Open your Bibles, if you would,
to John chapter 17. John chapter 17. We'll continue
our study tonight in this absolutely wonderful chapter. Tonight we'll
look at verse 8, which is directly tied in to verse 7 with the beginning
word for. So let's read verses 1 to 9 to
see the context of the two verses. First we're going to read the
context here, then we're going to look at verses 7 and 8, and
then we're going to focus on verse 8. These words spake Jesus
and lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hours come
glorify thy son that thy son also may glorify thee. as thou
hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal
life to as many as thou hast given him. You see right there that salvation's
of the Lord, don't we? So clear? And this is life eternal,
that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ,
whom thou hast sent. I have glorified thee on the
earth, I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do, and
now, O Father, Glorify thou me with thine own self, with the
glory which I had with thee before the world was. I have manifested
thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world. Thine
they were. Wonderful statement. And thou
gavest them me, and they have kept thy word. Now they have
known that all things whatsoever thou has given me are of thee.
Four, so there's the connection there. For I have given unto
them the words which thou gavest me, and they have received them,
and have known surely that I come out from thee, and they believe
that thou didst send me. In verse nine, I pray for them,
I pray not for the world. That's next week's verse. But
for them which thou gavest me, for they are thine. Look at that.
We're the fathers. We're the fathers, we've been
given to the father. Or we've been given to Christ by the Father.
And even here Christ says we're his possession still too. My
oh my, isn't that wonderful? What comfort these words can
give we who are the born-again people of God. It's so comforting.
So much comfort here in these verses. To think that sinners
who are born again by the Holy Spirit of God, washed in the
precious blood of Christ, saved from all our sins. We read these
words and we marvel, don't we? Number one, that God would choose
us. Number two, that we were the Father's possession given
to Christ. And number three, that he preserves
us and keeps us and he's revealed himself to us, all according to his will and
purpose, because it pleased him to do so. And again, we see here the fact
that we were the fathers before He gave us to the Son in eternity.
And we also see here the fact of the Son of God's tender love
towards us. He loves us, beloved. He loves
us with an eternal love, an unchanging love. And He's loved us that
way from eternity. We were enemies in our minds.
See, we were the ones who needed to be reconciled We had left
God, hadn't we? When Adam fell, we were separated
from God. He didn't move nowhere. He didn't
go anywhere. But we were far away, dead in
trespasses and sins. And now we've been, Ephesians
says, we've been brought nigh hell by the blood of Christ.
That's what's brought us nigh. That's what's brought us close.
That's what reconciled us back to God, whose blood? The blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ, God's Passover lamb. So we see here
the fact of God the Father and God the sons, and we know God
the Holy Spirit too, eternal love and care for his people.
We're called the sheep of his pasture. We're his little sheep,
and he's the shepherd. And he's been charged, Christ
has been charged to take care of us, beloved. And you know, if he lost one
of his people, do you know that would tarnish his glory? But
he won't lose one, will he? He says, all that the Father
gave me shall come to me. And him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. That's why we say to the sinner,
We're sinners saved by grace, right? We say, sinner friend,
you who are dead in trespasses and sins, flee to Christ. That's
what we sinners did, by the grace and mercy of God, right? According
to the will of God. And we see here too, in these
words, I see so clearly God's distinguishing grace. God's distinguishing
grace. Who's the only one who's made
us to be in Christ? God the Father, by his choosing. There's a whole world around
us, right? They know nothing about the one true God. And here
we are, out of all the people in our
generation, right? And God being pleased to reveal
himself to us. That's amazing. That's distinguishing grace.
And it's all according to his mercy. There's nothing in us
that would merit it. His brother Tim James used to
say, no merit, no merit, no merit. Nothing in us, nothing, nothing
at all. Nothing at all. Just God's mercy
and grace. So what comfort we can find here
in verse eight and verse seven. But let's read the two verses
together. We can see this wonderful truth
brought forth. Look at this. Now they have known. Who's the ones who've known?
Those the Father gave to Christ. What do they know? That all things
whatsoever thou hast given me are of me. Sorry. Now he's going to go into
a little bit more of a description here. of that which was spoken
of in verse seven. For I have given unto them the
words which thou gavest me, and they have received them. Now
the name of this message, I named it, I didn't say it at the beginning,
is received, or given, given, received, and
believed. And we see it right here in this
verse. Christ has given us the words that the Father gave him
to say to us, right? We've received them, how? Only
by the grace of God. We wouldn't receive them in our
natural state, not at all. As a matter of fact, we'd say,
no, I don't want nothing to do with God. But when you're born
again to the Holy Spirit of God, now you receive those words,
don't you? And then we believe that Christ came from the Father,
don't we? We believe that he was sent by the Father. Look,
it's all here in verse eight. Look, for I have given unto them
the words which thou gavest me, and they have received them,
and have known surely. Now God's people know a few things,
don't we? We know some things we didn't
know before. And this is something we know
here. You read the book of 1 John, and John will tell you some things
that we know. We know that we have eternal
life. in and through Christ Jesus our Lord. Look what he says here.
For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me, and
they have received them only by the grace of God, and have
known surely that I come from thee, and they have believed
that thou didst send me. Do you believe that God the Father
sent Christ? Did you believe that before the
Lord saved you? I didn't. I believe it now. But I didn't
believe it before. But now, it's precious. So what
comfort's found here in this, in verse 8 here? He's speaking
of his disciples here, but we, like the disciples, are born-again,
blood-washed saints, just like they are. And we receive the same way,
don't we? Faith cometh by hearing, in what? Hearing by the Word
of God. How shall they hear? Right? Except for a preacher. Well,
preachers sent by God, eh? How shall he preach unless he
be sent? Right? It's amazing. It's absolutely
amazing. And this is the son of God's
testimony about this, that he has given us the words that the
father gave him. Think of what we know. Now we
can't brag about anything we know about Christ, can we? Or
about God. But think of the things we know
now. We know why Christ came now. We know who he came to save. We know where he is right now.
We know that the words that he spoke were of the fathers. We
believe that the father sent him. We didn't before we were saved,
did we? That's a miracle of grace, isn't it? So we can see that
we've been given those words We've received those words and
we believe them by the grace of God. Again, it all comes right
back to Christ, doesn't it? All comes right back around to
Him. Now we know about the Father's
love. I had no clue about the Father's love, about His eternal
love before I was saved, did you? I hadn't even heard it. I didn't even hear it in religion.
I heard, well, God loves everyone. No, that's not true, because
we see that in verse 9, right? I pray for them. I pray not for
the world, but for them which thou hast given me, for they
are thine. Christ loves his own. He loves those who the Father
gave him. Now, less people, and they jump on this all the time.
Well, there you go, preaching election again, yeah? And I'll
keep preaching it till the day I die. But you know what? The elect are a number that no
man can number. You just put that in people's
head. When they start barking about election and getting mad
about election, just say, it is a number that you can't even
come close to numbering who are saved. Oh, it's wonderful. Absolutely wonderful. A.W. Pink brings this forth from
these verses. He says, how surely does it tell
us the pleasure of God is this, that we should know him? You ever think of that? It's
the pleasure of God that we know Him. A dirty, rotten sinner like
me? Yep! And you too, beloved! Isn't that
wonderful? It's according to His good pleasure
that we should know Him. It's wonderful. It's absolutely
amazing. He goes on to say that we should
know Him in love, that we should know Him as the Father, that
we should know Him according to the words of Him who came
out from His bosom, which is the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son
of God, the Word of God incarnate. What favor God has shown us,
undeserved favor, but what favor He's shown us. and what joy this
will bring to our hearts, what freedom and what liberty this
will bring to our hearts, beloved, as we contemplate what God has
done for us in Christ. And now we see God in love, don't
we? Now he's a God of wrath too,
but his wrath for his people has been appeased in Christ. He no longer, he's not angry
with his people, he loves them. He loves us, beloved. Oh my. It's when we were enemies in
our minds, you see, by wicked works. And then Christ reconciled us,
beloved. It's wonderful. Ministry of reconciliation, it's
wonderful. And we see here that the saints
of God are distinguished from the world. They're those who the Father
gave to Christ. They're distinguished. And again, it's only God's distinguishing
grace that's made the difference between you and I and anyone
else in this world. We can't boast about nothing,
can we? We can boast in Him. We can praise Him. We can glorify
Him for what He's done for us. We can't boast in nothing. And
I love that. Because you know what? I have
to admit it. You know, we get a little bit
of a big head. What happens when we get a little
bit, the Lord pops it, doesn't it? You know, we usually see
something that hits us in the scriptures. Oh, for our correction,
always in love, always in love. But my, oh my, God's people are
distinguished from the world. And now we have a right standing
with God only in Christ. We have that right now, beloved.
Right now, while we're here, right now, right this second,
every born-again believer has a right standing with God before
we even get to heaven. Isn't that wonderful? And it's
unchanging. Is God unchanging? He's unchanging,
right? Therefore, His salvation's unchanging,
beloved. Oh, it's wonderful. We're just
waiting to go home, beloved. We're just waiting to go home.
We're already seated in heavenly places, the scripture says, in
Christ. He knows the end from the beginning.
Isn't that wonderful? Oh my. It's spectacular actually,
isn't it? It really is. And the believer
in Christ now, we know that Christ came on a mission, right? He
was sent on a mission. What's that? To save our souls. Christ came to save his people,
what? From their sins. That's what he did. Hallelujah,
right? What a savior is we saying. He
purchased us with his precious blood. It's absolutely wonderful. And we also know that the Lord
is the promised Messiah, don't we? You know, when I was a Catholic,
I didn't even know what the Messiah was. They never talked about
it. Didn't talk about that. Just
said Christ came at Christmas time. Well, that's a whole other
ball of wax. Yeah. Oh my. The whole thing is Christ came
to save us. to do that which we couldn't
do. We couldn't save ourselves from our sins. And He saved us,
beloved. And it's done. The work is done. It's absolutely wonderful. And
we know now. We know, don't we? By faith.
By faith. By God-given faith. And that faith, again, you're
gonna hear me say it a lot tonight, that faith has one object, and
that's Christ, isn't it? God-given faith looks to Christ,
looks away from self, and looks to Christ, Right? That God-given faith has one
object, and that's Christ alone. Because He's the only Savior
of sinners. How do we know that? Well, He told us that, didn't
He? We'll look at some words tonight by Him. My, oh my. And think of this, too. It's
not what we think or who we think the Father is by our natural
minds, right? Because in our natural thinking,
before we're born again, we have a warped version of who God is.
Because it's based upon who we think He is by our dead nature. But now when we're born again,
now we have an understanding that we didn't have before. It's
an understanding of who God is, that he's our Lord, that he's
our Savior, that he's our Redeemer, that he's the Messiah, that he's
the sent one from God. So our thoughts before we were
born again of God and of Christ, right? Because we probably heard
sometime that God's done all he can to do, now it's the rest
up to you, which is a lie from the pit of hell. We're talking
the Almighty Savior. We're talking God in the flesh. He's done all he can do, what?
Yeah, he did, he did what he, he did. what he was sent to do
at Calvary's Cross. He saved his people from their
sins. And then he went up to glory,
where he's seated at the right hand of the Father. He's not
trying to save anyone. He saved his people from their
sins, didn't he? That's what he did, beloved.
Saved us from our sins. It's wonderful. So it's not what
we think in our natural mind, but now that we're born again,
beloved, now we have an understanding of who God is. He's such a loving
God. He's a pardoning God. He's a
merciful God. He's a God full of grace. Isn't
He? He's wonderful. He's not who we thought He was. And we're in awe. And all that
comes about because the Father has given Christ the words to
reveal him. Oh, it's wonderful. And we've
received them, haven't we? And we believe them by the grace
of God, haven't we? The power of the Holy Spirit
of God. And it's by grace that we now
know that Christ again was sent by the Father. And again, it's
by grace that we know that the words that Christ speaks come
from the Father. And they're for us, beloved. They're for us. They're for we
who are His people. Did you understand this book,
Before the Lord Saved You? I don't care if you were in church
or if you were were on the streets like I was. Did you understand
this book before the Lord saved me? I didn't have a clue. I've
told you, I read it before the Lord saved me. And I didn't,
I put it down, I said, I don't understand what that thing's
saying. But after the Lord saved me, oh man, where'd that come
from? I never saw that before. And even still, right, we all
talk about that, even still when we're reading it. Is the ink
wet? Oh my, I didn't see it. I've
read that passage a hundred times. I never saw that. Well, praise
be to God. He's revealed it to us. You know
when he does too? When we need it. Amen. He's so good to us. He's so good
to us. And so by God given faith and
by the power of the Holy Spirit illuminating the scriptures for
us, we understand. We understand the things, and
it's the deep things of God. You know, people say, people
say, well, that guy's a deep preacher. You know, a preacher
just getting up for the first time and preaching Christ, he's
preaching deep things, beloved. Isn't he? Deep things. I mean, deep things. He's preaching
the mystery of God in Christ. He may stammer like I do sometimes
and mispronounce words, but you know what? It's the message,
isn't it? It's the message. It's not the man, it's the message. Power in the word of God, beloved. So let we who are the people
of God give praise, give praise to our great and glorious God
for revealing himself to us. through the Lord Jesus Christ
and by the power of God, the Holy Spirit. Let's look at verse
eight now. We read verse seven and eight
to see the connection. Now here's the word. For I have
given unto them the words which thou gavest me, and they have
received them. That's a miracle in itself, isn't
it? That we receive the words of God. Because you know what?
The scripture says there's none that understandeth, there's none
that seeketh after God, There's none righteous, no, not one.
And now the people of God are receiving the words of God only
by the grace of God, only by the power of God, beloved. Isn't
it wonderful? Oh, for I've given unto them
the words which thou gavest me, and they have received them,
and they have known surely that I, surely they know, they know
for a fact, right? that i came out from thee and
they have believed that thou didst send me my what a verse
and note the word again four in verse eight brings forth that
that which was spoken of in verse seven is going to be explained
here in verse eight and the disciples had by grace
through the teaching of god the holy spirit and the words of
christ entered it entered by grace into a knowledge that the
world was completely ignorant of And we were there before the
Lord saved us. The world is completely ignorant
of the truth. And I can say that because I
was there. Have you experienced that? My, I thought I knew who God
was. Jake, you remember when the Lord
saved you? Jake says, I feel like a soldier's got a gun now. He was raised in a church where
they preached things and they said certain things, but they
never talked about election. They never talked about some
of the, although they claimed to believe them, but they never
taught them. Then he met a Canadian, wanted
to do some Bible studies with him. The rest is history. Oh my. It's incredible, though. It's absolutely incredible. So the world's completely ignorant,
and we were too. I'm not saying that condescending-wise,
because everything I know comes from God anyways. But I was ignorant
of the things of God. I had a Christ in my mind. He
wasn't the Christ of the Bible. I had a God in my mind. He wasn't
the God of the Bible. Now praise be to God for those
who are raised in a gospel preaching church, but you still have to
be born again. Right? Still have to be born
again. God's got to give us ears to
hear and eyes to see the things of Christ. Now in Christ's day, some wondered
at his words and his works and others and their hateful blossoming.
They attributed the words and the works of Christ to Satan.
That just shows you that the depravity of man, just so hateful.
So hateful. He'd done nothing to miss. He
went around doing good. They hated him. Hated him without
a cause. My oh my. And the disciples had
heard and seen that occur, right? They were with him when the Pharisees
said that about him. They had heard it. They had seen
it. But they still believed he who came from the Father. That's called preserving grace,
beloved. That's God keeping them. Because we're all prone to go
like this, oh, what's over here? Right? We're all prone to it,
but he just lovingly brings us back over here. Here you go. Feed on this wonderful, wonderful grass of the word of God. It's
precious. Amen, brother. It's so precious.
But like that song says, it's true of all of us. Prone to wander,
Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love.
Here's my heart, Lord, take and seal it. Seal it for thy courts
above, right? Oh, it's wonderful. It's wonderful.
So they'd seen all this. And again, by the grace of God,
the disciples had learned that Christ was sent by God. He was
the Messiah. So they just cast away those
words of the wicked Pharisees. Just like we do when people say
things about our King, whatever. You know, I usually say I pray
the Lord saves you before you meet him Because afterwards it's too late
and then you're gonna learn that he is the king of the universe
Because every knee shall bow And every tongue shall confess
that Jesus Christ is is Lord to the glory of God the Father My oh my. He's no one to play
games with. No one to play games with. And
the disciples, they learned that Christ was sent by the Father.
They believed. That means the words in our text,
which are words of Christ, came to them from the Father. came, they actually heard our
king speak these words. We read about them and by grace,
same thing, we receive them by grace, we believe them by grace,
don't we? But they actually heard these
words. And I find it absolutely incredible that God the Holy
Spirit preserved this prayer of Christ for us to get a glimpse
of his magnificence, to get a glimpse of his deity, to get a glimpse
at who he was. This is the king, beloved. This
is the king who's humbled himself, come so low to save his people
from their sins. Now he's back up in glory, and
those angels, and those saints of God, they're crying, hallelujah,
what a savior! Oh my, worthy is the Lamb. My, and we believe these words. We believe these words that the
Father gave to Christ. By faith, we believe them. And
that's, again, God-given faith, too. Again, it's salvations of
the Lord. It all goes right back. It's
a big circle, isn't it? All the glory goes to Him, all
of it. Let's read verse 8 again. And note these words are given
to those who the Father gave to Christ. For I have given unto
them the words which thou gavest me. So the words were given to
Christ first. and they have received them.
Again, that's a miracle right there, that we would receive
the words of the Father, because he has to reveal himself to us,
doesn't he? We'll never know him unless he reveals himself
to us. And I've known surely that I came out from thee. He
came down from heaven, beloved. Remember that message sent, Dave?
Oh my, that was a wonderful night. Sent, sent. And he keeps saying,
I was sent by the Father. He sent me. It's wonderful. And he's saying it here. No,
and surely I come out from thee, and they have believed that thou
didst what? Here it is again. Send me. He
sent. Isn't that remarkable? God the
Father sent God the Son to save us from our sins and to reveal
the words of God to us. And we've received them by grace
and now we believe them. I'm gonna keep saying it's a
miracle of grace. It's a miracle. It's incredible.
Absolutely incredible. And these words were not commands,
but they were doctrines. Doctrines of Christ. Doctrines
of Christ. Not the doctrines of men. Not
the doctrines of strange teachings or diverse teachings, none of
those. None of those. Not the doctrines
that men cook up in their imagination. saying you have to do this along
with Christ to be saved. Just cooked up doctrines from
the pit of hell, beloved. That's all they are. No, but what the scriptures call
the doctrine of God, the doctrine of Christ. The apostles agree they had received
these doctrines And they found out that they agreed with Scripture.
Just like we do. That they agree with Scripture,
beloved. And the only way they know that
is by the grace of God, right? Is it not so for us too? And we find out who the true
author of the Scriptures are. God, the Holy Spirit. God, the
Holy Spirit. Turn, if you would, to John chapter
seven. John chapter 7. I'm going to read our verse again
while you're turning there. For I have given unto them the
words which thou gavest me. And they have received them and
have known surely that I come out from thee. And they have
believed that thou didst send me. Now look at this in John
chapter seven. And see how the truth of verse
eight that I just read relates to this portion of scripture
here. John chapter seven, verses 16 to 18. Jesus answered them and said,
my doctrine is not mine. Look at that. Whose is it then?
But his that sent me. There it is again. Sent me. Well, that's speaking of God,
isn't it? If any man do his will, he shall know of the doctrine,
whether it be of God or whether I speak of myself. Isn't that
amazing that the Holy Spirit is said to come and he won't
speak of himself, but he'll speak of Christ? And here's the Lord
Jesus Christ, our Savior, and he won't speak of himself, he
speaks the words that God gave him. Oh, it's amazing. This plan of
salvation is absolutely amazing, and all this was planned and
purposed in eternity. He that speaketh of himself,
look what he says about anyone who speaks of himself. He that
speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory. But he that seeketh
his glory, God's glory, that sent him, the same is true, and
no unrighteousness is in him. Well, we have unrighteousness
in us, but who's the sinless one? Who's the one who has no
unrighteousness? Christ, he's speaking of himself
there. See, he seeks to glorify the Father, beloved. He seeks
to speak the doctrines of God. See, people, when they say, well,
I don't believe that, they're basically saying they don't believe
God then. You know, I like to say when I come across a passage
that I just don't understand that, so I'm gonna leave that
for a while. And when God's pleased to illuminate
those scriptures, He'll show it to me. But I'd never say I don't believe
it by the grace of God. Because it's all God's word,
isn't it? whether we understand it or not. It's all His word. Turn, if you would, to Matthew
chapter seven. Keep your finger there in John
chapter six, so go put your finger a little bit in John chapter
six there, but we're gonna read over here in Matthew seven. This
all ties in with verse eight that we're studying tonight.
Look at this. Matthew chapter 7. We're going
to read verses 24 to 29. Now our Lord had just spoken
about many shall say unto him, Lord, Lord, look at the wonderful
things we've done for you. Look at these incredible things.
We cast out demons. We did all this stuff for you.
And he says to them, depart from me, you workers of iniquity. I never knew you. The religious world is in for
a big surprise, aren't they? Claiming all these things they've
done for God. See, the one thing that's different
with grace believers is we give all the glory to God, don't we?
It's all about what He's done. He saved me. I heard somebody,
and they keep saying this, I'm gonna talk to them one of these
days. A friend of mine says, when I got saved, when the Lord saved me. I know
somebody says, well that's such a little thing. Oh, you're nitpicking.
No, the Lord saved me. I didn't save myself. I didn't
get saved. The Lord found me. I was lost,
amen. I was gone. I was gone down the
path and he sought me out and saved me. My, there's a big difference,
isn't there? And that's what he did for all
of his people. Look at this though. So here
he said to those religious folks, and he said many, many, in verses,
a couple verses up there, actually two verses up, I believe it's
22 and 23, but at the end of verse 23 he says, I never knew
you about those religious folks. Depart from me, ye that work
iniquity. Now look at what it says in verses
24 to 29. Boy, this is amazing. In life,
I was studying this today, and in verse eight, you know, knowing
the words, knowing the words now that the father has given
us and this just blew up for me it was wonderful look at this
look at this therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine
that's his words beloved that's his words that come from the
father right verse verse 24 therefore whosoever heareth these sayings
of mine and doeth them i will liken him unto a wise man which
built his house upon a rock He says, I'm the way, I'm the resurrection
and the life, doesn't he? If you believe that, your house
is built on a solid, right? Solid rock, isn't it? That's
Christ. Yeah, you see? The words it speaks. The words it speaks. And they're
the words of the Father, right? And the rain descended and the
floods came and the winds blew and beat upon the house, and
what? It fell not. It didn't fall. It was kept. It had that sure solid foundation,
right? Why? Why didn't it fall apart?
For it was founded upon a rock. It had a solid foundation, right? Now let's look at this one. And
everyone here at these sayings of mine and doeth them not. So
again, the words of Christ and say, they say, I don't believe
that, whatever. We were there, weren't we? But
by the grace of God, now we believe. But look at this. This is kind
of chilling here. Look at this. And everyone that
heareth these things of mine and doeth them not, he shall
be like unto a foolish man which buildeth his house upon the sand.
It's got no foundation. There's no foundation. There's
nothing. It's on sand. You ever try to
build something on sand? It might sit there for a while
and one side might sink, right? My, oh my. What happens, just
think of when we were kids or when you took your kids to the
beach, right? You remember making those little, I love to take
my pail and tip my pail over, put a little stick in there and
all that, right? You get it too close to the water,
the water comes and it just, what's it do? It eats the bottom,
doesn't it? And then the top just goes, boom!
There it is. There's a picture right there.
There's a picture right there. Look at this, and the rains descended
and the floods came and the winds blew and beat upon that house
and it fell and great was the fall of it. Now he's talking
spiritual things here, isn't he? Great was the ruin. It was ruined. It was ruined. And it came to pass when Jesus
ended these sayings look at this the people were astonished at
what his doctrine his words That's speaking of his words For he taught them as one having
authority and not as the Scribes that's because he wouldn't like
the Scribes He's the God man He's the God-man. He has all
authority. The reason He speaks with authority is because He's
got all authority. He's got all power. We saw in verse 2 of this
chapter, He's got all power to give eternal life to as many
as the Father's given Him. And He does that, doesn't He?
And it's wonderful. So the doctrine of Christ is
the word of truth. One faith, speaking of his righteousness,
the scriptures speak of his righteousness, the scriptures speak of peace
with God through the Lord Jesus Christ, and reconciliation with
God, sinners reconciled to a holy and righteous God through Christ,
eternal life and of salvation, which all comes from Christ for
what he's done for us on Calvary's cross, appeasing the wrath of
God, shedding His blood for the forgiveness of all our sins. My oh my. And the gospel of God's
free and grace, free and sovereign grace. This is His gospel. It
comes from God. It's God's gospel, beloved. It's
not man-made. It comes from Him. My. And then He gives His preachers
the ability to preach it, doesn't He? My oh my, turn if you would to
John chapter 6 now. Look at this. Keeping in mind
of what we've been looking at here. Now we saw, we saw there
his doctrine. They marveled at his doctrine.
Speaking one with authority. Look at this in John chapter
6 verses 62 to 69. You know, you know the words
of Christ? They're spirit and life. Spirit and life. We were dead and He spoke life
to us, didn't He? His life for the sinner, He willingly
gave. Gave His life for us. Look at
this in John chapter 6, verses 62 to 69. What and if ye shall
see the Son of Man ascend up where He was before? It is the
Spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing. We're showing here our nothingness. That's what we're showing there,
our nothingness. Natural men don't like that.
God's people say, Amen. I'm nothing without Christ, but
a sinner. But praise be to God, with Christ
in Christ, I'm a safe sinner. Oh my, look at this. The Spirit,
the quickness, the flesh, prophethood, nothing. The words that I speak
unto you, look at that. The words again, see the connection
to verse eight that we're looking at? The words what? The Father
gave him to speak, right? This is amazing. The words that
I speak unto you, they are Spirit and they are life. See, the natural
man can't discern it. That's why we didn't know anything
about God in our natural state. He had to reveal himself to us,
and it's all by his grace and mercy. But there are some of
you that believe not, for Jesus knew from the beginning who they
were that believed not. Look at that. From the beginning? Well, when's the beginning? From
eternity. Some people look at that and
say, well, from the beginning of his ministry, from eternity,
he's God. He knows, does he not know every
one of his sheep? And he knows. Who they were that believed not
and who should betray him. He already knew Judas. Judas
was a devil. He knew Judas would betray Him. And He said, Therefore I say
unto you, that no man can come unto Me, except it were given
him of My Father. Look at that. Look at that verse
65. That's amazing. And He said, Therefore I say
unto you, that no man, or woman, can come unto Me, except it were
given of him of My Father. Now when people heard that, right?
See, what that does, that when He said that you can't come to
Me except the Father father draws you that's like when you tell people
that salvations of the Lord and they get spitting mad at you
and say well what about my will I'm I got me a free will yeah the fruit that your will
take you to hell on it right you must be born again you must
be going the father must must rot of change in you So clear
here. So clear. And what happened?
From that time, many of his disciples went back and walked no more
with him. That's not the 12. That's other people that were
following him. They said, I don't have nothing to this. I won't
have nothing to this sovereign grace in salvation. You tell me God's sovereign?
He could do whatever he pleases? Yep. The master just said it,
didn't he? The master said it. Look what he said. And he said,
therefore, I say unto you that no man, that means no one, that
doesn't exclude certain people, that means no son or daughter
of Adam, no man or woman can come unto me except it were given
him of my father. And they hated it. They hated
that saying. Then Jesus, now he's gonna turn
to the 12. And he says, will you go away? Will you also go
away? You gonna go too? You guys gonna
take off too? He already knew the answer. Because
God keeps his sheep, doesn't he? He's not asking this for
information. This is for our learning, beloved. Then Simon Peter answers and
said, Lord, to whom shall we go? Is that not what we, who
else, who can we go to? Can't go nowhere else, can we,
but Christ. We can't go nowhere but Christ. To whom shall we
go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. Words again. Where'd those words
come from? The Father. Oh, it's magnificent, isn't it?
It's absolutely magnificent. And we see in verse 65 there, In verse 65, actually in 63 too,
when he says, it is the Spirit that quickeneth the flesh and
profiteth nothing. The words that I speak unto you, they are
spirit and life. And then in verse 65 when he
says, and he said, therefore I say unto you that no man can
come unto me except it were given him, except it were given unto
him of my father. Now look a little bit up in this
chapter. Look at verses 44 and 45. So what he's saying, he's
pressing again, he's pressing into the truth that he already
mentioned in verses 44 and 45. He's pressing down on this truth
of God's sovereign mercy, of God's sovereign mercy. Look what
he says here. No man can come unto me, verse 44, except the
Father which has sent me draw him, and I will raise him up
at the last day. It is written in the prophets,
and they shall all be taught of God, born again by the Holy
Spirit of God, taught by the Holy Spirit of God, taught of
God. Every man, therefore, that has heard and has learned of
the Father cometh unto me. Isn't that wonderful? Oh, it's
wonderful. So the flesh, the natural mind,
cannot receive the words of God. And it's the Holy Spirit who
quickens us, who gives us life. He quickens us by the word, doesn't
he? Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. And he gives us eyes to see Christ
as prophet, priest, and king. And then he gives us ears to
hear the gospel. And we never want to stop hearing it. And we share sermons we get,
say, listen to this, it was such a blessing. It's wonderful, isn't
it? It's absolutely wonderful. Oh
my, so the flesh of the natural man, human wisdom does not profit
us at all. And it has nothing, no part in
the salvation of our souls, nothing. It's the words of Christ, the
words of life that are spiritual. And one cannot discern spiritual
truth who has no spiritual life. It must be born again. Life. comes before understanding. You
have to be born again. Let's go back to our verse in
John 17, 8. With all that in our minds. Scripture declares there, it
says, for I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me.
We saw that just a few minutes ago. And they have received them. Again, that's a miracle of grace
right there. And they have known surely that I come out from thee.
And they have believed that thou didst send me. Christ our Lord is the word of
God incarnate. sent by the Father to save His
people from their sins, to redeem our eternal sins by the shedding
of His precious blood and the giving of His life. He has given
us the words that the Father has sent Him to say. And by God's grace, we received
Him, haven't we? There was a time when we didn't
want to hear Him. Or we just closed our ears to Him. We might not have told that to
people, but I don't want to hear it. Now, tell me. Tell me about my
Messiah. Tell me about my King. Tell me
about my Lord, my Redeemer, the Savior of my souls, the lover
of my soul. Tell me about Christ. And we've
received him just as the apostles received him, by the grace of
God and the power of the Holy Spirit of God. And next, we believe the words of God.
So they were given, we received them, and now we believe them. Now we believe them. That's a
miracle in itself too, isn't it? It's a miracle, miracle of
grace. He proclaimed. The words that
He was sent by the Father to proclaim, and by the grace of
God, we believe them. We believe them. And our Savior, He's treated
His disciples like friends, hasn't He? He even said, you're my friends. We looked at this Sunday. We're
the friends of God. That's incredible. And the Father has committed
unto Him all that he gave him. And think of this, too. The words
that we're hearing are of an intimate communication between
the Father and the Son. He said, speak these words. He speaks to us in the only way
because because he's God, right? The only way we can understand
who God is Is we have to be spiritually alive, don't we? A natural man cannot receive
the the the words of God because their spirit and their life But
when you're born again That's a whole new book, isn't it? None of us have arrived. None
of us has reached any pinnacle, but I'll tell you what what we've
learned. Oh praise you Lord Jesus Christ Praise you for your mercy
for your grace Saving the city. I know I know this for sure.
He saved he saved my soul. Did he save yours? Praise be
to God. Hey, oh, it's wonderful. It's
wonderful It's absolutely wonderful And having received the words
of Christ, the disciples and we who are the born again people
of God, now we know about the love that the Father had for
us. And that it was the love that
Christ had for his bride that he came here to redeem us from
our sins. Let's read that verse one more
time again. It says, For I have given unto them the words which
thou gavest me, and they have received them, and have known
surely that I come out from thee, and they have believed that thou
didst send me. So the words were given to Christ, God's elect,
received them by grace, through faith, God-given faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ, all by the power of God the Holy Spirit,
and we believe. We believe that Christ came from
the Father. That he was sent. And think of
that. Just marvel. God sent his son
to die to save our souls. And Christ came willingly. My, oh my. We must be precious
in his sight, aren't we? We don't feel that way. We know
our faults. We know our sinfulness. But beloved,
go home rejoicing tonight. You're precious in His sight.
Precious. And that word precious in the
Old Testament, when it says that when a saint dies, that's like
a diamond in the Hebrew. We're like diamonds to the Lord.
Precious jewels to Him. Isn't that wonderful? My, oh my. So the words that
were given again to Christ, God's elect, receive them through grace
and faith given to us. And by the power of the Holy
Spirit of God and God-given faith, we believe that Christ was sent
by the Father to save his people from their sins. And how this
manifests, that faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the
word of God. Turn, if you would, last place
to turn, Romans chapter 10, and then we'll be done. Oh my, how plain the lesson is
taught to us. You know, if our faith is to
be strengthened, if our faith is to be deepened and increased,
it must be by the power of the Holy Spirit of God. And he uses
the preaching of the word, he uses us reading the word and
studying it to grow us in grace, doesn't he? He grows us. My, oh my. He illuminates the
scriptures. He teaches us the things of Christ.
And spiritual knowledge and discernment, it's a fruit of the Spirit. It's
a fruit of receiving Christ's words and believing them. Look at this, we're closed with
this. Romans chapter 10, verses 13 to 17. For whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved. Praise be to God. How
then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed?
And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard?
And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they
preach except they be sent? As it is written, how beautiful
are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring
glad tidings of good things. But they have not all obeyed
the gospel. For Isaiah saith, Lord, who hath
believed our report? So then, faith cometh by hearing,
and hearing by the what? The Word of God. Who is the author of this book?
God the Holy Spirit. Isn't it wonderful that now we
have an understanding that we never had before? Praise His
mighty name.