The Author and Sustainer of Life: Finding Assurance in Christ

• The Bread of Life [00:01:34 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor explains how Jesus uses the object lesson of bread from the feeding of the 5,000 to teach about eternal life and his own flesh, noting the controversy it caused.
• Perseverance of the Saints / Eternal Security [00:03:07 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor identifies the passage as a key text for arguing that believers are preserved and kept in Christ, not by their own consistent faith, but by the person in whom they trust.
• The Role of the Holy Spirit [00:06:52 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor discusses the Holy Spirit's role in conviction of sin, regeneration, and giving new life, referencing John 3 and Isaiah to explain how the Spirit applies salvation.
• The Triune God's Plan of Salvation [00:08:41 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor outlines the specific roles of the Father (giving people), the Son (accomplishing salvation through death/resurrection), and the Spirit (applying salvation), emphasizing that salvation is a unified divine work.
• Assurance of Salvation [00:09:49 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor highlights the liturgical assurance of pardons and the theological truth that nothing can separate believers from God's love, as God's plan cannot be thwarted.
• Exegesis of 'I Am' [00:11:20 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor begins an exegesis of John 6:35, explaining the emphatic nature of the Greek 'ego eimi' ('I am') and its connection to Exodus 3.
• The Identity of Jesus as 'I Am' [00:12:36 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor explains the Greek emphasis of 'ego eimi' (I am) and connects it to the divine name Yahweh/Jehovah from Exodus 3, asserting Jesus' claim to be the covenant God of Israel.
• Repentance and Faith [00:17:58 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor defines 'coming to Jesus' as repentance (turning from sin) and 'believing' as placing reliance/faith on Christ, noting that while humans are called to respond, the faith itself is granted by the Father and Spirit.
• Election and Assurance [00:22:12 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor analyzes John 6:37-40, arguing that salvation is actual, not potential, based on the Father giving specific people to the Son, ensuring that those given will come and be kept by the Son.
• The Triune Work of Salvation [00:27:22 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor synthesizes the roles of the Trinity: the Father gives believers to the Son, the Son holds them and never casts them out, and the Holy Spirit provides regeneration.
• The Will of the Father and the Son [00:27:40 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor explains that Jesus came to do the Father's will, which is to redeem a people and lose none of those given to Him, culminating in resurrection on the last day.
• Assurance of Salvation and Preservation [00:29:42 ▶️ 📄]
  > Using Jude 1:1, the pastor highlights the passive verbs 'called,' 'beloved,' and 'kept' to demonstrate that believers are preserved by God, not by their own effort.
• Response to Sin and Doubt [00:33:12 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor addresses the tendency to hide from God when sinning, contrasting it with the biblical command to run to God in confession for assurance of pardon.
• Conditional Nature of Faith [00:36:12 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor clarifies that eternal life is conditional upon believing in Jesus Christ, rejecting works-based righteousness or other philosophies.
• Practical Applications of Grace [00:38:33 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor lists four outcomes of understanding salvation: worship, thankfulness, obedience (motivated by love), and contentment in trials.
• Obedience and Worship [00:40:27 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor argues that obedience, singing, and gathering are motivated by love for God who rescued believers from hell.
• Contentment [00:41:09 ▶️ 📄]
  > Grace enables believers to endure trials and lack of desires with contentment, anchored in the hope of resurrection and eternity.
• Brotherly Affection and Forgiveness [00:42:26 ▶️ 📄]
  > Believers are called to love and forgive one another as a tangible manifestation of God's love, supported by a reading from 1 John 4.

• Sermon Illustration [00:00:45 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares a personal anecdote about his recent vacation camping at Devil's Den State Park in Arkansas with his family, describing it as a nice refresher time.
• Sermon Illustration [00:13:08 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor uses a linguistic analogy comparing the emphatic use of pronouns in Spanish ('yo tengo hambre') to the emphatic 'ego' (I am) in the Greek text of John 6:35 to explain the weight of Jesus' statement.
• Sermon Illustration [00:13:08 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor uses a linguistic analogy from Spanish, explaining that while the pronoun 'yo' (I) is grammatically unnecessary in 'tengo hambre' (I am hungry), adding it emphasizes the statement, similar to how Jesus emphasizes 'I am' in Greek.
• Sermon Illustration [00:15:11 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor recounts the historical practice of Jewish scribes who would set down one pen and pick up a fresh one when writing the divine name of God (Yahweh) out of reverence.
• Sermon Illustration [00:16:49 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor uses a personal analogy of physical birth to explain spiritual birth, noting that just as he had no control over being born physically, his spiritual birth is entirely brought about by God.
• Sermon Illustration [00:39:47 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor uses the analogy of marital and parental love to explain obedience: just as spouses and parents do things to please loved ones out of affection, believers should obey God out of love for His salvation.
• Sermon Illustration [00:34:15 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor references the biblical account of Adam and Eve hiding from God after sinning, contrasting their reaction with God's command to run to Him in confession.
• Sermon Illustration [00:41:48 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor references the biblical analogy of 'little foxes that spoil the vines' to illustrate how minor or major tragedies should be endured with contentment.
• Sermon Illustration [00:44:54 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor cites the greatest commandments (love God, love neighbor) and uses a rhetorical comparison: if God forgives the great offense of human sin, believers should forgive one another for lesser offenses.

• Pastoral Charge [00:00:00 ▶️ 📄]
  > Turn to John chapter 6 in their Bibles
• Pastoral Charge [00:04:09 ▶️ 📄]
  > Stand for the reading of scripture
• Pastoral Charge [00:20:10 ▶️ 📄]
  > Respond to God and believe in Jesus Christ.
• Pastoral Charge [00:20:43 ▶️ 📄]
  > Come to Christ and place faith and trust in Him.
• Pastoral Charge [00:34:20 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor commands the congregation to run to God in confession rather than hiding, citing the promise of forgiveness.
• Pastoral Charge [00:36:48 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor commands the congregation to place exclusive faith and trust in Jesus Christ for salvation, rejecting works-based righteousness or other philosophies.
• Pastoral Charge [00:43:09 ▶️ 📄]
  > Physically turn to the book of 1 John, chapter 4.
• Pastoral Charge [00:46:11 ▶️ 📄]
  > Transition into corporate prayer.

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:00:00] If you would take your copy of the scriptures this morning, I would appreciate it if you would turn with me to John chapter 6, as we're going to be reading through verses 35 and 40 in our passage this morning.
[00:00:13] That's just one of my absolute favorite songs. I love All Hail the Power of Jesus Name. One of my favorite things about that song is that the author was not a flat earther. It always cracks me up how we say terrestrial ball. I don't know why, but in my mind that just sounds funny to me.
[00:00:30] and so in the 1700s, if you look at that, he even knew at that time that the earth was round. How about that? So it is good to be back. I really missed being with you last Sunday. It was a nice
[00:00:45] vacation time as we spent some time camping at Devil's Den State Park down in Arkansas. It was a lovely time. We had a beautiful, just being out in God's creation and spending time together as a
[00:00:58] family and just waking up late and all sorts of fun stuff like that. Just taking some time off.
[00:01:03] It was a nice refresher, but it sure is nice to be back with you again this morning. As a reminder of where we are in the book of John, John is on a major, or Jesus is on a major discourse that is
[00:01:19] really part of this grand passage that begins with the feeding of the 5,000. God gives an object lesson, and Paul, wow, John uses that object lesson as a theme throughout this entire chapter.
[00:01:34] Jesus is going to use the subject of bread to say some pretty astounding, awesome, and somewhat controversial things about himself. At one point in time, the people are clamoring to come after Christ because of the great feeding of the 5,000. They're coming back to him and saying,
[00:01:51] hey we are so thankful for this bread give us more bread and Jesus says I will give you bread the bread I'm going to give you is my flesh and unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and
[00:02:00] drink his blood you have no part in him and then we see at the end of the chapter a great multitude of people departing because they're taken by a saying that's very difficult but this theme of
[00:02:11] bread is is runs throughout the entirety of this chapter this illustration that Jesus is going to use is meant to illustrate the eternal life that he gives us and that he gives it to us by his own
[00:02:24] self. And so that's what he's going to be speaking on. Inside of the passage this week and next week are some of the most beautiful and incredible verses that are given to us, particularly with
[00:02:35] regard to how does God accomplish the salvation of an individual and also the assurance of salvation that we have in our Lord Jesus Christ. And in fact, that's what I entitled this message this morning, the sure hope of the triune God. The sure hope of the triune God. Because this is a
[00:02:58] wonderful passage of scripture that teaches about how we are preserved and kept in Christ Jesus.
[00:03:07] In my opinion, this is one of the greater passages to argue for the perseverance of the saints or eternal security, or what people might say, once saved, always saved, something along those lines. So we're going to read about that this morning, but it all begins with the understanding
[00:03:23] of the author of our salvation, the one who made our salvation possible, that our hope is not in faith for faith's sake, so to speak, but our faith is in a person, and that person upon whom we have
[00:03:37] placed our faith is the person who accomplishes the salvation. It's not the magnitude of our faith that accomplishes the salvation, but the magnitude of the person of whom we are trusting that accomplishes our salvation. Because my faith wavers, and I stink at being consistent in my
[00:03:56] walk with Christ. But I am kept. I am preserved. You are kept if you are in Christ Jesus. You are preserved, not because of the amount of faith that you have, but upon the person in whom you've
[00:04:09] placed your faith. Jesus is the one who saves us. And so that's what we're going to read about this morning. So if you would stand with me for the reading of God's word, as we read
[00:04:21] John chapter six, verses 35 through 40, I would greatly appreciate it. Thus says the word of God, Jesus said to them, in verse 35, I am the bread of life.
[00:04:37] Whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.
[00:04:43] But I said to you that you have seen me, and yet you do not believe.
[00:04:48] All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.
[00:04:55] For I have come down from heaven, not to do my will, but the will of him who sent me.
[00:05:01] And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the
[00:05:14] Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.
[00:05:21] These are the very words of the living God. Please receive them with the authority that they carry, because this is the word of God.
[00:05:28] You may be seated.
[00:05:32] Let us pray.
[00:05:34] Our Heavenly Father, we exalt the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and we are so thankful for the salvation that we have in him.
[00:05:43] We pray, Heavenly Father, that you would please bless the time of the proclamation of your word that we may declare your son Jesus Christ powerfully and awesomely, Lord, that all people in here may know
[00:05:55] that Christ Jesus is the Lord and that they may attain salvation through his name.
[00:06:01] We thank you, Lord, that the plan of redemption is one that has been meted out between God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, Lord.
[00:06:09] And we thank you, Father, that you are the one who gave us to your Son for salvation.
[00:06:16] And so as we read about this this morning, as we think about these things, I pray, Heavenly Father, that it would bring about a proper response, a proper understanding, proper worship, Lord, proper obedience.
[00:06:27] I pray heavenly father and all things that you would be glorified The proclamation of your word and the application of your word would be made to all of us today I pray that all these things in jesus name. Amen
[00:06:39] As I mentioned this is called the sure hope of the triune god because what we're going to see Particularly in this passage, even though the holy spirit is not mentioned here We know that in other passages he is mentioned as the one who is the one who brings
[00:06:52] the conviction of sin and gives us the regeneration unto life. We know that we already read in John chapter 3 that the Holy Spirit is the one who gives the new birth. Jesus speaking to Nicodemus
[00:07:08] talks about that as the wind goes forth, and you don't see the wind, but you see the leaves moving and you see the trees and all of these things, that you see the evidence of the wind such it is
[00:07:21] with the Holy Spirit giving the life and birth, that he gives a spiritual birth. And you can't see the Holy Spirit and you can't see the life that he's given, but you can see the results that
[00:07:30] happen because of the work of the Holy Spirit applying God's word to our life and regenerating us unto salvation. We're going to learn that in the later chapters of John, Jesus is going to talk
[00:07:42] about that the Holy Spirit is the one who is the one who judges the world of sin and righteousness and of judgment. He brings conviction of sin. He gives us the understanding that, oh my goodness,
[00:07:53] I'm broken. In other words, as Isaiah the prophet said, woe is me for I am undone.
[00:08:02] The recognition of sin, the recognition of the need of salvation, the recognition that I am headed hell bound, and unless I am rescued, that I have no hope. The Holy Spirit brings that all about because of the conviction and the regeneration of the Holy Spirit in our lives. So we know at
[00:08:23] other places that this is mentioned. Of course, this particular passage mentions very specifically both God the Father and God the Son working in the accomplishing of salvation. And so that's what we're going to see this morning, that Jesus Christ, of course, is the one who brings about our
[00:08:41] salvation, accomplishing it through his death, burial, resurrection, and I would argue ascension, And so that is the means by which our salvation is accomplished.
[00:08:51] But we're also going to see from this passage that this is all the plan and the purpose of God the Father from the very beginning.
[00:08:58] That God is the one who gives to the Son a people to be saved.
[00:09:01] Jesus is the one who brings about the accomplishment of our salvation.
[00:09:05] salvation that is applied to us through the ministry of the Holy Spirit that brings the conviction and the regeneration unto eternal life. So salvation is a God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit activity. That God is the author of salvation, Father, Son,
[00:09:30] and spirit and brings this about as he has revealed himself as three persons accomplishing our salvation. And so that's what we're going to be talking about this morning, particularly the hope and the assurance of our salvation. How wonderful is it? This wasn't even planned. I have
[00:09:49] a series of assurance of pardons that are part of the liturgy after we have our time of confession of sin and how wonderful is it that it talks about that nothing can separate us from the love of God
[00:10:05] in Christ Jesus. That powers and principalities and authorities, height, depth, you know, all of these things, none of these things can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. None of these things are able to separate us. In other words, when God accomplishes
[00:10:23] our salvation, who in the world can overcome God? Who in the world can be the one who would potentially thwart God's plan and purpose of salvation? If God brings it about, there is nothing that can stop it from happening. Our God, who has secured within us salvation
[00:10:49] through Christ Jesus our Lord will not let us go. And we have the assurance of knowing that our God who brings about our salvation keeps us, holds on to us to the point of our full redemption.
[00:11:06] And so we're going to see that in the text this morning. So let's begin. Let's talk about the fact, man, I'm sorry, I had a moment here, that the sure foundation of our salvation is the Lord
[00:11:20] God himself. Jesus here is going to make the first of his famous seven I am statements within the gospel of John. So he begins in verse 35 of chapter six, saying this, Jesus said to them,
[00:11:35] I am the bread of life whoever comes to me shall not hunger and whoever believes in me shall never thirst now this is on the heels and I I actually mentioned this verse the last time
[00:11:51] that we were together the last time I was here by the way thank you Gavin so much for preaching last week I appreciate it so much but the last time that we were together with me being able to
[00:12:02] be up here. We talked about that last verse, but I want to springboard with that, this verse going into the next section, because it's really sort of one of those hinge verses that goes from
[00:12:13] the one section and into the next section. From before they were talking about, are you going to give us bread? Moses gave us bread. Are you better than Moses? And Jesus was like, Moses didn't give
[00:12:25] you bread. God gave you bread. And he's talking about giving them bread for eternal life. And they're like, okay, give us this bread, and so Jesus answers them, and he says, I am the bread
[00:12:36] of life, okay? But this is a very loaded statement that Jesus is about to make, because the first two words of Jesus's response in the Greek are an emphatic, ego, I, me, which means, I am.
[00:12:56] If you have ever studied Spanish, for instance, you know that the pronoun is not necessary whenever you speak.
[00:13:08] Like you say, tengo hambre, right? I am hungry.
[00:13:11] You don't have to say, yo tengo hambre, even though if you add the yo, you might really emphasize, I am hungry, okay?
[00:13:19] In the Greek, it's the same way.
[00:13:21] Most of the time, the pronouns aren't given.
[00:13:23] It's just, it's depending on the conjugation of the verb will tell you what you're saying.
[00:13:28] So when you add a pronoun to the front of a, you know, noun, or excuse me, noun, verb, you know, phrase, you're emphasizing something, all right?
[00:13:39] You're emphasizing something.
[00:13:41] But even more than that, not only is Jesus emphasizing, I'm the bread of life.
[00:13:47] In other words, he's emphasizing, you need to look to me as your bread, your food for eternal life, he's actually doing something even greater than this, okay? When we read back in Exodus chapter 3, God meets Moses at the burning bush. And as God meets Moses at the burning bush,
[00:14:09] Moses, after, you know, a discourse, a back and forth between God and Moses about, I can't go talk to these people and all these things like that, you know, God says to him, or sorry,
[00:14:23] Moses asked God, who should I tell you, or should I tell the people has sent me? And God gives the answer, I am that I am. Tell them I am sent you, okay? What God's doing there is a play on what
[00:14:41] is the divine name of God. Jehovah, Yahweh, however you try to pronounce it. We don't know how to pronounce it. We lost the vowels for it. We only have the consonants, okay? But it's the name of
[00:14:55] God, which means something along the lines of he causes to be, or he brings all things to come to pass, so to speak. Or in other words, the I am. He is the self-existent one. But it was the covenant
[00:15:11] name of God. And as the covenant name of God, the scribes would even be known to like, as they write and copy the scriptures, when they come to the name of God, they would set down one pen and they
[00:15:24] would pick up a new fresh pen just to write the name of God because they revered it so highly.
[00:15:30] And everybody understood that name of God as being referring to God in the covenant name of the God of Israel. So when Jesus here says, I am, he is making a very bold declarative statement. He is
[00:15:49] saying, I am the covenant God of Israel. I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I am. And people would recognize that because we're going to find out later things like they take up stones to try
[00:16:06] to stone him to death at one point in time, they're going to get what he's saying and they're very upset about it, okay? But what Jesus is saying is that the sure hope of the foundation
[00:16:17] of our salvation is in God himself. In other words, I am, Jesus is saying, I am the hope of your salvation. I am the foundation of your salvation. I am your sure hope. And I'm going
[00:16:32] to illustrate this by saying that I am the bread of life. What he means by that is that just in the same way as you need physical natural food in order to maintain your existence of life, he's
[00:16:49] saying I am the one who maintains your existence in eternal life. Just the same way that I could not help the fact that I was born. I was just born, okay? And I had nothing to do with it.
[00:17:04] In the same way, my spiritual birth is very much brought out the same. That I am birthed by God, and he is the one that created me physically and spiritually, redeems me spiritually, and he is the one who sustains me to eternal life by himself. I am your food. I am your drink.
[00:17:25] I am who gives you life is what he's saying so the Lord is the one who provides the sustenance he is the one that gives life okay and then he follows it up with this statement he says whoever
[00:17:38] comes to me shall not hunger and whoever believes in me shall never thirst and in fact that first that word shall never thirst it means he shall not at any time thirst is what he says okay but
[00:17:52] notice he gives two caveats here. What is the means by which this eternal life is accomplished?
[00:17:58] Number one, coming to Jesus Christ, to come to him. That has this idea of a repentance sort of thing, right? A repentance that we might be walking in the direction of sin, and sin is this way,
[00:18:15] but the direction of Jesus and life is this way. So coming to Jesus means I turn, right?
[00:18:22] and I come to Jesus. And by doing that, I have automatically turned away from all of those other things. Sin, worldliness, all of, you know, worldly ideas or philosophies or everything like that.
[00:18:36] And I'm coming to Jesus. So the idea is repentance here, coming to Jesus. And then whoever believes in me shall never thirst. So that indicates like a disposition, an idea of I am relying upon. The
[00:18:54] word believe here is the word pistou, right? Which is also where we get our, you know, another word is faith. So the idea is that I am placing my faith, my reliance, my hope, my everything upon
[00:19:09] the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, at first, this might sound like something that I do. And in fact, very much, you know, the call of the gospel is repent and believe the gospel. Repent and believe the gospel. I have decided to follow Jesus, right? I have decided to follow Jesus.
[00:19:28] No turning back, no turning back. And in one sense, that is actually true. That there is an actual movement and believing in something that we have to do to accept the gospel, okay?
[00:19:43] But where does that faith come from that we would accept the gospel? And that's what Jesus is going to talk about through the rest of this passage, that we will come to him if the Heavenly Father
[00:19:57] has granted us faith in order to do so, if the Holy Spirit has given us regeneration to be able to do so. But we're still called to respond. We're still called to believe in Jesus Christ.
[00:20:10] And in fact, I think sometimes we get so caught up in the things that are sort of God's business, we forget about the fact that there are natural, actual things that we've been called to do. We know that works are the result of faith. That means that works
[00:20:26] are significant. They don't justify us. They don't save us. But there is something that God has called us to do. There is an indication of an action and a disposition here that we must come to Christ. We must place our faith and trust in Jesus Christ. It's not some automatic thing.
[00:20:43] It's something that after God has given us faith to be able to do, we actually do it.
[00:20:50] And the evidence of us coming to Christ, again, is going to be that there's going to be a change within us. There's going to be a disposition about us, a change that will do that, okay?
[00:21:02] So that's what he says, that he's the bread of life.
[00:21:05] Whoever comes to me shall not hunger.
[00:21:07] Whoever believes in me shall never thirst, okay?
[00:21:11] A person is not redeemed unless they come to Jesus and believe in him.
[00:21:15] But he's going to speak about how a person comes to him and believes in him in these next few passages, okay?
[00:21:23] Verse 36, but I said to you that you have seen me and yet you do not believe.
[00:21:28] because what he's about to do is he's going to say, I'm the bread of life. Here I am the bread of life before your very eyes. And what are you doing? You are rejecting me. You are not believing
[00:21:41] in me. And he's going to go through and he's going to talk about why, why are you the ones not believing in me? Okay. So he's going to talk about next. So let's move on. Let's move on to verse
[00:21:53] 37 and 38, the sure hope of our salvation, the sure hope of our salvation. 37 says this, all that the father gives to me will come to me and whoever comes to me, I will never cast out.
[00:22:12] For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me.
[00:22:19] I love this scripture so much. I love it so much. The problem with them not believing in Jesus, the problem with them with seeing the Lord Jesus right before their very eyes and not taking in the bread of life, is that they were not among the people whom the Father
[00:22:39] had given to Christ. That's kind of the point that's being made here. But those who are coming to christ are the ones whom the father has given look at what it says here it says all that doesn't
[00:22:52] mean all people it means it's qualified by all that the father gives to me so the idea is that the all here record is is a recognition of there are people that god the father has given to god
[00:23:07] the son that he may accomplish the salvation for these people we don't believe in a potential salvation. And the Bible doesn't teach it. That's why we don't believe it. We believe in an actual salvation. That Jesus didn't potentially die for a whole bunch of people who may or may not come to
[00:23:27] him by faith and trust in him. We believe that Jesus actually died for a particular set of people whom God the Father has given to him that he would pay his life through the death, burial,
[00:23:39] resurrection of Christ, that they may believe in him. And that our salvation was not only potentially accomplished by Christ, but it was actually accomplished. That's why in other passages of scripture, things like Philippians chapter one, where it talks about that he who
[00:24:02] began a good work in us will complete it to the day of Christ Jesus. That in Ephesians chapter one, it talks about, in chapter two, it talks about how we're already seated in the heavenly
[00:24:13] places. That great chain that we know about in Romans chapter 8, verses 28, 29, 30, and all of right there, it talks about those whom he foreknew, those he predestined, those he also justified, and those he called justified, and then those he also glorified, you see? Glorified is the last
[00:24:38] link in that chain. It's there. It began with the foreknew, but the whole accomplishment of our salvation comes because of what? Because all that the Father gives me will come to me. And whoever comes to me, I will never cast out. I really love that. So there's like these, so anyway,
[00:25:03] we are the father's gift to the son what an amazing thought we are the father's gift to the son don't let it go to your head in one sense okay we are sinners in need of salvation but if we see
[00:25:24] ourselves for who we really are as wicked sinners desperate for the salvation of our god how wonderful is it that we are a gift? We're a gift to the Son. And why are we a gift to the Son?
[00:25:44] That the Son may be glorified in the accomplishing of our salvation. We receive the benefit of that, but ultimately it's about the Lord Jesus Christ, His glory, and His name, and His magnificence.
[00:25:59] but in the meantime we receive the benefits we receive the salvation we receive the forgiveness of sins we receive the assurance of heaven and the fact that we will be with him because all the father gives to me will come to me i like that that idea of um uh the father gives us to
[00:26:26] him. So what do we do? We come. Why we come? Because he gave, he gave us to him. Okay. All the father gives to me will come to me. And I love the second part. All right. And whoever comes to
[00:26:40] me, I will never cast out. So we're sure in our hope of salvation because of the father's giving to the son, but then we're sure in the hope of our salvation by the son's continuing to hold
[00:26:56] on to us. There's a coming to him that came because the Father has given us to him. And then there's a assurance that if we have come to him because the Father has given us to him, that he
[00:27:10] himself will never cast us out. He is the one that holds on to us. So now we see that we're held by the Father and that we're held by the Son. And of course, we're held by the Holy Spirit, as we
[00:27:22] talked about earlier. And so we see this triune work of God accomplishing our salvation. Jesus, the reason why this is accomplished and the reason why this happens is because in verse 38, he says, I've come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. This is not the
[00:27:40] first time he's said this. In fact, he's said this multiple times. He's going to say it again, okay, that he has come to do the will of the Father. And what's the will of the Father? That
[00:27:49] God would give him a people to redeem unto himself, and he is going to accomplish that redemption. And we know, of course, that he does. We've read the end of the book, right? We've read
[00:27:59] the end of John, that there's a death, there's a burial, there's a resurrection, and that's the accomplishment of our salvation. Jesus brings it about because he's doing the will of God the Father in heaven. I want to talk about next the sure hope of our resurrection. The sure hope of
[00:28:20] our resurrection. In verse 39, it says this, and this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. But raise it up
[00:28:34] on the last day. Again, another picture of how we are held by Christ. He will not lose us.
[00:28:44] do me a favor and turn with me to the book of Jude. Jude chapter 1. This is such a great book.
[00:28:54] By the way, such an oft-neglected book. It's the penultimate book of the Bible. It's the second to last, right? It's only one chapter. It's a beautiful, wonderful, amazing book. Great passages of warning in this book about ensuring that you don't fall into apostasy. Just an amazing book.
[00:29:17] In fact, it says in the book, he meant to write about our common salvation in the book, but he felt the Holy Spirit then lead him to write about apostasy and how to avoid that. And so it's
[00:29:29] a really interesting thing. But the first verse of the book of Jude is one of my favorite verses in all of the Scripture. It says this, Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James,
[00:29:42] listen to this, to those who are called, beloved in God the Father, and kept for Jesus Christ.
[00:29:52] You know that all three of those verbs right there are what are called passive verbs, right?
[00:30:00] they're passive they're present or they're perfect passive verbs called beloved kept perfect passive a passive verb uh it means that it's not the subject is not doing the action but an action is being done to the subject you see the perfect tense means that something that
[00:30:23] has come into existence and continues on forever so we have been called once and then forever called we have been beloved by god it's something that god has done and will never stop doing and then we have been another word to say kept for might be the word preserved which i think is
[00:30:53] a better word. We have been preserved in Christ Jesus, something that has been done to us and continues. We continue to be called. We continue to be loved. We continue to be preserved in Jesus
[00:31:14] Christ, our Lord. You could turn back to John chapter 6. And so that's what we see here. We see that Jesus is the one, this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing.
[00:31:30] I came to do the will of God.
[00:31:32] You know what the will of God is?
[00:31:33] That I could hold on to my people and I will never let them go.
[00:31:39] I preserve my people.
[00:31:41] Not just through this life, but look at what he says.
[00:31:45] He says that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me.
[00:31:49] So those whom God has given to Jesus, he's not lost any of them, but what? But I will raise them up on the last day. What does that mean? That means that the final hope of our resurrection, that resurrection is just as sure
[00:32:06] as the salvation that we currently possess. That we know that we have a destiny. We have a destination. As we're going to talk about next week in 1 Thessalonians 5, Bill's going to mention, We have not been appointed to wrath, but to obtain salvation through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
[00:32:25] So let that be a tremendous amount of assurance for you this morning.
[00:32:31] Let that be a tremendous amount of ability to endure whatever junk you might be going through right now.
[00:32:40] And part of that junk might be my own spiritual doubts or difficulties or, you know, it's like, you know, the word of God is very clear.
[00:32:55] Those whom he's keeping, he holds on to us, he will raise up the last day.
[00:32:59] But you know what happens?
[00:33:01] You know what happens?
[00:33:03] When I go through junk in my life, when I have sin come into my life and I really blown it or something.
[00:33:12] That whenever I know I'm not living up to the standard that God has called me to live, I don't always feel very saved.
[00:33:22] I start to question things.
[00:33:24] I start to think, am I really a Christian?
[00:33:26] Am I really a follower of Christ?
[00:33:30] And then the devil gets in there, right?
[00:33:32] And he starts whispering into your ear, reminding you of all the things that you have done, reminding of your wickedness, reminding you of your shortcomings, beating you down.
[00:33:44] then we remember passages like this that even in those moments that i don't feel very saved i'm not living very saved even maybe that i am still saved in christ jesus and so what should
[00:34:03] we do what should we do first john 1 9 right if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness see the natural tendency when we
[00:34:15] find ourselves in difficulty or find ourselves in sin is to act like Adam and Eve. What did they do?
[00:34:20] They ran and hid themselves, right? They ran away from God. What God says is, no, you run to me.
[00:34:29] You run to me, confessing your sins, and I will forgive your sins. I promised you I would forgive your sins. How awesome is that? That every time when we have our time of confession of sin,
[00:34:43] We remind ourselves of the assurance of pardon that we have in Christ Jesus our Lord.
[00:34:48] Why?
[00:34:49] Because it's real.
[00:34:51] It's real.
[00:34:53] Because all that the Father has given to him, this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of what he has given to me, but raise it up on the last day.
[00:35:04] You know what I love about this?
[00:35:05] Bill mentioned this earlier, and I thought that was great, how he mentioned the repeating something for emphasis.
[00:35:11] You know what's great about this passage right here?
[00:35:15] Is that Jesus, then after verse 39, let's just read 39 one more time.
[00:35:20] This is the will of him who sent me that I should lose nothing of all that he's given me, but raise it up on the last day.
[00:35:26] And then listen to verse 40.
[00:35:28] For this is the will of my father, that everyone who looks on the son and believes in him should have eternal life.
[00:35:32] And I will raise him up on the last day.
[00:35:35] He only needed to say it once, but he says it twice.
[00:35:39] he emphasizes it come to me turn to me look to me believe in me i will not lose you everyone who looks to the son and believes in him has eternal life you should have eternal life i'll raise you
[00:35:56] up i will raise you up on the last day and we have the promise of that this is conditional upon what though. This is not an automatic thing. This is conditional again, as we talked about on the bread
[00:36:12] of life, whoever comes to me and whoever believes in me, it's conditional on the fact that everyone who looks to the son and believes in him should have eternal life. So the question I have for you
[00:36:24] is this is the promise of the assurance of the forgiveness of God, the salvation that we have in Jesus Christ and the fact that we have currently and will in the future inherit eternal life through believing in Jesus Christ, but it's not automatic for every person. The idea is in
[00:36:48] order to obtain this resurrection, in order to obtain this eternal life, in order to obtain the forgiveness of God, you must place your faith and trust in Jesus Christ as Lord. You must believe in him. You mustn't hold on to any sort of works-based righteousness that you may think
[00:37:13] you need to do. You mustn't hold on to any other ideas, philosophies, isms, or anything along those lines that all of your life, all of your salvation, all of your hope must be on the Lord Jesus Christ
[00:37:31] through belief in him. But having believed in him, you have the rest, the sure hope, the assurance of God upon you because of what Jesus Christ has done for you. You can trust him that you are saved. You can trust him, that you have life in him through believing in him.
[00:37:57] So now, what about the application? What about the so what? What do I do with this?
[00:38:06] How should this impact us? Understanding the great joys and the knowledge and the understanding that I have life in Christ Jesus, that God the Father holds on to me, that God the Son holds on to me,
[00:38:21] that the Holy Spirit continues to indwell me, the assurance of my salvation, the sure hope of the foundation that I have in Christ Jesus, what should that produce within my life?
[00:38:33] Number one, it should produce worship.
[00:38:37] Worship.
[00:38:39] That you should look to God as the one who is worthy to be worshiped for what he has done for you.
[00:38:48] That he has brought about salvation.
[00:38:50] He has brought about your eternal life and your resurrection.
[00:38:55] And so that should cause us to worship him.
[00:38:58] Number two, it should bring about thankfulness.
[00:39:02] Thank you, Jesus, for saving my soul.
[00:39:07] Thank you for forgiving me of my sins.
[00:39:10] Thank you for the life that I have in you.
[00:39:14] And so I should have a spirit of just thanksgiving for the great accomplishment of the salvation that he has given to me.
[00:39:23] Number three, it should lead to obedience.
[00:39:27] It should lead to obedience.
[00:39:30] It should say, how in the world would I not wanna do the will of the one who so rescued me from my sins?
[00:39:41] Think about your husband or your wife, for those of you who are married in here.
[00:39:47] Think about the fact that one of the reasons you do the things you do in your household for your husband or for your wife is because you love them. You don't want to hurt your husband's heart. You don't want to hurt your wife's feelings. You
[00:40:04] don't want to do these things. Why? Because you love them. Why do you give good gifts to your kids?
[00:40:09] You love them. And so it leads you to do things that please them because you love them. And that's the exact kind of response that we should have to the Lord Jesus Christ, to God the Father,
[00:40:27] because of the salvation that we have. We should desire to obey him. Why? Because we love him.
[00:40:35] Because he saved us. Because he rescued us from hell. I should bring about a tremendous amount of obedience. Why do we sing? Because we love him. Why do we gather with the body of Christ?
[00:40:49] because we love him. Why do I desire to obey his law? Because I love him. And my God who rescued me, I desire to please him. And so I do so out of obedience to his word. Next, I don't remember
[00:41:09] what number I'm on, but contentment. Contentment. That this should bring about in the life of the believer contentment and understanding that the beauty of grace is that it makes life not fair and it should allow us to go through those trials and those difficulties even the things that we go
[00:41:32] through the sufferings that we might endure with contentment knowing that we have a sure hope of what? I'm going to hold on to them. I'm going to raise them up on the last day. We have a future
[00:41:48] and a hope. We have eternity in mind. And so the little foxes that spoil the vines or the big tragedies that we endure, we endure them with contentment. When we don't get the things that
[00:42:03] we want, we should endure it with contentment. Knowing that we have a heavenly father who has purchased our salvation, and we have a sure hope through Jesus Christ, our Lord. And I think lastly, one of the thoughts I was having with regard to the application of this is the idea of brotherly
[00:42:26] affection. That since God has so loved us, and since God has so forgiven us, we ought to love one another and forgive one another that because of the the the great salvation that god has given
[00:42:45] to us because of the the forgiveness of sins that we have we ought to be forgiving one another as well turn with me if you will to first john chapter four another small book toward the back
[00:43:09] first john chapter four beginning in verse seven the apostle john writes beloved let us love one another for love is from God and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God who anyone who does not love does not know God because God is love in this the love of God was
[00:43:52] made manifest among us that God sent his only son into the world so that we might live through him and this is love, not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son
[00:44:04] to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God abides in us and his love
[00:44:24] is perfected in us. You see, the demonstration of the love that God has given to us, and we could just keep going, by the way, it's still really good after that portion and continues on
[00:44:37] in the same thought. But the idea is that the tangible manifestation of the love that God has for us is that we would take that love and love one another. Think of the first two or the greatest
[00:44:54] two commandments whenever Jesus is asked in the scripture. What are the greatest commandments?
[00:44:59] Jesus answers, love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And the second is like it, love your neighbor as yourself. I've used this phrase often and I think it's still
[00:45:14] so appropriate no one has ever offended you more than you have offended god with your sin and if god forgives us so greatly how much more so should we also forgive one another understanding that that that you and i are sinners and it's hard and and from time to time whenever
[00:45:45] feelings get hurt and offenses are made and all of these things like that but and people like me are hard to bear with right but we've been called to bear with one another we've been called to love
[00:45:58] one another we've been called to forgive one another and we've been called to do all these things how why out of the overflow of the great salvation in jesus christ that we have because of
[00:46:11] the love with which he loved us, let us also love one another. Let's go to the Lord in prayer.
[00:46:20] Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for the salvation that we have in Christ Jesus our Lord, the permanence of it, the assurance of it, through faith in him. And we pray, Heavenly Father, that you would please help us to rest in that, to really believe this, to let it permeate our
[00:46:39] hearts and our minds lord who we are in you and the fact that we have been secured in you through well god the father god the son and god the spirit lord thank you lord no one can thwart you and in
[00:46:54] you we know that we are more than conquerors and nothing can separate us from the love of god so i pray heavenly father take that word of encouragement and really penetrate our hearts with it and help us to find the joy of our salvation and to rest in Christ Jesus and may
[00:47:12] it be so joyful and wonderful to us the salvation that we have and help us also to work it out in our lives and thanksgiving and obedience and contentment and worship and love for one another
[00:47:25] Lord I pray heavenly father that you would continue to apply these things to our hearts and minds that we may rest in you and find all of our joy and fountain in you. Thank you,
[00:47:38] Heavenly Father. In Jesus' name we pray.