I was going to post a comment, but found that section was turned on for Mike’s Post.
BTW, for those who read my reblogs of his Posts or see various comments I make on his site…..I do this to capture the thoughts I have while I am reading the posts. I should probably be more disciplined at this. But so often what Mike writes echos in my mind and brings back into focus one of the connected passages from my Bible readings or a sermon I’ve heard from one of the several great Pastors I listen to. It’s these connections, or an emphasis on a point or verse Mike has used that I am intending to affirm and pass on to anyone reading. Hopefully useful comments and not Rants.
For this one, I highly recommend looking at Dr. S. Lewis Johnsons work on Soteriology. There is a Five Part series on Election. I keep looking for one of my favorite thoughts in Dr. Johnson’s writing where he clearly articulates the logic of the Three persons of the Holy Trinity – God work with and not against each other in bringing us into his Kingdom.
Below are some to texts in quotes from Dr. Johnson’s Sermons…yes these are long..
Now, one thing that we notice from that 6th chapter by those that are given is that they not only are given but they have certainly of salvation because in verse 39 of chapter 6 he says, “And this is the Father’s will which hath sent me that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing but should raise it up again at the last day.” Now, what an interesting thing. “No one can come except the given, all the given shall come. And furthermore, of the given not a single one shall be lost.” That is an ironclad argument. That’s an ironclad argument for unconditional elections and it’s an ironclad argument for eternal security. The eternal security of the believers in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Our Lord prayed about these things. They were important to him. They weren’t simply theories but they were important things. “As Thou hast given him power over all flesh that he should give eternal life to as many as Thou hast given him.” He gives, my dear friend, not life but eternal life. The gift of eternal life in itself means that we cannot lose it. It’s eternal life.
Now, all authority has been given to the son for this purpose and all attempts to thwart the authority of the Lord Jesus are, as one of the commentators said, “Weaker than a cobweb before the loaded cannons mouth.” Now, it would be natural at this point for someone to say, “What is eternal life?” And so in verse 3 of John chapter 17 we have John’s footnote concerning eternal life. And this is life eternal that they might know the, the only true or genuine God in Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent. There are two words in the Greek language translated true in the Authorized Version of the New Testament. One means true as over against false. One means true as over against spurious. So one of them means true in the sense of true. The other means genuine as over against spurious. This is the word that means genuine. “So this is life eternal that they might know Thee, the only genuine God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent.”
Now, I’d like for you to notice first that our Lord says that eternal life is qualitative, not simply quantitative. Everybody lives forever. Some in the presence of the Lord, some in the lake of fire according to Scripture. Eternal life is qualitative. It is continuous life in the knowledge of the Lord God. It’s an experiential knowledge too for this word know is the know of experience. Not simply intellectual but intellectual and experiential. And furthermore, you will notice that this knowledge of the Lord cannot be severed from the knowledge of Jesus Christ. “This is life eternal that they might know Thee, the only genuine God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent.” We cannot acquiesce with those who say, “I do not worship the Christian God but I worship our god. The god of the Buddhist, or the god of the Mohammedan, or the god of the Unitarian, or the god of anyone, even professing Christians whose god is not the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no such genuine god. The genuine god is the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, the other gods are not God at all. The authority for this is the Lord Jesus Christ. One might say, “My, what a bigot the person is who said this?” But it is our Lord who has said this. This is one of these uncomfortable onlys, as some contemporary theologians have called them. Uncomfortable onlys of evangelical Christianity. “This is life eternal that they might know Thee, the only genuine God, and Jesus Christ who Thou has sent.” But our Lord is responsible first and foremost for the uncomfortable onlys of the Christian faith.
And finally, the knowledge of God has an objective factual side. “This is life eternal that they might know Thee, the only genuine God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent.” The God who is the Father of the incarnate son, who has visited our planet and has accomplished the atoning work — why anyone would want to fight against this when it means eternal salvation is difficult to understand unless we understand the nature of the rebellious character of the human heart.
Now finally, there is a prayer regarding his eternal sonship. We have had the prayer in verse 1 and 2 of the messianic sonship, but now the eternal sonship. “I have glorified Thee on the earth by finishing the work that Thou gavest me to do.” This is the foundation of the following prayer. The earthly work is finished. The father has been glorified ideally. It will be accomplished in a few short hours, actually less than twenty-four hours and our Lord will be hanging upon the cross. He writes it seems to me he prays from the standpoint of the cross by saying that he has glorified the Father by finishing the work that he gave him to do. If he speaks from this vantage point in a moment he will add, “On the cross it is finished and the atoning work will have been accomplished.” Look at the petition. “And now, O Father (verse 5), glorify Thou me.” Now, he has just said, “Glorify Thy son that the son may glorify Thee.” One might think that these are identical prayers but they are not. Look carefully. The Bible is the inspired word of God. It is worthy of the closest scrutiny.
He says, “Glorify Thou me with the glory that I had by Thy side before the world was.” “Glorify Thy me by the side of Thyself with the glory which I had by They said before the world was.” Now, in this Gospel he had said, “In the beginning was the word and the word was with God, and the word was God. And then at a point in time the word became flesh.” Our Lord’s Prayer stretches back into the ages of the past long before the creation of this material physical universe and long before the incarnation of the Son of God. What we have here is a prayer regarding the preincarnate glory that the Son of God possessed.
Christ Praying for the Son
I would say check out all of Dr. Johnson’s work on John 6 and 17, the Doctrine of Election, and Efficacious Grace.
I’m still looking for the exact quote myself. I think this is a prime example…I’m sure he said it elsewhere and in one instance discussed how the three persons of God, the Trinity cooperate and don’t work against each other to bring the exact people God chooses to faith. But this will do see the bold.
Now, Mr. Prier when he was telling you what he was telling you before hand, of course had not heard this message, but he knew what I was going to say. Mr. Prier has studied logic and mathematics. He’s a graduate of Annapolis, and he also has taught mathematics in the University of Oklahoma, and he has studied logic, and he likes anything logical. And he first many years ago pointed this out to me that a necessary condition is a circumstance in whose absence a given event could not occur. Or a given thing could not exist. For example in verse 65 of this chapter we read, “Therefore said I unto you that no man can come to me except it were given unto him by the Father.” That’s the necessary condition for the existence of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. “No man can come unto me except it were given unto him of the Father.” That’s called a necessary condition. No man can really come to Jesus Christ unless it has been given to him to do it by God the Father.
Now all of the elect are the given of God. We will later see that very plainly in the Gospel of John. The Father gave the body of believers to Jesus Christ. We are the given ones by God the Father. And no man can come unless he’s given. Now a sufficient condition is a circumstance such that when ever it exists a given event occurs or a given situation exists.
Now we have a sufficient condition in verse 37. Notice the words. “All that the Father giveth me shall come to me.” Now when we have a necessary condition and a sufficient condition, well we have what we call logically an airtight case. There is no way in which we can escape the fact that the Bible teaches an unconditional election of the people of God, a sovereign sovereignty. Let me illustrate. “No man can come to me unless he’s given. Everyone given shall come. No man can come unless he’s given. Everyone given shall come.”
All right, can you think of some exceptions? Perhaps you would say, “Suppose everybody is given. Suppose sufficient grace means that everybody is given.” Well if everybody is given then verse 37 says, “All that the Father giveth me shall come.” Thus we would have to believe in universalism, but the Bible clearly does not each universalism. Well that won’t work. Suppose none are given. Suppose there is no such thing as being given. Suppose there is no such thing as this doctrine of election. Well then no man can come to me except it were given him of the Father.” No one would be saved if there is no given of the Father.” Well suppose we come by our free will. Well it says in verse 65, “No man can come to me except it were given him of the Father.” We cannot come of our free will, which by definition means that we come of ourselves. We have to be given by the Father. So free will cannot do it.
Well suppose we say, “We must exercise faith.” That’s true. We must exercise faith. Faith is however the coming and that faith is given. So everyone who is given to me shall come. He shall exercise faith. Faith itself is the result of the giving of God. In the ages past in the counsels of the eternal Trinity, the Father elected a people of God. The Son of God agreed to come and execute the work of redemption laying the foundation for their salvation, winning for them eternal life and the gift of faith by which they would receive it, and the Holy Spirit also covenanted to apply that gift to the people of God. That is what is meant when we read, “Everyone given shall come and no one can come unless he’s given.” This, my dear friends, is the doctrine of the prophets. It is the doctrine of the ambassador of the King. It is the doctrine of the apostle to the Gentiles. It is the doctrine of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is the doctrine of heaven, and unless we bow to this doctrine we shall not understand the teaching of God. “No man can come to me,” Jesus said, “unless the Father who sent me draws him.” But when we come by the grace of God he will raise us up at the last day. Hallelujah, Hallelujah, what a doctrine, what comfort, what assurance we have in all the experiences of life. We are given by God the Father to Jesus Christ as the people of God.
Well it’s an airtight case. I don’t know why people don’t rejoice in this. I don’t understand why they don’t shout from the house tops the wonderful program and plan of God, and incidentally we are called upon to preach a universal gospel because we don’t know, we mere humans we don’t know the make up of the final family of God. We proclaim this message. Trust the Holy Spirit to be the instrumentality of the Father’s drawing to Jesus Christ. We preach the glories of the Son of God the greatness of his salvation and invite men to come to him, and promise them on the authority of the word of God eternal life. The Lord Jesus says in the last few verses, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life. I am that bread of life.” What a magnificent claim. In fact his is simply a reiteration of those claims.
This recalls to mind Rabbi Duncan’s great Trilemma which C.S. Lewis and others have laid a great deal of stress upon. Rabbi Duncan said, “No mortal man made the claims that Jesus Christ made. If they were to make them, we would think that he was mad.” Duncan who was the professor of Hebrew at the University of Edinborough said, “Christ the deceived man kind by conscious fraud. Oh ye was himself diluted, or he was divine. There is no getting out of the Trilemma.” And it’s been called, Rabbi Duncan’s Trilemma since that time. Christians have never been in any doubt about which of these propositions is true. He is not deceived. He is not a deceiver. He is divine. “I am that bread of life.”
What did he mean when he said, “I am that bread of life.”? Well you remember in the Old Testament God fed Israel with the manna. He fed them everyday. This manna came down from heaven. They went out and gathered it. It lasted for one day except when it fell on Friday morning. Then it will last two days, through the Sabbath. Modernists have sought for a long time to find something out in the deserts there that might correspond to the manna. So they could say it really wasn’t something supernatural. It was just imply feeding off of things that fall off the tamarisk tree or off the lichens or perhaps there are some insects that give out some little globules of something that’s kind of sweet. They forge that the text says, “It came down from heaven, and vast multitude was fed by the manna for years and years as they wondered through the desert.” It’s a supernatural provision of the Lord God who gave them quails in the evening and the manna in the morning.
Now it was designed to feed them through the time of the wilderness journeys and when they reached the end of them. They had been fed miraculously by a loving caring Lord God. He said, “I am that brad of life.” You can see the analogy between the two. In the case of the manna it was incomprehensible. If you had picked up the manna as they did, do you know what they called it? Manna, mon hou in Hebrew its not really quite Hebrew, maa hou would be Hebrew. Mon hou. But since mon is also a word found in some of the cognate languages of the east, mon hou means what is it? And so it’s like picking up something and saying, “What’s it name?” Like a minute ago when I couldn’t remember that saying which was not in my notes. A sign of old age of course. [Laughter] So anyway they picked it up and they said, “What is it?” it was incomprehensible to them. It was God’s provision for them. Something like warfrost it has been said, but nevertheless it was incomprehensible, so the person of our Lord is incomprehensible ultimately to us for he’s the divine Son of God. It was small round, white, transparent, tasted like honey. Oh, the preciousness of the antitype. The Lord Jesus Christ, all of this designed to represent facets of his own character. It also tasted like fresh oil. For he was one who was born through the Spirit and anointed by the Spirit for his ministry, but in the case of the manna it was physical life as over against he spiritual life of the bread of life. It was a temporal existence as over against the eternal existence that comes from the Son of God, when we believe in him.
It was also non-atoning bread as over against the atoning bread of life, who as he himself says here, “I will give for the life of the world. Both Jews and Gentiles may receive the life that I give.” Oh, the immense nature of the Father’s provision. He gives the Son and he guides the saints to the Son. Isn’t that magnificent? Look at verse 32, “Verily, verily I say to you, Moses gave you not that bread, from heaven, but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven. I am given by the Father.” And then verse 44, “No man can come except the Father who hath sent me. Draw him.” Verse 65, “No man can come to me except it were given unto him of the Father.” He gives the Son, and he guides men to the Son. And thus we are saved. If you are here today and you have received the forgiveness of sins it is because in ages past you were given to Christ by God the Father, and he has guided you to him.
Many years ago I read the story of George Muller. Magnificent man. By faith in God fed thousands of orphans in Bristol. Never sent out any appeals, never sent out any prayer letters, didn’t send out and said we’re doing this and we’re doing that. And we’re doing the other things, and here is a self addressed enclosed envelope for you to give. He relied on the Lord. That’s what all Christian work should do, rely on the Lord then we can tell what’s Christian and what’s not in harmony with his word. As it is now it’s a work of propaganda. But at any rate Mr. Muller looked to the Lord. He was a German. He arrived in Britain, a young man having graduated from university. Had studied under some very interesting men. We don’t have time to talk about. But in the story of Mr. Muller, he said when he arrived in Tynemouth in England he was studying the Scriptures, and he learned several things. First of all he came to except the supreme authority of the Bible. He also learned some other things. He learned the importance of the doctrine of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, which he had not realized previously, and then he changed his attitude to the doctrine of election. He said that he arrived in Tynemouth he called it a devilish doctrine. Isn’t it amazing? People can call a devilish doctrine, Christians can call the doctrine of election a devilish doctrine when it is given by the Lord, given by Paul, given by the prophets, given by John the Baptist, given by the whole teaching of the word of God, and men have the nerve to call it a devilish doctrine.
I preached over in the southeast. Had two or three preachers over there that like to go around whenever my name is mentioned. They way his doctrine is from the pit of hell. Mr. Muller said he thought it was a devilish doctrine. Then he says he began to read the New Testament about this, these are his precise words. “To my great astonishment I found that the passages which speak decidedly for election and persevering grace were about four times as many as those which speak apparently against these truth, and even those few shortly after when I had examined and understood them serve to confirm emergency in the above doctrine of the sovereign election.” So the election of God my dear friend, is sovereign election it’s sovereign sovereignty in which God is the author of our salvation.
Someone may say, “But don’t I have to respond?” Yes, you have the responsibility of responding to the word of God. The key word is eat. Verse 50 and verse 51, “This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. (Verse 51,) I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever:” Eat, Augustan said crede et monducoste. Believe, and you have eaten. Trust and you have eaten. We invite you to trust, and then if you have any questions about it. Trust, but the time will come. Being taught of God and learning of him you’ll come to understand that the act of trust was the sovereign gift of a sovereign God, and then in your prayers down upon your knees you’ll glorify the God of heaven by saying salvation is of the Lord.
May God help you to come to that place? May God help you to realize that salvation is the work of God? And may not one of you be turned away thinking maybe I am not elect. You know you can settle that question right now. Do you know how? Creded trust. Come to him. Renounce your own self-righteousness, in your own heart say, “Lord, I rely upon what Jesus Christ has done for my salvation. He’s paid the price for the sins of sinners. I rest upon him.” If you are not willing to come, why do you complain? You have exactly what you wish. May God help you to come to Christ? Believe in him. That’s a decision I can’t make for you. Your father cannot. Your mother cannot. Your wife cannot. Your husband cannot. Only you can make that decision. May God bring you to that place of trust right now?
[Prayer] Our gracious God and heavenly Father we are so thankful to Thee. We acknowledge the sovereignty of electing grace. We thank Thee that Thou hast brought us to the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. “No man can come to Thee except the Father, which hath sent me. Draw him.” We thank Thee Lord and we look forward to the conclusion. I will raise him up at the last day. Oh, Father if there should be one person in this audience who has not yet come, oh give them n o rest nor peace until they rest in Christ. For Jesus’ sake. Amen.
Human Inability and Divine AbilityPosted in: Gospel of John
Rainbow Trout 