Grace Bible Church
Basic Training in Doctrine
Guest Speaker: Pastor Joe Sugrue
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
John 6:26 Jesus answered them and said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves, and were filled.
John 6:27 “Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man shall give to you, for on Him the Father, even God, has set His seal.”
John 6:28 They said therefore to Him, “What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?”
They want to do something to receive eternal life from God and like much of the human race they have missed the point of grace completely.
John 6:29 Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, [not you] that you believe in Him whom He has sent.”
The plan of God the Father through His sealing of Jesus Christ is grace. Grace is God doing the work, and man simply receives in a non-meritorious manner what God has provided.
They had asked Jesus how they might do the works [plural] of God. Jesus had an answer, “This is the work [singular] of God.”
John 6:30 They said therefore to Him, “What then do You do for a sign, that we may see, and believe You? What work do You perform?
If God could work a miracle that would cause members of the human race to believe then He would do it. Salvation and the spiritual life begin for every person at the point of positive volition towards the Cross.
The principle is that we have to come to God’s plan; God doesn’t come to our plan. God’s plan begins at the cross and we have to come to the cross.
John 6:31 “Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘HE GAVE THEM BREAD OUT OF HEAVEN TO EAT.'”
Even when they quote the Scripture they look at it from human viewpoint. They mistakenly think that Moses gave them bread from heaven to eat for 40 years.
Jesus will not walk away from this crowd, despite their negative volition, but they will eventually walk away from Him.
John 6:32 Jesus therefore said to them, “Truly, truly [point of doctrine again], I say to you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread out of heaven, but it is My Father who gives you the true bread out of heaven.
John 6:33 “For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven, and gives life to the world.”
He keeps on giving eternal life to anyone in this world who will believe, and He will do so right up to the end of human history.
John 6:34 They said therefore to Him, “Lord, evermore give us this bread.”
John 6:35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me shall not hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.
2CO 11:27 I have been in labor and hardship, through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure.
There is another hunger and thirst in the soul that God desires to fulfill with His very own Righteousness.
Matt 5:6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
Matt 6:33 But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you.
John 6:35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me shall not hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.
“shall never hunger” is salvation — this is being in the plan of God which fulfills the hunger of the soul.
Once you are in the plan of God, God will provide everything you will ever need; there will never be a problem in your life too great for the plan of God.
“and he that believes on me shall never thirst” has to do with provision and blessing which fulfills the thirst of the soul.
Once you accept Jesus Christ as Savior and enter into the plan of God, from the point of salvation all the way to eternity, there never will be a time that there is a need that is too great for the plan of God.
John 6:36 But I said to you, that you have seen Me, and yet do not believe.
John 6:37 “All that the Father gives Me shall come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out.
God the Father in eternity past knew every person who would believe in His Son and He elected them and gave them to Christ as a gift as His third and final Royal Family.
The unpardonable sin is the one sin for which Jesus Christ could not and did not die because it is the sin of rejecting Christ as Savior — John 3:18, 36. It is a sin of volition.
“I walked to a neighboring town and sat on a settle in the street and fell into a very meek pause about the fearful state my sin had brought me to. And after long musing I lifted up my head, but methought I saw as though the sun shining in the heavens did grudge to give me light, and as if the very stones in the street and tiles upon the houses did band themselves against me.
Methought that they were all banded together to banish me out of the world. I was abhorred of them, and unfit to dwell among them for I had sinned against the Savior. Oh, how happy now was every creature over me, for they stood fast and kept their station, but I was gone and lost.”
Finally, in desperation, he consulted an old Puritan and said to him, “I am afraid I have committed the sin against the Holy Ghost.” And the old fanatic replied, “I’m afraid you have.”
John 6:37 “All that the Father gives Me shall come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out.
[Pilgrim] “clothed in rags, a book in his hand, and a great burden upon his back… He was greatly distressed in his mind and burst out, ‘What shall I do to be saved?’”
When Pilgrim asks Evangelist the way of escape, Evangelist says, “Do you see yonder shining light?”
“I think I do,” says wretched Pilgrim.
“Then keep that light in your eye, and go up directly thereto: so shalt thou see the gate; at which when thou knockest, it shall be told thee what thou shalt do.”
And Pilgrim in due course did come to the gate and knock, saying: “May I now enter here? Will within open to sorry me, though I have been an undeserving rebel? Then shall I not fail to sing His lasting praise on high.”
Goodwill opens the gate, and says, “I am willing with all my heart. We make no objections against any, notwithstanding all that they have done before they come hither; they are in no wise cast out.”
Christ is nearer to you right now than your own breath and He is always approachable. Even the vilest of persons will in no wise be cast out. All they need is belief in Him and not repentance of wrongdoings.
“But Satan,” he said, “would greatly labor to pull this promise from me, telling me that Christ did not love me, or such as me, but sinners of another rank that had not done as I had done. But I would answer him again, ‘Him that cometh to me,’ him, any him, with no exception, ‘him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out.’”
1CO 1:18 For the word of the cross is to those who are perishing foolishness, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
1CO 1:19 For it is written, “I WILL DESTROY THE WISDOM OF THE WISE, AND THE CLEVERNESS OF THE CLEVER I WILL SET ASIDE.”
1CO 1:20 Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?
1CO 1:21 For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.
1CO 1:22 For indeed Jews ask for signs [show us more miracles], and Greeks search for wisdom;
1CO 1:23 but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block, and to Gentiles foolishness,
1CO 1:24 but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
1CO 1:25 Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
1CO 1:26 For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble;
1CO 1:27 but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong,
1CO 1:28 and the base things of the world and the despised, God has chosen, the things that are not, that He might nullify the things that are,
1CO 1:29 that no man should boast before God.
1CO 1:30 But by His doing [the work of the Father] you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption,
1CO 1:31 that, just as it is written, “LET HIM WHO BOASTS, BOAST IN THE LORD.”
John 6:38 “For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.
I’m the perfect One and I have humbled Myself under the plan of God. How much more should you, who are imperfect, do the same?
John 6:39 “And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day.
John 6:40 “For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him, may have eternal life; and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.”
There is the Father’s plan. He is going to take everyone who has entered the plan of God through faith in Christ all of the way to eternity.