Now, if you've turned in your
Bible to John chapter 6, I want to preach this morning on verse
37, and I've never preached a sermon as such, just a whole sermon
on this verse of Scripture. Many, many times I've quoted
this verse and used it repeatedly, over and over again, many, many
times. But I've never just preached a sermon on this verse. And I
believe this morning that I have the message that the Lord would
have me to present to you. And I believe that this message
could be very edifying and up-building, especially to young believers. And I trust today that God will
use this message and that the truth that's embedded in this
verse, that it'll be embedded in our hearts when we're finished
here this morning. Let me read verse 37 to you. All that the Father giveth to
me, or giveth me, shall come to me, and him that cometh to
me I will in no wise cast out. Now, as we get into the message
this morning, there are four doctrines that I want you to
be looking for in our message. We do not plan to preach on them
as such, but they are contained in the message, and I believe
that as we try to and consider and observe what this passage
really teaches our hearts, I believe we will see these four doctrines
stand out. First of all, we'll find embedded
in this one verse the doctrine of election. very clearly taught,
very clearly brought forth that there are some whom the Father
chose Himself, it was an act of the Father, it was His work,
and He gave them to Christ. And in verse 70, we read where
Jesus answered the disciples and said, Have not I chosen you
twelve? Have not I chosen you twelve? And of course He went on to say
that one of you is a devil. Now, all men serve the purpose
and the will of God. All men are His servants. But He says, have not I chosen
you? So, the Bible makes it clear,
scriptures bearing witness to us that God's elective grace
is a true doctrine. Secondly, the doctrine of effectual
calling, very clearly taught in this verse. These who are
given, must and shall come, however stoutly they may set themselves
against it, yet they shall be brought out of darkness into
God's marvelous light. Verse 44, this chapter says,
No man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me
draw him and I'll raise him up at the last day and then also
we have in verse 65 word similar where he says and he said therefore
said I unto you that no man can come unto me except it were given
unto him of my father that is effectual call that is that sinners
are brought to the Lord Jesus Christ by divine grace by a call
from God which is irresistible God calls his people And then
the third thing that we'll find here is the indispensable necessity
of faith. By this shall those be known
whom God hath chosen that they do willingly and joyfully accept
Christ Jesus and come to him with simple faith resting upon
him as all their salvation and all their desire. That is very
clearly taught in this verse. I do not expect to be saved by
morality. I do not expect to be saved by
sincerity. I believe that by the grace of
God I shall be saved by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And
so as we go along, we'll notice the indisputable necessity of
faith. Then the fourth thing, we'll
find the doctrine of the preservation of the saints very much embedded
here in this particular text. If chosen, if given, if brought,
he shall in no wise be cast out. If you're chosen of God, if you're
given by God unto Christ, if you are enabled to come to the
Lord Jesus Christ in the scriptural sense of the word, then, my friend,
the Bible says, you shall in no wise be cast out. And that's the doctrine of final
perseverance. Now, the final perseverance of
the saints of God may be concluded from the purposes and decrees
of God, John Gil said, which are infrustrable and are always
accomplished. That is, the purposes and the
decrees of God. The Lord of hosts hath purposed,
and who shall disannoy it, or make it void, and of no effect?
and his hand is stretched out to execute his purposes, and
who shall turn it back from doing the thing that he resolved on? As he has thought, so shall it
come to pass, and as his purpose, it shall stand. Though there
may be a thousand devices in the hearts of men and devils,
they can never counteract nor undermine the decrees of God. Is that a good statement? I believe
it is. So the doctrine of the preservation
of the saints of God clearly taught it. Now these are the
four doctrines that are embedded in this text. And so as we go
into our message this morning, you be looking for these doctrines
as we try to explain and give an exposition of this verse. Now the words of our Lord Jesus
Christ are full of truth and grace. They are spirit and they
are life. John 1 and verse 16 says, and
of his fullness have all we received, and grace for grace. And verse
17 says, for the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth
came by Jesus Christ. He is the embodiment of all truth
and all grace, and of his fullness, if we're believers, have we all
received grace for grace. Now, beloved, in each of these
two sentences that make up this verse, John 6 and 37, whether
we can see it or not, there is the sweetest truth, the surest
truth, and the freest grace presented unto us as the Lord's people.
Now, brother, sister, here is what the old prophets, the old
preachers, called high doctrine. High doctrine. Here is the security
of the everlasting covenant. Here is the purpose of God effectually
carried out. Here is truth which we love,
and here is the grace of God in which we, as the Lord's living
family, glory. Now you that love to hear the
gospel of the grace of God preached to sinners, I want you never
to be afraid of the doctrines of grace. Because none, hear
me, would ever be saved if it was not for sovereign grace. If it was not for the doctrine
of election, there would never be one soul that would be in
glory. No, not one of the sons of Adam
would ever be in heaven without the doctrine of God's elective
grace. And so those of you that love
the Word of God, don't be afraid of the doctrines of grace. Because
as they're expounded and as they're taught, it'll be clearly revealed
that none can be saved apart from God's purpose in Christ
Jesus, that eternal purpose which he purposed in him. So let us
receive all truth and let us be willing to learn every lesson
which the Lord has written, remembering that if we cannot reconcile the
truth to our minds at this time, yet there is a promise that says,
what I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter.
And so if you're not able to reconcile in your mind the fact
that God must elect and choose the people, and that those people
must be represented by the Lord Jesus Christ, and that their
soul's need must be provided by Him. And if you're not able
to reconcile God's sovereignty in all of that, then my friend,
just wait, just wait, it'll be revealed to you. But do not fight
against the doctrines of God's grace. If any man, the Bible
says, will know the doctrine, If any man wills to do my will,
he'll know the doctrine, whether it be of God or whether or not
it be of man. So let us consider this morning
this text in a very simple way. Now in the first sentence we
have this statement, All that the Father giveth me shall come
to me. And I want to bring out, if I
can, the meaning of this. And the first thing that I would
call to your attention is that the Lord Jesus leads us back
here in this verse to the original position of all things. He leads us back to the original
position of all things. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians
5 and verse 18, And all things are of God, who hath reconciled
us to himself by Jesus Christ. Now Jesus speaks of a people
given to him by the Father. So all who have been, all who
are being, all who will finally be saved were in the hand of
the Father originally. Originally, they were His people.
You see, the Father chose His family. The Father chose a bride
for His Son. The Father chose the temple that
the Holy Spirit would indwell. And so it should be, for He,
God, has fashioned all things for Himself. and he made them
for his will and for his pleasure. Now God absolutely considered,
created all things, and his kingdom rooted over all. I mentioned
earlier that all are his servants, and you serve God's purpose if
you're in God's world. You're here this morning, you
say, I am no willing servant of God. You say, I'm not here,
preacher, to serve God, but to serve myself. I have every intention
to live out my days and do exactly what I think I ought to do with
them. My friend, let me tell you that
even in your obstinance and even in your rebellion against God,
you are God's servant and you are serving his purpose and his
cause. For some reason, God gave you
breath and God put you in this world. God has created all things
for His pleasure and for His will. He being the sovereign
of the universe that He is, He has a right to make laws, to
issue rewards, and to threaten with punishments at His own good
pleasure. He is God. He sits upon no precarious
throne. nor borrows leave to be. His
judgments are just. Whatever God wills to do, purposes
to do, and finally brings to pass is absolutely just and holy. It's after wise and holy counsel. And so however God is pleased
to use you, My friend, it'll be right, because it'll be God's
way. But oh, that we might all be
vessels of mercy, chosen of God to experience the free favor
and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ in the forgiveness and the cleansing
away of our sins. Oh, that there would not be one
of us that would be fueled for the eternal fires of the judgment
of God that will be upon the wicked forever and ever. Now
he can do what he will with his own. The Lord is sovereign. He
can do what he will with any man. He can do what he will.
He can draw his heart into himself with cords of love. Or he can
bring that sinner to face his righteous judgment and sentence
him and send him away forever and ever. cast him into outer
darkness. The elect, I believe, were especially
in the hand of the Father because He chose them. While all men
are His servants and while all belong to Him, He said, all souls
of mine, the elect were especially in His hand because He chose
them. to a purpose of bliss and blessing
and to everlasting joy. And he said, you've not chosen
me, but I have chosen you. The Bible says in Ephesians 1-4,
according as he has chosen us in him before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before
him in love. I'm showing you that the elect
are especially in God's hands. And when those people that He
chose, He gave them to the Son, they were His first. They belonged
to Him. And they only existed as far
as the purpose of God is concerned in the mind of the Father before
they were ever given to the Son. Thanks, the Bible says in 2 Thessalonians
2 and verse 13. Always to God for you. the beginning God hath from the
beginning chosen you to salvation and the belief of the truth I
thank thee said the Lord Jesus in Matthew chapter father Lord of heaven and earth
because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and Father for so it seemed good
in thy sight now the elect them creator, as governor, and as
the source and the fountain of election. They belonged to the
Father. Oh, how often do we forget the
part which the Father had in our salvation. We forget all
about it. And yet He's the very basis and the prompter of it
all. All the blessings that we have
in Christ, God is the basis and the prompter of it. He chose
us. He was our Father in Heaven and through our Lord Jesus Christ. And though He undertook for our
cause, yet it was because the Father first of all, out of His
great love, gave you to the Son. And the poet said, "'Twas an
everlasting love that God His own elect embraced, before he
made the worlds above, or earth, on her huge columns placed. Long
ere the sun's refugiant ray, premeable shades of darkness
drove, they on his sacred bosom lay, loved with an everlasting
love." God loved his people. He chose them. And the next thing
the Savior points out to us in this text is that he proceeds
to inform us of a great transaction that took place in eternity.
And he says that the father gave his people to him. All that the father giveth me
shall come to me. He said the father made a presentation
of these people that he had chosen, he made a presentation of them
unto him. And forever placed them into
the hands of Christ, the God-man mediator. He received the people
from the hands of the Father. Now beloved, you can read very
carefully in your own time, John chapter 17, and you will notice
over and over again this transaction mentioned in the high priestly
prayer of the Lord Jesus Christ. Here was the Father's condescension
in even noticing us at all and bestowing us upon the Son. Here
was the Son's infinite mercy and compassion in accepting such
poor souls as we are at the Father's hand and counting us to be precious,
precious souls, precious jewels, even His portion. The Lord Jesus
portion is His people, and those people were given to Him by the
Father. Now the persons referred to as
being given by the Father are not all men. They're not all
men without exception. Now it is true that the Lord
Jesus Christ in His meditatorial office has been given power over
all flesh. He said, Thou hast given me power
over all flesh that I might give eternal life to them which Thou
hast given unto me. We must always interpret one
passage of Scripture by another. Notice verse 39. where it says,
and this is the Father's will which has sent me that of all
which he has given me I should lose nothing but should raise
it up at the last day. The Lord Jesus said there was
a transaction took place and those that the Father had chosen
he gave them unto me. They're mine, he gave them unto
me. unto me, and I will represent
them faithfully, I will represent them completely and entirely,
I will see to it that they shall lack nothing, whereby they shall
be holy and without blame before the Eternal Father in that day
when they are presented to Him. I am their representative. I will supply their need. I will
redeem them. I will save them. They are my
people. And so the given ones, it is
clear, are by appointment delivered from being lost and appointed
to that glorious resurrection which is not true of any of the
rest but just the chosen. Now in John 10 and 27 the scripture
said, My sheep Hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow
me, and I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish.
And this is not clear yet in your mind about this transaction. There's one verse in that 17th
of John that I want to read to you. That's verse 6. Jesus said,
I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me
out of the world. Thine they were, and thou gavest
them me, and they have kept thy word." So we see then that there
was a time when the eternal God gave into the hands of the Son
a multitude which no man can number, whom he had chosen from
among men to be his choice and peculiar treasure. Now this happened
in the past. This happened before the skies
were stretched out. This happened before the mountains
ever lifted their heads to the clouds. This happened in ancient
eternity. This happened before the foundation
of the world was ever laid. These people were given unto
the Lord Jesus. We are by the words of this text
admitted into one of the secrets of the divine council chamber
and witnessed the one chosen, belonging to the Father, transferred
by him into the hands of the mediator, our Savior, the lover
of our souls, our substitute, even the Lord Jesus Christ. Now that's the second thing that
we see and what we want to see here is and try to understand
the meaning of this text. Now the third thing is that Jesus
assures us that this transaction in eternity, that it involves
a certain change in time. And that very clearly is brought
out. All that the Father giveth me shall come to me. It assures us that this transaction
in eternity involves a certain change in time. Now, some are
7, 8, 9, 10 years old, some are 30, some are 40, some are 50,
60, 70, whatever. But they're living in sin. But
ere long, I'm talking about these that the Father chose. I'm talking
about these that were transferred into the hands of the Son. But
ere they die, ere their time comes to leave this world, ere
that time comes when their life is over here in this world, Beloved,
they shall come to die, they shall be brought to Christ. Ere
that happens, they shall be brought, they shall come to Christ. Now
to come to Christ signifies to turn from sin and to trust Christ. Now coming to Christ is a leaving
of all false confidences and a renouncing of all love to sin
and a looking to the Lord Jesus as the solitary pillar of our
confidence and our hope. Now every soul whom God the Father
gave to Jesus must do this. It is imperative that they do
this. And this is the token by which
the secretly chosen ones are known. They openly choose Christ
because the Father has secretly chosen them. They openly choose
the Lord Jesus Christ. And they come. Now listen, you
can never know And I want you to make a note of this in your
mind if nowhere else. You can never know your election
of God any other way or by any other means except you openly
choose the Lord Jesus Christ and you come to Him with all
of your heart. That you're not one of His sheep
will be proved by your continuance in unbelief, but if humbly and
hopefully you come to Jesus and make Him to be all your salvation
and all your desire, my friend, let no doctrine of election alarm
you or keep you back. You're one of His, for this is
the seal which He sets upon His sheep. And in due time they hear
his voice and are led by him into green pastures of grace. They follow him through life
and are brought by him at last to the hilltops of glory. At
last they will be brought to Christ and then brought home
to glory in the end. Now the hymn writer said it like
this, and so listen to these words. There is a period known
to God. when all his sheep, redeemed
by blood, shall leave the hateful ways of sin, and turn to the
fold, and enter in. At peace with hell, with God
at war, in sin's dark maze they wander far. indulge their lust
and still go on as far from God as sheep can run. But see how
heaven's indulgent care attends their wanderings here and there,
still hard at heel wherever they stray, with pricking thorns to
hedge their way. Glory to God, they ne'er shall
rove beyond the limits of His love. Fence with Jehovah's shalls
and wills, firm as the everlasting hills. The appointed time rolls
on apace, not to propose, but called by grace to change the
heart, renew the will, and turn the feet to Zion's hill. Now,
beloved, that's exactly the change that will take place. It must
take place in the heart of the elect of God. They must come
to the Lord Jesus Christ and believe on Him and trust Him. Now, the next thing I see in
this text is, fourthly, in the words of Jesus here there is
a hint at power possessed by Him to constrain these sheep
to come to Him. And that, of course, embraces
the doctrine of effectual call. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. Oh, the power and the majesty
which rest in the words shall come. He does not say they may
come if they will, but they shall There is no if, no but, no peradventure,
no condition. It is put down as an unconditional
and absolute purpose of God and will of Christ that all whom
the Father gave to Him shall come to Him. Now we do not mean
to say that any soul is ever dragged to heaven by the ear
or that anybody is dragged by the hair of their head into heaven. That's not what we mean at all.
We mean nothing of the kind. We mean that Jehovah Jesus knows
how. by irresistible arguments addressed
to the understanding of the sheep, by mighty reasons appealing to
the affections, and by the mysterious influence of His Holy Spirit
operating upon the powers and passions of the soul, so to subdue
the whole man, that whereas it was once rebellious, it becomes
obedient, It throws down the weapons of its rebellion and
submits and yields, subdued by sovereign grace, by sovereign
love. The invincible artillery of the
love of Christ, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word
of God, brings the soul to Christ, being born again, not of corruptible
seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth
and abideth forever. All flesh is as grass, and all
the glory of man is the flower of the grass. The grass withereth,
and the flower thereof fadeth away, but the word of the Lord
shall endure forever. God through the word will subdue
the hearts of his people and he will bring them unto himself.
He has the power to do it. Jesus said you've given me power
over all flesh that I can give eternal life to as many as you've
given to me. Is that not a hint? Am I going
out on a limb here? Is that not a hint that God shall
bring his own people unto himself? Now listen to this, somebody
said, well yeah, but you see, you're a Calvinistic persuasion.
Well, what about those who are Arminian persuasion? Preacher,
I mean, they may not agree with what you're saying here or in
your interpretation of the text, but I want to read one of your
champions. one of the Armenian champions, John Wesley. And you
listen to what he said about this very truth that I'm presenting. He said in this poem, he said,
Arm of God, thy strength put on, bow the heavens and come
down. All my unbelief overthrow. Lay thy aspiring mountain low. Conquer thy worst foe in me. Get thyself the victory. Save the vilest of the race. Force me to be saved by grace. That's what old John Wesley said. That is an Armenian that made
that particular statement. Now, there is an influence then
put forth by the Holy Spirit which makes men and women, boys
and girls, willing in the day of God's power. Now we're helpless
to do anything to help you. We just simply present the truth
of God to you, and you're a living soul in God's world, and God
is at work in the hearts of men and women, boys and girls, to
move their hearts toward Him. And if you ever come, we shall
give God the glory, we shall give God the praise, we shall
honor the Lord. It's God's work in the saving
of sinners, and we understand that. Now the fifth thing that
I see in trying to explain this text here that I love, but I've
never really preached on it like I am this morning, I want to
say that the Savior declares that there is no exception to
this rule of grace. No exception. They shall come. Oh, let the devil do his worst. Let the human will do its utmost,
they shall, they shall, I say in obedience to divine decree,
be brought to the foot of the cross to cry, what must I do
to be saved? No exception, they will be brought.
All, not some of them, not all but one or two, but each one
in particular and the whole collectively, they shall all be brought. to
the Lord Jesus Christ. It will be found when the archangel's
trumpet shall ring through earth and heaven that every soul whom
God ordained to eternal life has attained that eternal life
to his praise and honor and when the census shall be read of all
the children of the living God. When the census is taken as to
who's in the family of God and whether they're present or not
not one of the blood-washed from shall be absent. They shall all
come to Christ in heaven as they shall come to Christ on earth. Is that all right? They shall
all come to Christ in heaven as they shall come to Christ
on earth. Next, then, I want you to see
something about God's liberality in this text, especially in the
second sentence of the text. Him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. Then, first of all, I want to
talk just a little bit about the liberality here of the character,
him that cometh. Now, there's no description given,
whatever, of this individual, except it's him that cometh. It means the rich man, I suppose,
and the poor man, the great man, the obscure man, the odd man,
the moral man, those who have sunken into the worst of sin
and crimes, and those who have risen to the best of virtues,
those who are next of kin to devils, and I suppose those who
by carefulness and correctness of life are somewhat like angels. All it says is him Him that cometh. What Him, says John Bunyan? Well,
he says in answering his own question, any Him in the world
that comes to Christ shall not be cast out. Him that cometh. To come, as I said earlier, is
to leave something and go to something. There is motion of
the soul. We leave all other grounds of
trust and we take Christ to be our solitary hope. That's what
it means to come to Christ. We come to his blood to be washed,
to his righteousness to be clothed, to his wounds to be healed, to
his life for life eternal, and to his death for the death of
our sin. We come to Jesus for everything
and the promise is that those who thus come shall not be cast
out. Well, someone says, I suppose,
just suppose, preacher, that one should come who is guilty
of murder, or one should come who has committed some crime
of uncleanness that's impossible to describe. Suppose he has wallowed
in such filth and sin year after year until he's not fit to be
touched but with a pair of tongs. Say that he is such a sinner,
such a vile, black, wretched sinner that he's only fit to
be swept into some back corner in hell. Say that he's just a
worthless, he's scum of the earth. Then what then? What then? If he should come, what then?
What then? Well, if he comes to Christ,
he will not be cast out. Him that cometh, it shuts out
no comer. I mean, if you get there, it
does not shut you out. John Newton was a blasphemer
of so gross a kind that the sailors in the ship, in a bad storm,
said, we will never make it to port as long as this vile John
Newton is on board. We'll not make it. We'll never
get to port. God is surely going to destroy
this ship, but John Newton, listen to me, he came to Christ. There
was a time when he came to Christ and he was not cast out but he
lived to preach the gospel until after he was 80 years old and
he lived to write such glorious hymns and we rejoiced to sing
them Amazing Grace being one of the choice hymns that he wrote.
But one day he was a vile and wretched profane swearer and
he was a great sinner. Now John Bunyan was also such
a blasphemer and profane swear that even a woman of the streets
passed him one day and heard him swear and said, John Bunyan,
you're bad enough to corrupt the whole neighborhood. You'll
ruin everybody in this neighborhood by your swearing and by your
blaspheming. And John Bunyan was astonished
that a woman of such character and reputation should rebuke
him. But I'll tell you what happened.
John Bunyan came to Jesus. He came to the Lord Jesus Christ
and he was not cast out. And he lived to have the honor
of suffering. for the Lord Jesus Christ. He
lived to go to prison for year after year. Became a loyal and
devout soldier of the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. And they
offered him liberty to leave the prison if he would not preach
the gospel. He said, I'll stay here in this
prison until the moss grows over my eyes. I will preach the moment
I'm let out of this prison. And he lived to write Pilgrim's
Progress. But there was a day when a woman
of the street rebuked him because he was such a swearer, such a
curser, such a blasphemer of God. Saul of Tarsus had stained
himself with the blood of the saints of God. Saul of Tarsus
stood while they stoned Holy Stephen to death, the first martyr
of the church. He stood and held the coats of
those that stoned Stephen, that mighty man in prayer, that deacon
that loved Christ. And then there came a day when
God struck him down on the road to Damascus. This man not only
wanted liberty to arrest the people of God where he lived,
but he wanted papers so he could go everywhere in the known world
at that time and hail men and women that believed on Christ
and put them to the death. persecute the church of God.
And there was a day when he was struck down on the road to Damascus
by the divine spirit and work of God and he came to Christ
and he was not cast out. He was never cast out. And old
Manassas was blood red with the murder of God's prophets. It
is said that he cut the prophet Isaiah in two with a sword, with
a saw. He sawed him in two. Manassas
dead. And when out of the low dungeon,
Manassas cried unto God for mercy. You know what happened? The Lord
had mercy on him, and God delivered him. I'm telling you that if
you can get to Christ, if you can get to Christ, If you can
come to Christ, I'm telling you that he'll forgive your sin and
he will not cast you out. Now every man, woman, boy, girl
under the sound of my voice in this building is included in
this promise if he can come to the Lord Jesus Christ. If He
can come to Christ for life, if He can come to Christ for
righteousness, if He can come to Christ that in order that
He might be represented by Him and that God will look upon you
as He looks upon Him now throughout eternity. Well, that is the point,
my friend. If you can come to Christ, no
matter what your past character may have been, nor what your
present feelings may be, Him that cometh to me, I will in
no wise cast out. To me, he says. To me. We must come to Jesus. Now, that's
not coming to the baptismal pool. It's not coming to the Lord's
table. It's not coming to the church
for membership. Him that cometh to me. Take heed,
my friend, that you do not come elsewhere. Come to Christ. For if you rest short of anything
but Christ, you rest short of the promise here given. Now the
next thing I want to say just a little bit about is the duration
of the promise. He says, I will not I will never,
never, according to the original, cast thee out. I'll never cast
you out. If you come to me, to me. Now the Lord Jesus is able to
save to the uttermost all that come unto God by him, because
he ever liveth to make intercession for them. To me, to me. Now the
duration and the promise is this, once in Christ, in Christ forever,
nothing from his love can sever. That is, what this means is,
no wise cast out. I want you to get this, especially
you young converts, because some of you, possibly the devil's
already assailed you, possibly the devil's already, in some
way or another, tried to divert you and turn you away from your
hope in Christ. He's attacked you, and I remember
very well when I was first saved, I remember a lady in the church,
well there was a man and a woman in the church and they were the
boss of the church and so on. And she was quite able to be
the voice of the church, she really was. But anyway, they
had two boys, and those two boys professed to be Christians, but
they were mean as snakes, and wild, as the old preacher said,
as jackrabbits, and you just had, you just, there's nothing
Christian about them, nothing whatsoever. And so one day I
was listening to them talk and curse and swear and I called
them down and I said, well now wait a minute, God saved me and
He took that out of me. The Lord said, He delivered me
from that, how can you be a Christian and keep on talking and swearing
like that? And they went and told their
mama. And so their mama, she got on me and said, now if you
were a Christian, if you, now I was just saved, I hadn't been
saved but just a week. And she said, if you were a Christian,
you wouldn't be saying anything to my sweet little boys. But
them boys were 15, 13 years old, I mean they were old enough to
know better. But anyway, the devil got after me in a hurry
to try to make me think I wasn't saved because I'd been critical,
you see, of somebody else. And so the devil has his way
of putting it to you. And I want you this morning to
know that if you come to Jesus, if you come to Him, this is the
promise. This is the promise. For no reason,
under no circumstances, at no time, under no condition, whatever,
the Lord said, I'll receive Him, I'll save Him, I'll bless Him,
and I will not cast him out. You say, but preacher, maybe
I haven't repented enough. Have you come to Jesus? He said,
I'll not cast you out. You say, I don't think I pray
enough, preacher. You may not, but have you come
to Jesus? He'll not cast you out. He will
not cast. You say, I'm awful weak, preacher.
Well, join the crowd. All by nature, we're all weak
in and of ourselves. The only strength we have is
in the Lord our God. and his strength is everlasting
but I will say this to you in no wise under any circumstances
will he cast you out and everybody here could find some reason every
believer in this building and you that are older in the faith
you tell me if this is not so and you should speak up if this
is not so there's not a believer in this building that has been
saved for any length of time that could not offer one reason
why God should not cast them out Every one of us has got a
reason, haven't we? We could say, Lord, you should
cast us out for this. You should cast us out for that.
But he said, in no wise will I cast them out. I'm not going
to do it. Well, now after making this promise,
how could the Lord cast you out? In consistency with his truthfulness,
how could he cast you out? I imagine Christ making this
declaration, giving to us this inspired scripture, Him that
cometh to me I will in no wise cast out, and yet casting out
somebody, somebody, I don't know who the somebody, even some unknown
somebody, casting them out. It would be a lie, wouldn't it?
He said, in no wise will I cast out somebody that gets to me,
somebody that comes to me. The scripture would be broken,
wouldn't it? Do not suppose our Lord to be guilty of such conduct
as that. Our Lord will never cast you
out. He could do as he liked. Now
you listen to me now. I'm driving a nail here. You
listen to me. He could do as he liked about
whom he would receive until he made the promise. And after he
made the pledge, after he gave his word, he bound himself by
the veracity of his nature to keep it. Am I right? He bound
himself. He said, I will not cast you
out. And so whatever else you worry about, that's one thing
you can give up worrying about, honey. You can give it up. He
said, I will not cast you out. What would such a supposition
involve? That he would give up or that
he would cast out somebody who had come to him. If he were to
cast away, if the Lord was to cast away one who came to him
and I found it out, I would never ever be able to preach again.
Never ever. I'd be done with the business
of preaching altogether. If one promise failed, than the
others more than likely would too. Would you agree with that?
You say, Preacher, that's logic, but it's truth. If one promise
failed, then the others more than likely would too. And I
could not preach a doubtful gospel. All the saints would lose their
confidence in Him if it could be proven that He cast out some
weak sheep. Somebody that just simply did
not measure up to the preacher or didn't measure up to the church.
But they were a sheep, but he cast them out. All the saints
would lose their confidence in him. It would do no good for
him to say, I am generally truthful. Wouldn't do any good. Wouldn't
do a bit of good. Wouldn't encourage me any for
the Lord to say, I am generally a man of my word. I'm a God of
my word. I'm generally. Won't work. Won't work. If he's not true
to his word at all times, he would never be trusted by his
people again. We have enough trouble trusting
like it is, don't we? And yet he's never failed. Not
one time. His word never failed. And yet,
and he can't lie. And yet we have enough trouble
believing him. But what happens if you were to find out that
he had lied? Or that he had told something
that was untrue? Then, my friend, you could not.
But, beloved, that can never be. It is as sure as God's oath,
as certain as Jehovah's being, that he who comes to Christ shall
in no wise be cast out. And I, this morning, gladly bear
my own witness to you. And before this group here this
morning, I'd like to say that I came to Jesus as I was, weary
worn and sad. I found in him a resting place
and he has made me glad. The real true solid joy of soul
that I have is due to promises just like John 6 37 we've been
going over this morning. Now we went over this verse in
detail We've tried to ferret out its meaning. We've tried
to lay it before you. May God be pleased to own what
has been said. May it be strengthening. May
it be encouraging. May it be used of the Spirit
of God to bring some poor soul to a place of assurance. To bring
some poor soul where they'll cast themselves wholly upon the
Lord, not fearing that He shall ever, ever cast them out. May
God bless this morning. Father, in the name of Jesus,
would you bless this word to our hearts and would you give
us the understanding, Lord, of these things, even in this life,
that we might be strong in the Lord and the power of his might,
we might be useful instruments to the glory and praise of God. I pray it in his name. Amen.