to in John chapter 6 and hold
that. That's where I want to be looking at this morning. I
appreciate Sheldon reading the Scripture for me. This is, I
believe, from my own personal opinion, from my encouragement
and studying this message that our Lord preached, this is the
best message I think that He preached. Someone said we shouldn't
have favorites, but we do, don't we? When you pick up someone's
Bible, where does usually the worn pages appear? The book of Psalms. That's where
they usually appear. They're worn out. People have
their favorite passages of Scripture. You go to the book of Psalms
because that's a lot of experience, what we experience. So we have
our favorite passages, but this is my favorite message that the
Lord Jesus Christ preached. And as Shannon was reading that,
you can't help but think, boy, this is indeed the prince of
preachers. And the multitude had been fed
by our Lord, an amazing miracle, 5,000 men besides women and children
on five loaves and two little fishes. And they took up 12 baskets
full of fragments. And they said, surely this is
that prophet Moses told us about 2,000 years ago, 3,000 years
ago. He told us about this prophet.
He's come. And then they wanted to make
him a king, and our Lord went and hid himself up in the mountain.
His disciples were going across the sea, and this storm came,
and our Lord came walking on the waters. And they saw Him. They were scared to death. And
He revealed Himself. He said, ìItís just Me. Donít
be afraid.î And they received Him into the ship. And it said
something here. I donít know exactly how to take
this, but when the Lord came up into the ship, they were just
halfway across the sea. They lacked five or six miles
to get across the sea. And yet when He came into the
ship there in verse 21, it says, ìImmediately they were at land.î
I don't know hardly how to receive that, do you? I don't know what
that means. But immediately they were at
land. I do know this. I've been in
some storms. You've been in some storms in
your life. And when the Lord Jesus Christ
showed up, immediately the storm was over. And you had pretty
much reached your destination of rest just by Him showing up. But they came over here, the
sea, and they came to where He was the next day. And they were
still seeking food. They were hungry and they wanted
some more food. And then, beginning in verse 26, the Lord Jesus preaches
this wonderful message to them. And what I like about this message,
among other things, is it covers just about every aspect of our
salvation. If it doesn't cover it really,
then it hints at it. For instance, here in verse 37,
we go all the way back into eternity and we hear our Master Himself
tell us about election. This took place back in eternity.
All that the Father giveth me. That takes us all the way back,
doesn't it? We learn about that. What was God thinking of back
in eternity? He was thinking about His people.
Thinking about His people. And then in verse 51, the atonement. Look here in verse 51. I am the
bread which came down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread,
he shall live forever. And the bread that I will give
is my flesh, my body, my soul for the sins of my people. That's the atonement. And then
in verse 44 and verse 45 and in verse 40, we have calling. We have regeneration. No man
can come to me, he said in verse 44, except my Father. Draw him. That's calling, isn't it? It's
written in the prophets, they shall be all taught of God. What has to happen before a poor
sinner will come to Christ? He has to be taught. Who teaches
him? The Father. God teaches. And
he says here in verse 40, That's life. This is the will of Him
that sent me that everyone which seeth the Son and believeth on
Him may have everlasting life. What is it to see the Son of
God? To see Him by faith. To see Him in the Scriptures.
To see Him in the Gospel. What is it to see Him? It's to
live. It's to live. You remember when
Moses put that brazen serpent on a pole. And the Jews had been
bitten and many of them had died. And he said, when you behold
that serpent of brass, what happens? You live. You live. Look and live. My brother lived. Look and live. What is it? What
is it to live? It's to look. It's to see Jesus
Christ by faith. That's what he tells us here
in this message. And then when He's given us this
life that's in Him, by look, how do we live? How do we live
this Christian life? Boy, there's many views of how
to live the Christian life. Our Master tells you how to live
the Christian life. This is the safest and easiest
way I know to live the Christian life. Look what He said in verse
56 again. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh
my blood dwelleth in me, he abides in me, and I in him." How do
we live the Christian life? We live it upon Jesus Christ. We live it eating and drinking
of His redeeming body and His redeeming blood. That's the way
we abide in Him. That's why he told his disciples
in John 15, Abide in me, and I in you, as the branch cannot
bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine, no more can
you except you abide in me. How do we live the Christian
life? We live it looking to Jesus. We live it coming to Christ.
We live it upon Him. That's the way we live. You'll
never go wrong living your life looking to Christ. You just won't
go wrong that way. And then I noticed as I was reading
and studying this message again and again and again, one of the
things that you never see in this message is the death of
the believer. It's just not there. As I was
looking at this and I was wondering, you know how believers die. You
know, we go all the way back to when God chose them, Christ
redeemed them, the Father calls them, they're regenerated, and
they live their life upon Christ. What about when they die? And
He says nothing about them dying. But right the opposite. They
never die. They never die. He tells us that
here in verse 48. Look in verse 48. I am the bread of life. Your
fathers ate manna in the wilderness, and they are dead. This is the
bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof,
and not die." My goodness, not die. Look what he says in verse
58. This is that bread which came
down from heaven, not as your fathers did eat manna, and are
dead. He that eateth of this bread shall live forever. You know if the Lord Jesus had
His way, He had never used the word death when it pertained
to a believer. He has to condescend and use
words that we can relate to. If He didn't, we couldn't understand
a thing hardly He would say. Lazarus was sick, and Lazarus
finally died, physically. And the Lord said, Lazarus is
sleeping, and I'm going to awaken him out of sleep. And they said,
Lord, if he's sleeping, he's doing well. Just let him rest.
And the Lord said, he's dead. Why did He tell them that? That's
what they understood. But if the Lord had His way,
when a saint died, He wouldn't say he's dead. He's not dead. He's alive. He'll never die. Oh, his body dies, but he doesn't
die, does he? He lives forever. He lives forever. Some of those poor Jews, they
ate that manna, and they died physically, and they died spiritually. Their souls die. But you eat
of this bread that's from heaven, you'll never die. You have everlasting
life. And then we have something else
in this message here. The Lord mentions it over and
over again, and that's the resurrection. This is the Father's will that
everyone which seeth the Son and believeth on Him has everlasting
life, and I will raise Him up again at the last day. Now that's our hope, isn't it?
That's our hope. This life is not our hope. If
in this life only we had hope in Christ, we're miserable people.
This is a sorry world to live in sometime, is it not? But you
found that so. And without hope in another world
to come, our hearts would break. What a discouraging life this
would be. But the Lord tells us in this
wonderful message, there's a bright day coming. For those who live
upon me, I'll raise him up. at the last day. That was His
message. And I'm telling you, if you're
a believer here this morning, you'll find something in here
to encourage you and instruct you and help you. That's why
I love this message. The second thing I wanted to
look at this morning and just suggest to you is how our Lord
preached. How He preached. This is one
of the things I love about Him. How He preached. He knew how
I can lose you in about 15 more minutes. I'm going to lose about
every one of you. I mean, I can see it in your eyes. I see the
eyes glazing over and you're trying to stay awake. But I'm
telling you, when the Lord preached, He knew how to keep people's
attention. And it's amazing what He did
in this message. He began in a more general way,
and then He got very specific. And then He brought them to this
conclusion that they could not escape What a preacher he was. By that I mean this. He begins
with speaking about food in verse 27. He was something that when
people come to him and made a statement about something, he would just
take right off on that statement, on that subject, and he'd turn
it into something spiritual. He did that all the time. And
they came and they were wanting more food. You seek me because
of the food that I fed you with yesterday. And then he says,
labor not for that meat which perisheth, but for that meat,
that bread, which the Son of Man shall give unto you. He makes
this general statement. He says, I have bread to give
you. They didn't understand that.
It was just a general statement. I have food to give you. what
he calls bread here, he calls meat in some of the other verses.
And then in verse 32 he gets more specific. Look what he says
in verse 32. Verily I say unto you, Moses
gave you not that bread from heaven, but my Father giveth
you the true bread from heaven. What he's saying now is this
bread that I'm going to give you from heaven. It comes down
from heaven, from the Father. Down from heaven. And then verse 33, he gets a
little more specific. Look at this. For the bread of
God is He which cometh down from heaven and giveth life. Now he
says, I've got bread to give you. The bread comes down from
heaven. I am that bread from heaven. See how gently, from
step to step, he leads them on in this message. And he gets
much more specific in verse 51. Look what he says. I am the living
bread which came down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread,
he shall live forever. And what is this bread that I'll
give you? It's my flesh. This bread, this
food is my flesh which I give for the life of the world. Boy, that's getting very specific,
isn't it? This bread I got to give, this
bread I'm able to give you is my flesh. What does he mean by
that? He means that his entire being
upon the cross of Calvary, his body, his soul, burned our sins,
the Bible says, in his own body on the tree. I give my flesh
to be broken. upon the cross of Calvary. I
give my blood as an atonement for sin. My flesh. And he makes one more step and
here's the conclusion that he brings them to in verse 53. Look at this. Jesus said unto them, Verily
I say unto you, except you eat the flesh of the Son of Man,
and drink his blood, you have no life in What he is saying
here, I have this bread. This bread comes down from heaven.
I am the bread. This bread is my broken body,
my blood of redemption. And if you do not eat of this,
you have no life. There is no life in anything
else or anywhere else but in my redeeming body and my blood. Boy, that's some conclusion He
brought them to, isn't it? I mean, He shut them up to that
and there was no going home and getting over this. There was
no going home and thinking, I just wonder how I can be saved. I
just wonder how I can have eternal life. Here He made it so plain,
didn't He? He made it so plain. How carefully
He leads them from step to step. And yet they missed it. Ain't
that amazing? Did you miss it when I was talking
to you about this? Wasn't it so plain? A child could
understand this. I have this bread. This bread
came down from heaven. I am that bread. To be more specific,
my broken body, my crucified body is that bread. And if you
don't eat of this bread, then you can't live. You can't have
eternal life. Life is in me. in Christ and
Him crucified. That's where life is. That's
simple. But they missed it. They missed it. I think this is another reason
why I love this message because I've preached so many messages
and people went away and didn't get a thing out of what I had
to say. And I thought the same thing
happened to the Son of God. They did him the same way. They began almost immediately
to murmur. They began to murmur against
him. He says he came down from heaven? And they got offended
in him. They said, we know his daddy.
We know his mom and his brothers and sisters. They're with us.
He's a mere man like we are. He shouldn't talk this way that
he came down from heaven. That he has bread to eat. And
boy, they really got offended when he said, except you eat
my flesh and drink my blood. They thought he's speaking literally.
They said, that's an offense unto us. It's an offense to think
about eating his flesh and drinking his blood. And finally, the Lord
tells us here in this message that they said, this is too hard. This is too hard. We can't take
this. It's hard saying. We can't take it. And then they
finally went away. They went away. Never to hear
Him preach again. Never to follow Him again. They
went back. Never to follow Him again. What
was their problem? You know what their problem was?
One thing. The Lord Jesus attributed it
to one thing. Unbelief. Isn't that what he told them? Shannon read it to us here in
verse 36. But I say unto you, that you
also have seen me, and you believe not. And then he went on to say
that he knew from the beginning who would believe him and who
didn't believe him. That was their whole problem,
their unbelief. Boy, this poor nation was so
fallen at this time. They'd fell probably lower than
any nation because they'd been so high. They'd had these great
kings and had the presence of God there in the Old Testament,
but now they were so fallen, they were under the yoke of the
Roman Empire. The whole country was full of
devils. How many places did we read that
the Lord Jesus cast multitudes of devils out of people? It seemed
like devils had invaded the land of Israel. They were sick people
everywhere. They were hungry. This whole
group of people had sought Him for food. They were a starving,
poor bunch of people, destitute. And yet you know what they wanted
to know? In their pride, in their self-righteousness, Tell us something
that we can do that we might work the works of God. What can
we do? Give us something to do. Give
us some works that we may perform. When the Lord Jesus told them
there in verse 29 that this is the work of God, this is the
will of God, that you believe on Him whom He hath sent, immediately
they said, give us a sign. Show us a sign that we may see
it and believe. One thing the Jews were always
adverse to, they were here and they were back over in the Old
Testament. And that was simply believing the Word of God. And they'd hear this message,
a message that never was so clearly preached before, and what did
he say? You don't believe me. You don't
believe me. That was their whole problem. They stumbled and they fell and
they perished right in the face of the clearest preaching anyone
ever heard. And there was only one reason
for it. A belief. Look over here. I want you to
hold John chapter 6. Hold this message and look over
in Romans chapter 9. Look here what the Apostle says
about him in Romans chapter 9, on page 1232 in your pew Bible. Look how the Apostle says this.
He tells their whole problem. You find it in the Old Testament
and you find the problem, it comes right over in the New Testament
with this nation. Look in verse 30, Romans chapter
9, and look in verse 30. What shall we say then? That
the Gentiles, poor dead dog Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness,
they didn't have the law of Moses. They didn't have any standard
of how there's going to be righteous. They had nothing but the nature. They followed not after the law
of righteousness, yet they have attained to righteousness. They
have found out the way of righteousness. even the righteousness which
is of faith." Ain't it amazing? There is a righteousness of faith?
Not by works, but by faith. But verse 31, But Israel which
followed after the law of righteousness, they had the law. They have not
attained to the law of righteousness. Why? Because they sought it not
by faith, but as it were by the works of the law, for they stumbled
at that stumbling stone. As it is written, Behold, I lay
in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense, and whosoever
believeth on him shall not make haste, shall not be ashamed,
shall not be confounded. Whosoever believeth on him As I studied this message, I
noticed the times that the Lord Jesus mentioned Himself in this
little short message. It didn't take Shannon but just
a few minutes to read the actual message. But you know over 60
times Christ mentioned Himself. Me and I and mine and His. Over 60 times He mentions Himself. He tells them where He came from.
He came down from heaven. He tells them who sent Him. The
Father has sent Me. He tells them why He came. To
give life and how He is going to give it. By His broken body
upon the cross. By atoning for sin. And they turn right around and
say, Tell us something to do. We need to do something. We just
feel like we've got to do something. He never had mentioned the first
time about them doing anything. Everything he said was being
done by him. I'm the one that's dying. I'm the one that's bringing life.
I'm the bread. You're the hungry ones. You're
the lost ones. And yet they turn around and
say, We don't believe you. We just don't believe that. Boy,
unbelief is the worst sin in the world. Do you know it? It
is the worst sin in the world. I tell you what it will do to
a poor man and a poor woman. Right in the face of the clearest
gospel you ever heard preached, it will blind your eyes that
you can't see that Jesus Christ has already accomplished everything
that God required for a sinner to be saved. I'll tell you what it will do.
It will stop your ears. It will stop your ears till you
can't hear that glorious Word. It is finished! It's finished! But you can't hear. Unbelief
has stopped your ears. Unbelief will bind the hands
that it can't embrace and accomplish and finish work. It will tie
the feet that you can't run to Christ as the only hope that
a poor sinner has of glory at last. Unbelief is an awful sin. It will harden the heart that
even the words of Christ Himself, It won't penetrate it. Unbelief
is a terrible sin, is it not? It is. I don't know of a passage in
the Bible that sets forth the sovereignty of God any more than
this message does. It sets forth His sovereignty,
doesn't it? I don't know of a passage that
sets forth the depravity of man any more than this message. No
man can come to me. He's not able to come to me.
We're in different realms. I'm in a spiritual realm. Poor
sinners are in a carnal realm. They can't come to me except
my Father draw them. And yet at the same time, I noticed
here in this message how freely Christ Jesus preaches Himself. as a gift He is willing to give
to poor, helpless sinners. Both of those things in the same
message. The sovereignty of God. The depravity
of men's hearts. And yet at the same time, a message
where the door is open, wide open, of mercy. I've never heard
the Lord Jesus preach this clearly and I've never preached Him this
clearly. He says this, I'm yours. Ain't that what He said? I'm
yours. My Father giveth you. But here's what He said, it's
on my turn. It's on my terms. There are no other terms by which
we can be saved. The Lord is more willing to save
a man than He is to be saved. But it's on His terms. You can
have me on my terms. And my terms are simple. It's
a humble and heart faith in me. That's it. That's it. And yet
unbelief says, man, that's too hard. That's too hard. It's too hard. Give us something
to do. Faith in a completed work? Faith
in an atonement that's been accomplished? I've got to do something. When I was a young man, a young
boy and a young man, every time I thought about being saved,
Every time I thought about being saved, I never did think about
believing. I never did. I always thought
about something I needed to do. When I felt the guilt, when I
began to feel my lostness, the first thing my mind ran to was,
I need to pray harder. I need to read the Bible more. I need to be going to church
more. I need to be more committed. That's what I always thought
of. That's unbelief. And I was shut up in that darkness
until God in mercy broke through that darkness and said, listen,
the work is done. It's finished. Somebody else
has already accomplished your salvation. And I tell you what,
that was the most delightful news my poor burdened heart ever
heard. All through my teenage years,
I've told you this so many times, this work, work, work. Promises,
promises, promises. I promised God this and I promised
Him that and broke every promise. And I found this song by James
Proctor. And I thought to myself, I wish
somebody had sat me down and said, Bruce, listen to this song.
While you're making all your promises to God, while you're
thinking about all the works that you can do, listen to this
song. And here's how it goes. Neither great nor small. Nothing
sinner know. Jesus did it. Did it all long,
long ago. It is finished. Yes, indeed. Finished every jot. Sinner, this is all you need. Tell me, is it not? when He from His lofty throne
stooped to do and die. Everything was fully done. Hearken
to His cry. It is finished. Weary, working, burdened one,
wherefore told you so? Cease your doing. All was done
long, long ago." Isn't that a very familiar verse? Till Jesus work
you clean, by simple faith, doing is a deadly thing. Doing ends
in death. Cast your deadly doing down,
down at Jesus' feet. Stand in Him, in Him alone. Gloriously complete. But you
know if somebody had set my poor guilty soul down and looked at
me right in the eye and read that song to me, it wouldn't
have done a bit of good unless God had opened my heart to understand
and believe. And this brings me to verse 37
for just a few minutes and I've almost went my limit. But let
me go right quickly on this. Verse 37. Look what it says, "...all that
the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to
me I will in no wise cast out." Man's depravity, his ruin and
sin, his utter helplessness to save himself, and his opposition
against being saved by another necessitates the sovereignty
of God in election, does it not? We're so depraved and ruined,
if God doesn't choose us, we'll never choose Him. Our depravity
necessitates Christ's effectual work on our behalf. We can't
do it. Somebody else has to save us,
has to redeem us. And I tell you what something
else our depravity necessitates, an effectual work of the Holy
Spirit in our hearts. Let Jesus Christ die on the cross.
Let him bear a man's sins and pay the last filing for it. If the Holy Spirit doesn't come
and draw him to Christ and give him faith, he'll perish yet. Here's what he said. Let's look
at this this way real quickly. All that the Father giveth me,
the gift of the Father to the Son. You know, this is one of
the most amazing things, what the Father has gave to the Son.
And as you read the Scriptures, what you suddenly realize is
that God the Father has given everything to His Son. Listen
to these passages of Scripture, Matthew 11, 27. All things are
delivered unto me of my Father. The Father loveth the Son, and
hath given all things into His hands. The gift of God to His
Son, He owns it all. There's nothing in this universe
but Jesus Christ is the possessor of it as a gift from His Father. Secondly, not only all things,
but all people have been given to the Son of God. Listen to
Psalm chapter 2. Ask of me, the Father said to
the Son, I will give you the heathen for your inheritance
and the uttermost parts of the earth for your possession, and
you shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces
like a potter's vessel. All men, even those men who will
finally perish, are given into the hands of the Son. And He'll
judge them. And it'll be Him who says, bind
them hand and foot. Isn't that an awful thought?
Spurgeon used to say that men will either be saved by Jesus
Christ or damned by Jesus Christ. And that so isn't. Because they've
all been given to Christ. All have been given to Him. He's
the Lord and the Possessor of every man. woman and boy and
girl. All souls are mine. The Father's given him back.
Thirdly, God has given some man to Christ to use to further his
redemptive purpose. Shannon read the last few verses
in this passage that Christ said, I've chosen you twelve and one
of you is a devil. You know God gave Judas Iscariot
to Christ to further His cause of redemption? Father, of them
that You've given Me, I've lost none but that one son of perdition
that the Scriptures might be fulfilled. God gives men to Christ
to use to further His redemptive purpose. Boy, I don't want to
be there to you. I want to be a gift of God to
the Son, but not like that. Not like that. I don't want Him
to use me and then because of my sin just cast me away. I don't
want that. And God does that. He's gave
them to His Son. But our text is talking about
something far more glorious. God has given many to Christ
for the securing of their eternal happiness. Ain't it wonderful to think about
this that God before time gave a great host of Adam's race to
his son to secure their salvation, to secure their eternal happiness.
Put them in the hands of the Son. Made the Son responsible
for their eternal salvation. He said in verse 39, This is
the Father's will which hath sent me, that all which He hath
given me I should lose nothing. You know man, because of his
sin, is in danger of losing everything he has, even himself. What would
a man give in exchange for his soul? God knows that. He knew it from the very beginning.
And what He does here, He gave them, He gave this great Host
to Jesus Christ. to secure their eternal salvation
from ruin, from losing themselves, soul and body. What a wonderful
thought that is. Secondly, I want you to notice
this, and we'll come back to this in a minute. This is the
people that God gave to His Son, the Father gave to His Son. All
that the Father giveth me, Other places He calls them His sheep,
or His elect, or His chosen. They're the gift of the Son to
His Father. And I want you to notice this,
in verse 37, not only that the Father gave the Son this wonderful
gift for Him to secure their salvation, but notice the Lord
Jesus opens up the Father's heart to us. He opens up the Father's
heart. Have you ever had any hard thoughts
of God? I used to have hard thoughts of Him when I was lost. I'd hear
that He's God, He's holy, He's just, that He's immense, that
He fills the heavens and the earth. God is a consuming fire. I had hard thoughts of Him. Man,
nobody can stand before this God. I don't even like Him. I
don't like to hear about Him. Have you ever had any hard thoughts
of Him? Sometimes these names that we
read of God, that He's a just God, that He's a holy God, He's
a consuming fire, that's good for us to hear that even when
we're lost because it humbles us. It humbles us. It makes us to know that we can't
come to Him and stand before Him. He's too holy. He's too
high. He's too immense. But we need
our hearts tender too. Especially as children of God,
we need our hearts tendered. And the Lord Jesus says something
here that so tenders our hearts and removes this hardness from
our hearts towards God. He says if you go back there
in eternity, He says there is where you were chosen to salvation. And who chose you? The Father. The Father. The Father not only
sent His Son to secure your salvation, but it's the Father that had
you in mind all along to give you to His Son. The Son of God
shows His love and consideration for us by securing our salvation
at a great cost to Himself. But the Father shows His love
to us by choosing us to salvation. Don't that take sort of the edge
off of the holiness of God and the immensity of God when you
have this apprehension that you can't come into His presence?
You and Him are so different, and you are. But when you think
of this, long, long ago, He was thinking of me when I didn't think of Him and
didn't know Him. Yet, He had already been thinking
of me. And in great love and mercy secured
the salvation of my soul by giving me to His Son. Oh, what a Father! I had no idea. When I was lost in having these
hard thoughts of God, I had no idea what He had already done
for me and how He had already thought upon me. And when I began
to hear that, oh, I thought, my goodness, is He such a God
that He's a Father? He's a Father? Christ came to open His heart
up to us, didn't He? Oh, the Father Himself just loved
you. Ain't that what Christ said? In eternity, He thought of you.
He secured your eternal happiness. He cared for you. Not because
He needed you. He didn't need anything. He's
God. He's eternally full and free and glorious that because
He wanted you, that because He loved you, He gave you to His
Son. Oh, the Father has a hand in
our salvation, doesn't He? God sent His Son to reconcile
us to Himself by His precious blood upon the cross. And God
sent His Son to open our understandings and to open His heart to us that
we could be reconciled to Him in our hearts. This is my Father. Look what He's done for me. I
can't be mad at Him any longer. I can't misjudge Him and have
these hard thoughts towards Him any longer. The Lord Jesus said,
I send to my God and your God and my Father and your Father. Oh, election is not a harsh doctrine,
is it? Somebody said, well, that's what
God done in His sovereignty. I don't want to hear about that.
No, that's what the Father did in His love and in His mercy. Election is nothing to be afraid
of. Election is the first place that
the Father opens His heart to us. Think about this. Why would God
give us to His Son to secure our happiness, except that He
didn't want us to lose ourselves? He knew that He couldn't trust
us. If I'm going to save them, I've got to secure them. If I
love them, I've got to secure their salvation. So what does
He do? He says, My Son, I'm making you
responsible. I'm giving them into your arms. I don't want to lose them. I
can't afford to lose them. Oh, what a theology. That may
not be good theology. But it sounds good, doesn't it?
I can't afford to lose them. I've given them to you to secure
them. They're going to destroy themselves. I can't trust them.
So here they are. They're yours. You redeem them
and bring them back up to me. If you've got a little child,
you've got a little one or two-year-old child, and you're on a sidewalk,
and there's this busy road, and the big trucks come bouncing
by as the car's flying, and you had a little infant, maybe two
years old, would you just turn that infant loose and say, now
listen, you watch the traffic. You probably wouldn't even hold
the child's hand for fear that the child may pull loose and
go out and destroy himself. What would you do if you loved
that child and you wanted to secure his safety? I'll tell
you what you'd do. You'd take him up in your arms
and say, I don't trust you. I'm going to secure your safety
myself. And that's what the Father did.
He loved his people so much. He said, if I leave you to yourself,
you're going to ruin yourself. You're going to lose your soul
and your body. So He gave us to the Son. And the Son wrapped
us up in His arms. And He redeemed us and He saves
us. What a wonderful thought. He
opens to us the heart of the Father. And let's think of this for a
minute. What Christ said here. And I know I'm skipping around
on this. I was just looking at some thoughts that were appealing
to me this morning. Look what the Lord Jesus said,
I will in no wise cast them out. And that word means for no reason
at all. Never, never, never for any reason
will I ever cast them out. All that the Father gives to
me shall come to me and he that cometh to me I will in no wise
cast him out. That's pretty secure, isn't it?
How does Christ secure His people? How does He secure them? Well,
by being their charity, life for life. That's what He said.
I gave my life. I gave my flesh for their life. That's life for life, isn't it?
In John chapter 18, when this mob came to get the Lord Jesus,
you remember He said, Who are you seeking? They said, ìWeíre
seeking Jesus of Nazareth.î He said, ìIím He.î And all of them
went backwards and fell on the ground. ìI am He.î And they stumbled
around and got up and He said, ìWho are you seeking?î They said,
ìJesus of Nazareth.î He said, ìIím He. And if you seek Me,
you let these go their way.î And you know why He said that?
He went right on to the next verse. ìThat the saying might
be fulfilled, ìAll that youíve given to Me, I have lost nothing. You see, God knows. God knows
how mighty sin is. He knows how mighty death is
and Satan is and his wrath is. And He knows how strict justice
is. And when these things come after
us, The Lord Jesus stands between us and them and says, take me
instead. You take me instead. But when
you take me, you've got to let these go free. That's the way
He secures us. Life for life. My death for your life. My captivity
for your freedom. My sin barren for your guiltiness. That's the way He secures them.
He secures them by promise. I don't know of anything that
encourages me to pray and seek the Lord more than this. I will
in no wise cast them out. Boy, saints have tried Him, ain't
they? You've tried Him, haven't you? You've tried Him. You've
tried Him. You've tempted Him. Cast me out. Ain't you ever tempted him to
do that? By your neglect, by your slothfulness, by your sin,
by your unbelief? His saints have really tried
him, but he's never cast the first one out. David fell into
that awful sin. Look what a sin David fell into.
Adultery, murder, lying, and yet you find him in Psalm 51.
Lord, would you wash me? Would you purge me? Would you
forgive me? Did Christ cast him out? He didn't. Peter denied Him, found himself
in a dark back alley, weeping, Lord forgive me. I can't believe
what I've done. Did the Lord cast him out? No,
He didn't. And he said, I'll never cast
any of them out that the Fathers give to me. Let them come to
me and they'll be received Come and welcome to Jesus Christ. And you have this promise. I'll
never cast you out. What a blessed promise to bring
with you when you come to Him in prayer. He secures them by
His power. In John 17 too, listen to this.
Thou hast given Him power over all flesh, that He should give
eternal life to as many as thou hast given Him. I give unto them
eternal life, and no man can pluck them out of my hand." I
don't know anybody who would attempt it. Do you? Satan knows
better than to attempt it. He can't do it. He can't do it. I was reading Bunyan's, I think
it was Bunyan's Pilgrim Progress, and I think it was when Pilgrim
got attacked by a pollen, and a pollen come up on him was just
beating him up something awful. But he said he got to noticing
as Apollon was hitting him and had his sword sticking, he said,
I got to noticing and he kept looking around behind him. And
I got to wondering, what's he afraid of? And you know what
Apollon was afraid of? Christ was coming to help. The devil's afraid of Christ's
hand. Do you know that? The devil's trembled at Christ's hand. He's
got an almighty hand. That's a powerful hand. And he
said, nobody can pluck them out of my hand. That's powerless.
He keeps them by intercessions. Look here in John chapter 17,
and I am almost finished. Look in John chapter 17. Look
in verse 11. Look at what he says in verse 11. He
secures them by his intercessions. And now I am no more in the world,
but these are in the world. I come to Thee, Holy Father,
keep through Thine own Name those whom Thou hast given Me that
they may be one as We are. While I was with them, I kept
them. I kept them in Your Name. Those
that You gave Me, I have kept, and none of them is lost but
the Son of destruction, perdition, that the Scriptures might be
fulfilled. And now I'm coming back to Thee. And these things
I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in
them." Can you imagine when they got in the heat of the battle?
And they were whipped and kicked out of the synagogues? Can you
imagine when they remembered this prayer?
When they felt utterly helpless to do anything? Wondering, can
we even go on? They remembered the Lord Jesus
interceding for them to the Father. Keep, preserve, uphold those
that you've given to Me. The Father will never let you
go, dear child of God. He'll never let you go. His Son
has already prayed for you. Doesn't this encourage you to
come to Christ? If you're here this morning and
you've never come to Christ before, don't this encourage you to come
to Him? Why wouldn't you come to Him? I tell you what you'll find out
as soon as you come to Him. You'll be surprised by it too.
He'll receive you. He'll receive you as soon as
you come to Him. And when you receive Him, you'll know the
first thing you're going to know, I'm one of His. I'm one of His. I'm one of those that the Father
gave to Him. Somebody said, what if I'm not
one of the elect? What if you are? What if you
are? Think of that! And I'll tell
you how you prove it, by coming to Him. Oh, come to Christ. Come to Christ. Look to Christ. Bow to Christ. He's done everything. Bow to
Him. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
and you shall be saved. Let's pray.