Classic Christianity – Book of John Part 30 (06-05-19)
Bob George continues sharing truth from the book of John. He just shared about the reaction of the religious Jews about Jesus claims to be God. The proud of heart will not see God, but the humble will listen intently to his words unto eternal life. Jesus said, “You are looking at me and you are still not going to believe in me”. Your pride can be taken away by realizing that you cannot give yourself life and that you cannot take away your sins. You are ready for Jesus. If that is the case, then your coming to Christ is as close as a prayer. What happens in this day and age when we do not see him? We hear about Jesus today. Do all people respond? Who responds? The humble. The humble listen to his voice and call upon him for truth, as the Father draws him to all truth, the truth that brings salvation, eternal life, to the knowing of God intimately. Let the life of Christ live in and through you.
John 17:3
Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.
How did you get humble? I don’t know. There are all kinds of ways to get humbled. Sometimes falling flat on our face. Sometimes our trials and tribulations we go through, a divorce or loss of income, or backing into a tree with a car. All kinds of things that can make us humble. You will not come to him until you come to the point of humility that says, “I cannot do it”. That is what happened to Matt, who was working himself to death trying to please God. Bob identifies with that. It is like a hamster in a cage, not going any place but we are making good time. You have this attitude of heart, “This is not working. I can’t do this”. When you come to the point of saying, “I can’t”, then you are ready for the place in your life to say to Jesus, “I can’t but you can”.
John 6:37
37 All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away.
The Father must give to Jesus who he chooses to give to Jesus. Some people interpreted this way, “Then God chooses who he wants to be saved.” This is the teaching of Calvinism, that he chose Billy but not Jenny, that God chooses who he saves. Let us look again at this passage. Who does God give grace to? The humble. Who does God give to Jesus? The humble. Who does He not give to Jesus? The proud. Why? Because they will not believe in Jesus. He knows whose heart is humble and those who are proud as a rock. But those who have been made humble, by whatever circumstances, those are the ones He will give to Jesus to save them.
There are three element of the Father’s business; giving people to Jesus, drawing them and then enabling them, in order they may be saved by the receiving of new life.
John 6:37
37 All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away.
The Father gives the humble to Jesus. The ones who come to Jesus are the humble.
John 6:44
44 “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day.
The Father must draw the humble.
John 6:65
65 He went on to say, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled them.”
The Father must enable the humble to come to Jesus.
Who is he doing that to? The humble of heart. Come to the end of your religious journey. Come to the end of giving an appearance of who I am not. Come to the end of being hypocritical. Be humbled by the fact that you cannot do it. Bob recalled his former days when he looked in the mirror and could not love anybody. He looked in the mirror and said, “What is wrong with me? Why do you not have love that you see in other people? Why can’t I love Amy the way I should? Why can’t I love the kids with the depth of love? Why?” That is what brought Bob to the end of himself. It was not his drinking, but his inability to love. Bob told Amy, “I love you as much as I can love any human being, and it is not very much.” He was being honest. Bob did not think anything wrong with Amy but rather something wrong with him. Bob said he could not be the kind of man he wants to be, and not just who God wanted him to be.
It was July, 1969 when Bob came to Jesus. Bob testifies of a change in him. He changed from a man who never cried to a man with a sensitivity and love for others. God gave him something new he never had before. He now has a consideration for other people. He testified of having a heart tenderized that now knows how to cry. For those who never met Bob George, on the Bob George Ministries web page, there are numerous articles on the lives touched by the love of God as Bob made himself available to God, letting the life of Christ be produced in him and through him.
Ezekiel 36:26
I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.
John 6:37-38
37 All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away.
38 For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me.
What is the will of the Father? The will of him who sent me.
Who are those? Those humbled by the circumstances of life, willing to listen.
John 6:65
65 He went on to say, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled them.”
Prior to that time just going through the motions.
What humbles us? Our failures. I cannot be the kind of man I want to be. That humbles you.
John 6:37-38
37 All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away.
38 For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me.
That was true to the very end of his life.
Luke 22:42-43
42 “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.”
43 An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him.
44 And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.
John 6:39
39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day.
So the will of the Father is to lose none of those who the Father gave to Jesus.
Who are they? The humble.
What does that tell us about our salvation? This is the will of the Father. Jesus is saying, “This is the will of God who sent me to earth. When you come to me by faith, I will lose none of you and I will raise them up at the last day.”
John 6:40
40 For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.”
Notice that Jesus said, “at the last day”. He did not say, “in the last day” for that would be the end times. He said, “at the last day”. When is your last day? The day you die. Our brother Wayne died. We saw the dead body, but he was not here. Where was he? With the Father for God raised him up at the last day.
John 6:40b
and believes in him shall have eternal life
He did not say and is baptized, joined the church, and lived a good life will have eternal life. He did not say speaks in tongues and performs miracles will have eternal life.
He said that everyone who simply looks to the Son and believes, puts his faith, in him shall have eternal life.
What did Jesus come to do? He came to take away the sins of the entire world at the cross and to be raised again from the dead to give life to you and me, life eternal.
John 6:41
41 At this the Jews there began to grumble about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.”
What kind of heart did that message fall on? A proud heart that says, “You are not talking my religion. This is not what my religion teaches. I want something else.
I am following my traditions. I am following my interpretation of the bible. You are coming and saying my interpretation is wrong and that just goes against my pride.”
So they grumble again. They were grumbling because he was saying he is the bread that came down from heaven. But what they are really grumbling about is when he said that when you believe in me you will have eternal life. We always go to another realm instead of getting to the root of what our problem is.
John 6:42
42 They said, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother that we know? How can he say, ‘I came down from heaven’?”
This is Joseph and Mary’s little boy? How can he say that?
John 6:43-44
43 “Stop grumbling among yourselves,” Jesus answered.
44 “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day.
Who does the Father give to Jesus? The humble.
Who does the Father draw to Jesus? The humble and he knows who the humble are. He draws the humble to Jesus.
And he says he will raise them up at the last day.
John 6:45
45 It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard the Father and learned from him comes to me.
This is another thing. How are you going to come to Jesus? Listening to the Father. How many of you have ever heard God speak? Is his voice like Bob Davis? How many ever heard God speak out loud? How many of you hear God? God does not use audible tongues. He speaks in our heart, with impressions on our hearts and on our minds.
Jesus said, ‘They will all be taught by God.’
How does God teach us? In may ways. If you did not know the Lord and went to Bob’s daughters’ house, you would have seen her tiny dog with six puppies. How many of you have seen puppies born or a human born? How can you look at that and not know there is a God? They do not even have their eyes open yet the puppies know where the milk bar is. No one has to tell them where the milk bar is. They all know how to go to the milk bar. If one is on the milk bar, they get knocked off. Who told them that? Is this instinct? Or is this God? The something that leads puppies to the milk bar is the same thing that is in you that leads you to the path of righteousness. To the animal kingdom we call it instinct and to the born again we call it God.
John 6:44
44 “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day
Is that one way to be taught by God? You go out and look at nature and know that there is a God. Bob was at an evangelism conference and the question that is inevitably asked is, “What about the heaven in Africa?” There was man named Joshua from Africa present at the conference. Bob asked Joshua, “What about the heathen in Africa?” Joshua shared his story. “We used to worship around a carved idol. I know who made the idol. My dad carved the idol. I looked up into the sky and asked, but who made this tree? I knew God did not make the idol. My dad did. But who made the tree? So I went up on a hill, crying out to God, who made the tree? A missionary came to my village. The missionary told me about Jesus. Then I went and told my mom and dad and they believed. Before long the whole village came to Christ. Now I have come to America to tell them there is a God, and his name is Jesus.”
How are you taught of God? By nature, looking at a puppy being born, a child being born and to know that could not happen without God. If there is a God, then what kind of God would it be that did not want us to know him? God desired so much for us to know Him that He sent His only begotten son to come to this earth to take upon our humanity so we have someone to identify. We cannot identify with Spirit. We cannot see a Spirit. So God became a man and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth, and showed us how to be saved. To be saved from what? Death. How are you saved from death? By life. Whose life is available to us? Only Jesus. Buddha cannot give you life. Mohamed cannot give you life. The pope cannot give you life. Billy Graham cannot give you life. The apostle Paul could not give you life. Men, who are born again, can only led you to the one who can, and his name is Jesus. He died on a cross to take away sins forever and was raised again from the dead to live forever, and lives to give you life.
Do you want life? Are you still an unbeliever? If you are still an unbeliever, then your problem is pride. Your pride can be taken away by realizing that you cannot give yourself life, that you cannot take away your sins. You are ready for Jesus. If that is the case, then your coming to Christ is as close as a prayer. A prayer does not save you but is an expression of your belief in the only one who can, Jesus. To be able to say in your heart that you cannot be the man or woman that you know you should be. You tried and you cannot be that kind of person. The reason is because you are spiritually dead. That is why your prayers are bouncing off the ceiling. If that is true, and you believe it is, then you ask Jesus to come into your heart to give you life, taking away your sins forever, to have a life that can never be destroyed. If you have done that, you can thank God for that right now, for the fact that Jesus Christ now lives in you and is dedicated to guiding you from this day forth into all truth. That truth will set you free.
John 14:6
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
John 17:26
I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”
John 16:15
All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.”
John 16:13
13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.
So much Jesus said. Let us listen to him and learn of him. So much he wants to reveal to us so that the love he had with Father is in us, and will be made known to others, as we let him.
Let us pray. Thank you for your word that penetrates our hearts, illumines our minds, and excites us. It almost makes us wish we could be there in person to have observed you yet knowing you is so real to us today as if we had been there. We thank you for the presence of the Holy Spirit in us. Teach us always that we have nothing to fear. We do not need to live in the Spirit of fear. If we seek you first, being who we are in you, then you will add all things. We can observe you first. We do not have to worry with additives for that is your job. In life or death, we are in your presence. We thank you for al all things in Jesus name and for His precious sake.
Matthew 6:33
33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
