John 6:44-45

In John 6, Jesus Christ had been answering the Jews. He said that He was the bread that came down from heaven, and they were murmuring, "Is not this Joseph's son?" and so forth. He really offended them when He said:

Here we can see one of the Father's jobs. I do not know if I have ever thought of it as deeply before, but the Father is the one that does the calling. Ancient of Days, the very living God, the Head of the universe, the Head of everything, has reached out and He has called you and me personally, and He has given us His Son. Later on I will show you what His Son does with us.

The term "draw," where it says "the Father who sent Me draws him," indicates that you do not really want to come. God the Father has reached out. This is, again, the Ancient of Days, and He has reached out to you and said, "I am going to call this person into My church."

He calls you and, at first, you start to pull back. The term "draw" here I have likened to a star drag on the fishing reel; it is a brake. The fish can run, but the star drag slows him down. You just have to drag so that he can pull away, but it tires him out.

God starts to call you and all of a sudden you find out, "Well, yes, I think I will come to church."

And then you say, "What? They meet on the Sabbath?" and then you run away. "I cannot play anymore; I cannot do things on the weekend; I always work on the Sabbath." So you leave, but then God slowly draws you back and then you say, "Okay, I think I will attend church. What? Tithing? First tithe? I cannot tithe; I cannot afford it." Then you run away again and then God brings you back and then you hear about second and third tithe. I even had one man say, "Is there a fourth tithe?"

God begins to draw you and you begin to see things that you have not seen before.

John 6:44-45

That something that bridges the gap between us and God is initiated by God. See, no man can come to the Son unless the Father makes an effort to initiate a bridging of that chasm in order that there might be a fellowship because man will not do it. Indeed, he cannot do it. Why? Because he is so deceived. Mankind does not even know where to look for God. Satan has done his work of deception remarkably well. He has the whole world confused, deceived, according to God's own Word.

So mankind is helpless in that regard and all he can do because of his helplessness is to come up with idols, false religions with false doctrines and false ways. It is absolutely essential that God initiate the bridging of the chasm between us or we would not do it. We cannot do it. We are too deceived to be able to do it. If it is up to man, then we can hardly expect to have fellowship with God or with others under that circumstance.

I think, brethren, that even we do not fully appreciate how deep and thorough the deception of us has been. I wanted to read verse 45 because I want you to see here what Jesus is saying is that the scriptures will play a major role in the removal of the deception and the drawing us to Christ. "They shall all be taught by God." That is something that appears in the Old Testament.

But you have not been taught in person, as it were, by God and yet we claim to know God's truth and we claim to have fellowship. Where did that instruction come from? It came from out of God's Word and His Word is true. In other words, we are introduced to truth by God in some way. There is a mechanism by which He accomplishes this.