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♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ 13.
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And as he came out of the temple, one of the disciples said to him, Look, teacher, what wonderful stones and what wonderful buildings.
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And Jesus said to him, Do you see these great buildings? There will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.
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And as he sat on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter and James and John and Andrew asked him privately,
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Tell us when these things be, and what will be the sign when all these things are about to be accomplished.
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And Jesus began to say to them, See that no one leads you astray. Many will come in my name, saying,
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I am he, and they will lead many astray. And when you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed.
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This must take place, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom.
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There will be earthquakes in various places. There will be famines. These are but the beginning of the birth pains.
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But be on your guard, for they will deliver you over to councils, and you will be beaten in synagogues, and you will stand before governors and kings for my sake to bear witness before them.
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And the gospel must first be proclaimed to all nations. And when they bring you to trial and deliver you over, do not be anxious beforehand what you are to say, but say whatever is given you in that hour.
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For it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit. And brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father, his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death.
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And you will be hated by all for my namesake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.
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But when you see the abomination of desolation standing where he ought not to be, let the reader understand.
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Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let the one who is on the housetop not go down, nor enter his house to take anything out.
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And let the one who is in the field not turn back to take his cloak. And alas for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days.
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Pray that it may not happen in winter. For in those days there will be such tribulation as has not been from the beginning of the creation that God created until now, and never will be.
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And if the Lord had not cut short the days, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect whom
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He chose, He shortened the days. And then if anyone says to you, look, here is the
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Christ, or look, there He is, do not believe it. For false Christs and false prophets will arise and perform signs and wonders to lead astray, if possible, the elect.
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But be on guard. I have told you all things beforehand. But in those days after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.
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And then they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory. And then
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He will send out the angels and gather His elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.
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From the fig tree learn its lesson. As soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near.
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So also when you see these things taking place, you know that He is near at the very gates.
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Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.
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Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away. But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven nor the
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Son, but only the Father. Be on guard. Keep awake. For you do not know when the time will come.
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It is like a man going on a journey when he leaves home and puts his servants in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to stay awake.
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Therefore, stay awake. For you do not know when the Master of the house will come, in the evening or at midnight or when the rooster crows or in the morning, lest He come suddenly and find you asleep.
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And what I say to you, I say to all, stay awake."
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Let's pray. Lord, as we read this passage, we recognize that You are sovereign over all things and that You have everything planned out for our good and for Your glory.
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And Lord, we rejoice in this. We rejoice that we can trust in You, that You are a faithful God.
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And Lord, as we live our lives, I pray that we would be on guard, that we would stay awake, that we would eagerly and anxiously await
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Your return, that we would live our lives to the praise of Your glory, that we would fight our sin, that we would put to death the deeds of the flesh.
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Lord, help us to live lives that are pleasing to You, that are worthy to the calling to which we have been called.
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Lord, let us remember that You are God and that You will have
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Your way and that one day soon You will be returning for Your church. Lord, we are so thankful for this.
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We're thankful that You will return, that You will judge the world and that You will put in order everything that remains.
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So Lord, as we listen to the sermon this morning and as we sing songs, as we fellowship,
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Lord, I pray that we would remember these great truths and that we would be on guard, that we would be awake, that we would be ready for Your glorious return.
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Thank You, Lord, in Jesus' name, Amen. Let's turn in our
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Bibles, please, to the 6th chapter of John once again. It's a little awkward, difficult, to read through Mark 13 without comment, knowing that it is a passage that I believe is so readily misunderstood by many.
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Most of that passage, Mark 13, is addressing the fall of Jerusalem that took place in A .D.
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70. Jesus was talking about those days when the buildings of Jerusalem and the temple would be, of course, destroyed and that took place.
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Within that generation that He was speaking to, those days of tribulation, the problem is that many evangelicals take those prophecies of A .D.
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70 and not understanding the importance and implication of that event, and they project those prophecies to the end times and say these are prophecies of the
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Second Coming. And I would argue, I don't have time to go into it, but when
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He's talking about those days in this generation, He's talking about all of that with view to the destruction of that generation.
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And all the Christians fled Jerusalem when that occurred. The significant turning point is with verse 32 when
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Jesus said, but concerning that day, singular, He was addressing those days, the days when
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Jerusalem would be destroyed, but of that day, in other words, the Second Coming, no one knows the hour, but you need to be watchful and ready because you don't know when it's going to take place.
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So may the Lord help us to always be ready, to be on guard, as the
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Lord Jesus said, stay awake for you do not know when the master of the house, the
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Lord, is returning. Well, we are working our way through the fourth discourse of Jesus here in the fourth gospel, and we have
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John 6 before us, hopefully. In this discourse, the
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Lord Jesus reveals Himself to this crowd as the true bread from heaven that God the
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Father sent in order to give eternal life or spiritual life to the world. Of course, when the
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Scripture speaks of Jesus Christ who gives life to the world, it's not a claim that everybody in the world, everyone in the world will be saved, will receive eternal life.
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It's merely saying that the entire world, of course, is without life, that people everywhere are spiritually dead, but Jesus Christ brings life to the world.
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And the fact is, the reason there is true life in the world today, there are Christians who enjoy the gift of eternal life and the new life in Christ is because Jesus Christ came as a result of His Father sending
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Him. The Father sent His Son into the world to give life to the world, and He did that. And we enjoy that life today.
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Now, if we go back and consider what unfolds before us in this sixth chapter of John, we see quite a fascinating transition take place between the beginning of the chapter and the end of the chapter.
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The chapter begins with well over 5 ,000 men and women who wanted to come and take
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Jesus by force to make Him king. It would seem that upon Jesus feeding the multitude with bread and fish the day before, they believed
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Him to be the promised prophet, even the Messiah, one like unto Moses. They would have
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Him to be their king. Well, to prevent their desires from being realized,
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Jesus first left them and went off to a mountain alone to pray, and then He actually left the area that night, perhaps avoiding to wake up and see them in the morning again, wanting to make
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Him king. And He went across the sea to another part of Galilee, but they followed
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Him along the shore and they found Him the next morning. And so Jesus here in this discourse becomes more direct with them, and by the end of John chapter 6, these 5 ,000 men plus women and children all departed from Him, and only 12,
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His 12 disciples stayed with Him, and they were having their doubts. And so through the course of this chapter,
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John chapter 6, He whittles down this crowd who wanted to make Him king and revealed
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Himself to them for He truly was and essentially taught them that the only way they could come into favor with God is if God in His sovereignty was merciful and gracious to them.
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And so He thinned out the crowds, as it were, and He did so by preaching to them very clearly, forthrightly, the sovereign grace of God and salvation.
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He taught to them the doctrine of election, predestination, sovereign grace, effectual call, and they didn't want anything to do with it.
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And so He gave forth this discourse to this crowd, teaching them the spiritual truth regarding their true spiritual condition and regarding His true spiritual authority.
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He emphasized their inability and unwillingness to come to Him in faith in order to receive the gift of eternal life.
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And again, He set before them very clearly the only way they possibly could come to Him on the terms that He had declared to them is if His Father, God the
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Father, would enable them to do so by His sovereign grace. They did not and would not receive this teaching from Him.
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And so again, by the time the chapter ends, concludes, we read that all these would -be followers were fed up with Him.
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They had enough of His teaching and they walked away in unbelief and no doubt with disappointment.
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He didn't realize their desires. And oftentimes people will react to us in the same way.
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We do not offer them the Jesus of their desires. They find what we're offering them is not what they expected or wanted.
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And so again, by the end of John chapter 6, only His twelve disciples remained, but even they had been troubled with what
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Jesus had taught the crowds that day. Well, imagine their disillusionment. Jesus, you know, a few hours ago we had 5 ,000 people that wanted to make you king.
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Now we've got nobody. You can imagine that they were somewhat disappointed and disillusioned themselves.
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Really let them off the hook. Well, now's your opportunity. You want to go away also? Here's your chance.
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And of course Peter responded, Lord, where are we going to go? You've got the words of eternal life. So they stuck it out, even in their confusion and perhaps disappointment and disillusionment.
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What the Lord Jesus did here in John chapter 6 was really contrary to all the counsel of modern church growth pundits.
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He did not deal with this crowd as would be recommended to him by church leaders today, unfortunately.
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Gatherings, however, are all too like this crowd at the beginning of John chapter 6 that come to churches because the kind of Jesus that this crowd was looking for oftentimes is the kind of Jesus that they're being presented by preachers, by pulpits.
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There's a lot of would -be followers and they're coming to Jesus because of what they perceive they're going to receive from him.
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And as we've pointed out before, oftentimes what God will initially begin to draw his people unto himself by some very real, practical, felt concern, personal needs, and we're seeking help, we're seeking relief, and so we come initially to Jesus.
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But if there's any true reality to that spiritual endeavor, we come to realize we ought to be seeking
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Jesus for who he is, not just because of what he can give us. And when we start proclaiming that kind of message, we may get the same kind of reaction that these people gave to Jesus here in John chapter 6.
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The fact is that fallen man does not like to hear that he deserves hell due to his sin and that there's actually no way he can remedy himself from his condition.
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And so when they hear that only God can deliver them, and he'll only do so if he chooses to do so, it both humbles them and angers them as well.
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Fallen man has no natural affinity to God, the true God of the
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Bible. And so when he's set forth in his sovereignty in dispensing grace and salvation, people react and reject him and reject that kind of message.
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Spurgeon once wrote a sermon I pulled it off my shelf yesterday and took a look at it, thought
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I would give this little quote from it. He entitled the sermon Our Manifesto. And he spoke about preaching
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God's free sovereign grace to the world and what kind of reaction we get from that.
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Spurgeon wrote, We are sure that the gospel we have preached is not after men because men do not take to it.
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It is opposed even to this day, middle and 19th century London, if anything is hated bitterly, it's the out and out gospel of the grace of God, especially if that hateful word sovereignty is mentioned with it.
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Dare to say he will have mercy on whom he will have mercy and he will have compassion on whom he will have compassion and furious critics will revile you without stint.
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The modern religionist not only hates the doctrine of sovereign grace, but he raves and rages at the mention of it.
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He would sooner hear you blaspheme than preach election by the Father, atonement by the
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Son, or regeneration by the Spirit. If you want to see a man worked up till the satanic is clearly uppermost, let some of the new divines hear you preach a free grace sermon.
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The gospel which is after men will be welcomed by men, but it needs a divine operation upon the heart and mind to make a man willing to receive into his utmost soul this distasteful gospel of the grace of God.
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My brethren, do not try to make it tasteful to carnal minds. Hide not the offense of the cross lest you make it of none effect.
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The angles and corners of the gospel are its strength. To tear them off is to deprive it of power.
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Toning down is not the increase of strength but the death of it. Why, even among the sects, you must have noticed that their distinguishing points are the horns of their power, and when these are practically omitted, the sect is a feat.
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Learn, then, that if you take Christ out of Christianity, Christianity is dead. If you remove grace out of the gospel, the gospel is gone.
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If the people do not like the doctrine of grace, give them all the more of it, that our gospel offends the king's enemies, is no regret to us.
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And, of course, he was a champion of proclaiming the grace of God. Commonly, Spurgeon, though, that aspect of his preaching is forgotten.
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In fact, Iain Murray, a generation ago, wrote the book The Forgotten Spurgeon, in which he brought out the fact that Spurgeon was solidly reformed in his understanding and preaching.
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Now, just by way of review, last week, as we began to consider this discourse, we came to verses 30 through 40, and it's really a section of this discourse that we could describe as God the
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Father sent Jesus to give eternal life to his elect. And as we considered last week, we read first the crowd challenging
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Jesus in verses 30 and 31. Therefore they said to him, What sign will you perform then, that we may see it and believe you?
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What work will you do? Our fathers ate the manna in the desert. As it's written, he gave them bread from heaven to eat.
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They wanted him to prove himself to be a second Moses coming to them.
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Our Lord responded to their challenge. He corrected the crowd in verses 32 and 33.
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Then Jesus said to them, Most assuredly I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but my
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Father gives you the true bread from heaven, for the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.
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Well, the crowd then, in response and reaction to Jesus, the crowd requested a continual supply of this bread, verse 34.
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And they said to him, Lord, give us this bread always. They wanted this bread that would enable them to live forever.
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However, it's clear from the context, it had not yet registered in their thinking that Jesus himself was that bread.
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They were still looking for some bread, physically probably, practically, that would enable them no longer to become hungry.
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And so then Jesus declared himself to be the true bread from heaven in verses 35 through 40.
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And Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. He who comes to me shall never hunger. He who believes in me shall never thirst.
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But I said to you that you have seen me, and yet you do not believe. All that the
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Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will by no means cast out.
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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 the
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Father who sent me, that of all he has given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day.
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And this is the will of him who sent me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the last day.
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Well, we began to break down this paragraph last week somewhat, and we pointed out in verse 35a there's one of the clear statements of deity on the part of the
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Lord Jesus. The first two words of that statement, I am the bread of life, was
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Jesus making the claim he was the Jehovah of the Old Testament who appeared to Moses in the burning bush.
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Moses asked him, What name shall I tell the Israelites? What name is yours that I should tell them you sent me?
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Tell them I am who sent you. And hear Jesus when he makes this proclamation, Ego eimi,
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I am the bread of life. He was making this claim that he was God. And then
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Jesus' claim to grant the fullness of eternal life is found in the second clause of verse 35.
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He who comes to me shall never hunger. He who believes in me shall never thirst. Jesus Christ is making it very clear that true meaning, true everlasting enjoyment in this life is bound up in him.
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Christ is at the heart and the center of all creation. Life is in him.
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And so we read of the centrality of Jesus Christ. And as Christians we recognize that, or at least we should, and we ought to live accordingly.
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Because Jesus Christ himself is the source of life, the purpose of life, the way of life, the greatest blessing of life.
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With him is the possession of life. He gives meaning. He's very the source of meaning for life, power of life, assurance of life, and certainly the promise of future life.
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In Christ is everything. And Paul argued you are complete in him.
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And so we should attempt, as we read and study the word of God, and we hear Jesus preaching, to make sure there's nothing that obscures our sight of him and value of him.
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He is all in all. Jesus Christ is to us life itself. Jesus said,
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I am the way, the truth, and the life. He is our peace. He is our hope. He is our very life.
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And so let all who believe on him confess that we are in him and seek to be satisfied in him.
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Even again as we profess in faith that we are complete in him, as the scriptures say, let us certainly be content in him all to the glory of God.
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And the one who comes to see this in him and trust themselves to him, he is promised that that one shall never hunger and never thirst.
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There is a settlement of the soul, a satisfaction, a peace that is characteristic of the
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Christian who truly sees, understands, and lives with the reality
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Jesus Christ is all in all. And in him I'm okay.
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And regardless of whatever else is going on in this world. Nevertheless, we read in verse 36 that the crowd continued in unbelief.
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He declared to them that although the true spiritual and eternal life was in him and would be given to them that believe on him, none of them actually did so.
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None of them. No one present had responded to him in true faith, believing on him for who he was in truth.
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And so our Lord declared these words to this gathering. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet you do not believe.
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He wasn't talking about just some of those that were present. He was talking about all of those present.
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I would assume accepting his 12 disciples or at least 11 of them. The fact is there was something very defective and deficient about these people and that they failed to see him for who he is.
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There was something very deviant and distorted that these people refused to believe on him.
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Given the remarkable signs that had already borne witness to his true identity, even the incontrovertible proof of his person.
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You've seen the signs and yet you don't believe. And yet we recognize there was nothing really unique about this gathering of people than any gathering of people throughout history.
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For this is how the word of God portrays all people in this world unless mercy and grace imparts life to raise them from their spiritually dead condition.
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People do not have the ability or the desire in and of themselves to believe on Jesus.
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In spite of all the signs that you can lay before them, all the miracles that will not produce saving faith, it will gain a fascinated crowd, but it will not produce conversion.
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You remember in Luke 16 with the rich man and Lazarus, they both died and then they went to hell and the rich man became very concerned as he was in torments.
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He called out to Father Abraham whom he saw in the distance where Lazarus, the pauper, was being comforted by Abraham.
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Abraham, send Lazarus back to my house and speak to my five brothers lest they come to this place of torment.
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And Jesus in telling this story, and it wasn't a parable, there were actually names, persons mentioned, it was a literal account.
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Abraham told, Jesus had Abraham saying to this rich man, they have
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Moses and the prophets, they have the scriptures. And the rich man responded, oh, they won't believe
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Moses and the prophets, but if they saw a man come back from the dead like Lazarus, then they'd believe.
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And Jesus again said to Abraham, if they did not believe Moses and the prophets, they would not believe even if somebody came back from the dead.
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No miracle, even if we could raise a dead man to life right here, that would not convert a single soul.
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It takes the power of God, the work of God in the soul through the holy scriptures.
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They have Moses and the prophets, Jesus said to Abraham, and that is the means that God uses to bring salvation to his people through grace, through sovereign grace.
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And somehow there are those who argue today that we need to have a powerful religion, a powerful
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Christianity, where people see miracles and signs and then they will believe. No, it might get you 5 ,000 people that want to claim
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Jesus as king, but it's a faulty faith. They have a wrong view of things, a wrong view of the kingdom, a wrong view of themselves, and a wrong view of Jesus.
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And when you begin to proclaim the sovereign grace of God and Jesus Christ, you'll watch that crowd thin out real quickly because people do not like this kind of message as Virgin wrote about, as we saw earlier.
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The holy scriptures, the written word of God, do not present a favorable picture of natural man's condition.
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The word of God teaches that all people, of course, are fallen, lost, spiritually blind, enslaved to Satan, and dead in sin.
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That's how we're born into this world. In a word, all people everywhere, in terms that have been used since the early days of the
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Protestants, are totally depraved. And this is why we need a spiritual life from outside of us to come to us.
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God, in his mercy and grace, has to impart spiritual life to us. Because, again, the
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Bible teaches us, the word of God teaches us, just being born into this world, unless we're transformed by the grace of God, we're going to abide in death.
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It's all up to the mercy and grace of God because we are powerless to bring about a transition, even into faith in Jesus Christ, apart from the revelation of God himself to the soul.
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And Jesus makes this very clear in this passage. We won't go through that list because we have at other times, but clearly, man, fallen man, is described as spiritually blind, ignorant, proud, self -willed, and enslaved.
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As well as helpless to bring remedy to himself, fallen man is lost, he is spiritually dead.
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Only through God's grace working in the soul to bring one to faith in Jesus Christ is this sinful condition corrected and conquered.
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It has to begin with God. We live in a God -centered universe, although fallen man thinks he's at the center of all things.
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God is the center of all things. And so Jesus, in these few words, declared to them their depravity.
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But I said to you that you have seen me and yet you do not believe. There was an unwillingness, but also an incapability on their part because they were sinners.
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They had seen many miracles and signs, but they did not believe. And what was true of that 5 ,000 plus is true of any group of people anywhere.
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The fact is sin has rendered us not only unwilling, but also unable to truly see
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Him for who He is, so as to believe on Him for the salvation of our souls.
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We don't have that capability, that capacity, apart from the grace of God.
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And so even though the Lord Jesus spoke of the unwillingness and inability of fallen man to come to Him, He declared in verse 37, nevertheless
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God would save His elect through Jesus Christ. Jesus begins to proclaim sovereign grace.
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The Lord Jesus declared the absolute truth that the elect of God would be saved unto eternal life.
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Jesus declared in verse 37, all that the Father gives me will come to me and the one who comes to me
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I will by no means cast out. And so our Lord gave this assuring word in verse 37 that even though none believed, all would not be lost,
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Jesus Christ would see to it that there would be some, in fact many, from every nation saved.
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This verse 37 is very rich if you look at it closely. In fact we would argue, for those who have ears to hear, it affirms three of the five doctrines of grace that historically characterizes
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Reformed theology. Three out of five is in John 6, 37.
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In Sunday School we're presently addressing the subject, what is a Reformed church? And we've stated there that there are at least ten principles that characterize a
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Reformed church historically. These include the church holding to the five solas of the
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Reformation, as well as the five doctrines of grace, or commonly called, or referred to as the doctrines of Calvinism.
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Just by quick summary, for those that may not be informed about these matters, what are the five solas of the
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Protestant Reformation? Well these are five foundational principles which Protestants of Europe espoused, which eventually led to their separation from Roman Catholicism.
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Because Rome did not believe in these five principles, these five solas.
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They were believed historically by all Reformed or Protestant denominations that broke from Rome.
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Again, these five principles are commonly known by five Latin phrases, each phrase containing the word sola.
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Sola is spelled differently depending on the noun that it's an adjective, and depending on the case of the noun in Latin, it changes the form of the word sola.
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But we have these five principles. First, sola sceptura. Second, sola fide.
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Third, sola gratia. Fourth, sola Christus. And fifth, sola deo gloria.
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And these five expressions or principles may be translated and explained as follows.
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The truth of God is known by scripture alone. Sola scriptura. And the scriptures alone teach the justification before God, in other words, the forgiveness of sins and coming into a right relationship with God, is through faith alone.
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Sola fide. And that the whole of salvation is by God's grace alone.
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Sola gratia. Through Jesus Christ alone. Sola Christus. And that work of salvation is accomplished for the glory of God alone.
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Sola deo gloria. And so that's the meaning of those five Latin phrases. And these are the main tenets and principles that were espoused through the
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Protestant Reformation. Rome did not believe these. Protestants do.
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But in addition to these five solas, Protestants have historically espoused five doctrines of grace, which are commonly referred to as the five doctrines of Calvinism, even though these five doctrines were articulated as five 50 years after Calvin died.
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These were the doctrines of Protestant churches in Europe. And they were articulated by a council, the
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Council of Dort, that met over 130 occasions over a period of six or seven months.
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And these biblical truths were the outworking of this council. Protestants believed the
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Bible to teach these things. And these five doctrines are as follows.
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First, the total depravity of man. Man's a sinner. Second, God's unconditional election of the lost to be saved.
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That is, God doesn't choose people to be saved because of something special about them.
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He makes his choice unconditionally. Third, the definite or limited atonement of Jesus' death for his people.
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He died to save his sheep. Fourth, the irresistible grace of God in his calling to salvation.
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When you're a lost man, and if God wants to save your soul, he's going to accomplish what he wants to do.
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And he's going to deal with all your objections, all your rebellion, and he's going to bring you to the place where you're calling out for mercy.
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It's all due to the grace of God. Otherwise it wouldn't have happened.
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And then fifthly, the final perseverance of true believers under their full and final salvation. He doesn't lose a want.
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He saves them everlastingly. I actually don't mention these doctrines of grace a great deal.
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Everything we teach, of course, and preach is consistent with these five doctrines, but it's not a doctrinal hobby horse that we ride around here and try and impose on everybody.
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And I just did a little search in my own notes and I noticed, well, we're here almost 21 years and almost 1 ,000
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Sunday morning sermons. I mentioned the doctrines of grace specifically in 25 sermons out of 1 ,000.
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That's not a great deal. But again, our teaching, we believe, is consistent with these.
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Without going into great detail, we may say that in the statements recorded in John 6, the Lord Jesus affirms the first, second, fourth, and fifth points of these five doctrines.
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And in verse 37 that we just read above, we have three of the doctrines of grace addressed by the
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Lord Jesus. And so verse 37a, Jesus declared, all that the Father gives me will come to me.
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This affirms the second point of the five doctrines of grace, unconditional election of sinners by the
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Father that he purports from eternity to save through Jesus Christ. And then the second clause of verse 37,
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Jesus declared, all that the Father gives me will come to me. That affirms the fourth point of the five doctrines of grace, the effectual call of God unto salvation.
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The ones the Father elected will come to Jesus in faith and repentance. The Holy Spirit will regenerate the sinner, placing within his soul the principle of spiritual life which shows forth itself in the grace of faith and repentance.
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And then Jesus declared in verse 37c, the third clause of that verse, this is the will of the
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Father who sent me that of all that he's given me I should lose nothing but should raise it up the last day.
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That affirms the fifth doctrine of grace, the perseverance of the saints. So this one verse affirms three out of the five.
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Now, aside from these three of the five doctrines of grace affirmed in this one verse, we may look two verses further in John 6, to John 6 .39,
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and here Jesus declared that though all these people had heard him and had seen signs that he had done, they remained in their unbelief.
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And Jesus said to them, but I said to you that you have seen me, you do not believe. This affirms the first of the five doctrines of grace, total depravity.
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And so within three verses, we have four of the doctrines of grace affirmed. Now, certainly that fifth doctrine, the middle one, definite atonement or limited atonement, might be rather difficult to find here in John 6, but it's certainly not difficult to find in John's gospel.
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And so later on, for example, we read of the Lord Jesus in John 10, that he came to lay down his life for the sheep.
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He came to save his sheep. And these would be his elect. Don't misunderstand, that doesn't mean that we don't offer
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Jesus freely and fully to everyone. We do. We preach the gospel to every creature.
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Any sinner anywhere in the world can have forgiveness of sins and eternal life if they turn from their sin and believe on Jesus Christ.
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We offer Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior to every fallen human being.
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But we know that only his sheep are going to hear his voice through the gospel, and by the power of the
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Holy Spirit and the grace of God, they will come. And that's what Jesus declares in John chapter 10.
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And so all the doctrines of grace are set forth here in the gospel of John. I have a book written by a
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Baptist, probably in the 1950s, God's Gracious Purpose, where he talks about the doctrines of grace all set forth in the gospel of John.
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And so the gospel of John clearly sets forth the sovereignty of God in very clear and stark terms.
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And so, John 6 .37, All that the Father gives me will come to me, the one who comes to me
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I will in no wise cast out. All the elect will receive his salvation, all that the
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Father gives me. The Bible talks about God's election of sinners unto salvation.
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Our confession of faith states it this way, Those of mankind that are predestinated to life,
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God, before the foundation of the world was laid, according to his eternal and immutable, that's unchangeable purpose, and the secret counsel and good pleasure of his will, hath chosen
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Christ unto everlasting glory out of his mere free grace and love without any other thing in the creature as a condition or cause moving him thereunto.
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That is a statement of unconditional election. If you're a Christian, it's because God the
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Father chose you from eternity. And at that time when he chose you, he regarded you as being in union with his
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Son Jesus Christ. It's not because you were special in the sense that you were better than anybody else or less sinful than anybody else or more believing than anybody else, or more wise than anybody else, but because God determined,
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I'm going to glorify myself in mercy and grace by saving your soul.
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If you're a Christian, you are one of them. You came to know God when you believed on Christ.
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God knew you from eternity. He had you on his heart. In fact, the scriptures say, we'll see it later in John 17,
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God the Father loves you to the same degree that he loves
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Jesus Christ, his Son, because he sees you in union with him. And therefore, because he loves you with that everlasting love, he would not let you be damned.
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He would send forth his Son to save your soul. God gets the glory for it all, and no one should take credit for anything.
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Even in those early days of my Christian life in the 70s, I came to the doctrines of grace in 1980, you know, when
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I was arguing as the Arminian, not everybody saves themselves. God made a plan, and it's everybody's free will.
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Everybody has the ability. And I used to argue that and teach against the things that I'm proclaiming today.
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I say to my shame and regret, I always knew in my case it was sovereign grace, that there was no way in the world
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I was the last one likely to be converted to Christ. When I first started dating
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Mary, she and her sister Sue and another friend of ours drug us to a
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Bible study. There was a little mini -revival going on there in our hometown of northern California, Fort Bragg. There were probably 75 young people in this living room, and I sat in a chair.
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Mary was at my feet. My friend Pat was sitting there.
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His wife was at his feet. Rick was sitting there. Mary's sister was at his feet.
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And everybody was sitting on the floor, and there was this ex -hippie who had been converted. He was a wonderful man and was teaching
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Bible study. And at the beginning he says, how many here are Christians? And everybody raised their hands except us three guys.
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How many here are not Christians? All three of us raised our hands. And I remember going home that night, driving, and Mary was kind of hopeful for me.
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Well, what did you think? And I laughed at her. It was silly and ridiculous.
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You know, religion was for women, children, and weak men. And then she promptly told me that she couldn't date me anymore because I wasn't a
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Christian. And I was converted about six weeks later, and so things worked out.
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But I was the last one in that room that would have been likely for the kingdom.
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It was sovereign grace. And you might have been raised in a Christian family, but it's still sovereign grace that put you there.
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And it was sovereign grace the day you heard the Gospel, and He created life in you and gave you the desire and the love for the
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Lord Jesus, and you believed it was all because you were one of His sheep from eternity.
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You don't become one of the Lord's sheep when you believe. Jesus told the Pharisees, you don't believe because you're not of My sheep.
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The sheep are the elect. And all the sheep, though wandered, strayed, damaged out there in the mountains, they hear
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His voice when He calls. And it's because of sovereign grace. God saves
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His people. And so we read in the Scriptures everywhere of election of God the
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Father, of sinners to be saved. And election is commonly attributed to God the
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Father. He chooses whom He will save from their sins.
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Ephesians 1, 3, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as He, that is the
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Father, chose us in Him, that is in Christ, before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him.
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That's election. 2 Thessalonians 2, 13 and 14. We are bound,
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Paul's writing to a church, we're bound to thank God always for you, brethren, beloved by the
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Lord, because God, he's talking about God the Father, from the beginning chose you for salvation through sanctification by the
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Spirit and belief in the truth, to which He called you by our gospel. That's the means he uses, preaching the gospel.
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And the Lord turns on the lights, and people respond and believe. And then
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Paul reasoned to those proud Corinthians in the churches that were boasting themselves, thinking they were somebody.
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You see your calling, brethren. Look at yourself. That not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called, but God has chosen, there's election, the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise.
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God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty, and the base things of the world, the things which are despised,
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God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, so that no flesh may glory in His presence.
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If you're saved by your own free will, then you've got something to boast of. And I've often, over the years, when people try to argue that they're saved by their own free will,
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God just made the plan and gave it. All right, now it's up to you, and you make the decision.
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You know, I kind of jokingly will go up, slap them on the back. Well, I want to congratulate you because you were less sinful than everybody else that didn't believe.
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You had more faith than they did. You're to be congratulated. You were more knowing than they were.
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They're more ignorant. You're less sinful. Congratulations, you've got something to boast about. And then they see the folly of that nonsense.
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No, God saves us by His grace. It's attributed to God the Father. And we read in the
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Scriptures that the ones that the Father chose from eternity, when He made that election, that choice,
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He took the elect, the psalm of the elect, and He gave them as gifts to His Son.
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I'm giving these ones to you. Now, go save them. And that's what Jesus Christ did.
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He came into the world. And so in John 17, we have Jesus praying to His Father.
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And Jesus prayed to the Father, I've manifested Your name to the men that You've given
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Me out of the world. Men is generic, of course, men and women. See, He revealed
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Himself, manifested Himself to the ones that the Father had given Him. The Father gave them to Him in eternity before creation.
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They were Yours. You gave them to Me. And they kept Your Word. And then in verse 9,
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I pray for them. He's praying to the Father. I pray for them. I don't pray for the world, Jesus said, but for those
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You have given Me. He was praying for the elect as a high priest. And then later on,
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He writes again in verse 11, Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given
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Me that they may be one as We are. And Jesus said, while I was with them in the world,
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I kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me, I have kept. Jesus Christ keeps His own.
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But they were given to Him by the Father. And then He purposed to redeem them.
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Hebrews 2 speaks about Christians as being gifts of the Father to the Son. And there you have the writer to the
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Hebrews glorifying Jesus. And so it writes of Him, It was fitting for Him, God, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, and bringing many sons to glory, children to glory, to make the captain of their salvation, that would be
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Jesus Christ, perfect through sufferings. For both He who sanctifies those who are being sanctified are all of one.
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In other words, Jesus has our human nature, for which reason
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He's not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, I will declare Your name. This is Jesus prophetically in the
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Old Testament, prophetically declaring. He's telling God the
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Father, I'm going to declare Your name to them. I will declare Your name to my brethren. In the midst of the assembly,
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I will sing praise to You. This is prophetically Jesus speaking. And again,
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I will put my trust in Him. And again, and here it is, Here am I and the children whom
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God has given me. Now, again, this is Old Testament Scripture quoted, but it's prophetic of a future gathering when
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Jesus Christ is standing there with all of His elect throughout human history that He saved unto
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Himself. And here Jesus rejoices over His people. Here we read that He will declare the name of His Father to us, we who are
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Christians. He's done this and He will yet do it. And then we read that in glory in our presence, in the midst of the assembly, we'll hear
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Jesus singing of the glory of His Father. That's what He declares. In the midst of the assembly,
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I will sing praise to You. We're going to hear Jesus singing a solo to His Father.
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And as He's singing to His Father, He's declaring Him to us as we're watching there, beholding this.
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And then we read of the Lord Jesus that He'll rejoice when He and all the elect, the children whom the
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Father had given Him, will be with Him where He is, standing before His Father in heaven. And so in John 6 .37,
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He speaks of His elect, all that the Father gives Me. And so again,
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Jesus declared, all that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out.
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And we point out last week that that is an emphatic negative statement. It is the strongest way a person writing in Greek can negate something.
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I will in no wise cast out. There's security there. A true Christian cannot become a non -Christian.
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God won't allow it. Well, then we read in verses 38 -40 that the
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Lord Jesus declared that the Father sent Him to save His people. He was sent on a mission. For I have come down from heaven not to do
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My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. And this is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all
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He has given Me, I should lose nothing but raise it up at the last day. And this is the will of Him, that's the
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Father who sent Me, everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life, and I will raise
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Him up at the last day. Let's just break this down quickly in the couple minutes that we have remaining.
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Jesus declared the reason for His incarnation. I have come down from heaven.
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He came down from heaven. Here the Lord Jesus speaks of His preexistence as the eternal second person of the
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Godhead. He didn't become the Son of God when He was born into this world.
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He was the Son of God from eternity. I have come down from heaven. That's the incarnation.
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When the Son of God took upon Himself our human nature, the body and soul of a human being that He derived from His mother
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Mary, joined it to His divine nature, became the God -Man. He came down from heaven.
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And the reason He came down is because the Father had sent Him. He came on a mission.
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Again, the Father gave Him the elect, and Jesus came on a mission to save them. And it took
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His incarnation. And so again, if you're a Christian, it's because the Father loved you with an everlasting love, and He loved you to such a degree that He sent
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His Son on a mission to save you from your sin. He alone gets the glory for us.
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Holy Deo Gloria. I wish
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I had time to talk about this matter of what John Owen wrote, and I read it this week, and I wanted to relate it.
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Volume 2 of his 16 works, he's talking about communion with God. Man, he's written something
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I never even thought of before. He's amazing. And one of the things I wanted to point out here is that, yes,
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God calls His people to have fellowship with Him, and we're to have fellowship with the Triune God. But Owen pointed out the
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Bible also teaches that as Christians we should have fellowship with each of the persons of the
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Trinity. And so there's a fellowship that we have with Jesus Christ. There's a fellowship we have with the Holy Spirit.
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And there's a fellowship that we have with God the Father. And he goes on to mention that a lot of Christians know nothing about this fellowship with the
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Father because they perceive the Father perhaps only as this transcendent, holy God full of wrath,
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God burning the burning bush, the God of judgment. And yet the way of fellowship with God the
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Father is to see that He is the Father of love if He hadn't sent His Son. And this is the fellowship that we may enjoy with the
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Father. And then Owen went on to explain and show how Jesus came to reveal the
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Father in His covenant love. We call Him Father because we're His children.
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And it was the Father that had sent His Son on a mission to save your soul from sin. It's not like somehow the
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Father was against us and Jesus Christ came and somehow persuaded the Father instead to be in favor of us.
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No, it was the Triune God who was in on our salvation and the Father loved us with an everlasting love and therefore sent
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His Son to save you and me from our sin. And we can have fellowship with the
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Father when we reflect and meditate upon the Father in the
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Holy Scriptures. Well, in verse 39, Jesus declared the nature of this mission unto which
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His Father sent Him. This is the will of the Father who sent Me. There's the second statement of being sent.
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That of all He has given Me, I should lose nothing but should raise it up the last day. And so the
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Father commissioned His Son to come into the world to save His chosen people. And in doing so,
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He'd not lose a single one of them. He saves every one that the Father gave Him in eternity.
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He came into this world and later He returned to His Father because His mission was accomplished.
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He gained the entrance the entrance of every one of His people to join Him one day in the presence of His Father.
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And notice the Lord Jesus spoke here of the last day. Some weeks ago, we mentioned this.
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He looks at the last days, the last day in which all of the dead are raised and general resurrection of all humanity and a general judgment.
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And on that last day, His people are going to be raised. There are not two last days separated by seven years or certainly not a thousand years.
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One last day in which all will be raised from the dead and those who have salvation, they will enter into the glory of the
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Lord. And then Jesus further declared the will of His Father in verse 40 and we close with this.
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This is the will of Him who sent me that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life and I will raise
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Him up at the last day. And so there's a need to see the Son. We've been declaring
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Him for who He is in all His glory. And so the question we ask is do you see
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Him with your eyes of faith? And that's how you see Him, not with visible eyes.
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If we beheld Him visibly, we couldn't live. We'd be consumed. We view
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Him with the eyes of faith as He revealed in this Word. Do you see Him and understand Him? And do you believe
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Him for who He is? And I can assure you it's because God the Father is calling you to the
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Gospel. And you are to embrace Him freely as He's offered to you in the Gospel.
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He is Lord. He is Savior. And God the Father has sent Him on a mission to save your soul if you see
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Him as such. And so we would encourage you to embrace Him. Do you see Him for who
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He is? Do you believe on Him as the only hope you have for eternal life? Do you understand that you're spiritually dead and damned forever unless you see
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Him and embrace Him as He's revealed Himself in the Scriptures? 5 ,000 didn't on that day.
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Do you? There's a time and place. And sometimes as a young person you're not really aware of when that occurred.
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But the one who knows Christ has seen Him truly as the only
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Savior, the one the Father has sent. And there's no other way of salvation.
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There's nothing that I can do, nothing in our hands we bring. It's wholly due to the
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Lord Jesus Christ. Embrace Him as your Lord and Savior. And you can have the joy and the peace of the gift of everlasting life and become assured of the everlasting love of the
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Father that He has placed upon you because you're one of His. Amen?
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Why would anybody want to refuse? This is an offer that we offer to every single individual in the world.
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And if you're in unbelief, may the Lord have mercy. If you're hardened toward this or refuse to believe, there's no hope for you because there's only hope in Jesus Christ.
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But there's fullness of hope for every sinner that comes to Him on His terms.
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Amen? Amen. Let's pray. Thank You, Father, for Your Word. We thank
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You, our God, that You are a sovereign God. Otherwise, there's no way in the world we would have come to Jesus Christ.
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And we pray that You would help us, our Father, to show forth Your glory as Your Son did here in John 6.
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Help us, our Lord, to give all credit, all glory to You for bringing us life in Him.