And now the hymn that I picked, the 228, I picked that one because I knew that that was kind of might be the direction that we were gonna go this morning. And so I picked a song that kind of went along with it, but everybody else in here chose to pick a song that also spoke about that. So I really believe that the Lord works all these things in our hearts and brings us together on these things.

As I mentioned a while ago, I made a post earlier this week uh, speaking about faith and speaking about belief in general, but faith and how that, um, how faith is so often misrepresented and how faith is lifted and elevated, uh, to a place where sometimes the scriptures don't elevate it to, um, while it is important. And as I mentioned, I, you know, I get castigated about this all the time on online, But I'm not downplaying faith whatsoever. Faith is a tremendous gift that God has given to the elect children of God so that they can experience and feel and live within the relationship that they have with the everlasting Father and the everlasting love that He has for us to experience that. In this temporal time, faith has been given to us that are children of God so that we can experience that.

This isn't some faith that is worked up in us. It isn't some faith that we change the object of. Now, surely the object of faith is different than the natural man's faith. The natural man's faith object is always will and always will be is always will be himself. The object of his faith is his own self-righteousness, his own righteousness, doing it himself, being the one that people look to, being the one that God looks to, whether it's your testimony before men,

The natural man believes, hey, I've got to be this and this and this and this so that other people can see me and believe God. Trust God. Be convicted of their sin and go look to God. OK. Brethren, that is not what what we are to do. That's what Christ was given to do, as I mentioned last week. It's not to make myself better with God. Faith is given to us so that we can enjoy and experience and receive the testimony of what Christ has done.

And so people use faith throughout this life. Very opposite of this biblical faith, they think faith and I see people using these faith verses all the time, especially when it comes to a little bit of hardship in the workplace or a little bit of this or a little bit of that, you know, Athletes using you know, how'd you get through you know your win today? Over this team and all I tell my faith in God Well, come on now. That's not what faith is given for faith is not given That's your natural faith that you had in yourself and your team to get you to the end I think got nothing to do with faith in God because faith in God has one object and one object alone And that is the finished work of Jesus Christ on behalf of his people

So faith in and of itself is a trust in what God has said. OK, faith is a trust in what God has said. And so that does not save us. To believe in what God has said does not make us now not guilty before God. To believe in what God has said does not remove the curse of sin. The curse of the law. It does not remove the oppression of the flesh or the inability of the flesh. Faith doesn't remove that. Faith doesn't make me perfect in God's eyes. My belief in Him doesn't make me perfect in God's eyes. And it hasn't made anybody. From Genesis to Revelation, it's not made anybody in the Bible perfect before God. Their faith, believing on and in the Lord Jesus Christ, has not made them righteous before God and has not made them justified in His sight. That has not been the case.

The only thing that has justified you before God, made you righteous so that when God looks upon you, He doesn't see your sin, He doesn't account your sin that you continue to have towards you, and doesn't punish you for your sin. The only reason for that is because of the work of Jesus alone. It started with Him, and it ended with Him, and it never made its way outside of Him. Your salvation in its full and complete legal sense, and I would say even your temporal sense, is all because of the finished work and continual intercession of the Lord Jesus Christ. It doesn't have nothing to you. God has not left anything for you to do.

You say, well, doesn't the Bible give us all these admonitions and things like that? Absolutely it does, but it doesn't leave it up to you. Because all the admonitions of Scripture, which would be worked out in you, are going to be worked out by God in His power and enabling. So therefore, whether it's your belief on Him, or whether it's your trust in Him from now until whenever, or if it's your desire to serve Him, or works that you might do, Those things there are not your work. They're not yours to control. I can't decide today this is what I'm going to do. God does it. God enables it. God chooses that. Everything is governed by God. So whether it's your legal aspect or whether it's your experiential aspect, all of salvation is based upon the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Whether it's His death, burial, resurrection, or whether it's His continual intercession and His sending the comforter on His behalf to work in you to will and to do His good pleasure. It's all Christ Jesus.

Now I mentioned this week on Facebook that you cannot preach faith and you cannot preach belief without preaching sovereign election. You can't preach faith and belief without preaching sovereign election. And I hope everybody kind of understood where I was coming from in the verses that I quoted there because The reason I say that is because the Bible is very, very clear that those who believe, the only ones who believe upon Christ Jesus, who come to Him, who believe upon Him, who find their righteousness in Him and Him alone, who walk after Abraham, The only ones who do that are the children of grace whom God has loved with an everlasting love from the foundation of the world. Those are the only ones who do that.

So whenever people start talking about faith and about doing this and doing that, your response to them should be, Well, only the ones who are given faith can do that. If I believe upon Him, if I am believing upon Him, it's not been by my doing, it's been by His doing. It's a gift of God. It's been given to me. And that faith is not in what God is doing in my heart to make me do something, but it is looking unto Jesus. It is continually looking at what Jesus has done. The gospel is a finished work of what Jesus has done, not a continual work of what he is trying to do if you let him or if you allow him.

See, God doesn't have this plan that he wants to instill or wants to implement into the world. And man has caused that to sidetrack. And so now he has made a provision for the sidetrack to get back on track. No, because the fall of man away from God was always the purpose of God. That's why people misunderstand faith. That's why people misunderstand salvation. That's why people misunderstand a lot of things, especially when it comes to the sovereignty of God and sin and evil and all these things. They get away because they do not understand that the very purpose of God is that man would deviate

Romans chapter 5 says that the law was given to Adam so that the offense might abound because Christ had been already, before the foundation of the world, chosen to be the display of who God is and to glorify himself in the justified salvation of a people who doesn't deserve it. Therefore, sin had to enter into the world. Therefore, God had to bring that sin into the world by one man, and that one man was Adam. Therefore, God created Adam for the purpose of bringing sin in. And how did he do that? He created Adam of the earth, earthy. He created him natural. He created him without the Spirit of God, unable to keep the law of God, so that he, by his nature, that he created him in, would be very good in doing what God had created him to do. being the representative, being the man who would bring sin into the world so that Christ could be glorified on the cross as God in flesh dying for his people and redeeming his people and also bringing judgment upon sin, death, and Satan.

All that accomplished in Christ Jesus and that was before the foundation of the world because the Bible clearly tells us that God views Christ as the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. Christ was the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. So, brethren, it ain't gonna change. Adam didn't change it. Man isn't changing God's plan. That's been the plan all along.

So, getting back to how does that fit into faith and election? Well, election, we're told, is God's purpose. Why? Because God, before the foundation of the world, we're told, wrote some names down and did not write some names down. That's election. God chose a people for himself that he loved with an everlasting love and the rest of mankind he chose not to. Those he chose to love, he chose to bless them with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. That's Ephesians chapter 1. So those blessings were put upon those people whose names were written down before the foundation of the world in the Lamb's Book of Life.

Why? Their names were added to that Book of Life because only those whose names are written in the Book of Life are the ones who will receive life. And the only ones who will receive life have the ability to, out of that life, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. So election is very much so tied to faith and belief. There is no faith and belief unless you are a chosen child of God. And you're not a chosen child of God because you chose Him. Because you accepted Him. Because you made a decision. Because you changed the object of your faith. Because you walked down an aisle or got baptized or joined a church. You're not a child of God because you believed on Him. Because the Bible says that He has sent His Spirit because we are already sons. He has sent His Spirit into us. And whenever He does that now, we cry, Abba, Father. Before that, we don't cry, Abba, Father, because we are at enmity, the Bible says, to the Father. We are enemies against the Father. Our binds are set against the Father of this Scripture. And therefore, unless we are elected of God and given life, there will flow no biblical true faith towards the Lord Jesus Christ.

In Acts chapter 13 and verse 48, we see a few things here. I've mentioned to you guys on many occasions, this right here was one of the watershed verses that brought me to the doctrines of grace. Had never read this verse. If I had, I'd never really considered it, thought about it, In reality, the Lord had not illuminated it to me. That's the true reality because I can search all the day long and memorize it. But unless God illuminates it. This verse right here, whenever the Lord finally illuminated this verse. And what it's actually saying. Until then, it was just the same old same old, trying to get everybody to believe. I got to pump myself up to keep believing. I got to, you know, do all these works. I got to do all this stuff. I got to go out and preach and get these people saved. I got to tell you to keep believing. I've got to keep, you know, trying to tell you how much you need to put your faith in Jesus Christ. That's how you're going to get saved and all that stuff.

Well, this right here is an account whenever Paul and Barnabas went and preached among the Gentiles. Now, remember, the gospel had only been given among the Jews, right? And then the gospel was sent to the Gentiles and it was sent by way of the Apostle Paul. Apostle Paul went out and began to preach these things. Now, brethren, don't believe for a second that through all these years that the Gentiles had not been hearing what had been preached among the Jews. We know that they had heard what had been preached among the Jews. We have lots of accounts where Gentiles had been talking about, they knew what had been preached to the Jews. They knew what was being preached to the Jews. They knew all along under the old covenant that God had brought them up as a people, and that they had been excluded from all the things of God. So they knew those things. The Samaritan woman, she knew, hey, wait a minute, you Jews don't have anything to do with us Samaritans. You consider us as dogs, okay? And the Gentiles as dogs. So people knew this distinction.

But so whenever Paul came and began to preach the gospel to the Gentiles, And remember, the gospel is for the people of God. The gospel is sent and declared to those who the Lord has quickened in their heart, brought alive to hear and to see and to understand spiritual things. Therefore, when the gospel comes to those whom the Lord has quickened, that gospel becomes good news to them. And here we see good news coming to these Gentiles, who all their life have been told, you're on the outside and dogs, according to these people, and they're God. And then this Jesus, whenever he came, he only ministered among the Jews and the disciples only ministered among the Jews because it was appointed for a specific time that this gospel will be first to the Jews and then to the Gentiles. That even whenever Christ died and resurrected, the gospel was to be done first in Jerusalem. and then in Judea, and then in Samaria, and then into the uttermost parts of the world, which it was. That's where the gospel began. It began first in Jerusalem, being preached in Jerusalem, and it moved from Jerusalem, where the church first was, and it moved into Judea, moved into Samaria, moved into the uttermost parts of the world. To the whole world, matter of fact. Paul tells us later in his epistle that the gospel was preached into all the world. So the gospel commission has been carried out, brethren. The gospel has been preached to all the world.

Now, these Gentiles were listening to Paul and Barnabas preach, and look at verse 47. For so saith the Lord, commanded us, saying, I have sent thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth. So Paul is saying, God has sent us to be the light to preach unto you the salvation that's come to the Gentiles. Not to preach to get the Gentiles saved. He's to preach that the salvation that we've been preaching up there in Jerusalem to the Jews who they thought was only for them. No, God intended that for the Gentiles as well. And so God has set me and Barnabas up as ministers to come and declare unto you the salvation of Jehovah to you just as much as it is to them Jews up there in Jerusalem.

And verse 48, here it is. And when the Gentiles heard this, that salvation was for them too. They were glad and glorified the word of the Lord.

Now look here, and I want you to pay close attention. If you have your Bible, look at the verses with me. Pay close attention, because I don't want you to take my word for it. I don't want you to take some systematic theology's word for it. I want you to take the word of the Lord.

And what does it say here? What a lot of people perceive and a lot of the Gospels that's being preached out in our hearing today says this, and all those who believed on the Lord Jesus were given eternal life. That's the doctrine that's being preached today. That's the gospel that's being preached today.

But what does the Scripture say right here? It says just the opposite, right? It says, as many as were ordained to eternal life believe.

So whenever Paul was preaching to all those Gentiles, who were the ones who believed? The ones who Paul convinced? The ones who Barnabas got in there and got down into life lessons with them? And the ABC's and 1, 2, 3's of the gospel and explained it the best that he could? That he put it all out and gave them all the verses in the world so that they could go and look for themselves?

Is that what brought salvation to them? Is that what caused them to believe? Why did those people believe the testimony of Paul about Christ being their righteousness, just like He's the righteousness of the Jews? What was it that caused those people to believe?

They were ordained to eternal life. The cause of faith there was the fact that before the foundation of the world, they were ordained to eternal life. Therefore, they received the love of God into their heart, the faith of Christ into their heart, the testimony of Christ into their hearing, And now their heart and mind believe that testimony to be true about them.

And that didn't come from them changing the object of their faith. That didn't come from them listening to some scriptures and changing their mind. That didn't come from them turning from idols to God. No, all that stuff was the result of a salvation that was already given to them. We call that sovereign grace. Sovereign grace, God giving them that stuff so that they can receive it and enjoy it.

See, everybody looks at what we preach about sovereign grace and some old tyrant up there that's just beating people over the head says, no, you can't believe on me even though you want to because I didn't choose you. Your name ain't in my book. No, nobody comes to him. Nobody wants him. Nobody loves him. Nobody believes upon Christ. But God in love has given it to you. If you believe on Christ, it's because God loved you and God gave that as a gift to you when He didn't have to. Faith is something that isn't owed to us and it isn't something that's innate in us. It's a gift of God. And these Gentiles, the Bible says they were glad and they glorified the Word of the Lord because as many as were ordained to eternal life believed the testimony that Paul was making to them.

Look if you would with me at Philippians 1. These are the verses that I put in that post, but I'm just wanting to expound upon these things a little bit. So we've seen here they were ordained to eternal life. So faith is tied to election. Look at Philippians chapter 1 verse 29. It says, For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ. For unto you it is given. You notice that? Did you see that phrase? For unto you it is given. It doesn't say for unto you it's offered or suggested or warned. It says, for unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for His sake. Now, it's talking about suffering also, but brethren, we can't divorce the fact that it says that it has been given in the behalf of Christ for us to believe on Him. So faith is not something that you can do unless it's given to you. Right?

So all this notion of telling people that you have to believe in Christ to be saved or to be born again. You have to believe in Christ to be born again. And you can do it at any time, anywhere, any way. You believe on Christ and Christ will save you then. That notion isn't found in the Bible. There are verses in the Bible that may sound like that, but whenever you compare the Scripture with Scripture and let the Scriptures interpretate itself, and not some Ian Thomas or not some Billy Graham or not some Adrian Rogers or some John Gill or Gilbert Beebe or anybody else, whoever you want to put forth as your theologian, you let the Scriptures interpret themselves, you'll see if the fact remains that the people who are ordained to eternal life are the ones who believe, if the ones who are believing are the ones who was given to believe, then we're finding some things out about faith. Faith isn't just something that comes from our heart. It isn't something that just comes from who we are by nature. It doesn't come from the natural man. It's something that has to be done for and in the natural man.

Look at John chapter 6 and verse 29. John chapter 6, verse 29, excuse me, verse 28. Then said they unto him, what shall we do? See, that's the first thing out of most people's mouths. Well, what do I need to do? Well, what do I need to do? Remember back on the day of Pentecost, after Peter stood up and preached, and those people were pricked in their hearts? And they stood up and said, well what shall we do? What shall we do to be saved? And what did Peter say to them? Repent and be baptized for the remission of your sins and thou shalt be saved. Now some look at that and say, there you go, that's a command. Repent and be baptized. Or repent and believe and thou shalt be saved. But that's a command. But no, that was a statement of fact. Peter was telling them a statement of fact. What do you need to do? Repent and believe and thou shalt be saved. That's in the present perfect. That means an action that's already taken place in the past and is a continuing into the future. So those people already had faith instilled in them because they were pricked in their heart. They were born of the Spirit already. Therefore they asked, what must we do? And what was the thing told to them? Repent of self-righteousness, repent of Judaism, repent of law-keeping, repent of looking unto Moses, and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you do that, you're already saved.

Because the faith that is the faith of the Bible, the faith that is the faith of the saints, the faith that is the faith of Christ Jesus is a faith that only looks to Him for righteousness. The faith that Abraham had was a faith that Christ is my righteousness. accounted it, the seed, to him, Abraham, for righteousness. Abraham said, I know I don't have any righteousness. He has my righteousness. So I look to him, and he's my righteousness. Faith is what received that. Faith is what believed that Christ was my righteousness. Faith didn't look at Jesus and say, I'm looking to Jesus so that he'll make me righteous so that I can be righteous. No, faith looks to Jesus as my righteousness in whom God regards as righteousness. He doesn't look for me and say that Mike is righteous because Mike is doing righteousness. Mike doesn't do righteousness. There is none who do righteousness. There is none righteous. No, not one. There is only one Righteousness that is that which God even considers. And that's the righteousness who is Jesus Christ. And because we of election are in Christ Jesus, we have been made the righteousness of God in Him, not by your faith. Your faith receives that righteousness as your righteousness. That faith is counted unto you as righteous. because Christ is righteous. Not because you did it.

And then to walk in what the Bible calls walking in righteousness is not you walking in sinlessness. It's you walking in faith that Christ is your righteousness and not looking to yourself to quit sinning and be more holy. You quitting sinning and being more holy is not any way, shape or form an ability that you have. Your flesh will continue to sin until the day that it is put down to dust.

Look at verse 37. Jesus said, All that the Father giveth me shall come to me. That word come means believe. So who are the ones who believe on Jesus Christ? According to the Bible. Let's not think about outside preachers. Let's not think about even Mike or Sovereign Grace or anybody else. What does God's Word, what does Jesus? If you have a red-letter Bible, you can see that this is Jesus talking. Alright? Not that the red letters are any more important than the black letters. They're all God-inspired. But who does the Bible, who does Jesus here say come to him? Anybody? Well, I mean, it's very clear right there, everyone can read it. Verse 37, y'all with me? Y'all awake? Everybody awake? All right. Verse 37, what does that first line say? We all have a Bible here, let's read it. All that the Father giveth me. shall come to me."

Some things to take note about in that. Let the Bible speak, right? We just want to let the Bible speak. That's what we're told by people that love us, right? Let the Bible speak. Listen to the Bible. Don't listen to anybody else. Listen to the Bible. What does the Bible say? All. What does the word all mean? Everybody that's included, right? All. that the Father giveth me. That sounds like a pretty specific group of people, right? So that tells me, number one, there was a people that was given to Christ by the Father. Okay, so all of those people shall... What does the word shall mean? It will happen. Shall. Shall come to me. You've heard me say it before, we're called often times, derogatorily by the way, we're called Hardshells. Hardshells. Hardshell Baptist. Hardshell Baptist. That's because of this right here. We believe when the Bible says it shall, God is making a promise that it will happen. God cannot lie. All that the Father has given me, all of those people shall come. to me, believe on me."

So that right there is the Bible speaking and saying who is the ones who will believe on Christ? Everyone, so nuns included. Now, why do I express that all part? Because there are some among even primitive Baptists who believe that there are some who are elect by eternal election but in time never come to know Jesus Christ. They never preach the gospel or they never believe the gospel. They call that two-time salvation. They call that experiential salvation or time salvation. They never experience time salvation, but because of eternal salvation, they will be in heaven, will never come to that, believe in the gospel in this lifetime. That's bogus. That's against the scripture.

This right here says all that the Father gives me, that's election, and that's everybody included in that election shall come. And Jesus equates the word come a few verses later to the word believe. He says those who are coming, they are believing. The believing is the coming. When you come to Christ, you're coming to Him believing upon Him. It isn't just coming to His presence at the end of time. It isn't coming to His church in time. That is a coming to Christ. But that is not coming to Him in this context. This context is believing on Him. This whole entire context of Jesus' preaching about Him being the bread of life is about people believing upon Him for who He is and what He is about to do for them. And so this is a pointed verse in Scripture that says all, none excluded, none lost, that the Father hath given me shall believe or come to me.

" Drop down to verse 44. Jesus makes it even more emphatic. No man can come to me. So what does that... Let's just stop right there. What does that mean? That's an ability. That's speaking of an ability, right? It's speaking of an ability. No man can come. The word can there is a term that speaks of your ability. You do not have the ability to come to Him, to believe on Him. You don't have that ability. So what should we think about our friends and loved ones and favorite preachers who tell us that you can come? That you can believe when you want. That you can exercise faith. It's just changing the object of it. Well, we have to say, that's not the Word of God. That's not what the Word of God says. The Word of God is clear. No man can believe. Oh, you can just believe. You just got to do it. You just got to change your mind. Repent. Change your mind.

Well, here, let me give you a list of verses. Let me give you the Roman's Road. I don't know how many people I give the Roman's Road thinking that they were going to get saved because they read it. That's going to convince them. Oh, if they read this, that's going to convince them. Or if I could just preach this with the best outline and the best... They're just going to hear this. If I speak with some fervency, they're going to believe this. If I tell them how much I love them and express how much I care for them and how much God cares for them, they're going to believe this. Brethren, no man can believe except the Father which hath sent me draw him. No man can come except they are drawn by God. See, you can't come. You can't believe. That's your inability. That's who we are in Adam. That's why God, in the beginning, purposed for Adam to fall into this state, to be made in this state of unbelief. He created him without the ability to believe, without the ability to keep, without the ability to know and understand. He created him that way because that creates man in a complete and utter state of dependence.

And out of one lump, he has chosen one for honor, one for dishonor. One he is going to redeem out of that unbelief. The other, He is going to leave in that unbelief that He created them in to show forth all the glory of His praise, whether it be in justice and wrath, or whether it be in glory and salvation and forgiveness. God is bringing glory to Himself in Christ Jesus for that. So no man can come except the Father draw him.

Now, with that being said, let's look at Jeremiah 31. Jeremiah chapter 31. Let's look at verse 3. Now remember, no man can come. All that the Father giveth me shall come. But no man can come. So that means that if any of the all are going to come, they are going to come because God draws them. Because that's the only way it said they can come. No man can come except the Father draws him. That's the only way we believe. Faith is tied to that eternal election because only those who are eternally elected are going to be the ones that God draws.

You say, where did you find that preacher? I don't think that exactly said that. Well, look at Jeremiah 31 and verse 3. The Bible says, The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love. Therefore, what does therefore mean? Can anybody here tell me what therefore means? What is the therefore, therefore that my grandpa used to say? Come on now, we're not all ignorant. of things, we know what therefore means. What does the word therefore mean? Therefore means, in light of this, this, in the most simplest terms. The Lord hath appeared of old to me saying, okay, here's the subject or here's the fact, I have loved thee with an everlasting love. Therefore, because of that, Because of my love for you, with loving kindness, have I drawn thee." What is the basis of anybody being drawn, which is the only exception that anybody can come? The only way anyone has the ability to come to Christ Jesus and believe on Him is because God in His everlasting love for them and in loving kindness draws them. Who are the ones who are drawn? Let's go back to John. Listen to me and don't clock out on me. Without exception, none lost, none missed, none that we didn't get to, none that never did quite understand, no all, that the Father giveth me, Christ, that's election, shall come to me. That is a statement of fact. That is a statement of promise.

But the Scripture also says that no man can come. Therefore, we are subjected to and only have hope in sovereign grace. If there is no sovereign grace, there is no grace. If there is no sovereign grace, there is no salvation. Therefore, sovereign grace is the gospel The good news of salvation is that you have been chosen, you have been loved, you have been drawn, and you shall come. That's what sovereign grace is all about.

People hate sovereign grace. I have family and friends who hate what I believe. I have people that have disfellowshipped from me. I have people that have left this church because they don't believe what this is saying. Because they hate it. And to the core, they despise it. And they want to do anything that they can to derail anyone from believing it that they love, that they believe, that might follow after.

But brethren, this right here is the greatest show of God's love towards us, is that He caused us to believe in Him. If He didn't do that, we never would have, and you would have went right straight into hell. The reason you're not going right straight into hell is because God didn't give you an offer or a choice. No, He did something for you that you never could have done or never would have done. He did for you on your behalf and gave it to you freely. And why would we despise that? Why would we look at that as being not fair? Because we worship the will. The reason we despise that is because men and women around this world who have not been granted the life of Christ continue to worship at the altar of their will. It's not right that God doesn't give me a choice. God is not just if He doesn't give me free will. If I don't have free will, I'm just a robot and that's not true love.

No, the Bible says true love is God loved you despite who you were, whether you done anything good or bad or make a decision for Him because you can't. Your nature will not allow you to do that because you hate Him with that nature. So the reason that God has loved you is not because of anything that you have done. And so He has given you His love and given you what you never could have done and given you belief in Him so that you can see what God has done for you, enjoy what God has done for you, and rejoice in the fact of what God has done for you.

No man can come, but God has given us the ability to come. Not ability that I had. Mike Smith would have continued on not believing God. You know what Mike Smith would have continued doing? Mike Smith probably would still be at the same church, doing the same things that I had done for years and years and years and years. thinking that Mike Smith is getting along with God because I'm doing this, I'm doing this, I'm on this committee, I'm the associate pastor, I'm on this committee, I teach this class, I'm instructing these people, I'm going out and singing with this group, I'm going out preaching these revivals, I'm doing all these things that are spiritual. And just like Paul, I look back on every bit of that and I say the things that I thought were gain to me, I count them as dumb. Why? Because the only thing that counts is the faith of Christ Jesus on my behalf. Because nothing I do can save me. Nothing I can do can help me. Nothing I can do can do anything. It's all of what God has done for me and in me.

No man can come. So it's the loving kindness of God that has drawn me. So here we have, all that the Father giveth, that's election, and every one of them that's been elected, shall come. But no man can come. So how is it that we're preaching faith? We've got to preach faith. Come the way the Bible does. Those who come are the ones who God has loved. And then loving kindness has drawn.

Now back to John chapter 6 again. Look at verse 65. I'm going to back up to verse 61. When Jesus knew it himself that his disciples murmured at this. Remember, Jesus is teaching all this. This is Jesus' sermon. I'm just preaching, re-preaching Jesus' sermon. Me and Larry, whenever Larry teaches on his stuff and all like that, all he's doing is re-preaching Jesus' sermons. This is Jesus' sermon. Matter of fact, this is Jesus' specific sermon.

And after the end of it, the Bible says that many, therefore, of His disciples, when they heard this, said, this is a hard saying. And who can hear it? And when Jesus knew in Himself that His disciples murmured at it, He said unto them, doth this offend you? I ask, does this offend you? Right now, right now, is your spirit kicking back at what this is being said. If it is, it's not the Spirit of God that's kicking. If this is offending you, it's offending you because the Spirit of God has not given you faith. Because the faith of Jesus Christ comes to Him and Him alone. The faith of Christ is the faith that not only He exhibited Himself, which was your justification, But it is the faith that He grants unto you so that you can believe what He did was enough.

But whenever you start hearing that that's all that I can, you mean I can't do anything? I didn't do anything? God is not going to look at anything that I do? That offends me. You know why? Pride. You know why? Self-righteousness. You believe that there's something that is righteous that God is going to accept. That is sin. That is sin. You are missing the mark. You are transgressing the law of God because you are trying to establish a righteousness by the law, but you're breaking the law in all of its aspects because you're not keeping it totally. That is sin.

What and if ye shall see the Son of Man ascend up where He was before? It is the Spirit that quickeneth the flesh, prophets, nothing. The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life. But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not and who should betray Him.

How did Jesus know the ones from the beginning that would believe not on Him and those who would believe on Him? How did Jesus know that? Well, because he's God, he's omniscient. He looked down through the corridor of time and he saw that Mike Smith would choose him. No, that's not how he knew it. He definitely knew that, but that's not how he come to that knowledge. He come to that knowledge because God, before the foundation of the world, ordained Mike Smith, if I be his, to eternal life. And everyone who has been ordained to eternal life shall believe and come to Him. And those who come to Him, He will not cast out. Why? Because the Father has loved them with an everlasting love and in loving kindness has drawn them to Him.

So God is not going to deny Himself If the Father is drawing me to Christ, Christ is not going to deny me. Why? Because I'm His. I was a gift of the Father's to Him. Therefore, He is my head. He is my husband. He is my king. He is the one who is my representative. And all for whom He is representing, on the dole for. He is on the hook for. Because He has declared a covenant that these will be My people and I will be their God. And I will go and I will return them back to Myself. That if not all of these people come back to Me, then the blood will be on My hands.

See, He didn't leave it up to them to finish the transaction. I'm offering it to you. Now just accept it. No, faith is something that is an evidence of that which is not seen. And that which is not seen is the everlasting love of God, the election of a people, the work of a Christ, and the Spirit who has been given to us to enjoy everything that it sees. The evidence of things not seen. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Faith is an evidence that we have it, not to get it.

He says, verse 65, Therefore, in light of what I've just preached to you, you're not believing it. Some of you are believing it. You're not believing it. Just like whenever Paul was preaching to the Gentiles. Some believed it. Some didn't believe it. Who was it that believed it? Why did they believe it? Therefore said I unto you, the reason I said to you earlier in my sermon that no man can come to me, except it were given unto him of my father. The reason I said that is because of this very thing right here. I have told you the truth. I have spoke to you of life. I have told you the gospel. I have preached to you the reality of salvation. Some of you believe it and some of you don't. This is why I said, you can't believe this message. The message that I'm bringing to you is not a message that the natural man will receive or believe or understand. You cannot come because you do not have the capacity in natural man to believe it. The capacity to believe the gospel comes from the spiritual man. The spiritual man comes from being born above.

So you can't believe until you're born above. And I've been told my whole entire life that you have to believe first to be born from above. Just the opposite. And even now, I'm being told, you're preaching wrong. You have to believe to get born again. Brethren, the Bible is clear as day. You say, well, but all men can do that. Well, can they? Some might say, well, you're wrong. All men do have faith. It's just what they put their Trust in what they put their faith in will turn with me to want second Thessalonians. I'm gonna go ahead and end it here There was a I actually want to get into Galatians, but I never got there Second Thessalonians if you would please Second Thessalonians Look with me at chapter 2 or 3 and look at verse 2. I Actually, I'll read verse 1 just to get us in the context here. Finally, brethren, pray for us that the word of the Lord may have free course and be glorified even as it is with you. Paul is basically saying, hey, pray for us that the word of the Lord might be believed. Pray for us as we go out and preach that God might open up hearts so that people will believe what we're saying. That's what he's saying. and that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men.

" Now here's the phrase that I want to draw to your attention. A principle of Scripture, a statement of fact, though it be just at the end of a sentence, it still holds the whole weight of the teaching of Scripture and what Jesus had just preached. For all men have not faith. For all men have not faith. Why cannot they come except they be drawn? Because all men have not faith.

Well, wait a minute. I thought you told me, dear loved one, I thought you told me that everybody has faith. I trust that this chair holds me up when I go to sit in it. That's faith. I trust that those airplanes get me from one direction to the other. When I fly in them, that's faith. We have faith. I have faith that that car, when I get in it and drive it down the street, isn't going to veer off and run me into a tree. We all know that that kind of faith is not the biblical faith that we're talking about. Biblical faith is something that's outside of us.

And hey, listen, this man-made faith, by the way, it can fail. It fails. I can have faith and sit down in that chair and that thing collapses underneath me. I can have faith that a motorcycle gets me from one point to another and it can veer off into a tree. We won't mention any names. I can have all the faith in anything that I want. But brethren, that's not talking about the faith that receives Christ Jesus.

See, Abraham didn't have a natural faith and then he moved that faith to another object and then he said, oh, I'm well pleased with you. Now you're justified. I'm going to count all your sins not against you because you did that. Now, I know people are laughing and I know that sounds like I'm being, you know, facetious, but brethren, that's exactly what modern gospel preaching is saying. that Abraham was given salvation because he believed. And if you are a child of Abraham, you will believe on Jesus too. And if you do, then He will then justify you for believing.

But brethren, the Bible says that our justification is by the faith of Christ. Not the faith in Christ. Or the faith on Christ. It's the faith of Christ. And the faith of Christ is nothing more than Christ's actual obedience to the Father Himself. Christ going to the cross. The fulfillment of all prophecy. That is Christ's faithfulness. That faithfulness is counted for you. You have kept all the law. Not just the ceremonial. You've kept every bit of the law. And you stand right now, if you're a child of grace, you stand right now before the throne of God as having kept all the law. And continue standing before Him as keeping all the law. Because Christ did it on your behalf.

Because Christ is never looking back at what is being worked in this flesh. Paul knew that. Romans chapter 7. This flesh is going to be with me to the end. It's corrupt. It's evil. It's wicked. All it can do is evil. Every time I want to do good, it does bad. Anytime I don't want to do bad and everything, guess what? That's what I'll do. It'll be here with me. Who should deliver me from this body of death? Praise the Lord, it's going to be Christ Jesus. And it's going to be whenever this body of death is put down into the dust. And that glorified body, the body that is actually made for this inner man, will be brought up. That's whenever I will put off this body of death. That's whenever I'll quit sinning. That's whenever I will have righteousness in actuality.

But until then, faith. Until then, faith. You know why the Bible says that there is a point whenever Christ comes that faith ends? Faith ends. We sing the songs, our faith will end in sight of Him, right? Our faith will end. Our faith will end. Why? Well, because the body of death will be put away. That which is unrighteous is gone. And we now put on righteousness. We are now clothed the way that the inner man is already. Righteous.

And brethren, that faith does not enact that. That faith receives that and believes that Jesus is all that we need. It doesn't look to ourselves. It doesn't look to the arm of the flesh. It doesn't look to our law keeping. It doesn't look to our obedience. It doesn't look to anything else. As our hymn this morning says, it bows at the throne of grace. And it gives grace. The praise that is due. Grace, grace, marvelous grace. Grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt.

All right. Let's bow. Heavenly Father, we thank you once again for the gracious mercy and love of God. We thank you for Christ Jesus, who is the embodiment of all that love and grace. And we thank you, Father, for the gift of salvation that we have in and through him, that gift that not is offered, but that gift that is bestowed, that is given. The gift that we have, Lord, because you have given it to us. Lord, we thank you that you have done for us what we could never have done ourself and will never do ourself.

We thank you, Father, for sovereign grace. We thank you for mercy. We thank you for faith that has been given to us to receive the things freely given to us. We thank you for the Spirit of God, for without the Spirit of God, we would not know these things. But Father, most importantly, we thank you for your eternal election. Because you have ordained us to eternal life, we have been given faith. Because you have ordained us and written our names in the land book of life, we have been given life and life more abundant.

Because of your sovereign election, we will not receive what we deserve and what we are in what we are, but we will receive what we do not deserve in what Christ Jesus is. Thank you, Father, for Christ. We exalt him. We glorify him. And Father, we long and desire to continue to debase man so that Christ would be magnified. We love you and we praise you for all that you have done for us. For it's in Christ's name that we pray. Amen.