Let's pray together, please. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the treasures of your holy word. May we receive their truths with faith and love, lay them up in our hearts and practice them in our lives. In Christ's name we ask, amen. Please take your Bibles and turn to John chapter six. Before we get back to first Samuel, I wanna do a reformation, a sermon for you. John chapter six, verses 35 through 45. John chapter six, verses 35 through 45. And the first half of the sermon will cover some of the issues of the Reformation and why the Reformation was so important. And then the second half will exposit this passage. But I've given you a bunch of questions, a bunch of thoughts for Sabbath meditation to help you keep the Sabbath day. I would encourage you to go over those with your families and friends after the service. John chapter six, verses 35 through 45. This is God's word. Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will not hunger, and he who believes in me will never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will certainly not cast out. For I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. This is the will of him who sent me, that of all he has given me, I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my father, that everyone who beholds the son and believes in him will have eternal life, and I myself will raise him up on the last day. Therefore the Jews were grumbling about him because he said, I am the bread that came down out of heaven. And they were saying, is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, I have come down out of heaven? Jesus answered and said to them, do not grumble among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day. It is written in the prophets, and they shall all be taught of God. Everyone who has heard and learned from the father comes to me. May God bless the reading of this Holy Word. I have never spoken to a professing Christian of any variety, Pentecostal, Protestant, Roman Catholic, Federal Visionist, Eastern Orthodox, or whatever, nor to a cultist of any variety, Mormon, Jehovah's Witness, or whatever, who did not emphatically affirm a belief that salvation was by grace alone. I've even heard Muslims state very passionately that salvation is entirely through the grace and mercy of Allah. Every professing Christian I have ever known, read, or spoken to also affirms that Jesus is their savior and that he is their Lord. I remember many years ago sitting in the living room of a family of Mormons, along with several Mormon missionaries there in Akron, Ohio, in an attempt to witness to them. And they wanted to open with prayer. And I told them that they were welcome to pray, but that I would not be participating in that. And that Mormon man whose house it was prayed. I'll never forget the way he prayed. He said his words, heavenly father, I thank you for sending your son, our Lord Jesus Christ into the world to die for our sins and that we're saved by what he did. Please bless this time, et cetera, et cetera. Now, they're trained to sound as Christian as possible when talking to someone who actually is a Christian, but I thought, wow, they sound just like us. They really sound like they believe the same things that we do. But do they? Do they? Not even close. Every single word in that prayer is so radically redefined that it bears no resemblance to biblical Christianity whatsoever. Now in the 16th century, when the Protestant Reformation began, as it has traditionally started with Luther nailing the 95 theses against the church door at Wittenberg there, both sides of that debate then and to this day affirm salvations by grace alone. Both sides affirm justification is by faith. Both sides affirm Jesus is our Savior. Both sides affirm Jesus is our Lord. So you might wonder, what's the problem then? Why are we still divided from the various denominations of Roman Catholicism? Why are we still divided from them if we all agree that we're saved by grace and we all agree that Jesus is our savior and that we're justified by faith and we all agree that Jesus is Lord. Dear congregation, the issue that tore Christendom apart in the 16th century was not those questions. The issue was, what does it mean? What does it mean when Rome says they believe we're saved by grace? What do they mean when they say that Jesus is their savior? What do we mean when we say Jesus is our Savior? When the Roman Catholic person who's committed to that system, when they say that they believe Jesus is their Savior, do they mean by that that they are trusting and relying solely, completely, and only upon the imputation of the righteousness of Christ to their account by faith alone, completely apart from works as the sole basis upon which they will enter heaven? No. Do they believe justification is a one-time act of God acting as judge, whereby he declares the believing sinner to be forensically, legally, perfectly righteous before his law? Is that what they think it is? No. They believe justification is sanctification. They believe justification is a process. It's not a legal declaration made by God as judge one time that we are now righteous in His sight. Justification to the Roman Catholic Church is a process of moral transformation whereby we can become righteous enough in ourselves to get to heaven. That is a fundamental difference. When the Roman church says they believe Jesus is their savior, what they mean is that Jesus' work merited grace, which can then be channeled to us through sacraments, poured into our souls, which will change us inwardly, morally, enough to have to spend maybe a little time in purgatory after we die, but definitely not going straight to heaven. That notion is, as you know full well, not only not taught anywhere in Scripture, it's flatly denied, repeatedly, from Genesis to Revelation. The Protestant Reformation really was, at its heart, not just a recovery of the precious doctrine of sola scriptura, that the Bible is the only source of God-breathed revelation in the church today that shows us how to glorify and enjoy God, and what a blessing it is to have that truth, isn't it? not only in the face of Roman Catholicism's sacred tradition, which they believe is of equal authority to Scripture, but also in the face of over a hundred years of false Pentecostal and charismatic claims to extra-biblical words from God. Sola Scriptura, the Bible, is the only source of God speaking in the world. The Reformers in the 16th century had to hold fast to the Bible as the sole source of special revelation, not just against Rome, but also against the continuationist Anabaptist groups who were constantly claiming extra biblical words from God, prophecies, et cetera, in the 16th century. The Reformation's recovery of the only source of the voice of God on earth in scripture is what led ultimately to the recovery of the biblical notion of salvation by grace alone. You see, the words salvation, grace, justification, Jesus, those words really don't mean much unless they're defined and held to biblically. My burden is for all of us together to have a biblical understanding of what it means to believe what the Bible means when it teaches that we're saved by grace and when it teaches that we're justified by faith apart from works. What do those words mean? Those phrases don't mean anything if they're not defined and embraced biblically. And I fear there are many naive Christians who think, well, if you can sit down with someone and they say the words, I believe Jesus is my savior. Well, I guess we're brothers in Christ. No, we're not. No, we're not. Not unless we define those things accurately. Here's what God and his word means when he says we're saved by grace. Are you ready? Question 20 of the shorter catechism, did God leave all mankind to perish in the estate of sin and misery? Here's what grace is. God having out of his mere good pleasure from all eternity elected some to everlasting life, did enter into a covenant of grace to deliver them out of the estate of sin and misery and to bring them into an estate of salvation by a redeemer. That's what grace is. Martin Luther's monumental treatise that was the beating heart of the Reformation was his book, The Bondage of the Will, in which he cites more than 300 passages from the Bible showing the biblical, orthodox and Augustinian doctrine of the monergistic regeneration and sovereign unconditional electing grace of God and the salvation of sinners. I know that's a mouthful, we'll talk about that here. By the word monergism, it simply meant one working. Mono, one, ergo, working. Monergism means one working, and that's what Luther pounded home. That's what he wrote about and preached. He wanted people to see that. Salvation's monergistic. God does all the work to save us. Our faith, our repentance, our sovereign gifts of God to his people. Salvation is not a synergistic, cooperative venture where our free will partners with God to save us. So strong was Luther on this point that even later Lutheran systematicians and theologians after him tended to follow the more compromised views of some of Luther's contemporaries instead of his. I still remember reading this sentence years ago in The Bondage of the Will for the very first time. Listen to this. Do you think this is overkill? Listen to what he says, quote, if any man would ascribe even the smallest part of his salvation to his free will, he knows nothing of grace and has not learned Jesus Christ, end quote. I remember reading that when I was in my early 20s and I just like, please, is that true? Yeah, it is. It sounds a little like overkill. Is Luther trying to swat a gnat with a sledgehammer? Or is he correct? I maintain he is correct. Although I think there are many sincere Christians who either do not fully understand what he's talking about, or have simply put the topic of what the will does in salvation into the realm of mystery. It's a pedantic point of theology. Nobody can really know for sure. We'll never have that nailed down. No pious Christian should concern themselves with such things. What amazes me personally about the written debate between Erasmus, the Roman Catholic humanist, and Martin Luther on the question of the will is how similar all those debates back then are to the debates we have today. Erasmus wrote a treatment, this Roman Catholic priest, called On the Freedom of the Will, in which he defends the autonomy of the human will and its decisive force in the salvation of sinners. Very strongly, he defends this. While Erasmus defends that view and tries his best to say, ultimately, the decisive factor is in us, at the same time, Erasmus also says, but the whole question is irreverent, inquisitive, and superfluous. Nobody really needs to know, even though I just wrote a whole book defending it. Because of this attitude displayed by Erasmus, Luther actually asks that question in his book. Why'd you write a book on it if you don't think it's important? Why'd you write a book on it if you think it's just superfluous and inquisitive and no pious person should trouble themselves with it? Why defend a view and then dismiss the debate as silly? We get the same attitude from many today, don't we? Exact same thing. Many are convinced that God is not sovereign in salvation. Man's will is decisive. God actually does not choose anyone to save, but they'll turn right around and dismiss the whole question as foolish. And Luther's response is biblical and to the point. Listen to his response to that attitude. That dominates the church today. He said this, therefore, it is not irreverent, inquisitive, or superfluous, but essential and necessary for a Christian to find out whether the will does anything or nothing in matters pertaining to eternal salvation. Indeed, as you should know, he's talking to Erasmus, this is the cardinal issue between us, between Rome and the Reformation. the point on which everything in the controversy turns. And then Luther wrote this wonderful sentence. Listen carefully to this. For if I am ignorant of what, how far, and how much I can and may do in relation to God, it will be equally uncertain and unknown to me what, how far, and how much God can and may do in me. And I cannot worship, praise, thank, and serve God, since I do not know how much I ought to attribute to myself and how much I ought to attribute to God. He's saying, if you don't know, who saves who? You can't worship. You can't pray because you never know. Should you praise God and yourself a little bit or praise God for the whole thing? And he is exactly right. He's exactly right. I can only worship when I see my salvation as entirely, not partially, not mostly, but entirely of God. And it can only be entirely of God if God chose me unconditionally. And I am justified before God and have the gift of eternal life by faith alone, completely and entirely apart from my works. That is to say, if my salvation is truly and actually by the grace of God. Alone. I can't worship God and I can't know I have eternal life without those twin truths. Unconditional, electing grace, and justification, sola fide. By faith alone. You see, if we don't understand what a gracious salvation really is, we will always be in doubt regarding whether or not we're saved. There are so many professing Christians today because this truth is ignored and swept aside and not seen as all that important and it's too divisive. So many Christian people are paralyzed with fear because they really don't know what grace is and they don't know what justification is. Think about this question. This is one of the key questions. You need to weigh this. As the gospel is preached, why do some people believe it and others reject it? Why? What makes the difference? Is it something we do, something God does? Or is it a situation where we do our part, God does his part, and hence we're saved? We ourselves do believe the gospel, right? I mean, I'm the one that believes in Jesus. We ourselves are the ones who repent. I am the one who repented. Yes, that's true, we do. We do believe, we do repent. But why? Why is it that so many people I grew up in church with, they're not believers now, and I am. It's not because I'm smarter, I promise you that. Why do some repent and believe and others refuse to? What makes the difference? Article seven of the first head of doctrine in the canons of Dort describes it like this, election is God's unchangeable purpose by which he did the following, before the foundation of the world by sheer grace, according to the free good pleasure of his will, he chose in Christ to salvation, a definite number of particular people out of the entire human race, which had fallen by its own fault from its original innocence into sin and ruin. Now listen to the sentence, those chosen were neither better nor more deserving than the others, but lay with them in the common misery." End quote. That's what scripture teaches. That's Ephesians 1, that's Romans 8, 9, 10, 11. That's John 6, John 17, John chapter 10. That's Isaiah, that's Ezekiel, that's Deuteronomy. It really is grace alone. In the very first section of the Canons of Doran, Article 1, the first thing they said when they responded to the Arminian challenge to the biblical notion of grace, they wrote this, since all people have sinned in Adam and come under the sentence of the curse and eternal death, God would have done no one an injustice if it had been his will to leave the entire human race in sin and under the curse and to condemn them on account of their sin. There's nothing unjust about that. God could have left the whole world to die in sin. And so I say this to you, summarizing scores of passages. For grace to be grace, it has to be unconditional and free. For grace to be grace, it has to be unconditional and free. Paul said in Romans 11, 6, even so then at this present time, there is a remnant according to the election of grace. And if it's by grace, it is no longer of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace. Paul, in describing God's sovereign choice of Jacob over Esau, said this in Romans 9-11, For the children not yet being born, nor having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God, according to election, might stand, not of works, but of him who calls, it was said to her, The older will serve the younger, as it is written, Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated. Without unconditional election, salvation is not solely by grace. You can argue that salvation is partially by grace or even mostly by grace, but it's not grace alone. If you lose the doctrine of unconditional election, it is not grace alone that saves us. When God effectually calls a sinner, one of his elected people, to himself, that sinner comes to Jesus, meaning that sinner will believe the gospel, they will believe in Jesus. And what does it mean to believe in Jesus under the salvation of your soul? It means that you are no longer relying at all in any way upon yourself or your works or anything that you have done, are doing, or will do to be justified and saved before Almighty God on the day of judgment. To really believe in Jesus means you are trusting in His personal righteousness, His obedience to the Ten Commandments, His cross alone, and that you pronounce a curse upon your own works to get the job done. It means that you understand by God's act of justifying you through faith in Christ and no faith in your works anymore, You have been brought before the time to the final judgment and have already passed through it successfully and have been acquitted of any and all charges brought against you. And that's why Christians can know they have eternal life. This is why Paul, in his glorious explanation of the gospel, when he describes the unconditional electing grace of God, he doesn't dismiss it as, well, it's inquisitive, well, it's gonna split your church, well, no, everybody disagrees about it. He says, who will bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies, who is he that condemns. Christ Jesus is he who died, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us, who will separate us from the love of Christ. That's his response to predestination and election. It's about the love of God, that unstoppable love that always gets its man, this woman that it's set upon. Now, before we walk through the verses of scripture in John chapter six, I wanna go over just a couple of objections. And I've given you an outline there in your bulletin and that you can follow along this way. Here are the objections that people raise to the issue of unconditional election. In fact, these objections are raised in scripture by imaginary objectors in Romans nine. Election is unfair to those who are not elected. It's not fair. Okay, that is 180 degrees opposite of what's true. Election is gracious to those who are elected and perfectly fair to those not. Okay, are you tracking with me? Election, it has nothing to do with fairness. Election is God showing mercy and grace to people who are equally undeserving of mercy and grace. And it's perfectly fair and righteous to those not elected. They don't wanna be saved. They don't want anything to do with God. They wanna go on in their sin. They want no part of him. And by the way, just so you know, make a mental note, God is not capable of being unfair. It's impossible. It can't be unfair. Those whom God chooses to bypass and to leave in their sins, they will get their heart's desire, which is to continue in rebellion against God, to continue in sin all their lives. All unregenerate people have no ability to repent, no ability to believe in Christ, nor do they have any desire to do so. The elected rebel sinners get not only what they want, the unelected rebel sinner not only gets what they want, they get what they deserve by justice. Election is a matter of grace, not fairness. Please remember that. That's not fair. I had a family member tell me that recently. He said, God chooses who he's gonna save, that's not fair. I'm like, I know, it's grace. It's grace. The non-elect, they get what's fair. They go to hell, that's what they want. They don't want anything to do with God anyway. You see, we just don't think we're that bad, do we? We really think we're good people. We really think, oh, no, no, no. Give people a chance and they'll come to Christ. No, they won't. No, they won't. The slaves of sin cannot liberate themselves from slavery to sin any more than the Israelites could liberate themselves from Egyptian bondage. Okay, the second objection. This one's gonna be a bit longer. Election means God forces people to believe in Jesus against their will. I've heard that many, many, many times. One of the most common and unfounded objections to the biblical doctrine of unconditional electing grace is God forces, He compels, He coerces the elect into the kingdom against their wills. Biblically, the response to this is this, please listen. At no point does God ever force people to do anything against their wills, ever. All men, all women, before and after the fall, but before and after regeneration takes place, we all have wills, we live by our wills, and we act freely by our wills. Men always act freely in accordance with their own nature and their own desires. And the non-elect person, the unregenerate person, will never have a desire to be saved. Ever! They will never have a desire to let go of sin and embrace Jesus. Those who deny the sovereignty of God in unconditional election think that we're saying that, well, God grabs people and drags them kicking and screaming to believe in Jesus against their will. And even when we point out the biblical teaching that God's effectual call is an act of resurrection, it is a making alive in Christ, a raising of the spiritually dead to spiritual life by God's power. We're still told that this is wrong. Norm Geisler said, that's wrong because there's no informed consent. Just so we're clear, just so we're clear, the dead can't be informed of anything, nor can they give their consent to anything precisely because they're dead. Listen to the testimony of God's word, Ephesians 2.1, and you, he made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins. Ephesians 2.4, but God, who is rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ by grace to have been saved. Colossians 2.13, and you being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he has made alive. The effectual call of God is a spiritual resurrection of the dead. Where is the cooperation of man's will here in this making alive? It's nowhere. We are altogether passive in this spiritual resurrection. It is the accomplishment of God, the Holy Spirit alone. It is not affected through sacraments. We are not born again by baptism or the Lord's supper. Jesus said to Nicodemus in John three, verse eight, the wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going. So is everyone who was born of the Spirit. This is what we're talking about when we speak of salvation by grace and by grace alone. We can put ourselves in the church and read the Bible and sit under the preaching of the true gospel. And I wanna tell you, if you're not sure if you're converted or you're sure you're not converted, please do that. Go to church, never miss. Read Romans every day obsessively compulsively for the next year. That's your only hope, to be born again by God's spirit, working through the word of God. 1 Peter 1.23, for you have been born again, not of seed which is perishable, but imperishable. That is through the living and enduring word of God. I got an email two weeks ago. I've been corresponding with a fella who says, I'm unconverted and hopeless. I'm unconverted and hopeless. He's convinced he's not saved. And I told him what I just told you. Make sure you don't miss church. Find a church that preached the gospel and get into your Bible. And I mean, read it all the time. Read Romans, Galatians, and John's gospel over and over and over and over again. And let's keep corresponding and keep doing that. And God might make you alive in Christ. Remember God's command to Ezekiel to preach to the valley of dry bones? That illustrates exactly what happens when God blesses the preaching of the gospel when it saves people. Okay, the bones aren't having a Bible study. They're not seekers. They're not hanging out asking all the right questions and wondering about how to be saved. They're dead. Ezekiel 37 verse 7, So I prophesied as I was commanded, and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and suddenly a rattling, and the bones came together bone to bone. Indeed, as I looked, the sinews and the flesh came upon them, and the skin covered them, but there was no breath in them. And he said to me, Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, Thus says the Lord God, Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live. So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath came into them, and they lived, and stood upon their feet an exceedingly great army. God makes the dead alive. That's how we're saved. They were unsaved and under God's wrath. God saves us. He saved them. What good would it do for God to await the informed consent of a valley of dry bones? Dead people can't be informed of something. They can't give their consent to something. They can't resist or assist in their own resurrection from the dead. They are entirely passive in this matter. Every view of salvation that denies unconditional election and irresistible, effectual, invincible grace is a denial of the fall of man, and it's a denial of original sin's effect on the human race. So often, opponents of biblical unconditional election and irresistible, effectual grace will say that we're saying that, well, God is forcing himself on people. Think about that. At the tomb of Lazarus, when Jesus said, Lazarus, come forth, does it make any sense at all to say that Jesus forced Lazarus to life? Or that he coerced him without Lazarus' informed consent? Could we argue that God was, through Ezekiel's preaching, forcing and coercing the valley of dry bones against their will back to life? The irresistible effectual grace of God is a resurrection of the dead. It's not forcing someone to do something that they haven't given informed consent to. They're spiritually flatlined. There's no life there. When we speak of God's sovereignty and making dead sinners alive in Christ by his sovereign power, the spiritually dead people, they can't resist, praise God, and they can't cooperate with that act of sovereign spiritual regeneration. Why? They're dead. God does not ever force anyone to do anything against their will. All men have wills, live by their wills, and act by their wills. But their wills are in bondage to sin. That's why Martin Luther wrote the book, The Bondage of the Will. Because here you have Erasmus, well, you know, God pleased the people, so that must mean they're free. It has to mean that. And Luther said, no, look at all the passages. He says, passage after passage after passage. Man is not able, not able, not able, not able. Man's will is in bondage to sin. The biblical teaching is quite clear. Once Adam plunges the human race into sin, men are slaves of sin. They're not able to believe. They're not able to repent. They're not able to come to Christ, bear good fruit, or free themselves from slavery to sin, or to do anything whatsoever that is spiritually pleasing to God. The multitude of inabilities mankind inherited because of Adam's fall are spelled out repeatedly, clearly, emphatically throughout the Bible. Just listen to a few of these, Matthew 7, 18. A bad tree cannot bear good fruit. John 6, 44, we're gonna look in more detail here in just a moment. No one is able to come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. John 6, 65, no one is able to come to me unless the Father has enabled him. John 14, 17, the world is not able to accept the spirit of truth. John 15, no branch is able to bear good fruit, neither can you bear good fruit. Romans 8, 7 and 8, the hostile mind, the unregenerate mind is a slave of sin, it doesn't submit to the law of God, and it is not able to do so. 1 Corinthians 2, 14, the natural man, the man who's unconverted, does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he is not able to understand them. It's clear, unmistakable, repeated, emphatic. So many in our day deny it. So many people believe the exact opposite of all these passages. No, no, no, man's able, man can believe, he can repent, he can bear good fruit, he can do this, he can do that. And the word of God thunders against it. Luther saw this so clearly as the Bible was being rediscovered in his day. Luther saw that Rome really did deny original sin. Rome did not embrace what the Bible says the fall did to us. And many today don't see or embrace it either. They deny original sin, which is the corruption of our whole nature, which renders all of us unable and unwilling to believe in Jesus, unwilling and unable to repent of our sins. That belief is so widespread today in evangelical churches that the great R.C. Sproul wrote an article titled, The Pelagian Captivity of the Church. Meaning, it's almost like nobody believes in original sin anymore. Now, what is Pelagianism? That is a word you need to know. You need to know what Pelagianism is. The ancient British monk, Pelagius, who battled with the Christian theologian, Augustine, on the issue of original sin. This is long ago. This is in the 400s that this happened. Pelagius was eventually named and his denial of original sin was condemned by more church councils as false teaching in all of church history. And the heresy to this day even bears his name. It's called Pelagianism. Condemned, it's even condemned by Rome. Rome condemns it. We condemn it. Everybody condemns it. What is Pelagianism? You tell me if this sounds familiar. Here's a technical definition from a theological dictionary, quote, Pelagianism is that teaching originating in the late fourth century, which stresses one's ability to take the initial steps towards salvation by one's own efforts. That was condemned as heresy in the year 418 and later on in 529. Notice in that system, grace is seen as an aid. That article goes on and says, Pelagius considers grace purely to be an aid provided by God. And this grace is offered equally to all. Notice in Pelagianism, grace doesn't actually save and doesn't actually accomplish anything except to make it possible for sinners to do of their own what they need to do to be saved. That's Pelagianism. Theologian Robert Raymond said this, quote, it should be noted that Pelagianism did not die with its conciliar condemnation in 418, men and women being born as they are with Pelagian hearts. He says, but rather it only went underground. Meanwhile, vexing the church with modified forms of itself, modified just enough to escape the letter of the church's condemnation. For example, it reappeared at once in the semi-Pelagian denial of the necessity of pervenient grace for salvation. This was opposed by the Second Council of Orange in 529 AD. And the same goes underground, that same view goes underground for a long time and it reappears here and there throughout church history, but eventually it explodes and goes nuclear during the Reformation. When a triumph of the true biblical Augustinian doctrine of salvation, that we are unconditionally elected unto salvation, that God's grace, when he makes us alive in Christ, is irresistible in the new birth, and that justification is by faith alone, completely apart from our works, thankfully won the day, finally. This is why Luther wrote such a passionate book, The Bondage of the Will, in defense of the unconditional electing grace of God. It was to combat Rome's denial of original sin, Rome's view of semi-Pelagianism. You see, historically speaking, if you don't like these weird technical words, there's really only three views that have been held throughout the whole history of the church. First view is, we save ourselves by our works. Second view, we save ourselves with God's help. Third view, God saves us. And which one do you think the Bible teaches? Three, God saves us. God saves us. Now, hopefully you're still there in John 6, 35. Let's look at verse 35. John 6, verse 35. Glorious passage. This passage is a goldmine of truth for a Christian. Verse 35, Jesus said to them, talking to the, just real quick, remember the 5,000, he fed the 5,000 and they follow him over the Sea of Galilee to the synagogue at Capernaum. And why are they following him? We want more free food. We want the traveling McDonald's to do its thing again. Give us more food. And Jesus said to them, verse 35, I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will not hunger. And he who believes in me will never thirst. Jesus turns to them and gives them some of the clearest teaching in all of the Bible on unconditional election, and that salvation is found only by believing in Him and not by works. In fact, earlier in the passage, it said, what must we do that we may do the works that God requires? And Jesus said, this is the work that God requires, that you believe in Him whom He sent. And they could no more swallow that than most Americans can. Really? All I have to do is believe? There's gotta be something I can do. No, there's nothing. We're that bad. Our works can't play any role in it at all. Here in verse 35, notice please that coming to Jesus is the same as believing in Him. Believing in Him is what He means by coming to Him. They are the same thing. He's speaking of spiritual hunger and spiritual thirst here. Whoever comes to Jesus, believes in Jesus, will never hunger or thirst spiritually again. And then look at verse 36 and 37. 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 certainly not cast out. Now remember this, coming to me means believing in Jesus, having faith in Jesus. And who will do that? Who will come to Jesus and believe in him? All that the Father gives me, he says. All of them. Anyone who believes in him, Jesus promises, I will never cast you out. Isn't that wonderful? His promises, if you come to me, I will certainly not cast you out ever. And why is that? Why can Jesus say that so emphatically like this? Listen to the next two verses. Look at verse 38 and 39. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. This is the will of him who sent me, that of all he has given me, I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. And then verse 40, for this is the will of my father, that everyone who beholds the son and believes in him will have eternal life, and I myself will raise him up on the last day. the will of God the Father for Jesus and coming into the world in the womb of the Virgin Mary and being born of her and walking around this world for those 30 something years that he was here. His mission is not to lose any that were given to him by his father in eternity past. That's what Ephesians 1.4 is talking about when it says that God the Father chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world. That's what he's talking about. All that the Father gives me will come to me. I've come down from heaven not to do my own will, not with my own agenda, but to do the will of Him who sent me. And this is His will. This is God's will for me, the Savior, that of all He has given me, I will not lose one. These are the ones elected by name individually from all eternity, whose salvation God the Father entrusted to his son, Jesus. The triune God has a special redemptive love and purpose for these undeserving wretched sinners. Jesus Christ is accountable to his Father for their salvation. And therefore we need not doubt that Jesus will employ all the powers of his Godhead to secure their salvation and not lose a single one. Is that not good news? The only way a true Christian could actually lose their salvation would be for Jesus to fail to do his father's will. This is glorious, life-giving, encouraging, and wonderful truth. Jesus' original audience, however, didn't actually think so. Look at verse 41 through 45. Therefore, the Jews were grumbling about him because he said, I am the bread that came down out of heaven. Verse 42, they were saying, is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say I have come down out of heaven? Verse 43, Jesus answered and said to them, do not grumble among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day. It is written in the prophets, and they shall all be taught of God. Everyone who has heard and learned from the father comes to me, believes in me, he means. Now notice verse 44. It is an emphatic statement that is impossible to misunderstand. No human being has the capacity to come to Jesus, in other words, to believe in him for salvation, unless the father who sent Jesus draws that individual. And Jesus will raise that individual up from the dead on the last day and give them eternal life. Every single individual who was drawn by the Father in this passage is raised up by the Son at the last day and given eternal life. Unconditional election by the Father is in plain view here, and justification by coming to Jesus and not by working is also in view here. When the Father draws one of His chosen ones, one of these undeserving sinners to Jesus Christ, they come to Jesus. They believe on Him for justification, salvation, and eternal life. They do not try to do works to save themselves. No, they leave their works behind as the filthy rags that they are and they cast their eternal destiny upon their beloved Savior Jesus and upon Him and His personal righteousness and His cross alone. That's what come to me means. It means retire from the Savior business, throw your works aside and rely upon my finished work and nothing else and I promise to give you eternal life. When Jesus invites us to come to Him, He is inviting us to believe in Him as our Savior. To believe in Jesus as your Savior means you don't believe in your works anymore. You don't believe in yourself anymore, at all, ever. Not even as an ingredient in your salvation. Salvation is by unconditional election and justification by faith alone, completely apart from works, because that is the only way that salvation can be by grace. This is what Luther was so passionate about. That's what he cited 300 passages of the Bible to demonstrate. After Paul explains God's absolute sovereignty and salvation in Romans 9, he finishes that section in Romans 9 of Holy Scripture with these stirring verses regarding why so many of his Jewish friends and countrymen were still lost and why so many today who have heard the gospel are also still lost. After explaining all this, Paul says, what shall we say then? that Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness attained righteousness, even the righteousness which is by faith? Yes. But Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, did not arrive at that law. Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as though it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone. Just as it was written, behold, I lay in Zion, a stumbling stone and rock of offense, and he who believes in him will not be disappointed. You see, any attempt to attain salvation by works demonstrates only one thing. You have stumbled over Christ and his cross. Insofar as anyone is relying upon how good they are, or I believe in Jesus, oh yes, couldn't do it without him, but ultimately it's gonna be my works, my righteousness, my good deeds. You too have stumbled over the stumbling stone. Paul says in Galatians 5.11, if I still preach circumcision, if I still said, yeah, Jesus is great, but you also have to do this, this, and this, and this, he says, why am I still persecuted then? Then the stumbling block, the offense of the cross has been abolished. We are chosen by unconditional electing grace alone. We are justified by faith alone, completely and entirely apart from our works. That offends people. That is offensive to people. Why? Because it shows that we are so wicked and that what we are in ourselves falls so far short of the glory of God that the triune God alone must play the decisive role in our salvation. God the Father must unconditionally choose us and give us to the son before time begins. The son must enter into the broken covenant of works and earn by pure personal merit, the righteousness, the obedience that is then imputed to our legal account for our justification. And he also must die in our place to satisfy divine justice against us for our sins and rise from the dead, conquering that sin curse. Where do we figure in here? Just the sin that made it necessary. The Holy Spirit's got to convict us of our sin, irresistibly make us alive in Christ, unite us to Jesus as our covenant head through faith alone, and then preserve us to the end. And therefore I say to you, from eternity to eternity, from Alpha to Omega, salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, on account of Christ alone, in order that salvation would be of God and to His glory alone. Soli Deo Gloria. To God alone be glory. That's the capstone of the five solas and all the other ones have to be in place to be able to say it and really mean it. We don't say, to God alone be the glory for making my salvation possible. We say, to God alone be the glory for saving me. If you're a Christian, it's not because you're smarter or better, it's because God chose to have mercy on you. A third objection people will say here is your doctrine makes pursuing holiness meaningless. You guys are saying that there could be a person who really repents and really believes in Jesus and they pursue holiness and they go to Bible college and they serve as a missionary, but then they die and find out they weren't one of God's elect. Or there could be a person who lives an entire life as a thieving, lying, murdering, adulterous drunkard who beats his wife, abuses his children, and mocks God in the Bible all the way to the bitter end of his life, but then he dies and finds out he was one of God's elect and he gets to go to heaven. The response to this objection is simple. God does not elect men merely unto salvation, but also unto holiness in this life. Titus 2, 13 and 14. Glorious passage. Listen to it. Titus 2, 13 and 14. Looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from every lawless deed. That's justification. And purify for himself his own special people, zealous for good works. Sanctification. They always go together. And finally, people say election destroys our motive for evangelism. How many of you have heard this? I used to say this to people. God's already chosen who he's gonna say, what difference does it make what we do? What difference does it make if we pray or witness to people or anything else? God does not merely decree the final outcome, but also all the means to that outcome, every single step. Our prayers, our tears, my father's prayers are a huge reason I'm a Christian. God decreed those prayers and used them to bring me to himself. God decreed my mother's prayers. God decreed the prayers of all the people they recruited to pray for me and all the people that witnessed to me, just like you. Every single step that God used towards your salvation, that was part of his decree to bring you to himself. This is what animates evangelism. No one understood this better than Saul of Tarsus, the Apostle Paul. Charles Spurgeon said this about Paul's missionary zeal. Quote, I traced Paul's exceeding evangelism to the fact that he was so remarkably converted. He could not be content with the surface of truth. He dove into the depths of grace and sovereignty. He saw in himself the boundless power, the infinite mercy and the absolute sovereignty of God. And therefore he bore witness more clearly than any other to these divine attributes. He said in 1 Corinthians 15, 9, writing in Holy Scripture, I am the least of the apostles who am not worthy to be called an apostle because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God, I am what I am. You understand what he means by grace there? God chose me. God irresistibly called me. By the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain. But I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. Paul wrote to Timothy, one of the last things he wrote before his death, he said in 2 Timothy 2.10, Therefore I endure all things for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. Now years ago in Ohio there was a missionary in Ethiopia who was part of a mission to the Rendili tribe there and had been there for years and years and they had built a little Christian school and he had been persecuted. This guy, I'm not going to give you his last name, but his first name was Peter. And we would pray for him. He came to our church and spoke a couple times, but we had supported him for years. But he was persecuted by local Roman Catholic priests and nuns. At one point, the government came against him because Christianity is not okay where they were there. And they put him in a room and beat him up one time. And he took a fist to his jaw that was so hard, it cracked his jaw. And they had to have surgery and we had to help give money to help fund that surgery. And I'll never forget after he had been injured and beat up because they had a Christian school there and they're leading all these little kids to Christ in this Christian school. And in his letter to our church, he said, I am willing to endure all things for the sake of the elect children in this school. that they may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. Election and predestination animates evangelism. It's fuel to the fire. We should endure whatever we have to, to win people to Christ. You know, I saw someone texted me a very funny meme on Facebook a long time ago. It's a painting of Saul of Tarsus doing this with the light on the road to Damascus and he's on the ground and the caption says, I was on my way to murder more Christians when I suddenly used my free will to become one. Protestant Reformation swept away the works of man, swept away the free will of man being the decisive factor, and it swept away the righteousness of man and put back into clear focus what the Bible teaches, this one grand truth, God saves sinners. How can I know if I'm one of God's elect? Believe in Jesus. That's how you know. John 6, 47, Jesus promised, he who believes in me has everlasting life. Let's pray. Father, we bless your name for the great reformation. And we are certainly in need of a second one in our day. And we pray that you would raise up more men that have Reformation fire in their hearts, who will preach, teach, and defend these precious life-giving truths, the true grace of God, that unconditional electing grace where he chose out of equally fallen, equally uninterested, equally wicked sinners, to give them grace, not fairness. So help us to rejoice in that truth as we rest on the finished work of Christ. And we pray you would use the communion elements to strengthen our faith in our Lord Jesus and his glorious, finished, and perfect saving work. We ask in his name, amen.