[0:00] This message was recorded at Vision Baptist Church in Alpharetta, Georgia. This is the next message in our series on the book of John entitled, Jesus is God.
[0:14] Alright, if you know that Jesus washed your sins away, say amen. I believe that he did. I believe that's beautiful. I think it's fantastic. Jesus paid it all and praise the one who paid our sin debt.
[0:26] Take your Bible, go with me to John chapter 6. John chapter 6. I hope that you are preparing your offering to give and I hope that you are praying for a church in Fulton County.
[0:39] And I pray that you'll seek the Lord and honor him through that. I hope every one of us, I hope our missionary, I hope everybody helps get something going to start another church for the honor and the glory of Jesus.
[0:49] Look if you would in John chapter 6. When I finish tonight, you know what I want more than anything else? This is for you to know that you are eternally secure in what Jesus Christ did on the cross at Calvary. When I finish tonight, from this passage of scripture, I want you to know Jesus did pay it all.
[1:06] And you are saved by grace. And you can relax and you can rest and you can rejoice. And you can enjoy the fact that you're saved by grace. If you were saved by anything you did, you would still have to be nervous.
[1:21] If you were saved by anything you did, you'd still have to be nervous. I can't remember what book I read this out of this week, but the guy said, If you broke the vase, you can pray all you want that the brace isn't broken, but it's broken.
[1:37] And you can say, well, I'll never break another vase, but you broke the vase. Yes, we sinned. It's over. If it wasn't for grace, we're in trouble. Can you say amen right there? Praise the Lord for the way he works in our lives.
[1:49] Read with me John chapter 6, verse 30 and following, if you would. The Bible said, They said therefore unto him, What sign show us thou then that we may see and believe thee?
[2:00] What dost thou work? Our fathers did eat manna in the desert, as it is written. He gave them bread from heaven deep. Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven.
[2:17] For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world. Then said they unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread. Jesus said unto them, I am the bread.
[2:30] You ought to circle, I am. Those are like huge words that knocked any Jew down. Every Jew would have heard that and said, Wow, who in the world?
[2:42] We don't use those words. I am the great I am. I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never hunger. He that believeth on me shall never thirst.
[2:52] But I said unto you, That you also have seen me and believe not. All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.
[3:07] And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that all which he hath given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. And this is the will of him that sent me, that everyone that seeth the Son and believeth on him may have everlasting life.
[3:23] I will raise him up at the last day. I will raise him up at the last day. The Jews then murmured at him because he said, I am the bread which came down from heaven.
[3:34] And they said, Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How is it then that he said, I came down from heaven? Jesus therefore answered and said unto them, Murmur not among yourselves.
[3:47] No man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw him, and I will raise him up at the last day. If you will just kind of look over that, we'll have a word of prayer in just a second. I ask the Lord to help you to understand.
[3:59] But look if you would with me at what happens in John chapter 6. Look with me at what happens in John chapter 6. In this passage of scripture, they come to him and they say, Well, are you going to show us any sign why we ought to believe you?
[4:12] And he said, Okay, you know, I've been doing a lot of work. Y'all haven't believed anything I've done yet. I've turned water into wine. I've walked on water. I've fed 5,000 people. I mean, I've been busy. I've been working, but you're not going to listen to anything I say.
[4:25] They say, Well, after all, you know, Moses did give bread. I mean, all you did was make a little bread. Moses did it. He said, Moses didn't give you the bread. It was my father who gave you all the bread. But he wasn't the bread.
[4:35] I am the bread. And the bread that really does something, not something that keeps you alive for one more day. It's the bread of life that gives you eternal life that you'll never hunger and you'll never thirst.
[4:45] But you guys have seen me and you don't believe me. Let me tell you, you're not going to unless God does a work in your life. Verse 37 says, All that the father giveth me shall come to me and him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out.
[5:00] I wish you'd underline a couple things. I'll repeat them in a minute, but you got to get them. Look in verse 39. I will lose nothing. I should lose nothing. He said, believe me, I'm not losing anything.
[5:11] Go to verse 40 and underline, I will raise him up. He says, I will not lose anything. I am that bread. Father, I pray now that you would help us as we go over this passage of scripture that you should make it come alive.
[5:26] God, I pray you'd help your people to trust you and to believe you and to think about the fact that you saved us through Jesus and what he did on the cross of Calvary.
[5:40] I pray God you'd help our people tonight to trust you and rest in you and relax in you and believe you tonight. God, I pray you'd help us as Christians to magnify the name of Jesus and to know that we are saved because you paid the debt and you paid all of it.
[5:56] I pray that your name would just be honored and glorified and magnified in Jesus' precious name. Amen. When I baptize people, I have just a little, I have some quirks about me.
[6:08] And one of the things I don't like is I don't ever let them hold on to me. And that's really not, it's just my personal quirk. But you know, some of you think that the way you got saved is holding on.
[6:19] And so I like them to realize, hey man, just trust me. I'll put you under the water and I'll pull you out of the water. And I've got most of them out there pretty good. I mean, you know, a couple of times I was baptized a lady back when I weighed about 145 and she was taller than me and weighed as much as I weigh now probably.
[6:34] And I took her down and I got her under the water and I realized I'd not baptized the top of her head. And I was coming up, I was a young kid and I was afraid somebody was going to judge me about not having baptized her fully.
[6:45] So I took her down one more time. She got almost out of the water before I took her down. And then when I was bringing her up, I noticed I didn't get that last hair. There was some hair that poofed up on her forehead. And I was about to take her down for number three and I just brought her on out.
[6:57] And she said, I know I was wicked, but I wasn't expecting to be drowned or baptized twice today. But you know, here's the deal. Did you know you don't get saved? You don't get saved by what you do.
[7:09] You don't get saved by holding on. You don't keep saved by holding on. We are saved tonight because God saved us. And so if you go through this passage, let me take your Bible, just work your way through it.
[7:20] It's just so clear. It's God that does the saving and he gets all glory. And that takes away all pressure. You might think, well, I need to do this and this and this. No, you really don't need to do this and this and this.
[7:32] You'll do this and this and this because he saved you, but you don't do that for any other reason. God wants to save you. Jesus wants to save you. God sent his son. Jesus wants to die. God does the saving.
[7:44] You didn't do the saving. The Holy Spirit draws you to salvation. It's all God. Salvation is a good God saving a totally undeserving sinner from the hell he deserves and making men holy like God is.
[7:55] That's what it is. It's God, a good God, saving filthy, dirty, undeserving men and turning them to holy men by the blood of Jesus Christ. Go to verse 30 with me. First thing, looking for proof that Jesus is God.
[8:07] Boy, that's what everybody's been doing all along. Everybody wants to know, is he God? That's what they were asking back then. They said, hey, we know your mama and your daddy. We know where you live. We don't know any idea how you think.
[8:19] You can say you came down from heaven and how do we know you're from God? And so they said, what sign, verse 30, what sign can we see and believe? What kind of work will you show us?
[8:31] What kind of work will you show us? They were seeking signs. They'd seen healings. They'd seen the feeding of the 5,000. They'd seen water turned into wine. They'd seen Jesus walking on water and they still needed a sign.
[8:43] It's not really that they needed a sign. They just didn't want to believe. They needed an excuse to cover up for their rebellion. They said they needed to see so they could believe, but they still wouldn't believe after they had seen.
[8:54] Look at verse 36. Jesus said it. Look at verse 36. I said unto you that you have also seen me and believe not. You've seen. You've been watching me. You know what I've been doing, but you still don't believe.
[9:05] You just want to justify that. And the way they come back at it is, you know, and this is what everybody, now listen to me, everybody needs to take Jesus down a peg or two. Everybody likes Jesus.
[9:16] He's a great guy, but he's not quite God. They all want to pull him down just a little bit, make him just a little bit less than God. But Jesus is all God. He is God. That's the whole point.
[9:26] He's God. And so they said, well, verse 31, our fathers did eat man in the wilderness and the desert. As it's written, he gave them bread from heaven to eat. They weren't impressed with what Jesus had done because Moses had already given bread from heaven.
[9:39] Maybe he's just one of the prophets. Isn't that what the world wants to say? Isn't that what Islam wants to say? Isn't that what a lot of religions want to say? He's just a prophet. But look, if you would, at verse 32, the second thing, Jesus said, no, I'm the true bread.
[9:52] You need to underline that. I mean, he doesn't back down one bit. Would you listen to me just a second? Pay attention to this. I hear people say all the time, it's just not really clear Jesus is God.
[10:03] If you'd have been in this discussion, if you'd have been alive when this is happening, if you'd have known the guy was born just down there in Bethlehem and he lives just down the street and his mama's name is Mary and his daddy's name is Joseph and he's been a little carpenter and now he's a grown man carpenter.
[10:16] But we know the guy and he's not God, he's just Jesus and everybody knows him. We know his brothers and we know his sisters and he ought to back down, but he doesn't back down one bit. He says, no, I am, I am.
[10:27] Look at verse 32. Jesus said to them, verily, verily, truly, truly, I say unto you, Moses gave you not the bread from heaven, but the Father gives you the true bread, circling true bread from heaven.
[10:38] For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven. He said, the bread of God's he. That's me, really. He's he that comes out from heaven and gives life unto the world. He said, I'll just tell you, you want to know who the bread is?
[10:50] The real bread. That manna was only a symbol of the real bread. That real bread's me and I am here. It wasn't Moses that gave you the bread in the wilderness. They placed emphasis on the wrong thing.
[11:01] They placed emphasis on a man and that's what you tend to do and that's what I tend to do. We look and say, well, this great preacher said this and this great historian said this and this great person did this and this prophet this and this prophet that and Jesus said, fooey on all the prophets and fooey on all the great guys.
[11:16] I am the bread. Everybody else just talks about the thing, but I am the real bread. I'm the true bread. I came down from heaven and it's sufficient for the world. Verse 33, for the bread of God as he was coming down from heaven and gives life unto the world.
[11:31] The prosperity gospel believers came to want that true bread. They said, then said they unto him, verse 34, Lord, evermore give us his bread. What they want, they want life.
[11:43] They don't want to be hungry. They're going to change their opinion. Now Jesus is, and let me tell you something. See, salvation is not about numbers and it's not about getting a following and it's not about having a mega church.
[11:56] It's about honestly coming face to face with you're a sinner and you're convicted and convinced that you can't do anything to go to heaven and it's all God and buddy, they're going to get angry.
[12:07] So in verse 35, he says it. Number three, I am the bread. Jesus is the bread of life. Verse 35, he said, I am the bread of life. If you'll, and you will never hunger and you will never thirst, I am the bread of life.
[12:20] He makes it clear. He's the bread. They'll come to him and if they will never hunger or they'll never thirst, they must believe on him. They've seen the signs and the miracles and the work, but they refuse to believe so they'll not get eternal life.
[12:34] He offers, that he offers, nor will they ever enjoy not being hungry or not being thirsty. I want you to, you know, Jesus is, he's making a progression. He said, this is where everybody stands and this is what everybody wants, but I am the true bread.
[12:46] I am the bread of life and I am here. Now verse 37, here's the heart of it. Verse 37, all that the father giveth me shall come to me and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.
[13:00] The father gives Jesus souls. He gives him people. Look at the verse, all that the father gives me shall come to me and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.
[13:13] It's God that does the truth, the saving. That's the truth in the scriptures. Look at verse 35, 39. And this is the father's will which has sent me of all that he hath given me.
[13:24] I should lose nothing but should raise it up again at the last day. In John chapter 17 and verse 2, he said, as thou has given him power over all flesh that he should have, he should give eternal life to as many as thou has given him.
[13:39] I wish you'd mark given him. He has given him. He said, God gave them to me. Verse chapter 17, verse 6, Jesus is praying. I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world.
[13:50] Thine they were, thou gavest them me and they have kept thy word. Verse 9, I pray for them. I pray not for the world but for them which thou has given me for they are thine.
[14:02] Chapter 17 and verse 11, it says, and now I am no more in the world but these are in the world and I come to thee, holy good father, keep through thine own name those whom thou has given me that they may be one as we are.
[14:14] In verse 12, he said, while I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name those that thou gavest me, I kept them all but the son of perdition. 17, 24. Father, I will that they also, I will that they also whom thou has given me be with me.
[14:29] Now here's the thing. This is a wild thing. He says it over and over. The father gave them to me. The father gave them to me. Boy, that speaks to a whole lot of little issues that we come up with.
[14:41] Some of us believe that the father is kind of an angry God with arrows in his head and his hand and he's ready to sling them down on us but there's this nice little guy named Jesus who came down to earth to die on a cross and pay our sin debt and go back up and say, come on, please God, don't send them to hell.
[14:59] But that's not what the Bible's saying. The Bible's saying, Jesus, you're going to save them, I gave them to you. So I know now God's on my side because he gave me to Jesus. How many of you can say amen right there? I know God's on my side.
[15:11] God gave me to Jesus. And by the way, in just a minute, I'm going to show you Jesus died for me and in just a minute, I'm going to show you the Holy Spirit draws me. So God, all of God, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit are involved in saving me.
[15:22] Here's the main truth you want to write down. Here's the main truth you want to write down and that is this, we can never believe salvation starts anywhere but with God. Salvation is a God thing.
[15:34] He does the saving. Romans 5, 8, you know these verses but I repeat them and this will help you be as secure when you figure it out because you got to figure out where's the salvation coming from? From this side or that side?
[15:45] From him or from me? Where's it coming from? From the church or from my prayers or from my baptism or from my good living? Where's it coming from? It's coming from him. Romans 5, 8. Are you ready?
[15:55] Would you read this one out loud with me? You know it by heart. Read it with me. But God commended his love toward us and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
[16:06] Would you notice there? They're both in that verse, aren't they? God the Father, God the Father commended his love toward us. God and Christ did it. Romans chapter 5, verse 6, same chapter, two verses above it says, For when we were yet without strength, when we couldn't do anything about our sin and when we couldn't do anything about going to hell, at the right time and due time, Christ died for the ungodly.
[16:30] In 1 John chapter 4, verse 19. In 1 John chapter 4, verse 19, we love him because he first loved us. We love him because he first loved us.
[16:42] Chapter 4, verse 10. 1 John 4, 10. The Bible says, Herein is love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins.
[16:53] In just a second, I'll move to another verse, but can I just show you something real quickly? It's God that loved me. It's God that sent his son. It's God that gave me to Jesus. It's God that saves me. Now that brings me security.
[17:06] Before I, before I'm going to show you more verses, but before I show you, you see, if I were doing the saving, if I were doing the, if I were doing the, if I were doing the saving, if I were doing any part of it, you could really count on it to mess up.
[17:17] I have, I mean, the guys back in the nerd boat got a whole list of bloopers of mine. So they want to play on, they want to play sometimes. They hear me say all this dumb stuff and they, and I mess up all the time.
[17:29] I mess up all the time. I don't drive well. I don't preach well. I mess up. I can go good for a while, but I always mess up. But there's somebody who doesn't mess up. And that's the guy who's doing the saving here.
[17:41] And Jesus is looking at him and he's saying, Hey guys, it wasn't Moses. I know you guys are focused on Moses. I know you guys are focused on keeping your rules, but it wasn't either one of them. It was God and God sent me down from heaven.
[17:53] And I am the true bread. Ephesians chapter two, verses eight, nine, you know this, but let's get it straight. For by grace, are you saved through faith and not of yourselves. It's a gift of God, not of works as any man should boast.
[18:06] And I know we're Baptist and I know you should know this, but can I just remind you, you know, there will be absolutely no bragging in heaven. Nobody's going to run up to Jesus and give him a high five.
[18:17] Nobody's going to run up to Jesus and act like, Hey, good to see you. Good buddy. How you doing? We're going to walk in there. Like we are unworthy. We're going to be like, I don't belong here. And he's going to be the one in the Bible.
[18:29] They would fall down at his feet. And in the Bible, he would pick them up in the Bible. They were, then the Bible, they were shocked at the awesome presence of a magnificent God. Look at what it said. It says, for by grace, are you saved through faith?
[18:42] And that's not of yourselves. It's a gift of God, not of works. Nobody's going to be bragging. Nobody's going to be talking about how much money they gave. Nobody's going to be talking about how many church services they went to. Nobody's going to be talking about when I was a kid, they used to give away these Sunday school pens that every year, every year that you would go a whole year without going, without missing Sunday school, they first gave you this round pen.
[19:01] And then I thought they gave you all these little bars that you could hang. And I knew people had bars that could hang all the way down their chest. And he said, okay, how many of those bars you got? You're not going to heaven. None of that's going to get you there. It's going to be by grace through faith.
[19:12] And that gives all the rest of you that think, well, I never did. I didn't get me any of those bars. I never went to Sunday school all those times. That's the whole point. It wasn't those that got them into heaven. And it won't be you that gets you into heaven.
[19:23] It'll be what God did for you. We should never take any glory or recognition for our salvation. We simply humbly acknowledge that we are unworthy and that he is a good God.
[19:36] I'm going to go show you this right here. But I want you to notice in verse 37, all that the father gives to me shall come to me. God is doing a work of salvation. I don't understand all that. But here he gives the other side of that equation.
[19:48] He says, that doesn't get you out of any responsibility. Verse 37, all the father gives me shall come to me and come to me and him that cometh I will in no wise cast out. And this is the will of him that sent me that everyone which seeth the son and believes on him may have everlasting life and I will raise him up at the last day.
[20:05] Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me, hath every everlasting life. We come to him because he came to us first. You know that no one sought him out. When I was a young preacher in my second church way back when, there was a whole big campaign that we ran all across the south in the denomination I was a part of.
[20:24] And there were billboards and bumper stickers and handouts and everything that said I found him. Or I found it. I found it was the name of it. I found it. And everybody found it. But the truth of the matter is I didn't find him, he found me.
[20:36] I didn't go looking for him, he came looking for me. It is the God of heaven that saved me. It's the God of heaven. And he says, you come and I will not cast you out. Here's the great security.
[20:48] Once you look at verse 38, you ought to write security, salvation, security by this verse. Look at verse 38. I came down from heaven not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.
[21:00] This is the father's will which has sent me that all which I've given, that he hath given me I should lose nothing, but that I, but should raise it up again that last day. Do you understand God's not divided? And I know this isn't a Roman Catholic church and most of you don't have Roman Catholic backgrounds, but there was this tremendous thing in Peru where, where this God was kind of aggravated.
[21:21] You know why you needed to talk to Mary? Because God's kind of mean and Jesus is kind of nice, but he's not all that nice, but Mary could talk to Jesus and Jesus could talk to Mary and you're like seven steps from the father.
[21:31] And if you get enough of the good people on your side, you can probably get God to be okay with you. But to see salvation doesn't work that way. Here's what he said. Would you go back and read with me verse, go back and read verse 38 with me.
[21:42] Look at what verse 38 said. He said, I came down from heaven, but I didn't come down here to do my will. It isn't like I developed a plan of salvation and I'm down here to get y'all saved and the father's ready to burn y'all.
[21:54] And there's a lot of people, man, they've got a whole bunch of points and we won't even dig into it, but you're listening. They're like, God's wanting to kill everybody. Thank God. No, he said, I came down to do the father's will.
[22:05] I came down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him that sent me. I'm not the only one who wants to save you. It's not like God's up there full of anger and wrath and he's kind of really mean and I'm Jesus and I'm nice and I'm the antithesis of him.
[22:19] That's not it at all. He said, I came down here to do the father's will, not to do my own will, but the will of the father. And by the way, in verse 39, he said that I won't lose anything.
[22:31] I write down security. Let me tell you why. Honestly, if there's this God in heaven, it's all angry and there's a Jesus, it's all nice. I just hope the good guy beats the bad guy up, but that's not how it works.
[22:43] The God of heaven was like, I love him. For God so loved the world and he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but ever everlasting life. I love him. But God committed his love toward us and while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
[22:54] I love him. And so then he looks and he says, son, go down to earth and pay their sin debt. And Jesus and God said, yes, they both want us saved.
[23:04] It was the father and it was the son who were doing the will of God. Jesus wants me saved because the father wants him to save me. I do not wonder if the father will be satisfied with the sacrifice of Jesus.
[23:18] It never crosses my mind to wonder if God will accept what Jesus did. You see, God and Jesus had a plan and they paid that price for me. He came to save me not simply because he wanted to, but the father wanted him to.
[23:31] I want you to notice in verse 39, again, I hope you underlined it. I hope you marked it. He said, I'll lose nothing. You see, there's eternal security. I know that if I'm truly born again, that the father wants to be saved, that the son wants to be saved.
[23:45] I'll show you in just a minute. The Holy Spirit wants to be saved. And I know this much that whatever they save, they don't lose. He doesn't lose. The father doesn't lose. The son doesn't lose. The Holy Spirit doesn't lose. You wonder, I wonder if I'm saved.
[23:57] You got to wonder if you saved yourself, but if he saved you, you can relax. He saved you. He saved you. He saved us. He'll raise us up at that last day.
[24:08] Anything that has to do with, anything I have to do with, I can mess it up. But when God himself is doing the saving, I don't have to worry about it. We have an eternal, unfailing, impossible to lose salvation because he did it.
[24:21] We have an eternal, unfailing, impossible to lose salvation because he did it. And let me just stop. And some of the people that have questioned me about this aren't here, but man, I hope they'll listen.
[24:31] You understand this? God wanted you saved and Jesus wanted you saved. And in a second, I'm going to show you the Holy Spirit's one that comes to get you. God, Jesus, Holy Spirit, God's doing the saving.
[24:42] It doesn't start any on your side. He didn't come down and say, if you'll, if you'll hold on real tight, I'll get you there. When they got on that ark that day, when they opened, when the ark was open, that one door was open and they all walked into that ark because they trusted and they believed what the Father had said and they got on board that ark and he shut that door.
[24:58] They didn't have to hang on that night. They were able to lay down in their recliners. They were able to turn the TV on. They were able to say, man, God is good. He built an ark and he's getting me through it. God saves me.
[25:09] It is the great God of heaven doing the saving. Verse 40. And this is the will of him that sent me that everyone which sees the Son and believes on him may have everlasting life.
[25:21] And I will raise him up at the last day. And this is the will of him that sent me. This is what God who sent Jesus wants that everyone that sees the Son, if you'll see the Son and believe on him and have everlasting life, he will raise you up.
[25:36] We do see the Son and we realize that God sent his Son. He died for us. We believe on him. Go to verse 41. Fifth thing. The Jews refused to believe that Jesus could possibly be from God in human flesh, that he could impossible.
[25:51] It was impossible for him to be the true bread from heaven. They believed it was impossible for him to be the true bread from heaven. So look if you would with me at verse 41. The Jews then murmured at him because he said, I'm the bread which came down from heaven.
[26:05] They said, isn't this the guy named Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How in the world could he go about telling people he's from heaven? So they didn't want to believe. They refused to believe. He made the statements.
[26:17] He had the miracles. He had the signs. He'd shown who he was and they refused to believe. And that's the problem we have today. The problem we have today is that we want to think Jesus was a good man and a good teacher with a lot of good moral principles and he could train us all up in morality and we fail to see he didn't come from morality.
[26:36] He came to save us. They weren't against his miracles, but against his claim that he was the bread, God in human flesh. They were looking for excuses to see him as a man, anything less than God.
[26:48] Men would like to blame God with their problem and they refused to believe. Watch this. God wants you saved, but he said, you come to me. God wants you saved, but he said, you believe me.
[27:00] God wants you saved. They're both there. They're both there. Just as clear as day. They're both there. God wants you saved. Believe me. They said, we don't want to believe you. We think you're Mary's boy.
[27:10] We think you're Joseph's boy. We think you live down the street. We don't know why in the world you claim to be who you claim to be. Watch this. Verse 43. It just keeps going. Verse 43.
[27:21] He said, nobody gets saved without the drawing of the Holy Spirit. Jesus, therefore, answered and said unto them, murmur not. Y'all quit you whispering among yourselves and you griping and whining and complaining and trying to plot and deceive and convince people.
[27:33] He said, I'll just tell you now, no man can come to me except the father which has sent me draw him and I will raise him up. No man can come to me except the father draw him. I want you to listen.
[27:44] It takes a work of God to deal with our hearts and show us our sinfulness. It takes a work from God. We do not want to accept that we've sinned.
[27:55] We are too sure of our goodness. We are too sure of who we are. And he said, no one can come to me except the father which sent me draw him and I'll raise him up at the last day.
[28:05] It takes a work of God for a normal man to believe something so great as God becoming man. How in the world can people accept that God left heaven and came down to earth and put on human flesh and died on a cross, lived down here for 33 years, was buried, was dead for three days and after three days he came alive.
[28:24] In my Sunday school class this morning, I said, you want to talk about a sign? He said, I'm going to show you things that will make you marvel even more. I said, let's just imagine I die and let's imagine y'all come by and see me in the casket and let's imagine I've been dead for three days and then let's imagine I come through the door walking out that way and one of the ladies in my Sunday school class said, I'm trying to get out that door.
[28:42] I said, don't go that way, go that one. That one's quicker to get out because my class is right over in the corner. But you see, nobody's going to believe that God did that. But Jesus died and was buried and rose again.
[28:53] How in the world can I believe that my sins are forgiven? How in the world can I believe that I simply accept a gift? It goes against everything in our mind.
[29:03] Islamic people can't accept it and that's why there's so many of them that won't accept it and atheists can't believe that and Buddhists can't believe that and Hindus can't believe that and most Christians can't believe that and do you know why you think you might lose your salvation?
[29:16] Because you really believe that it has to be with what you did to get you saved. It's like, did I pray the right words? Did I hold my tongue right? Did I say the right thing?
[29:28] Is God happy enough with how I prayed? Did I believe enough? But I just want you to realize it all came from God. It's a one-way thing. God came to you. Salvation is based on what God did as God worked in our lives.
[29:43] It takes convicting power to make you truly believe that Jesus is the only means of salvation. Salvation is not about mental assent but that God has convicted you and you came to the end of yourself to see Jesus as the only means of salvation.
[29:58] Just a couple of things I really would like to, boy, maybe this is the country boy coming out in me but it bothers me sometimes the flippant way we treat salvation.
[30:11] It bothers me sometimes that it's almost like filling out a card or praying a real quick prayer and you come in and you join the church and you become one of us and you leave and you came in doing the same junk that you left doing and everybody wants church to be about that today but I'll just go ahead and tell you something when God saves you he knocks you on your rear.
[30:36] Now not literally but you know what you find out you're a sinner and you find out you can't and you find out that you're humbled and you find out that your money won't do it and your education won't do it and your standing won't do it and the only thing that does that is the Holy Spirit.
[30:51] He does that work in us. Now let me just walk back through it and give you a real quick review. Jesus said I'm the bread and I came down from the Father and the Father sent me down here and I came down from the Father and by the way the Father gives me all these people to save.
[31:04] That's what it said just go read the verses I read a hundred times this week. The Father gives these people to me to save and so he said I'm going to go save them because the Father gave these people to me to save and the Holy Spirit says you guys would never believe me if I don't convict you and here's the whole deal the Holy Spirit it's God it's a God thing it's a God thing that salvation I wonder sometimes if you hear a testimony of some of the old time believers and they'll say man I was this way and then God did this and my life changed and I see some others it's almost like I agreed I signed the paper filled out the charter joined the church but the question is has God done a work in your life?
[31:44] The question is has God done a work in your life? do you realize that if you think you can lose your salvation you are believing it was you that did the saving the convicting and the change in you?
[31:58] No little baby that has come into this earth had anything to do with that when our children were born they weren't the ones that it wasn't them that thought up the idea of being born it wasn't them that got us together it was just this they just got here by somebody else's effort and I got saved by somebody else's effort if I have any part of that effort in there if you add Romans 11 6 if you add grace to works and you don't have grace if you add grace to works you don't have work you can't mix the two they don't mix salvation is a God thing that gives me great security probably the most maligned and hated truth that you'll ever tell people that a Baptist believes is what they call once saved always saved the fact is I don't really like that term because I think some of us kind of got that to mean once you join the Baptist church you're always Christian I don't believe that at all we kind of got the idea once saved that means once I got baptized I'm okay forever that's I don't believe that at all but once you're truly born again and once you're a child of God you are saved for all of eternity you will not have to worry when you get to heaven will the father be pleased with the son because the father sent the son to make the sacrifice and when you wonder did Jesus make a good enough sacrifice the father told the son what to do and the son did what the father wanted him to do it was God doing the saving it was Jesus doing the saving it was the Holy Spirit doing the saving and I am simply a recipient of a great gift for the wages of sin is death what I do what I earn is death and hell and punishment what he does for the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord not a God that's hateful not a God that's mean not a Jesus that's sweet and loving but God the father
[33:49] God the son and God the Holy Spirit saving me the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus God's son last verse I'm quitting look if you would with me Hebrews chapter 12 verse 2 Jesus talking about Jesus he's the author and the finisher looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God there's a gazillion things we can look at in that verse but just two or three things number one he's the author that's an important thing for us to realize would you really pay attention just I I'll be through real quick but watch this I didn't come up with a plan of salvation and the baptism didn't come up with a plan of salvation and the apostles didn't come up with a plan of salvation it was Jesus that wrote the plan of salvation so it's God doing the saving it's Jesus doing the saving it's the Holy Spirit doing the saving and we got the plan now it'd be totally different if that plan said for you to do some finishing but this is a turnkey job this is you buy the house and the house is yours and you don't have to nail one nail you don't have to put down one piece of carpet you don't have to hang one piece of sheetrock you don't have to put in one light bulb it's a turnkey job he said
[35:11] I wrote the plan and I finished the plan I'm the author and I'm the finisher I started it and I finished it now that's a real good deal because if he said if he had said Austin you can be saved here are the 22 things I need you to do he would have been the author but I'd have been the finisher but he said I'm the author and I'm the finisher and on the cross of Calvary he said it's finished I paid the price you're saved by what I did he's the author and the finisher of our faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross despised the shame and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God you should rejoice to know that you're saved because of what he did and not what you did and not what you do he did it it's finished last thought they hate eternal security they hate eternal security and watch this because they think if God did all the saving and it was God that saved me and God that changed me and God that did and God and God and God that that means
[36:15] I can go out and live any way I want and I'd still be saved and I'm going to have to tell you that's true but let me explain something to you since it was God that did it you didn't come until the Holy Spirit drew you and you didn't save yourself Jesus paid for it and God had this plan and Jesus was the author of it and Jesus was the finisher of it and God did all this and so just let me say this salvation real salvation is God does a work in us one day we're sitting there and we honestly don't understand it and one day we don't comprehend that we're sinners and we rebel against God and we don't like his commandments and we don't like him and we don't like his rules and we don't like his plan and we just aggravate it at him and all of a sudden something the Holy Spirit convicts us and shows us our sinfulness shows us our rebellion shows us our rejection and leaves us in utter humility saying he paid it all and I'll give you one last thought on that sometimes even the songs we sing almost give this idea I was so desperately wanting to fix myself thank God he came and paid it well the fact is you weren't desperately wanting to fix yourself he wrote a plan when you didn't want to fix yourself and he fixed us he's a wonderful God and tonight you ought to go home and say man I can know I'm saved because it was all God what did I do?
[37:32] I just believed what he said he was doing what did I do? I just received a gift what did I do? I just trusted him but as many as received him to them gave he power to become the sons of God how can I know I'd go to heaven?
[37:42] because I received a free gift that I didn't deserve given to me by a wonderful God through his son Jesus Christ Father I pray that you'd work in our lives I pray God you'd help us to give Jesus all glory help us give the Holy Spirit all glory help us to give the Father all glory thank you for being a God who loves a God who saves a God who cares about the world God do a work in our lives God magnify yourselves in us and I'll give you praise and honor and glory for all you do you have been listening to Austin Gardner pastor of Vision Baptist Church for contact information location service times or more audio and video recordings log on to www.visionbaptist.com God gold world you