told several of you that I listened to Bruce Crabtree preach to you on Sunday, and after I had this message already, and it's from the same text, and I figured that you wouldn't mind. So if you take your Bibles this evening and look at John chapter six, John chapter six, Bruce was very focused.

I'm not a very focused person. We're going to take quite a bit of this passage here. And I've entitled this message, The Most Loved and the Most Hated Gospel. In this chapter we have, for you that believe, it is the most loved gospel. And I heard Bruce preach just part of it. little part of this message our Lord Jesus preached. And I loved it. I loved every bit of it. But I know this, that this gospel does not straddle the fence. It don't let you sit in the middle. You either love it or you hate it. And as our Lord preached it, we see the division taking place. There were men who professed to love Him, But in the end, they were found to be haters. And there were some who loved him when he started this message, and they loved him more when they finished it.

Now, here in this chapter, our Lord Jesus Christ lays out the gospel in such clear and plain terms so that it cannot be misunderstood. You read this in honesty and sincerity, and you can't misunderstand the words of our Lord here. They're very plain, they're very clear.

And the first thing he does is he establishes his deity. He establishes before these men that eventually prove their hatred and these men that prove their love for the gospel. He establishes this, that he is God. And he does this by feeding the 5,000 with just those few loaves and fishes. And by this display of His power, these men, a large group of men, 5,000 men, beside women and children, and we read that these men desired to make Him king.

They professed that He was the Christ. You look at that. Look back over this in verse 14, 14 and 15 here. It says, when those men, they had seen the miracle that Jesus did, they said, this is the truth, that prophet. Now, what do you mean by that? When Moses said that the Lord God shall raise up a prophet like unto me, him you shall hear. And they said, that's him. This is the Christ.

And our Lord Jesus, in verse 15, when Jesus therefore perceived that they would come and take him by force and make him a king. He departed, he left. Our Lord Jesus, knowing their lost estate, knowing that they were not his, he left them. Knowing that this gospel would not affect them, that they would eventually despise this gospel, he left them. But I want you to notice something about our Lord. Even though they were not his, he did two things for them. He fed them and he preached to them. Is that not astounding?

You've heard this many times about the objection of sovereign grace of election. It said, well, God's chosen people and only those people are going to hear. And, you know, why preach? I've heard that before. That's their worldly wisdom. Well, wait a second. Our Lord did.

He preached to people who he knew were not his. At the end of this text, the scripture says, and knowing those who would not believe and betray him. He knew. who it was. These people were not his and he knew it. Yet he preached to them. He preached the gospel to them.

Why do we preach? Because this is the means God chose to save sinners. I don't know who the elect are. And therefore, I preach to everyone. Our Lord knew who His elect were and He still preached to everyone. How much more should we preach? And I know this, that the gospel is intended to do two things. It always does. When this gospel of Christ was preached, it did two things. It saves and comforts the elect and condemns the lost. That's what it does. It does it every time. Go to 2 Corinthians chapter 2. Look what Paul said about preaching here. 2 Corinthians chapter 2. Look at verse 14.

He said, Now thanks be to God, which always causes us to triumph in Christ. and maketh manifest the savor of his knowledge by us in every place." You know, when I come to preach, I'm always nervous. I really am. I sit there and I'm begging the Lord not to let me stand here by myself. You do not want me to stand here by myself. And if I was to stand here by myself, I'm just going to go out there and sit with you.

But this is what we know. is that we always, if we preach the gospel, we always triumph. It's always successful, regardless of our failures, our inadequacies, our inabilities, our absence of fault. And man, how many times I say, man, I wish I'd have quoted that or I wish I'd have said that. No, we do always triumph. We do always triumph in every place.

Here's why. Four. We are unto God. We are unto God a sweet saver of Christ. Listen, in them that are saved and in them that perish. You see, we're a sweet saver of God because we are preaching his son. His Son is the sweet savor. His Son and the gospel are a sweet smell unto our God. Regardless of men love it, regardless of men hate it, it's always sweet to Him. It's always a sweet savor to Him and those that are saved and those that have perished.

To the one, we are a savor of death unto death. Now some will hear this gospel and we are to them the stench of a rotting corpse. That's how much they really like what we do, what we preach. To them, it is the most despicable thing to hear. They despise it as you would a rotting, stinking corpse. That's what we are to them. A savor of death unto death to some, and a savor of life unto life to others.

For we are not as many which corrupt the word of God, but as of sincerity. The word there has to do with clearness, plainness, When we preach the gospel, I desire to be as clear as I possibly can. I want to be as honest with this text as possible. We are not like them that try to persuade you or try to... We're no used car salesman here. I'm here to just tell you what God says, whether you like it or you don't. That's not important to me.

God's going to deal with that. I'm here to preach sincerely to you. Sincerity, but as of God, we are ambassadors of God. In the sight of God speak we of Christ or in Christ. Our purpose is to preach Christ. The heart of every preacher is to be clear and honest, preach and love the things of Christ as an ambassador.

Why? Because we are to some a savor of life, a sweet smell of life. a fragrance, and it's not us. What is it? It's our message. It's the person we preach that is a sweet smell of life to some. But to others, we are the stench of death. And such is the result of the preaching of this chapter. Our Lord here preaches this message to his elect, as well as to those who were not his elect.

To one, it was most loved. And to the other, it was the most despicable thing they'd ever heard. The most loved and the most hated gospel. Now, I want you to see this. These men professed to believe. Isn't that astounding? These people who were not the elect of God, who eventually went away hating this gospel, they professed him to be Christ. They professed to believe on him.

They desired to make him king. And they desired so much. Now, listen, this was no idle thing, because when they found that he had left them, they paid good money to go across the Sea of Galilee to find him. They went to look for him. They were zealous people. And when they had found him, they said, where'd you go? Where'd you go? We were ready to make you keep.

But we find out something in the end of this chapter, chapter 6, is this, that they all went away. What made the change? What took them from this height of professing Him to be Christ, wanting Him to be King, and then in the end of this chapter, they forsake Him, never wanting to hear His voice again. What happened? What made The change, here it is, his message, his gospel. Why the change? It was the gospel that they hated. It was his message he preached that moved them to leave their profession. When they heard the gospel, they walked away from him, never to see him again. But I'm so thankful in the end of this chapter, we also find a group that loved him.

You know, at the end, there were just 12. There were over 10,000 just a minute ago. And now there are only 12. And would our Lord say, have I not chosen you 12, and one of you is a devil, and now one of you just pretended. Really, there were only 11. And he said this, will you go away also? I tell you what, they didn't understand much of what he said. Peter said this, Lord, to whom shall we go?

You have the words of eternal life. These are people that loved his message because they loved him. And so then, I want to preach to you this same message. That's what I want to preach to you, this same message. First of all, I want you to see this, that Jesus Christ confessed in this passage to be the bread of life. This was His message. This was the center of the whole thing. I am the bread of life.

Now, when these men sought Him, our Lord knew what they wanted. They didn't really want Him. They wanted him to be king because of what he could give them. That sound familiar? Sounds like a lot of this religious age that we live in. They believe that our Lord is nothing more than some type of money machine that you put a quarter of faith in, you pull an arm and out comes blessings. Physical earthly bless.

That's what they wanted. They wanted a meal ticket. They wanted welfare That's what they wanted one day. They wanted to be like the uh, the The one day the Israelites in the wilderness they wanted manna to rain down every day so they'd have to go to work That's what they wanted Our Lord knew what they wanted They wanted physical bread Look at what he says in verse 26, Jesus answered him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, seek me not because you saw the miracle, but because you did eat the loaves and were filled. Our Lord knew what they wanted, and that's what this religious age wants. They only want Christ for what He can give them physically. But our Lord tells them something that's very vital, and everybody should hear this.

Verse 27, labor not for the meat which perisheth. but for that meat which endureth to everlasting life. You see what our Lord did there? He took something carnal, a meat. He said, labor not for the meat that perishes, but for the meat, another meat. He took something carnal and he made it spiritual. His message is not carnal, it's spiritual. He was moving them from the carnal to the spiritual. Labor not for the meat which perisheth, but the meat which endureth to everlasting life, listen, which the Son of Man shall give unto you, for Him hath the Father sealed.

And as you read through this chapter, I would have you note the parallel, because it's like, Railroad tracks never touch as they go through this passage. Their mind is totally carnal all throughout this text. He's talking about himself being the bread of life, spiritual. They're thinking bread carnal. He's talking about flesh, giving it for the spiritual life. And they're saying, how in the world can we eat his flesh? Because they're carnal. That's all they can do. He said, don't labor for those things that perish.

What wisdom is that? You know, in this last part, he says, you know, your fathers did eat manna. Now, manna is a miracle, wasn't it? It was a miracle. The Lord just, it appeared on the ground every morning. They just picked it up and ate it. Called it angel's food. But he said, you know what happened to them when they ate that? They all died.

Tell me, what in this world is going to last? Name it. What are you going to get to keep? And yet how hard do men labor for it? Jesus's wisdom here, labor not for the meat that perish. Don't worry about that stuff. There's something more vital. There's something more necessary. It is the meat that doesn't perish, that endures to everlasting life. And what is this?

He says instead of meat now, he turns it in verse thirty five. He said unto them, I am the bread of life. This meat and this bread is Jesus Christ. That's what He's saying. I'm the meat, I'm the bread. It's a spiritual language here. Behold the grace of God who gave us this bread. You that believe, you that have eaten of this bread, you that trust in Him. Isn't it glorious that our Father gave Him? He said the Father hath sealed Him. This was no accidental giving the father determined to give the bread of life. He has sealed him in verse thirty three, he has said he sent him.

You see, Jesus is here testifying and. Before what he proved that he is the eternal son of God. That's who he is when he says, I'm the bread of life. This is the spiritual message. I am the son of God come in the flesh. We the Lord's table. And we eat the bread, it is a picture, isn't it, of his body, he said, this is my body, which was broken for you. It's a picture of his body. It reminds me of his of his day. and His humanity, how He condescended to be made of a low estate, become one of us, bone of our bone, flesh of our flesh. This is what Christ was preaching. He was preaching His deity and His humanity. I am. It's one of His I am statements. I am. I am the bread, deity, and humanity. I always like that illustration.

I've given it to you many times, a Baptist preacher, and his brother was a Unitarian, and didn't believe in Trinity. Anyway, he told his brother, he said, you come preach to me, just don't preach anything controversial. You know what he preached? He said, without controversy, the greatest mystery of Godliness, God was manifested. This is without controversy. This is without argument.

God was manifest in the flesh. So Jesus testifies here by this of his humanity, of his flesh. He said, the meat that I shall give you is my flesh. The Son of God came into this world for the express purpose of sacrificing himself. I don't know what's going to happen tomorrow for a reason. I can't bear it. Our Lord from His infancy knew that He would die and how He would die. And that He would be made sin for us and bore that His whole life through.

How many times He says, not my hour, not my hour. And that hour came, He knew it was His hour. He said, mine hour has come. And not only was he the bread of life, he was a bread of life broken, wasn't he? He came into this world to offer himself, his body and his blood as an offering for sin. This was his message. That he came to give himself a ransom for many. And so what men need is not physical. What you need is Him. You don't need anything else. You realize that? You really don't need anything else. If you have Him and starve to death, you lost anything.

And seeing we have sinned, And none could escape this nature that we are born in. We are born under the condemnation of God. But look now and see the hope of sinners that Jesus came down to give his life a ransom. He was made flesh and dwelt among us so that he should offer his body and blood as a representative man.

When Jesus came, he is the bread of life. And the bread that he gives his flesh and the drink that he gives is his blood for pardon and peace with God for sinners. And so these are spiritual words, Jesus said, I am the bread. Well, they kept thinking, well, they're still looking for a piece of bread. They're still looking for something carnal. What this tells me is clearly that Jesus Christ has come to be a representative man. When he came into this world, he came as a representative man. And why was this necessary?

Because this is how sin came, isn't it? Wherefore, it's by one man's sin entered into the world, and death by sin, so death passed upon all men for all have sinned. Wherefore, as by the disobedience of one, many were made sinners, even so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. Our Lord Jesus Christ, by this tithe, by this shadow, tells us he has come into the world as a representative man, that he should be made sin for us who knew no sin.

Why was his body broken? I can understand if God struck our bodies, if God killed us, we can understand why. How then should God strike his own son? There was no other way except he be made sin for us. Except he bear our iniquities in his own body on the tree. He could not be struck. Our Lord Jesus Christ came into this world to be broken.

And I tell you, therefore, as He said, labor not for that which is carnal. But what do you need the most? I need that meat that endures to everlasting life. I need His blood. I need His righteousness. And not only this, He is the bread of life. He declares His deity, His humanity, His purpose for coming into the world, and now He declares this, He must be a bread eaten.

It's not it's not enough to know all of this, is it? It's not enough to academically understand his deity and humanity. It's not academically enough. We were talking about measuring his sacrifice. There's a lot of theologians go out there, write books that are thousands of pages long, measuring that sacrifice, but they haven't eaten it.

He said, I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never hunger. He that believeth on me shall never thirst. In other words, this bread must be received. It must be believed. And I want you to see when he's talking about eating, it's the same he's talking about believing. Again, I think he did this on purpose in the end of that. He said, let's man eat my flesh and drink my blood.

Because they're all literal still. They're all on that carnal mind. And when he said that, their mind just blew up. They didn't know what to do with that. How can this man give us his flesh? How can each one of us take a piece? That's what they were thinking, 5,000 people here. How can each one of us take a piece of his flesh and drink his blood?

He don't have enough flesh. Roman Catholic Church still thinks that. Still think they got to eat his flesh and drink his blood literally. Carnal minds. that don't understand that eating his flesh and drinking his blood is what he said in verse 35 is talking about coming to him and believing on him. That's what it is. It is to believe on him. And so I would ask you, do you believe on him? Don't think about anybody else because you can't make nobody else believe. Do you believe? You know, I believe on the Son of God, I do. You know that doesn't benefit my children at all? I can't convey this to them. I can't give it to them. If there's anybody in the world I'd give it to, I'd give it to them. I can't.

So the question is then, do you believe? Do you believe on the Son of God? Have you eaten his flesh and drinking his blood by faith? And I will give you an understanding. You that have eaten his flesh and drinking his blood by faith, listen to this. It's unequivocal. You have everlasting life. You have it. It's not even a debatable subject. I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never hunger. He that believeth on me shall never thirst.

What does that mean? It means he gives unto them eternal life. Look at verse 27, just what we read there. He said, The meat which endureth unto everlasting life. Verse 47. But when he said, verily, verily, I say to you, he that believeth on me, what does he have? What does he have? He has everlasting life. I like the way Bruce put it for 2U on Sunday. He said, the Lord leaves out a bunch of stuff here.

Why? It doesn't matter. That's why he left it out. Because it doesn't have anything to do with it. All this in-between stuff doesn't have anything to do with it. I don't know about you, but I don't often feel like I have eternal life. A lot of times I just feel sick, or I feel tired, or I feel hurt, or I feel depressed, or I... What does it have to do with it? Nothing. Not a thing. Because I was sick and tired and depressed before, I believe. And after I believed, I still feel those things. What does that mean? No. He that believeth on me hath everlasting life. Look at verse 50. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven that a man eat thereof.

He shall not, what? Die. He just told us our sister Judy Harmon died this last week. Well, how do you reconcile these two things? Well, I don't. She didn't die. No, her body stopped breathing. And now it's in the ground. But Judy Harmon did not die. She's just fine. She's perfect now. She's a lot better than she was before she took her last breath. She's a lot better now after she took it. Why? She didn't die. Our Lord said that at the tomb of Lazarus, didn't he? With Martha. He said, Martha, I am the resurrection and the life. He whosoever liveth and believeth in me, what did he say? Shall never die. Do you believe that?

What a blessing it is to eat and drink of the flesh and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, by faith receive Him as many as received Him. To them gave He the right to become the sons of God, which were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. You have eaten this. You are born of God and you have every right to be a son.

I don't feel like I have a right. What in the world does that have to do with it? It just don't enter in. He didn't say, he that believeth and feels like it. Oh, he has it. Even to the point of his last breath, he has it. Everlasting life. This is the blessing of believing.

Now, to the religious world, There are a few that would disagree with what I just said. There are still quite a bit. Mormons would disagree concerning his deity. They would have already hated this. It would have been a stench to them right now. They would have left it. Catholics would have already left me because I said it's not literal flesh and blood. They'd already took off hating it. But there's something even more that the Lord preaches here that causes men to hate the gospel or love it.

And that's the root of faith. What is the root of faith? I told you if you believe, you have everlasting life. That sounds good. That's great. Where's faith come from? Where does faith come from? What is the root? What made the difference? Why did the 11 disciples believe and the rest leave?

Our Lord doesn't leave it for us to guess why. He tells them plainly that faith is a work of God. Look at verse 28. Tells him at the beginning of this, and then he tells him in the middle, and then he tells him at the end. Our Lord Jesus Christ, I want you to see this. He is running over the same ground over and over and over again. He doesn't have a bunch of points here. He's saying the same thing over and over and over to get the point across. And he said it at the beginning. Unless you have this meat, spiritual, you'll die. But if you have this meat, you have everlasting life. But how do you get this meat? Well, believing. Look, verse 28. And they said unto him, What shall we do to work the works of God? In other words, how can we make bread? We want to be breadmakers. We want to do miracles then. If you're not going to give us this bread, teach us how to do it.

In this religion, always want to do it themselves. Look what Jesus says. He answered them and said, listen, this is the work of God. What's the work of God? Here it is. That you believe on him whom he has sent. Faith is always the work of God. It is the work of God. This is the work of God that you should believe on Him.

So Jesus tells him, I'm the bread of life. I came down from the Father, and He gives His life for the world. He'll explain that in verse 37 later. I'm the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never hunger. He that believeth on me shall never thirst. Look at this in verse 36.

But I said unto you, I already told you, you also have seen me and believe not. I've just told you the gospel and you believe not. Now, not only this, they saw him do the miracle and they heard his gospel. And yet what? They didn't believe. They didn't believe. What made the difference? The first thing he gives them, verse 37, here's the difference. Election. Here's the difference. Here's what made the difference. He said this, All that the Father giveth me shall come to me. All that the Father giveth me.

I don't know about you, but I read this constantly and I'm... You know, the Lord was not disappointed. when they left. He was not upset. He's even talking like this and to them right now, he's saying, look, you don't believe I'm not upset. You don't believe why you're not mine. This is why he was so confident.

All that the father giveth me shall come to me. All the elect shall come to me no more and no less. For Jesus was given a people according to the election of grace, so that he came down from heaven, listen, to only save them. That's why he's not disappointed in that what the scripture testifies, he shall not fail nor what be discouraged. He was never discouraged.

I feel discouraged sometimes when I see the smallness of God, of the reception of this gospel. It troubles me. It troubles us when we realize that this is not, you know, loved by everyone. I'm surprised. I say, how do you not love this? How do you not love this? Our Lord was not disappointed. Why?

The scripture says when he came into the world, he shall call his name Jehovah Saves. Now, why are you going to call him that? He shall save his people from their sins. Our Lord Jesus tells him plainly, I'm the bread that came down from heaven. Listen, I just came for those that God gave me. All that the father giveth me, listen, the result of this, all that the father giveth me shall come to me. None of them shall fail to come to me. They will all come to me. And when they do, this is the glorious, wonderful thing that we've experienced.

If you've come to him, did you find any resistance? You thought you would. When he exposed our sin. We thought there would be massive resistance. That's why this kingdom of heaven suffered violent and the violent take it by force. I knew this. I had to have him and I wasn't going to stop till I had him.

But when I came to him, there was really no resistance on his part at all. He said, all the father giveth me shall come to me and him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. It didn't matter how far into sin they were. It didn't matter how black they were. It didn't matter how stained they were. It didn't matter how much they hated him. It didn't matter how much they cursed him. When they come to him, he will in no wise cast them out. You and I know we didn't deserve that treatment. We deserved only to be cast out.

Well, this is why. For this is how they can be received. This is how the elect can be saved. For I came down from heaven. Not to do mine own will. Now, wait a second, that's important, isn't it? The son of God here is confessing his subjugation to the will of the father. In everything. expressing His complete humility and subjugation to God and His law, I came down to do the will of my Father, completely, perfectly obeying the will of my Father for the righteousness and the redemption of my people. came down from heaven to do my own will, but the will of Him that sent me. And I love the Scripture because they don't leave you to guess. Listen to the will. This is the Father's will. Now, if you want to know what it is, this is the Father's will. What's God's will? You heard that? What's God's will for my life? They want to know something secret. They want to look into His private will. I need to know what His revealed will is.

This is the Father's will which is sent me, that of all He hath given me, I should lose, how many? How many will lose? Nothing. This day when these people left, how many did He lose? Nothing. They weren't His. He didn't come for them. He didn't die for them. That's why it was easy for Him to pack up and leave them. They weren't His.

Our Lord Jesus Christ came into this world according to the will of the Father to save His people from their sins. I like Isaiah when he said, Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon His shoulders. You know what that means?

The responsibility of the kingdom rests on His shoulders. The responsibility of our salvation rested on His shoulders. He bore all our salvation. All of it. All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and when they do, I'm not going to cast them out, because I came down to do that will, and this is the will of him that sent me, that I should lose nothing, nothing. That's exactly what he lost. He lost nothing.

In Hebrews chapter 10, he said, Lo, I come in the volume of the book it is written of me to do thy will, O God, by the which will we are sanctified. You have any question about your sanctification? Anybody got questions about your sanctification? Why are you sanctified? How are you sanctified? Scripture tells me I'm sanctified by the will of God. through the offering of Jesus Christ, how many times? Once. You know why I did it once? Because it was perfect. Don't need to be done again. Don't need to be done again. It's done once.

And so our Lord Jesus Christ here is preaching this, that I've saved my people. I saved them. By my one offering, he saves them forever. And what's the how do we know he was successful? What's in the tomb? Is there anything there? No. Scripture says that God, he is raised to the right hand of the father. He's raised from the dead. That's how I know this bread was successful. This one who saved me was successful. And this is the experience. Look at this, verse 40.

And this is the will of him that sent me that everyone that seeth the sun. See, everyone's going to see the sun. Everyone he died for is going to see the sun. You've seen the sun? Who's ever seen the sun? Everyone that sees the sun. and believeth on him hath everlasting life, and I will raise him up again at the last day." How many will he lose? He will lose none.

This is the gospel we preach. And we are sure that all of those elect in providence will eventually come to him and believe. Have you come to Christ? Do you believe on the Son of God now? I have a question then. Why will others not come? Why is it you believe and others do not? Was it something special about you? Did you have something within yourself that set yourself above someone else? No. No, not at all.

Our Lord Jesus Christ makes it plain to them. Listen what they did when they heard this. They murmured. Isn't this what men do when they hear election? They murmur. Jews do the same thing. Verse 41, they murmured. Because I'm something, he said, I'm the bread of life that came down from heaven. Listen, he said, don't we know this guy? He's Joseph's son, whose father and mother we know. How is it he saith, I come down from heaven? Jesus said, don't murmur.

Don't waste your breath. It's not going to change anything. You can yell, you can scream. If at the election of God's grace, or you want to, it doesn't matter, it's not going to change it. Listen, don't do that. No man can come unto me. Men don't mind election in theory. Our Lord brings it down to flesh and bone on this one. When He said this, This is why election's necessary. Look what he said. No man can come to me. This is one of the most hated statements in all of Scripture, but it's the most clear. I don't think it needs much addition, does it? A child can understand what he said. No man has the ability to come. You can't. No man can come to me. Why? He's dead. He has no life in him. I had no life in me. I could know by no means of the flesh or religion come to him.

Except. I love this divine exception. The reason I came is this word except. Except the father which has sent me draws him. That's exactly what happened to me. I could not come until by the grace and power of the Holy Spirit, he gave me life to come. To me, this is the most loved gospel. It is a sweet smell and a savor of life unto me. And that is by the grace and power of God.

Not that I was any different than any other man. I hated this gospel as much as anyone else until the time God came to me. And when God came to me, revealed my sin to me, and he revealed Christ as the bread of life. He revealed him as the only thing I need. And by the grace of the power of the Holy Spirit, I believed.

Now you that believe, can you do anything else? How many of you want to believe less? Anybody? Do you pray that, Lord, just help me to believe less? I just believe too much. No believer ever said that. I believe. Help my unbelief. That's what I say. I want more. I've got to have more of him, not less. See, Christ is not a theological argument.

He's my life. His blood is my redemption. He's my hope. Let Israel hope in the Lord, for with the Lord there is mercy, and with him is this, plenteous redemption. Who needs that? Man, the only people need that have eaten him, have believed on him. You believed on him, you will not stop believing on him.

I'll tell you what, there's a lot of things that try our faith. There's a lot of troubles that come our way. There's this flesh that's constantly pulling me away. There's my family. There's my friends. There's these troubles, these difficulties, these sicknesses. They're all pulling me in an opposite direction. My hope is this. It was God who chose me. It was Christ who redeemed me. It was the Spirit that called me. He gave me faith.

And this is His promise that He will not lose me. And He will not lose you. He's even going to take care of this This. Isn't that precious? He even thinks about this stuff, flesh. He says this, when that body goes to the ground, he says this, he ain't gonna die. But guess what? I'm even coming back for that. I didn't just save your soul, I saved all of you. What did it? It was the election of grace. It was the redemption of grace. It was the calling of grace. It was the keeping of grace. And we that have eaten him have everlasting life, and nobody can take that away. You would have to take him from the throne of God to take me from him. Who? Who shall in thy presence stand and match omnipotence, unfold the grasp of thy right hand, and pluck the sinner thence? Who? Who's going to do that? Nobody. Nobody.

And yet, this gospel I preach to you, men hate it. For the life of me, I can't see it. I can't see anything that makes you want to hate that. This gospel is the only thing that's going to give you hope of eternal life, something after this. The only thing to free you from the judgment of God is Christ.

So, when troubles come and everything seems... I told you I'm running long. It. I don't know about you, but it seems like Providence and God's promises appear to be in opposition. He promises me joy, but I spend most of my time crying. Promises me peace, and I feel tribulation all the time. But again, this matter of salvation doesn't have to do with any of that.

It's not going to stop him from saving you. Matter of fact, it only endears you to him. Isn't that what your trouble does to you? Doesn't it make you run to him more? Don't you find that when you're in prosperity, you become lax and cold and fat? Your heart comes fat when you got all you want. But the Lord even uses these seeming oppositions to fulfill his will, which is what?

To save you. To keep you. To sustain you. To me, it's the most beautiful gospel in the world. Jesus Christ and him crucified. It's my hope. Do you believe on the Son of God? Man, why would you not? He that believeth on me hath everlasting life. I pray the Lord bless this to you.