I have conflicting thoughts as we come to this passage. I just find it to be the most glorious. As glorious a passage, as revealing a passage as we have in all of Scripture, and at the same time, I feel utterly inadequate to do it justice. We're blessed that we can again come to the Word of God. God gave us this Word through the Apostle. So let's turn. Gospel according to John chapter 6. We'll begin reading in verse 36 and we'll read through verse 47. Let us give Him, though, our ears and our minds and our hearts John 6. I'll begin reading in verse 35. Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen Me, and yet you do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will certainly not cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me, I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life. And I Myself will raise him up on the last day." Therefore the Jews were grumbling about him, because he said, I am the bread that came down from heaven. They were saying, Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, I've 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. Lord, words of thanksgiving just seem inadequate for this Word and these truths that You have revealed to us. Lord, let our hearts be just filled with Him. Let our minds be filled with the knowledge of You. Let our lives be impacted greatly by the words spoken here. In Christ's name, Amen. Back in verse 27, after Jesus had fed the 5,000 and He'd walked across the Sea of Galilee, landed in an instant from the middle of the sea to the western side of the sea. And the people who had been on the eastern side where He had fed the 5,000 found boats and also came across and they found Jesus. And He said to them, Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on Him, the Father, God has set His seal. Now Jesus was saying to them and to all who would hear these words, don't make your life about seeking the things of this world. Don't seek your contentment and your peace in the things of this world. Because all that's of this world is temporary. It's of limited duration. And none of the things of this world can ever bring true peace and true contentment. But the food, he said, which I provide is of eternal value. It will never perish. The food which endures to eternal life is Jesus himself. This food sustains a person, sustains life into and throughout all eternity. He is the food, the only food that truly satisfies the heart and the soul. And Jesus said to them, the true bread from heaven is not just for the sons of Jacob. It's for people from every nation, tribe, and tongue. And this bread feeds not merely our bodies. It gives spiritual nourishment to our souls. It's the Father who's the giver of this bread. He's given His one and only Son the true bread of God who quickens souls to a blessed immortality. So in verse 35, Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will not hunger. He who believes in me will never thirst. The people did not understand. He said, you've seen me and you don't believe in me. They could only think in material, carnal terms. And as we'll see, they would not come to him. Now, what does it mean to come to Christ? He says, you will not come to me. You will not believe. To come to Christ is to forsake the old life of sin and self-indulgence and submit to Him as Lord. It's to believe in Jesus. And to believe in Jesus is to trust in Him totally as the Son of God, to acknowledge in our hearts that salvation comes only through Him, only through faith in Him. And who is it that will come to Christ? Who is it that will come to Christ? Well, in our passage this morning, Jesus answers that question. He said, all that the Father gives me will come to me. And the one who comes to me I will certainly not cast out. He said, I've come down from heaven not to do my own will but to do the will of my Father who sent me. This is the will of Him who sent me, that of all that He's given me, I lose nothing. But raise it up on the last day. I believe there's no passage in all Scripture that's richer than this passage into which we look this morning. Here our Lord brings us into the inner sanctum of the Godhead and reveals to us mysteries of heaven, eternal mysteries, hidden from mankind for thousands of years. The eternal decrees of God, which were revealed by Jesus that day in Capernaum. In just 12 verses here, our Lord sets before us a series of truths, no less than 12 divine truths, as He unfolds before us the covenant of redemption between Father and Son, the eternal decree, the eternal purpose and plan of God in Christ, and the gift, the gift that lies behind the eternal plan of redemption of a people of God. Jesus shows us God's plan of redemption here from God's perspective. And I want to begin by just walking through the passage and looking at the previously unrevealed truths that Jesus unfolds before us here. Jesus the Eternal Son was sent from heaven. Now the rest of us were all born of a woman. So was He, but He was sent from heaven. He was conceived of the Holy Spirit. He came down from heaven to do the will of God the Father, His Father. He came down from heaven to accomplish something, to accomplish the divine will, the eternal purpose of the Father. Salvation of man is not, first and foremost, about us. It's about God, and His glory, and His manifestation of His grace, His goodness, and His love. Jesus tells us, the Father has made a gift of a people, all you who believe, a gift of a people to the Son, and the Son will not lose even one of those given Him by His Father. Is there any more reassuring news if you are in Christ? Jesus said, I will accomplish all that I came to do. All those the Father has given Him, He will raise up at the last day. And that's the day of which He spoke back in chapter 5, verses 28 and 29, when He said, all who are in the tombs will hear His voice. He says this three times here. Verse 39, verse 40, and verse 44. He gives this assurance of our resurrection through eternal life. And He will accomplish all of these things, because it is the Father's will that He do so, and He is always in perfect harmony with the will of His Father. And the Son, therefore, does all that the Father wills. Romans 9, 16, Paul wrote, this doesn't depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God, who has mercy. And so the means now by which this covenant, this eternal decree, the eternal purpose of Father and Son will be achieved is through the incarnation of the Son, through His sinless life, His death atoning for the sins of these very people in verse 37, those given Him by His Father, His cleansing of the guilt and the stain of their sin by the shedding of human blood, His human blood. This is the will of My Father, He says, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life. Do you hear the Word of God? And I Myself will raise him up on the last day. And the blessings that Christ won for those given Him by the Father. were won at the cross and they are applied to people in this life by the Spirit of God imparting spiritual life to spiritually dead sinners, bringing them to faith, to belief in the Son and in His saving work. What an amazing, marvelous plan of God. Now if you've been led to think that as many teach today, They may not use these words, but this is the thrust of what they teach. If you've been led to think that Christ became a man and lived a sinless life and suffered countless indignities and torture and was nailed to a cross and then returned to heaven and waited to see if anybody was going to believe in Him. waited to see if anyone is going to accept Him, accept His salvation. You've heard a gospel that's not the gospel Jesus is teaching here, or that He taught throughout His earthly sojourn. When He came to earth and became a man, He came with a specific purpose, to save those given Him by His Father. That's what He says here. Those given Him by His Father in eternity past, most of whom were not yet even born at that time, But these were those chosen in the Son by the Father, and He accomplished His mission. And, you know, lest there be any doubt as to exactly what it is the Father decreed, the Apostle Paul tells us specifically of some of these blessings that He has decreed for those He has given to His Son. Ephesians 1.3, Paul wrote, "...blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us," get this, "...with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realm," every one, "...in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world." He chose us in Him that we would be holy and blameless before Him. He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, as our brother was telling us this morning. This is His good pleasure to do this. And it's all, verse 6, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In Him, in Christ, Paul goes on, we have redemption through His blood. We've been redeemed from our sin. And the penalty of our sin, we have the forgiveness of our trespasses. All according to nothing we have done, but according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished on us. And in Ephesians 10, Paul tells us that the ultimate objective of this gift from Father to Son, and of the blessings eternally decreed for those given by the Father to the Son, is the summing up of all things, not in us, but in Christ. Things in the heavens and things on the earth. Again, it's not primarily about us, though we have received amazing blessings. We're not the central focus of God's eternal plan and purpose. It's about Him, and it's all by His grace. Let us look upward when we think about these things. Look back to John 6, 35 and following. When Jesus said these things, look at the reaction of the Jews here. It was again one of hostility, of rejection, and derision. Verse 41, Therefore the Jews, and meaning in John's Gospel the Jewish religious leaders, were grumbling about Him. Why were they grumbling about Him? Well, here's why. John tells us specifically, the Jews were grumbling about him because he said, I am the bread that came down from heaven. Well, if you don't believe that, you are lost. And they were lost. He came to his own. John had already written. But those who were his own did not receive him. Their minds were entirely earthbound. They were lost in their sin. They would not lift their minds and their hearts to heavenly things. We see this in the things they were saying to one another. He says he came down from heaven. They say, wait a minute, isn't this the Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, I've come down from heaven? Well, Jesus answered them. And he said, do not grumble among yourselves. And then he unveiled another staggering truth of God's eternal plan. Look at verse 44. No one can come to me. No one is able to come to me. No one has the power to come to me. The word is dunamis, from which we get dynamite. It means power. No one has the ability to come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. Jesus was saying the salvation of any sinner is a work not of man but of God. Jesus recalled the words of Isaiah 54 13 here. He said 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. So this is what Jesus meant when he said, he who has ears to hear, let him hear. Those given by the Father to the Son will hear the voice of God and they will respond in saving faith. That's why Jesus would say, everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me. You can't get to God except through Christ. So we've seen now the people in that crowd had had the privilege of seeing Jesus, of hearing Him preach, of seeing Him heal countless illnesses. They've heard of the good news of the kingdom of God from His very mouth and of eternal life in Him. They had witnessed and had even experienced supernatural signs that plainly affirmed His divinity. And yet, they did not believe in Him. Isn't that incredible? They would not believe in Him. They refused to believe in Him, just like every unbeliever today. They've refused to believe in Him, despite the evidence. Why not? How do people get to this point? How did mankind get to this point? Well, everyone was born at this point. That's right. If we're to rightly and truly grasp what Jesus is showing us here, we have to understand what the human condition really is, what it has been from the time of the fall. In order to have a right understanding of these verses, we have to rightly understand the damage that was done to the human race by sin, done to the heart and mind and soul of every man and woman ever born. We read Genesis and we see that God created Adam to have communion with Him. Adam and Eve were in fellowship with God, but when Adam sinned, God cast him from His presence. He cast all of us from His presence because we are all born in Adam. Adam's sin separated him and all his descendants from God. We come into the world separated from God. And if one is truly to understand the gospel of the grace and mercy of God, one must first understand this truth that all of us came into the world with a nature inclined to sin, a desire to sin, stained with the guilt of sin, and separated from God. We'll read that in Ephesians chapter 2 in just a moment. And left to ourselves, yes, people can say we have free will, and we did. But our will, apart from a work of God in us, will always choose to do that which pleases us the most. And to do anything, for any reason other than the glory of God, is sin. Left to ourselves, we have no desire for true righteousness. We want our bellies filled, as those people did on the mountain at Bethsaida. We want our bank accounts filled. We want shiny things. We lust after all that gives us carnal pleasure. On our own merit, we all fall short of God's righteousness and His glory. And we have no recognition of our need for a Savior, no desire to be delivered from our bondage to sin. This is all the effect of Adam's sin. And sin has not only sullied God's creation and brought death into the world, it's left man without the ability to do anything to extricate himself from the condition. Now, they may not preach that everywhere. That's what the Bible says over and over and over and over again. This is the meaning of verse 44. Read it again, no man is able, no man has the desire or the ability to come to Christ unless the Father draws him. Let's stop taking credit for our own salvation. Apart from regeneration by the Holy Spirit, no one even has any desire to be freed from his condition. Because people love their sin. We loved our sin. We may still have some love of sin in us even after the new birth. But Christ came into the world to reconcile those given Him by His Father to His Father, to return those given Him by His Father to fellowship with God. That's why He came. You know, we hear the arguments of God. If God does all this, He's not fair. He's this, He's that. If we're to rightly understand this teaching of our Lord, we have to understand and acknowledge there is nothing in God's justice or His righteousness or His love that required that He ever do anything to enable anyone to return to His presence. Now men have many delusions concerning their eternal destiny. Some imagine that if there's a God and if He's truly loving, He's obligated to everybody to welcome them back into His favor. Sin stained and all. But that false notion is, of course, based on a fallen human notion of what love is. Some imagine all men are basically good. We hear it at every funeral. He's in a better place. Why do they think that? Because he's basically good. No, none of us are basically good. God says, He saw the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And yet we, we don't think we're so bad. We think most people are basically good. And a truly loving God, according to our corrupted view of what love is, would never send anyone to hell. Well, maybe Hitler, maybe Stalin, maybe Nero. But not our lovable Uncle Leo, who never heard of the flea. Not sweet old Aunt Loretta, who always had cookies and tea for everybody. So what if they didn't believe in Jesus? They were good people. This falsehood doesn't change the reality. You understand the fact that people don't like the Bible does not change the fact that the Bible is true in every word, comma, period. People are basically good, maybe in our eyes and by human standards, but not in God's eyes. That's what God sees when He looks at mankind. I mean, after Genesis 6, I'm sorry, when God saw the wickedness of man on the earth and sent the flood. A thousand years later, King David wrote this, Psalm 14.1, There is no one who does good. The Lord has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. And he answers, They have all turned aside. Together they have become corrupt. There is no one who does good, not even one. Now, we can try to wish these things away, but here they are in the Word of God. What do people do? They try to just ignore the Word of God. This is what God sees, folks, when He looks upon His creation. And what about after Christ came, a thousand years after David? Paul told us in Romans chapter 3, he quoted Psalm 14. There's none righteous, not even one. There's none who understands. There's none who seeks for God. All have turned aside. Together they have become corrupt. In Romans 3.9, Paul quoted directly from Psalm 14. This is after Jesus had accomplished His mission. And Paul wrote, Romans 3.9, What then, are we better than they? Not at all, for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin. Because, Romans 3.23, all have sinned, all fall short of the glory of God. Justification, he said, is a gift of His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus. So, let us understand Jesus is affirming here. This is Jesus affirming here that because of our corrupt nature, we are utterly unable to do such good as could save us. were all inclined to that which offends God. Romans 8, 7, the mindset on the flesh is hostile to God. Those who are in the flesh, meaning have not been born again, cannot please God. Hebrews 11, 6, without faith it is impossible, impossible to please God. And the influence of sin has infected every aspect of a man's nature, his thoughts, his desires, his will, the way he views everything, his worldview. This is what's meant by the term total depravity. It doesn't mean that people never do anything that we might call good. Even unbelievers will do things, give of themselves for the benefit of others. But that's not going to win them eternal life. only a perfect obedience to God can win eternal life. The only works of man that are righteous in God's sight are those which flow from faith in Him. The motive, you see, of the unbeliever can never be entirely without sin because the only truly right motive is the glory of God. We want to believe people are good, but God tells us in His Word that sin has left us utterly unable to respond to His call to come to Him apart from and unless there is a supernatural work done in us by Him. That's what he's saying. Because it's into this condition that all of Adam's descendants come into this world. And that's why Jesus says, I'll read it again. No one can, no one is able to come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. In verse 65, Jesus repeated these words. So there's no mistake. There he said, no one can come to me unless it has been granted him from the Father. No one can. Again, the word dunamai, to be able, to be possible, to have the power. No man has the power, the ability to come to Me. And then he said, unless the Father draws him. And you know what this word in the Greek is that is rendered here draws? Eight times it shows up in the New Testament. And here's how it's translated. Dragged, drag, draw, drew, and haul. The drawing of which this verse speaks, speaks of a powerful and effectual call of God. It's the same word that was used in Acts 16, 19 when we read that Paul and Silas were dragged into the forum. That's the word we're talking about. Acts 21, 30, Paul was dragged from the temple. James 2, 6, the rich dragged the poor before the judgment seats. This is an effectual calling, an effectual drawing. And this drawing by God of those He has given to His Son is said by some to be irresistible in the sinner. I think there's a better way to put this. A better way to convey this thought is that the grace of God is effectual and will accomplish its purpose in those that He has given to His Son. Restoring them to spiritual life and to fellowship with God, when then they will begin to choose the things of God. Blessed truth, of course, is that the one who is drawn actually gets there. He whom the Father draws is raised to life. I will certainly raise him up on the last day, says the Son. I know this is hard for us to understand. But we're not going to get a test on our understanding. We're not going to get an intellectual grilling when the judgment comes. The question is going to be, did you believe in my Son? Did you trust in Him? Did you trust in His Word? Did you trust in my Word? And there's something else that maybe will help us to get a little better understanding of this. Something we have to realize, though in truth we can't understand this either. But God exists. God has always existed. And God always will exist outside of time. Now, I've just put before you a concept we can't grasp. God created time for us so we could keep track of things, give us a schedule. He's outside of time. He's not looking down to see what happens. He's not responding to events that occur in time. His decrees are from all eternity. They don't reflect His reaction to things we think, do, or say. They reflect His own purpose and will, His own good pleasure. He's outside time, folks. He works in time. But that's for our benefit. And He knew, before He created the universe, before He formed the first man from the dust of the earth, He knew the man was going to refuse to submit to His authority. All eternity was laid before Him. Before He created anything, He knew that left to His own free will, no man would choose to obey Him. That all men would sin against Him. That all men would seek to serve themselves as we still do. Before He created anything, He knew that not even one of the people He would create would be without sin and would be worthy of living with Him in glory forever. That's why He has this plan. And that if any were to gain entrance into His glory, it was going to have to be by a sovereign act of His grace. Because we are unable unless He draws us. In his letter to the Ephesian Christians, Paul laid before his readers the true condition of all humanity, the saving truth that God alone sovereignly raises to spiritual life those He has given to His Son, those of whom Jesus spoke here in John chapter 6, verse 37, 39, 44. Here's Ephesians chapter 2, verse 1. He's writing to Christians now. And Paul says, and you were dead, spiritually dead, in your trespasses and sins. Obviously they weren't physically dead or he wouldn't be writing them a letter. He's talking about their spiritual condition. You were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked, according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the Spirit who is now working in the sons of disobedience. And he says this, "...among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature..." Hear this, "...children of wrath, even as the rest." There we were. But God, in eternity past, had given His children, those He would adopt as His children, to His Son. God, being rich in mercy because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. We were all dead, not sick, dead. Colossians 2.13, written near the same time as the letter to Ephesus. When you were dead, spiritually dead, in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions. Why did God do this? Why would He do this? Why did He make us spiritually alive? Well, Paul answers that question in the next verse, Ephesians 2, 7. He did it so that in the ages to come, He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. How can He show us His grace if we're the ones who had the final word on all of this? Churches today, unlike in the time of the Reformation, Churches today are populated with people who will say they believe the Word of God, but when it comes to these passages, dozens of such passages that teach these truths, they try to ignore them. Some deny them. Some distort them. Why? Because in the fallen human mind, we can't understand all these truths. Or because in their fallen human sense of justice, they don't like them. We're not going to be tested on whether we like these truths. We're going to be tested on whether we believe the Word of God, both written and incarnate. God said, Isaiah 46.10. My brother recited this for us this morning. My purpose will be established. I will accomplish all my good pleasure. Some say God's unfair. God's under obligation to who? God under obligation to anybody here? He's under obligation to nobody. In fact, justice, and God is just, requires that all sin against God be punished, and the punishment is set forth in the first five books of Moses. It's punishable by death. And yet it was and is His good pleasure, despite this, to gather a people for Himself, to adopt them as His children, people with whom He will dwell for all eternity. And from the Garden of Eden He declared that there would be a way, that the seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent, would reverse the damage that Satan had caused and that Adam had caused. 2,000 years later, God promised Abraham that through one of his descendants that God would restore his blessing to people from every nation. He was going to create a nation from Abraham, but the blessing that would come through the seed, through Jesus Christ, who's talking that day, the one who was given this gift, would be for people from every nation. And now, here in verse 37, Jesus reveals to everyone who's there, it's a gift. This people is a gift from the Father to the Son. The Father has given a people to the Son as a gift. That's the truth. It's not clear to me why anyone in a church would not want to believe this, would not embrace this. All those whom the Father will give to the Son will come to the Son. This is great news. In verse 39, Jesus said, "...of all that the Father has given to the Son, none will be lost." This is the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints, taught here in unmistakable terms. He's saying that if you are given by the Father to the Son, He will raise you up. He will preserve you to the end. I'll read you a couple of passages in just a moment here. Because on the last day, Judgment Day, Jesus will raise up His people, just as He said in chapter 5, verses 28 and 29. The point is, this gift from Father to Son will be kept and guarded to the very end. Here's Jesus again in chapter 10 of the same Gospel, verse 27. My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me, and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of My hand, My Father, who has given them to Me. This is no one-verse doctrine. is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand." And then these words, I and the Father, are one. One in thought, one in love, one in harmony, one in will. Look again at verse 38. This is the will of the Father. This is the will of God, that those given by the Father to the Son will be raised up and none will be lost. Romans 8, 28. We know that God causes all things, including the difficult things of this life, to work together for good for those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. That's that drawing that Jesus talked about in verse 44 here. For those whom He foreknew, all those who are part of this gift from the Father to the Son, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son. So that He would be the firstborn among many brethren. And these whom He predestined, He called, this is the effectual calling. And these whom He called, He justified, declared them not guilty of their sins, because Christ took the punishment. And these whom He justified, He also glorified. It's a done deal. And, you know, in Paul's last letter, 2 Timothy 1-9, he spoke of God who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, and hear this, which was granted us in Christ Jesus, when? From all eternity. From all eternity. This is an eternal decree. And Paul wrote, 2 Thessalonians 2.13, We should always give thanks to God for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit, being set apart by the Spirit of God in faith. You know, again, I won't pretend I can fully grasp, or even begin to grasp in some cases, the things of the plan of God. But there is no doubt about what His Word says. And our response to what God has graciously done in us. Colossians 3.12, So as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. If you want to know what God, who has done this great thing in you, wants to see in you, here it is. He wants to see a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Now what about free will? Well men may do whatever they choose to do. The problem is everyone comes into the world in bondage to sin. Romans 6, 6. in bondage to a sin nature, in bondage to a desire to please ourselves. And all men will choose to do that which we most strongly desire. It's our will and our desire that He changes in us when He gives us a new birth. And apart from that regenerating work of God in us, we will always choose sin. So yes, the will is free to make its choices, but it's ruled by our sinful desires and our sin nature. And we're always going to choose to serve self unless God does a work in us. All men choose, free from any coercion from outside of us, to sin against God, to reject Christ. No one's forcing us. Men sin because that's what they choose to do. People like sin. People love their sin. Apart from this work of God and a sinner, there is none who seeks God. I didn't write that. King David, a man after God's own heart, wrote that. And Paul, the apostle to whom Jesus spoke at least six times, affirmed it in Romans 3. Because men sin freely, all are responsible for their sin and are accountable to God both for their sin and for their unbelief. Well, now the good news. And don't miss this. Jesus did accomplish the redemption of a people that He came to accomplish. Hallelujah. All that His Father has given Him either have come to Him or will come to Him. That is certain. And what else is certain is He will raise us all up with Him on the last day. His mission was a total success. It is finished, He said. Look back to John 17 in the Lord's Prayer. Verse 4, he says to his father, I glorified you on the earth, having accomplished the work which you have given me to do. Rody Bauckham puts it this way, Jesus came with a shopping list and he got every item. Philippians 1.6, Paul wrote, I'm confident of this very thing, that he who began this good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. These doctrines are taught over and over and over again in Scripture. They're affirmed in the writings of Matthew, Mark, Luke, Peter, James, and John. They're the words of our Lord Jesus. They're affirmed in at least nine of Paul's epistles. I've read you some. I had a whole list of them here. I moved them into the edited out section. There's no lack of clarity about what God's Word says. William Hendrickson wrote, these passages affirm an eternal decree of God that cannot be changed, a calling that cannot be revoked, an inheritance that cannot be defiled, a foundation that cannot be shaken, a seal that cannot be broken, and a life that cannot perish. There's some wonderfully reassuring news here. The one who comes to me, Jesus said, I will certainly not cast out. He tells us, come to me. Look, don't spend your time wondering, am I elect? Am I not elect? Come to Him. Come to Him. Recognize your condition. Recognize what our situation really is. We're born under the wrath of God. Come to Him. This is the only right response to His words here. This is not some intellectual discussion. This is Christ telling us the one and only way of eternal life, the one and only way to escape paying the penalty for our own sin. And because our sin is against an infinite God, the punishment will be infinite. And yet, I know some still question God when they come to these passages. There were some of those in Paul's day too. There'll be some next week. There's some across town. They're all over, questioning God. Romans 9, 19, Paul answered them. You will say to me then, why does he still find fault? For who resists his will? On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? Who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, Why did you make me like this? Will it? Or does the potter not have the right over the clay to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use? What if God, what if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? And He did so, Paul tells us, to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy. You see, if there were no punishment for sin, we wouldn't see the mercy of God. We just all blissfully take our sin into heaven. He did so to make known the riches of His glory. upon vessels of mercy, that's you who believe, which He prepared beforehand for glory." If you are trusting in Him and repent, you need not wonder whether you're elect. Don't get caught up in that. If you're trusting in Him and repent, you have every assurance. You've been redeemed. You've been pardoned of your sin. You've been saved from the penalty of your sin. Some ask, well, if God's already made this decree, then why should we then evangelize the lost? What's the point? This is the view of those who would be called hyper-Calvinists. They say they're basically fatalists, determinists. That's not what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches that we are to evangelize the lost because the sharing of the gospel is what He's commanded us to do. Go into every nation with His gospel. It's the reason we've been left here. and have not been directly escorted by angels into heaven. And it's because prayer and the witnessing of the saints is the very means that God uses to draw sinners to himself. That drawing he does, he does it through the prayers of the saints, of those he's adopted as his children, and through the testimonies of the saints. That's how he draws, and by the work of his spirit. Isn't it amazing that he would include us in this work of gathering the sheep? I hope you don't need any further reasons than those. This passage should encourage us to evangelize. We can share the gospel knowing for certain that all those given by the Father to the Son will come. and assured that all who come to Jesus, He will receive. And the Father has granted to us the privilege of sharing in this blessed work, of gathering His love gift to His Son. We can't, as fallen men, fully grasp all the mysteries of God. Maybe we can't grasp any of them. We don't have the capacity to fully grasp the things of God. Secret things belong to the Lord our God. That when we stand before Him, He's not going to give us a test on our understanding of these things. The test is going to be of one question. When you were in the world, did you truly believe My Word? Did you believe in Me? Did you believe in My Son? Did you trust in Him? Did you turn from your sin and turn to Him? Did you believe in Him? Did you trust in His offering of Himself on the cross as the payment for your sins? Did you recognize your need for a Savior? This is the one test we will have to pass. Did you believe? And I hope and pray that there's nobody gathered here who are among those who resent or deny the sovereign will of God and the sovereign power of God in our salvation. It's okay that He did it, that it's all a work of His. How prideful can we be to think that we can do something to merit eternity and glory with God? I hope we're not among those who arrogantly seek to impose what they think is our higher sense of morality and justice on the infinite, perfect, holy, and righteous God. I hope we're not among those who would arrogantly sit in judgment of a God who we meet in the Bible. Sadly, there are far too many of those in churches. His ways, brethren, are not our ways. His thoughts are not our thoughts. His ways are higher than our ways. They're beyond our capacity to understand them. We can't even understand eternity. Let us realize and never doubt that all that He does, including His work of giving some sinners to Christ and cleansing them, and of leaving others in their sin, is right and just, and that He is holy and righteous and just. Let us understand He has never sent anyone to hell and never will send anyone to hell who did not and does not justly deserve it. And He never will. Why did God not leave us sovereign over our own salvation? Because if He had, nobody would have come to Him. Look at Paul's words. There's none righteous. There's no island of righteousness in any man, as some foolishly say. That's another Arminian fiction. There is none who does good. There is none who seeks God. Psalm 14, Psalm 53, Romans 3. I don't know who's elect. But who's not? Nobody does. I do know God's eternal purpose in this gift. I know why Jesus came. He came to give Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed we have committed. To purify for Himself a people for His own possession. We belong to Him. Do you hear that? We belong to Him. So what should we do? Hebrews 12, 14, pursue sanctification. Seek to become more like Christ each day. Philippians 2, 15, prove yourselves blameless and innocent. You're not going to earn life and glory with God, but you can demonstrate Christ's likeness in this world, in this life. 2 Peter 3, 14, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless. In all wisdom and insight, He made known to us the mystery of His will according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him, with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ. This is what the love gift from the Father to the Son has been blessed by. I pray we all hear our Lord this morning and receive this news with joy, embrace it, rejoice in these glorious blessed truths. And may our response to this window into the saving work of the triune God be one of gratitude, worship, awe, and repentance for His kingdom and for His glory. In Christ's name, Amen.