It is a great joy to be here. Good to see everybody. The Lord's given us a beautiful weekend, hasn't he, together to worship him. I thought about that song Ruth sang, God Loves Even Me. I can't remember when it was or who the theologian's name was, but he lived in Britain and they invited him to come to one of the big universities, Christian universities at that time here in the States, and do some lecturing. They had question and answering after he had lectured, and he's a very, very famous theologian in Britain. And one of the students asked him, what is the most profound truth that you've thought about as you've read the scriptures? And he thought just a minute, and he said, it has to be this.

Jesus loves me. This I know. That's astounding, isn't it? Jesus loves even me. What an amazing thing that is. I want you to turn your Bible to John chapter 6. And I want to begin reading here in chapter 6 and in verse 26. You remember the context of this.

Our Lord had just fed several thousand men with a few loaves and two fishes. And He had gathered up several baskets of fragments. Then He sent His disciples in their boat to cross over the Sea of Galilee. It was dark, a storm came up, and he came walking on the sea. And, of course, Peter went out to meet him. You remember that story. They received him into the ship, and he come here to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, and people sought him. Multitudes came seeking him. And this is where he begins this great message.

And to me, it's always been an astounding fact that when the Son of God came down from heaven, He was a preacher. He makes the statement different times in this message, Verily, verily, I say unto you. And they said, no man ever talked like this. Verily, verily, I say unto you, the prophets always said, thus saith the Lord. And when the apostles and the writers of the New Testament preach, and when they wrote, they wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

But when the Son of God speaks, it comes from His lips. And it's an astounding thing. to hear Him speak to us. And that's what this message is today. It's from His own lips. I guess the two of the greatest messages, the two great messages that's ever been preached in this world, the Son of God Himself preached them. The Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7 and this sermon, this message here in John 6.

And I just want to read a portion of this message to you this morning and share some comments with you. They came over the sea in verse 25. They said, Rabbi, how come you're hither? How did you even get over here? And in verse 26, he begins this message.

Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, you seek me not because you saw the miracles, but because you did eat of the loaves and were filled. Labor not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endeareth unto everlasting life, which the Son of Man shall give unto you. For him hath God the Father sealed.

Then said they unto him, What shall we do that we might work the works of God? Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God. that you believe on him whom he hath sent. They said therefore unto him, what signs showest thou then that we may see and believe thee? What dost thou work?

Our fathers did eat manna in the desert. As it is written, he gave them bread from heaven to eat. Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven, But my father giveth you the true bread from heaven, for the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the world. Then said they unto him, Lord evermore, give us this bread. And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life.

He that cometh to me shall never hunger. He that believeth on me shall never thirst. But I say unto you that you also have seen me, and believe not. All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. For I came down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him that sent me. And this is the father's will, which has sent me, that of all which he hath given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. This is the will of him that sent me, that everyone which seeth the son and believeth on him may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the last day.

The Jews then murmured at him because he said, I am the bread which came down from heaven. And they said, is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How is it then that he saith, I came down from heaven? Jesus therefore answered and said unto them, murmur not among yourselves.

No man can come to me except the father which hath 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. Every man, therefore, that hath heard and learned of the Father, he cometh to me. I want you to think with me this morning on the subject of election and some of its blessings, some blessings contained in election. And I was thinking about verse 37, all that the Father gives to me shall come to me. And then he tells us some blessings that's connected, that's vitally linked to the Father's election. All that the Father gives to me, that's election.

The Father has given a great host out of Adam's race to his son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to secure their eternal happiness. their salvation from sin. We know from reading scriptures that the father has given everything to his son. There's nothing. The father loves the son and hath given all things unto his hands. There's nothing but what the father has given to Jesus Christ our Lord.

The earth is the Lord Jesus Christ. The Father has given it to him. That mighty sun that's put in light in these windows rose this morning to burn off any morning mist and to warm this earth and to give us light. You know who that sun belongs to? Jesus. The Father gave it to him. You go out tonight and the moon and the stars gives us light at night. Whose lights are those? The Lord Jesus Christ.

The Father has given all things unto his hands. The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. But not only has the Father given all things unto his hands, the Father has also given all men unto his hands. Has he not? He said, not only that the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, But he said, the world and they that dwell therein.

Every man belongs to Jesus Christ by gift from his father. Ask of me, the father said to his son, and I'll give you the heathen for your inheritance. All of them. The father has given all men to the son and all men will serve the redeeming purpose. of the Lord Jesus Christ. I can't understand that, and you can't understand that, but it's so. The Father gave Herod to the Lord Jesus to be mocked by him. He gave Judas to Jesus to betray him. He gave Pilate to Jesus to judge him and condemn him. He gave the soldiers to Jesus to shame him and mock him.

Every man, boy and girl in this world, though they're unwilling servants, they serve the purpose, the redeeming purpose of the Lord Jesus Christ. All men built are His by gift of the Heavenly Father. But our text is talking about a specific number of people. that has been given to the Lord Jesus Christ for Him to secure their eternal salvation. All the Father giveth me.

And that's what we call in another portion of Scripture, His elect. Sometimes they're called the chosen, sometimes they're called vessels of mercy, sometimes they're called His sheep. This is those for whom the Lord Jesus Christ died to obtain the eternal redemption. It's those that He shed His blood for to reconcile them to the Heavenly Father.

It's all of those that will be saved at last. All the Father giveth to me. So when we talk about election, that's what it is. And this gift took place before the foundation of the world because that's when all the elect of God were chosen in Jesus Christ. There's when their names were written down in what the Bible calls the Lamb's Book of Life. All that the Father giveth me is elect his sheep. And he gives them to Jesus Christ to secure their eternal salvation.

I love how the Lord says this here in this passage. He seldom gives this present tense. He says here in verse 37, All that the Father giveth me. That word is present, isn't it? He's given them to me now. And some have taken this verse without reading the rest of this chapter in the whole Bible, and they say, see, election is taking place now. It's not taking place before time, but it's taking place now.

God is given to men to Christ now. Of course, He's still given them to men, but given men to Christ, but He's already given them to Christ. He tells us, look here in verse 39 again, And this is the Father's will, which hath sent me, that all which he hath given me." So he says in one verse, he hath given them, and the next verse he said, he's given them to me. Why does he say that?

He wants us to know and understand that election is ever fresh between the Father and the Son. Sometimes you and I have gifts. Somebody will give us a gift, and when we first get it, it's very precious, isn't it? But what happens after a while? Well, we lose our affections for it. It grows old, and finally we have to discard it. It's not so with the father's gift to his son. It's ever fresh. It's though he's still giving them at this very hour.

I remember when The Lord was ready to send the children of Israel into the land of promise. Moses was ready to die. And Moses told the children of Israel, he said, the Lord giveth you this good land to possess it. He has given it to you just now. Hundreds of years before this, he told Abraham, I have given you this land. But he wants them to know I am still giving you this land.

And when Jesus Christ said, the Father's not only given me all those I'm going to share, he's still given them to me. It's fresh in his mind. It never grows old and never leaves the precious affections of the Father and the Son. I had a knife, a little old double case yellow handle knife that my dad gave to me. I told somebody one time that we were just joking about it, and I said, that's not for sale. And he got out his wallet, and he had several hundred dollars. I said, no, put your wallet, it's not for sale. My dad gave me this, and it's just as precious now as it was when he gave it to me before he passed away.

But you know something? I lost it. I can't find it anywhere. My heart breaks to think about it. I took the best care of it as I could, but I lost it. That'll never happen here. He'll never lose one of those, will he? Not a one. I'll never lose anything.

But that's what it is. This is election. Those that Christ will redeem and save and have in heaven at last. I want you to notice the first blessing that's contained in election. Look back here in verse 37 again. Here's the first blessing that's contained in election. In verse 37, all that the Father giveth me. The Lord Jesus takes us all the way back in eternity and he opens our heart to who God is. And how does he address Him? The Father.

Why is that so important? Don't people have hard thoughts of God sometimes? Wouldn't they think of His sovereignty? Wouldn't they think of His decrees? Wouldn't they think of His absolute rule? They have this opinion of God that is so harsh, that is so arbitrarily sentenced men to eternal ruin without any thought, without any sympathy.

If you talk to people today about God being sovereign, the first thing that happens is these hard thoughts arise in their hearts. You believe that God has already chosen who he was going to save? What kind of God is that? We all have these hard thoughts of God.

Sometimes when we get in trouble and we're not thinking right, we think harshly of him. His providence, he's just not considerate. He's somewhat hard and arbitrary. Martin Luther said, before the Lord converted him, He said, I had these thoughts of God that he was just watching over me and marking my sins so he could just damn me. And he said, I hated a God like that.

And that's what so many people think. We have these hard thoughts of God. But when the Lord Jesus Christ goes back in eternity, what's the first way in which he reveals God to us? The Father. The Father did this. We don't have to have any harsh thoughts of God when we think of Him choosing. It's our Father that did that. Isn't that wonderful? Our Father choosing and giving men to Christ. Not just that it does them great eternal good, but it's the Father that did this. Yes, he's a great God. Yes, he's an eternal sovereign God. But he's the father that has did this. Not out of any obligation. Not because he owed us anything. But he did it out of great grace and love and fatherly mercies.

The Bible teaches us that all the names of the elect were written down in the Lamb's Book of Life before the foundation of the world. Some theologians and some commentaries say that Bruce, he didn't literally write them down. They're in his mind. And others say, yes, he literally wrote them down.

But the thing about that is this. Here is the Heavenly Father. And he's putting all the names of all of these people in his book, so his son could secure their everlasting salvation. And it's the Father who is doing that. I just think that's astounding, from all eternity. Every step of the way in the scriptures, especially when the Lord Jesus talks about our salvation.

It's the Father. He always brings in the Father. Who did He reconcile us to? The Father. It's your Father, He said in our text, that gives you the true bread from heaven. Your Father has given you to Me, and He's given Me to you to reconcile you to the Father. And when He draws us to Christ, who is it that draws us? Who is it that comes to us and teaches us and woos our hearts and draws us to Jesus Christ? It's the Father. And when he's regenerated us, he sends the Spirit into our hearts. And whose Spirit is it? The Spirit of God's Son. And he's crying what? Father, Father.

Oh, Jesus Christ came and every step of the way, he says, it's your Father that's did this. I remember one time the disciples came to the Lord Jesus, and they heard Him pray, and they were so impressed, they said, Lord, teach us to pray like that. And boy, He put a word in their mouth, and sent them off to pray. And you know what that word was? Our Father in Heaven. Our Father in Heaven. The first thing election does, it reveals to us our Father. How could anybody find anything wrong with election? since it was the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ that did such a thing.

But you found great comfort in just going to prayer and beginning that way. You go to prayer sometimes and you're so discouraged and it seems like maybe heaven shut up against your prayer. But you began by this, My Father. And you found so much comfort in just that word, My Father.

God is your Father. He must love you, dear elect soul. He must really care about you because He had you on His mind and written your name with His pen back in eternity. My Father gave you to me. Here's the second blessing contained in election. And it's this. He tells us here in verse 37 that it secures our coming to the Lord Jesus Christ. All that the Father gives to me shall come to me.

You say, Bruce, what if they don't come? But they shall. They tell us that this is the most positive word in all the English language. It's unavoidable. It's inescapable. All the Father gives to me shall come to me. How critical is that? How necessary is that?

He's the life, isn't He? He's the bread that came down from heaven. He's the water of the life. Without Him, we have no life. Without Him, we have no salvation. Without coming to Him and believing on Him, there's no fellowship with the Father. There's no reconciliation with the Father. Oh, how critical it is that we come to Jesus Christ to believe on Him and be saved by Him.

Well, election secures are coming. All that the Father giveth me, He shall come to me. I think the Lord Jesus Christ rejoiced in this because if you consider the context of verse 37, when he said, all the father gives me shall come to me. He knew what was going to happen this very day. He was preaching this message.

He said, I know that you're not seeking me. to be saved by me. I know you're just seeking me because you want me to feed you again. He said here in this text, our text that I read to you this morning, he said, you've seen me and you don't believe in me. They said, is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph? This is a hard saying. He keeps saying, I'm going to give you my flesh to eat. And he said, I know that you cannot come to me and you will not come to me. You don't believe me.

And what was the conclusion of the message in which he preached? What did men do? They went away. Many of his disciples went away in verse 66 were told, and they walked with him no more at all. They never saw his face again. They never heard his voice again. What a blessing it was then for the Lord Jesus.

He says, I know you're not coming to me. I know you're offended to me. But he said, I tell you this, there is a group of people who's coming to me. There's a host of people who will believe me. And who is it? That's all of those that the father has given me. They're coming to me. See how election secures their coming?

You remember when the Holy Spirit came to you and began to woo you to Christ and teach you of your need of Him? And you came to Him, you gave yourself up to the Son of God to be saved by Him. You know why you came? Because the Father had already given you to His Son to save you. to secure you.

And Brother Don used to say he refused to take no for an answer. I'm not coming. Oh, yes, you are. I'll think about it. Yeah, you're going to think long and hard about it. You're coming. I've given you to my son. You're coming to me. Oh, isn't that wonderful?

I've often said if the Holy Spirit dealt with everybody the way He dealt with me, He'd save everybody. Could He not save everybody? Yes, He could if He is pleased to. And I tell you those He's going to save, and that's those that He's elected to come to Christ and be saved by the Lord Jesus Christ. All that the Father gives to me shall come to What a wonderful blessing this is. You know election is just as essential as the cross. It's just as essential of our regeneration as our regeneration. If God had not chosen some, Christ would have had none. He'd have been alone in heaven. And I would dare say if God had not already given to him a multitude for him to save, there'd been no need for him to come and die upon the cross.

Here's another blessing in verse 39. It's found not only that it reveals the Father to us, it secures our coming to the Lord Jesus Christ to be saved by Him, But here's something else that our Lord said in verse 39. And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me, there it is again, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. This is an absolutely astounding statement.

It's astounding not only by what he said, but what he doesn't say. He leaves out something here that in other places that's very necessary. What does he leave out? Well, he leaves out our perseverance. He says nothing about our enduring to the end. He says nothing about the absolute necessity of our continuing, of our hanging on and our holding out. He says nothing of that, doesn't he?

He said, all that the father gives to me, I shall lose nothing, but raise it up again at the last day. But Lord, what about, what about endearing? What about all my trouble that I'm going through? What about all my struggles? He leaves all of that out, doesn't he?

And we know from other scriptures, brothers and sisters, that it's absolutely necessary to continue until the end in the faith. be not moved away from the hope of the gospel." I don't know how many Armenians have come up to me and they say, I found this verse and it says, he that endures to the end shall be saved. So there shows you that you Calvinists are not right. I don't know about Calvinists, but I know what I believe about that scripture. If the Lord Jesus said you must endure to the end, then you must endure to the end.

But why don't you bring that up here? Why did you leave it out here about our struggles and all the crosses and the losses that we feel in this life? Well, it must not matter. There is a sense in which it must not matter. This verse sets us, as it were, aside. All our struggles. All our hardships, all our losses and all our crosses. He sets all that aside. And he basically says, this is not about you after all. This is not about what you're going through. This is not about your troubles and your difficulties. No, no, no. This is something between my father and me. It's God's will concerning His own purpose and concerning me doing His will by not losing any that the Father has given to me. I love it when the Lord Jesus Christ takes the emphasis from us and puts it on Himself. Don't you love that?

We get so wrapped up, don't we? and in our struggles, wrapped up in knowing that, boy, we can't let go. Man, we've got to endure, we've got to be careful and pray. Yes, we do. But we get so wrapped up in us, us believing, us repenting, us hanging on, us holding out, that we forget when push comes to shove, it's not all about us. So He sets us aside and He said, listen, this is not about you.

This is about me and my Father. Me doing the Father's will, Him giving you to me, and me vowing never to lose you. I love it when He does that. It makes my burden so easy and so light because it takes the impotence away from me and puts it where it belongs. This is my Father's will.

And it's His will concerning you. But it's not about anything you do. It's about Him giving you to me and me keeping you and never losing you. That's what it's about. And that secures our endurance. It gets our mind off of us. And it puts it where it belongs. On our triune God.

Martin Luther said, when I look at myself and I consider myself, he said, there's no way I can be saved. But when I look to Jesus Christ and consider him alone, there's no way I can be lost. That's what he's telling us here. It's not about you. It's about me. It's something I'm doing. Not what you're doing. David was awfully bad. I guess he probably suffered from anxiety and depression. But he was awfully bad to get down, King David was. And he made the statement one day, talking to himself, and he said, my soul, why are you cast down? And his answer would have been, I don't know.

I'm just so cast down. And don't we get that way and we talk to ourselves and we say, why are you so heavy on my soul? Why are you so discouraged and despondent? And the answer comes back, I don't know. Life, just living in this world will get us down. It's a heavy burden, isn't it? And I tell you, sometimes just living in this world is such a burden, it would drive us from Christ. He would drive us to despair. We could not endure such a burden.

So David says, hope thou in God. I'll yet praise him who is the health and the health of your countenance. Hope in God. That's what the Lord Jesus is telling us here. He says, you're feeling so cast down and you got your mind on yourself and your struggles and how you're feeling. Get your mind away from that. Hope in God. Lord, how do I hope in God? Go to verse 39 and say, it's not about me.

Sometimes it dawns upon me, brothers and sisters, that I am saved. Some people go around there, you think they're ready to fly off to heaven at any time. I'm just seldom that way. Sometimes it dawns upon me, I am really saved. And it's because I get in these struggles and I get down and I start looking to myself. And I think this matters so much, what I'm going through, it matters so much.

But then I realize, no, it don't matter, I'm already saved. The Lord has saved me. Yes, I will endure. But it's not about that, is it? It's about Jesus Christ doing the will of his father. Oh, I'm going to fail. You're going to fail. We're failures, aren't we? When it talks about us seeking God's will and doing God's will, we're utter failures and we know it. But he's never failed. He will never fail.

And that's what it's about. I'm saved because the Father gave me to His Son, and His Son lives to secure my eternal salvation. That's what matters. Therefore, I'm saved. I am saved this morning. I don't know what I'm going to face tomorrow. I have no idea, but it don't matter.

How would it change your attitude if you could begin right this morning and it dawned upon you, I'm saved already. And that's never going to change. How would that affect you? Boy, you'd live different, wouldn't you? You'd lose that old long mule face and you'd be so happy in your soul. But Bruce, what about tomorrow? It don't matter. It just don't matter because it's fixed. Dear child of God, your eternal destiny is fixed. Fixed by the decree of God. Fixed by the redeeming work of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's fixed!

I love to tell Armenians that. They get so upset when you tell them that. But it's the truth, isn't it? I had a friend of mine one time, bless his heart, he's ready to die. And this is what he told me. I thought, how silly. He said, I wouldn't want a salvation that I couldn't lose. Well, if it's left up to us, we'll lose it.

But if it's left up to the Son of God, He will lose nothing. And that's the blessing in election. Lastly, there's one more blessing here that our Lord Jesus tells us about, and it's so important. He goes ahead here in verse 39, and He says this, And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing. But look at this. but should raise it up again at the last day. Raise it up again. When the Bible talks about hope, this is what it's talking about.

Our bodies are going to live again. These mortal bodies. You love your body, don't you? I love my body. No man ever hated his own flesh, but he nourishes it and he cherishes it. Our bodies are just as vital to us as our souls. Right now we're concerned about the salvation of our souls, but we live in the hope of the salvation of our bodies, that they'll be raised up again at the last day.

You see this all through the scripture, don't you? You hear men like King David saying, I shall behold your face in righteousness. I'll be satisfied when I awake in your likeness. And when you hear Job talk about, though the skin worms is going to eat this body, in my flesh, I'm going to see the incarnate God. And you hear John talking about, we look from heaven And to the coming of our Lord, it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know when he shall appear, we shall be like him. And Paul said, we look for our Savior from heaven who shall change this vile body and fashion it like unto his glorious body.

Brothers and sisters, that's the hope that we have. That's the gospel hope. An election secures that hope. This is the will of Him that sent me. All which He hath given me, I will raise it up at the last day. I'll raise it up and that mortal will be immortal. That decayed body will be incorruptible. And they'll be just like me, and they'll be holy, and they'll be immortal, and they'll be eternally happy. Oh, what a hope.

I was just sitting here just a few minutes ago, thinking about us in this little, there's not that many here this morning. And look how many of us in this congregation have lost our spouses. Ain't that amazing in this little group of people this morning? We've lost that person that we loved, that person that we handled, that person that spoke to us and we spoke with them and had such sweet fellowship with them, and that union is broken and we'll never see them or hear them again in this life.

But do we despair when we think about it? I'll raise them up again at the last day. We buried our spouses in the ground. We buried them in the hope of a resurrection. We'll see them again, won't we? We'll rejoice with them again, not in the same union we had here, but in a better union, a more glorious eternal union.

And it's all because of this verse. I will raise them up again at the last day. That's the blessing of election. The Lord Jesus said the hour is coming. And brothers and sisters, it's got short. It won't be long. The hour is coming which all of those who are in the graves How many graves are out here now? Four? Four graves out back here? The hour is coming. Those in those graves are going to hear the voice of the Son of God. And what does the Bible say? They're going to come forth. They that have done good to the resurrection of life. Isn't that wonderful? They're going to live Live eternally. Live immortal. Live happily. They're going to live and never die again. Oh, that's the hope we have.

And it's because of this precious verse. It's because of the Father's electing love. A complete salvation. Election secures the complete salvation. Do you love election? Don't you just love it? And it's because the Father did it. It's because the Son secures the elect. We love election because we love Him who elected. We love the scriptures because we love the author. We love effectual calling because we love Him who calls us. We love keeping grace because we love the keeper. All the Father gives to me, oh, thank God in heaven for electing love. I pray this has been a blessing to your hearts.