>> Let's stand together. >> Psalm 24, verses 9 and 10, very end of the psalm. Lift up your heads, O gates, and lift them up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory.

Familiar with that psalm, you know that it talks about who can ascend the hill of the Lord and who can stand in his presence, who can dwell in his presence. Talks about the one who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false, does not swear deceitfully, and you start to think, that's not me.

You can aspire to those things, but there is one of whom those things were true. And for centuries, this psalm has been associated with the ascension of Christ into heaven and the heavenly hosts welcoming him, saying lift up your heads, O gates, lift them up, ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in, because there's no one like him.

As we heard in the message earlier, Mike's message, no one like him. So let's sing to the one who is like no other. All hail the power of Jesus, let angels prostrate fall, bring forth the royal diadem and crown him Lord of all. All hail the power of Jesus, let angels prostrate fall, bring forth the royal diadem and crown him Lord of all.

Hail him who saves you by his grace and crown him Lord of all. Hail him who saves you by his grace and crown him Lord of all. Let every kindred, every tribe, on this terrestrial ball, to him all majesty ascribe and crown him Lord of all. To him all majesty ascribe and crown him Lord of all.

O that with yonder sacred throng he at his feet may fall, we'll join the everlasting song and crown him Lord of all. We'll join the everlasting song and crown him Lord of all. We'll join the everlasting song and crown him Lord of all. Turn your eyes on Jesus, look full in his wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace.

Turn your eyes to the hillside where justice and mercy embrace, where the Son of God gave his life for us and our measureless debt was erased. Jesus, to you we lift our eyes. Jesus, our glory and our prize. We adore you, behold you, our Savior ever true. O Jesus, we turn our eyes to you.

Turn your eyes to the morning and see Christ the Lion awakes. What glorious song, fear of death is sung. We carry his life in our midst. Jesus, to you we lift our eyes. Jesus, our glory and our prize. We adore you, behold you, our Savior ever true. O Jesus, we turn our eyes to you.

Turn your eyes to the heavens. Our King will return for his own. Every knee will bow, every tongue will shout, all glory to Jesus the Lord. Jesus, to you we lift our eyes. Jesus, our glory and our prize. We adore you, behold you, our Savior ever true. O Jesus, we turn our eyes to you.

Jesus, to you we lift our eyes. Jesus, our glory and our prize. We adore you, behold you, our Savior ever true. O Jesus, we turn our eyes to you. O Jesus, we turn our eyes to you. He's a great high priest, who when we are overwhelmed by our sins and our failures, even as we may leave a conference and think, "I just am not doing what I'm supposed to do," we have a high priest who intercedes for us.

He is gracious. So let's turn our eyes to our high priest. Before the throne of God above, I have a strong and perfect plea. A great high priest whose name is love, who ever lives and weeps for me. My name is written on his hands. My name is written on his heart.

I know that while in heav'n he stands, no tongue can bid me less depart. No tongue can bid me less depart. When sin tempts me to despair, and tells me of the willful condition, a bird I look and see and dare, who made an end for all my sin.

Because the sinless Savior died, my sinful soul is counted free, for of the just is satisfied. To look upon him and pardon me. To look upon him and pardon me. Behold him there, the risen Lamb. My perfect spotless righteousness. The great unchangeable I am. The King of glory and of grace.

One with himself I cannot die. My soul is purchased by his blood. My life is in with Christ alive. With Christ my Savior and my God. One with himself I cannot die. My soul is purchased by his blood. My life is in with Christ alive. With Christ my Savior and my God.

With Christ my Savior and my God. And they sang a new song. Saying worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals. For you were slain and by your blood you ransomed people for God. And they're all in this room. From every tribe and language and people and nation.

And you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God. And they shall reign on the earth. Singing helps us feel the truth. We can talk about things that are true and not be affected by them. Which is not what God intends. He intends us to be affected by them.

And one of the ways we do that is by singing. And we are going to sing a song that reminds us there's only one who is worthy to open the scroll. He looked in heaven, on earth, under the earth. Only one. And by his grace we know him and we know he knows us.

So we're going to sing a song where there's typically a leader and a response. But we're just going to sing all the words together. It reminds us that everything is not quite the way it is supposed to be. But one day it will be. Do you feel the world of broken?

We do. Do you feel the shadow of demon? We do. But do you know that all the worst of life came through? We do. And do you wish that you could see it all? We do. Is all creation growing? It is. Is a new creation coming? Yes, it is.

Is the glory of the Lord to be divided within our midst? It is. Is it good that we remind ourselves of this? It is. Is anyone worthy? Is anyone whole? Is anyone able to break the seal and open the scroll? A lion of Judah who conquered the grave? He is dead, is prune, and a lamb who died to rest on the slave?

Is he worthy? Is he worthy? Of all blessing and honor and glory, is he worthy of this? He is. Does the Father truly love us? He does. Does the Spirit move among us? That's amazing too. And does Jesus, our Messiah, forever love us? He does. Does our God intend to dwell again with us?

He does. Is anyone worthy? Is anyone whole? Is anyone able to break the seal and open the scroll? A lion of Judah who conquered the grave? He is dead, is prune, and a lamb who died to rest on the slave? Where the people and tribe and the nation and God, He has made us to keep the memories to God to reign with the Son.

Is he worthy? Is he worthy? Of all blessing and honor and glory, is he worthy? Of Jesus, the name above all other names? He is. Is he worthy? Is he worthy? He is. Father, we thank you that you have exalted your Son. And that you have shown us that the reason we are here is to exalt your Son, to make His name known.

Would you, by your Spirit, increase the degree to which we treasure Jesus, who is worthy of all praise and honor and glory, forever. Amen. Would you take your seats as we watch this video? As pastors and as students in the Dr. Ministry program, a question that I always just wanted to ask you guys is, like, what brought you to this program?

Why? I would say my answer comes from Paul's charge to Timothy, is that we are not to be ashamed, but we are to study ourselves, show ourselves approved, rightly handle the Word of Truth. And that's an ongoing process. It doesn't stop in a pastor's life. It is a continual, year-by-year thing.

For me, it was getting the opportunity to come to this program, sort of on the front end of my ministry, just thinking about the goal of being faithful for a lifetime. And so I feel like this program will set me up for that lifetime of faithfulness in ministry. Yeah, I think that friendship with other men that are in ministry, people that are facing the same challenges that I'm facing, and to have a lifelong friendship with them, I think that's an important thing.

Yeah, it's great to hear from you guys. Just the fact, as we think about those, those are truths that I've experienced as well. The fact that we come to continue to develop our craft, we come to be able to have a longevity in ministry, and we also come to have brotherhood.

If you were going to, you know, go back and tell your Timothys, you know, you need to come to TMS, to this program. Why? What would you tell them? I would say it's because the way that this program is built is it's built to go along with your ministry.

So it's really wind in your sails as you do the work of a pastor. It's not separate in that sense. It's right along with what you're already doing. Yeah, I think that for me, it's like receiving a legacy. We have the best of the best professors here, and I'm feeling like receiving that legacy, and then we need to pass this to the next generation.

So yeah, it's a privilege to be here. Absolutely. I'd go off that answer, legacy. It means a lifelong impact, and clearly TMS has made a lifelong impact on many men in many churches around the world. Thank you. Good afternoon, men. Having graduated from the Demon myself, I can speak to its effectiveness.

I think especially if you went to seminary directly out of college as I did, with not as much preaching under your belt, the ability to preach for a few years, five, seven years, and then go back and get a preaching degree is really, really helpful. So if you're interested in that, please see the booth, the guys at the booth at the seminary.

There's a prospective dinner tonight that you can sign up for and get more information about that. Well, there's an extraordinary story of a bombing mission that was carrying out toward the end of the final chapter of World War II. But instead of the bombers dropping explosives to kill, they dropped rations of food to save the starving people of the Netherlands.

Jeremy Collins tells a story of how in September of 1944, the Dutch suffered what they came to call the "hunger winter." The famine, coupled with the continued occupation of the Nazis, said that an estimated 20,000 civilians succumbed to starvation. But in April of 1945, as the war was drawing to a close, the Allies came up with a daring plan to alleviate the suffering of the Dutch people by airlifting much-needed food behind enemy lines.

The plan obviously was complicated for a number of different reasons, not the least of which is that the Nazis had the region completely protected by anti-aircraft artillery. Obviously, the Nazis weren't about to discriminate between bombers dropping food and bombers dropping bombs, especially since they were still advancing in that region.

But Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt, along with Russian cooperation, negotiated with the Germans and they allowed them to carry out the mission. But even with permission, it was a risky plan. First, some planes were indeed shot at by the Romans. But in addition to this, the bombers had to fly dangerously close to the ground, only a couple of hundred feet from the ground, which bombers are not designed to do, so that the food would not be damaged.

But by the grace of God, the mission was a great success, and countless Dutch-less Dutch civilians were saved. To give you a little idea of the scope of the mission, in total from April 29th until VE Day, April 8th of 1945, essentially one week's time, the combined effort of the Allies forces dropped over 22 million pounds of food in the Netherlands to save those people.

And I had to triple check the number with a couple of sources because I didn't believe it. Amazing. And do you know what the British named the mission? Operation Manna. Operation Manna. Because they literally made bread drop out of heaven. And if you haven't guessed it already, please turn in your Bibles to John chapter 6.

John chapter 6. And as you turn, let me pose a question for you. What would the world have thought if after we took all that risk and made such a great effort to deliver bread to the Dutch people, what if they simply didn't eat it? What if they didn't like it?

What if they thought or suspected that it was bad, and so they died of starvation anyway, although bread literally fell down from heaven for them. Whose fault would that be? Well, obviously it would be completely theirs. So, we get all the credit for saving them if they eat, and they get all the blame if they don't eat.

And that's the principle Jesus explains to us in John chapter 6. That Christ gets all the credit when the elect come to him and eat, and the reprobates receive all the blame, all the guilt, when they don't. The topic that I was assigned for this session is how election relates to evangelism.

I presume that the new guy gets the topic at the bottom of the barrel that no one else wants, perhaps. But it's actually a fascinating study, and I hope it will be a blessing to you. It's a reminder that the truth of divine election, when properly understood, should motivate us to proclaim Christ to the ends of the earth.

We're just going to be looking at verses 35 through 40, John 6, 35 through 40. We'll see four realities that explain how election relates to evangelism. First, we'll see that Christ satisfies, and then that God chooses, that Christ preserves, and that Christ invites. Four verbs there. Satisfies, chooses, preserves, and invites.

Let's read our text, John 6, starting in verse 35. Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never hunger, and he who believes in me will never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen me, and yet do not believe.

All that the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that 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 sees the Son and believes in him will have eternal life, and I myself will raise him up on the last day." Let's pray and ask for the Lord's help. Holy Father, we come to you begging for your help as we approach your word.

We ask that you would forgive us and cleanse us, and help us to understand this text. We pray that your Spirit would teach us and illuminate our minds so that we could see your glory, Father, shining in the face of your Son, Jesus. We pray this for his glory.

Amen. Just a bit of review to situate us in John 6. Mike already situated us in the Gospel of John. I'm sure you know that John 20, verse 31, talks about how John is presenting these signs to us so that we can follow Jesus. We can see that he's the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing we might have life in him.

And in John 6 we encounter one of these signs, that there's 5,000 men, not including women and children, and they're on the desert of the northeastern side of the Sea of Galilee, and Jesus creates bread out of thin air for the entire multitude. And that sign was not performed just to fill their bellies with food, but rather it was a physical illustration that showed his sufficiency to satisfy the human heart for all eternity.

He is the true bread that imparts life. But the crowd did not understand. They just wanted him to overthrow the Romans. And the disciples didn't understand either, so Jesus sends them ahead in a boat and gives them another lesson. They're rowing there in the dead of night across the Sea of Galilee, trying to make it back to Capernaum, and Jesus sends them a storm.

The text says the sea was stirred up, a divine passive, I presume. There was a wind that blew. And in this sort of Exodus 19 type storm theophany experience, Jesus, the cloud rider of Daniel 7, is making the wind his chariot. There's these massive waves, and Jesus is walking untouched and unfazed on top of the water in the middle of the storm.

And I presume, since John explicitly tells us that it was dark, that they can see him because of all the lightning crackling around Jesus, because he's the God of the storm, and he controls every bolt of lightning, every gust of wind, and every crashing wave. And as we see with all the theophanies in the Bible, the storm crescendos to its conclusion when God speaks.

Jesus reaches the boat, and the disciples are terrified. They think they're going to die, just like anyone who ever sees Jesus. And Jesus arrives to the boat and says, "Ego emi." "I am. Do not be afraid." And what's interesting in John's account is that John does not mention Peter getting out of the boat and walking on the water.

He doesn't even mention Jesus calming the storm. What he emphasizes is simply the power of Jesus' presence. In fact, in verse 21 of John 6, when Jesus gets into the boat, bam! They're instantly transported to Capernaum, some maybe five or six miles away where they're headed. And the point there, again, is that this is a physical illustration of the sufficiency of Jesus' presence at all times and in every place.

Because Jesus is omnipresent. Why were they worrying? Because his body was away from them. Jesus is omnipresent. He's always in your boat. He can't be anywhere but next to you. And so, in the context preceding our text, Christ is demonstrating that he's the bread that always satisfies, and he preserves his own until they make it home.

And that brings us to our first point in John 6, 35, where we see that Christ satisfies. He says to them, "I am the bread of life." This is the first of the seven "I am" statements in the Gospel of John. Mike went through a number of them, so I won't repeat that.

But this first statement, "I am the bread of life," teaches us a reality that we see in a number of places in the Bible. The natural man is spiritually dead. We're dead, Ephesians 2, in our trespasses and sin. The natural man has no spiritual life. And in this illustration of bread, man is seen to be this spiritual zombie, if you will, dead, and the only thing that can revive him is to eat, to feed himself.

But obviously, it can't be just any bread, because normal bread wouldn't resurrect a cadaver like us, which is why Christ says, "I am the bread of life," the bread that imparts life, and not just physical life, but eternal life, which refers to the life of God, who flourishes in self-existent perfection outside of time, not like our life here, which is so transitory and fades and is coming every day closer to being snuffed out.

And this highlights another truth about these "I am" statements. When Jesus says, "I am the bread of life," he's not presenting himself as one option out of many for you to have life. When he says that he is "the door" or "the way" or "the resurrection" or "the good shepherd," in context, he's using the Greek article there to emphasize that he's the only way, the only door.

There are not a number of different shepherds to give their life for their sheep. There's just one. Jesus is the bread of life. He is the only source of life in this universe, and that speaks to his deity, because only God is self-existent and self-sufficient. Every other being in the universe depends on God for their life.

So by saying he's the bread of life, he's reminding us of the truth that he explained in John 5, 26, when he teaches that the Father gave the Son to have life in himself. That is to say, the Father eternally begot the Son in a way in which the Son, just like the Father, has an overflowing eternal life in himself.

The person of the Son is not dependent upon the life of the Father. The Son has life in himself, and therefore he can offer that divine life to whoever he wills. We know Jesus is talking about eternal divine life because he continues, "He who comes to me shall never hunger." Physical life doesn't work that way.

We return to have hunger all the time. Christ says, "If you come to me and consume me, you will never be hungry. You will always be satisfied." Obviously we don't feel that perfectly yet because we're imprisoned in the body of this death, as Paul calls it. But one day we will feel physically what we know spiritually, that Christ is sufficient to satisfy all of our desires.

Now what does that phrase mean, "to come to Jesus"? How do you come to Jesus for bread? Well, we see an example here of what we call synonymous parallelism, which is really common in Jewish writing and Jewish thought. We have multiple phrases that kind of interact with one another.

Like in Psalm 19, a famous occurrence of this, "The heavens are telling the glory of God, and the expanse is declaring the work of His hands." Two parallel phrases. So notice in verse 35 he says, "He who comes to me will never hunger, and then he who believes in me will never thirst." Obviously being hungry and being thirsty are talking about parallel truths.

And so coming to Jesus then is parallel with believing in Him. The point is that when we come to Christ in faith, He satisfies us. When we learn from Him, when we know Him more, He satiates our hunger and our thirst forever. Christ is life-giving water, bread that imparts life.

He constantly feeds us like a vine that constantly sends nutrients to its branches, as He explains in John 15. And so if we're asking ourselves what kind of hunger and thirst is it that Christ satisfies, obviously it's not a physical hunger. Christ actually just filled their bellies with bread and fish earlier in the chapter.

This is a hunger for eternal life. But that's where the logic of Christ's argument here starts to get really interesting. Because something that we see throughout the scripture is that one of the main problems with natural man is that he does not feel hunger for eternal life. He does not feel hunger for God.

The unbeliever needs this bread, but he doesn't know he needs it. He doesn't feel the hunger for it. That's why Christ in the Sermon on the Mount says, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied." And that is a description not of an unbeliever.

That's a description of a believer coming to Christ who feels conviction of sin and hungers for God's righteousness. The unbeliever is a corpse that never experiences that hunger, which is why he needs to be born again. But before Jesus gets to God's sovereign election, he continues to explain man's responsibility to believe in him and receive eternal life.

Notice in verse 26 he said, "But I have told you that though you have seen me, you do not believe." Now, I think Christ here is anticipating an objection, which he does all the time. Someone from the crowd perhaps could argue, "Well, Jesus, if you're so wonderful and marvelous, if you're so sufficient to fulfill all of our needs as you say, if you are the living water that satisfies and the living bread which satiates, if you are indeed so sufficient as you say, then why aren't we satisfied in you?" So here's the question.

Does the Jews' rejection and unbelief demonstrate any weakness or failure in Jesus' mission? Christ is saying he can satisfy every human soul, but evidently he did not satisfy the multitude. Does that mean it's Jesus' fault? Or maybe that he is not Israel's Messiah? And Jesus' answer is remarkable. The first part of it he says, "I already told you that though you have seen me, though you have seen my signs, you saw the loaves of bread I created out of thin air, you saw my power, but you don't believe." And that's the problem.

You're not satisfied because you don't believe. If you believe, you would be satisfied. If you don't, you won't. So if we ask ourselves, "How is someone saved?" The first part of Jesus' answer is that he's the bread of life. He's a great Savior. He satisfies anyone who believes in him.

Any person who feels hungry, any person who suffers from spiritual thirst, if they trust in Christ, Christ is sufficient to satisfy them with his life for all eternity. And so Jesus starts his argument here with a strong sense of man's responsibility to come to him and to believe in him in order to receive his life.

But then in verse 37 we get to our second point and Christ transitions from man's responsibility to God's sovereign election. He wants to explain to them why they don't believe. And the answer is that the only people who come to Jesus are the ones who the Father gives to him.

So point two, a second reality that explains how and why someone comes to salvation. God chooses. God chooses. Verse 37, "All that the Father gives me will come to me." In other words, the Father's plan will be perfectly carried out by the Son. The plan of salvation will succeed.

There will be a complete victory. Interestingly, the word "all" there in Greek is a singular neuter. Christ is viewing the elect as a single entity, a single gift which cannot be divided. And the whole group, without exception, all those who the Father gives to Christ will come to him.

No one falls through the cracks. Without fail, everyone that the Father gives to the Son will come to him and will be satisfied. Remember from the parallelism in verse 35, coming to Christ is simply believing in Christ, which is our responsibility. But now he explains that though it is our responsibility, believers come to faith not from their own free will, but rather because the Father gave them to the Son.

That beautiful truth we see throughout Scripture that the reason we exist is because we are the love gift of the Father to his Son. The Son is so perfect and so glorious in the Father's eyes that he must be adored. So the Father creates a bride for his Son to exalt the excellencies of his Son, to fill the world with little image bearers radiating his perfection throughout the cosmos.

And the Father then gives this gift, the elect, to his Son. And Jesus says the entire gift, all that the Father gives to me necessarily will be saved, will believe in me. If not, the Father's election would have failed, and that's impossible. And that highlights the beautiful truth we call irresistible grace that Jesus actually explains in the next paragraph in verses 44 to 46.

I want to quickly jump there with you and then we'll come back. Notice in verse 44, Jesus takes this truth that all the elect come to him and he inverts that. And he says in verse 44, "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day." No one ever believes in Jesus without the Father's intervention.

And that's not some generic, prevenient grace. The word there translated "draw" is a strong verb. It's used only four times in the New Testament outside of the effectual call here in John 6 and 12. Two times it refers to the disciples dragging a net into the boat after it had been miraculously filled with fish.

One time is when Peter draws his sword out of the sheath in order to cut off poor Malthus' ear. And then in Acts 16, when Paul and Silas are dragged against their will into the marketplace in Philippi. And those of us who are reformed in our soteriology, we love that truth, that God drags his elect to salvation.

We hear Arminians talking about Jesus knocking on the door of the unbeliever's home, and we laugh on the inside because we know that that unbeliever's dead inside that burning house, and he ain't never opening that door. The only way that he's going to get that door open is if God breaks it down and goes in there and resurrects him and drags him out to Jesus.

That's the only way anyone gets to Jesus, is if the Father draws him. But it's actually a more beautiful picture than that. Because the way that the Father gets us to Jesus is not by opposing our will, but by winning it over by the tender illumination of the Spirit.

And that is what Christ explains in the next verse in John 6, 45. It is written in the prophets, "And they shall all be taught by God." Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me. No one has seen the Father. No one can teach about the Father except the one who is descended from Heaven, Jesus.

So while it is true that the only way that someone gets to Heaven is if the Father draws him, it's also true that the way he draws them is by the loving teaching, tender teaching of the Spirit, who shows us Jesus. That's the promise of the New Covenant. We see it in all the New Covenant passages that we'd be taught directly by God.

Isaiah 54, 13, which Jesus is quoting. Other passages like Jeremiah 31. God is going to himself teach his people. He tenderly draws us. And he so tenderly draws us, not with the overpowering force of a rapist opposing his will upon another, but by the tender wooing of a lover winning over his bride.

Jesus, the Father draws us to Jesus by breathing his Spirit of life into us and teaching us to see the beauty and the majesty of his Son, Jesus Christ. And again, this teaching ministry of the Spirit is not some prevenient grace that lends us a helping hand. Paul calls this illumination an act of creation on par with Genesis 1, Acts in the Helo creation.

We heard that quoted yesterday as well. 2 Corinthians 4, 6. For God who said, "Light shall shine out of darkness," is the one who's shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. So the knowledge that God is imparting us is the Spirit teaching us to love the Father's glory, shining in the face of his image, his Son, Jesus Christ.

And the amazing thing about this is he loves us so tenderly that many Christians think they loved God first, that they chose God first. We know that's impossible, Romans 3, 11. No one understands unless he's taught by God. No one can see God. We know that if someone loves God it's because he first loved us, 1 John 4, 19.

But ask yourselves then, why do so many Christians misunderstand that and think that they chose God? And the answer is that God drew them so tenderly, so lovingly, that they did not feel forced. They did not feel coerced. They feel like they made the decision with their own will.

And that highlights another remarkable aspect to this truth in John 6, 37. If it is true that all whom the Father gives life comes to Jesus, then that means that no one ever in the history of the world received spiritual eyes, looked at Jesus and said, "Eh, he's just not for me." Impossible.

That's never happened. Every single person in the history of the world who received eyes to see Jesus looked at him and ran to him and loved him. Christ is so wonderful and so lovely that everyone whom the Father teaches runs to him and loves him. All that the Father gives him come to him.

And once they come, they stay for good. For he satisfies us with grace upon grace, as Mike taught us. Notice the certainty there in the last phrase of verse 37. "And the one who comes to me I will never cast out." So before we heard 100% of those whom the Father chooses and gives to the Son come to him in faith.

And now 100% of those who come to the Son, the Son saves and preserves. He says, "I will never, never cast him out." Christ has never, ever rejected anyone who has come to him in faith. All who come to him end up satisfied, end up in glory. I wonder if this is the text where Paul got his inspiration for that unbreakable chain in Romans 8.

That all whom God foreknew, he predestined, he called, he justified, and he glorified. Without exception. Such a glorious truth. And over and over here in the book of John, Jesus explains this reality that salvation is a work that God initiates and that God finishes. Of course, man is responsible for believing and for persevering.

Christ will speak of this again at the end of the paragraph. But the reason that Jesus gives here for why believers come to Jesus is that the Father gives them to the Son. However, and this is the weightiest part of this text, the context here of John 6 is the apostasy of the crowd.

And Jesus is not so much explaining to believers why they come to faith, but rather he's explaining to the unbelieving crowd why they do not. In other words, Jesus is not just speaking about election. He's speaking about reprobation. The reason that the multitude did not believe is because they were not part of the elect that the Father had given to the Son.

That is why Christ had not satisfied them because they were not his to save. And that's a hard truth to swallow. It's a hard truth to swallow. But we have to. We have to teach it. I guess the Lord thought that this would be a great moment for my tablet to break.

But never fear. That's why you always print notes. (Laughter) I learned that in a deep end. I did. Just to give a little highlight there. I haven't preached with paper in quite some time. We'll see how this goes. (Laughter) So, talking about reprobation, that the reason the multitude did not believe is that they were not part of the gift that the Father gave to Christ.

They weren't his to save. Christ did not come to save and satisfy unbelievers. And he explains that in much detail in his High Priestly Prayer in John 17. You remember, as High Priest, Jesus has two responsibilities. To intercede for his own and to make sacrifice for his own. And Jesus says in John 17, verse 9, "I do not pray for the world, but only for those that you gave me." And then in John 17, verse 19, he says, "I don't sacrifice myself for the world.

I sanctify myself for them." That is, I set myself apart to die and make sacrifice for those you gave me, for my bride. Jesus gave himself up for us. So, Jesus' explanation for why you come to salvation and why the crowd does not has nothing to do with your merit, has nothing to do with your works, has nothing to do with your free will.

You came to faith because of God's sovereign decision, because he gave you as a gift to his Son. Christ did not come to save the crowd. He came to seek and to save his own, those whom the Father had given him. And he not only satisfies them, he preserves them to the end.

That's the third reality that explains why believers make it to salvation. Notice in verse 38, Christ preserves his own. Jesus says, "For I have come down from heaven not to do my will." Now, before discussing the argument here, I should note that the phrase, "I have come down from heaven," speaks to Christ's eternal preexistence.

No one else has ever descended down from heaven. As created beings, we all began our existence here with our conception. But in this text, we get all this eternal language, right? That Christ came into the world, that Christ was sent by the Father, that he descended from heaven, because he existed in eternity before becoming flesh.

He is the Word, was with God and was God. And the Jews captured the meaning of that phrase perfectly, because later on in verse 42, they express their indignation. They say, "How does this one say that he descended from heaven? We know his parents, Joseph and Mary. He's an ordinary man just like us." Apparently, they forgot that the day before he was creating bread out of thin air, not an ordinary man.

But notice the thrust of the argument in verse 38. Jesus is giving us the reason for something. Verse 38 begins with a conjunction, "because," "for." Jesus continues to give us the reason that the multitude does not believe, the reason they are not satisfied in him. And the reason is that he came down from heaven with one singular purpose.

And the question is, what is it? What was Jesus' mission? What did he come to accomplish? Did he come to rescue the Jews? Was his purpose to save the world? Maybe establish peace in the world? Why did he come? He says, "I descended not to do my will, but the will of him who sent me." He explains, "I did not come here to fulfill my own will.

Christ did not have his own agenda. He came for one purpose, to fulfill the will of his father." And what is that will? What was it? Verse 39. "Now this is the will of him who sent me. This is what I came to do, that of all that he has given me, I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day." Now, at first glance, the LSB reads a little bit awkwardly there.

"I lose nothing" rather than "I lose no one." And "I raise it up" rather than "I raise them up." But the translators are trying to show us once again this singular neuter pronoun in Greek, that Jesus is speaking of this singular gift that the Father had given him. And when Christ received that gift, his mission was to redeem it, not the world.

The Father's will was that the Son should redeem and resurrect all that he had chosen and given over to the Son. And so, if we take a step back from Christ's argument here, he's explaining, "Do you think I fail?" The whole crowd is going to abandon Jesus by the end of this chapter.

And he wants them to know, before that happens, that the fact that he did not satisfy them has nothing to do with his sufficiency and everything to do with his mission. He's essentially saying, "I've not satisfied you because I came to save only those that the Father gave me.

And those that the Father gives me, they always believe, and I always preserve them." Now, I should pause here for a moment and say, this is a rough evangelistic message. It's tougher even than his evangelism of Nicodemus. And Jesus knew it was a tough message, but he does not shrink back.

He doesn't water down his message to make it more palatable. In fact, when the crowd grumbles in verse 43, he doubles down and says, "If you want to get to heaven, you have to eat my flesh and drink my blood." At that, even many of his disciples thought he'd gone too far.

In verse 60, they say, "That is a difficult message. Who can hear it?" But this is our message. This is Christ's gospel. We cannot improve it. We can't make it better. Alderaan only robs it of his raw powers, we heard from Conrad. If we're going to evangelize and reach the nations as Christ did, we cannot shrink back from any doctrines that Christ teaches.

It's true, many Christians forsake Christ because of the doctrine of election. John 6 is literally a chapter when the crowd deconstructs their faith and falls away. Verse 66 says, "Many disciples abandoned him and no longer followed him." But we have to constantly remember that our job, our mission, is not redemption.

Our mission is proclamation. We need to proclaim Christ's gospel. We cannot fear rejection and change Jesus' message. And election is an essential doctrine in the Bible. It's not some parenthetical teaching in one of the minor prophets. It's everywhere in the Bible. And Jesus includes it in his evangelism. He's preaching all day long, "Come to me.

Come to me, all you who thirst, and I'll give you drink. Come to me, all you who hunger, and I will satiate you." And then he says, "But the only way anyone can ever come to me is if the Father gives them to me." Which is why we need to pray and beg for God to intervene.

Evangelism without prayer is useless. Useless. Our arguments cannot convince people to be saved. Only the elect of God are saved, and they're only saved through the power of the gospel preached. We do persuade. We do beg people to come to Christ. But only God can give them life to receive the message.

Now, though I don't want to get too sidetracked, I thought it might be helpful to give you just a few reasons why the doctrine of election is so important, especially in light of evangelism. The first is this. I'll give you four reasons. Election abolishes all human boasting. Election abolishes all human boasting.

I can't boast of my salvation that I'm better than my neighbor who didn't believe, because my coming to Jesus has nothing to do with my free will. My coming to Jesus is the result of the sovereign work of God who chose me before the foundation of the world out of the pure affection of his will, Ephesians 1.

And God made that decision without regard for my works. According to Romans 9, Jacob was chosen, and Esau was looked over in their mother's womb before doing any good or evil. And that can sound unfair to us. It's not unfair, as Paul explains in Romans 9, because God is the one who establishes the rules of his universe.

And his rules are this, that he would have mercy on whom he wills and no mercy on those he doesn't want to have mercy on. He treats everyone with justice. He treats everyone with equity. He's always just with every human being, but he only shows mercy to those whom he wills, to his elect.

And that should humble us. We did nothing to earn our salvation. Our salvation is due solely to the Father's sovereign election. And that should cause us to be thankful, to be full of gratitude, and to stop all of our boasting. Our prideful hearts hate the doctrine of election, because we want to think that we co-labor with God in salvation and so deserve a little bit of the credit.

And election, when properly understood, kills our boasting and causes us to be grateful. The Jewish legalists here in John 6, when they heard this message, they grumbled. Verse 43, Jesus says, "Stop your grumbling." And their grumbling, just like their forefathers' grumbling in the Sinai desert, was caused by their unbelief and led them ultimately to apostasy, as it always does.

But it's the doctrine of election that helps us be a grateful people, thanking God for choosing us and giving him all the glory. So many Calvinists are reformed up here and boast in their Orthodox theology. God demands we be reformed here and actually believe that we are unworthy. Second reason election is important, the assurance of our salvation.

If my salvation depended on my ability to come to Christ, then I could come to him and I could also abandon him. If salvation is earned by man, it can be lost by man. But that's impossible because my salvation does not depend on me. My salvation depends on the Father's election, the Son's redemption, and the Spirit's sanctification.

And Christ guarantees that all whom the Father gives him, he gives eternal life. And so the doctrine of election is pure comfort for sinners. It's comfort. First, it comforts us as believers because I can rest in my salvation knowing that God knew every sin that I would commit before I committed it.

And he chose me anyway. I can't surprise him. But it's also comforting to sinners in our evangelism because I can tell the sinner it doesn't matter how much you've sinned. It doesn't matter what you've done. You are never beyond God's reach because unconditional election not only means you cannot earn your salvation by your works, it also guarantees you can't disqualify yourself by your works because election is simply not based on works.

So many people, so many people think that they've sinned too much to be saved. And election teaches us that we can invite everyone. Come and eat freely of the bread of life and Christ will satisfy you. Third reason election is important and I think it's the one that Christ is most highlighting here in John 6:39.

Election protects God's reputation. Election protects God's reputation. Election proves that God cannot be accused of failure because Jesus didn't try to save certain people and then mess up or fail. The Arminian teaching that God cannot save certain sinners because he cannot violate their free will is offensive to me because it cheapens the omnipotent sovereignty of my king and makes God out to be a helpless deity who can't get what he really wants.

That's impossible. Christ cannot fail. He explains, "I came to save all those whom the Father gives me and I will accomplish it. I will save every last one." End of verse 39, "I lose none. I will raise them up on the last day." Christ preserves all his elect. He loses no one he came to save.

That's why God gets all the glory and salvation because the reason someone makes it into heaven is not because of their works but because of Christ's work of redemption. Final reason and this is where I want to park a little bit and transition to our fourth point of the sermon.

Sovereign election fuels our evangelism and causes us to rely completely on God's help because everyone whom God has chosen necessarily will believe when they hear the gospel. Sooner or later. Maybe they'll slam the door in that moment but sooner or later they will be saved. And that's the only reason we can have confidence in evangelism.

It's why we can sleep at night after we evangelize. Because I know that no matter how hard I try, no matter how persuasive or convincing my arguments are, the non-elect can never be saved. There's nothing that I can do. But also I know that it doesn't matter how terrible my gospel presentation is, if the gospel is present, the elect will be saved.

Sooner or later. Paul when he hears Christ tell him in Acts 18.10, "I have many people in this city." In Corinth, what does Paul do? He set a blade with a fire in his belly full of courage to preach to everyone in Corinth knowing that all who were ordained to eternal life would believe.

Acts 13.48, "All those who were ordained believed." And to appreciate this best, let's look at the last verse of our text in verse 40. The last reason that believers come to salvation is because they respond to Christ's invitation. And here's where Jesus is going to wrap up his explanation of how human responsibility fits into God's sovereign election.

Verse 40, "For this is the will of my Father." Now, perhaps the first time you read this verse, certainly happened to me. Honestly, I almost thought it was a mistake, like a scribal error who copied verse 39 two times, which happens in certain manuscripts, right? Because verse 40 is almost identical to verse 39.

"This is the will of him who sent me." And then he repeats the same idea, "This is the will of my Father." But then the will of God is actually different. So what's going on here? Well, it's actually another example of parallelism. Just like we saw in verse 35, that those who thirst are those who hunger, and those who come to Christ are the ones who believe in Christ.

Notice in verse 39, Christ presents the truth of God's sovereignty in salvation, that the will of God is for Christ to save all those who were given to him by the Father. But then, evidently, without any contradiction in the mind of Christ, he adds a parallel truth, in perfect harmony with the sovereignty of God, that simultaneously, verse 40, God's will is that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him will have eternal life, and I myself will raise him up on the last day.

So notice the same introduction in verse 39, "This is the will of God," and also the exact same result, "And I will raise him up on the last day." But in the middle, Christ takes the truth of verse 39, "I save those who the Father gives me," election, and he replaces it, saying, "He saves those who see the Son and believe." Verse 39, God's sovereign election.

Verse 40, man's responsibility to believe. Two truths that flourish perfectly, in perfect harmony in the mind of God, that God chose us before the foundation of the world, and anyone who believes will be saved. So if we ask Jesus, "What's the reason that someone gets to heaven?" Jesus responds, "Because God chose him and that person with his own will believed." And why does another person go to hell?

Because that person refused to believe, showing that God in his perfect will looked him over and did not choose him for salvation. Tremendous, tremendous truths. Twin truths that are both simultaneously true. And this is where Pastor McArthur's classic question on election helps us. Who wrote the book of Romans?

Who wrote the book of Romans? It's a trick question, of course. The answer is, every word was carefully crafted and expressed with great passion in the heart of Paul and written down by Tertius, and every word was breathed out by God, 2 Timothy 3.16, who carried Paul by his spirit, 2 Peter 1.21, to say exactly what God wanted to be written.

So there's this mystery as to how God carries out his sovereign will through human agency. But I want you to see something here in this text, because though they are parallel truths, in Christ's mind there is a cause-and-effect relationship between God's election and man's belief. They happen simultaneously, to be sure, but one happens because of the other.

Notice in verse 39 and 40, though they're similar, verse 40 begins with the word "for," "gar" in Greek, right? Because. For the will of God is for all who believe to be saved. So verse 40 is the reason for the necessity of verse 39. God elected precisely because. That's the only way anyone would believe and be saved.

In other words, God wanted to save some, and therefore he had to elect them. The bondage of man's will necessitated election. We choose God with our own will, to be sure, but that's because he chose us first and freed our will to choose him. He wooed us and drew us, as we saw in verse 45.

So the same as we know in conversion, where regeneration and faith occur in the exact same moment, but we have to make sure we understand which is the cause of the other. We believe because we were regenerated, and it has to be like that, or man would get the glory for choosing God rather than God getting all the glory.

So we also have these two related truths, God's election and man's responsibility. And God ordains his universe, he runs the world in such a way in which he gets all the glory when his elect come to him, and the non-elect get all the blame when they reject Christ. And there's so much mystery there.

We don't understand how that works. But we must sustain, we must relish both of those truths. So often with the mysteries of the Bible, one aspect of the mystery erodes at the other. So, for example, in the hypostatic union, we can exalt the deity of Christ so much to the point that he's no longer human in our mind.

Or we can do the opposite and highlight the kenosis so much that Christ is no longer in use of all of his divine attributes. Or another mystery, the Trinity. We can exalt the threeness of God so much that Christ becomes worthy of only penultimate glory, and we lose God's simplicity, or vice versa.

And you see my point. We must retain and relish and celebrate the mysteries of the Bible. If you can fit God in your mind, then you fabricated him there. Because God is holy, he is different, he is great and majestic. As we heard from H.B. this morning, there are so many things about him and his will that we cannot possibly understand.

He is incomprehensible. He is the great I Am. Nothing can be compared to him. So there is a will of decree in God such that he can say that everything that happens occurs according to the counsel of his will, Ephesians 1:11. His providence controls every molecule in the universe.

He creates life, he creates calamity. He is in control of everything and is absolutely sovereign. Those he elects will be saved and those he passed over will be condemned. But there is also a will of desire in God such that he invites all to come to him and be saved.

He says he does not want the wicked to perish. And we see that exemplified in Jesus as he weeps over Jerusalem, invites all of them to come. And we need to work to preserve the genuineness of that invitation. Sometimes we can rely too heavily on anthropopathism there and we just say well that's just a metaphor, that's a figure of speech, God doesn't have any desires, so that's just an expression and we just throw it out.

Well, yeah there's metaphoric language there but it means something. God's trying to explain something to us and I guarantee you that our sin and our laziness will take a faulty view of election and quickly snuff out your fervor for the proclamation of the gospel. We don't say it out loud but often our faulty view of election erodes at our evangelism.

Calvinists, they hear Jesus opening up his arms here to the crowd saying come to me all you who hunger and I will satiate you. Come all you who thirst and I will give you living water. And the Calvinist sort of visualizes Jesus preaching to a bunch of corpses, offering bread to a crowd of cadavers like come get your bread as if you could and it's cruel.

That form of hyper-Calvinism is not biblical which is why it's so important to preserve the mystery here. Jesus does not say well God is sovereign, I'm only here to save the ones he gave me so tough luck if you're not elect. Nothing we can do about it. No, that's not what he says.

He says come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. And we must protect these invitation as genuine. I don't understand how that works but I am commanded to extend that invitation to the ends of the world and tell the world if you believe in Christ he promises to satisfy you and raise you up on the last day.

That is he will give you a new soul and a new body to enjoy the new earth for all eternity. A beautiful, wonderful invitation. And what an amazing thing it is that God uses unworthy and pitiful tools like us as the means by which he carries out his sovereign plan and brings salvation to his elect.

God of course has the capability and power to save without our prayers and without our proclamation but he has ordained that it will not happen. He has ordained that the only way people will get to heaven is through the prayer and proclamation of the gospel. What a privilege. Christ has given us a masterful explanation of why we have come to salvation and why others do not.

First men make it to heaven because Christ is a great savior who is able to satisfy anyone who comes to him. He is the bread of life like bread being dropped out of an airplane. Anyone who comes and picks up that bread and eats will live forever. Secondly, men make it to glory because of God's sovereign choice.

The father gave us to his son and all whom he gave to the son his son redeems. Third, men make it to glory because Christ preserves us. It is his singular mission which is why even now he stands at the right hand of God interceding for us until we all make it home.

He will lose none. Finally, men make it to glory because they themselves by God's irresistible willing respond of their own volition to Christ's invitation to come to him and be saved. God's sovereignty and human responsibility always thriving in tandem. When you begin to understand this you begin to see it everywhere in scripture.

Not just that both of them are taught in certain places in scripture but that each of them flourished together one doctrine flowing out of the other. I want to just think kind of out loud with you in a few passages that unite election and human responsibility. John 3, right?

You have this beginning paragraph that so strongly speaks of God's sovereignty and salvation. And Jesus tells Nicodemus the only way you're going to make it to heaven the only way you get into the kingdom is you must be born again from above. Something that you do not have any control of.

The spirit must regenerate and you control the spirit about as much as you control the wind. And now what is the natural outflowing of that truth in Jesus' mind? Is he telling Nicodemus so it doesn't matter if you try or not it doesn't matter if you believe or not you're elect and you're saved no matter what or you're reprobate and you're damned no matter what?

Is that the message? Is that where he goes in John 3? No, after saying you must be born again Jesus says so the son of man will be lifted up so that whoever believes in him will be saved. Proclaim it from the rooftops. God so loved the world that whosoever believed in him would not perish but have eternal life.

God's sovereign election and salvation and that God is the one who gives life to the dead sinner is what drives Jesus to preach the gospel to everyone. In Acts 2 Peter preaches to the multitude repent for the forgiveness of sins. He says in verse 39 for this promise is unto you and to your children and to all that are far off.

Peter evangelizes everyone. He presents the gospel to everyone. Anyone who repents will be forgiven will be saved. And then he ends that invitation by saying as many as the Lord our God will call to himself. Repent but know that if you do repent you can't take the credit for it because it's God who called you.

That's in his gospel presentation. Romans 9 the chapter in the Bible that probably most strongly speaks of God's sovereign election. The salvation does not depend on human works but solely on God's sovereign choice. And what is the natural continuation of Romans chapter 9? Romans chapter 10. That if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead you will be saved.

Believe and you'll be saved. That's the logical conclusion that God wants us to come to in light of his sovereign election. If some people on this earth are God's elect then we have to preach to every one of them until all the elect are saved. God has chosen to reach his elect through the proclamation of his gospel.

And so we preach with confidence and with boldness knowing that every elect person who hears the gospel will be saved. Like I said, for sure they might slam the door on our faces in that moment. But sooner or later necessarily all of the elect will be saved. It's impossible.

It is impossible for the gospel not to produce salvation in the heart of the elect. So here's my final exhortation to you. If your concept of sovereign election has made you evangelize with less fervor then you need to repent of your faulty view of election and help God to fix your twisted view of his sovereignty.

Or perhaps you're simply ashamed of the doctrine of election and so you never talk about it with unbelievers. And you also need to repent and get in line with Christ's gospel just like Jesus did who used the truth of election to fuel his heart's desire to reach the nations.

To invite the ends of the earth to come to him and to be saved. And we must join him in that invitation and say to the world the Spirit and the Bride say, "Come." And let the one who hears say, "Come." And let the one who's thirsty, "Come." Let the one who wishes receive the water of life without cost.

Jesus is a great and beautiful Savior. And he will satisfy all those whom the Father has elected to believe. Our responsibility and our privilege is to get them the message. Let's pray. Oh Father, we're so aware of our sinfulness, of our weakness. We are pathetic. We are so often cowards.

And we pray that by your Spirit you would embolden our hearts to preach your word that your love would captivate us and that we would proclaim to the nations that Christ is our King and he is a great Savior. He deserves all the glory. We pray this in his name.

Amen. I'm not that short. Thank you so much, brother. What a blessing. It's always a blessing to sit under your teaching. Well, we have about an hour for dinner, and if you stay on campus, I wanted to give you just some highlights here. We do have a myriad of food trucks, as you know.

But I want to highlight just a few of them for you this evening, just to kind of get your hunger pains going. I choose them because of their uniqueness. We've got out there Gourmet Genie, which makes you feel like you might be in an Aladdin movie, and all you have to do is rub the plate three times, and you get what you want.

But the truth is, it's actually a wonderful Mediterranean food and falafels. Number two, you can get the food truck Burnt to a Crisp, which makes you want to call the fire department, but actually, it's Texas-inspired barbecue with brisket quesadillas. Yum. And then lastly, and this is one that got my attention, it's really not just a food truck, but I was taught in seminary that there are five solas, but I found out there's actually six.

It's called Sola Burgers. And the subtitle is Reform Your Taste Buds, which I enjoy that. So, enjoy your evening. Be back here at six o'clock for Joel Beeky, but also, one last thing, and this is an important thought, and I know you're already kind of gone. Do not leave your belongings around the campus.

We don't want you to lose your items, and we don't want you to misplace them, so listen to this. Keep your eye on your items, and take them with you wherever you go on campus. That being said, you're also welcome to go to the concierge desk at the center of the campus for lost and found, just in case you could find them, okay?

Let's pray real quickly. Almighty God, you've been so blessed to us this day. We've received so many riches from your word, all of them, focusing on the magnificence and the wonder and the glory of your son, Jesus Christ. We ask that you would continue to bless these men with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, deepen their love for you, deepen their relationships with one another, and refresh them now with this bounteous meal that you've provided.

In Jesus' precious name, amen.