Turn back in your Bibles to John
chapter 6. I don't feel like I have much
voice in me this morning, but then I only ever have only the
voice that the Lord will give. If He would be my helper this
day, I'd like to be able to say just a word to you from this
chapter. This week I had a man in a situation
asked me if he could ride with me for a while. And while we
were riding and together, he asked me quite a number of questions. And I felt as if the Lord had
given me some liberty and an open door to speak to him concerning
the truths of the gospel. And so I felt a good bit in courage
toward him. His name was Roger, and I hope
you'll pray for him. He's not anybody local. He lives hours away from here.
But then I saw him again later in the week, and he didn't seem
to have any interest in continuing in our conversation. As a matter
of fact, he didn't seem really even interested in riding with
me again. So I lay down that night on the
bed, I was thinking about him a lot, and I thought, would Roger
ever be one of those who is brought to believe on Christ and come
to Christ? Who will come to the Lord Jesus
Christ? And it seemed like as I lay there
thinking about that on the bed, I believe the Lord brought this
verse of Scripture back to my mind and to my heart. And it is His words in verse
37, here in John 6, where He says, "...all that the Father
giveth Me shall come to Me, and him that cometh to Me I will
in no wise cast out." And I remembered that the Lord Jesus spoke these
words in the face of great unbelief and rejection and disapproval
by the Pharisees and virtually all people. And He says these
words in response to their unbelief and their dislike for what he
said, without any sadness, without any tone of disappointment, and
without thinking either himself or his gospel to be a failure. And in them he restates the will
and purpose of God in the salvation of His people. If everyone He
spoke to on this occasion, if they did not believe on Him,
it would not alter the will and purpose of God. It would not
in any way diminish that eternal salvation that is in the Lord
Jesus. And in this statement, if you
read it closely, you'll find that it glorifies the triune
Godhead in all the sacred persons, the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit. And these three, which it says
in Scripture, are one. They are not only in agreement
and harmony, they will also be one in accomplishment. They make sure this purpose and
will of God in salvation. And if you notice here in this
verse, it begins with that word, all. And all is one of those
words that has to be identified with other words. Men take many statements in Scripture
and try to apply them in a universal manner when they are always described
and detailed in particular. But he says all, meaning that
all of these that he's talking about, without exception and
without failure, will come to Christ. There will be no missing
people in heaven. There will be no empty seats
in God's presence. Each and every one that he purposed
to save, they will be saved. And his glory does not depend
on how many he saves, But His glory depends on His saving everyone
He purposed to save. They are described here, they
are numbered, and they are referred to as these all, all of these. But they are also described in
a further manner in this way. He says, "...all that the Father
giveth me." or all that the Father has given me and is giving me
and shall give to me, all that the Father giveth me shall come
to me." And he is simply talking there about the elect of God,
that remnant according to the election of grace that the Father
chose in Him and gave to Him before the foundation of the
world." Hold your place, but turn over to John chapter 17,
because here in John 17, where we have what is called our Lord's
high priestly prayer that He prays to the Father, they are
in the same way distinguished from the world. John 17 and verse
2, first of all. Let's begin with verse 1. These words spake Jesus, and
lifted up his eyes unto heaven, and said, Father, the hour is
come, glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee." In
other words, Christ came into this world to do something and
to accomplish something that would, on the one hand, glorify
the Father, and at the same time, glorify Him. Salvation is not
for the glory of man. It's for the glory of God. And so he continues in this prayer
to the Father that we are enabled to hear. He says, "...as thou
hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal
life to all flesh?" No. "...to as many as thou hast given
him." He came to give eternal life to those that were given
unto Him by the Father. Look down in verse 6 where He
continues, "...I have manifested Thy name unto the men which Thou
gavest Me out of the world." Thine they were, and Thou gavest
them Me, and they have kept My Word." And then look down in
verse 9 where we find maybe the most striking distinction here
that distinguishes them from everybody else in the world. He says, I pray for them. I pray not for the world, but
for them which thou hast given me, for they are thine." Wouldn't
it be an absolute absurdity for anybody to imagine that Christ
came into the world to die for, or that He in some way loves
savingly, but yet He would not pray for them? No, those that
He loves, and those that He comes to die for, and those He prays
for and intercedes for, are these people that were given Him by
the Father. If you look down in verse 11,
He says, "...and now I am no more in the world, but these
are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through
thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may
be one as we are." And then again in verse 12, While I was with
them in the world, I kept them in thy name. Those that thou
gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost but the son of
perdition that the scripture might be fulfilled. None of them
is lost, nor will they be lost." And then look down also in verse
24. Father, I will." If you want
to know about the will of Christ in salvation. And the will of
Christ must of necessity be the will of God because they are
one in the same. He says, Father, I will that
they also whom Thou hast given Me. be with me where I am that
they may behold my glory which thou hast given me for thou lovest
me before the foundation of the world." He said, You love them
as you have loved me, and you love them as you love me, and
love me before the foundation of the world." In other words,
all these, this people that were given to Christ, that were given
to Him as His bride, given to him by the Father as his church,
and his body, and his temple, and his portion, and his inheritance,
and his sheep, given him in that everlasting covenant to save
with an everlasting salvation. He says, all that the Father
giveth me shall come to me. And then if you look back also
in that verse, the thought came to me, the absolute sureness
of this, the unchangeable and unstoppable God. It is said of his son by the
Father, he shall not fail. So what does it say? He says,
all that the Father giveth me shall come. Now men can have their maybes,
or their mites, or their happen-sos, or their so-called free will,
they can have all that they want of that kind. But I'll take the
shalls of God." There is no possibility of this not happening. There
is no possibility of the Lord Jesus Christ failing in the accomplishment
of what he states and promises here, and it in no ways depends
on their strength, or their ability, or their desire in the beginning
of him or anything about his gospel. It says that each and
every one of them shall come. Now I said that this verse magnifies
the triune God. There is no doubt that the Father
is spoken of here, and the Son is spoken of here, but who else
but the Spirit of God can accomplish this? And what he's talking about
here is what some have called over the years and ages the doctrine
of the effectual call of God. That is, each and every one of
these that were given to Christ by the Father, Each of these
that Christ came into this world to lay down His life for in their
place and save, the Spirit of God will mightily and effectually
bring them, and they shall come to Him. They will not come in
the ultimate and final case to religion, They will not come
to somebody other than Christ, such as that one Paul describes
as another Jesus. They will not come simply to
the front of a church, or a baptismal pool, or such as men offer. They will come, they shall come
to Him. They will, every one, be drawn
by the Spirit, These other sheep that he describes in another
place, like whether they be of Jew or Gentile, he will also
bring, they shall come, and in coming, they'll leave something
behind. What will they leave behind?
They will leave behind everything. They will leave behind every
hope, every other dependence, every other imagined righteousness. They will leave behind everything
which is exactly what repentance is, every false notion concerning
God, and believe the truth of God. You say, but what about
it if they're not willing? Well, it says here that they
shall come. And the way that the Spirit of
God accomplishes it is just exactly as it says in the psalm when
God says concerning this, thy people, thy people shall be willing
in the day of thy power. I'll never forget what Brother
Scott Richardson would sometimes say. He said, the Lord will save
all His people against their will with their full consent. That's exactly it. Though they
every one, just like all of Adam's race, are unwilling by nature. full of unbelief by their natural
birth, He will bring every one of them to be willing in the
day of His Spirit's work, giving them new birth and a revelation
of Christ for who He is and for what He's done. And they will
be brought to fall in love with the one that they once despised."
He says, they shall come. And that's why Paul, when he
writes to Timothy in 2 Timothy chapter 1, he speaks of God and
he says, he hath saved us and called us with a holy calling. Now, what men say, first of all,
is they get the cart before the horse. They say, this is the
way it is, God calls us, and then if we answer and respond,
then He saves us. That's not what Paul says there.
He says, God hath saved us, and then He calls us with a holy
calling, not according to our works, but according to his own
purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the
world began." And before that, he had said, writing to the church
at Rome in Romans 8, he says, moreover, whom he did predestinate. That's a scary word, isn't it?
It's like everything that's scary to a blind person. When you don't
see something, when you don't have understanding of it, when
you can't see and behold the glory of it, then it's scary. But the word predestinate simply
means to mark off beforehand, to determine beforehand. In other words, like you see
a bus on the road and the bus says, Miami, on the little thing
that's on the front, you know that it has been determined that
the end of the journey for this bus will be Miami. And that may happen or it might
not take place. In other words, you might have
a wreck or something like that, the bus may break down or run
out of gas or something like that. That can't happen to God. The things that will happen,
he knows from the very beginning, for one reason, it's because
he's determined it to be so. He says, moreover, whom, not
just what, but whom he did predestinate, them he also called, and whom
he called, them he also justified, and whom he justified, them he
also glorified." What did he predestinate them to? Paul says
he predestinated them to be conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus
Christ. They'll come, and they'll leave
everything behind, just like Abraham left all his idolatrous
traditions. His father was an idol-maker
in the Ur of the Chaldeans. And when God called him, he left
all of that to follow God. And he, just like the heel man,
left his filthy rags, and the demoniac left living with the
dead, and Naaman left his wrong thinking, we'll leave our own
works of filthy righteousness and our own rags and we'll come
to the Lord Jesus Christ and we can't be stopped. You remember
that woman that had an issue of blood. She'd had it a long
time. I don't know too much about blood
or biology or what have you, but I do know this. When you
begin to lose blood, you get very weak. Here she is, I'm sure,
a tiny, frail woman, but she's a picture of coming to Christ. And here it says that all the
press, all the crowd, was gathered around the Lord Jesus Christ. She could not hardly in her own
strength get through this crowd, but she believed that if she
could just get to where she could touch the hem of His garment,
she'd be healed. She can't get through. But she
did. She did. And when he felt the
touch of her garment, because in truth he was waiting for her
to get there, he was the one bringing her. That's the way
every one of these, all given to Christ by the Father, will
be. It seems impossible that some
of them would ever have even heard the gospel. Here is a man
from Ethiopia riding out in the middle of a desert place in a
chariot, And surely he'll never hear a preacher of the gospel.
But the Lord sends Philip down there. Here's a woman on a business
trip. She's way out of town. She's
in a land in order to maybe sell cloth, that she's a dyer of this
Lydia, seller of purple. He's down by the riverside. God
has sent this man Paul to preach the gospel to her. He's going
to find every one of his sheep. He's going to bring every one
of them, He's going to bring them to the gospel, and the gospel
to them, and bringing them together, He's going to bring them unto
Himself. And not one of them will be lost. And then if you
notice in this verse something that's very, very important,
He says, "...all that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me." That's why I'm not trying to
get people to walk down the aisle and come to the front. That's
why I'm not trying to get them to come to the church or even
to come to this location. That's why I'm not trying to
get them to come to a denomination or to a theological position
or something like that, because he says, all that the Father
giveth me shall come to me. I'm very contented to be like
one finger." Which one finger? Or maybe like that wooden pole
that was there in the midst of the camp of Israel. And all that
wooden pole did was hold up that serpent of brass, which is a
picture and type of Christ. Look to Him and live. Or like
that one finger, which I call John the Baptist, which he kept
saying, Behold the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the
world. He said, Everyone that is given
to Him by the Father shall come to me. Now look down in verse
44. He begins in that verse, in that
statement, with the very Truth that would seem absolutely to
make it an impossibility. He said, no man can come to me. Now that word can has to do with
ability. You remember those grammar lessons
in school, may and can? May has to do with permission,
can has to do with ability. He doesn't say, no man may come
to me. He says, no man can come to me. Why? Because he's dead in trespasses
and sin. Men and women by nature love
to be told that they can accept Jesus anytime they want to, or
they can turn their lives around anytime that they want to. All
these things that false religion tell them. He said, no man, no
woman can come to me. But there's a glorious except
here. Except the Father which hath
sent me draw him, and I will raise him up at the last. Now listen to the next verse.
This is exactly what was prophesied in the prophets. He says, it
is written in the prophets, and they, the same elect people,
and they shall be all taught of God." Somebody says, well,
they've just got blind faith. Not these people. They're taught
of God. And you know, I could teach you
something. I can indoctrinate you. I can
tell you this or that and the other. I can even tell you the
truth, convince you in your head. This is right. But somebody else
could come right along behind me and unconvince you, convince
you of something else. That's why all this notion of
apologetics based on science or this, that's foolish. Why? Because only God can teach a
fallen sinner. And when He teaches us the truth,
about himself and about ourselves and about his salvation in Christ. There's no one who can come along
and teach us otherwise. They're taught of God. Well,
he says, every man therefore that hath heard and hath learned
of the Father, everyone who hears the voice of the Spirit of God
speaking through the Word of God, cometh unto me." That ETH
on the end of that word, come, I believe is called the linear
text and it has to do with a continual act. Everyone that is taught
of God and hath heard and learned of the Father, they're always
coming, Christ says to me." People talk about their church, our
church, our this, our that, my faith, my decision, my life,
what I've done. But he says, every one of these
comes to me. Not me plus something else. Not me with anything added. But all their days until they
breathe their last breath on this earth, they don't have any
hope but Christ and Him crucified. They have but one work, and that
is Christ's work of righteousness by which He established righteousness,
shedding His blood for their sins on the cross. That's it. He said they'll come. to me." They'll come to Christ
as He's revealed in Scripture. They'll come to Christ and only
Christ. They'll come to His blood. They'll
come to His cross work. They'll come and they'll continually
come to His throne of grace. Peter said, "...to whom coming
as unto a living stone." And to come to Christ is simply to
believe on Christ, to embrace Christ, and to trust in Christ
for everything, especially in salvation, and to cleave to Christ. Look back over in John chapter
5, John 5 and verse 38. Christ says, to these people, these Pharisees
in particular, verse 38, "...and ye have not His Word abiding
in you." Now, how did he know? What was the evidence that they
did not have the Word and truth of God abiding in them? He says, "...for whom He hath
sent, him you believe not." Oh, you search the Scriptures. For
in them you think you have eternal life, and they are they which
testify of me, and you will not come to me that you might have
life. But every one of these, he says,
will come to me." Look back over in John chapter 10. John chapter
10 and verse 25. Jesus answered them, I told you,
and you believe not. The works that I do in my Father's
name, they bear witness of me, but you believe not, because
you're not of my sheep, as I said unto you. My sheep hear my voice,
and I know them. and they follow me." They don't
follow the preacher. They don't follow the denomination.
They follow Christ. They come to Christ. And then
back in our text verse again, he says, "...all that the Father
giveth me shall come to me, and him, or all that come to me, I will in no wise bow." Now that
begins with security, all, and it ends with security. Those
that come to me, I will in no wise ask no wise. Not only does Christ promise
to receive all who come to Him, now you think about this. Even
though He has said everything He said, nobody can blame Him
for being lost. The only people who will be able
to blame Christ are those who blame Him for saving them. Because He says, Him, those that
come to Me, I won't cast them out. No matter where they came
from, no matter what they came out of, no matter who they are
or who they are not, no matter what they've done, no matter
what their sin, no matter what their fault, those who come to
God by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, they are all received. Now, you come your way, you won't
be received. You come trusting your merit,
or your profession of faith, or your old religious experience,
whatever it is, your good works, you won't be received. But every
naked, bare, repentant, empty-handed sinner who comes to the Lord
Jesus Christ, they will not be astounded. Not only will they
be received, But they'll never, no never, no never be cast out. Well, in my case, I'd certainly
have to ask this, what if I fall? What if I do some of those same
things that I did before? What if I still have unbelief?
What if I still have doubts and fears? And what if I still find
sin raising its ugly head in me? There's no what if to it. You will. But that won't change
this. No one that comes to Christ ever
leaves Christ. But not only that, no one that
comes to Christ does Christ ever leave. They're never kicked out
of His family. They're never reduced to being
lost again. When we come pleading His merits
in His blood and trusting this promise of salvation in Christ
and only Christ, when we come to God through that one Mediator
between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, when we enter into
God's presence through Him who is the door, He said, I'll never
drive them away. I'll never drive them away. He
said, when they fall, when they sin, I'll chastise them with
the rod of chastisement, but I'll never forsake them. Not
at any stage, not at any time, not for any reason. That next
verse that we didn't read in John 10, when he talks about
giving unto them eternal life in verse 28. He says, I give
to my sheep eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither
shall any man pluck them out of My hand. My Father which gave
them Me. Isn't that the same thing? He gave them to Christ, and He
gave Christ to them." And that's why the writer of the Song of
Solomon says, I am my beloved's, and he is mine. They'll never
perish. No man is able to pluck them
out of my Father's hand. I and my Father are one. Now, when our Lord said that,
most of the people, especially the religious people, they took
up stones immediately to stone Him. But His sheep heard His
voice. And just like every time the
Gospel is preached, like it's said in Acts 13 and verse 48,
I believe it is, it says, "...and as many as were ordained unto
eternal life believed." And they always will. that the Father
giveth me shall come to me, and him that comes to me I will in
no wise cast out." Now to my question as I lay there on the
bed, will Roger ever come to Christ? I may not see it happen. I may not ever know of it in
this life. He may not ever. But if he's
one of those given to Christ by the Father, If he is one of
those members of the body of Christ, he certainly will. The Spirit of God will bring
each and every one to Christ in faith. I pray that maybe in
God's will and providence, maybe he will use a word he enabled
me to speak. Maybe he will desire to hear
more words. But it will be the same case
with everyone. It is not possible for God to
fail. It is not possible for the work
of Christ to be made a miscarriage. It is not possible that the Holy
Spirit would fail in power to save all of God's people. Who
will finally, in their hearts, come to Christ? Christ says,
all that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that
comes to me I will in no wise cast out. It be changed. Will
happen. That's why only God gets the
glory. That's why it can't be what I
say, what I'm able to do, or you. That's why it can't be any
strength of their own. He has to bring them, draw them. And He does. Father, this day
we give You thanks for this precious seedbed of truth, for gospel
hope in the Lord Jesus Christ, for salvation sure and everlasting,
for Your will which is a will of salvation to this people you
gave to your son. He will lose none. He will bring
all. And everyone who sows the precious
seed of the gospel, thou doubtless come again rejoicing, bringing
with him his sheaves. Bless your word to this man. Reveal yourself. Manifest that
life-giving power, if it be your will. Do so to all of these your
people, and to you be glory and the only glory. Father, this
day we pray for your people. We know that trials and troubles
characterize each one of their lives, but if you have saved
us, blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Your Son. You've
taken on human flesh to come into this world and die in our
place. Will You not also with Him freely
give us all things, do all things for us that we need, help us
in our lives, in our bodies, in our families, in our circumstances,
in our work, in everything, Be to us our God. Cause us to be
to you your people. For we pray and ask it all in
the name of Christ. Amen.