The Drawing Work of God

By Bobby Blakey on November 15, 2015

John 6:41-59

AUDIO

The Drawing Work of God

By Bobby Blakey on November 15, 2015

John 6:41-59

This is a rush transcript.

[00:00:02] I love being the pastor of this church. If you couldn't tell from those baptisms, being the pastor here is like having a front row seat watching God save people. And it's an awesome thing to see. One of the other perks of being the pastor is I get to see people get married. Anybody here like going to weddings? Anybody, anybody like that? Well, if you are a pastor, you would love going to work at weddings because you've got the best seat in the house right there. And we just did a wedding last Saturday here at the church. And it's great to see everybody get all dressed up and there's flowers and there's lights and everybody feels a little nervous. Romance is in the air, you know. I mean, every wedding I go to, I just think of Jane Austen sitting out there smiling. I get into romance. I don't know if you guys get into romance, but we actually did our very first wedding. This was exciting for me. At least we did. We did a wedding in my office yesterday afternoon here at the church. I think we have a picture. There it is. You got the flowers on the ground, the arch. Even Ryan Pierce shows up with a guitar. That's just a beautiful thing, you know? And so people got married right here yesterday afternoon. They were like, we need to do this. And we were able to do it and praise the Lord to see him take two people and make them one flesh.

[00:01:23] The Bible says, and what a powerful moment that is when you get to be able to say you are no longer two, but one, you're now husband and wife and now you may kiss your bride. It's an awesome thing. We know that from that moment forward that their life is going to be different as they have been united as one flesh. And so if you've been married for any amount of time, hopefully, you know the day of your anniversary, hopefully you can think of that right now and maybe even put a year on it as to how many years you've been married, because usually when you when you think about being married, it goes back to that day. But the point we want to make this morning is it started long before that day. Like no one ever decided. All of a sudden out of nowhere, I'm going to get married today to somebody I don't even know. Right. No. You meet them and you're attracted to them. And there's something really interesting about them and you get to know them.

[00:02:23] And a lot of times people are even in a relationship of getting to know each other and even loving each other for years before they ever actually walk down an aisle and say, I do. In front of a witness is right for better, for worse, for sickness and in health before we get to that moment of holy matrimony. Right.

[00:02:44] Well, there's a lot that draws us to that moment.

[00:02:49] So there's a moment that happens for every one of us where we get united in Christ, where we die with Christ, if you're a Christian, you die with Christ. And then you rise again. And from that moment forward, the moment of salvation. You walk in new life for the rest of your life for eternity. You're changed from that moment forward. But if we're honest and we think about it, there's a lot that happens to draw us to that moment where we put our faith in Jesus Christ.

[00:03:15] This drawing work of God. A lot of people don't talk about it, but it's what we're going to see in John Chapter six today. So I hope you'll grab your Bible. And I hope you'll turn with me to John Chapter six. And let's dove in and maybe think about a part of our salvation that often gets overlooked. What happens before salvation?

[00:03:36] He like what's happening here, what we heard this morning, the testimony is we got people saying, well, I thought I was a Christian. And then later I realized I wasn't a Christian. And I really put my faith in Christ and I got saved. And since then, man, there's been a change in my life that clearly wasn't there before. And I get to see those moments happen sometimes, like, I got to see that happen. And just a powerful way with my friend Chase. And I get to see God really getting somebodies attention and and turning them around like that. But the truth is that that work of God started before he ever heard that sermon on that one day.

[00:04:15] So God was drawing him, is how it says it in our text.

[00:04:20] And a lot of times people, when they're thinking through, whether they're saved or not, one of the big things that I hear is I feel like God was working in my life before today, so I must be saved. A lot of people. That's their hang up. It's like, why hear what you're saying? Maybe I'm not saved. And I sometimes I wonder if I'm really for sure going to heaven or not. This is something I think about. But I know God's been doing some work on me, so I must be saved. Well, we're gonna learn this morning very clearly is that God does a lot of work on us before we ever get to the place of salvation. Read it with me, John. Chapter six. We're in the middle here of a conversation that Jesus is having with a bunch of a crowd here in Galilee. He's fed them in a miraculous way. Well, we talked about this last week. This feeding of the 5000 where he starts breaking bread and he starts handing it out and it ends up feeding just thousands of people in a miraculous way. And so then this crowd is following him around and he makes an analogy. I'm the bread of life. But now we see some people are having a hard time with what Jesus is saying. Rita, with me we're gonna read today, John, six, verse 41, all the way to verse 59.

[00:05:32] Follow along with me. The Jews grumbled about him because he said, I am the bread that came down from heaven. They said, is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know. How does he now say, I've come down from heaven? Jesus answered them. Do not grumble among yourselves. No one can come to me and less. The father who sent me draws him and I will raise him up on the last day.

[00:06:02] It is written in the prophets, and they will all be taught by God. Everyone who has heard and learned from the father comes to me.

[00:06:13] Not that anyone has seen the father, except he was from God. He has seen the father. That's Jesus referring to himself. Truly, truly. I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your father's eight, the man in the wilderness, and they died.

[00:06:30] But this is the bread that comes down from heaven. So that one may eat of it and not die.

[00:06:36] I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.

[00:06:51] The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat? So Jesus said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you. And unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood. You have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and shrinks my blood has eternal life.

[00:07:15] And I will raise him up on the last day for my flesh, his true food and my blood is true. Drink, whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks, my blood abides in me and I in him as a living father sent me. And I live because of the father. So whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Not like the bread. The father's eight and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever. Now, Jesus said these things in the synagogue as he taught at Capernaum. So just tracking with the whole story here and John six, we've miraculously fed all of these people with just one little boy's lunch or meal. We've all of a sudden fed thousands of people in a miraculous way. The crowd is so stirred up they follow Jesus across the Sea of Galilee to Capernaum and he has announced to them, I am the bread of life, saying really what you need is not a free meal. You don't need me to be king and save you now. No, you need me for this eternal kind of life. He he keeps talking about. You need to believe in me so that you will live forever, Jesus says. Well, it turns out that people were having a hard time with that message. And this is a really interesting text that we're looking at this morning, because you'll notice the Jews grumbled about him, right? Looking back at verse 41, there's there's two kind of objections of the Jews here. And then Jesus gives two responses. And the Jews grumbled about him. And they kind of said to each other, you get the impression that they're not saying it so much. Maybe they are saying it to him here and they're saying it's not this Jesus kind of weird to refer to Jesus played by Jesus, I guess, but Jesus answered them. So it's not clear if they're speaking to Jesus there or not. They're clearly complaining about him, grumbling about him. But look back at verse fifty two. It makes it clear that the Jews then disputed among themselves.

[00:09:16] Just like the Jews are over here having a conversation, complaining, critiquing, nit picking the things that Jesus says and he is speaking in such a way to answer their objections.

[00:09:28] All right.

[00:09:29] And this is going back to this is what happened in the Old Testament where when God was delivering his people out of Egypt, leading them into the promised land. He was feeding them with bread from heaven. That was called manna. And the people started to complain.

[00:09:46] They started to grumble.

[00:09:48] This is, unfortunately, has been the history of not only the Jewish people. This has been the history of basically all people that we are often dissatisfied with what we find from God. It's not exactly what we wanted from God. And we complain maybe sometimes we complain to him, but sometimes we just complain to one another or maybe even to ourselves. And yet here we find Jesus answering those complaints, whether they were directed to him or not.

[00:10:14] And the first complaint is they don't like the idea of Jesus coming down from heaven, that he's the bread from heaven.

[00:10:21] And so they start to basically say, and we're gonna get into this even as we get closer to Christmas, we're gonna see that there's a lot of objection. Hey, we know where Jesus was grown up. We know his mom. We know his dad like he's one of us.

[00:10:35] And now all of a sudden, he's going to claim that he came from heaven, like, hold on, we know who you are. You're nobody's special. Your Josef's boy, your marriage kid.

[00:10:45] You grew up in Nazareth like we know you Jesus say a lot of that thought.

[00:10:51] And Jesus he jumps right to verse 44 is a very powerful verse that we want to zero in on this morning where he says this, The reason you guys aren't getting this here is no one can come to me.

[00:11:03] The only way Jesus is saying to learn the truth about who I am, to really believe that I am God, that I am the Messiah, the Christ, the anointed one who came from God to save man. The only way to really come to me, to really know who I am, no one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him.

[00:11:25] And then I will raise him up on the last day. This is what we want to zero in on.

[00:11:31] This is something that unfortunately, even growing up in the church and being really familiar with doctrine and Bible teaching, this is something I feel like I haven't heard enough about. And I wonder how well we fully understand that when we're alive before we come to a place of putting our faith in Jesus and coming to Jesus and believing in him, God has to draw us to even believe in Jesus Christ, like God starts working on us way before the day we get united with Jesus way before the day we say I do too Jesus. We're already starting to figure out who he is to get to know him and to fall in love with him a little bit. Now this work draws a pretty ordinary word. It's a word in John A. 18. A couple of cross references. If you are taking notes here this morning and you want to do a little word study here while in John 1810 it talks about Peter drawing a sword.

[00:12:23] We're all very familiar with that, pulling the idea of a sword out and got swords in some kind of a sheath. And you pull it out and you say on guard, maybe it's a light saber, maybe maybe you're fighting with your kid. We all are familiar with the idea.

[00:12:36] You draw a sword, you draw a gun in John 21 eight. The disciples are catching a bunch of fish in the fissure in the net and they're drawing the net. This same Greek word here, they're the fish are already in the net and they're pulling the fish towards the boat to bring the fish in. That's the same word here. The week we get the idea. I'm drawing something in. Well, the reason we believe in Jesus. The reason we come to him is God has been drawing us.

[00:13:09] So, God.

[00:13:10] Did God start working on you? Did you have some kind of relationship with God, some kind of awareness of God even before you were placed into Christ, where you died with him and rose again? Yes, because God drew you to even believe in Jesus. Anybody want to say Amen right now? This is this is totally something that he did.

[00:13:29] That's why he gets all the glory of God.

[00:13:33] Even if you're maybe not saved here this morning and you've never really come to Jesus and put your faith in him, God could already be doing his work on you right now. And you're already in the net and you don't even know it. And he's pulling you in even through maybe being here this morning. God's pulling people in.

[00:13:51] It's awesome when you start to think about it.

[00:13:53] So it's a doctrine. Let's put it down like this. This isn't point one, but above point one. Let's write this. This is a doctrine. It's the effectual call. That's what we refer to it in in the study of salvation. Can we know that in theology, there's lots of different other ologies as we study who God is? That's theology, the study of God. Well, one of the specific areas you can study in the study of God is called So Teria ology, and that's the study of salvation. So as we study the process of how God actually saves people, one aspect of how God saves people, that kind of gets a mention in the theology book but really isn't talked about that much. Is this idea of the effectual call that God is calling you. He's drawing you. He's leading you to even put your faith in Jesus Christ.

[00:14:45] Now, one thing we've talked about and we've praised God for here at our church is the patience of God. You can write that down. And second, Peter. Chapter three, verse nine. We did a whole sermon on this one day. Maybe some of you guys were here and you remember that, that God is long suffering and says God's got a very long Fuze, that he is patient because he doesn't want people to be judged.

[00:15:08] He doesn't want people to perish in their sin and face the consequences of their of their actions. No, God is patient and he is delaying judgment. He's withholding punishment for sin because he wants people to repent of sin.

[00:15:23] And so God gives people time. God is patient. That's one thing that we have praised God for here at this church. And I still hear people talking about how patient God was to put up with their sin and not to judge them before he saved them. And we want to keep praising the Lord for that. And really what we're talking about there is mercy. Mercy is when God doesn't give us what we deserve, we deserve some kind of punishment for our sin. Our sin has to be made right. But God withholds that. He doesn't give that to us right away. So we praise God for his patients. But God's not just withholding judgment.

[00:16:02] He's doing even more to you.

[00:16:03] He's not only is he not judging you mercy, but he's giving you something, too. There's a grace that's involved. Go to Romans, Chapter two. It's just a few pages over to your right here in your in your Bible Romans chapter to look with me. It's on page nine hundred and forty. And I want everybody to see this very carefully that God is giving all people grace. Not only that, he gives them life and doesn't judge them. We call that a common grace. But there's a look at the grace that's mentioned here, look at verse four. This is hopefully a verse you've heard before, a very encouraging verse in the Bible to remind us of the goodness of God in all of our lives.

[00:16:43] Man, you even before you're a Christian, you can definitely affirm that God has been good to you. Everybody here, everybody has something to be thankful for on Thanksgiving, even if they haven't put their faith in Jesus. Well, God is good to all. And that's what it's trying to say here. Romans two four. Do you presume on the riches of his kindness? Are you taking for granted the grace of God? Do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, which we were just talking about, that he's letting people live? That he's not judging people. That he's giving them a life.

[00:17:17] But then here's a key phrase. Look at this. Not knowing. Here's what a lot of people don't know, that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance.

[00:17:29] So not only is God withholding judgment on people who aren't saved so they eventually can be saved, but he's actually being good to them in such a way that he's leading them down a path so they will turn from their sin. There's a work that God is doing this drawing work. He knows he's gonna save this person. They're already in the net and he's starting to pull them towards the boat, so to speak. He's starting to bring you in. And one way he's doing that is he's starting to show you that he's good is what he's starting to show you. He's starting to help you realize that the reason you're alive and the reason you made it through that rough time or the reason you ended up with this job, that all of these things aren't just coincidences that are happening to you, but there are the goodness of God clearly seen in your life. And I think what he's doing is even more specific than just being generally good to all people. No, I think he's being specifically good to the people that he's causing to repent. Go back to John Chapter six. So the kindness there leads you to repentance. Let's get more specific. Go back to John Chapter six, and you'll see here with me that after it says, well, no one can come to me unless God draws him. OK, we get that idea. Well, what is that drawing look like? Look at verse 45, John, six, 45. Here's Jesus now expounding on a passage from the Old Testament. It is written in the prophets. And here it is. They will all be taught by God. Everyone who has heard and learned from the father, Jesus says, comes to me. So what is this goodness? This drawing, this kindness that's leading people to repentance. Well, here this is a quote from Isaiah 54, verse 13. And it's really interesting. If you look at John six and you start to look at Isaiah 55 and 54 and 53, it almost feels like Jesus is speaking. Starting in 55 and going backwards through Isaiah to passage Chapter 53, he's kind of expounding on that text. And here he quotes Isaiah 54 13 that here's something that God does to draw you as he starts to teach you. Before you fully get it, before your eyes are opened and that you get a new heart and the Holy Spirit comes to live inside of you and you have a new life. See, you just start to get little glimpses. You just start to understand that it's not about following rules. Sorry. It's not about seeking satisfaction in this life. No, you're you're a sinner. And it's about God. And you start to put things in there. Right. Understanding in your mind as God teaches you. So what is this goodness that leads you to repentance? Looks like it looks like starting to understand the scriptures starting to be taught by the Holy Spirit even before you've maybe ever learned how to do a Bible study. The Spirit is starting to come after you and he's starting to teach you. There's certain things you have to understand to be saved. And the spirit starts to work on you about the. Now, when we get to John, 13, 14, 15 and 16, that is the clearest explanation of the Holy Spirit that you are going to read in the entire scripture. So there's a lot of confusion about the Holy Spirit in the church today, which is so unfortunate and unnecessary, because if you just read, John, 13 to 16, it makes it very clear what the Holy Spirit is going to do. Jesus says it's to your advantage. Check this out. Jesus says it's a good thing. I'm leaving, guys, because then the Holy Spirit is going to come.

[00:21:10] Was everybody really thought that through? Because I'm pretty sure these chairs over here won't be empty if Jesus was here this morning. You know what I'm saying? Mike, I'm pretty sure lunch would get a lot less complicated if Jesus was here this morning. A lot of benefits. They haven't Jesus in the flesh with you.

[00:21:29] But he says it's actually better because wait till you see what the Holy Spirit is going to do. Turn with me ahead to John 16. And let's get straight to some of this, because let's be honest, it's going to be a long time before ever we ever really get your sauterne with me.

[00:21:43] The John Chapter 16. And let's just get this preview. Well, OK, so we're going to be taught by God. Well, what does that look like? Jesus is going to make it really clear what it looks like. We're in these chapters where he teaches the disciples on the night before he dies. And John gives us such a thorough accounting of this teaching of Christ, the last teaching that he leaves his disciples with and pick up with me and John, 16, verse seven.

[00:22:12] It says, Nevertheless, I tell you the truth.

[00:22:15] OK. Now, remember, we've been and we've been seeing that all through the gospel. When Jesus says something like truly, truly, I say to you or I tell you the truth. What that means is he's about to tell you something that you're going to have a hard time believing and he already knows you won't really believe it. That's why he's front loading with what I'm about to tell you is real.

[00:22:35] So nevertheless, I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away. I guarantee the disciples didn't think it was going to be better for Jesus to be gone. But he says, believe it. It's true.

[00:22:47] For if I do not go away, the helper with a capital H here, the Holy Spirit will not come to you.

[00:22:54] But if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes this Holy Spirit, he will convict the Christians concerning sin and righteousness and judgment. Is that what it said right there? Who is he convicting? Everybody shout it out. Was he convicted? All kinds of people. Kinds of people, people before they're saved, when God is drawing them, when God is going to start teaching them who they are in their sin, who he is and his holiness and who they need, Jesus and salvation. Well, the Holy Spirit comes to do this work of conviction.

[00:23:31] It says. His work of convincing this work of compelling people.

[00:23:39] Well, and here's the big problem. He's going to convict them verse nine concerning sin because they do not believe in me. So here's how the Holy Spirit works. He convinces you that you are a sinner and that the only possible explanation for the problem of your sin is Jesus Christ. And so you must come to him and believe in him. So there's a process. Maybe this happened. You don't even realize it. And it's not till this morning that you're going to fully understand what took place. Or maybe you're going to realize, as we're talking this morning, that this is what is happening to you right now, that the Holy Spirit is starting to convict you of the fact that you do have sin, that you have fallen short of the glory of God, and that you need Jesus Christ, his righteousness, or you will face judgment.

[00:24:28] Our conviction we don't often associate as a positive good. Kind of like kind thing.

[00:24:35] You know what I mean? Oh, man. How's your day going? Oh, my day is going so good. Really? Why is your day going good? I had a good friend this morning. I had breakfast with and he just rebuked me to my face. I felt felt like a warm shower on a cold day. Oh man. I need I you know what? Even I was getting tired of myself. I needed that so bad. And praise God that this brother right here, that he loves me so much to tell me the truth about myself because it ain't pretty sometimes. You know, and I love it when I get rebuked in the morning. What a good day this is. Wish, wish somebody could just slap me in the face with the Bible every morning. Feels so good later on. You know.

[00:25:23] That's not typically how we think. But the truth is, talked to people who've been Christians for a while who go to churches like this, where where we try to teach the Bible every Sunday and they start getting a little crazy. Have you noticed the people around here?

[00:25:36] They're not normal. Hey, how is church this morning? Oh, man. I got convicted so bad. It was awesome. It was so good. It cut me so deep. I felt like out of all the people in the room, you were talking straight to me. It was like you knew what I was thinking. When I walked in the room and you just cut me open. Praise the Lord. I'll be back. Now, this is the kind of awkward conversations I have with people like I didn't even see you were in the crowd. How could I know I was talking straight to you. Like I was just saying what the Bible says. But the Holy Spirit, he starts to teach you who you are.

[00:26:19] He starts to show your sin. And here's why. Sometimes we talk about sin, which some people try to avoid talking about, but we don't seem to have a problem talking about or here. Some reason is because we are taught by the Holy Spirit that the answer to sin is Jesus Christ. And so we don't mind hearing about sin because we know the point of sin. The spirit convicted us about it, about our sin. And then he led us to righteousness. And the righteousness didn't come from us. The righteousness came from Jesus. And so we love the sweet sting of conviction. Because it makes me love Jesus even more and shows me more how I need to rely on him. And ultimately that's what even led me to Jesus was me feeling really bad about my sin is what led to any eternal salvation of joy and peace and relationship and ultimate fulfillment in Jesus Christ. See, the Holy Spirit comes in and teaches and it's a kindness and it's drawing us to eternal life. But what does it feel like? Oh, it feels like maybe a stab is what it feels like.

[00:27:24] When you get taught about yourself for the first time, doesn't feel good.

[00:27:29] I mean, it's happy when we're getting baptized. It's a round of applause and a big ole hallelujah, let's praise the Lord. But when you're sitting in your seat and you're wondering if you're going to hell or not, there's nothing pleasant about it.

[00:27:42] It's not comfortable.

[00:27:43] It's not something you would necessarily sign up for. And it's the best thing that ever happened to you. Can I get name in from anybody on it? It's being taught by God. It's this drawing work of God.

[00:27:55] And you want to talk about drawing a sword out. That's what the that's what the Bible claims to be.

[00:28:01] It claims to be a living and active word that the Holy Spirit, who inspired this book, is still speaking through it. He's still using it. And here's what he does. Is he cut so deep into you?

[00:28:14] This conviction that we're talking about here this morning, it exposes things about yourself that you didn't even know about yourself, that you weren't even fully aware of. Maybe you knew it a little bit. But all of a sudden, when you look in this book, you see yourself better than you ever have in any mere.

[00:28:33] And you taught, you're taught. You're being drawn right there.

[00:28:38] And eventually when you realize where that stinging feel of of being stabbed, see why this is a church. We really love you here at this church. We don't backstab you here.

[00:28:48] We stab you right in the front. That's what we do. They stab you right in the front with a big old smile, like, here's the kindness of God leading you to repentance. This is going to be the best thing that ever happened to you, you miserable cesspool of wickedness. Have a great day. See you next Sunday. I mean, this is this is how it is. I have people say to me, stuff like me in your sermon messed me up last week. Immediately I feel bad, like I am not here to mess people up. Now the Holy Spirit messes people up.

[00:29:25] It can fix them. He's teaching the.

[00:29:30] He's drawing them, keep reading the passage with me here. It says, concerning righteousness, because I go to the father and you will see me no longer concerning judgment because the ruler of this world is judged.

[00:29:42] And I still have many things to say to you. But you cannot bear them now. So in the spirit of truth comes, and that's a good way we should refer to him.

[00:29:51] The helper, the spirit of Truth. These are other good names that Jesus gives us for the Holy Spirit. When the spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, say.

[00:30:05] He'll lead you with that kindness. He'll draw you to Jesus. He will guide you into all the truth.

[00:30:12] He will not speak on his own authority. No. Whatever he hears, he will speak. The father has sent the son and the son then sends the spirit. And the spirit is the way that the father draws you to the son.

[00:30:28] It's an amazing thing to see all three members of the Trinity and the role.

[00:30:32] Yes, you have. They have a relationship with you. They are working on you. Now, your relationship changes because when you place your faith in Christ at the moment of your salvation. Now the spirit goes from convicting you on the outside to indwelling you, now on the inside. And now he's not just convicting you about your sin. Now he's actually causing you to obey Jesus instead. So you definitely your relationship with God is so different at the moment of your salvation. We could say it's like a brand new thing. You didn't really have that kind of relationship with him before. But make no mistake, God has worked on every one of us before we ever put our faith in Jesus Christ.

[00:31:09] He drew us and maybe we never have even fully given him the glory for his effectual call in our lives. And maybe today we even need to realize that the reason I started going to church and kind of reading the Bible and kind of understanding God, but not really being that into it for a while was because God was the one pulling me to him through that work of the Holy Spirit. And it was only bits and pieces that I put together until one day my eyes were opened and I really saw who Jesus was. But praise God for the work that he did to draw me God.

[00:31:43] Joel, Chapter two and years a prophecy. This is in the Old Testament. Now, turn, turn with me back to the left here in our Bible, Joel, Chapter two, it's on page 762. If you got one of our Bibles. And Joel, Chapter two. Here is a prophecy that's quoted and acts to about the coming of the Holy Spirit. And and maybe you're familiar with this idea that when the Holy Spirit is going to come, it's going to kind of be a great thing. There's gonna be some new things about how things are gonna work after Christ comes. He sends the spirit a good Joel to 28 year the prophecy.

[00:32:21] But the Lord will pour out his spirit and it shall come to pass afterword that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh so everybody might get a taste of this conviction.

[00:32:33] Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. Your old man shall dream dreams. Your young men shall see visions even on the male and female servants.

[00:32:40] In those days I will pour out my spirit, everybody, the spirits coming out to convict the world and I will show wonders in the heavens. Now this is talking about things that might even be at future. I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth. Blood and fire and columns of smoke.

[00:32:54] The sun shall be turned to darkness, the moon to blood before the great and awesome day of the Lord that is still yet to come. A day of great judgment is coming, and it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. That's a very commonly repeated phrase. If you call in the name of Jesus, you shall be saved.

[00:33:12] But look what it says here at the end of verse thirty two four in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem. There shall be those who escape this day of judgment that's coming in the future, as the Lord has said. And among the survivors shall be those whom the Lord calls.

[00:33:29] Let's just make this straight here at our church and let's have this be something that we give God the glory for from this day forward that before anybody here called on the name of Jesus, God was calling you. That's how you got there. Everyone who calls on the name of Lord will be saved. You could call in the name of the Lord and you could be saved today. But what you will realize if you don't realize it before, you will realize it after that God was the one calling you.

[00:33:55] And I just got to say right now, if God is calling you here this morning, please answer that call. What are you waiting for? Callback.

[00:34:06] Call on the name of Jesus if you're here this morning and you're convicted about your sin. And you know that Jesus is the answer and there's a quality of life, a kind of life, a turning from sin, a new life in Jesus that you've never had before.

[00:34:22] Man, today is the day to answer the call and to call on the name of the Lord and be save. Now go back to John Chapter six, because Jesus is explaining this and he say annual, you've got to be drawn to me.

[00:34:34] And that looks like being taught by God. And everyone who gets this taught. This teaching from God. They're the ones who come to me and then they believe in me. And then they understand that I'm the bread of life. And. And then he goes even further in verse 51. Now he says something. You said that he came down from heaven. The Jews didn't like that. So he answered that.

[00:34:56] Well, the reason you don't get that is because God has to draw you. He has to call you. God has to teach you who I am. That's you're not going to believe in Jesus unless God calls you to come and see who he is. But then he says this in verse 51, I am the living bread that came down from heaven. OK, we got that part.

[00:35:13] If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread. Let's take it to another level of analogy now here. The bread that I will give for the life of the world is my full. So I said something that the Jews didn't like. Jesus said something that the Jews didn't like, that he came from heaven, but now he says something that they really don't like. The second thing they don't like is that he's the bread specifically that he's going to give for their life is his flesh. Now, you can imagine that's just a weird thing for someone to say, OK, I'm going to give my my flash for you to have life. Now to us. We understand that. I mean, we we we have even a symbol of that that we're familiar with here at the church. We're gonna celebrate it next week. When we talk about Grace giving, we're gonna take time of communion to give thanks to Jesus Christ. And we understand the two elements of communion are that we have the bread that represents the flesh, the body of Jesus. And we have the cup that represents the blood of Jesus. But this is before he's died. So he's now starting to refer to his death that he's going to give his flesh and then and everybody's gonna trip out on it like a verse 52. They start to dispute among themselves, how can you give us his flesh to eat? What are we talking about here? Cannibalism. What it what is he trying to say here? I don't understand this. It's just a very difficult concept. Remember earlier in the chapter they wanted to make Jesus King. They wanted Jesus to keep giving them more free meals. And now if you really understand what he's saying, which maybe they didn't even understand it because the Holy Spirit wasn't teaching them about it. Well, now, if you really understand what he's saying, he's saying he's going to die. Like, we want to make him king. Who's gonna reign forever? And he's saying he's going to die. And he makes it even more explicit. Look. Look at verse 53. So Jesus said to them, truly, truly, I say to you. You're not going to believe me. But let me tell you anyways. That's basically what he means. Unless you eat the flesh of the son of man. That's a way that Jesus referred to himself a title of his God, this deity, unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood. You have no life. And you will way to just make it awkward. Jesus, you know what I'm saying? I mean, way to just push it past everybody's level of comfortability. One thing you're saying, you're gonna give your flesh for us, but now you're saying we got to eat your flesh and now you're saying we got to drink your blood. I mean, clearly, the idea of blood here is bringing up this idea of him dying of this violent, terrible form of really torture, then execution called crucifixion. This idea of dying on a cross where you literally watch somebodies blood just drip down onto the ground, forming a pool beneath them. And Jesus saying, unless this death that I'm going to do, which the people here are having a hard time understanding, and really whenever Jesus introduced the idea that he was going to die to anyone, even to his close disciples in Matthew 16, even to Peter, when he suggests that he's going to die, that he's going to suffer and rise on the third day. What does Peter say right away? No, no, you're not going to die. And what is Jesus say to him? Get behind me.

[00:38:33] They say no one really grasped the idea initially that the savior of the world, the Messiah, the Christ, the anointed one, would die.

[00:38:43] See everybody that rubbed them the wrong way the first time they heard. They couldn't track with that thought.

[00:38:49] And Jesus is saying, I'm going to offer my life.

[00:38:53] I'm mean, offer it through my flesh and through my blood in a very literal way, and you are going to have to take my life. And it's going to have to become your life. That's what he's saying. I mean, just look at how all the different ways he says it here, verse 54. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood. Then you get the eternal life and then I'll raise you up on the last day because my flesh is the true flute food. My blood is the true drink. So you've got to feed my on my flesh. And you've got to drink my blood. And then here's the key phrase we started to get into last week a little bit. You abide in me and I and him.

[00:39:31] Once you really take my life and you ingest it and you make it your own and you and you come to me with your hungry soul and you come to me and you and you're thirsty, wanting to leave your life of sin and really find some kind of satisfaction. See, when you take my life and you ingest it, then we start a whole new level of relationship where then I'm in you and you're in me, say.

[00:39:56] This is another doctrine. Let's get this down here. Above point number two, we haven't given you point number one yet, but we're going to get to the doctrine of point number two. I know it's tricky here today, but bear bear with me.

[00:40:06] Union with Christ. This is another key aspect of so too Realogy, the study of how God saves us. And the Bible. Really, this could be the most powerful idea about salvation in the entire Bible is that you go from your own life out here, a life of sin that's going to be judged to you. Go now. You get placed into Christ. And it's so great. We're studying this passage on a day where we have baptisms because we've seen the symbol. They got cleansed from their old life of sin and they came back up to a brand new life. That's what Jesus is getting to hear.

[00:40:43] You see, when you take my life and it becomes your life, see, then you're in me and I'm in you. And now we have this union. Now you have a new identity. It's this beautiful thing that Jesus is talking about. That really, from that moment forward, we're no longer two, but one. That's what Jesus is saying. Like like you getting married to Jesus is what it's saying. A marriage is actually the analogy of what's going on between you and Jesus say. And so we get it. I fell in love with my wife before I said I do to her. See, when I was convicted about my sin and I started seeing the Jesus offered his flesh and his blood for my sin. I fell in love with Jesus. And then at one moment and I said, I do with Jesus. I said, I'm going to follow you. I'm only and I put my trust in you. I believe in you. And from that moment forward, it's not like there was Jesus in me. Now it's like it's us. And it's like I'm now in Christ and Christ is now in me.

[00:41:47] You could say it either way you want. Because that's how he says it. And as a living father sent me and I live because of the father, whoever feeds on me will live because of me. Jesus says. If you are a Christian here this morning, you are no longer your own, you are in Christ. The Bible is going to take it. The marriage analogy so far that it says someday there will be a wedding supper of the lamb where we will be the bride of Christ and we will worship him and praise him and give him the glory as his wife.

[00:42:25] The church collectively is referred to as the wife of Jesus that we are that united with him through being the First Corinthians chapter one. Now, maybe what I'm saying sounds crazy. And you're here this morning. And if it does sound crazy to you. Well, that's normal. And we expect what when Jesus said they eat my flesh, drink my blood.

[00:42:50] We understand a lot of people in John Chapter six took that as crazy talk, as hard to understand that difficult to comprehend and maybe even more difficult to accept. And when if you come back in a couple of weeks, when we pick up, where we gonna leave off? And John six, we're gonna see that many people fall away from Jesus at this point because it's hard to understand. And the Bible is very clear that not everybody is going to get it. God has to teach it to you. God has to draw you into it. The Holy Spirit has to convict you. It's a very difficult message for sinners like us to come to understand on our own.

[00:43:30] It won't even happen.

[00:43:31] And so they understanding First Corinthians, chapter one, verse 18. The word of the cross is Fali to those who are perishing. What I'm saying that Jesus offered his life for you and you have to take Jesus his life. And it has to become your life so that you bring Christ and he's in you. That's foolishness to the world.

[00:43:52] Gay people don't. This idea of Jesus dying for them on the cross and offering up his flesh and his blood. People don't accept that. They don't believe in that. It sounds uncomfortable. And they rejected his foolishness. But to us who are being saved. And this is everything. It's the power of God for it is written. I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and that a sermon of this discerning I will fought, in fact. Whereas the one who is wise show me the one who's going to figure this out for himself. God saying. Whereas the scribe, whereas the debater of this age has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world for since and the wisdom of God. The world did not know God. The world can't figure this out. God has to teach you who Jesus is. You don't figure it out for yourself. So it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe for Jews demand signs. Well, we've seen that's true in the Gospel of John. They always want Jesus to prove his power, to prove that he's God and the Greeks. They seek wisdom. They don't need signs.

[00:44:52] They'll figure it out by themselves, with their philosophy, with their science. They don't need God to show anything. No, we can figure it out for ourselves. Say the Jews want signs and the Greeks want wisdom. But we preach Christ crucified. This is what we have to offer you. The revelation that Jesus died for your sin and rose again is a stumbling block to the Jews, as we can see in our passage. It's folly to the Gentiles, as we can see by looking at the world around us who thinks we're crazy for what we're talking about here this morning. But to those who are called C, to those who are being drawn, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God for the foolishness of God is wise for the men.

[00:45:34] And the weakness of God is stronger than men. For consider your calling everybody here. If you're a Christian this morning, think how God called you brothers. And not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful. We don't have any former presidents going to our church here this morning. Not many were of noble birth. If you're a prince or a king, let me know. Or if you're some queen somewhere, I'd like to hear about it. But God chose what is foolish in the world to James the wise. When it reads foolish in the world, I would referred us to shame. The wise God choose what is weak in the world. US to shame the strong.

[00:46:08] God chose what is low and despised in the world. Even things that are not to bring to nothing. Things that are so that no human being might boast. In the presence of God. And because of him. Because of God and God alone. You are in Christ. Jesus.

[00:46:24] So it says.

[00:46:26] God has done a work, a gotcha in the net. He started drawing you in. And now he has placed you in to Christ. So it's like he called you and he brought you in. You didn't come because you were smart. You didn't become because you were strong. It wasn't like you figured it out one day. It wasn't like you follow the rules really well or you got your act together, you cleaned yourself up and then you came to Jesus.

[00:46:49] The only reason anybody comes to Jesus is God called you to Jesus and he placed you into Christ. So now you don't boasting yourself.

[00:47:00] No, you boasting Christ, you became to us wisdom from God. He became to us righteousness when we didn't have it because of our kin saying he became to us sanctification. Now we're set apart from sin. Now we're living a new life. Redemption by his blood. He purchased us so that as it is written. Let the one who boasts both in the Lord. So let us give the glory to God here today for our salvation and if anyone here is in Christ. Well, you are a new creation in your old life has gone. And your new life has come. And that's because God called you. And that's because God placed you into Christ. Anybody want to say, man here and give God the glory?

[00:47:38] And would be great for all of us to leave here today and to spend some time talking about, wow, man, let me rethink my life before I was saved. How can I see now looking back. The calling work of God. This is why we want everybody here to go to our fellowship groups.

[00:47:53] Let's dove into this.

[00:47:55] Let's let's make sure that we understand the effectual call of God in our life that led us to salvation. And none is let us make sure we understand the union we now have with Christ that I should never even think about my life as my own, just like a married spouse would be so offended if they heard their husband or their wife refer to themselves as single. How offended must Jesus be when Christian people act like they have their own problems apart from him?

[00:48:25] When we are now in Christ and Christ is now in us, in the life that we now live, we no longer live for ourselves, but we live by faith in Christ who lives through us, who gave himself for us, who died for us.

[00:48:39] And now we're over here still trying to live a single life. How does that work in your marriage when you operate solo?

[00:48:48] Well, it's going to work the same way in your Christian walk when you try to walk without always identifying yourself as united with Christ. Do you really understand these elements of your own salvation? God called you and that united you with Christ. So you should never identify yourself apart from Christ from that moment forward in any thought. It should not be anything but you and Christ and Christ in, you know, go to Romans 10.

[00:49:13] OK. Because this is something not only we want to look back on and identify in our own life, but this is something we want to see happen at this church where you are for a very specific purpose, which is to make disciples of Jesus in the Greater Huntington Beach, North Orange County area. Anybody still on that mission with me? That's that's why I moved up here was I want to see as many souls as possible drawn to Christ, and I want to see them united with Christ. And I wish every Sunday was a baptism Sunday here at CompassHB Bible Church because so many people are getting placed into Christ. We got to keep Duncan. I'm in water. Anybody with me on this day? This is what we're here to do. OK, but what we have to realize as we're here to do this is we're not going to do one little bit of it.

[00:49:57] All right? God's the one drawn people, in fact.

[00:50:00] So look at where that Paul goes in his thinking here in Romans. Chapter 10, verse one. He says, Brothers, my heart's desire and my prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. So what's the most powerful thing that I can do to help someone be saved?

[00:50:21] Well, when I realized that God has to call them and draw them and teach them and I can't do it. The main thing I should do for other people is I should pray for them. Okay, so a practical application of the doctrine of the effectual call going back up to point. No one here is I should pray for every Sunday. Let's get that down for point number one. I should pray for every Sunday. I should always be praying. Any time we're going to gather and we always gather on Sunday mornings, sometimes we gather on other special occasions. Anytime the word of God is going to be taught at our church, even a fellowship group, even a one on one meeting that you might have with someone, we should be praying that God will draw people. And we've got a group of men that have met. And every Sunday we've ever had this church and we have prayed together before this church. And when you listen to those prayers, when you're hoping that something is going to happen at church more than just going through the motions when you're hoping that God is going to do something at church.

[00:51:22] One of the things you start praying for over and over is John 644, that we need God to draw people here, like when he got to even get him in the building and then we need him to start here in the words, and to start being convicted about their sin and to start to see God in his holiness and to see that the only way they're going to go from their sin to heaven with God is through Jesus Christ. We need God to start pulling them in.

[00:51:47] And so every single time we gather. And if you're not praying before you get here on Sunday, then we're kind of missing the point of what we're hoping is happening when we gather here. So we want God to draw more souls to Jesus. Can I. Is that what we're here for? Is that why you're here? That's what I'm here for. Now, I'm happy to celebrate Jesus with those of us who have already been drawn. And we can sit together in the net and we can be like, it's so cool to be caught by Jesus.

[00:52:13] But I'm guaranteeing you we can praise Jesus better in heaven than we can here. So there's a reason we're still here. And the reason we're still here this morning is somebody maybe even here in our midst right now is being pulled in by the Holy Spirit here today. And I don't ever want to come in here and do this with you guys without praying for that beforehand.

[00:52:33] And I want to invite everybody here. Imagine if the whole church showed up on Sunday, prayed up for God to draw people at church that day.

[00:52:41] You think that would happen? I think God would want to answer that prayer.

[00:52:45] We actually have a book here at this church called Praying for Sunday. You can get it in the bookstore after the sermons. Just give you practical things to think about. So you're always praying for the next time. The word of God is going to go forth here among us, whether it's in when we all gather together, your small group, a one on one conversation. We want to see the gospel ringing out. And we're praying that God will use that to draw people. People sometimes need to hear a lot of sermons before they get to that one where they put their faith in Jesus Christ. But God's been drawn him that whole time. And we're praying for that. Now go down to Romans 10. Look at verse verse 11. Look at this with me here.

[00:53:25] Another practical application of these doctrines here for the scripture says everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame. Oh, yes. We would like Joel to 32, a St. call in the name of the Lord.

[00:53:36] You're gonna be saved. There's no distinction. Jew or Greek. The same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. He is calling them, so they call on him. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

[00:53:51] Now, it's going to break us through some logic here. How then will they call on him and whom they have not believed? OK, well, they're not going to call on Jesus unless they get their faith in Jesus.

[00:53:59] And how are they to believe in him of whom they've never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?

[00:54:08] See?

[00:54:09] So if the way the people get drawn to God is by the Holy Spirit, convicting them of sin and showing them their need for Jesus, then we're gonna have to make sure that everybody gets to hear that they're a sinner who needs Jesus.

[00:54:22] See, some of us are going to have to go. And we're going to have to get out there outside of the church and we're gonna have to take this good news and get up on a mountain or a hill or a rooftop or where anybody can hear us. And we're gonna have to let the world know so that the Holy Spirit uses the teaching the word to draw people.

[00:54:40] But people have to have some kind of access to that word of the Holy Spirit. So he draws them in. And that's our job to make sure that word is getting out there.

[00:54:50] That's why we got to be committed not just to preaching the gospel here when we're gathered together and praising the Lord for saving us. We got to be committed to going out into our communities, our neighborhoods, our workplaces, our families. And we've got to bring the gospel with us when we go out.

[00:55:06] Because the net of salvation goes way beyond the walls of this church here this morning.

[00:55:11] There's people out there right now that, you know, that God is ready to draw to himself and he wants to use you to teach them the Holy Spirit, speaking through you is gonna be the way he starts to draw. So we've got to get out there, we got to get the gospel out there, in fact. Point number two. Let's put it down like this. We got to get very specific with the gospel.

[00:55:32] We're not. We're encouraging people to come to Jesus. But what we're telling people is going to happen is much more specific than just come to Jesus and have Jesus in your life, you know, ask Jesus into your heart. There's a lot of very general ways that we refer to this coming to Jesus. We need to get very clear. Here's what's gonna happen. If you come to Jesus, you're gonna die with Jesus to your old life of sin and you're gonna rise again and start living a new life based on the resurrection of Jesus. The gospel is not just gonna be something, you know, that happened 2000 years ago. The gospel happens to you when you come to know Jesus.

[00:56:10] So we've got to get super specific.

[00:56:12] None of this laid back are. You need Jesus in your life, man. Now, here's how Jesus put it. You have to eat his flesh and you have to drink his blood and you have to see him on that cross has everything with him paying for your sin. He's the sacrifice. It's his blood that pays for your salvation. So he paid it all. He paid it in full. He got up there and he shouted, it is finished. And that is specifically what you're trusting in the death of Jesus.

[00:56:37] He's the bread that came down from heaven. He is God. And he offered for you his flesh, his life. And when you trust in that death and that resurrection, it happens to you, man. That's what we got to tell people like you need to be able to have that conversation with somebody or you're basically no good to them.

[00:56:57] You see, you can't really help them with their basic need in life, which is to get life from Jesus Christ.

[00:57:05] So that's why it's so important that every single Christian at this church is an evangelist, every single product. Well, let me tell you all about Union with Christ. Let's dove into it. Let's talk about why we died with him and how we rose again. And that's what I symbolized when I got baptized one day. We should all be able to explain that to somebody. And so if you feel like, well, I don't think I can't explain that to somebody. That's why we've got this program. And we've got Tim and men. They'll be at the Compass Connect Table after we've got partners. I guarantee you, if you go through this program, this is one on one discipleship program, 10 chapters. You won't feel like you know how to explain the gospel to people. You could have this life giving conversation with them about Jesus Christ. So there's some practical ways that we can apply our effectual call in our union with Christ. But the main thing we can do as we leave here this morning is let's give Jesus Christ the glory for the work he's done to save us.

[00:58:00] And let me pray for us. Guy, we thank you so much for the scripture and how it teaches us and how it teaches us doctrine and teaches us about how we get saved. That salvation is not an emotion. It's not a feeling. It's not an experience we went through when we were six.

[00:58:16] God, we we know it's very specific that we're taught the truth, the truth about who we are. We're convicted of our sin. And when we see that we fall short of your holy and righteous standard and that the only one who lived up to your standard is Jesus Christ.

[00:58:34] And we see that we need to come to him, that we need to believe in him and that he is the bread of life, the bread you came down from heaven, the bread who offered his flesh for us. And it's when we put our faith in him that we're united with him. God, I just pray that we would go away today. So encouraged that we are in Christ and that Christ is in us. And that nothing, no matter what happens this week, nothing can change that.

[00:58:59] And that's the way we should live every day.

[00:59:02] Is this intimate, abiding in Jesus in him remaining in us? And we're so thankful for the life that you've called us to, the life that you've given us in Christ. God make us a church that always gives you the glory and no one else. And that we will spread this good news. We will pray for people to be saved. We'll share with them the good news, who will be saved. And then as we watch you draw more people to yourself, God, we will praise you. We will worship you. How great it is. Got to have a front row seat to watching you save souls. God, give us that seat.

[00:59:35] We pray in Jesus name. Amen.

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