If you open your Bibles to John chapter 6 tonight, beginning at verse 41, Therefore the Jews were grumbling about him, because he said, I am the bread that came down out of heaven. They were saying, Is not this Jesus the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, I have come down out of heaven? Jesus answered and said to them, do not grumble among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day. It is written in the prophets, and they shall all be taught of God. Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me. Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God. He has seen the Father. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness and they died. This is the bread which comes down out of heaven so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down out of heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is my flesh. May we pray. Father, thank you for the word and those here tonight to partake of it. We pray that you would use your word to change the way we think. And we'll thank you for that. In Jesus' name, amen. A number of years ago, in a church, at least four different members informed the pastor that they did not want him to say anything in his preaching and teaching that would offend anybody. And this minister was pretty much a straight shooting type of individual. And the thinking was, we just want everyone to come to church and be happy. and never be offended by what they hear. One person actually went so far as to say, I don't like to invite visitors because when they come they may not like what they hear. Rather than those people at church being concerned that they were hearing the real truth of God, they were more interested in hearing something that never stepped on their toes. What they wanted was nice little ear-tickling verbiage. This is not, however, what the Bible is designed to do. It's not the way the Bible is designed to work, and it's not the way it's to be handled. Preaching the Word of God is not designed to tickle ears, it's designed to cut open souls. Never is there a hint in scripture that the Word of God is not an offensive book. In fact, sometimes the Word of God does offend, it reproves, it rebukes, it exhorts. The purpose of the Word of God is to reveal the truth of God, and when you take the truth of God and you reveal it to sinners, it most surely at times is going to offend, because this is truth that comes from a holy God. Now that is certainly true when you come to the teachings from Jesus Christ. The teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ were never designed to tickle ears. The teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ were never designed to flatter the Jews or the Gentiles. The teachings of Jesus Christ were designed to communicate God's truth. And when it came to the way that Jesus taught God's truth, He taught it with uncompromising directness. The truth that he taught was the only way to be right with the Holy God is to believe on Him. But then he also taught that the only way one may believe on Him is that God the Father must choose that individual and draw that person to the Son. Now when you present that truth, that does not make most people very happy, because what it does is it takes most people completely out of the picture and being able to save themselves. Men are proud, men are egotistical, they like to lay claim to something they've done, and when God says, you don't do anything when it comes to salvation, I take you to the Son, it takes them out of the equation, and proud man doesn't like this. But the Bible continually teaches that salvation is by pure grace, and this is pure, truly, truly truth. And if that offends someone, too bad. If people can't explain it all, that's tough. The truth is, it is God's truth. And that's the primary point Jesus is communicating right here in this text. What he says to this crowd is, look, Faith in me is the only way to salvation. And the only way to get to me is have God the Father choose you and bring you to me. And that truth is true to the Jews and to the Gentiles. And Jesus said, it doesn't bother me if it offends you or angers you. That's the truth. Faith in me is the only way to salvation. And the only way you can be saved is if God my Father brings you to me. For us today, in 2008, this doctrine of election still causes people to mumble and grumble. If you present the doctrine of election to most people, you'll hear things like, well, how can God choose one and not another? And the answer to that is, who in the world are we to talk back to God? When we carefully look at this context, we will discover it didn't seem to be the doctrine of election that shocked the religious Jews. In fact, the religious Jews seem to believe in the doctrine of election because Israel was the elect nation. They knew they'd been chosen by God. They didn't have a problem with that. They knew the history of their own existence. They knew that God had chose them and brought them away from Egypt and Babylon and the Medes and Persians and Greece, and ultimately they were dealing now with Rome. The thing that made the Jews so mad was not the doctrine of election. The thing that made them so mad is when Jesus said, I'm the only way to be saved, and I'm the only way that you can be one of the elect. And the only way you can get to me is if my father draws you to me. And that's what made them angry. That's why they're mumbling and grumbling. And so when they start murmuring and complaining, Jesus does not back down. In fact, he launches into more heavy theology. just because the Jews were mad about it, just because it caused them to murmur didn't affect what he taught, just because someone didn't like the truth or didn't agree with the truth or didn't grasp the truth, it didn't keep him from teaching the truth. John chapter 6 is one of the great passages of Christological teaching. And he touches on some deep, deep theological subjects like election, resurrection, the bread of life, and eternal life. His instruction in this text is not designed to appease a disgruntled crowd. It is designed to communicate divine truth. And he does that right here. Now when we analyze this text tonight, there are three main responses that I want you to see. Response number one, you've got the response of the Jews in verses 41 to 42. Therefore the Jews were grumbling about him because he said, I'm the bread that came down out of heaven. They were saying, is not this Jesus the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, I've come down out of heaven? Now, there's an article, The, before Jews. What this means is we're talking about specific kinds of Jews to whom Christ is referring here or addressing here. And what he's referring to are the religious Jewish leaders and Jewish authorities. These were the leading Jews in Galilee who controlled worship. The Jewish authorities of Galilee showed the same resistance and animosity that the Jews did in Jerusalem. The fact of the matter is all the religious Jews pretty much hated Jesus Christ because he was taking away their clout. They don't like him. What they were looking for was some type of person who would raise up an army or fight battles or drive away the Romans or take over cities and give the land to Israel. They do not want to listen to someone who's looking them in the face and telling them they are sinners and they need the bread of life for salvation. And when you present truth to one who's not really interested in knowing truth, the end result is often a bunch of grumbling about you and perhaps even animosity that's aimed at you. And so these Jews are grumbling and murmuring and they're mumbling about Jesus Christ's claim that he's the bread of life who came down out of heaven. And that particular Word there that is used for grumbling is gogunzo, which means to murmur and mutter. And Gerard Kittel tracked the use of that word through the Septuagint, which is the Hebrew Old Testament or the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament. It's used some 15 times there. And he says this particular word is not just grumbling because you aren't happy with something. It's not like, well, I don't like the fog. I had to drive out here tonight in the fog. I wish the fog would go away. That's not what he's talking about. He said this type of grumbling was an ungodly type of grumbling that's always due to the fact that people don't think what is being done or claimed is just. In other words, these religious Jews don't believe that faith in Jesus Christ is really the fair way or the just way to be right with God. Instead of Jesus just backing down from them and just saying, well, I don't want to upset them, he goes on the offensive. And he says, I am the bread of life and I've come down out of heaven to give you life. And literally the Greek text reads, I've come from the heaven. I've come out of the heaven. And that preposition out of literally means I was in the middle of the heaven, the throne of God. I was literally residing there. I was literally living there. And I came out of the middle of the heaven of the throne of God to come down here as the bread of life. He's claiming here divine origin. And these Jews know what he's claiming here. They had dealt with the ancestors like Moses, but Christ says, I didn't come via that route. I have come right out of the center of heaven, and I've come down here to give you life. He's claiming he's God. And the Jews do not want to accept the fact that he is God in the flesh. But when he says this to them, they don't really attack so much his teaching, because they've learned his teaching seems to square with the word of God. He backs it up with not only his life, but he backs it up with Old Testament doctrine and Old Testament verses of scripture. So they don't attack his teaching. They attack him in person. And they reject him. And there are two rejection arguments they use. First of all, we know his parents. He says in verse 42, is not this Jesus the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? The logic is, how in the world could he have come down out of heaven when we know his parents? The truth is, they don't know his parents. Joseph may have been or Jesus may have been the legal son of Joseph in their mind But he's not the natural son of Joseph and they should have known the predictions of the Old Testament such as Isaiah 714 that one would be born of a virgin who would be the King's Savior and who would come and ultimately lay down his own life. So they're arguing and grumbling among themselves, and that's what they're doing. And they say, well, we know who his parents are. And secondly, we don't know how he could be of heavenly origin. Verse 42, how does he now say, I've come down out of heaven? One writer said, these guys have more regard for the voice of Satan than they do the voice of God. But notice how they're operating. They're talking amongst themselves, verse 43, do not grumble among yourselves, instead of going to him and asking him to explain this. Instead of them going to his face and saying, now how does this all work? That you came out of heaven and there's Mary and Joseph and how does all of that stuff work? Instead of them doing that, they never once do that. They basically assume he's lying and they just mumble. Of course, the big problem is they've seen all those signs that he's done that prove he's of heavenly origin. They can't explain that. Many of these people ate of that great feeding that took place with the 10 to 20,000 people. They knew of the things that he had done in Jerusalem and how that paraplegic guy, he caused to walk again. And the other signs that he had already done as he was traveling, they could not shake the signs. They could not explain how he was doing these things. And here he's standing them saying, I've come out of heaven. But we need to see an important point here just because people don't accept the truth or just because people don't acknowledge the truth or just because they can't figure it all out. It doesn't change the truth. This is the truth. Jesus Christ is the bread of life. Jesus Christ came down out of heaven and the responsibility falls to them to hear the truth and hear what he's saying, but they would not listen. Dr. H.A. Ironside said there is great responsibility upon the man or woman to whom the truth is proclaimed. The book of Proverbs says, buy truth and do not sell it. These religious leaders reject truth, and they're going to be held highly accountable. So that brings us to the next response, the response of Jesus Christ. Now, to me, this is an interesting response, because the Jews are challenging his identity amongst themselves. And they're mumbling about, how can he come out of heaven? Don't we know his mom and dad? And Jesus does not waste any time trying to convince them they're wrong and what they're saying. He simply says, stop your grumbling, stop your whining, and then he launches into one of the deepest discussions in all of the New Testament, which again includes a lecture on the doctrine of election. I find this intriguing. Just because these people don't agree with him, or think things are just, or they don't like what he's teaching, that does not stop him for one second from looking them in the eyes and telling them God's truth. He goes about his business of proclaiming the truth of God. And sometimes, ladies and gentlemen, that's the best thing you can do. When you're up against the scoffer who's questioning you, don't answer them. Just go on and present the truth of God. Let them simmer on that. If one is really right with God, one will love and embrace truth. If not, they'll mumble and grumble about it. And that's what Jesus was about to tell them. Which brings us to the third response, the message of Jesus Christ. Now this message of Jesus Christ contains six elements, all of which are very deep. The first element that he Presents in this message is in order for one to come to Christ in Order for you to come to God the Son you must be drawn by God the Father He says in verse 44. No one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him Now you either accept that or you don't here tonight. You either want to quibble and argue about that or you embrace that. That's what it gets down to right here. That was what it came down to between Augustine and Pelagius. It's what it came down to between Calvin and Arminius. It came down to this between Luther and Erasmus. It came down to this between Whitefield and Wesley. It came down to the fact that you either accept what the Scriptures teach or you don't. You try to reason it away, but you cannot deny Jesus teaches election here, so you either embrace it or you don't. What Jesus is telling these people, most of whom reject Him, is that the most active role in your salvation is God, not you. The most active role in our salvation is God, not us. And just because most people were rejecting Jesus Christ did not mean for one second that God the Father's program was not working. God the Father's program was perfectly working and His will was being accomplished. I don't know what you believe about the doctrine of election, but I'm going to be as accurate with this verse as I possibly can. And you can take these notes and you can analyze them because what you're about to see and hear is exactly the truth. First of all, the word no one in Greek is the strongest negative that there is, and so when Jesus says no one can come to me, not one person, Jew, Gentile, boy, girl, man, woman, can come to me. The verb draws, eiko, is a very strong verb which means you actually drag something against its own will. In no instance is this word ever used of a nice suggestion which is to be followed. It's always used of dragging something that has no intention of being dragged. And I'll show you one usage of John just in this book. Go over to chapter 21. John chapter 21. In verse 6, John chapter 21 and verse 6, and he said to them, cast the net on the right hand side of the boat and you will find a catch. So they cast and they were not able to haul it in. That word haul, that verb haul is the same word ico, which means they were not able to drag it in. Drop down to verse 11. Simon Peter went up and drew the net to land. Now that net was not going to come on its own. That net's out there filled with fish, it's not about to budge. In other words, it had to be dragged, as it were, against its own will. That's the way this word is used every single time that you can track its usage. It's talking about dragging something contrary to what it normally is going to do. Thirdly the verb tense draw is heiress meaning we're talking about a one-time drawing This is a very subjective drawing for an individual with subjective conditions God may use misery guilt depression sin threat of hell to drag someone to his son He has all of those options available And finally when he says no one can come to me that verb can means you don't have the power You don't have the ability. You don't have the capability in and of yourself to come to Christ And the reason why you don't have the inability in and of yourself is you are dead in sin, Ephesians 2. You are slaves to unrighteousness, John chapter 8. You're alienated from God, Colossians chapter 1. You're hostile in a relationship to God, Romans chapter 5. You're spiritually blind, 2 Corinthians chapter 4. You are held captive by the devil, 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. You are incapable of understanding truth, 1 Corinthians chapter 2. That is the way we are prior to coming to faith in Jesus Christ. We will not come to Christ of our own free will, like it or not, believe it or not, that's the truth. And Jesus Christ is looking at this crowd and he says, I want you to know nobody, nobody, not one person can come to me unless the Father drags that person to me apart from his own will. Is this a mystery? You bet it is. Is it a reality? You bet it is. And you talk about not winning popularity contests. Jesus starts teaching these grumbling religious people the doctrine of election, and he tells them in and of themselves, they will never choose to get into a right relationship with God. And you see, the problem with this, irresistible grace is not a doctrine that flatters sinners. And irresistible grace is a doctrine that takes the sinner completely out of the picture. And he basically has not a whole lot to do with being right with God. Martin Luther in his great book, The Bondage of the Will, which I would encourage you all to read. And by the way, we have great library. I'm not sure if that one's in there. Maybe it is. But there's a great display out there of some of Schaeffer's books, a great picture of the great Dr. Lewis Barry Schaeffer. Avail yourself of that. But Luther said in his Bondage of the Will, there is no hint when you look at this and what God teaches in his word of people just of their own free volition choosing God. You can't find it in the Bible. He said, I don't know how clear Jesus has to be or Paul has to be. Man is totally lost. In fact, Isaiah compares him to a sheep. He says, all we like sheep have gone astray. And I don't think that's a coincidence that he uses a sheep. You see, if a cow, a pig, a dog, a cat, a horse, a deer, or even a pigeon gets lost, it can find its way back home. A couple of years ago, there was a friend that I know from Wyoming who was on top of a canyon called Two Waters. It was eight miles from camp. His horse made him mad. He wasn't up on his horse. He had the reins in his hand, and he went to swat the horse because the horse was acting a little squirrely, and the horse flicked its head, took the reins out of his hand, and ran eight miles straight back to camp. The friend of mine, when he walked back to camp, said, go ahead and use that as an illustration someday of not losing your cool with your horse, because he said that's exactly what happened. That horse knew its way back home. Not a sheep. You get a sheep lost, you've got to go find it. It won't find its way back. Isaiah said, we're like sheep. We've gone astray. That's the way it is with lost sinners. God must go track every one of them down and bring them to his Son. I saw a mechanic one time drop a bolt into a dirty black tub of old oil. And the moment that that bolt hit that oil, it instantly sunk to the bottom of the filth. And that mechanic took a magnet and he drew that dead bowl out of the mire. He cleaned that bowl up and I saw him put it to use. That is exactly what God does with sinners. They are deep in the mire of sin. They cannot get out. There's no way in and of themselves they're going to come out of there any more than that bowl could come out of that ugly oil. So God magnetically draws them to His Son. And when they finally get to His Son, He cleans them up and puts them to use. Jesus said no one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him. That's the first element. He communicates element number two The one who does come to me will be raised up by Christ on the last day He says in verse 44 and I will raise him up on the last day ladies and gentlemen You cannot get around eternal security here. I I just don't see the brain work of people that want to quibble about eternal security. If you come to Christ, you're promised He'll raise you up on the last day. Now, the last day that he's talking about here, in the mind of the Apostle John, would be the last day of the church age. And we know that on the last day of the church age, there's going to be a resurrection. The dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up in the air to meet the Lord in the air. And I think that's exactly what is in mind here when he talks about this last day. But in order for Christ to raise a person up to resurrection life, you have to come to Christ. In order to get to Christ, the Father has to draw you to Christ, pure and simple. If you've been drawn to faith in Jesus Christ, you're guaranteed you're going to be raised up to life. That's a promise to you that's given to you by God. The third element is what's prophetically predicted in the Old Testament that God the Father would bring understanding to those who've been brought to Christ. Now verse 45 says, it is written in the prophets, and they shall all be taught of God. Everyone who's heard and learned from the Father comes to me. Now to be taught of God means you must be taught the written word. And certainly the nation Israel had great access to the word and they'd all heard about God. The problem wasn't really their hearing about things from the Bible, it was believing them. And when those Old Testament texts, especially from Isaiah, would have pointed them to Jesus Christ and His suffering and what He was going to do, they should have studied that writing of Isaiah and understood He is who He claims to be. But I want you to see here that as people are in the Word of God, the written Word of God will become alive to them. There are two great truths here. First of all, being able to understand God's truth, God's work is in the written Word. That's how you understand it. That's what he says here. It is written in the prophets. If you want to know God, you want to know the Word of God, you must understand the written Word. Dan Lucarnini said one of the reasons he left contemporary Christian music movement and churches, was because I saw people, he said, going to church not to hear God's word, but to hear music. And he said it didn't square with the scriptures. The scriptures kept saying we're supposed to go to church to hear the word. And he said, I saw numbers of people going to church not focused on the written word, but focused on music. The second truth that is brought out here is those who do understand God's truth come to Christ. Verse 45 says, and those who do hear and learn from the Father will come to me. In other words, God will use the written word to draw people to the Son. That's how he works. He will actually use the written Word of God to elect people and take people to the Son. And as you sit under the Word of God, you'll be drawn to a relationship with the Son. And then you might ask, well, why don't all come? Because some are dead. And they aren't called. And the Father hasn't taken them to the Son. They haven't heard the voice of God. Donald Gray Barnhouse used to illustrate it this way. He said suppose we have a military battlefield and men are charged to cross this battlefield, and on the way across, fire opens, and they all hit the ground. All the men fall to the ground. Some of the men that fall to the ground are killed, some of the men that fall to the ground are wounded, and some of the men who fall to the ground are not hit at all, they're taking cover. Ultimately, Dr. Barnhouse said, the fire ceases and someone of high rank says, let's move out. It's time to move out. He said only those that have life are going to get up and move out. Those that are dead aren't going to move anywhere. And he said, so it is with the way the Word of God works. There are people who go to church and they sit under the Word of God, and there are some who move into a close relationship with Jesus Christ, and others who never do. Dr. Barnau said, only those who actually hear the Word of God, who have faith, who have life, move to the Son. And if you can sit under the Word of God week in and week out, and you never want to respond to the truth of God, you have a big serious problem. Not with me, with God. The fourth element is, no man has seen God the Father. Only one from God has seen the Father. Verse 46, not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who's from God. He's seen the Father. Now these Jews were claiming that they had seen God work in Mosaic times. They were citing that manna episode and that Moses had given manna. They knew about that. Jesus said, I haven't seen God work, I've seen God. There's a fundamental doctrine which teaches that no mere sinful finite man can look upon the absolute holy deity of God the Father and live. And Jesus would certainly not win popularity contest with this message because he says, I'm the only one who's ever seen God the Father. They're questioning His heavenly origin and Christ says, I'm the only person who's ever seen God the Father and none of you ever have. No one has ever seen God the Father except me. I'm the one who came down from there. I came out of heaven. I'm the one who's seen Him. This is a claim to absolute holy deity. Which brings us to the fifth element, the person who believes in Christ has eternal life. Verse 47 says, truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life. This was the verse that freed the great music director for DL Moody, Iris Sankey. Dr. Ironside said one time he heard Iris Sankey tell the story of how he was in San Francisco and he was struggling with his own salvation and he ran across this verse in John 6 47 which says truly truly I say to you he who believes has eternal life and he said it was right there at that point Sankey said I said Lord I believe that I dare to take you at your word he was saved and that began the great music ministry that he would have that would touch millions of people And I want you to notice how Jesus begins the statement, truly, truly. This is, again, dogmatic certainty. This is the only way to have eternal life. What's interesting to me is the verb tense believe. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life is a present tense participle. What that means is one who continually believes that Jesus Christ is the only one who can give eternal life to a person is the one who has eternal life. Now some may emotionally respond to truth about Jesus Christ and that does not mean they have eternal life. It's the one who continually trusts that Jesus Christ is my Savior that has eternal life. One who does not continually trust in Him, I don't think has it. And you can check yourself here tonight. You can determine if you have eternal life by honestly asking and answering one simple question. What do you continually trust in to give you heaven? What do you continually place your faith in to take you there? And the answer is, as we're going to sing in a moment, my hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. In other words, ladies and gentlemen, Christ alone gives us eternal life. And those who believe on Him have it. Which brings us to the sixth element. Jesus said, I'm the bread of life. Verses 48 to 51. Now we're going to spend A great deal of time developing this next time we get together, but I want you to see four facts about this. First of all, Jesus stresses that he and he alone is the bread of life. He says in verse 48, I am the bread of life. Most people would rather eat the spoiled philosophies of men or the putrid works of themselves rather than eat the bread of life. I want you to think for a moment of a man who goes on a cruise and he doesn't have a lot of money and so as a result he stocks up on cheese and crackers and fruit. And as he's out at sea, he discovers that the fruit is spoiling, the crackers and cheese are going stale. Finally, he decides, I'm going to go into the dining room and take some money and eat a good meal. And when he gets there, he discovers the meals were all paid for by your ticket. Why were you trying to eat the spoiled stuff, the stale stuff, when you had these meals all taken care of? But there are many people who are cruising through life and they're relying upon their own stale works and they're relying upon their own spoiled righteousness. Their ticket to heaven has been paid for by Jesus Christ. In Him, you have everything you need. You have the wealth of God. Your whole trip is paid for by Him because He is the bread of life. And Jesus said, all you have to do is believe on me and I'll give you life. He's all you need. He's the bread of life. You aren't. I'm not. Church membership isn't. Water baptism isn't. Money isn't. Jesus is the bread of life. Eat that bread and you have life. The second fact is Jesus emphasizes the manna bread eaten by Israel sustained physical life but did not give everlasting life. You know, we have people that get in the hospital and sometimes they get in some critical states. And I have to go in often and talk with them. I don't care what kind of bread they ate physically. I don't care if they ate Meijer bread, Harding's bread, Wonder Bread, or Walmart bread. I don't care. What I do care is that they've eaten the bread of life. Because you see, the physical bread they've eaten has nothing to do with anything about eternity. It's the spiritual bread of life that becomes their whole guarantee that they'll have eternal life. So when I'm sitting by the bedside of one of the dear people who perhaps are looking at eternity, I'm not discussing the kind of physical bread they've eaten, I'm discussing the physical, the eternal bread. Do you have eternal life? Have you eaten the bread of life? Jesus Christ. Christ is emphasizing, look, physical bread can sustain physical life, but I'm the one that can give you everlasting life. Which brings us to the third fact. There is a bread that comes down out of heaven that can give eternal life. Verse 50. This is the bread which comes down out of heaven so that one may eat of it and not die. Jesus said, I didn't come just to give you bread. I am the bread. I'm the one that can keep you from eternal death. There is a bread that will guarantee you will never face eternal condemnation. What kind of bread is this that can give life? It's the son of God. And when you eat this bread, you'll never need to eat anything else. One commentator observed, Jesus Christ, a relationship with him will satisfy every need you ever have, not necessarily your crazy wants. He'll satisfy every need. Children want things that aren't necessarily good for them. If you take a bowl of candy and put it before a child and then you stack that up against a plate of food and asparagus, most of the kids would probably go for the candy if you let them choose because they don't necessarily want what they need. If you let a child sleep all day, they'll do it. They want to do that, but they need discipline. They need to get up. They need to get at things. They need to get active. I mean, that's all part of training a child. Jesus Christ will satisfy every need we have to the complete level of being right in a relationship with God. Which brings us to the fourth fact. Christ says, this living bread that came out of heaven can give life through a sacrificial act that will involve my flesh. He says in verse 51, I'm the living bread that came down out of heaven. If anyone eats this bread, he will live forever. And the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is my flesh. Jesus said, the reason why I can offer you life is I'm gonna lay my own life down. And when he uses that preposition for the life of the world, it's the preposition hupere, which means Jesus Christ came to offer Himself in the place of and as a substitute for the sins of the world. Jesus Christ can and will give eternal life to anyone who will believe on Him. And the question comes, well, how do you partake of this bread of life? Your answer is in verse 47. He who believes has eternal life. All you must do is believe. And what people need to do is stop mumbling and grumbling about election and predestination and just believe in Christ. He's the bread of life. He can give eternal life. Obstinate resistance to truth can actually move God to stop speaking to an individual ever. again. So here's the question here tonight. This is it. You can know with certainty tonight that you've partaken of the bread of life. It comes down to this question. What do you continually trust in that will enable you to go to heaven? Who do you continually believe will take you to heaven? If your answer to that question tonight is, I believe Jesus Christ is my Savior who will take me to heaven, you are guaranteed everlasting life. May we pray. Our Father, we marvel at your massive program that began with Israel and ultimately brought Jesus Christ here to offer himself as her Messiah. And then to think that she rejected him and you allowed your program to swing out to people who are non-Jewish and you said in the book of Acts that no none to you are all your works from the beginning to the end. We realize Lord that we tonight who know the Lord Jesus Christ have been individually selected by thee and brought to thy precious Son. And on this foggy night physically. We're not foggy spiritually because we realize this doctrine of election leaves us standing before you humbly and saying thank you tonight. We thank you that the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ gives us a wonderful eternal hope of life. And it's in his name that we pray.