Let's pray. We come, O Christ, to thee, true son of God and man, by whom all things consist, in whom all life began. In thee alone we live and move and have our being in thy love. That is our posture, that is our prayer, that we come to you, O Christ. Some of us need to come to you for the first time, some need to return. All of us need to come. We pray now that as we come to you in your word, you would be gracious to speak to us, to meet us here. You have deigned to be among us by your spirit and your word, and so we pray that we would not waste our time together, but you would give us just the word that we need to hear, just the promise we need this morning. We pray in Jesus name, Amen. Our scripture text this morning comes from John chapter 6 verses 35 through 48. John chapter 6, 35 through 48. There are seven I Am statements in the book of John, and this is the first of those seven, beginning in verse 35. Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my father that everyone who looks on the son and believes in him should have eternal life and I will raise him up on the last day." So the Jews grumbled about him because he said, I'm the bread that came down from heaven. They said, it's not this Jesus, the son of Joseph whose father and mother we know? How does he now say I have come down from heaven? Jesus answered 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 will all be taught by God. Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me, not that anyone has seen the Father except he who is from God, he has seen the Father. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. We all have occasions to make promises in life, and hopefully more often than not, we're able to deliver on those promises. As my children get older and I make trips from time to time to go speak at different places, I've started to try to line up when it works that one or two or a couple of them can go with me and come and maybe do something fun or maybe just get to hear dad preach because what could be more fun than that? But maybe you get a special trip and you stay in a hotel and you're with dad and mom's not there, so he's gonna buy you all sorts of bad food and things. So I had a trip on the calendar this past week, and has been there on the calendar for a while, to go and speak at a conference in Southern California. And so I told three of my kids, my three middle kids, and got permission from my wife before I made this promise to them, I said, if you wanna come with dad, and you sit through two days of sermons, we'll go to Disneyland. So, two days of sermons, some of, I mean, I would think two days of sermons is Disneyland, but for them, they were two different things. So, Paul and Elsie and Mary flew with me this week, and we're a real champ sitting through two days of sermons, and then we went to Disneyland and made it back Friday night. And for at least one brief shining moment, I was an A-plus dad. Short-lived, it's all over now, but we have some pictures to remind them and, you know, that's what good parents do. Remember this? Okay, we took you to Disneyland. So, one promise made, promise fulfilled. Of course, sometimes, even as parents, we make promises that we don't fulfill, and as children, we make all sorts of promises we don't fulfill. But isn't it good that as Christians, when Jesus makes us promises, he always fulfills them? And you know what? they're even better than Disneyland. There are a lot of ways to get at this text here. We could focus on the I am statement itself, but we did that in the last couple of weeks talking about this whole bread of life discourse. But I want you to notice that at the beginning and the end, he says, verse 35, I am the bread of life. And then bookending this section, verse 48, I am the bread of life. But in between those bookends, Jesus is in the business of making promises. He makes promises to his disciples, he makes promises to his opponents, and by extension, he makes promises to all of us. I want you to notice this morning, seven promises that Jesus makes to you. Seven promises. You can count on every single one of them being true, every promise yes and amen in Jesus. Seven of them. Here's promise number one. You find it in verse 35. Whoever comes to Jesus shall not hunger. That's a promise. Whoever comes to Jesus shall not hunger. Now, if you remember the context, it's loaded with bread. First, we had the feeding of the 5,000, maybe more than 20,000 people with women and children. And then they come back and they're all following Jesus around because they had the loaves and they were filled and they're thinking, this is a good deal. This guy is a Fishburger vending machine. We want more bread. And then Jesus is bringing them back to think about the Old Testament and then they're thinking about Moses and the manna they received in the wilderness. And Jesus is postulating that he's even greater than this Moses and then this manna. So the whole context is filled with bread. And Jesus says to them, you want bread? Good. You're hungry for bread? Good. But listen. I will give you better bread and you will not go hungry. Have you ever noticed the thing about eating? You always want to do it again. You always want to eat again. Sometimes you eat breakfast and you want to eat lunch, and then you want to eat dinner, and then you want to eat dessert, and then you want to eat late-night dessert, and then you want to eat snacks in between. You eat, and even when you have that meal, you think, oh, I shouldn't have eaten that much. You know what? A little bit later, you're ready to eat that much again. You have Thanksgiving coming up in a few weeks, and you'll eat, and then you'll sleep a little bit, and then there'll be a lot to clean up, and you'll say, oh, I can't believe I ate so much. Give it a few hours, let alone a whole day, you'll eat. It happens every single time. It's amazing, Jesus says, you eat this bread, you'll not be hungry. And what does it mean, not hungry? It means Jesus never runs out. Jesus never shrivels up. Jesus never gets old or moldy. Jesus is not a perishable food item. Whoever comes to Jesus shall not go hungry. Here's the second promise. You see it in the last part of verse 35. Whoever comes to Jesus shall never thirst. Obviously, the meaning is similar, parallel statements, one with food, one with drink. Jesus is the wine that never runs out. He's the water that never dries up. Jesus is the water in the desert to quench your thirst when the world is offering you sweet, sugary soda. Coke. If you're from the Midwest like me, pop. You know, you've seen all the studies and your parents have told you since, you know, since you were a little kid that don't drink all of that soda. It's just going to make you more thirsty. And it's true. All of the acidic acid, all of the sugar in there now, it still tastes good when it goes down. But if you're in the desert and someone says, here, give you Coke, just drink it all. Here's even a Mountain Dew. You know what? It's not really dew from the mountains, I'm told, but it's still good. You drink that, it makes you thirsty because of the sugar, because of the way the saliva interacts with it. Our world is constantly offering you sweet, sugary drinks in the desert. Here, drink this. Sex. Take it. Sweet sugary drink. Take this. Sports. Follow your sports team. Money. Your house. Your job. Your looks. Your hair. Take it. Take it. Your family. Take these sweet sugary drinks in the desert and the world is constantly telling you they're going to satisfy And you know what? You take the first sip, it's good. Sweet. It's better than water. I don't, water? Oh, we can have water anytime. This is good. in small doses, in the right proportions, just like all of those things that the world has to offer. Many of them are good gifts from God and soda can be a good gift from God in the right proportion, in the right time, in the right measure, but ultimately, it's going to leave you thirsty if that's all you drink. And if you expect from sex or food or money or house or even from family, that that's going to satisfy, you're going to keep coming back wanting more and more and more. Jesus is only when you drink from me will you never be thirsty again. Now, what does that mean? Does it mean that you never feel disappointed in life? No. It means essentially two things. Number one, it means you will have ultimate satisfaction for your ultimate longings. ultimate satisfaction for your ultimate longings. Have you ever considered that maybe the reason the world is not satisfying to you is because you were made for something more than this world? You ever follow the stories that they used to do on different cable shows, kind of behind the music, and they would follow all these famous rock stars or rock groups, and it was almost always the same sad tale. They were famous, and they sold out stadiums, and they were into the hardest kind of drugs, and they were rockers and boozers, and they would, you know, lay with anything that moved, it seemed. They were just wild people, and so many of them would, sadly, end their life. Who is more like a god or a goddess in our contemporary culture than maybe sports stars or rock stars? Tens of thousands of people screaming at you, singing your songs. And is it any wonder that among those people, there's such high rates of depression, dysfunction, suicide, addiction? Maybe, just maybe, we are not fit to be our own gods. Maybe we're not satisfied with our own worship. Think of your greatest, craziest dream coming true. What is it? Your craziest, greatest dream. It's a house on the ocean. It's a house up in the mountains. It's the promotion you've been wanting your whole life. It's a certain sort of ideal family scenario. It's hitting a home run at the World Series with two outs in the bottom of the ninth. What is it? Think of that craziest, greatest dream coming true. It wouldn't be enough. It would not be enough. And you talk to those people, you read some of the articles, and people have had those things, and they say the very same thing. Well, yeah, beats a kick in the head, I'm sure. It would not be enough. Only Jesus is enough. You'd still be thirsty. Ultimate satisfaction for your ultimate longings, that's what it means. Second, it means eternal satisfaction for your sins. Eternal satisfaction for your sins. There's nothing but thirsty people in hell. I don't just mean physical thirst with fire and that's part of the imagery. No, I'm thinking thirsty for happiness. They're thirsty for recognition. They're thirsty to prove themselves. Do you think people in hell have come to their senses? They haven't. You think they finally see their sins and their ways? No, they haven't. For all eternity punished for their ongoing sins, even thirsty still for that pride, thirsty still for that recognition, thirsty and never ever having a drop of satisfying water to drink. Jesus says, whoever comes to me will never thirst. Here's the third promise. Verse 37, all that the Father gives to Jesus will come to him. All that the Father gives to Jesus will come to him. Now, I want you to listen carefully for this promise, promise four, promise five, are going to touch on what some call the doctrines of grace, reformed theology, Calvinism. Maybe that's old hat to you. Maybe you're in this church because you say, yep, that's my tribe, that's my group, that's my theology. Maybe you're here sort of despite all of that. I don't feel like that's my tribe or that's my group or that's my theology, but somebody was nice to me and so I'm here. Or maybe it doesn't even, it's never really mattered to you before. You think, I just love Jesus and I love the Bible and I love to sing and so here I am. Well, regardless of where you are, listen. And maybe this truth is something you've never understood, maybe it's something you've never liked, but you like Jesus, right? Well, let's hear what Jesus has to say. And let's see how all of these promises fit together. So this promise, all that the Father gives to Jesus will come to him. There are three parts to this transaction. One, the Father has a certain number to give. That's implied. Number two, they are then given to Jesus. And three, they come to Jesus. That's the infallible progression. Jesus has a number of souls, they are given to Christ, and those given to Christ are then obliged and will come to Christ. Jesus is absolutely confident in this logic. Which is why he says in verse 37, all, not some, not most, not many, all that the Father gives me will come to me. He is confident in this progression because he is confident in predestination. Jesus understands there is a choice prior to your choice. I chose you, you did not choose me is the words of Jesus, not only to the 12 disciples, but to all of his disciples. You notice here, there's no indication that the number appointed by God the Father is based on some foreknowledge of our coming. In fact, we'll see in a minute that it's not. We see that this choice is effectual. all that the Father, the fact that the Father has some and he gives them as a gift, as an inheritance to Christ, is enough to ensure that all of those will come. Now, this is not just making you ready with an ability to come, but rather, effectually, infallibly, those who are given to Christ will come. We must never forget when we're talking about election or predestination that it is in Christ, Ephesians 1, 3 and 4. We are chosen, we are predestined in Christ. And don't you like the language here? All that the Father gives me, gives me. If you have faith in Christ, genuine faith in Christ, you are of the elect. And if you are of the elect, you were a gift from the father to the son. You ever think about that? That the father from all eternity past, with a set number of his chosen ones, this all here in verse 37, those elect, those predestined, to his son, here, son, is my gift to you. This one and that one and him and her and those and these and that family and this family and those people and those tribes and those languages and those tongues, my chosen ones, to you, Christ, And I entrust to you, you will be their surety. You will be their salvation. You will be their, together with the Spirit, inheritance. And all that are given to Christ will come. Not one is wasted. Not one is ever lost. All that the Father gives to Jesus will come to him. So the progress of coming to Christ starts in eternity past with all that the Father has given to Christ. The beginning of this salvation is not with you but is with God. Which leads to promise number four. Whoever comes to Jesus will never be cast out. None is wasted, none is lost, none is turned back. He will never be cast out. Now, it's important we understand this, especially with the promise that we'll come to in verse 44 in just a moment. Because when we talk about election, when we talk about God having a certain number, God having chosen some from eternity past, What some people immediately fear is that we're going to come to Christ and He's going to say, eh, eh, eh, eh, nope, sorry. I didn't choose you. You're in the wrong spot. You're not here. You know, you've heard the joke before. You get to heaven. I said, okay, well, are you Calvinist or Arminian? you get here?" The person says, well, you know, I never was quite sure how to settle this in my own mind if I was chosen or was I sent here or did I come? And so I said, well, I guess I'll just go over here to the chosen line. They come here and say, well, how did you get here? I said, well, I just decided that I was gonna come here. No, no, no, you belong in the other line. So they'll go to the other line, say, how did you come here? Well, somebody sent me here. No, no, no, you belong in the other line. Some of us hesitate between two opinions, trying to figure this out, and some of us have the mindset, well, we'll just get to heaven and it'll all figure out, and things figure out in heaven, but these truths are revealed for a reason. for our confidence, not for our doubting. And one of the things we fear sometimes is that we're going to come to Jesus or our loved one will come to Jesus and say, no, no, no, I didn't choose you so you can't come. But notice the language here. Yes, the father has a certain number of chosen ones given to the son who will come. But now he says, and all who come will never be cast out. Jesus will never say to you or anyone, no, no, no. I didn't choose you, back of the line. A broken heart and a contrite spirit, he will never deny. Divine election is never a reason for turning someone away. Divine election is always the reason anyone turns to Christ in the first place. You know, when you were kids, they probably don't allow these games anymore at recess. It's probably a good thing. But when you played Red Rover, very dangerous game. Red Rover, Red Rover, let Kevin come over. And everybody's holding, clenching their fists, and you gotta come from 100 meters away with all of your might and try to break through. I never was a real big, heavy kid, and so I'd typically just hang there on somebody's arm, trying to break through. So don't think election works that way. And somebody preaches the gospel and you're, I'm coming to you Jesus. It's like the father and son are holding a red rover line. Sorry, you didn't make it through. Go back. No, it's like a tug of war. God always wins the tug of war. And if you're on the end and somebody's pulling you, drawing you, pulling you, drawing you, And finally, you come here. Is he going to say, no, go away? No, the whole reason you came is because divine power and agency was pulling you, drawing you to himself. You will not be cast out. How did you get there in the first place except God drew you? Now, this is more of a promise. than just the coming. The promise is actually for the staying. Notice what Jesus says in verse 38, I am doing the will of my Father who is in heaven. And his will, 39, is that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me. And this is the Father's will, verse 40, look on the Son, believe in him, be raised up on the last day. This is good news, brothers and sisters. Christ does not keep us for a day or a week or when we're young or when we're in our 20s. He keeps us for all time. This is an unbreakable chain from divine election in eternity past to coming to Christ in some present moment to the resurrection from the dead in the future. If chosen, you come. And if chosen and you genuinely come, you will be raised on the last day. Think about it. This is the commitment of Christ himself. Christ is as committed to you as his chosen ones as he is committed to obeying his heavenly father. It's the will of my father, he says, that I should lose none of all that have been given to me. Think about it. If Jesus did not keep his people to the end, it would be to his everlasting shame, for he would be failing to carry out the will of his heavenly Father. Jesus can no more lose any of his chosen ones, any of his people, than he can dishonor or disobey his heavenly Father. I came to do His will and the Father's will is that I should lose none. And if that's the Father's will, I will lose none. I will not turn them away. I will never cast them out. I will keep them to the end. There's a fifth promise. Verse 44, no one can come to Jesus unless the Father draws him. After the third promise, I suppose we could have thought, well, there might be some not given by the Father who will also come to Jesus. So we heard, promise three, all that the Father gives to Christ will come. But maybe there's a category besides those. Maybe there's some who come who weren't part of those all. But here we see that's not the case. Now, notice the context here is with grumbling, verse 41. They grumble. He can't be this messianic manna from heaven. We know this guy. We know his mom and dad. We know where he's from. He's not from heaven. Where does this guy get off? I'm from heaven. He's from Nazareth. We know Joseph and Mary. So, Jesus hears the grumbling and he says, settle down. There's no point in grumbling. You cannot come. You will not believe unless the Father draws you. That's what he says in verse 44. And to that, many of us are liable to say, well, that's not fair. It's not our fault then. But the Bible would have us draw precisely the opposite conclusion. When Jesus says no one can come unless the father draws him, it is not to say, well, then it's not your fault. Rather, it's to say that if you don't come, it's not Jesus' fault or the gospel's fault. See, the understanding is that, okay, Jesus, if you're so great, why aren't these people coming to you? If you're the Messiah, if you're all that, you're doing miracles, you have this good news, shouldn't they just come? Shouldn't they be drawn to it? Shouldn't they be just flooding into you? When you know this story, he'll die as a convicted criminal on the cross with hardly a soul to be found who wants to be next to him. Has something failed? Well, Jesus hasn't failed. The gospel hasn't failed. God the Father hasn't failed. Rather, Jesus makes this absolutely stunning statement, no one comes unless the Father draws him. Again, that doesn't mean that if you come, you say, no, no, no, you're reprobate, you don't belong here. It does not mean that we do not freely offer the gospel. Jesus freely offers the gospel throughout this book. In fact, the gospel of John is written, we get to the very end, that you might believe and by believing have life in his name. It's the free offer of the gospel. Verse 44 doesn't mean that we aren't responsible. We'll see elsewhere throughout the book that they are castigated in the strongest terms possible for their unbelief. They're responsible for their unbelief. What it means, however, is that God is absolutely sovereign over salvation. Is there any other conclusion to be drawn from verse 44? You cannot come. You cannot come unless the Father draws. In one sense, you could say you'd be hard-pressed to find a more Calvinistic verse in the whole Bible. And yet, to call it Calvinistic is almost blasphemous because there would be no Calvin for 1,500 years. And who ultimately cares what Calvin teaches except that it's in the Bible? It's not a Calvinist verse, it's a Jesus verse. That's why I say it's almost blasphemous to call it Calvinism when it's Christian. Now, the drawing in verses 37 and 34 cannot be reduced to a prevenient grace. There would be many Christians who would say, well, yes, we affirm that Jesus said this, it's in the Bible, in the drawing, but it's a prevenient grace that God gives to everyone. He gives to everyone this sort of prevenient grace that makes you now able, if you make that final step, to come. So it sort of puts you back to some kind of neutral state that now you're able to come. A prevenient grace that he just gives to everyone, and then the final decisive decision is still left up to you. But that will not work with the meaning of this passage, for the drawing in view here does not reach everyone. This is not a prevenient grace that is just showered upon all people indiscriminately. This is in particular, Jesus says, a particular effectual redeeming grace that draws people to Christ. One commentator says, the approach of the soul to God or Christ is not initiated by the man himself, but by a movement of divine grace. Think of Peter's confession in Matthew 16, Jesus, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. And immediately, Jesus says, flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. Jesus does not say God keeps you from coming. It says, rather, you are unable to come unless God draws you. No place for vaunted free will. Our wills are not able to freely choose Christ. They must be made new. Do you see here from the lips of Jesus himself? We have verses to support unconditional election, irresistible grace, perseverance of the saints, effectual atonement, and this verse 44 presumes the sinner's total depravity. You don't have to go to Geneva to find it, you need to go to Jesus. Now, this is not an impetus for inactivity, but rather is a catapult into action. The logic of the Bible is never, well, you can't come unless God draws, so okay, God. No, the impetus is quite the opposite. Pray, therefore, pray for God to move because he needs to move and he can move. Even the hardest heart, the hardest sinner in your life who is so far from Jesus, God can draw them. So we're moved to pray, and I hope you see this, brothers and sisters, we're moved to praise. If you are a Christian this morning, if you are a Christian this morning, it's because of God. Remember when President Obama made those lines famous, infamous to others? You didn't build that. You didn't build that. Whether you agree with that statement regarding business or not, when it comes to your salvation, you didn't build that. You didn't do that. You came only because one prior to your coming chose you and in time regenerated you and drew you to himself. If you have saving faith in Jesus Christ, you are a walking miracle. because you were dead, dead in sins and trespasses, unable to come. I don't care how good your parents were, what kind of church you were in, if you were baptized as an infant, if you grew up in Sunday school your whole life, you needed a miracle to come because no one comes unless God Almighty draws them. And that's your testimony if you're a believer in Jesus Christ. Quickly then, here's promise number six. Everyone who hears from the Father and learns from the Father comes to Jesus. You see that in verse 45? So there is still a coming. If you paid attention to the language of the confession that we read about predestination right here before the sermon, You notice it said that he effectually drawing them to Jesus Christ yet so as they come most freely being made willing by his grace. You've heard me say before, the doctrine of God's sovereignty does not make us puppets on a string because a puppet does not have a will. A puppet is moved by a puppeteer, by an external coercion or compulsion. You just move a string and they move. That's not what God's sovereignty means. God's sovereignty renews your wills. They were dead. They were bent only inclined toward what is evil. And then by an effectual drawing and supernatural and divine light, he gives you a new will that you might will to come. So as a Calvinist, I... have no problem calling you to come to Christ, knowing that the sheep will hear his voice and knowing that when the miracle of regeneration is wrought in your heart, then you can come and you will come. Everyone who hears and learns from the Father comes to Jesus. And don't miss the implication of this promise. If you don't come to Jesus, the implication is you have not heard from the Father and you have not learned from the Father. So much for thinking that there are many, many roads up the mountain that don't have to go through Jesus. Jesus himself says, if you don't come to me, you've not learned from the Father. You've not heard from the Father. It is impossible to be God's true disciple and not come to Christ. Conversely, you are not God's true disciple if you have not come to Christ. That's what he says. Whoever learns from the Father, hears from the Father, comes, infallibly comes. And last, promise seven, verse 47, whoever believes in Jesus has eternal life. The simplest promise is the last. We're revealed these things about election and perseverance and irresistible grace and we believe them and preach them and I commend them to you because they're in the Scriptures. But even Calvin was careful to say, don't get your head lost in the abyss of predestination. Calvin warned against indulging in, quote, curious inquiries about eternal predestination because he knew that some people would say, well, am I chosen? Am I chosen? Am I elect? How do I know? Am I elect? Listen very carefully to what Calvin himself says. They are madmen who seek their own salvation or that of others in the whirlpool of predestination. not keeping the way of salvation which is exhibited before them." And then he says this, faith is a sufficient attestation of the eternal predestination of God. Do you hear that? It's very important. It says, don't go for yourself or for others. Well, in eternity past, if God chose them, are they on the list? Are they predestined? Kevin says, you're going to make yourself mad, crazy, because you don't have access to the eternal recesses of God's mind. What you have access to are the promises of God. And God promises that if you believe and if you have faith, you're His. It's a simple question and a simple equation. Believe and you live forever. That's the promise. Whoever believes in Jesus has now in your possession eternal life. Well, what's the nature of this believing? Are we talking about mere mental assent to true statements about Jesus? True or false? Yes, I got some questions right about Jesus. Well, it's not less than that, but it's more than that. Think of all the words in this passage used to describe our relationship to faith. It's eating, it's drinking, it's coming. It's not just getting a theological test correct. It is not enough to hear without learning, verse 45, and it is not enough to see without also believing, verse 40. All of you have heard. Some have learned. All of you have seen. Some truly believe. The father gives, the father draws, and the call is still for you to come. Is there a miracle at work in your life? Maybe even this morning, a miracle at work in your life. Maybe everyone around you thinks you're a Christian. You know you're not a Christian. You know you haven't really believed this. You know you've just been coming, you've just been going through the motions, someone wants you here. Maybe you've even been a leader in this church and you haven't really been a Christian. Is there a miracle at work in your life? Can you feel the Father drawing you to Himself? Do not kick against the goads. Can you hear the Savior calling? The sheep know His voice. Planned from eternity, accomplished on the cross, and now at work in your life, maybe even right now, to come. Eat. Drink. Believe. Live. And all that the Father has chosen will come. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we give thanks for your word and for the work of Christ. And we come to him now. looking in him for all that we lack, needing from him forgiveness for all that we are, and believing and trusting that he is more than enough if we will but come. We pray in his name. Amen.