,000 miles to give you my opinions. I've come just to preach the
scriptures. That's what Jesus says very clearly. Let me ask you, do you believe
that? Do you believe you're a sinner? Do you believe that you can do nothing to
get rid of that pollution and depravity of sin in your heart and mind? Look at
verse 44. Jesus says, no one can come to me unless the Father draws
him. He repeats that in verse 65. Why can't we come to God? Well, because we are
dead in sin, says the scripture. Because we are helpless. Because we are hopeless.
Because Satan has blinded the minds of men and women so that they cannot
believe. Now that's the truth. Let me turn you to Romans 8. I found Romans 8 and
verses 7 and 8 coming with a greater force, I think, than I've ever seen them
before. Listen to how Paul puts it in Romans 8 and verse 7 and 8. He says, the
sinful mind is hostile to God. Now we all accept that. You look at the society,
whether it's Australia or Britain, and the sinful mind is hostile to God. That's
obvious. And it does not submit to God's law. Well, we accept that too. You
see the man in the world, they're hostile to God, and they will not submit to the
Lord of God. There's no trouble there. But Paul says this, nor can it do so. Not
only that the sinful mind is hostile to God, but it cannot submit to God. Those
controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God. Now if words mean anything, I
mean, that's pretty clear. If we believe in a Bible that's got something to say
to us today, that's pretty clear. Nor can they submit to God. Not only won't they,
we can understand that, but they can't, says Paul, submit to God. Why? Because the
sinful mind is hostile to God, everything about them is alien to God, and they
cannot come to God unless they are drawn to God. Now if that's the truth of the
situation of about man, what's the answer? There is only one answer, and the answer
is the sovereign grace of God. You see the Father God the Father overcomes
this inability in man, not just a lack of willingness, but a total inability of man.
God overcomes that by his drawing power of the Holy Spirit. And the work of the
Holy Spirit via the preaching of the gospel is a work of conviction, a work of
giving of faith, a work of drawing men and women to God, because they can't
unless they are drawn, they cannot come. And what does this drawing mean? How are
men drawn? Are you being drawn? Well I can test it for you with not too much
difficulty. The drawing of the Spirit is not an emotional experience in church.
When we feel all watery and all weepy and all gooey, that can be part of it, and
for many people it is part of it, but it's got to be a lot more than that. The
drawing spirit of this, the drawing work of the Spirit is this, that God touches us
and he begins to show us things about ourselves which we never saw before. And
even when we're washing dishes, if you happen to get caught up in that awful
sort of plight, when you're washing dishes, when you're driving the car, when
you're doing your normal job for a moment, and if the Spirit is drawing you,
this will happen for a moment, you'll find your mind reaching out after God.
You've never known that before, but you'll find your mind reaching out after God
and you want God. It might not last long and it might come and it might go, but it
never goes too far. It keeps coming back. You can never get away from it. Your mind
is beginning to think about God in a way you never thought before. You are
uncertain now where previously you were positive. That's an evidence of the
drawing of God. You knew before that that fellow in the pulpit was all wrong, but now
you're not so sure. You knew before that the Bible is full of myths and nothing to
say to you, but now you're not so sure. You knew before that you were a
Christian, but now you're not so sure. That's the drawing of the Spirit. That's
God beginning to deal with you. You see, what the gospel wants to do and what the
gospel always do is to push men into a corner. That's always the preaching of
the gospel. You see, the function of the gospel is not to make men happy. Oh,
that's a yucky old teaching of modern evangelicalism which has got no bearing
on the gospel. You can be happy and go to hell. The function of the gospel is not
to make men happy. Come to Jesus. Smile Jesus loves you and all that sort of
nonsense. That isn't the function of the gospel. The function of the gospel is to
make men righteous because you can't be righteous and go to hell. Once you're
righteous, you'll be happy. Happiness is a byproduct. It's not the achievement. It's
not what the gospel is aiming at, but it will make you happy once you know that
you are right with God. What man's problem is that he has got no
righteousness, not that he's miserable. He's miserable because he's got no
righteousness, and the function of the gospel is to make him acceptable to God
by giving him a righteousness. Now, how does the gospel do that? Well, I say it
brings man and it pushes him in the corner. It doesn't make man feel happy.
The function of the gospel isn't to make men go to church saying, oh, that was
lovely. I feel that it can be better for the next week. That's the product of what
the gospel does to a Christian, but before we become Christians, the gospel
makes us very, very miserable. It wounds before it heals. It cuts deep before it
begins to make us feel anything of the joy of the Lord. It pushes a man in the
corner, and it says, man, you're a sinner, and the man doesn't like her. He says, oh no, I'm
not. Then he begins to accept it, but he says, oh yes, I'm a sinner, but I'm as good as
the next man, and the Bible says that's not good enough. The next man is going to
hell. Are you happy with that? And it pushes him into a corner, and he begins
to see something of the wrath of God upon himself, and he says, oh no, I don't
believe in the wrath of God. My God wouldn't send anyone to hell, and the
gospel says that's the problem. Your God is a God of your own creation. Your God
is not the God and Father of the Lord Jesus, because the God and Father of the
Lord Jesus tends men to hell. He has prepared a hell where he will spend all
eternity, where men will spend all eternity in absence from him. That's what
God does, and he pushes men in the corner, and he makes them feel that, and a man
when he feels that says, well, I will try my best to be a better man, and the gospel
says, your best is not enough, because there is none good, no, not one, and the
man in his corner, and he's getting tighter and tighter now, and he's
clutching on every straw, and he says, well, I will start praying. Your prayers
won't do it. And he said, well, I start going to church, and I'll be a better
father, and I'll be a better this. Who knows the gospel? That will have nothing to do
with you. And the man says, well, what can I do? Nothing says the gospel. Nothing at all. And the man
in his corner feels, well, this is hopeless. Exactly says the gospel. Your
situation is one of hopelessness, utter hopelessness. And what does a man do in that
situation? He cries for mercy. He says, God, I can do nothing. Have mercy on me.
Praise be to God says the gospel. That's what I want you. That's the function of
the gospel, see. You cannot come. I want to come. I want to be a Christian. You cannot,
says the gospel, you cannot come. And it's a situation about the despair, but then
he reads one word. Listen to it. Jesus says, no one can come to me unless, and
that little word, unless. It gives a man hope. There is hope. Unless, unless what?
Unless the Father draws him. And so that man begins to realize he needs to cry to
God that God will draw him. That's conviction of sin. That's a man dealing
with God. You know, one of the evidences that, that a man is under conviction of
sin is that he shuts up. Romans 3 19, every mouth is stopped and the whole
world is guilty before God. And you can tell when a man is under conviction, when
God's dealing with him, he shuts up. He stops arguing. He stops arguing about
evolution. He stops arguing with the first chapters in Genesis, a myth or a
reality. He stops saying, I don't believe this and I don't believe that. He shuts
up. He's got nothing to say. Why? Because he's in that corner and he sees himself
in utter, utter despair. And what's the answer? The answer is the sovereign grace
of God. What's the answer? That the Father may have given him to the Son. It's his
only hope. He has no other hope. You know, there are people who tell us, and they
tell us with the best of intention, you should never mention election when you're
preaching the gospel. I mean, people say that, godly people, with the best of
intention, you should never mention election when preaching the gospel. Why
not? You know why they say it? Because they see the doctrine of election as a
great barrier to stop men coming to God. In fact, it is the only reason why they
can come to God. They cannot come unless the Father has given them to the Son. And
I would say to you, if you're one of those people who are not a Christian and
you want to become a Christian and you see this thing as election, as some
terrible, terrible thing invented by Calvin, forget that. Forget that. Election
is the only hope you have of coming to God, because unless the Father has given
you, you will not come and you cannot come. Praise God this morning for a
doctrine which gives us hope. There is no hope apart from that. There is no hope
apart from a sovereign God who takes hold of men in their degradation and lifts
them out of it because he has already chosen them in Christ before the
foundation of the world. Oh, that's the glory in this. There's a thrill in this.
There's a wonder in this. I don't think there's any doctrine in the book so
thrilling and so as much an incentive to evangelize than the doctrine
of election, which knows that there is people out there who God has put his
hand upon and I can preach this gospel to them and God will take hold of them
and draw them to himself. That's the glory of the gospel. It's the activity of
God. God is involved in it. It's not merely your response. It's not merely the way I
preach. There's a sovereign God involved in all this who puts his hand upon
people and through the gospel draws them to himself, but the gospel tells us we
can do nothing, but it tells of a God who is willing to do all things. Listen to
this phrase again. All that the Father gives me. It's a lovely phrase. You find
Jesus repeating it in John 17. Listen to this in John 17. It comes up time and
time again in that great prayer in John 17. He says, Jesus says this in verse 6,
I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours.
You gave them to me and then he goes on and I gave them life. There's an order.
God chose them in Christ. He gives them to the Son. The Son gives them life and
they rejoice in the life they have in the Father. Why am I a Christian this
morning? Because God gave me to Christ before the foundation of the world. Why? I
don't know. I know for the life of me now, but I can say with old Spurgeon, you know,
God must have chosen me before I was born. He never had chosen me afterwards.
That's what Spurgeon says and it's true enough, isn't it? But he did before the
foundation of the world and he gave me to Christ and Christ gave me eternal
life. How do I know if God has given me to Christ? How do I know if I'm one of
these people whom God has given to Christ? The answer is simply this. Do
you know this morning something of the drawing power of God? Don't worry about
abstract ideas. Test your own heart. Is God dealing with you? You find in your
heart this morning a greater longing for God. You know you're not a Christian and
you find in your heart a longing for God you've never known before. It might have
been created from the time you came in here this morning. It might have been in
your heart for weeks and months, a longing for God. You try to pray and you
don't know where you're going. You've wanted to go and speak to the pastor or
the elder on occasions and something has held you back. You've tried to talk to
people and you find you can't but you really want to be right with God. You
know you can do nothing. You know you're helpless. You stopped arguing, my friends.
That's the drawing of God and if that's happening, stop mucking about and come.
Stop playing around. Stop dealing and come and say, God have mercy on me a sinner.
That's all you've got to do. In the confidence that him that comes, I will
never drive away. That's your assurance this morning. If you are being drawn, you
will never come to Christ and Christ will say no to you. But the evidence of
a drawing of the Spirit is this sense that you want God more than anything
else in this world. It's not casual. It's not indifferent. It's not something that
comes and you forget about it then for the next six months. It's something that
you want more than anything in all the world. You want to be right with God and
you've got to want to be right with God more than anything in the whole world. I
was telling the youngsters in the school on Wednesday morning, was it
a Thursday morning, about a man in our church two years ago. His wife was a
Christian. He had a lovely, lovely brother. A man of about 40 and he was a lovely
chap. One of the nicest men you could ever hope to meet and he came to me one
Sunday after the service. He said, Pastor, I want to be a Christian. I want to be a
Christian. So I asked him the question I always ask people in that, with that
situation. I said, why? Why do you want to be a Christian? And we started talking
about it and I felt that this, this dear brother was, was far too casual. He did
want but he was far too casual about it and I said, Gordon, go away, go away. I'm
pray about it and think more about what you're saying and we'll talk a bit more
later on. He came back the following Sunday night. He said, I want to be a
Christian and we talked and I still felt he was too casual. I still felt that it
wasn't this overwhelming desire in his heart. If he didn't have Christ, his life
would be meaningless. I felt there wasn't, he was too casual. I said, go away and
pray about it and think about it and we'll talk again. Well, I went on
holidays then and we came back from holidays and he was one of the first
fellas I saw when I came back into the church and I took one look at him and I
knew he was a Christian. You know that sometimes and I said, what happened? He
said, I got up for work one morning about six or whatever it was and I was in the
bathroom and I was shaving and the third lard that was on my face and in the
bathroom at six in the morning he said, I had an overwhelming sense of the total
depravity of my own life and of my sinfulness before God and an overwhelming
sense of God's love and he said, I broke down and went and with his face covered
with lard and at six o'clock in the morning he was converted in his own
bathroom because there was nothing casual about that. He wanted God with all
his heart. He could have nothing else but God and God overwhelmed him with a sense
of what he was, of his own wickedness and with a sense of the greatness and wonder
of God's love and he was saved. Nothing casual. Oh my friends, if you were coming
to that position then you were being drawn and praise God for that and come
and don't wait and say God be merciful to me a sinner. And the third thing that
Jesus mentions here is that he is the only way of salvation. The sovereignty of
God in salvation, the utter helplessness of man in salvation and Jesus as the
only way. And that whole discourse about the blood and the wine and the flesh and
the blood rather in 50 to 58, the whole business of eating the flesh and
drinking the blood is just symbolic language for direct participation in and
benefit from the death of Christ on the cross. It's spiritual language. He says,
the words I speak to you are spirit and he was speaking to them in a spiritual
way and he's talking about the time on the cross when his body was to be broken
and his blood was to be shed and he says you must have an interest in this and
participate in this. In other words, it's another way of saying that we must
believe in the Lord Jesus. If you compare verse 47 and verse 54 that becomes
fairly obvious I think. 47 says this, I tell you the truth, he who believes as
everlasting life. 54 says, whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood as
everlasting life. Eating my flesh and drinking my blood really is the same as
believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. But believing what? If we are to become
Christians, what must we believe about Jesus with regard to him being the only
Savior? Well, three things I could mention a lot but I'll mention three. Three
things that he says specifically about his death because he's speaking here
about his death and the first thing he says about his death which we must
believe and if we don't believe it we cannot become Christians. Jesus says, I
come to give my life a ransom for many and the ransom means a price to set a
captive free. Free from what? Free from sin. And we must believe that Jesus alone
can free us from sin. That religion and morality and ethics and philosophy
cannot do it. He alone can free us from sin. Our own efforts cannot do it. We
cannot turn over a new leaf. We cannot pull ourselves together. We are dead. He
must give us life. Do you believe that? That he alone can set you free. Do you
believe what Jesus says? That no man takes my life from me. I have power to
lay it down and I have power to take it up again. He is saying that what he did
on the cross he did deliberately. That this was the plan and purpose of God.
That he wasn't forced into it. You know modern theology doesn't believe that.
Modern theology believes that things get out of control and that Jesus was
pushed into a corner and he got crucified and there was nothing he could
do about it. No, says Jesus, I've got power to lay my life down. No one can take it
from me. You believe that Jesus came into the world to do that. That he wasn't
forced but that God so loved the world that he did give his only begotten son
and he gave him to die on the cross for just for the unjust that whoever
believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. Do you believe
that? Do you believe that Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of
the world? Do you believe that? Do you believe what Isaiah says? That God has laid on
him the iniquities of us all. That God has taken our sin and our guilt and he
has laid it deliberately, consciously, really upon the Lord Jesus Christ and
that Jesus took that sin and he took it to the cross of Calvary and he faced the
wrath and the judgment of God and he was made a propitiation for our sin and the
wrath of God fell upon him instead of falling upon me. Do you believe that?
Because if we don't there is no salvation for us. You see my friends let
me tell you this this morning. There is only two places where God deals with
sin. One is Calvary and the other is hell. At Calvary our sin is dealt with by the
Lord Jesus Christ paying the price. In hell our sin is dealt with by you
praying the price. When for all eternity we face the wrath of God. He faced that
wrath instead of us. You remember on the night before Calvary how the Lord Jesus
Christ caught Zechariah 13 7 a rise of a sword and smite the shepherd. That symbol
of God's justice smiting the shepherd in order to save the sheep. He quotes it, he
applies it to himself. Paul talks about him being a propitiation. He cries
himself my God my God why have you forsaken me and all the wrath of God
comes upon him. William Williams has got a lovely hymn in this book. He talks
about the enormous load of human guilt was laid upon Christ and about Christ
embracing it on the cross of Calvary. Think of it, embracing my sin, embracing
my guilt, taking it to himself. Why? That he might pay the price to God that would
set me free from the wrath and judgment of God for all eternity. That's the
gospel. It's a gospel of God's grace and of God's love. Does it offend you? Does it
offend you? Does that gospel offend you? Does it offend you to be told that you
can do nothing about your own salvation? Does it offend you to be told that there
is a sovereign God who's taken your salvation in hand before he made the
world? Does it offend you to tell you that Jesus is the only Savior that there
is no competitor to Jesus in the business of salvation but neither is
there salvation in any other for there is none of the name under heaven given
amongst men whereby we must be saved. If that offends you then you've got no
one else to go. Jesus turns to the Apostles now to the twelve and he says
will you leave me also? Oh, says Peter, where can we go? You alone have the
words of eternal life and we believe and we know that you are the Holy One of
God. I wonder if God in his grace has brought you to that position where you
realize that this is the gospel and there is no alternative and you can
map out of this church and go to 20 other churches and you can find 20 other
Gospels but they won't save you. There is only one gospel. It is the gospel of this
blessed book. It's the gospel that Christ preached. It's the gospel that Paul
preached. It's the gospel that our ancestors have preached down through the
generations. It is the gospel, the unchanging gospel of a sovereign
merciful God who says no one can come unless I draw. Oh, but I'm drawing, says
God, I'm drawing. You see our problem is that we have no righteousness and we are
not acceptable to God without that. I don't know what the situation in
Australia is. This recording is brought to you by the Christian library.org.au