Thank you, Mike. He was singing
that song, I was reminded of a story Brother Marvin Stoniker
told me. Someone was telling Scott Richardson,
what a, true things, what a burden it is to preach the gospel. Burden
that you carry to preach God's gospel to God's people. And Scott
smiled. He said, that's true. But never
forget, it's a great joy. I'll never get over his love. Never get over the gospel of
God's grace. It's a great joy. And that applies
to hearing the gospel. You know, it's so vitally important
we hear the gospel. We're responsible for what we
hear. Brother Henry used to say we're
responsible for what we could have heard. It's important that
we, this is life and death, that we hear the gospel. But we're
doing something wrong if it's not a joy. What a joy to hear
the gospel of God's dear Son. Well, open your Bibles to John
chapter 6. Continue our study here in John
chapter 6. I touched on verse 37 last time. We're going to pick up there
in verse 37. Our Lord says, All that the Father
giveth me, succumb to me, and him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out." Now this is one of many verses in God's
holy word that teaches us God's election. For God chose a definite,
specific people out of Adam's fallen race. God chose those
people because He loved them. He didn't choose them because
there was any good in them. He didn't choose them because he
looked down through the telescope of time and saw they would choose
him because they would not ever choose him. He chose them just
because he would. His sovereign free will and choice. And I know that fallen flesh
hates this truth of election. But anyone who has spiritual
life loves God's election. God's electing love, His election,
His choosing of people is just as necessary to our salvation
as Christ's death on the cross and as the new birth. And what
I want us to see this morning is God electing a people is a
great act of His love. I want you to look at what God
does for those people that He chose. His elect, His Son. Our Lord
said, All that the Father giveth Me. He gave His elect to His
Son. The Father loved His people so
much. He loved His elect so much. He didn't leave them to themselves.
He gave them to someone who would keep them, who would save them,
who would provide for them. Now, most all of you parents,
I would imagine, at one point have chosen a guardian. for your
children in case something might happen to you. It's important
our children, you know, someone raised them and it's what an
important decision. Very, very important decision.
Who we would give our children to to raise if something happened
to us. Well, God chose his elect and he gave his elect to his
son, much the same way parents choose a guardian for their children.
When you choose a guardian for your children, You choose someone
who will love your children, don't you? They love my children. I can trust them, my children
to them. Christ loves the people the Father gave them. The Father
chose the people and He gave them to His Son. And His Son
loves those people. He loves them so much, He came
to suffer and die for their sins so they'd have life. He loves
His people. Secondly, when you choose a guardian
for your children, you choose someone you can trust. You've
got some confidence in these people. We read in Ephesians
chapter one, the father first trusted in the son and he entrusted
his elect to the surety ship of Christ because Christ is trustworthy. You can trust him, depend upon
him. The father did. I believe we can. Third, when
you choose a guardian for your children, If you choose someone
who you feel like will teach your children the same values
that you have. Teach them right from wrong.
Teach them the things that they need to know. John Chapman made
this statement once, I've never forgotten it. He said, Christ
is the teacher and Christ is the lesson. Learn Him from Him. Our Lord said, come learn of
Me. He teaches His children. He teaches His people that the
Father gave Him. Fourth, when you choose a guardian
for your children, you choose someone who you think is going
to have the ability to help your children through a horrible tragedy.
Their lives are suddenly, without warning, going to be turned upside
down. And you choose someone, they're going to need someone
to help them through all that. You and I suffered a horrible
tragedy. When Adam fell, we lost everything. We died. All the human race died
when Adam fell. Well, who better to help us through
all that than the second Adam, who restores everything that
was lost in the first Adam? And fifth, when you choose a
guardian for your children, you choose someone who you think
will still be alive when your children are grown. Typically,
a young person doesn't choose someone who's 75 or 80 to be
the guardian for their children. You don't want them to go through
this again. You choose someone in this, you know, the appropriate
age and they should still be grown, you know, or alive when
your children are grown. The elect have been given to
Christ. They'll never be lost. They'll never suffer loss because
Christ ever lives, making intercession for them. God's election is an
act of great love, isn't it? Now, Scripture plainly teaches
us God elected a people. Now, what are the results of
God's electing love? There's about five things here
in our text I want to give you, the results of God's electing
love. The first one is this. Because
God elected a people, Christ came to save those people. In
verse 38, he says, For I came down from heaven. The reason
I came down from heaven is because my Father chose a people and
gave them to me. I came down from heaven, not to do mine own
will, but the will of Him that sent me. God elected a people. He gave those people to His Son. If you look at us, the people
that God chose, you look at what we are, who we are, you'd think
that's not a very nice gift. God gave His Son a wretched,
defiled, depraved people. Look back in Numbers chapter
11. You know the nation Israel is a picture of spiritual Israel,
isn't it? God's dealings with that nation is a picture of God's
dealing with His elect, spiritual Israel. Look at what Moses said in Numbers
11, verse 11. And Moses said unto the Lord,
Wherefore hast thou afflicted thy servant? Why have you afflicted
me? And wherefore have I not found favor in thy sight? Why
did Moses think the Lord had afflicted thee? Why did Moses
think he hadn't found favor in God's sight? He said that thou
layest the burden of all this people upon me. This is not a
gift. This is an affliction. You've
given me this stiff-necked, rebellious people. Isn't that a picture
of us? A stiff-necked, rebellious, depraved
people given to the son. Now it is true when the father
gave his elect to Christ, he put an enormous burden on the
shoulder of his son. Now did the son shy away from
it? Did he shuck that burden? Did
he look for a way to get out of it? No, sir. The son willingly
came to this earth incarnate. He came to this earth as a man.
He took on him human flesh and he delighted to do it. He delighted
to do his Father's will in saving his elect. He delighted to save
God's elect by carrying the burden of their sin. He carried the
burden of their sin so far away it separated from them as far
as the east is from the west. Saving God's elect was a delight
to the Savior. So he came to earth as a man
to accomplish their salvation. And the very reason God the Son
humiliated himself in descending so far to leave the glory of
heaven and become a man, to take on him human flesh. The reason
he did that is God elected a people. And if those people are going
to be saved, God must become a man so he can produce a perfect
righteousness for them. If those people are going to
be saved, God must become a man. So he can be their representative,
that he can be their substitute. The God-man must die. If God's elect are going to be
saved, the sacrifice must be offered. The God-man must die
in order to pay the sin debt of those that God chose. And
the only reason that the son would do that, he would humiliate
himself, that he would suffer so much, is God elected the people. That's why he did it. Now, that's
a wonderful act of love, isn't it? Secondly, because God elected
a people, we see Christ as the successful Savior. We never would
have seen him as a successful Savior if God hadn't elected
a people. Look at verse 39. 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.
Now, everyone who's been given to Christ, they must be saved,
must be. If not, if they're not saved,
God loses its glory. All of it. Now, that's not about
to happen. He's not going to do that. The
good shepherd will never lose one sheep that was given to him
by the father. He said the father gave them
to me. I'm not going to lose one of them. He's the successful
savior. Look at Hebrews chapter two. Everyone who's been given to
Christ in election will be presented to the Father in glory. The Son
took those that the Father gave Him, and the Son is going to
present them all back to the Father. Not one will be missing.
Hebrews 2, verse 13. And again, I'll put my trust
in Him. He's trustworthy. I'll put my trust in Him. And
again, behold, I and the children which God has given me. Here
they all are. Luke, not one of them is missing. They're all
here. He's the successful Savior. Everyone
God chose is redeemed. That redemption began with God's
election. That's an act of love, isn't
it? That God would choose a people to save. Third, because God elected
a people, those elect will believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse
40, back in our text, John 6, And this is the will of him that
sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth
on him, may have everlasting life, and I'll raise him up at
the last day. Now seeing, our Lord uses this
word seeing here, it's the same as believing. This word see means
to perceive. If you perceive who Christ is,
if God gives you eyes so you can see him, you perceive who
he is, I promise you, you'll believe on him if you perceive
who he is. Look at Job chapter 42. I love the statement Job makes. Chapter 42, verse 5. Job says, I've heard of thee
by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eyes see of thee. I perceive who you are. Wherefore,
I abhor myself and repent. in dust and ashes. Oh, I've heard. I've heard. Now I see. Now I hear. Now I perceive who
God is, who Christ is. And because I see who He is,
I perceive, I see who I am and I abhor myself. I repent in dust
and ashes. Now I see. When I see, when I
really see, the trouble that my sin has caused me, and I see
Christ, the Rock of Ages, I'll run to Him for refuge. When I
see the condemnation of my sin and I perceive the sufficiency
of Christ's blood, I'll run to Christ for salvation. When I
see my filth and I see Christ's righteousness, I'll run to Him
for righteousness. Because of God's electing love.
Now, I want you to get this. Because of God's electing love,
the Gospel is free to anyone who wants it. What does our Lord
say here? Everyone which seeth the Son. Everyone. No matter who you are.
No matter where you came from. No matter what you've done or
what you haven't done. Everyone. If you see the Son, if you believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, you will have eternal life. It's free because of God's electing
love. And you will be redeemed. If
you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you'll be redeemed, both
body and soul. Our Lord said, I'll raise him
up again to last day. Your body will be raised from
the dust. When you die, your body is going to decay. It's
going to return to the dust from which it was made. And God's
going to gather all that dust back together. He's going to
put it back together and you'll be you. You'll be raised in a
body. You'll be you. We'll recognize
one another. But there will be this difference.
You'll be in glorified flesh. Redeemed both body and soul. That's an act of God's love for
sinners. Fourth, unfortunately, there is a reaction of fallen
flesh to God's electing love. And it's so sad. Look at verse
41. The Jews then murmured at him, because he said, I'm the
bread which came down from heaven. And they said, was not this Jesus,
the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How is it
then, he saith, I came down from heaven? Now you think about what
our Lord just told them. He told them salvation is found
in him. You're lost. You want to know
where salvation is? It's in me, he said. He told them where salvation
is. He told them that salvation is
the will of the Father. So you know it will happen. It's
sure. It's guaranteed because this is the will of the Father. He told them that salvation is
sure and certain through faith in Christ. Believe Him and you
will have eternal life. And what do they do? They do
what all of our flesh does by nature. They murmur. Our Lord
told them the spiritual truths of salvation, and they murmured
about bread. They still can't get their mind
off the flesh. They can't get their mind off
this bread. They still want, even though our Lord told them
where free salvation is found, what do they want? Free lunch.
Free food for this flesh. That's this flesh. Theirs and
yours and mine too. That's all. That's our flesh.
Murmuring. Oh, God deliver us from murmuring. You know where murmuring always
comes from? Depravity. That's where murmuring comes
from. Now, they understood exactly what our Lord meant. It wasn't
that they had difficulty understanding what He meant. When He saw them,
the braggarts came down from heaven, they understood. He meant,
I existed before the world was, and then I came down here in
my creation. They understood what He said.
They just didn't believe Him. Their problem wasn't a lack of
understanding, their problem was a lack of faith, lack of
belief. And they just couldn't believe
that. They couldn't believe, how did this man exist before the world was
and then come down from heaven to earth? I can't understand
that. I can't understand that with my natural mind, so I won't
believe it. And since they couldn't understand it with their natural
mind, they just tried to rationalize it away. Well, that can't be.
Now, I want you to listen to me. You children, listen to me.
Especially you. Human logic will never, ever,
ever lead to saving faith in Christ. Human logic will never
do it. Human logic will always lead
us in the opposite direction. Human logic will always lead
us away from Christ. We're never called on in Scripture
to understand the Gospel. We're never called on in Scripture
to understand God. You can't understand God, so
it's good we're not called on to understand God. We're told
to believe. This is the work of God. We looked
at this in our last message in John. This is the work of God,
that you believe on Him that God sent. Never depend on human
logic. Well, I'll believe whatever I
can understand. No. Depend completely on the Lord
Jesus Christ. Not on what we can understand,
but depend on Him. We can't understand God. So ask
God to give you faith. Ask Him to give you faith in
Christ. But the flesh won't do that. This belief is not in the
flesh. It's no surprise that depraved
nature hates God's electing love. Look at our Lord said in verse
43. Jesus therefore answered and said unto them, murmur not
among yourselves. No man can come to me except
the Father which has sent me drawing. And I'll raise him up
at the last day. Now our Lord is not talking about
permission here. He's not saying no man has permission.
to come to Him for salvation. He's talking about inability.
No man has the ability to come to God for salvation. Men by
nature are not able to come to Christ because we're dead in
sins. We're not able to come to Christ
any more than a dead corpse is able to raise itself from the
casket. It can't do it. Why? We're dead. He didn't have
any ability. He lost all of his ability when
he died. You and I lost all of our ability
to see God, to perceive Him, to come to Him when we died,
when Adam fell. We lost all of our ability. It's
not in our nature. Our nature is not able to come
to Christ. Water cannot flow uphill, can
it? If you're standing on a hill
and Maggie dumped out a glass of water, where's it going? It's
going down, isn't it? Because that's the nature of
water. We all can understand that, can't you? That's the nature
of water. Follow the path of least resistance.
That's our nature, too. Dump us out and what do we do?
Go down. That's our nature to follow the
path of least resistance and go down. Water flows downward
and sinners go downward and away from God because that's the nature.
of both water and sinners to go down. So we can't come to
God. We don't have that ability. Now
our Lord says no man can come to me. He's not closing the door
of salvation. He says no man can come to me
except the Father which has sent me drawing. He's not closing
the door of salvation. He's showing us where the only
open door is. In Him. See that? Our Lord didn't
make this statement of truth. to keep men out of eternal life. Our Lord came to save the lost.
He makes this statement of truth so we'd be humbled. So we'd be
humbled enough so we'd become small enough that we fit in the
door. To fit in the door into eternal
life. I don't preach the gospel to
every creature even though God elected a people. I preach the
gospel to every creature because God elected a people. If God
didn't elect a people unto salvation, I wouldn't waste my time. I'd
find something better to do if God didn't elect a people. If
it was up to me to convince you to do something good and to come
to God, I wouldn't waste my time. I might build a convention and
somebody else is going to change your mind. But God elected a
people, didn't he, John? He elected a people. He's going
to save those people through the preaching of the gospel.
Then give me the opportunity, and I'll preach to you. I'll
preach to the Savior, because that's how God's going to save
His people. Now, you might wonder, if no man can come to Christ,
how is anyone ever going to be saved? We don't have the ability. Then how is anybody going to
be saved? How is the Father's will and salvation going to be
accomplished if nobody can come to Him? How will the Father Draw
people to himself who cannot and will not come. How is the
Father going to teach a people who are dead and incapable of
learning? I'm glad you asked. Salvation
is of the Lord. That's how. Salvation is of the
Lord. That salvation began in what we call eternity past with
God's electing love. He chose a people. He gave them
to his son. And that salvation, that purpose
of salvation is going to end with the complete redemption,
both body and soul, of everyone our Lord received in the covenant
of grace. He says it again, I'll raise
him up at the last day. He's going to be redeemed, body
and soul. They've been given to me and
they'll be with me where I am. That's all God's doing. Salvations
of the Lord. He's going to do it. he's going
to do, accomplish his will. And fifth, because God elected
a people, now there's a reaction from the flesh, unfortunately,
but thankfully there's a reaction from God's elect to God's electing
love. Verse 45, our Lord says, it's
written in the prophets, and they shall be all taught of God.
Every man therefore that heard hath learned of the Father cometh
unto me. Not that any man has seen the
Father, save he which is of God. He's seen the Father. Verily,
verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me hath everlasting
life. Now we begin, verse 37. All that
the Father giveth me shall come to me. Who's our Lord talking
about here? Who is it that will come to Christ?
It's God's elect. Well, who are the elect? The more important question is
not who are the elect. Here's the question. Am I one
of the elect? Do I believe God? Did Christ
die for me? That's what I want to know. Did
Christ die for me? Well, here our Lord gives us
five marks of God's elect. Am I one of the elect? Well,
see if these five descriptions fit you. First, God's elect are
drawn to the Father. They're drawn by the Father to
Christ. That's what He says here in verse 44. All those which
the Father giveth Me, He'll draw him, and I'll raise him up at
the last day. God's elect are drawn to Christ
by God's electing love. You mean to tell me God loved
me before the world was, when He knew what I would be? God loved me? Oh, I'll never
get over that. I'm going to come to Him. God's
elect are drawn by Christ's sacrifice for them. You mean to tell me
that despite my rebellion, my hatred of Him, that I stood in
that crowd and yelled, crucify Him, I'll not have this man reign
over me. You mean to tell me that despite all that, He'd die
for me? He'd take my sin and His body
on the tree? Did He give me His righteousness? Did He promise to come get me
and take me to be with Him where He is? Oh, I'm coming to Him. I can't help it. I'm drawn to
Him. The Holy Spirit draws God's people through the preaching
of the gospel. Do you hear the gospel? All of
you have heard it many, many, many times. Sometimes do you
really hear it and it just breaks your heart? You mean tell me
God would do that for me? That He'd send one of His servants
to preach His Son to me again and again and again? Marty, I
can't remember what He said. I can't remember the preacher's
text. But I come back Wednesday, He'd feed me again. Oh, I'm drawn
to Him. I'm going to come to Him. God's
elect are drawn by the beauty of Christ. Bill, He's altogether
lovely. I want to be in Him, don't you?
God's elect are drawn by the sufficiency of Christ. Christ
meets my every need. Everything I need, He is. Well,
I want to be in Him. And notice, we're not driven
to Christ. We're drawn by cords of love. At the end of this chapter,
all these people are going to leave me. I got this. I didn't
mean to get into this today, I'm not smart enough to come
up with this. Bruce Crafter said this. You look how our Lord's
preaching to these people. He knows what's going to happen.
He knows all things. He knows they're going to leave
Him. He's preaching to them in a way
of kindness and compassion and truth. He doesn't run them off.
They leave. And then He asks those disciples,
will you also go away? I'm not making you stay. You're
not driven to stay. He said, Lord, to whom shall
we go? You just told us life's in you. You just told us salvation's
in you. I'm not going anywhere else.
I'm drawn by His love. God's elect are drawn by the
Father to Christ. Second, God's elect are all taught
of God. That's what He says in verse
45 here. Every man, therefore, that has
heard and has learned of the Father cometh unto Me. A saving
faith, that's not blind faith. It's not ignorant faith. I know
whom I believe. I know him. Now, I want to know
him better, but I know him. Now, we're not taught, you know,
because we've got some vision of God and a dream teaching us
or, you know, we hear some, you know, voice out of the clouds
teaching us. Our Lord says no man has seen the Father except
for the Son. He's talking about when he says,
save he which is of God. He's talking about himself. He's
seen God because he's one with the Father. So we're not taught
by hearing his voice or something. We're taught supernaturally through
the preaching of the gospel. We're taught by God, the Holy
Spirit, taking the word preached and supernaturally teaching our
hearts. So we say, I see that. Why'd that happen? Has that ever
happened to you? I see that. How did that happen?
That's the Father teaching you through the Holy Spirit, teaching
you His Word. Now, if we're going to be taught,
we're going to have to understand we don't know anything. John,
I bet it's hard to teach a know-it-all, isn't it? In high school, you
got a few know-it-alls? It's hard to teach a know-it-all.
Well, then don't come before God as a know-it-all. Come before
God as a know-nothing. If you know nothing, you can
be taught. You'll never learn salvation
until you learn you're lost. God's got to teach us we're lost.
Then we can learn salvation. You'll never be clothed until
you learn you're naked. You can hear all you want about
Christ's righteousness. It'll never mean anything to
you until you see you don't have any. Then you can learn His righteousness. You'll never learn anything about
the forgiveness of sins if you think there's something good
in you. But when you learn you're the chief of sinners, oh, then
you'll be interested. And you can learn something about
the forgiveness of sins in Christ. And only God can teach you those
things. I can tell you those things. And I promise you, Wednesday
night, I'm going to tell you again. I just am not that smart
to learn anything new. I'm going to tell you the same
thing over and over and over again. I'll tell you. But it's
not going to mean anything to you until God speaks to you.
God can teach you those things. Didn't he say here? Every man
therefore that heard and learned of the Father cometh unto me.
That's what he said, isn't it? Wouldn't it be good to ask the
Father to be our teacher? Or teach me? You said you're
going to teach somebody. Would you teach me so I can come
to the Father? He teaches all of His elect. God's elect come to Christ. He said that two times here in
verse 37. He said, all the Father giveth me shall come to me. In
verse 44, everyone that learned of the Father cometh unto me.
God's elect come to Christ. Now, the unregenerate man, our
Lord just said, cannot come to Christ. He doesn't have the ability.
So God gives his elect a new nature in the new birth. And
you can't keep that new nature away from Christ. They come to
Christ and they keep coming to Christ. You know, coming to Christ,
not saying, well, you know, I would say 13 years ago I walked an
aisle. When I was 13 years old, I walked
an aisle and came to Christ. That's not coming to Christ.
If you've come to Christ, you keep coming to Him. You came
to Him because you saw He's everything you need. He's the Savior. Your
only hope is in Him. That's why you came to Him. If
you really see He's all your hope, you keep coming to Him.
If you really see He's everything you need, you keep coming to
Him. Peter said to whom? Coming. Coming to Christ is a
continual thing. We come to Him for wisdom, for
righteousness, for sanctification and redemption. We come to Him
for the forgiveness of sins. We come to Him for the cleansing
of sins. I need to be cleansed every day. I need to be forgiven
every day. Well, we keep coming to Him then.
We come to him as our Savior, as our brother, as our friend.
He's a friend of sinners. Then we continually come to him.
And God's elect come willingly. They come willingly. Like I said
a minute ago, not driven, they come willingly. God's elect receive
a new will. They receive a new want to. And
now they want to come to Christ. They desire to come to Christ
because they've been made willing in the day of his power. See,
salvation is of the Lord. It's all his doing. They've been
made willing in the day of His power. God's sheep come willingly
as soon as they hear the voice of the shepherd. Probably about
every service I tell you, come to Christ. There you sit. Until the good shepherd says,
come to me. Boy, you'll come running. He
won't be able to stop you. Nothing will be able to separate
you from Christ. You're going to get there because
He said come. You come willingly. And God's
elect come to Christ. We come to a person, not coming
to a doctrine, not coming to the five points of Calvinism.
They're all true, but that's not what we come to. Not coming
to a reformed life, a changed life where we clean up and start
acting better. We ought to do that. But salvation
is found in coming to Christ, the person of Christ. I'm not in love with the marriage
certificate. We still got it somewhere, but
that's not what I'm in love with. I'm in love with a person, a
woman, a person. You're not in love with a doctrine
if you've come to Christ. If you're one of God's elect,
you love a person. You love Him. And you come to
Him as He is. You come to Him as He's revealed
in Scripture. We're not coming to this little
Jesus of our imagination who's begging us to come to Him and
just accept us if He, you know, oh, if you'll just accept me,
I'll save you. That's not who we come to because
that's not the God of the Bible. We come to Christ as He's revealed
in God's Word. If you want to know God, here
He is. It's in His Word. Come to Him as He's revealed
in His Word. The Word reveals Him as Prophet,
Priest, and King. That's how we come to Him. He's
Prophet. Teach me. Tell me who God is.
He's my Priest to offer the sacrifice to put away my sins. He's the
King who rules and reigns over me. We come to Him Come to Christ
as God, He's Sovereign. And this is what I mean by that.
When I say we come to the Sovereign, this is what I mean. We come
to Him begging Him, begging Him for mercy. He's the Sovereign.
I'm in His hands to do with as He pleases. Well, I'm going to
beg Him for mercy then. I need mercy. I need forgiveness.
Then we come to Him as He is, as the Sovereign, begging Him
for mercy. Scripture reveals Christ as the
only way of salvation. And if you've come to Him, if
you're one of God's elect and you've come to Him, you've come
to Christ as the only way of salvation. You put all your eggs
in one basket. Coming to Christ means this.
You come to Christ and you leave every other hope behind. You drop it. You leave it. And
you run to Christ. You turn your back on it. And
you come to Christ because he's the only way of salvation. That's
how he's revealed in Scripture. And Scripture says those who
come to Christ will be saved. Our Lord says in verse 37, I
will in no wise cast them out. Now, in the original in the original
Greek there, I read this at any rate, that there are two negatives.
It's not translated that way in our translation. But what
our Lord really said included two negatives. I will not. No, I will not cast them out. How sure is that? I will not. No, I will not cast them out
because the Father chose those people and the Son redeemed them. The Father drew them to the Son.
He's not going to cast them out. They're His peculiar treasure.
Someone might ask, am I one of the elect? I don't know. Come to Christ and I'll tell
you. All God's elect come to Christ. Four, all God's elect
believe on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord said in
verse 47, verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on
me hath everlasting life. Now, faith is necessary. Election
is not salvation. Election is unto salvation. God
elected a people. Christ must come and die for
the sins of those people. And those elect, they must hear
the gospel. They must believe on Christ. And like I said a minute ago,
that's why I preach. With full assurance, God's elect
are going to believe. They're going to be blessed and
they're going to be fed if we just preach Christ. All God's
elect believe Christ. And fifth, all God's elect Have,
right now, have everlasting life. Verse 47, Our Lord said, he that
believeth on me, have everlasting life. The end result of God's
electing love is everlasting life, eternal spiritual life. All you who believe, right now,
you have eternal life. everlasting life. You'll never
lose it. You've got it and you'll never
lose it. Our Lord said he will never cast
them out. You're not going to lose it.
He's not going to take it away because the gifts and calling of God
are without repentance. Salvation is eternal. That's
hard for me to understand. You know, we deal in time and
everything's finite. Salvation is eternal. It doesn't
mean it begins at some point in time and then continues on
forever. Salvation is eternal both ways. In what we call eternity
past, before the foundation of the world, God elected a people. He gave those people to His Son.
He looked at those people always in the blood of His Son. Christ
is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. And that salvation
is going to continue throughout what we call eternity future. It just bridges this whole mess
of what we call time. Salvation is eternal. You have
that life if you believe Christ right now. You don't have to
wait for it. You've got it. But oh, one day, that day of
reunion Brother Henry talked about in his letter. One day,
you'll have that life complete. You'll have the full possession
of what Christ purchased for you at Calvary Street. You'll
have redemption of both body and soul. That's why the Lord
keeps saying, I'll raise him up at the last day. This is raised. Not to be just like we are now.
Not just to be forever with Christ. It also means to be forever like
Christ. That life you have in you right
now, eternal life, that is the life of Christ. Life. Life. Just like Him. It is Him. He
is our life. And one day we're going to be
raised in bodies just like his. Redeemed, body and soul. That's
the result of God's electing love. Sure salvation. Our Lord speaks always of the
redemption of his elect in sure terms. There's no doubt about
this. I will in no wise cast them out. I will raise him up
at the last day. They have everlasting life. That's sure terms. God's election
makes salvation sure. Eternal election guarantees eternal
glorification. The Father elected a people.
The Son redeemed those people with the sacrifice of Himself.
The Holy Spirit quickens those people, gives faith in Christ
to those people. All that salvation from beginning
to end It's the work of God, isn't it? Salvation is of the
Lord. And all of that salvation stems from God's electing love. What an act of love for the unworthy. Are you unworthy? Are you a sinner? Are you know-nothing? Then this
salvation is for you. I pray God give it to you. Let's
bow in prayer. Our Father, we pray, that You
bless Your Word as it's been preached. Father, bless Your
Word to the hearts of Your people. Cause Your Word to comfort and
instruct and feed Your people that we may feed upon the things
of the Lord Jesus Christ, that we may continually be found coming
to Him. And we pray, if it be Your will,
that You bless the Word preached to break the heart of a sinner. That as of this moment, they
not know you. You know them. Maybe you use
your word. Preach today to call them to
yourself. We know beyond a shadow of a
doubt you will draw your people to the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord,
would you in mercy, in grace, do it for those here. Do it for
those in this town. Do it for those who today, here
and everywhere across this country, everywhere across the world where
the gospel is being preached. Use it to call your sheep out,
to bless your sheep through the preaching of the Lord Jesus Christ,
who is to us, is to us who believe all and in all. In His blessed
name we pray. Amen.