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Transcript

Alright, thank you very much. And hello again radio friends. How in the world are you? You doing alright today? Well, I trust everything’s alright at your house. Glad to be back with you. This is your good friend, Bob Cook. We’re looking at the Gospel of John chapter six. And just discussing some of the things that are highlights in the record of what happened when the crowd went looking for Jesus the day after the feeding of the 5,000. He said, “You’re not looking for me because of the miracles. You’re looking because you’re hungry and want a free lunch. And there isn’t any because I am the bread of life, and this is a different kind of a relationship now that we’re talking about. The emphasis of your life,” He said, “has to be not just on food on the table, but that which endures unto everlasting life, which the son of man shall give unto you. I am the bread of life.” Well, now they’re asking a couple of questions. The first is, “What shall we do that we might work the works of God?” They, quite correctly, assumed that when Jesus said, “Labor for the meat which endureth unto everlasting life,” they quite correctly assumed that that could be defined as doing the work of God, the works of God.

And so the answer comes in John 6:29, “Jesus answered and said unto them, ‘This is the work of God that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent.” Verse 39 is quite similar. “This is the Father’s will which hath sent me, that all of all which He hath given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. And this is the will of Him that sent me that everyone would seeth the Son and believeth on Him, may have everlasting life and I’ll raise Him up at the last day.” “What shall we do that we might work the works of God?” He said, “Believe on Him whom He hath sent.” And what will be the result of that? You’ll start doing God’s will, that’s verse 29, and you’ll have a share in the resurrection. “I’ll raise Him up again at the last day and you’ll have everlasting life.” Not a duration of life, but a quality of life as well. What shall we do that we might do the works of God?” He said, “Believe on Him whom He hath sent. He that cometh to me shall never hunger. He that believeth on me shall never thirst.” When He says, believe on Him, He says, commit yourself to Him that word “come,” in our way of looking at it will mean commit yourself to Him. “And he that believeth on me,” that means risk the whole situation on Him and His word. So he said, “This is the work of God that you believe on Him whom He hath sent.”

It seems a little oversimplified, doesn’t it? We always look for something extra to do. I’ve been all over the world, and wherever I’ve gone, I’ve found people doing something to attempt to gain favor with whatever deity they were serving. Bowing down before an idol, leaving some little offering of food or incense, going through all sorts of personal sacrifices. Here’s a person who measures his length in the dust as a pilgrimage. He gets up and, standing on the mark in the dust where he has reached with his fingers, he then prostrates himself and reaches out again and makes a mark in the dust. He is making a pilgrimage by prostrating himself like that, measuring his own length in the dust hundreds and hundreds of times until finally he comes to the holy place where he bows and hopes that he has gained some merit. The person who has, as it was a man that my friend Joe Weatherly tells about at the shore of the River Ganges, this man had his right hand stretched high above his head. And it was just a bony hand now, the flesh and the muscles had dropped away. The muscles had atrophied and that scarecrow of a right hand and arm was up there, straight up toward the sky.

And Joe Weatherly said, he asked him, “Sahib, why is it that way?” He said, the man said and answered, “15 years ago, I made a vow that I would raise my right hand to heaven and I would never lower it until I found peace and forgiveness of my sins.” And Joe asked him, that the arm was now useless. The joints had calcified. It was simply a stiff appendage pointing up toward the sky. And Joe Weatherly said, he asked him, “Well, Sahib, have you found peace and forgiveness?” The man looked at him so sadly and said, “No, not yet. Not yet.” The heartbreak of the whole world is that they’re trying to do something. And God is saying not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us. By the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost which He shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our savior. Not by works of righteousness, by grace. It means free for nothing. God’s riches at Christ’s expense. Free for nothing. “By grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; It is the gift of God not of works lest any man should boast.” We are His workmanship. God does the work.

You say it’s too simple. Well, I have to tell you that all over the world, there are people who are living in the tragedy of unfulfilled desires and hopes because they still try to do something. Paul says this of Israel, for instance, they, being ignorant of God’s righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness, have entirely missed the righteousness of God. Oh, that’s such a sad business, isn’t it? Romans 10:3, “They, being ignorant of God’s righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness, either trying to do something; they have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth.” The Lord Jesus fulfilled the law and He’s God’s passover lamb. He was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our inequities. He bore the penalty for sin. “God commendeth His love toward us in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Little word “for” is the Greek word, huper, up over, instead of, in our place. Christ died in our place.

And so he said, “This is the work of God that you believe on Him whom He had sent.” That word “believe” means commit yourself to Him completely. Trust Him and obey Him. That’s God’s work. God does the work when you do the committing and the believing. Would you stop trying somehow to appear religious? Stop trying to do something to make yourself feel better about things or to carry a little favor with the Almighty? And would you admit, for once, that you cannot make it on your own? And that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. You can’t make it. Would you admit that and confess it to God and say, “Lord, I can’t save myself and I can’t forgive myself, and I can’t live a life like I ought to, come and live Your life in me.” Let the Lord Jesus come in. He says, “Behold, I stand at the door”, that’s the door of your life, “and knock. If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him and sup with him and he with me.”

Now, you’ve got human nature showing up. They said, “What sign show us thou then that we may see and believe thee?” This is the crowd that wanted to make Him king yesterday. Now they’re saying, “You show us and we’ll believe. We’re from Missouri, you gotta show us.” How fickle the crowd is. What sign show us thou that we may see and believe? You know, of course, that God’s order is not show me and I’ll believe. He says, “You believe and I’ll show you.” There’s the difference. So then they said, “Well, you fed us yesterday miraculously, but that’s nothing new. Our fathers had heavenly meals in the wilderness. He gave them bread from heaven to eat.” Jesus said, “Well, Moses didn’t give you that bread, My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is He which cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the world. I’m the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never hunger and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.”

Now there are two stages, it seems to me, in dealing with the Savior. And if this seems too elementary for you, well, just take a little nap and you’ll feel better when you wake up. There are two stages in dealing with the Lord Jesus. One is indicated by this word “come”. He that cometh to me. And the other is indicated by the word “believeth on me”. John 6:35. Now, how does that work out in your own life? I think there is a point at which you give up on everything, but Jesus. You stop fooling with you own ideas or with something imported from elsewhere, you stop your poor vain efforts to pull yourself up by your own spiritual boot straps, and you say, “Jesus, You’re the only hope I have. You’re it. I have to have some help from You or no one else can help me.” Now, that’s what’s involved in that verb “cometh”. Have you done that yet? See, this is something that many people never really grapple with, honestly. They’re still trying to cover up, still trying to achieve on their own, still trying to explain away their failures.

Have you honestly leveled with the Lord Jesus and said, “Lord, I just can’t make it on my own. I’m not sufficient to think anything of myself,” as Paul says in 2 Corinthians. “I can’t do anything for myself. I can’t forgive myself. I can’t cleanse myself. I can’t keep myself. I can’t live a life that’s significant and meaningful in terms of eternity. Can’t do any of these things. Jesus, I have to come to you.” The old song sings, “Out of my bondage, sorrow, and night, Jesus, I come. Jesus, I come.” “He that cometh to me,” That’s really is what’s involved here. Give up on yourself and turn to Jesus and honestly admit that He’s the only one that can do anything for you. That goes for you if you’re an alcoholic or a substance abuser of some sort, under the influence of narcotics, or if you’re mixed up in some sexual tangle, or if you’ve got other problems that you just can’t handle. You have to stop alibiing and say, “Jesus I can’t handle this. You have to help me.” That’s what’s involved in that verb “cometh to me”. Alright?

Then He says, “He that believeth on me,” and that’s commitment. That means you get to the end of yourself and you say, “Here I go. Whether or not it works. Whether or not, anything happens. I’m gonna trust Jesus.” Commitment means you actually give it over to Him, all right? “He that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me,” and that’s a Greek verb, pisteuo, which actually means commit it all to him. Absolutely committing it all to Him. He says, “You’ll never thirst. I’ll never fail you.” And the one thing I have to tell you, beloved, is that this verse is so very true. You give up on yourself and you commit yourself to Jesus and He will never fail you. Believe it. Try it out for size yourself.

Dear Father, today oh, may we commit ourselves completely to the Lord Jesus and see His wonder-working power in our lives, I ask in His name, Amen.

Till I meet you once again by the way of radio, walk with the King today and be a blessing!