Bootstrap
Clay Curtis

Three Grand Truths

John 6:37
Clay Curtis May, 9 2021 Video & Audio
0 Comments
John Series

In the sermon "Three Grand Truths" by Clay Curtis, the central doctrine addressed is the sovereignty of God in salvation, illustrated through John 6:37. Curtis emphasizes three key truths: (1) Eternal Election, indicating that God has chosen His people before the foundation of the world; (2) Efficacious Grace, asserting that all whom the Father has given to Christ will inevitably come to Him; and (3) Preserving Grace, wherein Christ promises not to cast out anyone who comes to Him in faith. The preacher references Ephesians 1:3 and Romans 9:16 to support these points, arguing that God's election is not based on human merit but solely on His grace. The practical significance of this message lies in the assurance it offers believers of their security in Christ, reinforcing the Reformed doctrine of the perseverance of the saints and the total sovereignty of God in salvation.

Key Quotes

“John Bunyan said on this one verse, it's a text for a man to hang his soul upon. Because it speaks not of the people who come, but of the person to whom they come.”

“God's election is of grace and is free. God's reason for choosing who He wills is not because of any good thing in the object of His mercy.”

“If God is doing all the saving from beginning to end, when he is drawn to Christ and casts his care on Christ, Christ said, I will never cast him out.”

“Well, how do I know He'll receive me? He said, Him that comes to me, I'll in no wise cast Him out.”

Sermon Transcript

Auto-generated transcript • May contain errors

100%
And John 6 brethren. Alright, verse 37. Our Lord says,
All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that
cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. John Bunyan said on
this one verse, it's a text for a man to hang his soul upon.
Because it speaks not of the people who come, but of the person
to whom they come. His ability, his willingness,
his love to those who are far off and to them that are nigh. This is a simple but grand truth. In this statement, there are
three grand truths, and if you think about this, it stretches
from eternity before the world was made, it stretches all the
way throughout time, and it stretches back to eternity when time will
be no more. First of all is eternal election,
all that the Father giveth me. And then secondly is efficacious
grace, irresistible grace. They shall come to me. And then
thirdly is preserving, glorifying grace. And him that come to me
I will in no wise cast out. Three grand truths. First here
is eternal election. He says all that the Father giveth
me. Now who is the all? Who is the
all? All that the Father chose in
divine election and gave to Christ before this world was made. He
gave to Him to save. Somebody might say, well, it's
in the present tense. It says, all that the Father
giveth me. So isn't He just giving them to Him as He goes along?
Look down at verse 39. This is the Father's will which
is sent me, that of all which He hath given me I should lose
nothing. He speaks of all the elect that
God chose by free and sovereign grace before the world was made.
He chose them by grace, all of them by grace. That means nothing
in them. He chose them sovereignly according to as He would, nothing
in them, nothing about them. He chose whom He would. And He
gave them to Christ to do everything necessary to glorify His name
and their salvation. There are so many spiritual blessings
that our Lord gives us in time. When He calls us to make us conscious
of what He has done for us, He gives you the blessing of regeneration. He gives you the blessing of
revelation, the blessing of sanctification, of faith, of repentance, of adoption,
of redemption, of forgiveness, of acceptance, resurrection,
eternal inheritance. These are all blessings that
we are going to receive by His by His grace. But God the Father
blessed us with all spiritual blessings, all those and many
more, according as He chose His people in Christ before this
world was made. Ephesians 1.3 says, Blessed be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all
spiritual blessings. Who's He talking about? Well,
here's how He blessed us. in heavenly places in Christ
according as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation
of the world. 2 Timothy 1.9 says He saved us
and He called us with a holy calling not according to our
works but according to His own purpose and grace which was given
us in Christ Jesus before the world began. You see, our Lord
is declaring the Father's love in choosing a people freely by
His grace. This was the love of God. Freely
He chose a people by His grace and trust them to His Son to
save. Look at verse 38. For I came down from heaven,
not to do mine own will, but the will of Him that sent me.
God sent Him forth. He brought forth an innumerable
company of chosen children in eternity, in the grace and purpose
of God and gave them to His Son and trusted everything to His
Son for His Son to save them. And the Son entered a covenant
with the Father to redeem them from all iniquity, from all their
sin, from the curse of the law and bring them to the Father
and present them to the Father holy and without spot. before
the world was made. He set up His Son to be the firstborn,
His first elect. He gave Him a chosen people.
This was an infinite wisdom of God our Father, God Jehovah. He ordered His people's glorification
by a covenant. He determined before they would
be glorified in the end in heaven with Him and He did it by a covenant.
He entered a covenant with His Son. He didn't leave anything
in His people's hands. He entered covenant with His
Son to accomplish this. And when He entered that covenant
in eternity, that's why Scripture calls Christ the Lamb slain from
before the foundation of the world. It was done. God can't
change and He's not going to be thwarted in what He's purposed
to do. And so it was done. He secured
the redemption. the pardon, the justification,
the regeneration, the acceptance and the eternal preservation
of His people by choosing His people in Christ and trusting
Christ to do the work. So Christ came down from heaven,
He says here, to do the Father's will. That's why He came. That
means before He came down from heaven, Christ had a people He
came to save according to the Father's will and He came to
do it according to how the Father willed Him to do it. This is
the God who says, I determine the end from the beginning. He left nothing to chance. He's
God. He's that powerful that He can
declare from the beginning what He's going to do, exactly how
He's going to do it, and then accomplish it exactly how He
purposed. We can't do that. He can. He's God. Look at verse 39. This is the Father's will which
is set in me, that of all which He hath given me, I should lose
nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day." In
that prayer on behalf of Zelech, over in John 17, he says this,
Father, thine they were, and thou gavest them me. They were
yours, Father, and you gave them to me. So Jehovah's sons and
daughters are His by His sovereign electing grace given to His Son. Now what did His elect do to
be chosen? He chose some people. What did
they do to be chosen? Now listen, and I don't want
anybody to misunderstand this. Here's what His elect did to
be chosen. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. God's election is of grace and
is free. God's reason for choosing who
He wills is not because of any good thing in the object of His
mercy. Not because there was anything
in His people to make Him choose them. He chose His people freely.
said even so father for so it seemed good in thy sight. And
that's a good enough reason when we know and are made to know
that we're sinners, unworthy of God doing anything for us.
If we know that, we'll be glad God chose anybody. Romans 9.16 says, so then, It's not of Him that willeth. It's not of our will. It's not
of Him that runneth. But of God that showeth mercy. That's how salvation begins.
God, if He's going to get the glory, He sets the terms. And He purposed it and it's according
to His mercy. God's election is not only sovereign
and it's not only free, it's irreversible. Romans 11.29 says the gifts,
all those eternal gifts, and the calling, that eternal calling
when He called us His own from eternity, and the calling and
gifts He gives us in time, all the gifts and calling of God
are without repentance. He doesn't take them back. He's
of one mind. Who can turn him? Now some people
will say this. They'll say, well, you shouldn't
preach the doctrine of election to folks that don't know the
gospel or folks that are younger in the faith. You need to wait
till they mature a little bit, teach them the doctrine of election.
Well, Christ is preaching the doctrine of election right here
to a bunch of folks that don't even, they don't know him. They're
not born of the spirit of God. Somebody might read the rest
of the passage and say, yeah, but they walked off too. They
said, it's a hard saying, who can hear it? They didn't walk
off because he preached election. They walked off because they
weren't elect. Now secondly, his grace is an
efficacious grace. It's irresistible grace. Look
at verse 37 again. He says, all that the Father
giveth me shall come to me. Now Christ says, all that the
Father elected and gave to me shall come to me. Now that phrase
right there, that first phrase, all the Father giveth me, that
was in eternity before anything was made. Now this phrase, they
shall come to me, that takes in the first second of time to
the last second of time. They call coming to Christ. Each
one the Father gave to Christ shall come to Christ by God's
efficacious grace, His irresistible grace, in other words, by God
drawing them to Christ. Look at verse 44, John 6, verse
44. He says, No man can come to me. This is Christ speaking. No man
can come to me except the Father which has sent me draw him. It's
written in the Prophets. This is the Scripture. It's got
to be fulfilled by God. They shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath
heard and hath learned of the Father cometh to me. All that
the Father gave him shall all be taught of the Father and therefore
they shall all come to Him. They're going to all be drawn
to Him. Look at Romans 8.29. I think this will help if you've
never seen this. And look at verse 28. He says, We know that all things
work together for good to them that love God, to them who are
the called according to His purpose. Now here's why they all work
together for their good. And here's the purpose he's talking
about. For whom he did foreknow, that is, he chose them, he foreordained
them, he loved them beforehand. He also did predestine to be
conformed to the image of his son. that he might be the firstborn
among many brethren. That means he predestinated them. He determined their destiny beforehand. They're gonna be conformed to
the image of Christ. That's what Christ just said. All the Father
gives me shall come to me. And look, moreover whom he did
predestinate, them he also called. He drew them. And them he also
justified. Them he called, he also justified.
And whom he justified, them he also glorified. That takes in
all of salvation right there, from eternity to eternity. And
it's all of God. Every bit of it. So every elect
child is saved by coming to Christ. What does that mean, coming to
Christ? Believing on Christ. You know, you can come to Christ
without moving a muscle in your heart. Believe in Him. Trust
in Him. And each one does so by effectual
grace. He affects it, he works it, he
makes it to come to pass. The grace of God, the power of
God drawing them. The same as election is of grace,
this call, this drawing is of grace. Why does that have to
be? Because we're dead in sins. As
we come into this world, Our first representative died and
we died, we became guilty in him and every person born came
from that first man and we got his nature which was corrupt
by the fall. So on down through population,
Here is the thing about this thing is everybody is trying
to differentiate themselves based on their social class and their
race and all these different things. In fact the matter is
we all came from one man and we are all sinners. That is the
fact. And so it is going to take the
grace of God coming to these people He has chosen and creating
them anew in their heart by the Spirit to give them faith to
make them believe on Christ. Somebody will say, what about
man's free will? Martin Luther said, free will
is the name for nothing. Sinners are under bondage to
our sin nature. If you illustrate it, a prison
is how the Lord speaks about it. You know, men that are in
prison, I don't know, what is it, six by eight, they can walk
around all they want to. in that six by eight cell. But
they can't go nowhere else. They're bound. What's going to
have to happen? A sinner's that way. You're in
a sin nature, so all you can do is what your dead, spiritually
dead sin nature permits you to do. The natural man, a man spiritually
dead, can't receive these things. He can't believe these things.
You can hear them with the natural ear and you can reason on them,
but you can't in your heart truly have the love of God and believe
on Him, unless you're born of Him. So what's going to have
to happen? Well the scripture says Christ
came to open the prison and set the prisoners free. And through
this gospel, this is why we preach this gospel because this word
is going forth and through this word is called the incorruptible
seed. born of corruptible seed the
first time, so we were corrupt. The incorruptible seed is the
Word of God by which the Gospel preached to you. This is mysterious,
I know, but it's so, the Scripture says it, and the Spirit of God
enters, and you that experience know it so." You find yourself
believing Him. It's pretty much that way. What
did you do to be born the first time? You didn't have a thing
to do with it, did you? We didn't have anything to do
with this either. He creates a new spirit, a new man through
the incorruptible Word and we believe Him. He said to Nicodemus,
you must be born again of the Spirit of God or you can't enter
the Kingdom. You've got to be born again. You've got to be
born of the Spirit of God. He said in John 1, if you want to
look back there, John 1 verse 12, He said, He came to His own, to the ones
in Israel, and His own received Him not. They were His kinsmen
according to the flesh. In other words, they were all
of Israel. Christ came to them. They didn't receive Him. But
as many as did receive Him, some did receive Him. Now what made
the difference? Well, to them he gave the power,
the privilege to become the sons of God, even to them that believed
on his name. So how were they born? What made
them believe? Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will
of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. They were
born of God. See there, they were born of
God. God must send a word. which is referred to as a sharp
two-edged sword. And it discerns the thoughts
and intents of the heart. When this word enters in, it's
going to make a man have discernment to know his own heart. And what
he's going to find out is he's vile and wicked. And he can't
please God. He's a sinner. And if God don't
have mercy on him, he don't deserve any from God. But God will also
make him behold Christ on the cross, bearing the sin of his
people, satisfying the justice of God. Everybody God saves. If He saves one sinner, that
sinner deserves to die. He's got to die under the justice
of God. So if God's going to save him,
what God did is He sent His spotless, sinless, perfect Son. He took
all that man's sin, put them on His Son, So that his son was
made fit to bear the justice of God, and God poured out righteousness
and justice on his son in place of this one he is going to save.
So now when Christ laid down his life and shed his blood,
without shedding of blood is no remission of sin. When he
shed his blood, he put his sin away. It is gone. Once a man
dies, the law says nothing else to him. And so he has died. He is dead. So now what's got to happen?
Well, he's going to have to be drawn to Christ. And all the
Father gave him shall come to him. They're going to be drawn
to him. And so he sends this word, and not only does he behold
that he's a sinner by this sharp two-edged sword, it cuts him,
it kills him, but it also heals him, because it points him to
Christ on that cross. And he makes him behold a glorious
Savior who is all his righteousness and all his holiness and all
his redemption and whom he has accepted of God. And he cries
out for mercy and God says, Saved. You mean it is that simple? You
want to call that simple? There is a lot of love and sacrifice
involved in that. But as far as you just believing
on Him, that's it. He's going to have to give us
faith to stop trying to come to God by our works and believe
Him. Believe Him. I'm glad that's the good news.
I'm glad He says He's going to call His people and He's going
to make them all come to Him. I'm glad of that because Because
anybody that tries to preach the gospel, you wouldn't have
any hope any other way. And he keeps working this work
in his people, and if he wasn't working in the heart of his people,
we could preach until our tongues fall out, and it's not going
to do any good. But he says he has a people that
he's drawing to him, and he says over in Peter, he said, and this
world's not going to be destroyed until he's called the last one
to it. So I'm glad, so what do you do? You do like that young
fella in the war over there in, was it Judges, where he just
drew a bow and shot it at a venture. He didn't know where, he wasn't
trying to hit a precise mark, he just shot it. And the Lord
made it go right through the crease in the armor and struck
the king. And that's what, he makes it
go right where it needs to go and he strikes the mark. Well,
here's the last thing. This is gonna take us from the
time He calls us all the way into eternity. He says lastly,
and him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast him out. He comes
to me, I'm not... All the Father gave me in eternity,
in time, they shall all come to me. And him that comes to
me, I will never cast him out. Some say, do you believe in once
saved, always saved? Well, it depends on who does
the saving. If a man has anything to do with the saving, absolutely
not. He has not been saved in the
first place. But if God is doing all the saving from beginning
to end, when he is drawn to Christ and casts his care on Christ,
Christ said, I will never cast him out. I will never cast him
out. This word is certain because
it is the Father's will. And that will is one with Christ's
will. He said again there in verse 39, this is the Father's
will which is sent me. All which He has given me I should
lose nothing. but shall 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 with that God-given faith. He may have freely everlasting
life, and I will raise Him up at the last day." Now brethren,
that's everlasting security for a believer. If you find yourself
believing and you cast your care on Christ, that's everlasting
security right there. Him that cometh to me, I will
in no wise cast him out. Christ will preserve each one
who comes to him in faith and keep us and in no wise cast us
out. Scripture declares that those
God gives faith shall persevere in faith unto the end. They're
going to believe on Christ to the end. If He's given us true
faith and He's worked this work, we're not turning back. We're
going to believe on Him to the end. What about those that don't? It's just proof He didn't work
the work. But if He works the work, we're going to persevere
in faith to the end. We're going to keep believing
Him to the end. Why? Because He's going to preserve
us to the end. It's by Him. He will in no wise
cast us out. He won't cast us out of His affections.
Scripture says His love is everlasting love. That means it never ends. It doesn't have a beginning or
an end. It's everlasting. Nothing should be able to separate
us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Never going to be cast
out of His arms. Deuteronomy 33.27, the eternal
God is thy refuge and underneath are the everlasting arm. Never
going to be cast out of His hand. Out of His hand. And He's never
going to let anybody take you out of His hand. Over there in
John 10.28, if you want to look at that, John 10.28 he says, He says, I give unto them eternal
life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them
out of My hand. My Father which gave them Me
is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of
My Father's hand. He'll never cast us out of His family. He's
the last Adam. He's the head. He's the only
begotten son of the Father. He's the firstborn among all
the brethren, as the heir of the Father, the firstborn son. And He's the head of His family.
And as such, He's called the Everlasting Father. The first
Adam, we all fell in Him and died, and He's going to cease
being our Father. Not this one. When we're born
of Him, He'll be our Father forever. He won't cast you out of His
family. God predestinated us to be conformed to His image
that He might be the firstborn Son. We'll never be cast out.
He'll never cast us out of His church. Those that He's truly
called, those that He's united together with Him, there He is.
He's the head, the church is His body, the fullness of Him.
And everyone is a member in particular in that body, those He's called. And on the cross, you remember
how not a bone was broken? and no limbs or any members are
going to be severed, not any one of his members are going
to be hurt. They're not going to be broken, they're not going
to be separated from him, he's not going to cast them out. Not
one member of his church. And all this is true because
he's our righteousness and he'll never cast us out of this state
of justification that he accomplished for those he laid down his life
for. Romans 5 verse 8, I'm going to end here. I don't even know
how long I've been preaching. Romans 8, verse 5. But look here. He says, God commendeth His love toward
us. He's talking to those the Father
gave Him. In that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for
us. Much more than being now justified
by His blood. We shall be saved from wrath
through Him. We shall be. He won't cast us
out. He won't cast us out of this
justified state. For if when we were enemies we
were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more being
reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. He'll never cast
us out. And so by His electing grace,
His justifying grace, His effectual call, His preserving grace, not
one that He calls to Him, not only is He not going to cast
us out, He says they're never going to want to depart from
Me. He said in Jeremiah 32-39, I give them one heart, I give
them one way, that they may fear me forever for the good of them
and of their children after them, and I will make an everlasting
covenant with them, and I will not turn away from them to do
them good, but I will put my fear in their hearts, and they
shall not depart from me. Now that's security, brethren.
Well, here's the question. How do I know if the Father gave
me to Him? He said, All the Father gave
to me shall come to me. Come to Him. Believe on Him.
Well, how do I know He'll receive me? He said, Him that comes to
me, I'll in no wise cast Him out. Come to Him. Believe on
Him. Well, how do I know that He won't change His mind and
cast me out down the road, that He'll really raise me up at the
last day? Keep coming to Him. Keep believing Him. Keep trusting
Him to the end. He said, I'll never cast Him
out. All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him
that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. That's good news,
brother. Three grand truths. Amen.
Clay Curtis
About Clay Curtis
Clay Curtis is pastor of Sovereign Grace Baptist Church of Ewing, New Jersey. Their services begin Sunday morning at 10:15 am and 11am at 251 Green Lane, Ewing, NJ, 08638. Clay may be reached by telephone at 615-513-4464 and by email at claycurtis70@gmail.com. For more information, please visit the church website at http://www.FreeGraceMedia.com.

Comments

0 / 2000 characters
Comments are moderated before appearing.

Be the first to comment!

Joshua

Joshua

Shall we play a game? Ask me about articles, sermons, or theology from our library. I can also help you navigate the site.