Diagnosing the Heart

I want to invite you to turn in your Bibles with me to John chapter 6 and please hold your place at verse 25.

And the title of today's message is Diagnosing the Heart, Diagnosing the

Heart. When you go to the doctor you want to be sure about two things.

Number one, you want to be sure that the diagnosis you receive is accurate.

But also you want to make sure that the diagnosis you receive is truthful.

You say, well what do you mean? Well when you go to the doctor you don't know what's wrong with you.

Maybe you're feeling some type of pain. Maybe you've been feeling sickness or illness and you go in. You want them to do whatever tests are necessary to be accurate in their diagnosis.

You want them to give you whatever scans are needed. You want them to take whatever blood tests needed to be drawn.

You want all of those things. You don't want the doctor to just look at you and say, you look fine. No you want him to properly diagnose you and to do that it's going to take some real testing.

And if you've ever been to a doctor who refused to do the tests it can be very discouraging.

When you know something's wrong but, oh you look fine to me. You want it to be accurate. You don't want it based on just his eyeball at it, you know.

You want him to give a real accurate diagnosis. But also you want a truthful diagnosis.

Wouldn't it be awful if your doctor did the scans, took the blood, looked at your report, knew that you had a life -threatening illness, but said to himself, you know what,

I really don't want to hurt his feelings. I really don't want to offend this person.

He's a nice person. And you know if I tell him that he's sick and that he's dying, he's going to be upset.

So rather than telling him and making him upset, I'm just going to tell him everything is okay.

What would you say about that doctor? You would say he is engaging in medical malpractice.

Because a good doctor not only should give an accurate diagnosis, but a truthful diagnosis.

Well we come today to the beginning of what is known as the

Bread of Life Discourse. This is a message from Jesus.

We learn later in the text it's actually given in the synagogue at Capernaum. And during this message,

Jesus is going to diagnose the hearts of his listeners.

And he is going to diagnose their hearts accurately and truthfully.

And he's going to tell them that even though they're following him, they actually don't believe.

That even though they have sought him, they have sought him for selfish gain, not because he's the son of God.

Christ will diagnose their heart accurately and truthfully in this text.

So let's stand and read it together. Reading from the

English Standard Version it says, beginning in verse 25, When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him,

Rabbi, when did you come here? Jesus answered them, Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.

Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the

Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has set his seal. Then they said to him,

What must we do to be doing the works of God? Jesus answered them, This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.

So they said to him, Then what sign do you do that we may see and believe you?

What work do you perform? Our fathers ate manna in the wilderness, as it is written, he gave them bread from heaven to eat.

Jesus then said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my

Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.

They said to him, Sir, give us this bread always. Jesus said to them,

I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.

But I said to you that you have seen me, and yet do not believe.

All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.

For I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.

For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.

Father, what wonderful words from the mouth of our Savior. And now that as we seek to dive into these words,

I pray, O God, that you would keep me from error as I pray every Sunday. Fill me with your Spirit, open the hearts of your people to the truth, conform your people to the image of your

Son, and draw those who have yet to believe on Christ to faith, and give them that gift.

We pray in Jesus' name, amen. John chapter 6 begins with Jesus' most public miracle.

We talked about this for those who were guests with us this morning. We have been in the gospel of John now for over a year, going verse by verse through the text, so if you're just coming in with us, you might not be caught up on the context.

So John chapter 6, Jesus begins by feeding the 5 ,000, and we said that's his most public miracle, because it is the miracle that the most amount of people that we know of experienced at one time.

Over 5 ,000 people, we know the text says in the other synoptic gospels there were 5 ,000 men, not counting women and children, which means the number could be upwards of 15 -20 ,000 if every man has a wife and every one of them had a child or two.

And so we have here a multitude of people that experienced this miracle of Jesus' feeding.

That is quickly followed up with one of his more private miracles.

Now Jesus did several private miracles, such as the Mount of Transfiguration, which was only seen by Peter, James, and John, the healing of Jairus' daughter, which was only her family and the few disciples who were in the room.

There were a few miracles that were private, but the walking on the water was experienced only by the apostles.

No one else saw it, no one else knew what was happening. And so we go from this public miracle of feeding the multitude to the private miracle of walking on the water, and now we come to the next day.

Jesus is now with his disciples again, and the people who saw the disciples leave know that Jesus was not in the boat with them.

They know that Jesus didn't have another boat to take, and they know that he did not have time through the night to walk all the way around the

Sea of Galilee to get to the other side. So they're confused, and they ask the question, and this is where we begin in verse 25, when they found him on the other side, they said,

Rabbi, when did you come here? So, they probably don't suspect that Jesus miraculously walked upon the water, but they also don't know how that he got there, so they're not amazed, they're confused.

The disciples are amazed. They have seen him traverse the sea.

They have seen him walk upon the water. They have seen him demonstrate his divinity when he came to them, and he says, behold,

I am, and you remember last week we said the phrase, it is I, can also be translated as the

I am statement, and it's interesting when Jesus uses that phrase,

I am, without a predicate. It's almost always in a sense of identifying his own divinity.

We know he did it here, he's walking on the water, as Job says, that Yahweh traverses the sea, and here

Jesus is traversing the sea, walking on the water, saying, I am. Later in John chapter 8, he'll say,

Abraham, long to see my day, and Jesus will say, before Abraham was,

I am. And then Mike and I were talking about this after service last Sunday, there's another part in John 18 where the soldiers come to Jesus at night, and they're there to arrest him, and they say, we're here for Jesus of Nazareth, and Jesus stands up and says,

I am, and they all fall down. A demonstration of when he says,

I am, it's not just, I am, in the sense of, it's me, but I am who

I am, as the father identified himself to Moses in Exodus 3 and 4.

So we have the divine Christ, who has identified himself as divine by creating food and traversing the sea, now moving into a time where he is going to be with these people, he's going to spend time with these people, and he is going to preach to them a very hard message.

In fact, in a couple of weeks, I don't know how long it'll take me to get there, but there's actually a part where it says, the things he's saying here are hard, it's the

Greek word, scleron, it's where we get the word sclerosis, like muscular sclerosis, the hardening of the muscles, right?

It's the same word, it means hard. What he's preaching is hard. These are the hard sayings of Christ.

These are the things that at the end of this sermon, he is going to have people, many people walk away.

He's going to turn to his apostles, and he's going to say to them, are you leaving too? And they're going to say, to whom shall we go?

You have the words of eternal life. I thought about this this week. You know, any pastor is only one sermon away from being fired.

It only takes one sermon to upset a crowd. It only takes one sermon to cause you to fall out of favor.

And Jesus had all these people following him. He diagnoses their hearts, he tells them exactly what's wrong with them.

You don't believe that you can't believe unless God grants it to you.

We're going to see that in a little while too, but it will be a few weeks before we get there. But he's saying this to them, he's identifying the condition of their heart, and what do they say?

Lord, save us. Lord, help us. No, they say, Lord, we don't want to hear this. We don't want this.

We want the food. We don't want the truth. We want the miracle that fills our stomach.

We don't want the truth that cuts our heart. Beloved, are they much different than many today?

No, they're not. So we see in this text the beginning of this conversation with this simple question,

Rabbi, when did you come here? Now, I outlined the text.

My plan is to do 25 to 40 today, but we'll see what the Lord does, because I may slow down a bit when we get to verse 29, and we'll see what happens.

But here's the outline of the next few, these 15 verses. One, Jesus is going to declare their motives, verses 25 to 29.

Then the people are going to demand another sign, which to me is the height of irony. But we're going to see that's what they want.

They want him, hey, you fed us yesterday, feed us again today. Then he's going to diagnose their condition, verses 35 to 36.

And then finally, he's going to distinguish the true disciples, verses 37 to 40.

So let's begin with the declaration of their motives. They said, Rabbi, when did you come here? And you think

Jesus would answer them? Jesus doesn't answer them. Jesus doesn't even act like he heard them.

They says, Rabbi, when did you come here? And he says, truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me not because you saw the signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.

Notice that, please. Notice that Jesus in that doesn't try to answer their question.

He doesn't even attempt to give... I mean, as I said last week, he could have said, yeah, I walked. How did you get here?

I walked across the sea. He doesn't even give in to their... They say, Rabbi, how did you come here? When did you come here?

He doesn't answer. He simply goes right to the heart of the matter. Jesus did the same thing with Nicodemus.

Remember, Nicodemus came to him, Lord, we know you're a prophet sent from God. No one can do the things you do unless God was with him.

Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a man is born again, he will not see the kingdom of heaven. He said, where did that come from?

Because Jesus is not concerned with the flattery. Jesus is not concerned with the questions. He's concerned with his message, his truth.

He's going to tell them exactly what they need to hear, even if they don't know that they need to hear it. They're asking him the question, how did you come?

When did you come? Jesus says, truly, truly, I say to you, you're seeking me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.

This is an examination of their heart. You're not here because the signs convinced you.

You're not here because you really believe. In fact, in a moment, he's going to say they don't believe. But rather, you're here because I fed you yesterday.

And guess what? You're hungry again today. Here's the thing about the miracle of the feeding of the 5 ,000.

It's a tremendous, stupendous, awesome miracle, but it don't last. You know, when you were a kid and your mom would say, don't eat that, you're going to spoil your dinner.

I say, you're going to spoil your appetite. I say, you know what, mom, I've got another one coming. Don't you worry about me spoiling my appetite.

They come every few hours. And for the life of me, I've never had my appetite spoiled, ever.

But you know what I'm saying is, you feed 5 ,000 people in a day. And that's a miracle, but it's a miracle that doesn't last.

Because the next day they're going to be hungry again. Adrian Rogers, a great Baptist preacher from the last century.

The last century, wasn't it? The 1900s, for all you young people.

Adrian Rogers was an amazing preacher, and he said, at this time, this was back in the 1970s.

He said, you know, a Big Mac costs about $2, again, a long time ago.

He said, Big Mac costs about $2. He said, at that point, there was about 5 billion people in the world. Now there's about 8, but just quoting him.

He said, there's about 5 billion people in the world, and if I fed everybody in the world a Big Mac, it would cost $2 a person.

It would cost $10 billion to feed everybody in the world a Big Mac. And he said, and that would be a tremendous offering of generosity, if I said

I'm going to spend $10 billion and feed everybody in the world a Big Mac. He said, but in just 3 hours, it wouldn't mean anything anymore.

Because 3 hours later, they're going to need another Big Mac, or they're going to need a piece of bread, or they're going to need another meal, because it don't last.

It don't last. And I say all that simply to say, these people are coming to Jesus because they want to be fed again.

And if you want me to prove that quickly, I know that we're jumping ahead. Go to verse 30. Notice what they say.

So they said to him, what sign do you do that we may believe in you? What sign do you perform? Our fathers ate man in the wilderness, as it is written, he gave them bread from heaven to eat.

Can you believe they're asking for another sign? They were there the day before.

They ate the bread. These are people who are following Jesus because they ate, and now they're saying, what sign are you going to do?

What have you done for me lately? Are you going to feed me today?

And notice they jump right into an Old Testament text. Hey man, in the Old Testament, under Moses, Moses gave them bread every day.

Moses fed them every day, except for on Saturday where they got double portioned on the day before, but every day they were fed.

What sign do you do that we will believe in you? I truly believe that what they're saying is, are you going to feed us again?

Are you going to feed us again? Remember what they wanted to do after Jesus did the miracle?

Remember what it says in John's Gospel, I think it's up around verse 15? They came to him wanting to make him king.

You know, they didn't want to make him king because of his politics. And they didn't want to make him king because of his theology.

They wanted to make him king because he could feed them at a command. What more popular king could there ever be than a king who can feed you with no work and no effort, and you just eat every day to the full, and there's food left over because this man can miraculously produce food from his fingertips.

This is the crowd who's following Jesus, and they're following him for this reason.

You can feed me. I'm going to quote

Brother Mike. He didn't know I was going to, so I hope I get it right. Years ago, and he's told this story here, he was at a,

I think it was a prison where you preached and you said, if you're coming to Jesus for anything other than Jesus, then you're coming for the wrong reasons.

If you're coming to get a better marriage, if you're coming to get a good job, if you're coming to get those things right, you're not coming for Christ.

You're coming for what Christ can give you. You're coming not because you want to worship him, but because you want the benefits that only he can provide.

And again, I hope I quoted that fair enough. I know I'm not giving an exact account, but the reality is that's what these people are doing.

They're not following him because he is the son of God. They're not following him because of who he truly is.

They're following him because the day before they ate and they want it again. They want it again.

How many of us, when we diagnose our own motives, are following Christ because he deserves it?

Because he's truly the son of God? Because he deserves our worship? And how many of us are following him simply because we think he's the way to a better life?

Now you might say, isn't he the way to a better life? Maybe not. Jesus says, those who follow after me are going to suffer.

You may suffer if you follow Jesus Christ. You may die on the mission field if you follow

Jesus Christ. Now it is the best retirement plan in all of history, but it might not be the best life.

As John MacArthur said, talking about Joel Osteen, he said, if you want your best life now, you're going to hell. If you're looking, if you think this is your best life, then you're, you don't understand.

These people are following after Jesus because they want to be fed. This is an early example, maybe a little bit of a stretch, but an early example of prosperity theology.

I'm going to follow you because you can give me all that I want. And notice Jesus ain't offering to feed them again.

Now he does feed another multitude, we see that in the other Gospels, but that isn't the thing that he does to keep the people coming.

You ever heard the old phrase, what you win them with is what you win them to? What you win them with is what you win them to?

You win people on a party, you've got to keep the party going. So going back up to verse 26,

Jesus says, truly, truly, I say to you, you're seeking me not because you saw the signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.

And then he says this, he says, do not work for food that perishes, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the

Son of Man will give you, for on him the Father has set his seal. Now I have to clarify something here, and this is important.

Jesus is not saying that we shouldn't work. And Jesus is not speaking badly about work.

Work is a good thing, it is a virtuous thing, and just to clarify in case you are confused, work is not the product of the fall.

Adam was called to keep and work the garden prior to the fall. Work is a good and virtuous thing, and I believe personally that in the new heaven and new earth, we will have occupations.

I don't know what it will be, but I do know this, it will not be with the toil and the thorns and the sweat and pain and suffering that goes along with our toil now.

But we will work, because work is virtuous. So when Jesus says in this text, do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, he's not saying don't work, and he's not saying that work is bad.

The Bible all throughout says that work is good. The Old Testament talks about not being a sluggard, not being a lazy person, but doing the work that is set before you.

The New Testament tells us that the one who doesn't work shouldn't what? Shouldn't eat, right?

So there's virtue to work. But what Jesus is doing here is he is engaging in a comparison.

These folks have come to them because they want the bread. They've come to him because they want to be fed, they want to be filled.

Jesus says do not work for the food that perishes. Hey, you ate yesterday and guess what, it ain't with you no more.

It's gone, it's digested. That food doesn't last, as I said earlier, right?

The Big Mac only lasts a couple hours, then you need another Big Mac. And if that's all we ever focus on, is on the fulfillment of the flesh, and the filling of the flesh, and those things which are fleshly, the food of this world, if that's what our focus is on, we will miss the big picture.

We will miss what's most important. And what's most important is not filling our flesh, but what's most important is that we receive the spiritual nourishment from God, which is the

Lord Jesus Christ. He says do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life.

And we're going to see the food that endures to eternal life is faith in Jesus. Faith in Christ.

And this, by the way, this is going to go on into the weeks ahead. Faith in Christ is what it means to feast on Him.

To eat His bread, or eat His body and drink His blood, is not a physical thing.

It is a spiritual reality in the same way that when He was talking to the woman at the well,

He said, I will give you living water to drink. He wasn't talking about physical water. He was talking about His words, and His commands, and His gospel.

That is water that gives life in the same way that His words, and His commands, and His gospel are bread and drink to the believer.

They are nourishment to the soul. Do not work for the bread that perishes, but rather work for the food that endures to eternal life, which the

Son of Man will give you. Notice it says He will give it to you. It doesn't say that you will earn it.

We're going to talk about that in a moment, a little bit more about the idea of working. But He says the

Son of Man will give it to you. The Son of Man will give you this nourishment.

And then He says this phrase, He says, for on Him the Father has set

His seal. Now, the idea of setting a seal on something, or setting a seal on someone rather, was a mark of authentication.

If a king in the ancient world wanted to authorize something, he would set his seal on that thing, whether it was a writing, or whether it was any other type of correspondence, or if it was some kind of a law.

We read this in the Old Testament, when the king would make a law, he would put his seal on it, and then it couldn't be broken because it had the seal of the king.

There was something called a signet ring. The ring was worn by the king, and it had an etched emblem on it.

That's where we get the word signet, that's where we get the word sign. It had the king's sign on it. They would melt wax, they would take that ring, they would press it into the wax, and it would leave the king's seal on that document.

This is where we, today, we don't do that anymore, but we have something called a signature. When you, when you take out a loan, or when you go and do business, or when you have to agree to something, you give your signature.

The word signature comes from signet, it means sign. You're putting your sign on that, the sign of your authorization, the sign of your stamp of approval.

You're saying, this is you, really you. And so,

Jesus says that God's seal, God's signet as it were, has been placed upon him.

Now, how? How did God set his seal upon Christ?

A little bit of debate among commentators as to what this is referencing.

The word, the phrase set his seal here is in the Aris, means a one -time event.

And so, some people believe this is actually, FF Bruce is one, believes it actually refers to Jesus' baptism.

Because when Jesus was baptized, what happened? Spirit came down on him, and the father said what?

This is my beloved son, whom I'm well pleased. He's now anointed for ministry. He goes out into the wilderness, and he's tempted for 40 days, and then he begins his ministry, right?

So, Bruce believes that's the setting of the seal upon the son was his baptism.

I think that's possible, and I certainly wouldn't say it's wrong, but I also say this. The father, according to John, and we see this over and over in John, the father is demonstrating his seal on the son every time

Christ does a miracle. And we see in chapter 5, what did Jesus say testifies to him?

Three things. It was John testified to him, Moses testified to him in the scriptures, but what was the last thing?

His works. His works testify that the father has sealed him. The works testify that the father is doing these things, that the father is doing this through him by the power of the spirit.

So when Jesus says, you are, don't work for the food that perishes, but work for the food that endures through eternal life, for on, the son of man will give you, for on him

God the father has set his seal, he's saying, you can see by what

I'm doing that God is with me. You can see by what I'm doing that God has authorized me for this.

He has set his seal upon me. And so, their response comes in verse 28.

Jesus has told them, don't work for the food that endures, or that perishes, but work for the food that endures through eternal life, which the son of man will give you.

And verse 28, they said to him, what must we do? What must we do to be doing the works of God?

What must we do? Now this is not a unique question. Go into later

New Testament passages and you'll read as on the day of Pentecost, when Peter came out and preached.

And he preached that wonderful sermon, quoting from Joel, and declaring what

God had done through the Lord Jesus Christ, and what was the response of the people? What do we do?

What do we do? When Paul is in the prison, and the earthquake happens, and the man comes in, he's about to commit suicide,

Paul says, don't hurt yourself, none of us have left. And he comes down and he looks at Paul and he says, what?

What do I do? What do we do? What do I do? The response of Jesus to this question is very important.

Because they're asking him for something that he gives them an answer they do not expect.

I truly believe they don't expect this answer. Because if you ask many religious leaders, what must we do?

The answer is almost in every religion other than the true religion,

Christianity. Every other religion will have a list of things. You go to a

Muslim imam, what must I do to please Allah? Well, you got five things and here they are, you gotta do these, you gotta pray this many times, you gotta do this, you gotta give this much, you gotta do these things.

But what is the answer from the Christian perspective? What is the answer when someone says, what must we do?

Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. Now, are there things that flow out of that?

Yes. Should we be baptized? Absolutely. Should we follow after Christ and be part of a local body of believers?

Absolutely. Absolutely. Should we study the word and grow in our faith and become more and more sanctified, conform to the image of Christ? Absolutely.

But when somebody sits you down and says, what must I do to be saved? What should be the answer is believe on the

Lord Jesus Christ. Turn from your unbelief and trust in the

Lord Jesus Christ. So when these men or this mixed multitude, we don't know how many women, how many there are.

But when these people come and they say, what must we do to be doing the works of God?

Notice the word works is plural. What must we do to be doing the works of God? What?

Where's the list? What do we need to do?

Give us the list. You told us don't work for the food that perishes, but to work for the food that endures to eternal life that you'll give us.

What must we do to get it? What works must we do? Now, this next portion, this next verse, verse 29,

I have to get a little nerdy with you. So forgive me, but I promise not to nerd out too much.

But this deals with a linguistic issue that is important because Jesus's answer isn't simply believe on the

Lord Jesus and you'll be saved. He doesn't say that. But this is what Jesus says. This is the work of God that you believe in him whom he has sent.

This is the work of God that you believe in him whom he has sent.

Now, the phrase that is somewhat enigmatic is the phrase, this is the work of God.

This is the work of God. Now, I say it's enigmatic because if that phrase wasn't there and the people say, what must we do to be doing the works of God?

If Jesus simply said, believe in him who he sent, that would have made sense and we could just move on.

What do we do? Believe. That's what we do. That's what we do. But Jesus says, this is the work of God.

And anytime you have that phrase of something or of someone, that's called the genitive.

It's called the genitive. And we see different forms of the genitive in scripture.

Like if I talk to you, we have what's called the possessive genitive, which is like if I say the love of God.

That could also be translated God's love. Because it's his. It's possessive.

It's a possessive genitive. It's the love of God. It's God's love. Right? But if I said the fear of God, the fear of God is not

God's fear. God doesn't fear anyone. Right? That's our fear of him.

Right? Or the judgment of God. Well, God is not judging himself.

Right? That's called a subjective genitive. And the subjective genitive is

God is the one doing the judging. Right? In that sense. And then we have,

I'm sorry, I said fear and judgment were the same. Judgment is the subjective. God is the one doing the judgment.

God is the judge. Objective genitive, God is the one who the fear is directed toward.

I just confused everyone because I confused myself. Forgive me. Here's where the argument comes in.

When Jesus says this is the work of God that you believe. Is it subjective or is it objective?

Meaning this. Is this the work God is doing that we believe?

Or is this the work God wants us to do that we believe? You see the difference?

This is the work of God. Is this what God does? Or is this what we do?

Now, the natural reading for many people is that this is what we do. This is our work.

In fact, the New English translation, which is one of my favorite translations, actually translates it that way. It says this is the work

God requires of you that you believe. That's how it's translated. But I take issue with that.

And I take issue with this part of that. That when it says this is the work

God requires of you, that makes faith a work. And what happens when it makes faith a work?

It actually violates other passages of scripture, which says you are saved by grace through faith not of works.

So I struggle with that one. To say that this is the work of God, is the work

God wants you to do, and that is believe. Now, if we translate it more colloquially, this is what

God wants you to do, He wants you to believe, that we could maybe say fine, if that's all that is being said.

If we're taking it in that sense, that would be okay. Because God does want us to believe, amen? But where I struggle with it is belief is not a work.

In fact, if you believe that faith is a work, you believe you're contributing to your salvation.

You're working for it. See, this is what some people believe. They believe in the Old Testament you had all these laws that you had to do, but then

God realized, well, people can't really keep those laws, so we're going to change it now to faith being the one law, and this is the one law you have to do is you have to believe.

And that is just changing the law. Whereas in the Old Testament you had all these laws, but you couldn't do it, so now you just have one law, and that's believe.

It still comes down to you doing it, and that's the struggle. But if we take this in the objective sense, rather that,

I'm sorry, in the subjective sense, that this is the work that God is doing that you believe, I think we can work through it that way.

So imagine if Jesus had said this, this is the work that God does in you.

This is the work that God does in you. Would any of us disagree with that?

If you do, if you believe that faith comes from you, and it's not a work done in you by God, then you're going to have trouble in just a few verses when he says, no one can come to me unless the

Father who sent me draws him. And then a few verses later, no one can come unless the

Father who sent me grants it to him. So if what Jesus is saying is that this is the work

God is doing in you, I think that fits the context of the rest, and it also answers the question that they are asking, what must we do?

Here's the answer. You are to believe, but this is what God is doing. God is the one who opens the heart.

God is the one who gives you the ability. Think of Lydia. You remember Lydia in Acts, I think it's

Acts 17? Paul goes into her town, he preaches the gospel, and the

Bible says that God opened her heart to believe all the things that were said by Paul.

Can I ask you this? Is anybody in this room, do you believe that your faith came from you?

I don't. I believe that faith is a gift from God. I believe that faith is a byproduct of the work of God in the heart.

In fact, really no matter where you stand, and I'm gonna throw out

Calvinism and Arminianism real quick, teaching on this on Wednesday nights for those who want to come.

I don't care whether you're a Calvinist or an Arminian, and if you don't know what those mean, God bless you, but whether you're a

Calvinist or Arminian, you believe that man is dead in sin and unable to come to God unless God draws him.

Even the Arminian believes that. The difference between the Arminian and the Calvinist is not that, because the

Arminian says we're dead in sin and can't come unless God draws us, because everybody believes that, outside of those who would just say we have a natural free will, we can come on our own.

Very few people believe that, even though some do. If you are

Calvinist or Arminian, it doesn't matter. Here's the thing. The Arminian would say

God draws everybody. The Calvinist doesn't say God draws everybody, but that God draws the elect. But either way, you believe

God is the one who actually enables you. God is the one who gives you the ability to come.

And so when Jesus says, this is the work of God that you believe in him whom he has sent,

I do believe there is in that the point of the matter that while we believe, we do not do that apart from the work of God.

And here's, I'll move on, because again, I didn't want to get too bogged down in this.

Here's the thing that really needs to be understood. If you are a believer in the

Lord Jesus Christ, you can say to God, praise the

Lord for opening my heart. Praise the Lord for doing the work in my heart that was necessary for me to believe.

Because outside of that work, we would have never come. Because no one can come unless it is granted to him by the

Father. But also, this reminds us as we move on, that this was the very thing that they lacked.

This is the very thing that they lacked. They said, what do we do to be doing the works of God?

Jesus says, this is the work of God that you believe in him whom he has sent. And the very next words out of their mouth is not, we believe, but rather it is an objection.

Notice, beginning at verse 30, their objection. So they said to him, then what sign do you do that we may see and believe you?

What do you perform? Our fathers ate man in the wilderness. As it is written, he gave them bread from heaven to eat.

Notice what they're saying. They're saying, you just told us that what God wants us to do. You just told us that the work of God is for us to believe.

And now we're saying, why should we believe? What are you going to do for us to believe?

What are you going to do that we would believe? Our fathers ate man in the wilderness every day.

What are you going to do? Verse 32, Jesus said to them, truly, truly,

I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you this bread from heaven, but my father who gives you true bread from heaven.

They didn't say Moses gave them the bread. Why does Jesus mention Moses? Well, I think it's because Moses to them, outside of Abraham, was the most important figure in their religious history.

He would have been comparable to us if somebody mixed together George Washington and Billy Graham.

He was the most important political figure. He was the most important religious figure. You take them both together, boom, and that's

Moses to them. And they're saying, our fathers ate man in the wilderness.

And Jesus said, Moses didn't give that to them. Moses didn't give that to them. My father gave them bread from heaven to eat.

But notice what he says. It was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my father gives you the true bread from heaven.

For the bread of God is he. Oh, I've got to show you this. Look at verse 33. I'll put it on the screen. Notice the change in the pronoun.

For the bread of God is he, not it. He was just talking about man in the wilderness.

Man is a substance. Man is impersonal. It's an it. But he says, the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.

Who is the he in that sentence? Jesus. Jesus is talking about himself. The bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.

And notice what they say. Sir, give us this bread always. Sir, give us this bread always.

Which is very similar, going back to the woman at the well, very similar to the conversation. Remember, Jesus says,

I'm going to give you water, living water. And the woman says, give me this water always so I don't have to keep coming back here and drawing water.

She's still stuck in the natural. She's still stuck thinking it's physical, liquid water. And Jesus is talking about his words and his gospel and his commandments.

He's telling about himself. And she says, give us this water. Give me this water. And here they say the same thing.

Give us this bread. And notice verse 35. Verse 35.

Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life.

Whoever comes to me shall not hunger. Whoever believes in me shall never thirst.

By the way, that's where we get coming and believing are the same thing. Because he just made them synonymous.

That's why later when he says no one can come to me, he's saying no one can believe in me. He is making a one -to -one connection.

He says no one can come to him. No one can believe in him. That's verse 44.

But here he says, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger. Whoever believes in me shall never thirst.

But I say to you, I said to you that you've seen me and you do not believe.

I'm not going to go 37 to 40. I'm going to do that next week. But I'm going to stop right here and I want to just say these words in verse 36.

He says, I said to you, you've seen me and you do not believe.

That is the heart of the discourse. The heart of the discourse is this crowd saw

Jesus do the miracles. Some of them ate the very food that came from his hand miraculously.

Some of them may even still have a portion of that food in their bellies and yet they do not believe.

And I ask you this question. Is it possible that a person can believe in Jesus for a season but it not be genuine faith?

And you say, but that sounds contradictory because you just said they believe but then you said they don't believe.

The Bible is clear about this. There is such a thing as false faith.

There is such a thing as false belief. In fact, the

Bible uses this Greek phrase, pseudo -adelphoi. Do you know what pseudo means?

Like when a writer uses a fake name in a book, he calls it a pseudonym, a fake name.

Adelphoi is the word for brother. So what would be a pseudo -adelphoi? A false brethren, a fake brother, someone who is not genuine.

Is it true that you have known people throughout your life who began the

Christian walk and then later departed from it? All of us are doing this.

Now we have to come to one of two conclusions. Either you can believe, be born again, filled with the

Holy Spirit, sanctified by the Spirit, set apart from the world and then at some point abandon that faith, lose the gift of the

Spirit, the Spirit would depart, you would lose the gift of regeneration and you would go back into a position of being a lost person.

Now that's what many Christians believe. They believe that you can be genuinely saved and then at some point lost again.

I mean, that's a pretty common belief, that you can lose your salvation.

And I know how they get there. I don't want to say that that's, oh, that's silly. No, I know how they get there.

I've read Hebrews. I've read the New Testament. There's all kinds of passages which talk about falling from grace.

Paul talks about it in Galatians. We read in Hebrews about those who have been enlightened, who have tasted of the heavenly gift, who have been made partakers of the

Holy Spirit and yet have fallen away. We read about that. But the question comes, and this is the genuine question, and I'm really focusing on verse 36 now.

The question is, did they truly believe to begin with? Were they truly born again?

Were they truly filled with the Spirit of God? Jesus said, a sower went out to sow a seed, and the seed fell among the path, and the birds of the air came and ate the seed.

And some seed fell in the rocky soil, and it sprang up for a season, but it withered away because it had no root.

And some seed fell among the weeds, and the weeds choked out the seed, and it died.

But the seed that fell in the good soil went on to produce a harvest, some thirty, some sixty, some one hundred fold.

Do you remember that parable? I've debated, brothers, from other denominations on whether or not you can lose your salvation, and often

I will point to that passage and I will say, do you believe that this is a picture of someone losing their salvation, or do you believe this is a picture of the seed not taking root?

Because that's what Jesus says. He says they withered away, because what? Because they had no root.

Because they had no root. When Jesus looks at this group of people, He says,

I say to you, you have seen me, but you don't believe. Now, every one of those people could argue with Jesus, hey man, we just crossed the

Sea of Galilee. We have been walking with you, some of them possibly for a while.

How are you going to look at me and say I don't believe? But see,

Jesus knew their heart. Jesus could diagnose the heart. He said,

I say to you, you've seen me, and yet you do not believe.

What a dangerous condition it is to be in, to have seen the works of God, to have seen what the

Lord can do, have heard His word, and yet not believe.

And you know there are those who will be in that condition. Jesus said, on that day many will come to me, and they will say,

Lord, Lord, did we not cast out demons in your name?

Did we not do many miracles in your name, and mighty works in your name?

Jesus said, and I will say unto them, depart from me, I never knew you.

Notice it doesn't say, I knew you for a while, but you fell away.

He says, I never knew you. Beloved, it should cause genuine introspection among all of us to realize that there is something called false faith.

There is something called pseudo -adelphoi, a fake brethren. And this is why every week we have an opportunity here at Sovereign Grace.

Every week we come around the table. And what does Paul admonish us to do when we come around the table?

Examine ourselves. Examine ourselves. Now I do not want you to live in constant hand -wringing and fear, because that would not be my heart for any of you, and it's not

God's heart for you. He doesn't want us to live in fear. He says, perfect love casts out fear. But we ought to know that we believe in the

Lord Jesus Christ. And I am convinced that people who know they're living a lie, know they're living a lie.

Can people be self -deceived? Yes. And it is possible. But I think for many people who live the lie, it is to their heart an obvious thing.

And so I would ask you this morning, you who have seen the

Lord and His word, you have heard the word from the Lord, from His word, do you believe in the

Lord? Has God done the work in your heart that you would believe?

Or do you still stand on the outside, going through the motions, but have a heart that has yet to be changed?

My prayer for all of us is that not only would we know and have great confidence that we have believed in the

Lord Jesus Christ, but that our lives would testify to that truth. We see that throughout the scripture, that our lives will bear testimony to our faith.

So my encouragement to you now, as we begin to prepare our hearts for communion, is to examine yourself yet again.

Ask yourself the difficult question. Do I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ?

Have I trusted Him not just with my temporal needs, but with my eternity? And am

I sure that when I close my eyes in this world, I will see

His face? Let's pray. Father, salvation is of the

Lord. It is not something we can accomplish on our own. We cannot create for ourselves any hope.

All we can do is receive the bread of life and trust in Him.

And even having done that, Lord, we know it is a work of You and not us. So I pray,

Lord, now, for everyone under the sound of my voice, that You would draw them to Yourself, if they have not yet come.

And for those who have come, that You would give them confidence that they have trusted in You. Lord, may

Your goodness draw us. May Your love draw us.

And may we be reminded that it is that same love that keeps us. And we pray this in Jesus' name.