If you have read much of my blog, you know I’m a fan of Dr. S. Lewis Johnson, and particularly his sermons on the Gospel of John.
That’s a great summary Mike. John 6 is perhaps my favorite passage, or at least I refer to it more often than many others. Some don’t actually hear what Jesus says, but in this chapter the message is clear. Jesus even reminds the disciples of what he said in v44 a second time in v65. Yet this is what makes v66 one of the saddest verses in the Bible. I made this comment this morning to Mike Ratliff’s latest post.
Over the years I spent a lot of hours listening to Dr. S. Lewis Johnson’s sermons, he was a great Bible teacher. He had a line about God’s Sovereign Sovereignty which stuck with me:
“Most people who read the Bible at all will tell you that they believe in the sovereignty of God, but then when you ask them what do you mean by the sovereignty of God, it is obvious that they all have different ideas of what it means. It’s like people saying, “I believe in God.” They don’t necessarily believe in the same God. People who say they believe in the sovereignty of God don’t necessarily believe in the same sovereignty. And what this teaches this passage, is the sovereign sovereignty of God. And I think that you will see that as we go through these verses that when we say that we believe in the sovereignty of God there is a certain understanding of that sovereignty that makes it sovereignty, and it is possible to speak of the sovereignty of God and not really believe in the biblical sovereignty of God. So lets turn to John chapter 6, and I want to read verse 41 through verse 51 for our Scripture reading.”
In other places Dr. Johnson has added some clarification about how God’s eternal decrees are so important, I recommend searching for them…I recall him describing how God not only decrees the ends (what actually comes to be), but also the means by which events get there, the means. Something to think about. And one of the reasons Scripture invites us to preach the gospel to everyone.
Rainbow Trout 