"THEY SHALL ALL BE TAUGHT BY GOD"
John 6:45

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A spiritual awakening occurred during the third week of June 1975 in my hometown, Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The venue was Victory Chapel on Tise Avenue, a small structure that had been converted from a residence into a church building. The church assembling in that chapel was pastored by my dear friend Fred Wood (to whom I am indebted for some of the details herein). A visiting minister preached nightly that week in evangelistic services. Attendees saw the mighty hand of God at work in a marvelous manner. (They also witnessed the nefarious hand of the adversary, for someone tried to set a fire under the building at 2 a.m. one morning in the hope of burning it down.)

A good number of attendees became deeply troubled regarding the condition of their souls through the preaching of the gospel. One of these was one of my classmates in a local school of religion. He spoke with me in a telephone conversation in the latter part of the week. He tearfully told me had been made to realize that he was lost. But some of his friends in the school, and also his wife, were trying their best to convince him that this was not the case. They told him the preacher was a false prophet who had caused him undue concern. To the best of my knowledge, he heeded his friends, not the gospel.

At least three men claiming to be gospel preachers also were convicted of their sins. They experienced not "the sorrow of the world [that] produces death", but rather "godly sorrow [that] produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted" (2 Corinthians 7:10). They therefore were gloriously converted to the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I eventually lost contact with one of them, especially after I relocated abroad about three-and-a-half years later. But the second is my dear friend Tim James. Shortly after that time he relocated to Cherokee, North Carolina, where from that time he has faithfully served the Lord as a gospel preacher and pastor.

The third man was myself. I was at that time a devout Calvinist and Baptist. The first meeting I attended was on Monday night, June 16. I sat in the front row on the preacher's left side. He took his text from John 6:45, in which Jesus Christ declares, "It is written in the prophets, 'And they shall all be taught by God.' Therefore everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me." His message was titled What God Teaches a Sinner. He preached on what sinners are taught by the Father regarding themselves. He here set forth the Scriptural doctrine of the total depravity of mankind, and ably showed us all that we are by nature sinners in need of a Savior. As I was an ardent Calvinist, I heartily and vocally expressed my agreement with all he preached.

On the next night, June 17, I sat a couple pews from the front on the right side of the preacher, beside my wife. (It was her birthday.) The preacher spoke from the same text and on the same subject, but this time on what sinners are taught by the Father regarding His Son, the Savior of sinners. He had not progressed far into his message before I realized I had never truly learned of Christ – even though I claimed to be a preacher of Christ. When the realization of my plight first struck me, I said aloud, "I'm lost!" The preacher said, "Leave him alone! The Lord will deal with him." Then he continued preaching. I shortly afterward said a little louder than before, "I'm lost!" But the preacher continued his message. I shortly afterward exclaimed, "O God! O God! I've been given a counterfeit!" (referring to the "gospel" I had embraced while in Pentecostalism), and ran out of the auditorium and into a classroom. There, all alone with the Lord, I begged Him to save me. He responded by revealing to this sinner Christ in all His saving glory, and then drawing me to Christ, and giving to me both the will and the strength to flee to Him.

On this present occasion I would preach to you from that same text: "They shall all be taught by God."

I. The gist of being taught by God. It is to have the truth of God revealed in the heart of man by the Holy Spirit in order to spiritually apprehend a true knowledge of self and of Christ. Otherwise "the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned" (1 Corinthians 2:14).

II. The necessity of being taught by God (v.44): "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him." This necessity of being taught by God to come to Christ for salvation arises from man's natural inability to come to Christ. This natural inability is coupled with natural unwillingness to come to Christ (5:40): "But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life." Man untaught by God will not come to Christ for salvation because he thinks too highly of himself and too lowly of Christ. For example, man untaught by God thinks too highly of his own personal righteousness and does not perceive that the imputed righteousness of Christ is the only righteousness that will suffice before God. God therefore must teach such a man else he will never learn the truth and come to Christ for salvation. This truth is so offensive to the natural mind that even many professing believers refuse to receive it (vv.65f). God must give to such a man not only an ear to hear the truth, but also a heart to understand and to learn and to do it (Ezekiel 36:26f).

III. The promise of being taught by God: "It is written in the prophets ...." Reference here is first to the prophecy of Jehovah to His bride recorded in Isaiah 54:13: "All your children shall be taught by the LORD." But a promise of being taught by God was given throughout the writings of the prophets. For example, being taught by God is prophesied when He said "I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts ... No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for they all shall know Me" (Jeremiah 31:33f). The blessed truth we here would emphasize is this: God in His strict justice could have left all mankind in our natural ignorance, so that none of us ever would have come to Christ; but God in His sovereign grace has taught a great host of men, so that they will come to Christ. God's promise must be fulfilled!

IV. The persons taught by God: "they all shall be taught by God." It is most evident that this "all" does not include every member of humanity, for all humanity will not come to Christ (as we have already observed). Rather, Christ had earlier identified this "all" when He said, "All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out" (v.37). They here are identified in two ways. 1. This "all" is all God's elect: all whom God has given to Christ because He before the foundation of the world predestined to be His adopted children, and chose them to salvation in Christ, and accepted them in Christ (Ephesians 1:4-6). 2. This "all" is all who will come to Christ to be taught, as also "written in the prophets" (Isaiah 2:3 / Micah 4:2): "Many people shall come and say, 'Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach us His ways, and we shall walk in His paths.' For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem." Are you one of these? Not one of these shall lack being taught by God, nor fail to come to Christ, nor ever be separated from Christ.

V. The lesson taught by God: Although all men in their natural state are unwilling and incapable to come to Christ, God will cause all His chosen people to come to Christ. Men prove they have not been taught of God when they boast, "We may of our own freewill and strength come to God anytime we desire to do so." But those taught by God will confess, "Your people shall be volunteers in the day of Your power" (Psalm 110:3). Men prove they have not been taught by God when they boast, "We have our own personal righteousness, and will not go to Christ by trusting in His imputed righteousness alone." But those taught by God will confess, "I will go [to Christ] in the strength of the Lord GOD; I will make mention of Your righteousness, of Yours only" (Psalm 71:16).

VI. The resultof being taught by God: "Therefore everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me." This is the gracious result to all wretched sinners who confess "I'm lost!" 1.They hear from the Father when He speaks comfort to them, telling them their warfare is over and their sins are pardoned (Isaiah 40:2). 2. They learn from the Father when He shows to them Christ as their only hope of salvation. 3. They therefore come to Christ through believing in Him, trusting and relying on His person, blood, righteousness, and sacrifice for their justification and acceptance with God. God promises all whom He teaches (as in Isaiah 54:13) that "with great mercies I will gather you" in Christ (v.7).

"Teach me Your way, O LORD; I will walk in Your truth; unite my heart to fear Your name" (Psalm 86:11).

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