In John chapter 6, where we are,
I'm going to tell you the title of the sermon. It's not short
enough because I couldn't get what I wanted to get in the title.
So the title is, All Given to Christ, See and Believe Him,
and Shall Be Raised Again on the Last Day. I know that's too long of a title
for any respectable person, but I love it. I love the words of
the Lord Jesus Christ, what he had to say to his people. One of the things you get when
you listen to and read John chapter 17, which we just heard, is Christ's
desire to have his people with him. He said, Father, I will
that they also whom thou gavest me may be with me where I am
that they may behold my glory which thou has given me. And
he also asked that the Lord would make them one. one as his body,
one with himself, one with one another, one with the Father. This is something that I don't
know how to express. I don't know how to even understand.
But he prayed it, and because he prayed it, it will be answered
and it will be done. In 1 Thessalonians, which is,
I'm going to read these verses to you now, if you want to turn
to 1 Thessalonians. I want to read some verses there
that will help us today, help us in the comfort of these words,
help us in the anticipation and the certainty of what is true
and what will yet come to pass, because these are the very words
of the eternal God who cannot fail, who cannot change, who
cannot lie, whose word will endure even though heaven and earth
pass away. These are the words of our God. In 1 Thessalonians chapter 3
and verse 13 of chapter 3, he says, to the end, he may establish
you and establish your hearts unblameable in holiness before
God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ
with all His saints." What powerful words. God our Father will establish
our hearts unblameable in holiness before God at the coming of our
Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints. When Christ comes, he
will come with all of his saints. Look at chapter four and verse
13. First Thessalonians chapter four
and verse 13, he says, but I would not have you to be ignorant,
brethren, concerning them which are asleep. And when he uses
the word asleep, he means people who have died. Their bodies are
dead. He says, I would not have you
to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that you
sorrow not. Now, it's natural for us to be
very sad when someone we love dies. He says, that you sorrow
not even as others which have no hope. We have hope because
God has told us what to expect, and hope is expectation. It's
not, well, I hope it comes to pass. It's a confident expectation
because God has said what will come to pass. So he says, that
you sorrow not even as others which have no hope. For if we
believe, and all of God's people do, if we believe that Jesus
died and rose again, this is the most fundamental of things
that we believe, isn't it? Jesus died and rose again, and
he died that we might live and rose for our justification that
we might also rise in eternal life. So if we believe that Jesus
died and rose again, Even so, them also which sleep in Jesus
will God bring with him. When the Lord Jesus Christ comes
the second time, all those who have died in Christ will come
with him. For this we say unto you by the
word of the Lord. Know that this is absolutely
certain because God has said it. by the word of the Lord,
that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall
not prevent or go before them which are asleep." In other words,
there are going to be people, until the end of time, believers. Until the end of time, the very
last day. And those believers, when Christ
comes the second time in power and great glory, they will be
on earth and they won't precede, they won't be first, but they
will, with those who are dead now, their bodies are dead, they're
with the Lord, their bodies are dead, Christ will come and raise
the dead, all of them, all of his people, And the ones who
are living and have not died, the believing saints who have
not yet died, they and those raised from the dead, then all
together will be caught up with the Lord. That's what he's saying.
He says in verse 16, for the Lord himself shall descend from
heaven with a shout, Jesus Christ the Lord. He is God. He's the
Lord. He'll descend from heaven in
his human nature, in his fullness as God, with a shout, with the
voice of the archangel, meaning the one who is honored and worshipped
and admired and revered by all of the angels. His voice, the
archangel Christ, will be heard, the voice of the archangel, the
chief one of all of the hosts of heaven. The Lord of hosts,
in other words. He shall descend from heaven
with a shout. It's not gonna be silent. Everyone's
gonna hear this. With the voice of the commanding
ruler over all of heaven and earth, and with the trump of
God. God is going to announce his
victory. And the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then, we which
are alive, meaning anyone in the body of Christ, not Paul
because he obviously died, but those who would remain at the
coming of Christ, we which are alive and remain shall be caught
up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the
air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore, comfort
one another with these words. This is the revelation, the open
public revelation to the universe of the Lord Jesus Christ as a
sovereign ruler of all things who has come to take his people
to himself at the consummation of all time according to what
he did on the cross. That's what this is talking about.
Amazing power that Christ could raise from the dead. and gather
all and every part of their deceased bodies and transform that corruptible
body into an incorruptible body, not as it was fashioned after
Adam who was earthly and of the earth, but fashioned after the
second and last Adam, the Lord from heaven, and his heavenly
body, so that their new heavenly bodies, raised from the dead,
will be able to inherit eternal glory. And this is all going
to happen when Christ issues forth that final command to all
of his people. And you know how much they're
going to contribute in this process? Nothing, because this is the
work of Christ. This is the work of the Almighty
Lord of heaven and earth who died for our sins that we might
live to God by him. That is what we're talking about
here. When Jesus came the first time, men made fun of him and
mocked him and spoke against him and were constantly berating
him, arguing with him, debating with him. The second time, there
will be no debate. He will speak, the dead shall
rise, the saints on earth will be caught up in the air, they
will meet the Lord in the air, and they will be with the Lord
forevermore. He says in 1 Corinthians chapter
15 and verse 20, In 1 Corinthians 15, now is Christ, in verse 20,
now is Christ risen from the dead and become the first fruits
of them that slept. All those who died before Christ,
the Lord Jesus Christ is the first to rise from the dead. For since by man, that would
be Adam, Since by man came death, by man also came the resurrection
of the dead, and that man is Christ. For as in Adam all die,
even so in Christ shall all be made alive. Everyone in Christ
shall be made alive. But every man in his own order,
Christ, the firstfruits, afterward they that are Christ at his coming. You see how this is given to
us in the clearest language? That at Christ's coming, all
who are Christ's shall be raised up because he rose. That's what it's saying here. And we could continue on reading
this, and I encourage you to, but let me go on. In verse 42,
he says, 1 Corinthians 15, verse 42, so also is the resurrection
of the dead. It is sown, that's our body,
it dies. It is sown in corruption, we
died in corruption. Our bodies are rotting. They're
dead because of sin and they're going to decay and they're going
to become dust. It is sown in corruption. It
is raised in incorruption without any decay possible. It is sown
in dishonor. It is raised in glory. It is
sown in weakness. It is raised in power. It is
sown a natural body. It is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body and there
is a spiritual body. And so it is written, the first
man, Adam, was made a living soul. The last Adam, Christ,
was made a quickening spirit. He's the resurrection and the
life. How be it? That was not first which is spiritual. Adam
was first. He was natural. But that which
is natural afterward that which is spiritual. The first man is
of the earth, earthy. The second man is the Lord from
heaven. And as is the earthy, such are
they also that are earthy. And as is the heavenly, such
are they also that are heavenly. As we have borne the image of
the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. In
other words, we're going to be just like Christ in our body.
And now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood, what we
all see now of one another, we cannot inherit the kingdom of
God in this body. Neither does corruption inherit
incorruption. Behold, I show you a mystery.
It was not known until God Christ revealed it to Paul and wrote
it here in scriptures. It was not known. I show you
a mystery. We shall not all sleep. We won't all die, but we shall
all be changed. It doesn't matter who they are
that belong to Christ, all of them will be changed. In a moment. In the twinkling of an eye, at
the last trump, for the trumpet shall sound and the dead shall
be raised incorruptible and we shall be changed. For this corruptible
must put on incorruption and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall
have put on incorruption and this mortal shall have put on
immortality, in other words, when our bodies are raised to
be like Christ's glorious body, spiritual and heavenly, then
shall be brought to pass that saying that is written, Death
is swallowed up in victory. You can see this. It's like the
water in the drain is going to go down like a vortex, and death
is just going to go in the victory of Christ, in His resurrection,
in His power over the grave and over death. O death, where is
thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, and
the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth
us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved
brethren, be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work
of the Lord for as much as you know that your labor is not in
vain in the Lord. All right, now that's just the
introduction to what we're going to read here in John chapter
six. John chapter six, if you wanna turn there, please. I am
absolutely convinced that there's a day coming in which there will
be believers still on earth. A day coming when the forces
of wickedness and spiritual wickedness in high places will
be carrying on as they have since creation, since the fall of Adam. And yet that day will come when
Christ having saved his last saint, the ones given to him
by his father, on that day when he's completed his body. He will come, he himself, he
won't just send an angel, he himself will descend from heaven
with a shout, with a voice of God, the trump of God, the voice
of the archangel. And he will raise up all of the
bodies of all of his people who have died, who are sleeping in
death, and he will transform their bodies, not only return
that body, to its entirety, but he will transform that dead body
of theirs that died in dishonor and in corruption, and he will
raise them to immortality and in corruption to be heavenly
and glorious and spiritual, just like his body. That day is coming,
and I'm convinced that Christ is going to do that. He's going
to be made known in his glory, and I'm anticipating that day.
I'm looking forward to that day. I'm looking forward to it with
delight because I know that the power does not reside in me. Oh yes, Christ lives in us and
the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of
the Son of God. So in that sense, yes, Christ
is in me. But it's not my power, it's Him. It's because of his merit and
his righteousness and not by anything in us. And that's what
he's getting at here in John chapter six. Look at this with
me again. I never tire of looking at these words. Look at John
chapter six and verse 37. He says, all that the father
giveth me. Now we just read John 17 and
throughout that chapter, Over and over, Jesus said, I think
at least six times, the Father has given him, given him. When did he give him these people?
One thing is certain, it was before they came. He says, all
that the Father giveth me shall come. So it was before they came,
wasn't it? And it was before they had life.
Because in verse 35, he says, he that cometh to me shall never
hunger, shall never thirst. And in verse 32, my father gives
you the true bread from heaven. The bread of God is he which
cometh down from heaven and giveth life. So they didn't have life,
but they were given to the son by the father before they ever
came to Christ. And this was something that is
in contrast to verse 36, where they were those who did not believe. All of us, by nature, do not
believe God. Because our minds, according
to Romans 8, 7, are enmity, hostility against God. We're not subject
to the law of God. We don't understand, we don't
seek God. We have a natural mind, unable
to receive the things of the Spirit of God. That's what we
are by nature. Our eyes, our minds are blinded
because of the darkness of our sin and our sinful nature. We can't come and we won't come
because we're blind to all that we are and all that Christ is. So he says here, in contrast
to those who do not believe, one thing is certain, all that
the Father gives me shall come to me. You see that word shall?
It doesn't say that God is going to influence them, and because
they have the power to come, if they get the right influence,
then they will come. It doesn't say they have the
power, they just need to be motivated. That's not what it says. It says
they shall come. God doesn't stake the veracity
of his word, the certainty of his promises, on our inabilities. They shall come. This is a certain
fact. All, without exception, that
the Father gives to me, Christ says, they shall come to me.
This is the evidence of God giving us to Christ. The evidence of
divine election that we come to the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
the evidence. And it says, and him that cometh
to me, I will in no wise cast out. First, we're given. Next, we're brought by the Father. We're taught, we learn because
He teaches us, and we're drawn by what He teaches us to come
to Christ. Whatever God teaches us, it results
in this. We come to the Lord Jesus Christ. If we don't come to Christ, we
have not been given to Him. We have not been taught by God
the Father. And all religions which have
another way of salvation or a way in addition to this way are false
religions because they do not come to Christ. They weren't
given to Him. They were not certainly saved
because they shall come, but they are left to their trust
in whatever God they choose to trust. But he says here, all
that the Father giveth me shall come to me. Notice how the first
phrase, all that the Father giveth me, means God has chosen them. They were his. He gave them to
Christ. And that's election, isn't it? And they shall come to me. That's
the second part. This is God's work. It's not
going to fail. It's going to get the job done. God is going to make it happen.
And him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. And that's
the third thing. Those who come to Christ are
preserved by Christ. He doesn't cast them out. He
continues to give them life. He upholds their faith so that
they are not left. Look at Ephesians chapter one.
I want you to see how God the Father has a people and when
they became his people. Ephesians chapter one. And verse
three, he says, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in Christ. Everything spiritual and heavenly
is given to us in Christ by God the Father. Notice, he did the
blessing, we were the recipients of it, and it was in Christ.
In verse four, He's gonna tell us about all spiritual blessings
and all the heavenly blessings that were given to us in Christ.
According as, here it is, He, God the Father, has chosen us
in Him. Notice who did the choosing,
God did, not us. Jesus told His disciples, you
have not chosen me, I've chosen you. According as He has chosen
us in Him, From eternity, that's what the next words mean. Before
the foundation of the world. Just another way of saying from
eternity. That he should be, that we should
be, this is why he chose us. The end was, the purpose for
his choice was that we should be holy and without blame before
him in love. God chose a people out of the
world They naturally were not his people, but he chose them
to be his children. That's called adoption. The word adopt means to choose
one who is not your natural child to be put among your children
and given all of the same privileges and rights as a real natural
born son or daughter. God the Father chose a people
to be his children. before the world began, and He
chose them that they should be holy and without blame before
Him in love, choosing us in Christ. That's the way we were made,
holy and without blame before Him in love. And then, in verse
5, He says, having predestinated us He first chose and then He
predestinated. He predestinated us unto the
adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself. There's the
explanation. He put us among the children,
those He chose, He put among His own children. That's the
way we become the children of God. God the Father made the
choice. He made the choice to make us
his children. It pleased him to do this. And
he did it by giving us to the Lord Jesus Christ, choosing us
in him. Notice. He says, according to
the good pleasure of His will. Our will had nothing to do with
it. It was according to His will. To the praise of the glory of
His grace. And it was for His name's sake.
And not just His name in general, but specifically to the praise
of His grace, because we couldn't deserve it and didn't deserve
it. wherein He, God the Father, has made us accepted in the beloved,
in Christ, who is His beloved, and in His children, among His
beloved ones, the church. And then He's going to tell us
how He did all of this. In whom? We have redemption through
His blood. In the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ, we have been purchased, we have been bought, And all
of our sins have been put away by the price of Christ's blood. And therefore, having been purchased
at the price of Christ's blood, we have the liberty of the forgiveness
of our sins. They're let go from us, taken
from us. All of our sins, by God the Father,
have been forgiven us because of the redeeming blood of Christ. And all of this was done according
Not to anything found in us, not anything that would happen
to us, but according to the riches of His grace. Isn't that amazing? And that's what he's speaking
of here when he says, the Father giveth me. They were his. Before. And they were His, by His electing,
predestinating, adopting purpose, where in Christ He would make
them holy and blameless before Him in love as His children. That is the Word of God. That
is the truth. And don't you believe that? Don't
you believe that? Is there anything from us required
for this to take place? Of course not. It was determined
by God the Father before the world began. And he made it sure
by giving us to his son the surety. And he says, know this, all that
the Father giveth me, John 6, 37, shall come to me. Efficacious grace, irresistible
grace. It's irresistible, not because
this grace makes a man fighting and kicking and screaming come.
It makes a man willing in the day of Christ's power. It converts
the man. It gives him a new heart. It
puts God's Spirit within him. It takes away his sins, so that
they're no more remembered, considering the blood of Christ that redeemed
them. And this is all made in the covenant, the everlasting
covenant of God that He made with His Son, with Christ, for
His people, and it was made in His blood. God's electing. grace, God's irresistible grace,
they shall come, and God's preserving grace, him that cometh to me,
Christ says, I will in no wise, no, never, not in any way, cast
them out or turn from them, but will save them to the uttermost. There's an unbreakable chain
between God's will and the actual resurrection of the saints. And
the reason the saints are raised in the end is because God the
Father determined it to be so and provided everything, even
his own son, to make it happen. And then because Christ laid
down His life and He removed the cause of death, which was
sin, He removed the curse of His law that was against us,
He satisfied, He took away that curse, enduring it. He also released
us from the bondage of the law because He Himself fulfilled
it. He took away the fear of death and the grave, the power
of death and the grave from us, having put away our sins. And
He vanquished and defeated our greatest enemy, Satan. And He
not only did all that to save us from our enemies, but He then
gave to us eternal life because of His own blood and His own
righteousness. Yes, praise God indeed. So he
says in verse 38, For I came down from heaven not to do mine
own will, but the will of him that sent me. In other words,
Christ's will as God is one with his Father. Even though God the
Father and God the Son are two distinct persons, yet they are
one God and they have one will. They both, each person in the
Godhead has the same will. And so we read in John 17, Father,
I will that they also whom thou has given me be with me where
I am, that they may behold my glory. And then in verse 39,
he says, John 6, 39. And this is the father's will
which has sent me. This is his will, and you know
it's going to be done. He gave it to Christ to do this,
that of all which He has given me, the same number, the same
people, all of them, I should lose nothing, but should raise
it up again at the last day." When Christ comes again, He will
fulfill the consummation of God's will when He raises up His saints. And He changes those who are
still alive and joins them together as one body in the air with Him
forever. Isn't that amazing? Amazing power. Can you imagine the power of
the Lord Jesus Christ? The Lord himself shall descend
from heaven with a shout, with a voice of the archangel and
the trump of God and the dead in Christ shall rise and we which
are alive shall be changed and we shall be raised up together
with them. Not one of them will be lacking.
They will all be given eternal life together. And then he says
in verse 40, And this is the will of him that sent me, that
every one which seeth the Son, not physically see him. If the
people standing there on that day saw Christ and didn't believe
him, then it can't be a physical sight of Christ that saves. People
looked on the Lord Jesus Christ Numbers of them, multitudes of
people, looked on the physical appearance of the Lord Jesus
Christ and they were lost. Many of them saw the miracles
of the Lord Jesus Christ and they were lost. No amount of
physical sight of Christ will save you. No amount of Christ's
miracles will save you. Only one miracle. the laying
down of his life and the taking up of it again. That's the miracle. That's the sign he told his enemies.
This is the only sign that will be given you, the sign of the
prophet Jonah. As Jonah was three days and three
nights in the belly of the whale, so the son of man shall be three
days and three nights in the heart of the earth. And that's
it. That's the miracle. And so he
says in verse 40, this is the will of him that sent me, that
everyone which seeth the sun. How do we see Him? How do we
see the Son? This is not a physical sight. These are eyes that are not our
physical eyes. The blind with eyes can see Christ
in heart. Remember in Acts 16, verse 14,
Lydia, a seller of purple, it says, the Lord opened her heart. He opened her heart. She didn't
open it. The Lord opened her heart. And
now in 2 Corinthians chapter 4, he says this. In 2 Corinthians
4, listen to these words about this blindness that we have by
nature. How do we overcome this? We don't. He said, was it 4? Yeah. No. Oh, I'm in 1 Corinthians. No
wonder I couldn't find it. 2 Corinthians chapter 4, he says
in verse 6, this is how we believe. This is how we come to know Christ.
We don't do something to make it happen. He says in verse 3
of 2 Corinthians 4, if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that
are lost. in whom the God of this world
has blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light
of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should
shine to them. Unless God overcomes our enemy
and our natural blindness, the light of the gospel will not
and cannot shine to us, because the Father has to bring us. Verse
5, for we preach, this is the way the light comes, we preach,
not ourselves, but Christ Jesus, the Lord. That's the message.
And ourselves, your servants for Jesus' sake. We're just servants,
we're telling you about Christ. For God, who commanded the light
in the very beginning to shine out of darkness, has shined in
our hearts. That's where the eyes are, our
hearts. He shined in our hearts to give
the light, the visual light of the knowledge of the glory of
God in the face of Jesus Christ. How do we see the sun? How do
we see his face? God commands the gospel light
to shine in our hearts so that then we receive the knowledge
of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And seeing Christ
through the gospel, we see the very glory of God. We see the
glory of God. And this is what he's talking
about. He that, this is the will of him that sent me, that everyone
which seeth the sun by the light-giving power of the Holy Spirit in the
preaching of the gospel, before that time it's hid from us, and
believeth on him, believing on Christ. A lot of people, if you ask them
in various kinds of churches, will say, I believe Jesus Christ.
I believe that Jesus Christ was the son of God. I believe that
he lived in this world, that he died, that he rose, and that
he's in heaven again. You'll hear people say that.
That is not the faith he's talking about here. Him that believeth
on him having everlasting life. What does it mean then to believe
on him? Well, this is really where it
gets important. It's all important, but this
is where it really gets important, isn't it? What is our condition? What is our condition before
we believe? Well, we're dead in sins. And why are we dead? Well, because of our sins. Well,
how can we then be raised from this spiritual deadness in our
sins? Our sins have to be taken away.
How is that done? Through the sacrifice of the
Lord Jesus Christ for our sins. Christ died for our sins according
to the scriptures. So he has to die, he has to bear
our sins, and he has to endure the punishment for our sins in
order to take away our sins. in order to redeem us from the
curse that was owed to us because of our sins and the separation
from God that it brought and the taking away of our life.
He has to remove the barrier that prevents us from having
life and give us life. He has to procure by his death
life for us in his death. He has to lay down his life in
order that he might rise again and give us life in his resurrected
life. So in order for us to believe
on Him, we have to believe on Him for what He came to do for
sinners, to take away their sins, to give them His righteousness.
In other words, we're looking to Him and depending upon Him
to wash us from our sins and to clothe our nakedness, the
nakedness of our own righteousness, in His perfect righteousness.
This is faith in Christ in order that he might wash us from our
sins and clothe us in his righteousness and give us life because not
of our righteousness, but because of his righteousness. This is
believing Christ, not just believing that He lived or that He died
or that He rose, but that He did this in order to save me
as a sinner. It's coming to Him and taking
from Him by faith all that He is in His sacrificial death and
risen life because I need Him. And that is His nature, to give
life. That's His office, His mediator,
to give life to those the Father gave to Him. This is what faith
is. Coming to Christ means we believe
Him for all that He is as the mediator, the one who understands
the foolishness of our sin and takes it away from us in order
that He might bring us to God by His death, offering Himself
in our place. and doing all that he does as
the mediator towards God so that God himself would be pleased
and satisfied and glorified in what he did. This is his role,
and believing on him to bring us to God. We come to Christ
that he might bring us to God. God the Father gave us to Christ
to bring us to God, and so we trust Christ in order that he
might bring us to God. by his death and by his risen
life. It's not just believing him as
a history book would lay it out, but believing him as the living
risen Christ who took away our sins and fulfilled our righteousness
in his own obedience in life and in death. You see, He that
seeth the Son, by the illuminating work of the Holy Spirit, making
the gospel of what Christ did as all of our salvation, good
news to us. Persuading us of it, and then
we, being persuaded of the truth of it, in our own emptiness and
bankruptcy, in our own righteousness, looking to Him and depending
upon what He did in His obedience and in His death to completely
take away the curse of our eternal death and take away our sins
and bring us to God to make us holy and blameless before Him
in love as His children according to His eternal will. This is
the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And what part do you have in
that work? Nothing. That's why he says it's
by faith, believing him, not us. And I wanna close with this,
as I was thinking about this. Sometimes I labor in order to
understand and then labor in order to explain what faith is.
And I think that this is a test of whether or not we truly believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. When you come to the end of yourself,
perhaps in your conscience, when the thought of judgment day and
your own death loom large, and you realize that before God,
when you stand in judgment, you have nothing to say, then what? Then what? What will your answer
be? Or when in your life you realize
that your faith in Christ is uncertain, and that you doubt
and you wonder how you could be a child of God, and you come
to that end, then what? You see, that's where faith gets
real. That's where the test of faith
becomes a personal test. There's one question on the test,
one question. How will I be accepted by God
in all of the weakness of my sin and my unbelief and my inability
to do one thing God has required or to answer Him one thing in
judgment? Then what? And I think this is
what the Lord is talking about here. We're drawn by the Father,
taught by Him to come to Christ for everything. everything, and
we have unburdened ourselves in realizing that the one who
is able and willing to save us, who are sinners, when we cannot
save ourselves and have no strength in ourselves, and we wonder,
how can I be a child of God? And the answer, the now what
answer, comes from scripture, the Lord Jesus Christ. crucified,
risen, reigning, coming again. The gospel, that's my only hope. If God didn't do all by his son
for me, then I have no hope. I can only expect to receive
what my sins deserve. But if Christ has taken my case,
paid for my sins, washed me from them, clothed me in his righteousness,
given me life with faith in him, to look to him always and only,
then I can be sure God chose me. God drew me. Christ will save me and keep
me and raise me to on that last day, saving me to the uttermost.
And God will receive me in his presence, in the presence of
his glory with exceeding joy. And I will be at peace, perfect
peace and perfect joy. I will no longer wonder what
is God like because I'll know him. as He is, and what a day
that will be. Christ is given everything to
do. The Lord Jesus Christ finished
the work, and He's going to bring about the consummation of His
finished work. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you,
O God, our Father, for the Lord Jesus Christ, our mediator, your
only begotten Son, by which, through your eternal will and
your predestinated purpose, you have adopted us, chosen us to
be your children. who were not your children by
nature, but you made us your children by Jesus Christ. Thank
you for this grace. Thank you that you who chose
us and made us your children in your eternal purpose gave
us to Christ. You brought us to him. You caused
us to see him and made us believe him. And in every time of our
life, in every trial, especially when our hearts are faint and
our minds are dim, we know from your word that the Lord Jesus
Christ is able and willing and he shall not fail. He will save
his people to the uttermost. And so we have laid all of our
case for all eternity. on him and what a glorious thing
that is that you would give us such a light, such a glorious
gospel. In his name we pray and thank
you. Amen.