Good evening. I hardly recognize myself these
days, Clare. I mean, I've walked by the mirror,
and who's looking at me? All right, let's turn to John
chapter 6. John chapter six, we're going
to look just at one verse. That'll be verse 37. I'll read it and then we'll get
the context of the verse, and I'll give you the title after
I read the verse. John six, verse 37. All that the father giveth me
shall come to me. And him that cometh to me, I
will in no wise cast out." I've titled this, Christ Receiveth
Sinners, The Gospel Promise. And this verse has lifted me
up many times because contained in it we have the gospel call,
come to Christ. And in it we have the gospel
promise, all who come, he will receive. And that's a precious
promise to me. And the context of this verse
is where the Jews, everybody had just been fed, 5,000 had
been fed. And the Jews were seeking Christ
to see more miracles, and they were seeking him for the wrong
reason. So he turns around here in verse
37, and he comes right back at them. In verse 36, he said, You
have seen me and believe not. And then he tells them who will
believe. all that the Father giveth me, the elect, and they
shall come to me." And that's the same gospel message that's
through the whole Bible. Hold your finger there, and let's
turn over to Psalm chapter 9 real quick and look at one verse,
then we'll turn right back to where we're at. But that's been the
gospel message through the whole Bible. In every scripture, we
have come to Christ. Psalm chapter 9, verse 10. And they that know thy name will
put their trust in thee. For thou, Lord, hast not forsaken
them that seek thee. There it is right there, the
last part of that verse. Anyone who seeks Christ, anyone who
comes to Christ, he will not forsake. He will receive. And
that's just what we're reading here in John 6, verse 37. And
this is carried out by all three persons of the Godhead by grace,
salvation by grace. We have the father giving a people
and electing grace. We have Christ receiving a people
through his mercy and loving kindness and redeeming grace
and justifying grace. And we have a sinner coming to
Christ, which is the work of the spirit and sanctifying grace,
giving a sinner a new heart that would come to Christ. So we have
the work of all three persons of the Godhead in the scripture,
and the scripture sums it up like this. Salvation is of the
Lord. From beginning to end, the Father, the Son, the Spirit.
And I want to look at just three parts of the verse. We'll look
at all the Father gives, the sinner coming to Christ, and
Christ receiving. Let's start with Father giving
the people. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. This is known as election. We all know that. But sometimes
we hear it. And we know it, and we know what
the guy is getting ready to say, and we don't pay too much attention
to it. Let's move on to something else.
I know this. I know he elected a people, but don't become indifferent
to this truth of election. It's the foundation of the gospel. Father, electing a people and
giving them to Christ to save. If God did not choose a people
to save, there would not be one person saved. That's why he elected
the people. save himself. Man can only be
saved by someone else, and that's God electing people in Christ
and saving them. We're unable to save ourselves.
It's just like somebody that cannot swim being thrown out
in the middle of the ocean. They flop around. They beat the
water. They scream. They try their hardest.
They're going to drown and die unless somebody reaches down
and rescues them. And that's our state. We're unable to save
ourselves. We try our best. We pray. We work. We try this. We do that. We feel this. We feel that. We
try our best. We're still going to drown in our sins and die
unless the Father reaches down and picks us up and places us
in Christ. And that's what election is about.
And that's why it's such good news that he would do that for
sinners. So we're going to look at Ephesians
chapter one. Of course, that's a familiar
chapter. Once again, it's familiar, but
let's not become too familiar with it. hear the same chapter for election
all the time, and sometimes we know what he's getting ready
to say, we know the verse he's getting ready to read, and we kind of
go through it in our head, and we don't listen as God's speaking
through a man up here, you know, through the power of God, through
his Spirit. So even though you've probably
read this verse, and a lot of these verses over and over and
over, it's new every time, if God would bless it and bring
it in power. And so, I want to read verse
four. When did he elect this people?
Verse four says, according as he had chosen us in Christ, in
him, before the foundation of the world. Before the world was
formed, before anything was formed, God chose a people in Christ,
in the covenant of grace, and Christ agreed to save that people.
That's when it was done. There's nothing else that needs
to be said. There's no other argument that needs to be laid
out there. It's right there in the Word of God. Well, why did He elect? Why did He give a people to Christ?
Well, down in verse 5, "...having predestinated us unto the adoption
of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good
pleasure of His will." He wanted to. He felt like he's sovereign.
He can do as he pleases. It was his will to do this. And
verse six said to the praise of the glory of his grace. It
makes his grace shine forth, he's full of love and kindness
and choosing sinners in Christ, and it sets forth his grace in
election. And is election vital to salvation
by grace? I know. And Todd speaks on every
time it's a blessing, but and people wonder, is it that vital? Well, yes, it is, because grace
is no more pure grace if one work is mixed in with it. So
if God did not choose man. Then man would have to choose
God, and that would place man's hand in the work of salvation,
which would corrupt grace, and there would be no more grace,
and there could be no salvation by grace. It has to be God from
beginning to end in all his work. There's no middle ground. There's
no neutral ground. It's 100% grace or 100% works. And if it's in God's hands, it's
100% grace. And that's how I want it. And
that's how I like it to be. And that's how it is, whether
you like it or not. That's how it is. All right,
let's turn back to our scripture in John chapter six. So we see that the father gave
and elect people to Christ and they will come to Christ. And
next, we have and him that cometh to me. This is a sinner coming
to Christ. Now, him can be a her, can be
all, can be whomsoever, any sinner that comes to Christ, he will
receive. And this is a message for unbelievers
and believers. Unbelievers, if you do not trust
Christ, come to Christ. Believers trust in Christ, we
need new faith every day. First Peter two verse four says
to whom coming. It's a continual process. Don't
sit on your laurels and think you have good faith and you you're
up there and you don't need to come to Christ daily. We come
to him daily. Now, and lots of times, well,
what does what does that mean to come to Christ? And sometimes
I know I mess it up a little bit when you start to try and
explain something. Kim will ask me something and
I'll start explaining and I'll go in circles. I'll ramble on. And we both wind up worse than
what we were when we first started. The best answer is the answer
with Scripture in all matters. If you look up two verses in
verse 35, here's what it is to come to Christ. And Jesus said
unto them, I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall
never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst." To
come to Christ is to believe on Christ. It's simply to trust,
rely, to lean up on Him, and to be satisfied with what He
did. And that's to come to Christ.
And coming to Christ for salvation is faith. That's faith, coming
to Christ. Now, how do we receive faith?
Romans 10 verse 17 says, so then faith cometh by hearing and hearing
by the word of God. And just like Claire said before
we started here, this preaching of the gospel is how God saves
sinners. And everyone in this room was
going on our merry little way in this world, in our religion,
until the Lord reached down, God of providence, and put us
under this man in this pulpit. You know, thanks be to God for
such a faithful pastor that we have. And, you know, people wonder
how I can get up here without college or seminary or anything
like that. Well, I've sat under Todd for the last 10 years and
infused and I've heard the gospel and God has taught me through
Todd. And that's the best seminary you can have is being taught
of God. I don't want any other teacher.
I want him to teach me. And I just we need to be thankful for Todd.
We sure do. Now, when you come to Christ,
when you say coming, it implies action. Like if somebody says,
come over Saturday evening, we'll do this, we'll do that. Well,
when you come over somewhere, you leave somewhere and you go
somewhere. If Saturday night comes around
and I stay at my house and. He's told me to come over and
I just sit there. Well, that's not going to do much good. That's
that's not coming where you're supposed to go if you don't.
It's hard to get somewhere if you don't leave where you're at.
So and it's not a physical. This coming to Christ is not
a physical act of your body. It's not like the Jews where
they were seeking Christ. They physically followed him.
They physically saw him, but they did not believe in him.
Coming to Christ is not a physical act of coming from the top row
of Billy Graham's crusade, going through the thousands of people
and going up on the stage and getting a book from him and going
on your Christian way. That's not coming to Christ.
Coming to Christ is not going to a Benny Hinn convention and
him smacking you on the forehead and you falling on the back and
getting up and coming to him and giving your testimony. That's
not coming to Christ. Coming to Christ is a spiritual
act of the heart. And you leave any hope of self-salvation
and you turn to Christ alone for all your salvation. That's
coming to Christ. You place the burden on Him and
you leave it there. That's coming to Christ. You
leave your self-righteous words and deeds and you trust the righteousness
of Christ alone. That's coming to Christ. And
this could be a hang up to some believers because they desire
to please God and they want to work works acceptable to him,
but no sooner than he gives grace for this to do something, we
take pride in it. And we look back on it a couple
of days later to draw, you know, to try and draw assurance from
these works and our great faith and whatever that now that's
not coming to Christ. Anything that draws the believer's
eye off of Christ is unbelief. We are to look to Christ alone
and always. And if you're looking away, you're
trusting or drawing assurance from something other than the
shed blood and righteousness of Christ. And if God is pleased
with Christ and will accept Christ, shouldn't we be pleased with
Christ and accept Him? If God's pleased with Him, I know I'm
pleased with Him. That's the only way it can be. Well, why? Why should I come to Christ?
You know, I'm unable to, I'm spiritually dead, I can't. Well, let's turn to 1 John chapter
3, and we'll read one verse here. 1 John 3, and we're talking about why we should come
to Christ. And it's verse 23. 1 John 3, 23. And this is His
commandment, that we should believe on the name of His Son, Jesus
Christ, and love one another as He gave His commandment. That's
why we come to Christ, because He commands us to come to Christ
and believe on Him. Believe on the name of son, Jesus
Christ, and we've already seen we're coming to Christ is believing
on Christ. And believing on Christ is the commandment of God. And
if He commands you to come to Christ, you come to Christ. You
don't sit there and worry how or when or where. He gives the
command. He gives the power. You can come
to Christ in faith. Now, we have no problem obeying
the authority of man. We pay our taxes. We obey civil laws.
We send our kids to school to the best of our ability to obey
civil laws. Why can't we obey the law of
God, the commandment of God? Simply believe on Christ. Trust
his son. Well, when? Believing on Christ. When should I come to Christ?
Right now. There's no reason sitting in
that pew during a worship service that we cannot come to Christ
and rely on him in faith. And we meet for worship services
and some wonder, well, how do I worship? What is worship? How
do I worship God? Nothing gives God more glory
praise and honor than a sinner falling at Jesus's feet in faith,
trusting him alone to save you. That's how we worship God. We
trust Christ. We trust his son alone for our
salvation. All right, now we've looked at
the father giving a people an election. We've seen a sinner
coming to Christ and we've seen that coming to Christ is to believe
on him, to rely on him. And now here's the gospel promise
that I wanted to to key on in this message. The last part of
the verse. And him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast
out. Christ receives all who come
to him. That's the promise of the scripture
is the promise of the gospel. All that the father gives me
shall come to me. All is a big number. Genesis
15 five when God was telling Abraham to count the stars, if
you'd be able to. That's the number that your seed
shall be. That's the number of the elect.
You know, it's a large number, this word all. And it's a promise. Come to me, I will receive you.
And Christ cannot go back on a promise. He's holy. He cannot
lie. If he says it in his word and
a sinner comes to Christ for salvation, he will receive you. That's that's the gospel promise.
And that's the good news. I want to look at some of the
promises of salvation through the scriptures to show that the
Lord has never once failed. And these promises of salvation,
he gives more than I could ever cover. I'm just going to cover
five or six, look at them real quick, read them and show that
God gives a promise that something will happen. And then it happens.
It comes to pass. It always is promised and it
always comes to pass. And as the word is written, that
is exactly how it will be. And that's the shalls and the
wills of the scripture. The Lord says it shall be and
it will be. It's a guarantee. It's a promise.
And any sinner who comes to Christ, he will receive. He will not
turn away. He cannot turn away anyone who
comes to Christ because they are holy in Christ. They're righteous
in Christ. They're complete in Christ. And
we've become this way through union. with Christ. And union
with Christ is when two become one. So they share everything.
And as he's viewed, I'm viewed. And so how do I become united
with Christ? Back to 1st John 3. I was meant
to have you hold your finger there, but. 1st John, Chapter 3. How do I
become one with Christ? How do I become united with Christ? Verse 24. 1 John 3, verse 24, And he that
keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him. And he in him, and hereby
we know that he abideth in us by the spirit which he hath given
us. The first part of that verse puts it right here. He that keepeth
his commandments dwelleth in him, is united to him. What's
his commandment? Up in verse 23. Believe on the
name of his son, Jesus Christ. Faith unites us to Christ. believing and coming to Christ,
you're then united to Christ. And then as he is, so are you.
That's that's how we're united to Christ through faith. That's
right there in that verse. Keep his commandment and he dwells
in him and he and him and his commandment is to believe on
the name of his son, Jesus Christ. So, let's look at some of these
promises. I've got them in order so we
won't have to flip around too much. And we'll start in Genesis
chapter 22. We'll look at some of these promises
in assurity. And by assurity, I mean that
God promised it. Therefore, it must come to pass.
He makes a promise and it comes to pass. Genesis 22. Familiar passage, but I'm just
going to look at a couple of verses in each of them and show
that he gives a promise and then it comes to pass and that he
cannot fail in his promises. Genesis 22, we read in verse
8, And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb
for a burnt offering. Look in verse 13, And Abraham
lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him a ram
caught in his thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took
the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering, in the stead
of his son. Verse 8, he promises a ram. Verse
13, he provides a lamb. And it's whatever he promises,
he gives. Exodus chapter 12. Exodus 12, starting at verse
12. This is the Passover blood. Verse 12, for I will pass through
the land of Egypt this night and will smite all the firstborn
in the land of Egypt, both man and beast, and against all the
gods of Egypt, I will execute judgment. I am the Lord and the
blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where you are.
And when I see the blood, I will pass over you and the plague
shall not be upon you to destroy you. when I smite the land of
Egypt, and we'll read over in 29, and it came to pass that
at midnight the Lord smoked all the firstborn in the land of
Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sat on his throne
until the firstborn of the captive that was in the dungeon, and
all the firstborn of cattle. And Pharaoh rose up in the night,
he and all his servants, and all the Egyptians. And there
was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where there
was not one dead. And he called for Moses and Aaron
by night and said, Rise up and get you forth from among my people,
both ye and the children of Israel, and go serve the Lord as ye have
said. Verse 13, he gives the promise, When I see the blood,
I will pass over you. Verse 31, Ye and the children
of Israel go serve the Lord. Not one of the children of Israel
was lost. He passed over them all where
the blood was on the house. He promised salvation in the
blood, and everyone in Israel was passed over and was given
life. Numbers 21. Numbers chapter 21, we'll read
verses 8 and 9. And the Lord said unto Moses,
Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole, and it shall
come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh
upon it, shall live. And Moses made a serpent of brass,
and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent
had bitten any man, When he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived. Verse eight, he gives a promise.
Everyone is bitten when he looks up on the brass serpent shall
live. Verse nine is carried out. Any man that beheld the serpent
of brass, he lived. He promised it came to pass.
Second Kings. Second Kings, Chapter five. Verse 10. This is where Naaman had leprosy. Verse 10 says, And Elisha sent
a messenger unto him, saying, Go and wash in Jordan seven times,
and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean. Verse 14. Then when he down and
dipped himself seven times in Jordan, according to the saying
of the man of God, And his flesh came again like into the flesh
of a little child, and he was clean. Verse 10, he promises,
wash yourself in the Jordan seven times and you shall be clean.
Verse 14, he washes, he's clean. He promises, he gives, he cannot
fail. He carries out the promises.
We'll look at a couple examples in the New Testament. Matthew
chapter 8. There's many more, I'm just covering
five or six here to show that God's promise, what he promises
he will carry out. And because of this gospel promise
we have, him that cometh to me, I will know I was cast out. He
will carry it out. Matthew chapter eight. This is where the centurion's
son was sick and he asked the Lord to heal him. Verse 5, And when Jesus was entered
into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion, beseeching him,
and saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home, sick of the palsy,
grievously tormented. And Jesus saith unto him, I will
come and heal him. Verse 13, And Jesus said unto
the centurion, Go thy way, and as thou hast the lead, so be
it done unto thee. And his servant was healed in
a selfsame hour. Verse 13 said, It will be done
unto thee as thou hast believed. He will be healed. And at the
end of that verse, his servant was healed in the selfsame hour.
He promised he delivered. One more in Matthew chapter 9,
verse 27. And when Jesus departed thence,
two blind men followed him, crying and saying, Thou son of David,
have mercy on us. And when he was coming to the
house, the blind men came to him. And Jesus saith unto them,
Believe ye that I am able to do this. They said unto him,
Yea, Lord. Didn't touch to their eyes, saying,
according to your faith, be it unto you. And their eyes were
opened. Verse 29, be it unto you. Verse 30, their eyes were opened.
He promised to open their eyes. He touched them and their eyes
were opened. And that's the promise of salvation throughout the scriptures
is is everywhere. And that's that the verse that
we're looking at, John 6, 37, is another promise, just like
all these promises were given. and carried out, is carried out. So he's not going to put out
a promise like that, a tantalizing morsel to tell you to come and
he will receive you and then pull it away at the last second.
He doesn't play those silly games like we play. He says it and
it comes to pass. You come to Christ and he will
receive you. Any and all sinners that come
to Christ That's the promise, and that's the good news of the
gospel. And our problem is this natural
tendency in all of us. We take the pessimistic view
of things and even even scriptures. We just it's hard to believe
some of this for us. And the Spurgeon, he said this. The tendency of the awakened
mind is to dwell upon the dark side of God's word and feel the
full force of it and at the same time to neglect the brighter
portion of the record. and cast doubt upon it as though
it were too good to be true. This is folly. And I find I do
that. I know we're all the same. We
all have that problem. But it's not too good to be true
if God promised it. I mean, it's truth. He says,
come to me and I will not catch you out. And he cannot go back
on his promise. And this tendency towards the
negative, we carry it out every day. We kind of walk around depressed
with melancholy spirit and we moan over our sins. And rightfully
so, they're to be moaned over, but don't dwell on them all the
time and talk so often and easily about our bad motives and unbelief
and lack of love. Like we're telling somebody something
they don't already know. I know you're a sinner. You know
I'm a sinner. You know I have a problem with it. You have a
problem with it. We walk by faith and not by sight.
We feel sin. But the scripture says in Romans
6, 11, Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead, indeed
unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
His word says I'm dead to sin. I'm dead to sin. Christ paid
the price. And I'm dead indeed unto sin.
And I'm alive to God, and I have faith, and I can trust Christ.
And so that, the sin you feel at that present time as a believer,
it's been put away completely by what Christ did through his
death. And in believing that, and in
resting that, and looking to Christ, faith tells me I'm alive
to God. I can come into his presence.
I'm righteous. I'm holy in Christ through union
with him by faith. And we spend too much time talking
and worrying over our sin. I know it gets us down and it's
always there. But in God's eyes, it's not there.
And that's the eyes I'm most concerned with seeing what he
sees and by trusting Christ and being united to Christ without
sin. And even though I can feel it,
it's, it's been put away. It's been put away. And that's,
that's the good news of the gospel. We like to, we tend to read between
the lines and add our thoughts to Christ's words and his promises.
He says, him that cometh to me, I will know whilst cast out.
Well, we put something in there. Well, I'm too old. I'm too young,
too sinful, not sinful enough. We I don't have the experience
they have. I don't have the faith he has.
You know, I don't have any evidence. The scriptures doesn't say anything
about that stuff. Quit adding it in there. It says
him that cometh to me, I will receive and not cast out. Don't
quit putting all the words in God's mouth. You know, take it
for what he says as truth. Well, that's what it is. And
believe it as he puts it out. Him that cometh to me, I will
no wise cast out. You're going to be two reactions,
you're either going to hear that and believe it and come to Christ
in faith or you're going to murmur and think, well, it couldn't
be that simple. It can't be that simple. Turn
to 2nd Corinthians chapter 11. You think it couldn't be that
simple? Well, 2 Corinthians 11 verse 3 puts it like this. But
I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through
his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity
that is in Christ. Simply trust Christ. Simplicity
only. Singleness. Christ alone is salvation. And it says here, we corrupted.
That corrupted there is from the word to add to. We want to
add our thoughts to it. We want to add our opinions and
our feelings. And that corrupts it. So I'm
telling you right now, what you believe right now It's what you're
going to believe on Judgment Day. Because Judgment Day could
be by the end of this sermon. It could be whenever. Believe
right now that Christ is alone, is your salvation. That's how
you stand now, is how you're going to stand on Judgment Day.
Believe in Him. Trust Him and come to Him. Don't
leave here thinking you've got time to chew on it and think
about it. There might not be a tomorrow, a tonight. There
might not be an end to this sermon or an end to this sentence. Now
is the accepted time to trust Christ. Second Corinthians chapter
six. Turn back a couple of pages. Second Corinthians chapter six,
verse two. For he said, I have heard thee in a time accepted
and in the day of salvation have I succored or helped thee. Behold,
now is the accepted time. Behold, now is the day of salvation. Now is the time to trust Christ.
You're a sinner. You need a savior. You trust
Christ. He will receive you. It's a promise
in God's word. And God can be believed and his
son can be trusted with your salvation. We have some man come
up to us and tell us, put your money in this CV account. You'll
get four percent and in a year you come back and you'll have
this amount of money. We believe it, we hear it, we go do it and
we expect what we're going to get. And this is from a man.
Now, why not much more? We're told all through scriptures
by a holy God to come to his son in faith and he will receive
you. And we have trouble doing that.
We can believe a man and go put some money somewhere. We can't
believe the word of God in here. Believe his word. Simply take
what he said and don't doubt it. Don't resist it. Don't put
it off. Don't consider it a light thing
and don't believe it. You have trouble believing that
simply one look to Christ alone will make me whole. And it does. One look. So why? Why would we
continue without God? If there's one thing on this
earth you can trust, it's that God will be true to his word
and carry out every promise and that Christ will receive every
sinner. that comes to him. He will. We'll
look at one more verse in Isaiah 45. Isaiah chapter 45. Now, as we read this, are you going
to trust the Word of God? Are you going to trust your feelings?
Are you going to trust how you think it should be said? Are
you going to trust Christ alone or your experiences? Let's read
this and just trust what God says in His Word. Isaiah 45 verse 22. Look unto me, and be ye saved,
all the ends of the earth, for I am God, and there is none else. Here it is, all the ends of the
earth, all that the Father giveth me, the same all. Look unto me,
come unto me, and be ye saved, and I will receive you. That's
the promise of God, and that's the promise that any sinner can
rely upon Come to Christ and he will receive you. Thank you. Let's pray.