If you would, turn in your copies of God's infallible word to the Gospel of John. We'll be looking this morning at John chapter 6, verses 41 to 51. If you're using one of the Chair Bibles, Lord willing, you can find that on page 1,772. Last week together, when we looked at John chapter 6 verses 35 through 40, you remember we saw there our Lord identify himself as the bread of life given to men for the reception and preservation of all who had been given by the Father to him. And we learned primarily from those verses that Jesus Christ is the receiver and the preserver of every elect believer. And now this morning from John chapter 6 verses 41 to 51, we'll see our Lord reprove the murmuring of the Jews, explain to them why they have not and cannot receive him and his teaching and then once again proclaim himself to be that true bread which has been given to and for men that they may live forever. And the primary lesson for us and all this morning is simply from our passage in essence that no one No one can come to Jesus unless they are drawn by the Father. No one can come to Jesus unless they are drawn to Him by the Father. So with that, beloved, let's hear God's Word. This morning, we're going to start in verse 26, which really is when Jesus starts His discourse, when He starts this sermon. in the synagogue of Capernaum. And so we'll start there and we'll read through verse 51. So John chapter six, beginning in verse 26. This is the word of God. Jesus answered them and said, Most assuredly I say to you, you seek me not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you. because God the Father has set his seal on him. Then they said to him, What shall we do that we may work the works of God? Jesus answered and said to them, This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he sent. Therefore they said to him, what sign will you perform then that we may see it and believe you? What work will you do? Our fathers ate the manna in the desert. As it is written, he gave them bread from heaven to eat. Then Jesus said to them, Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but my father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. Then they said to him, Lord, give us this bread always. And Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. He who comes to me shall never hunger, and he who believes in me shall 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 by no means 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 the Father who sent me, that of all that He has given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. And this is the will of Him who sent me, that everyone who sees the sun and believes in him may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the last day." The Jews then complained about him because he said, I am the bread which came down from heaven. And they said, is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How is it then that he says, I have come down from heaven? Jesus therefore answered and said to them, do not murmur among yourselves. No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the Prophets, and they shall all be taught by God. Therefore, everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me. Not that anyone has seen the Father, except he who is from God. has seen the Father. Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in me has everlasting life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness and are dead. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I shall give is my flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world. Well, this ends the reading of God's word, and may he be pleased as always to bless it, and especially the preaching of it in our midst this morning. Verse 41. begins by telling us that these Jewish followers of Jesus, that they then complained about our Lord because He said that He was the bread which had come down from heaven. Now you remember back up as we just heard in verses 32 through 34 that when our Lord spoke more generally about the bread of God, and when he spoke more generally even about that bread being a he, being a someone rather than an it or a what or a something, so long as he was speaking generally about the bread of God and the he who came down from heaven, in a general sense these Jews generally desired this bread. But once our Lord said plainly and particularly to them that He was, once He said to them that I am the bread of life, they then began to complain about Him. saying, verse 42, amongst themselves, is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How is it then that he says, I have come down from heaven? And so we see that the complaining and the murmuring of these Jews in a sense, had a twofold cause. It was caused by Jesus' claim to heavenly origin in combination with their knowledge of his apparent earthly origin of Joseph and Mary, to his evident estate of humiliation, we see. For 1 Corinthians 1.23, tells us that all along, from beginning till now, that the preaching of Christ crucified was and is a stumbling block to the Jews. Which is to say, Christ crucified, which is to say that the preaching of a humiliated, lowly, suffering and dying Messiah was foreign and offensive to the Jews because of the worldliness of their hearts and of their minds. And so they complained. They complained. When it was just a vague he, when it was just a vague bread of God, they said, we want it. But when Jesus says, I'm that bread, and they looked at Jesus, a poor man, who had come lowly, born to a poor family. They said, we don't want it. They began to complain of the Lord, saying, how could He, this Jesus of Nazareth, this Jesus, a parent son of a lowly carpenter and a poor mother, how could He be the bread of God from heaven? We see that they were so darkened, indoled by their worldliness and their desire for a powerful king, a powerful worldly king, as we saw back in John 6, 15, that they were evidently and were blinded. blinded and veiled from seeing and understanding what the Old Testament had taught them all along, which was that the Messiah would have a heavenly origin, Micah 5.2, that he would be not born of an earthly father but born of a virgin, Isaiah 7.14, that he would come to his people lowly and riding on a donkey in a state of humiliation, Zechariah 9.9, and that he would come as one first living a life of obedience, service, suffering, Isaiah 53, and thus in their mind there was just no way that this lowly poor Jesus of Nazareth and of Joseph could possibly be the bread which came down from heaven so dull in heart. So unmoved by the miracles, so offended at our Lord's state of humiliation that they could not believe in him. They could not come to him, but. Our Lord answered them, verse 43, by reproving their murmuring and explaining to them once more from another angle the real issue. Our Lord says, verse 44, no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him and I will raise him up. at the last day. And so we see again in this discourse in very short succession, our Lord again unsurprised by unbelief, our Lord again not discouraged by hardness of heart and unbelief. He once again appeals to the sovereignty of God and gives again, arguably, the most concise and clear one-verse statement on the doctrine of effectual calling anywhere in the Bible. No one says, Our Lord. So not a single one. Not one man, not one woman, not one child, not one son or daughter of Adam, not a single one can come, can believe. And the Greek word here for can that's translated can is the Greek word from which we get our English word dynamite. It refers to power. It refers to strength. It refers to ability. But we know from the scriptures that this lack of dynamism, this lack of power, this lack of ability of which our Lord speaks, that prevents sinners from coming to Him, it's not a lack of physical power or ability. It's not as our Lord saying that every sinner is a cripple as the man at the pool of Bethsaida. It's not that they literally can't physically come to Him. So it's not a physical lack of ability or power of which our Lord speaks, but it's a spiritual or a moral lack of power or ability. But we have to qualify that spiritual lack or moral lack even more in the light of Scripture as well. For the Scriptures further qualify the sinner's lack of power by teaching us that their lack is not a lack of what we could call simple power, or the mere lack of ability to exercise the faculties of their soul. Jesus here isn't saying that no one can come to me because sinners lack the ability to think thoughts. to formulate thoughts and to make decisions and choices. It's not as if every unbeliever in the world needs someone to think for them and to make choices for them, whether you're going to eat it, Chick-fil-A or Chipotle tonight. Are you going to go to work or are you going to stay home? He's not saying that a simple whack of moral ability and power is the issue of simple lack of spiritual power. Rather, what the scriptures teach is that man's lack of ability to come to the Lord Jesus Christ, it is not simple, but sinful. It is not a simple lack of ability and power, even of the soul that prevents a sinner from coming to Christ. It's a sinful lack of power and ability. They cannot because they will not. As our Lord put it back in John 5 verse 40, you are not willing to come to me that you may have life. And we see this kind of sinful lack of ability also back in Genesis 37 verse 4. when in response to Jacob giving Joseph his tunic, his robe of many colors, were told, quote, But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peaceably to him. They hated and therefore they could not. They could not because they hated. They could not because they would not. You see, their sin bound and incapacitated their will from doing good. Their hatred made them literally incapable, incapable of speaking peaceably to their brother. And so it is likewise because of man's sin and man's love of his sin. And it is because of man's hatred of God, his enmity against God and against his Christ. that he's made literally incapable. that he is, as to his nature, absolutely unwilling and therefore incapable of coming to Christ unless the Father draws. Unless the Father draws. There are a couple of Greek words that have the general sense of draw or that can be translated as draw. But this one that's used here in distinction from the other one, this one that's used here does not have the connotation of violence or of forcefulness. And so the imagery here of the father drawing one, bringing them to the Lord Jesus Christ. The imagery is not of the Father drawing a sinner, kicking and screaming against their will, clawing to not come. The imagery is rather with this word of someone doing for another what they cannot do for themselves. If you're familiar at all with fishing, The imagery of God fishing and drawing in men is not of him snagging a fish and trying to reel it in, fighting all the way along. The imagery is of, if you will, a paralyzed fish being drawn in by the net of the Father. brought in so that it can be healed, lest it die in that forever. It's the imagery of doing for one, drawing one who cannot come of themselves. And so what we're being taught here, beloved, is that the drawing the effectual calling of the Father. It does no violence to the will of the one who is drawn and effectually called. They do not fight against it, for they're enabled and made willing to come in and by his power. And Jesus, beloved, verse 45, he grounds his teaching in the Old Testament. He wasn't bringing any new doctrine. Isaiah 54, 13, And they shall all be taught by God. Reminding us that this teaching of effectual calling and regeneration, it's again nothing new. It's all throughout the Old Testament. We saw this in John chapter 3, right? Nicodemus was rebuked for not knowing the Bible's teaching of regeneration. Not knowing that there's only ever been one way by which God saves sinners. By sovereign grace changing their hearts and bringing them to faith. in the Lord Jesus Christ through the one covenant of grace. And so we see that this teaching is an Old Testament teaching and that Jesus proves it by the Old Testament. But then we also see by Jesus' words here what we confess in our confession and catechisms concerning effectual calling, which is, as we've already noted in the service today, that it includes the saving enlightening of a sinner's mind, the opening of their ears, the opening of their eyes to hear and to see the Lord Jesus Christ. And thus, our Lord says that everyone who has been so drawn so effectually called, so savingly enlightened, so renewed in their will, does in fact come to Him, does freely and willingly embrace Him and receive and rest upon Him for their salvation alone. But, verse 46, lest there be any confusion, our Lord immediately makes a qualification He's just said that any who hear and learn from the Father come to Him. But this hearing and learning of the Father is not to be understood in an immediate or physical sense, but rather is to be understood, our Lord makes clear, in a spiritual and immediate sense. This is a spiritual teaching of the Father mediated through the Son. And so Jesus here, both qualifying and clarifying, but also implicitly teaching and reminding that He, He is the One, and He's always been the One. even in the Old Covenant, through whom the Father works, through whom the Father teaches, through whom the Father saves and reveals himself savingly to men. And thus, verse 47, our Lord once again declares most assuredly that the one who believes in him has everlasting life. Again, has it? Has it? Remember that, beloved. Has everlasting life. Our Lord here, He goes on, in essence, in verses 47 to 51, to really just repeat Himself, to repeat all the things He's already said, which teach us that such is good for us, that it's good even in the same sermon to repeat. the critical things that we need to hear the basic and fundamental truths of the Gospel constantly. Yes, we want to grow and mature unto meat, but we always must be grounded in and remember the basic Gospel teaching that God saves sinners, that Christ is the Savior. And so Jesus and His apostles constantly repeating and reminding themselves, constantly calling their listeners to simply remember what they already know, what they've already been told. And so, beloved, remember again, remember again and take to heart this morning that if you have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, have everlasting life. It is not something that is wholly off, fully off in the future, which you must wait for with a shadow of doubt. It's not something that maybe if you come to the end of life and with your last breath, maybe you cast out that breath and you just tip the scales of righteousness in your favor right before the end, you'll slide in. But no, Jesus says you have it now. that with your last breath you can imitate the Lord Jesus Christ and say, unto you, I commit my spirit, here I come, oh my God. Through faith in Christ, beloved, you have everlasting life. even now in the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 48, he says again that he is the bread of life, he's the living, he's the life-giving bread, he's the life that our souls need. Verse 49, our Lord returns to the manna, showing that while that blessing, that truly heavenly blessing did come from God through Moses, that yet it pales, it pales in comparison to the true bread, to the fulfillment of the manna in Jesus Christ. For the manna was heavenly bread, heavenly bread, but we're told that it only fed the body. And that it did only for a time, and the greatest proof of its inferiority is that those who ate of it are dead. Their bodies are in the grave. But He to whom the man appointed, Christ Himself, who came from heaven in His incarnation, He, beloved, is the living and life-giving bread given to sinners, that they may not die, that they may eat and not die, but have everlasting life in body and in soul. Verse 51, our Lord concludes this portion as we see the Jews interrupt with some more quarreling in verse 52. Our Lord concludes this portion of his discourse by again, he just drives home the point, drives the nail home. He is the bread of life, which came down from heaven. in his incarnation, when the word became flesh, became a living man, body and soul. So the bread of life came into the world. And he says that if anyone eats of this bread, we assume he's pointing to himself when he's speaking these words. If anyone eats of this bread, if anyone feeds on him, if anyone receives the saving benefits mediated through him, they'll live forever. They'll live forever. And our Lord says that the bread that he shall give, the offering that he shall make and give is his flesh, which he shall give for the life of the world. It's important for us here to note a few things as we make the transition. Maybe we'll even look at this next time, since it's so relevant to discussions of the Lord's Supper. But nonetheless, before we get into the next section of Jesus' sermon, of his discourse here, it's important for us to note a few things from verse 51. And first, looking at your Bibles here, notice the transition from the past to the future tense. The transition from past to future. Notice that He came down. He came down. Past tense. He came. Incarnation. Past from His day, He had come. In the flesh. Incarnation. He shall give his flesh. So he came down from heaven. He shall give his flesh past to future. And we're helped in understanding our Lord's future reference here by seeing and understanding the parallels with our passage in John 3, 14-17 and John 12, 32. For remember from John 3, 14-17 and the sermon on that, that the giving of the Son by the Father was for the lifting of the Son. The giving of the Son was for the lifting of the Son. Christ was given to be lifted, to be lifted up for sinners, which being lifted, John 12, 32, we're told signifies the death, signified the death by which he would die on the cross. And so we understand the future giving of His flesh to refer to the future from His day, when He was speaking these words, the future from His day, giving and breaking of His life, body and blood on the cross. His being lifted up for sinners of all nations, that they may not perish, but have everlasting life through faith in Him. And again, the reason this is important to note as we transition into our Lord's next words, which the Roman Catholics are fond of using for their doctrine of transubstantiation and the Lord's Supper. The reason I want us to see this now, that our Lord here in John chapter six, verse 51, is not speaking about His future giving of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, but His future giving of what the sacrament of the Lord's Supper signifies. He's not speaking about his giving of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, but of what the sacrament of the Lord's Supper signifies, namely his life given. His death for sinners in the life that comes to them through His life given for them. And so similarly, as you remember, if not, I'd encourage you in preparation for John 6, when you see the bulletin come out, I haven't decided yet if we'll go to Psalm 27 next Lord's Day or John 6, but when you see that come out, I'd encourage you to listen to the John 3 sermon again and see the interaction there with baptism, because we see that similarly, as in John 3, where we saw that our Lord was not speaking at all. He wasn't speaking at all about water baptism. but rather only about what water baptism signifies, namely regeneration. So likewise here and going forward in John chapter 6, not the Lord's Supper, but what the Lord's Supper signifies. Again, Christ's death and the life that comes to sinners through faith in Him. That's what John chapter 6 is about, and we'll pick that up and expand upon that next time in the gospel. But for now, beloved, we've just seen our Lord reprove the murmuring of the Jews, explain to them why they have not and cannot receive him in his teaching and then once again proclaim himself to be that true bread which has been given to and for men that they may live in that forever. And again, beloved, the primary lesson for us this morning that stated expressly in our passage is that no one can come to Jesus unless the Father draws, unless they are drawn by the Father. And this truth is confirmed elsewhere in God's Word, as we just mentioned, John 3, 3-5, which tells us that no one, you remember, no one can, ability, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born again. Well, no one comes into the kingdom but through the king. And to be born again is simply the other side of the coin of effectual calling. In the Father's effectual calling by His Spirit, He begets us again. He regenerates us by His Spirit. And so there we're taught that one enters the Kingdom through Christ the King and that no one can enter through Him unless they're drawn, begotten again of the Father. Romans 8, 7-8 tells us that the unbelieving mind is enmity against God and cannot, so ability, cannot obey nor please Him. Hebrews 11, 4 tells us very clearly that apart from faith, it's impossible to please God. And Ephesians 2, 8, 9 tells us very clearly that this faith that saves us and enables us to be pleasing in God's eyes is a gift from God. And so we see in those three passages taken together that because of the unbelieving mind's enmity against God, that like Joseph's brothers, it cannot believe in God. It cannot come to Christ unless God draws and grants the gift of saving faith in Christ. And so, beloved, we have established infallibly by God's Word the truth that no one can come to Jesus unless they are drawn by the Father. No one can come to Jesus unless they are drawn by the Father. Now in making use of our truth this morning, we need to make something very clear. That when Jesus rebukes the complaining and murmuring, the unbelief of these Jews, and He rebukes them and He tells them that no one can come to Him unless the Father draws them, He is not excusing their unbelief. He is not saying, I understand why you don't believe in me, because you can't unless the Father draws you. It's okay. Hopefully He'll draw you one day. He's not excusing their unbelief. He's rather exposing the sin of their heart in their absolute need of God to save them. They suppressed the truth in unrighteousness. They hated God in Christ. They loved their sin. Their minds were dark. Their hearts were hard. Their souls were dead. They were not willing to come to Christ that they might have life. They would not. and therefore they could not. And what was true, what was true of these Jews of whom Jesus was speaking to some 2,000 years ago, has always been true of sinners outside of the Lord Jesus Christ, and it remains just as true today as it was then. The problem of these Jews is the problem of sin. The problem of sin. And man hates, hates the truth. that He cannot do something, and that He is utterly dependent upon the God whom He hates to do something for Him that He cannot do. Sinners love to believe, and they take the greatest pride and comfort in believing that they are sovereign. that if they wanted God, they would have Him. They would take Him by force if they really wanted to Him, and they would take the salvation that He offers. Or at minimum, they're prone to fall back. If that fails of exalting themselves, if that fails, they're prone to just fall back on God's sovereignty as an excuse as to why they have not come. I can't. The Father hasn't drawn me. And so I may as well just go on in my sin until He decides to draw me to Himself. So either claiming sovereignty or denying responsibility, this is the ploy and the plan of the sinner. But the scriptures tell sinful man that he isn't sovereign. He's not sovereign. The Scriptures tell sinful man that he's a fallen creature of the dust and a bondservant of sin and of Satan. Scripture tells man that outside of Christ, he's dead. He's dead. He's flatlined, paralyzed. in his sin, dark in his mind, hard in his heart, and headed for hell. Scripture tells man that while all things go, just as they are written, just as they are decreed and determined by the sovereign God, that nonetheless it is woe. Woe to that man, woe to that woman, woe to that child who rejects the Lord Jesus Christ, who betrays the Lord Jesus. It would have been better, Jesus says, for that one to have never been born than to have been born and rejected the Lord and trampled Him underfoot. God is sovereign. But man is responsible. Man is accountable. Man must come to Christ if he would be saved. And he is responsible and accountable for his not doing. And yet he can not come unless the Father draws him. So where does that leave the sinner? Where does that leave you if you're such a sinner who has not had your sins forgiven through the Lord Jesus Christ? Where are you left in this seeming conundrum? Well, it leaves you needing to look outside of yourself. It needs you needing to look outside of yourself. It leaves you needing to ask for help to do what you cannot do. It leaves you, get this, it leaves you needing to ask for help to do not only what you cannot do, but what you don't even want to do. But what you know that you need to do. You don't want to eat your vegetables, but you eat them because you know that you need them. Where is the sinner left? Needing to beg for help. needing to ask God to do what they know in their heart of hearts they cannot and don't even want to do, but know that they need to do if they would be saved from their sins. It leaves you simply needing to pray in a childlike manner for the help of the Holy Spirit. for the help of God. It needs you needing to cry out as the Shulamite woman in Song of Solomon 1-4 when she cries out, draw me away. It leaves you needing to ask God again to do for you what you would not and could not do for yourself. To cry out. Cry out to God to have mercy upon you, a sinner, and to draw you away, to draw you away to the Lord Jesus Christ, that you may find rest for your soul in Him and the forgiveness of sins. And having prayed that prayer and cried for that help, you believe, you believe on the Lord Jesus that you may be saved. even this very day. And to you, beloved, to you who have so cried for the Lord to draw you away, whether you cried those words or not, that was the cry of your soul by faith. Draw me away, O Lord. And so for you, beloved, who have cried that heart cry, to you who have everlasting life even now, How is this truth of your past effectual calling still relevant and applicable to and for you? Well, first, beloved, briefly, it reminds you It reminds you so powerfully, so effectually of the infinite, eternal, and unchanging love of God for you. Jeremiah 31.3, your Lord and your God says to you, Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love. Therefore, with loving kindness, I have drawn you." Your effectual calling in time reminds you of God's eternal love. It's because He's loved you from everlasting and to everlasting. that He's showered you with His loving kindness and drawn you thereby in time. Reminds you, beloved, first and foremost, of God's everlasting, unchangeable, and infinite love for you. Second, your effectual calling, it keeps you humble. It keeps you humble. Kills your pride. kills your self-righteousness. For beloved, as with everlasting life and everlasting righteousness, so with all things, the Scriptures ask, 1 Corinthians 4, 7, who makes you differ from another? Why are you different from, why are we different from all those people in this neighborhood over here who are doing whatever they want to do today. And what do you have that you did not receive? Everything we have, life, all that makes us differ from the world and unbelievers is a gift of God, from God. We've done nothing. And so, beloved, if you're struggling with pride, self-righteousness, with humility, I'd encourage you to spend time this week studying. Take up for your study this week in meditation your effectual calling. Your effectual calling. You could make it real easy if you wanted. Everybody has Relight in their phone or in their pocket on their computer. Use that app or a hard copy and read Westminster Confession of Faith chapter 10. And then in Relight, use Robert Shaw's commentary. Read that. And then go to Westminster Shorter Catechism 31. And then read Matthew Henry's commentary on that and meditate on the various scriptures that are referenced therein. If you struggle with pride, beloved, meditate this week on your effectual calling. Third, and related, beloved, your effectual calling, it reminds you that you're always dependent and you remain always dependent on the prior working of God in you, even for the good works you do after you were effectually called. Christ says of believers, You can do nothing apart from Me. And Paul, in Philippians 2, 12, and 13, grounds the work, good works, and obedience of believers, every single one of them, in a prior, powerful, effectual working and willing of God the Holy Spirit. And so your effectual calling, beloved, reminds you that you are and calls you to still very self-consciously be dependent even in your diligence. We talk about that dependent diligence. That's the Bible's model for the Christian life. But we must emphasize and remember the dependence here. The dependence. This is a passage about dependence on the Lord. And how are you very practically dependent in your diligence? Simple. Childlike simple. Pray before you do. Pray before you do. Doing without praying is powerless and sad moralism. creeping, perhaps, and leading to legalism. But, beloved, praying before doing, praying and doing, That's not moralism, that's evangelical obedience. That's how it's done, beloved. Just as the sinner needed to pray to God the Father to draw them to Jesus Christ, so the saint must pray God the Father, give them the grace to glorify Him, to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ. to work out their salvation in the Holy Spirit and to bear the fruit in Christ that's been prepared beforehand for you, that you should walk in it. So, reminds you your effectual calling of God's eternal love. It helps keep you humble. It helps keep you humble. It helps remind you of dependence. Always. And then lastly, and ever so briefly, beloved, your effectual calling. It aids your assurance. It aids your assurance. And that not just in reminding you, OK, not just in reminding you that you have everlasting life now. That's an aid. A good one. A good one. but that you will just as certainly have the fullness thereof at the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. And why is that, beloved? Because the golden chain cannot be broken. The golden chain of your salvation cannot be broken. Whom He predestined, these He also called. Whom He called, these He also justified. Whom He justified, these He also glorified. Beloved, if you've been called effectually in this life, your future glorification, you see, is so certain that it can be spoken of in the past tense. in the past tense. Your glorification, beloved. It's as good as done. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, how we thank you that you would use the mighty power by which you raised the Lord Jesus Christ to draw sinners such as us. For we confess that there is nothing, nothing in us that makes us differ from any other sinner other than the indescribable, unsearchable, incomprehensible truth that for some reason rooted in yourself, you have loved us from all eternity because you have loved us. And Lord, I pray that this day and this week and weeks to come, that this truth of our effectual calling would be balm to our souls, would be an encouragement to us, would be a means of our sanctification and further conformity to the blessed image of the Lord Jesus Christ. And our Father, we pray that you would be merciful if there be any sinners in the midst of this assembly today that have never come to a justifying faith in Jesus Christ, that they would cry out for your help. that they would cry out for you to draw them away, and that you would draw them away. Draw them away from their sin, from the swamp of despair, and draw them through the narrow gate onto the path which leads to the celestial city. Draw them to the Lord Jesus Christ, that they may have their sins forgiven, and that they may become heirs of heaven. even this very day. Hear our prayers, O God, we pray, in Christ's name.