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God Completely Saves Part 1 By John Paterson

In this very chapter that we read from this morning in John chapter six, Jesus has started with a big crowd.
5,000 men, presumably women and children as well.
Maybe a crowd of 10,000 more.
And he's fed them all with just a few loaves and fish.
They're one of the most amazing miracles that's recorded for us in the Bible.
And then he started to teach them.
Now, if anybody are going to believe him, it's going to be these people.
See, because these people live in Galilee.
And Galilee is on the hick side of Israel.
Up in Galilee, the people hate the government.
And Jesus has already fallen out of favour with the government back in Jerusalem.
So if anybody's going to want to be on side with him, they will.
And they want anybody who'll lead them in a charge against the government.
I mean, they don't think very favourably of the government and of Jerusalem.
They're the last people to get any government funding for any new project.
They're the people who don't have adequate representation in the parliament.
They're the people who aren't listened to.
And if this man is out of favour with the government, he surely will be in favour with them.
But as he speaks, and as he teaches them about himself, they all start to drift away.
And they all start to say to one another, we don't want this fellow.
He's showing them something marvellous that shows he's the son of God.
But all they see is a man who's filled their stomachs.
And he said, he's not going to do it again, it sounds like, not in the way they want.
So they don't want him.
And they start to all go home.
And Jesus has started with a crowd of, as I say, 10,000 or more, perhaps.
And after they've all gone home, he ends up with a crowd of 12.
Not very good odds, 12 out of 10,000.
And even a few of the 12 are a bit suspect at this stage, I suspect.
Now, if the Sydney Morning Herald were writing up this incident for us on the front page tomorrow, the headline would be something I imagine, like Preacher Blows Big Chance, or New Preacher, a Fissure, or something of that nature.
The people in this day, in Jesus' day, were convinced he'd failed.
I'm sure the Sydney Morning Herald would also say that he has failed.
And indeed, I think many Christians today think he's failed.
I'm sure that's true.
I'm not talking about unbelievers, I'm talking about Christians.
Because we say, look, we've been involved in missionary work in such and such a place for five years, 25 years, and what have we got to show for it?
Two little kids being converted out of 25 years.
Not much, is it?
I've been talking to my next door neighbour about Christ for 17 years straight, or been teaching my children for 23 years.
And what is there to show?
Nothing.
By every measure, it seems that Christ's death is wasted.
And indeed, your here preachers say things, I think, like this, Jesus has died on the cross.
And he wants everybody to go to heaven.
And here it is, he's made it all available to you.
But we look around, and hardly anybody takes it.
We say, what a waste.
He tried to get something that he didn't get.
He tried to get billions.
Oh, but he's only got millions, or thousands.
Pretty poor result.
Pretty poor by any measure.
So much of his love seems to be spurned.
And so much of his death seems to be wasted.
What a failure he is.
And the preachers today will say, well, he'd like to save you.
Oh, he'd love to get you to heaven.
Oh, but he can't make you.
It all hangs on you.
Poor Jesus.
What a poor, ineffectual Saviour he is.
He'd like to get us to heaven.
He died to get us to heaven, but we won't let him get us to heaven.
What a failure, what a fizzer.
Well, how does Jesus keep going in the face of such failure?
Started with 10,000, ends up with 12.
When the heat's on, and he's on the cross, the 12 all run away.
Not a great statistic to write home about.
If you belong to a missionary society and you wrote to your supporters and said, well, I have all these people listening, but I ended up with nobody, well, the money has soon dried up.
We don't like, we like success.
We don't like failure.
How does Jesus keep going in the face of such failure?
And he does, we're reasonably early in his ministry in John chapter six.
There's still quite a bit to come.
How does he keep going?
How does he keep preaching?
How does he keep wasting his voice on people who don't believe?
They've only got another agenda all the time.
Perhaps he's optimistic about human nature.
Perhaps he thinks that eventually this deep potential in people will come to the surface.
I mean, after all, we really do have these little sparks within us.
And maybe if he just talks long enough, these sparks will fan the life, and we'll all believe.
Maybe that's what he thinks.
If he just waits long enough.
Well, I tell you friends, if you wait long enough, you'll be waiting a long, long time, because long enough isn't long enough.
Jesus never believed there was a spark in people.
He never believed that there was a potential somehow to believe.
And if he just wait one day, it'll come to the surface.
Jesus knew what his Father had said in his word, because he's the agent through whom the Father has spoken his whole scripture.
He knew that the scriptures say that man's heart is dead, hard, stubborn, that man is blind and deaf and unable to see the truth.
Jesus never put his confidence in the hearers he spoke to.
Never once.
Think, if I can just sort of press the right button, they'll all come.
No, Jesus knew there wasn't the right button to press, so far as his hearers are concerned.
In this passage, and indeed I think through the whole life and ministry of the Lord, his confidence is in something else, not in his hearers.
Not in, as it were, his words of themselves.
Not as if he says, if I can just get the right magic words, that will sort of convince unbelief.
No, his confidence is in something else.
And right through this passage, he shows us what his confidence is in.
And I tell you, it's not in the people he speaks to.
And it's not in just simply the power of words.
His confidence is in God.
Because he says, it's God who saves.
It's God who saves.
Now you say, well, hang on, I don't know a preacher today, a Protestant preacher, perhaps, Baptist preacher, who doesn't say anything else other than that God saves.
That's what evangelicals are on about.
We believe God saves.
Well, I tell you, you can say God saves and not really mean what the Bible says.
But what the Bible says is that God completely saves.
People have got to use that word, but let me put it in this morning.
Our God completely saves.
And let me tell you what I mean by that.
And if you look, please, at verse 37, which is our key verse, but we'll look at the little bit that flows from it as well.
Jesus makes a number of points in this passage
that's recorded for us.
And the first, I guess, is simply this,
that some people are given to the Son.
Verse 37, as I told you,
you've seen me, sorry, verse 36,
as I told you, you have seen me
and still you don't believe.
How do you explain that?
That so many don't believe.
You blame the people?
Well, you might, that'd be true.
But that's not what Jesus does here.
Verse 37, all that the Father gives me will come to me.
There are some who are given to the Son by the Father.
And presumably, there are some who are not given
to the Son by the Father.
That makes sense.
There are those who are given to Him by the Father.
They'll come.
Now, you know, often the Bible speaks about the way,
about the word given and the way in which God gives
some people to the Son.
Let me give you an example from John chapter 17.
In verse six, Jesus says, 17, six,
I have revealed you to those whom you gave me, Father.
So when Jesus shows the truth, reveals the truth,
He reveals the truth to those whom the Father
has given to Him.
Or you go down to verse nine.
What about when He prays?
Verse nine, He says, I pray for them,
those people you've given me.
I'm not praying for the world,
but for those you have given me.
So when Jesus prays, He doesn't pray for everybody
in the same way.
When Jesus shows the truth, He doesn't show the truth
to everybody in the same way.
He says in verse six, I've revealed you
to those you gave me.
When I pray my prayer at its essence,
I'm praying for those you gave me.
There are those whom the Father has given the Son,
and therefore I say quite frankly,
there are those He's not given to the Son.
Now, brethren, this is the simple Bible truth of election.
God has chosen those whom He'll give to His Son.
What can the words mean other than something
as simple and basic as that?
I don't pray for everybody,
I pray for those you've given me.
I don't show you to everybody,
I show you to those you've given me.
Verse 37, all the Father gives me, they'll come.
And indeed, if we look at it negatively,
if I can put it that way,
if we ask why it is that people don't believe,
if we went to John 10, verse 26,
you don't believe because you are not my sheep.
You are not my sheep.
You are not, in terms of verse 29,
those whom the Father has given me.
Why don't people believe?
Because they're not given.
Now, we'll come in a moment to say,
well, hang on, does that mean that everybody
comes the moment they first hear the Gospel?
No, no, no, you may be given,
but it may take many times of hearing the Gospel.
But Jesus is looking at the whole picture.
Why don't people believe?
Because they're not given to the Son by the Father.
Now, that's putting it negatively.
People don't believe because they're not given.
Let's put it positively.
We see some are given to the Son by the Father.
Here, verse 37, we see, secondly,
that all those who are given will come.
Look at the words, they're simple enough,
straightforward enough.
Almost so simple, we missed the point.
All that the Father gives me will come to me.
You may be rich, you may be poor,
you may be clever, you may be slow.
It's irrelevant.
If you're given, you will come.
You may not come the first time you hear the Gospel,
you may not come the second time,
you may not come the hundredth time,
but you will come.
You may not come understanding everything,
but you will come.
You may come joyfully and gladly,
or you may come even a little reluctantly and hesitantly,
but you will come.
All those whom the Father has given will come.
Not might come, not may come, but they will come.
They will move from here to here.
They will leave behind certain things
and they will come to me, says Jesus.
They'll leave behind their sins.
They'll leave behind their unbelief.
They'll leave behind the things that don't belong
to the kingdom of God and they will come.
They'll leave behind their pride, say, I can make it.
And they'll come to me for life.
They will come.
All those whom the Father has given me will come.
They will come, verse 35.
They will come and they will believe.
And when you come, you're never hungry.
And when you believe, you're never thirsty.
That's where life is.
Not talking about what goes into your stomach.
Talking about what's in your soul and your heart.
Never be thirsty.
You get life.
When you come to me,
and all whom the Father has given me will come.
You see, how can they come?
How can you come?
I've taken, I've used this illustration before,
excuse me for using it again,
but look, I've taken, I suppose, I don't know,
hundreds of funerals in 25 years.
It has never occurred to me once, not once,
to say to the body in the coffin, hey, get up!
Hey, listen to me!
Why not?
Because the body's dead.
I can tell it all I want, but it can't hear.
It's past it.
Well, in the Bible, we're told that we are dead
when we're not Christians dead.
Can't hear, can't believe, can't get up, can't come.
But Jesus says here,
but all whom the Father has given me will come.
Jesus believes we can't come.
You go down to verse 44.
No one can come to me.
See, if you're dead, you can't.
He's not talking about, when he says no one can come to me,
Jesus is not talking about permission.
He's not saying, I'm not giving you permission to come.
No, no, no.
He's already given us permission to come to him.
He's already said in verse 35 in these wonderful words,
if you come to me and believe in me,
you'll never be thirsty and you'll never be hungry.
That's permission to come.
Yes, you've got permission to come to me.
Please come.
But you can't.
He says that.
No one can come to me.
Brethren, look, I have no more ability of myself
to come to Jesus Christ
than I have to swim 1,500 metres in 15 minutes,
or 45 minutes, or even swim 1,500 metres.
I've got no ability to even do that.
It's not in my nature.
I've got no more ability to come to Christ
than to swim 1,500 metres in 15 minutes.
It's not in me.
It's contrary to my nature to come to Christ.
I cannot do it.
In our home, we battle all the time,
like all parents, we're teaching our children
lots of things, and one of the small things
we try and teach our children is what the word can means.
We're at the table, and one of the children says,
can I go to the toilet?
I say, you can?
And they get up and say, oh, hang on.
I didn't say you may.
You asked me, do you have the ability?
That's what the word can means.
Do you have the ability to go to the toilet?
Yes, you do have the ability to go to the toilet.
If you meant, may I go to the toilet?
Do I have permission to go to the toilet?
Well, that's a different question.
Can I turn television on?
Yes, you can.
When they turn it on, hey, I didn't tell you may.
You have the ability, that's can.
May is permission.
Now, when Jesus says, no one can come to me,
he's talking about ability.
We don't have the ability.
It's not permission, we've got permission to come,
but we don't have the ability to come.
Because we're dead, we're blind, we're deaf.
We're unable to see the truth and to do the truth.
It's contrary to our nature to come to Christ.
I can no more come to Christ
than I can run a two minute mile.
It's not in my nature to do it.
So how can we come if we can't come?
Well, how is it that we will come?
Jesus says, all whom the Father has given me,
they will come.
But then he says, but you can't.
Well, is he mad?
Is he contradicting himself?
No, not at all.
Look at verse 44.
No one can come to me, no one is able to come to me,
unless, oh, praise God for the word, unless.
It's one of the big words of the Bible.
No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me
draws him.
Now, what does the word draw mean to you?
You hear a lot of priests today and say,
oh, the Father must draw you
if you're gonna become a Christian.
But that means he invites you.
Maybe he even entices you
by holding a dangly carrot before you.
Here it is.
Serve him alive, come and get it, come and get it.
Is that drawing?
Let's ask the Bible what the word draw means.
You go over into chapter 18 of John.
Don't go there now, but I'll just give you the reference.
Chapter 18, verse 10.
It says in the Garden of Gethsemane,
Peter drew his sword, same word.
What did Peter do?
Hey, sword, come on out.
Is that drawing?
Hey, sword, if you come out, you'll have a job to do.
Come on, you'll enjoy yourself.
He grabbed his sword and he drew it.
In chapter 21 of John's Gospel,
when the disciples are in the boat and they're fishing.
And we're told twice here in verse six and verse 11,
when Jesus told them to put down their net
on the other side of the boat,
and the net filled with fish,
and they dragged the net to the shore, same word.
They grabbed hold of it and they pulled it.
No one can come to me unless the Father grabs hold of him
and brings him.
Not just a word of invitation.
Let me make it clear.
The Gospel gives us a word of invitation.
But I tell you, God does more than just invite us.
He brings us to Christ.
He grabs hold of us and he brings us to Christ.
Irresistibly, so changing it, so teaching us,
that we say in the end, yesterday I didn't want to,
but now I want to, not working against our will,
but changing our will so that we now want to come.
Yesterday we couldn't see.
Now we say, I see the truth and it's great.
How come I can see it today and couldn't see it yesterday?
Because God is drawing me.
God is showing me.
God is teaching me.
As it says, as Christ speaks about here in verse 45,
brethren, we need more than an invitation to come to Christ.
I tell you, you can invite people to the cows come home,
but it's like inviting the man in the coffin.
Get up and walk.
What a waste of time.
We need more than invitation.
We need to be brought.
And the wonderful thing about God is that
when he saves people, he not only gives people to the Son,
but those people, he then brings in practice,
in effect, to the Son.
In experience, he brings them to the Son.
Who do you think gets all the glory then
for your coming to Christ?
Who gets all the praise?
Oh, I thank you, God, that I'm not like my pagan neighbours.
Oh, they've heard the gospel, but I believed and they didn't.
Oh, what a good boy am I.
Is that what it's like?
I tell you, if God brought you, you say, praise God.
Praise God that he not only offers the gospel,
but he brings me into the gospel.
He not only shows me Christ, but he brings me to Christ.
Praise God.
I tell you, brethren, look,
Jesus never made a hit and miss appeal.
Oh, I'd like you all to come and become a Christian,
and I hope maybe as I say these words,
I'll hit somebody and somebody will come.
And so somehow Jesus didn't know what he was doing
or had no assurance about the result of what he was doing.
Jesus knew every priest
that those whom the Father had given would come.
It was not a vain hope, not just a possibility,
not just let's try and get 5% success rate.
He knew he was on 100% success rate.
And that the Father's will would be completely done.
The Father would draw all those to Christ
to be given to Christ.
So that's the most wonderful thing
about the work of the gospel.
You can be sure as you take out the newspapers
to the contact around Ellenmore Vale,
those whom the Father had given will come.
It might not be today, it might not be next week,
but they'll come.
You don't need to panic when there's such little to show.
And you don't need to pat yourself on the back
when there's something to show.
Because when people come, it's God who's brought people.
That's a marvellous thing about the work of the gospel.
It will never fail, never.
And within your family, with your friends,
wherever it is, those whom the Father has given,
they'll come, they'll come.
So two things.
So far, there are those who are given
to the Son by the Father.
Secondly, those who are given will come.
And then thirdly, building up the whole picture now
to make it complete for this part of the scripture,
and those who come are safe forever.
There are those who are given,
those who are given will come,
and those who come are safe forever.
You see, you might say, well, so far, so good.
Yes, the Father has given some to the Son,
and the Father brings them to the Son, but oh, hang on.
What if the Son says when they get there,
but I don't like you, or if the Son says,
well, I do like you, but I'm not sure
I can hang on to you, because you're a pretty
willful sort of person, and maybe tomorrow,
you'll turn away again.
Maybe the Son won't be able to deliver
what the Father wants him to do.
The Father gives, the Father brings,
but maybe then the Son will drop the ball,
and it'll all be lost.
What about that?
Maybe he won't want to hold us,
or maybe he's not able to hold us.
Read on, 37, 38.
All the Father gives me will come to me,
and whoever comes to me, I will never drive away.
Keep going, 38, for I've come down from heaven
not to do my will, but to do the will of him who sent me.
Keep going, 39, and this is the will of him who sent me,
that I shall lose none of all that he's given me,
but raise them up at the last day.
Those whom the Father wants saved, the Son wants saved.
Those whom the Father resolves to save,
the Son resolves to save.
Those whom the Father will bring to heaven,
the Son will bring to heaven.
You don't need to feel that you can come to Christ
and suddenly he won't be able to hang on to you.
He'll change his mind about you.
No chance.
God doesn't work like that.
Those whom he's given, he'll bring.
Those who he'll bring, he'll receive and he'll keep.
Until the last day, he says here,
I'll raise them up at the last day.
How many of them?
All of them, all of them, I'll raise them up.
All whom the Father has given me will come
and I'll raise them all.
You see what we mean when we say God completely saves?
He just didn't, God the Father didn't put his Son
on the cross and say, well, I've done my bit.
Now all you rotten pagan sinners, it's over to you.
You do your bit and together maybe we can get
a bit of a deal going here.
See, a lot of people think it's like a 50-50 sort of deal.
But God does his bit and then we'll do our bit
and together we'll make it what we need.
In his little book, The Sovereignty of God,
Pink talks about that and he said 50-50,
send that doctrine to hell, he says.
With God, it's 100-100.
He said it's because God 100% wants my salvation
and determines to save me completely
but that's what I want 100%.
It's not against my will that I believe.
God changed my will so I want to believe.
It's not 50-50, God does a bit, I do a bit
and let's put our bits together.
God does it all and then that's,
when he does it so graciously, that's all that I want.
It's 100-100, not 50-50.
Brethren, I tell you, if you come to Christ,
if you come to him and eat and drink,
I tell you, you'll never be thirsty again,
never be hungry again but I tell you
something as good as that.
You've only come in the first place
because God has brought you and when you've come,
he'll keep you, isn't that marvellous?
That salvation is so much all of God
that will give him all, all the praise.
I don't think evangelicals today speak like that.
I think there's a, I reckon there's about
a million miles of difference between this doctrine
and what's passed off today is evangelicalism.
I've even got to be honest and I've got to call
a spade a spade.
It's not what people are saying, it's what Christ said
but it's not what's being preached today
and people are ending up with a saviour
that's about that big, someone who'd like to save you
if you let him but the Bible talks about a God
who saves miraculously from beginning to end.
Here are two people, Jack and Jill if you like
and Jack and Jill hear the gospel.
Someone tells them about Christ and how if they come
to Christ and believe in him, they'll never be thirsty
and they'll never be hungry again
and Jack scratches his head, he says I can't understand
what the guy's talking about.
Have a clue what he means, I don't want to hear
that sort of stuff and goes home in his unbelief
and Jill says yes I can see, I want to come to Christ,
I want to leave my sin, my unbelief, my pride
and my carelessness, I want to come to Christ.
And she believes, what makes the difference
between Jack and Jill?
Listen to most preachers today and they'll say
well it's Jill who made the difference,
she was smarter than Jack, she was cleverer than Jack,
she fanned into life this spark within her.
Better desires, higher potential.
Listen to the way Spurgeon put it 100 years ago.
He said imagine this prayer, Lord I thank you
that I was born with a glorious free will.
I was born with power by which I can turn to you of myself.
Lord I've improved my grace, oh Lord if everybody
had done the same with their grace that I've done
with mine, then they all might have been saved.
Oh Lord I know you do not make us willing
if we are not first willing ourselves.
Heard that before from Paul puts it around Australia.
You give grace to everybody, some improve it,
sorry some do not improve it but I do.
There are many who had as much of the Holy Spirit
given to them as I, they had as good an opportunity
and were as much blessed as I am.
Oh it was not your grace that made the difference,
oh I know it did a great deal but still I turned the point,
I made the difference, I made use of what was given me
and others did not, that's the difference
between me and them and that, says Spurgeon,
is a prayer of the devil.
That I made the difference between all these other people
dead in sin and my going to heaven,
they're going to heaven, I'm going to heaven,
I made the difference.
Can you imagine being in heaven and saying,
Lord I'm here because I made the difference.
Can you believe it?
That's what preachers are preaching.
When I'm in heaven, I'll be saying what the gospel says,
I'll be saying what Christ is here.
Lord I came because I was given.
I came because I was drawn and when I came,
I was kept by the grace of God, it was God, God, God.
Did I make a decision to turn to Christ?
Of course I did, you can't be a Christian
without turning to Christ.
I'm simply asking the question, what caused me to turn?
What caused me to believe when others make a wretched choice?
See it doesn't hang on me brethren, it all hangs on God,
from beginning to middle to end.
Those whom the Father gives, they come
because they're drawn and they're kept.
It's God, God, God.
See the theme song for many Christians is,
I have decided to follow Jesus.
You know the old song, I've decided to follow Jesus?
Well of course that's true.
Of course if you're a Christian,
you've decided to follow Jesus.
Of course it's true.
But it's about 10% of the truth.
I think our theme song in heaven will not be,
I've decided to follow Jesus,
but maybe something like this.
You know the hymn, long my imprisoned spirit lay.
Fast bound in sin and nature's night.
I was blind and chained, I couldn't do anything about it.
Your eye sent a quickening ray.
I woke, the dungeon flamed with light,
my chains fell off, my soul was free.
Then I rose, went forth and followed thee.
That's the theme song that Christians ought to be singing.
I tell it that way, God gets the praise and the glory.
And why would you want it any other way?
Why would you want to take a share out of that?
And deprive the Lord what rightly belongs to him.
Brethren when you're Christ's and saved by grace,
you've been given, you've been brought, you've been kept.
By grace, by grace, by grace.
Now I know that raises questions.
Does that mean we don't have a free will?
Is it fair?
If this is true, why bother even going to New Guinea
or anywhere else to preach the gospel?
If people will come and nothing can stop them.
They're fair questions.
And God willing, we're gonna talk about those tonight
and answer them.
But let me conclude this morning simply with two,
I think very positive points.
And the first is simply this,
and I guess I've made it already,
but let me try and bring it to a bit of a head with you
if I may.
Brethren I wanna encourage you to have confidence
when you talk about Christ.
You're not wasting your time.
I tell you, I reckon if you say it doesn't feel
like I'm wasting the time, I think you're a liar.
Of course sometimes it does feel like
you're wasting your time.
Sometimes you can think of a hundred things
you'd rather be doing.
But I tell you there's nothing better
than telling the gospel.
Because when the gospel is preached, God does great work.
And he calls, he brings to Christ those whom he's given him.
We're not wasting our time.
It's the very opposite.
We're not wasting our money.
It's the very opposite when we put our money
into the work of telling the gospel.
Hardly a waste, hardly a waste.
It's the only thing in this world I think
that's really guaranteed of any success.
Not much that's certain in this world
apart from the fact that you'll die and pay taxes I suppose.
But this is certainly the most certain thing
that all those in the Father who's given to the Son
will come.
We've got some friends, there are a couple of fellows
from the church at Dubbo where Bob weighs
and they go out visiting some Sunday afternoons.
Door to door, door to door, door to door.
Before they go one says to the other,
well, let's go and get God's elect.
Wasting their time?
I'm not saying you've got to go door to door.
I'm simply illustrating by saying, what are they doing?
They are the means by which God is going to bring to Christ.
Those who he means to bring that day,
those whom he's already given to the Son.
Brethren, we're not limited.
Let me tell you, take great heart.
You may be an incompetent sort of person
when it comes to speaking about Christ.
Well, join the club.
All of us have certain relationships
where we just don't get it right and we think,
oh, if only I'd said this, if only I'd said that.
Well, let me tell you, you can't muck it up.
Yeah, you can't muck it up.
Whoever has said the gospel perfectly,
which preacher has ever preached a perfect sermon,
every preacher mucks it up every time he opens his mouth.
In that sense, but you can't muck up what God's doing.
You can't wreck it, you can't spoil it.
Those whom the Father has given me will come.
What?
Through poor preachers like us?
Yes.
Through poor talkers like us over the back fence?
Yes.
They'll come.
You can't muck it up.
Our confidence is not in our ability to talk
or their ability to understand.
It's in God.
You can't spoil it.
So, brethren, take great confidence.
And the second point is, as I conclude,
and bring it to a head, is simply this.
Look, when I talk about Christ to you this morning,
I'm presenting to you,
I'm showing you a Christ who's worth believing in.
Not a Christ who'd like to get something he can't,
or like to hold something he's not able to.
I'm talking about a Christ who says,
look, when you come to me and believe,
you'll get such satisfaction in your soul,
you'll never first to be hungry again.
That's great.
I'm talking about a Christ who says,
when you come to me, I'll not turn you away.
That's great.
I'm talking about a Christ who says,
and I'll hold you to the last day
and I'll raise you out of your grave.
If there are a few specks of dust, I'll raise you up,
and you'll be with me body and soul in heaven.
He's not a has-been Jesus who'd like to do something,
but you're a stopping him.
Or the rules of this world
are preventing his great purposes coming to pass.
That's not the Jesus of the Bible.
The Jesus of the Bible who delivers what he promises
and who saves from beginning to end.
He knows what he's doing, brethren.
And he does it.
He's got to say, I've died for all these people
who I hope someone somewhere believes they'll pull me.
No, no, no.
I've died for those whom the Father has given me,
and they'll come.
I'm confident.
And when they come, I'll grab them and I'll hold them.
That's the Jesus of the Bible,
not this mamby-pamby weak thing that's presented today.
And he's a Jesus worth believing in.
His words are clear.
The invitation is clear.
Come to me.
Believe in me.
You'll never be thirsty again.
You'll never be hungry again.
And all those whom the Father gives, they'll come.
They'll come.
And I tell you, you can't come.
I tell you, you can't come unless God gives it to you.
So pray that he'd have mercy on you,
and he'd bring you to the only Saviour worth having.
Let's pray.
Lord, at the end of this whole incident
where Christ spoke to these thousands
who went away in unbelief,
then we know from your word that he said
to the disciples, will you go too?
And they replied, Lord, to whom can we go but you?
For you have the words of eternal life.
Father, give us grace, we pray,
to see Christ as the speaker of truth,
Christ as the giver of life,
and Christ as the sovereign Lord
who saves completely from beginning to end.
Father, we easily fall away from such a vision
of our Saviour, and we pray that you'll refresh us
with that for the work of taking the Gospel,
and you'll refresh us with that vision in such a way
as you draw our hearts away from things of this world,
away from our own abilities imagined as they are,
that our confidence might be in the Lord Jesus,
in the sovereign God who saves completely.
Fill our hearts with such a vision
and receive our thanks, we pray in Jesus' name, amen.