How to Come to Jesus Part 1: From Those Who Would Not Come - John 6:41-51

1:25But Christ withdraws. Ready to crown him king, but he's not going to be king on their terms. And neither will he ever be king on our terms. He is king, and we cannot make him be the king we want. He can only be the king that he is. The moment he starts bowing himself to our whims and our desires is the day he forfeits his kingship and gives it to us. And he's not going to do that. He didn't do that for the crowd that day. They had expectations on a king that he wasn't about to fulfill. And then in verse 16, 21, you have this, he sends the disciples out on the sea to cross over into the land close to Capernaum. And then he goes to them in the midst of the sea during the night as they were fearing for their lives. And to be law, here comes Jesus on the sea to rescue them. As if a statement and a demonstration of his kingship and lordship and godship to his disciples. He is ruler. He has all authority. And he gives this moment to his disciples to let that sink in. But he's going to be king. He is going to be Lord and served on his term and accomplish what he came to do. So the people are still very excited. And in verse 22, the crowd begins this search. They look for him, and finally they find him. And there in verse 25, they say, How in the world did you get over here? And then, beginning in verse 26, begins this conversation with this crowd as Jesus makes his way to the synagogue in Capernaum. And beginning in verse 26, you have the beginning of this bread of life discourse. And he says to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek me not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him the Father has set his sealed. And they said to him, What shall we do so that we may work the works of God? And Jesus answered and said, Then, this is the work of God that you believe in him whom he has sent. Here comes these people. Jesus is saying, Don't work for that which is perishing. Give yourself to that which endures forever. Give yourself to me. Give yourself to that which is eternal. And they said, Well, what must we do? And he said, The work that God wants you to do, and the work that God wants all of us to be doing, is to be believing in his Son, the one he has sent.

4:27And then he goes on as he's working. His way through with this crowd and going back and forth. We come to those verses in verse 37. This is what we spoke about last time, what I preached on last time just before Christmas. Verse 37, all that the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will certainly not cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. 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. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in him will have eternal life, and I myself will raise him up. There is a God-centered theology that places God at the center and understands what's happening in the world around us is that God the Father is giving God the Son a gift. And that gift is people from every tribe and every nation that will come to him. You and I are swept up in this gift if you are a believer. You are a gift from the Father to the Son. This is what a God-centered theology does. When you have a man-centered theology, you make God and everything around you just kind of revolve around you as if everything is about you. Really, what's happening is that God is giving a gift. God the Father is giving a gift to God the Son. Son. Isn't that wonderful to think for a moment that you and I could be a gift? And not just a gag gift, but a good gift. That is what God is doing. That is what the Spirit of God is doing. And it's on the heels of this concept that we launch into the next section, beginning in verse 41, running all the way through 51, that I want to read to you.

6:29Therefore, the Jews were grumbling about him, because he said, I am the bread that came down from heaven. They were saying, Is not this Jesus, the Son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, I have come down out of heaven? Jesus answered and said to them, Do not grumble among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day. It is written in the prophets, and they shall all be taught of God. Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me. Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God. He has seen the Father. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread which comes down out of heaven so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down out of heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.

7:37So, what takes place here, and we'll unpack this in a couple of Lord's days. We'll look at this this week and next week. On the heels of this message that all that come to the Father are a gift from the Father to the Son, or all that come to the Son are a gift from the Father to the Son. We'd like to see, okay, what does coming to Jesus look like? We need some kind of instruction on there. And that's what we have in our passage: how to come to Jesus. But what's happening here, there is a break in the location. In verse 41, I believe at this point, Jesus is in the synagogue in Capernaum. If you look at verse 59, we certainly know by the end of this talk, verse 59: these things he said in the synagogue as he taught in Capernaum. So, verse 41, therefore the Jews were grumbling. There's a different focus on the Jews. It's no longer the crowds, but the Jews. And so, I believe right here we have a break in the location. We are at the synagogue in Capernaum. But also, there is a break in the popularity of Jesus that occurs right here. Very profound break.

8:59We have. Beginning in verse 41, an illustration of those who would not come. Those who would not come. But what, if you look, think at how this is happening, look at verse 34. Look at the popularity of Jesus. Then they said to him, Lord, always give us this bread. I think in verse 34, his popularity is at an all-time high. That's it. It won't get any higher than that. And then in verse 41, therefore the Jews were grumbling. So then there's this grumbling that takes place. Look at verse 52. Then the Jews began to argue with one another. So this grumbling turns into open argument. And then look at verse 66. As a result of this, many of his disciples withdrew and were not walking with him anymore. So in a very short time span, he goes from being very popular to grumbling to open argument to open desertion. His popularity changes very dramatically. So there is a pivot point here in verse 41. They rejected him. They rejected his God-centered theology. And so it really, the turning point, the crest of the hill, really begins right here in verse 41. Therefore, let's look at it and just start walking through it. Therefore, The Jews were grumbling about him. In light of everything he said, he says, and food, work for the food that does not perish. He speaks about in verse 33 the bread of God. In verse 35, he speaks about himself being such bread. They began to grumble. The idea of grumbling is that secret complaint that kind of mumbles around the ground.

10:54That's what it kind of just works its way through the crowd. They begin murmuring dissatisfaction or expressing their skepticism amongst one another. A grumbling, a murmuring. Very same thing that is used to describe Israel at the time of the Exodus, right after they came out. You remember, God delivers them. They're out in the wilderness. They've come out of Egypt by a mighty hand. And then, I'll just pick up the narrative in Exodus 16 and verse 2. The whole congregation of the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. The sons of Israel said to them, Would that we had died by the Lord's hand in the land of Egypt when we sat by pots of meat, when we ate the bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill us and this whole assembly with hunger. That's your intention.

11:52And then the Lord said to Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you. He goes on in verse 7, for he who He hears your grumblings against the Lord. And what are we that you grumble against us? Moses said. This will happen when the Lord will give you meat to eat in the evening and bread to the full in the morning, for the Lord hears your grumblings, which you grumble against him. And what are we? Your grumblings are not against us, but against the Lord. And he goes on. I mean, they're grumbling. They are complaining. So what happens? They get bread from heaven. They wake up. There's manna everywhere. Right? So you think that would satisfy it, right? They just had a legitimate hunger, and boy, God satisfied it now. No more grumblings, right? Well, it's not long before they get really tired of the manna, right? Listen in Numbers 11. In verse 4, there was this rabble who were among them who had greedy desires. And also the sons of Israel wept again and said, Who will give us meat to eat? We remember the fish we used to eat free in Egypt, the cucumbers and the melons and the leeks and the onions and the garlic. But now our appetite is gone. There is nothing at all to look at except this manna.

13:15Oh, they didn't like the bread of heaven back then. And this generation that Jesus didn't like the true bread from heaven either. Their hearts had not changed. Their hearts were unbelief. And this unbelief shows itself in grumbling and complaining. Dissatisfaction. In fact, this is how unbelief shows itself today, right? No matter who you are, beware of this inclination, grumbling against God. God, you put me here. God, this situation has come upon God, you, the God, why? God, this. God, please. God, you should. God, all that. What kind of God are you? All that comes from a heart of unbelief. Beware of that.

14:01You see, the unbelieving generation grumbled against Moses. It's no wonder that a later unbelieving generation would grumble at the prophet like Moses. But what's the issue? Look back. What is the issue that Jesus said that caused them to speak against him? Look back at verse 41. Therefore, the Jews were grumbling about him because, and here it comes, because he said, I am the bread that came down out of heaven. They were saying, Is not this Jesus the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, I have come down out of heaven? So there's something about him making this claim to have come out of heaven that just rocked their world, really bothered them.

14:49How could a person, you think about it, how could a person we have seen grow up among us, claim to be from heaven? I mean, isn't that the guy that Joseph, Mary? We know them. We know his father, or so they thought. He said they didn't. No, he says they didn't know their father, his father. But at least according to the flesh, we know his father. We know his mother. In fact, we've seen him working over in that shop.

15:23I mean, how does this guy now say he's from heaven? He was too humble. They had some preconceived ideas, right? This was the issue going on, but there was a problem in their heart. And here is the whole failure of the Jewish nation. And you need to pay attention. The failure of the Jewish nation was their preconceived ideas of God and preconceived ideas of what Messiah should be like. That was the failure, right? He was too common to be from heaven.

16:05Show us your power. Don't show us your humility. You see, they had an idea of what God should be like, what God should do, what Messiah should be like, what God and what Messiah should do on their half, and they're ready to make him king. You know, many. Today, we have the same problem, don't we? But really, when you get down to it, what is the biggest block in our world today? It's our own preconceived ideas of what God should be and what God should do for us and what Christ should be.

16:47It's our own preconceived ideas that blind us to the true God. Certainly, that was true then, it's certainly true now. But I want us to learn from the Jewish failure because ultimately it's not about the Jews, it's about humanity. Now, think about it: the Messiah came to the Jewish nation, the one prophesied for so long, the one greatly anticipated, and they didn't come to him. I was reading in the Psalms, you'd hear a silah. Think about that. Pause.

17:28Why didn't they come? And really, this is one of the purposes of John's gospel: to explain why they didn't come. And we see it in our text this morning. The Messiah came, the Messiah is being offered to you today, but you must come to him. And in order to come to him, you must believe. In fact, John puts those two so closely together that he can't really connect them. The one who comes is. The one who already believes. The one who believes is the one who already is coming.

18:06But here's the important question: if the gift of the Father to the Son are those coming to Jesus, then how do we come? There must be some instruction about how do we come to Jesus, right? We need some instruction. Well, I think this passage is full of instruction for us. What I want to do today and next time, as the Lord leads, I want us to observe the failure of those who didn't come. And by observing the failure of those who didn't come, I want that to be instruction to us on how to come. I want us to know how to come to Jesus by observing those who didn't, and to do so so that we will always be a people who are coming to Him. Three lessons. We'll probably only get through the first one today, and maybe a little glimpse of the second. But lesson number one: be humble. Be humble. How do you come to Jesus? The first thing, you must be humble. Look at verse 43.

19:22Jesus answered and said to them, Do not grumble among yourselves. So he. He interjects himself and he exhorts them to stop grumbling, as if to say, Look, you're grumbling, you're talking with one another, you're expressing your dissatisfaction, but you know what? The answer to your question is not going to be solved by you talking to one another and griping about me. That's not where the solution to your problem is going to be found. And he goes on, verse 44: No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day.

20:07You know what he does here? He completely devastates the pride of humanity forever. This is one of the most humbling statements ever made in Scripture. And this is by the most authoritative figure in Scripture. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And that takes the pride out of every person ever. You see, when you come to Jesus, you are going to have to be humble because you'll never be able to receive him any other way.

20:57Let's just look at this. I want to. Spend some time on this this morning because of its simplistic truth and yet rich and deep theology. First, it's important for us to look specifically at what Jesus says. Second, it's important for us to understand why this truth is so humbling. Third, what was Jesus doing when he uttered these words? And four, why do so many people reject these words? So let's just look at these. First of all, it's three clauses, three clauses that are expressed here. First one, no one can come to me. Look at that. No one. It's all-inclusive. Truth applies to all without exception. Plain language, simple truth. No one can come to me.

21:52There is not a single person who has the power or ability. That's the idea. No one has the ability. No one has the power within themselves to come to me. Profound. In Texas, another Texan version here. I don't know if you've ever heard the word wherewithal. You ever hear that? I hear it every once in a while. A wherewithal, right? Ability. People don't have the wherewithal. If I translated this in a modern Texan version, I would put the words like this: None of y'all have the wherewithal to come to me at all.

22:42I think that catches the sense of what he's saying here. And I believe what he's speaking about here is the condition of man's fallen will. Speaking about the will here. You know, by the way, I love to listen to stories of dates that have gone horribly wrong. So if you want to submit a story, and if a date has gone really well, you can submit that story too. We can maybe get them into sermons, and I'll give you a gift certificate if it makes its way in. But here is a date, one of my favorite dates that has gone horribly wrong here in Aggie Land. And I may have told you it before, but this was one of those that I just remember and stays in my mind. This young man wanted to impress this young lady, and so he makes this incredible dinner, and he plans it, he spends the money, spends all day cooking, and goes through all the fine arrangements, and then big night comes, and he presents everything out there, and he keeps a lid on one of the dishes. It's happened. Be squid.

24:02Guys learn from that. You know, it's going to do something impressive. You just may not want to serve squid, even if you do. So he takes it, puts it in front of her, and he pulls back the lid. She looks at the squid and says, Ooh, I can't eat that. And she didn't. And he goes, that's it. Off my list. Game's over, right? And it was. But now think about that statement. I can't eat this. Could she have eaten it?

24:35Sure. She had the bill, she had teeth. It was sufficient, right? She had the sufficient capacity to eat it. It was edible. It could be eaten. What was the problem? She didn't want to. She said, that looks so awful. I cannot bring myself to eat that. That's the problem in the human condition. Man has no will to come because he finds the thought of an exacting God, a holy God, as I can't do that. And so there is no will.

25:20And I think that's where he's going here. No one can come to me. No one has the wherewithal. No one has the ability. Because in the fallen Dead human condition. There is no taste, no desire for the things that God offers. But there's a second clause. No one can come to me. Now, if that was the end of it, there is no good news. But look at this word, unless. Unless. There is an exception. There is an exception. There is one kind of person who can come to Jesus. There is a condition whereby one comes. Look at it. Unless the Father who sent me draws him. Unless the Father, the one giving, remember, the one giving the gift to the Son, unless that one draws the individual, they cannot come. But those who do, those he does draw, can come.

26:31This word for draw is a very strong word, and it's used in several contexts in John. In John 18, 10, it speaks of Peter drawing out his sword to cut off the slave's ear. In John 21, 6 and 11, it speaks of a net filled with fish that's being hauled in, dragged in. That's the idea, unless the Father hauled them in, drag them in in that sense. It's also used in Acts 16, 19 to speak of the mob that seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace. And in all these cases that it shows up, there's this idea of an external force acting upon an object. And yes, there's this idea of resistance, and there's this idea of something needing to be drawn.

27:29Unless the Father draws, no one's coming. So the question is: why doesn't everyone come to Jesus? I mean, you think about him, you think about his majesty, you think of what he did, you think about his goodness, you think about his approachableness, you think about his power and his compassion and everything. Why wouldn't everybody be drawn to him? Because there's something in the fallen human condition that resists. There is a force that resists that. And this resistance is universal. Man loves his own ways. He loves his sin. He loves his pattern.

28:13In fact, so much so, the psalmist says this in 14:2. The Lord has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They all have turned aside. They have all become corrupt. There is no one who does good. Not even one. There is no movement within the heart of fallen man to God. So then the question is: if everything is this way, if every man is, there is no movement within man towards God, then the question becomes, why does anybody come? How does anybody come to him? And the answer is found in the drawing power of God. People come and can only come when drawn to Jesus by the Father. So there are two forces at work in the soul of man: one resisting God, and the other drawing by the Father. And except for the drawing power of God, no one comes. And this is the plain teaching of Jesus here. In fact, it doesn't get any more plain than this.

29:30You see, resistance is a condition of the fallen nature. Coming to Jesus is a virtue of the new nature. Resistance is a condition of the old. Coming is a virtue of the new. And as I said before, John really doesn't separate this coming and belief. They come as a pair, it seems like, throughout. But look at the third clause. And I will raise him up on that day. I will raise. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day. Jesus summarizes his whole purpose for coming to earth in this statement. I will raise him up on the last day. Jesus didn't come simply to die, he came to resurrect the dead. And his death and his own resurrection was necessary. But here's his purpose: to come and raise the sons of men, sons and daughters. You know it. Not being exclusive here.

30:50But you remember, Genesis 2:16, what does God say? From the tree of the garden you may freely eat, but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat. For in the day that you eat from it, you will surely die. And what does man do? He eats. And what happened? He died, and he has been dead ever since until the drawing power of God works upon an individual. Man is dead to God. That is the natural condition into which we are all born.

31:32And Jesus came to change man's spiritual condition from a resistance to a coming, from movement away from God to movement toward God. And of course, there will be this physical dimension of this, but the spiritual condition he changes now. And you can see that now. I can see it in many of your lives. I can see the change in the spiritual condition. I can see the work of God in your life by the direction, by the movement of your soul to God, by the movement of your soul to esteem and love Jesus. I see it. And that's the family resemblance, right? That's what we recognize in one another.

32:23Well, he came to do away with the curse, do away with the curse of death. And when's this going to happen? On the last day. On the last day. So then the question becomes: why? That's exactly what he said. We've looked specifically at what Jesus said. Now the question is: why is this truth so humbling? Why does this truth just devastate the pride of all who come to him? Well, let me reread it. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up the last day. You know why this truth is so humbling? Because, first of all, it calls upon us to admit that we are helpless. We are helpless to save ourselves, and we are helpless to save others.

33:20Second, it calls upon us to throw ourselves on the mercy of another, completely, totally, to come bankrupt, to say we are absolutely helpless, and we are completely throw ourselves upon the mercy of another. You see, what's so hard about this is that we really treasure our autonomy. We like to say we can, we can do, we can add, we can. But Jesus is saying, no one can come unless the Father draws me. And it forces us to admit that the problem is within us and the solution is outside of us.

33:59A fallen man doesn't want to go there. Listen, the gospel makes no sense to our natural inclinations. The gospel, it's too spiritual for our carnal minds. It's too spiritual. We can't get our minds around it. It's too humbling for our pride. It's too constraining for our rebellious will. It's too wonderful for our darkened understanding, and it's too Holy for our earthbound pleasures. And that's why the gospel makes absolutely no sense to our natural inclinations. Well, the king of glory had grown up in the humble home of Joseph and Mary.

34:51Some of them probably there, some of the Jews there probably had seen him working there in the shop. He was so humble. And it was the pride of the human heart that didn't want to be indebted to this one. Show us your power, Messiah. We don't want to see your humility. We don't need someone to come and die for us. We're not that bad. We're too self-satisfied, right? Even today, right? We're not that bad. They didn't see their condition as that desperate. But this is what Jesus does. He comes and he cuts down, mows down the pride of humanity and says, You are that bad. Your situation is that desperate.

35:55Well, we've looked at what Jesus specifically said. We looked at why this truth is so. Humbling. Now I want to look at what was Jesus doing when he uttered these words. In other words, what was he doing? Why did he utter these words? Why did he say these words at this occasion? I think these words are greatly misunderstood and greatly misused. Why did Jesus say these words? They obviously were not coming to him, they were obviously moving away from him. Was he shutting the door in their faith? Was he shutting the door of hope in their face by saying these words? Was he saying, you're not drawn, therefore nothing can be done. I'm out of here.

36:46I don't think that's what he was doing. I think Pink says it well. Pink says it like this: He spoke here so as to address their human responsibility. It was not designed as a word to repel, but to humble. It was not closing the door in their face, but showed how alone that door could be entered. It was not intended as an intimation that there was no possible hope for them. Rather, it was a pointing out the direction in which the hope lay.

37:24Jesus' words, read it again. No one can come. To me, unless the Father who sent me draws him. They are not a slammed door in people's faces, but they are a general provision that points the way to come to Christ. Do you see that? What Jesus is doing is he's bringing man to an end of himself, an end of self-reliance, and saying, Here, here's the door. There is a way, but you can't come to it in your pride.

38:06You can't do it on your own at all. You are helpless. And the only way that you can come is if the Father draws you. Who knows what happened on the day of Pentecost? Maybe some of these very ones came to him. But what do we do? If it be true that I can't get out of myself, if it's true that my being is depraved and there is nothing in me that is able to compel me, make me enable me to go to God, if that is my condition, and certainly Jesus, the most authoritative figure in the most clearest language, says that's my condition. If that is the case, and I'm powerless to change my nature, what must I do?

39:04It's one word. Two words. Cry out. Right? Acknowledge my helplessness. I remember tell the story about Clyde a few years back. He was out walking around by his tree and reached down to pick up, I believe it was some acorns, and he fell and he couldn't get up. And there he was. Couldn't get up. And then he said, a young feller came by. He said, how old was that young feller? About 75. And he came over, and Clyde said, a little help. And he picked him up, and there he went, right? I mean, you think about it. If we're helpless, we need some help, right?

39:57I mean, if you fall down and you break a leg and you can't get up, do you just stay there and perish? Or what do you do? You cry out for help. This is what God wants us to do. This is where Christ takes us with this teaching to the very end of ourselves. And if these murmuring Jews had believed what Jesus had told them about their helplessness, they would have cried out right then. And if today...

40:30We would believe Christ's words when he says, No one can come unless he is drawn. We would call for him to draw us if you truly believed. Do you believe these words? You know, if I can't come to Christ unless he draws me, then my responsibility is to beg him to draw me. And listen, in the case of a lost loved ones, you can't, by any exhortation, make a person enter heaven. No one's getting there. Even your prayers cannot make it happen. There's only one condition: the Father must draw. Your best arguments, your best exhortations isn't going to bring them to Christ. You know what's going to bring them? The drawing power of God.

41:35Now we are to petition. And if you believe this truth, it will radically change your prayers about those who are lost, your loved ones who need Christ. If you really believe this truth, your prayers will change. God, draw them. That doesn't mean you stop exhorting. That doesn't mean you stop praying. On the contrary, you Do all that and more, but you know, ultimately, the petition, God, you must draw. And listen, I have more confidence in this person. I have more hope for a person's salvation if I will petition a loving God who understands the falling condition, who hears my prayers, and is moved, and for whatever mysterious reason loves to work through the prayers of his saints and loves to answer the prayers of his saints. I have more hope for this person's salvation that God would draw them than I do in my ability to go speak to a dead person and wake them up and shake them up to where they run into the kingdom. An obstinate will is a hard will to break, but a loving father who loves to answer prayer is not. I have more confidence. Listen, this truth will radically change the way you live and will radically change the way you pray.

43:10So we've looked at what Jesus specifically said. We've looked at why this truth is so humbling. We looked at what Jesus was doing when he uttered these words. And now I want to ask, look at why do people reject this truth? Why do people reject this truth? Good question. No one can. Come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And in addition to the, I've given you a number of reasons already, but the main reason is going to show up in the next couple of verses.

43:43And the bottom line is they're not teachable. They're not teachable. That's going to be the second element. How do we come to God? Well, you've got to be humble. Second, you've got to be teachable, which is an extension of being humble. You see, Israel in the wilderness had these preconceived ideas of what God should do and be. Those who were in the synagogue that day had the preconceived ideas of what God and his Messiah ought to be. And we have the same problem today. Don't come to this truth and somehow walk away here and think that God's drawing power isn't necessary, or somehow it isn't primary.

44:31And the reason you won't reject this, or the reason you won't receive this truth, is because you have some preconceived ideas of what God should be and what God should do. And you imagine that God is some sort of a person that can, or that people, and that God is some kind of person that we can come to Him at any time without any aid, that we are sufficient in ourselves, and that God is so low that we can get there. And what Jesus is saying is that that is. Not the God of the scriptures. All of us must be humble enough to accept Jesus' words about God because he's the only one who has seen him and therefore the only one who understands him and therefore the only one who can really explain him. As John is saying, he is the one who has explained him.

45:24But look at verse 45. So you be humble. Second lesson we can learn from the Jewish in this encounter here is to be teachable. Verse 45, it is written in the prophets, and they shall all be taught of God. Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me. Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God. He has seen the Father. We're only going to touch on this just by way of introduction, but I want you to see a connection here. We'll look at this more in depth next time. He quotes Isaiah 54, 13.

46:01But what he does is he makes a close connection between those who are drawn by the Father and those who are hearing the words of God with the intention to learn from them. There's a connection. It flows from one. No one can come unless they are drawn. They will be taught by God. Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me. I'm marked. Of true humility is teachableness and what Jesus is saying, and hear his words and learn from him.

46:40Because if you don't hear from him and you don't learn from him, you will not come to him. But these verses are designed to bring us to an end of ourselves, to recognize that, yes, God is that holy, our situation is that desperate. We cannot save ourselves. But therein is the hope of the gospel. Because now, my mind understands. I am drawn. And what God begins, he finishes. And there becomes the whole foundation of stability for the Christian life.

47:30God has pledged His love, He has demonstrated His love. Be humble, be teachable, and come to Christ today. Heavenly Father, draw us, draw us. There are those here today who do not know you. Draw them. Father, and I pray that you would awaken a thirst. And a desire, and they will within themselves hear your voice and say, I will arise and come. Father, we know that your gift is sufficient for everyone. We know that your sacrifice is so overwhelming. Father, that everyone who comes, there is no sin too deep, there is no chasm too far, there is no problem too great, but that you bid us to come to you with all of that, and that's exactly why you came. You came to the lowliest place on earth, a cross, a cruel cross, and there we can meet you.

48:41And Father, it is there that we come. And Father, but it is not there that we keep coming. We keep coming to you there at the cross. Father, we keep coming, and may we keep coming. Father, draw us by your power. Our only hope is in you. Thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.