Transcription downloaded from https://sermons.heritagesermons.org/sermons/8692/john/.

Disclaimer: this is an automatically generated machine transcription - there may be small errors or mistranscriptions.
Please refer to the original audio if you are in any doubt.


[0:00] As the Lord may help me, I will speak from the Gospel according to John, chapter 6 and verse 37.

[0:18] All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.

[0:34] The Gospel according to John, the 6th chapter, the 37th verse. All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.

[0:59] What a simple, plain, instructive and useful word this is this morning. It is, of course, as you recognize, the very word of the Lord Jesus Christ.

[1:18] And he has caused it to be preserved in the Scripture for our instruction, and the instruction of all who honestly desire to know the way of life and truth, and how their souls can be saved.

[1:38] And I would make this observation to commence with, that there is a perfect and complete balance of truth in the Scriptures.

[1:52] truth. For truth has many sides to it, and different features. And there is in the Scripture a perfect revelation to us, a perfect presentation then, of all aspects of divine truth.

[2:15] of divine truth. Truth. Truth. Truth. Nothing is omitted. Nothing is emphasized to the neglect of another equally important part of truth.

[2:30] Truth. Truth. There is, to you, the common expression, and a very suitable one, there's a perfect balance of truth in the Scriptures.

[2:44] And it is very much to be desired that there shall be a balance of truth in the ministry. For if one truth is neglected, and another truth emphasized to the neglect of another, it is sure to produce quite an unbalanced view of truth in the hearts and minds of the hearers.

[3:13] Now, nothing must be added to the Word of God. Nothing must be taken from it. And nothing that is revealed in it must be altered.

[3:24] I mean, no Scripture must be made to mean, or to appear to mean, what it does not really, and simply mean.

[3:35] For there's been a great deal of confusion for want of this. An emphasis, I won't say an over-emphasis, because I think no point of truth can be over-emphasized, but a disproportionate emphasis.

[3:53] Or, uh, Scriptures that have a very plain and clear and obvious meaning, and made to mean something else. Now, may the Holy Spirit give us understanding in these matters.

[4:09] For there are two, uh, aspects of truth, very clearly, set before us in these words. For some people seem to believe that if God has chosen and elected a people unto salvation in Jesus Christ, and that redemption is special and personal to them, that negatives the free and gracious and open invitations of the Gospel.

[4:45] On the other hand, some take the other view, and regard such expressions as this, Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely, as though it just depends upon a man's will, whether he will come and take the water of life freely or not.

[5:09] And so that sets aside the sovereign purposes of God in the matter. And some may think that these two, uh, shall I call them sides of truth, are incompatible, that they contradict one another.

[5:28] That election contradicts the free invitation of the Gospel, and the free invitation of the Gospel contradicts election. Now, there's nothing in this at all.

[5:42] It is just a question of different parts of the same blessed truth, proportionate one to the other. You get them in these words.

[5:56] All that the Father giveth me shall come to me. If words mean anything, there was a people given, especially and distinctively and personally, to the Lord Jesus Christ.

[6:12] And, all who are given to Jesus Christ, in that gracious purpose of God's electing love, will certainly come to Jesus Christ.

[6:24] And no one else will. But then it is equally true that whoever comes will be received and in no wise cast out.

[6:41] So that the one part of the text clearly shows that a disproportionate emphasis on the other is not according to the mind of Jesus Christ.

[6:55] Now, it is very much in my mind today to set both of these truths before you. They are equally true that there is a people given in the purpose of God to Jesus Christ, and that all that come to Jesus Christ will be accepted and in no wise cast out.

[7:24] And I hope this may be a helpful word to such as really desire to come to Jesus Christ and be saved through his grace and his love and his redeeming blood.

[7:38] I hope this may be a word to meet such as have desires about these matters and yet may feel difficulties. I hope it may be an encouraging word.

[7:50] An instructive word. For we need to be instructed in these vital things. I hope it may be a helpful word.

[8:02] Not only to such as are in the first feedings of spiritual life, but who may feel to be in such case as that they need to come to Jesus Christ as simply and as helplessly and as dependently as they did at first.

[8:23] That it may be a confirming word to such that they have assuredly been received.

[8:34] For words like this are very helpful when we come into times of darkness and temptation and doubt and fear.

[8:46] I remember good dear old Mr. Kent, senior of Biddenden. After he had been the pastor of Biddenden for a few years, he fell into a serious consumption, just like I did here.

[9:02] And also he came into great darkness of mind. And I did just the same. And he said to me that one day he felt in such darkness about his state.

[9:20] And he said he almost feared to recover because he would be expected to preach again. And he doubted whether he had ever any right to preach at all. He said this word came to him.

[9:33] Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. And he said to himself, well, whatever the past, there's a coming now.

[9:44] There's a coming now. Now you may be glad yourself to fall back on a word like this.

[9:55] And in times of temptation and doubt and darkness to feel, well, if all the past is wrong, is there a coming now?

[10:08] Because this word, him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. Does not refer only to the first coming to Jesus Christ, the salvation, but to all subsequent comings to Jesus Christ.

[10:30] In every time of need, him that cometh to me, still holds good, I will in no wise cast out.

[10:41] Now I do want to put this simple gospel in the simpler way as I can today. Oh, how needful is the Holy Spirit to make the most simple presentation of truth effectual in the heart in hearing it.

[11:00] And in some ways I think that when there's a familiarity with such words as these, it seems to need even more.

[11:12] That the Holy Spirit should tend the word with power so that it is not just regarded as a word with which we're very familiar. The Lord make it a word of life to us today.

[11:29] Or can I feel, honestly, as I look round on this congregation this morning, upstairs and down, young and old, Now can I feel you all being brought to come to Jesus Christ?

[11:48] Could I feel this? If I could read the heart, as only God can read it, could I see faith in your heart?

[12:00] Or is unbelief still prevailing? Are you still away from Jesus Christ? Or has there been a coming?

[12:11] You often heard these gracious words. Has there been any real responding? Has God the Holy Ghost ever brought in your heart through the word that there's been a coming?

[12:29] Or are you still in distance from God? In darkness of soul? In unbelief? In nature's ruin?

[12:40] Oh, where are you all this morning? God knows. God knows. Well now, to this word then.

[12:54] And may the Lord make the word to have that effect upon our hearts that is according to his sovereign will and pleasure in it.

[13:08] For he has said, he has said, that as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth.

[13:20] And causes that which is sown in it to spring forth and flood, so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth. He has said that it shall not return to him void.

[13:34] He has said that it shall accomplish that which he shall please, and prosper in the things whereto he has sent it. Gracious, God calls the word to prosper and prosper in the things.

[13:51] Now very simply then, we'll take it as the Lord Jesus Christ expressed it. All that the Father giveth me shall come to me.

[14:05] You will observe that if you read this chapter over carefully and thoughtfully, that the Lord Jesus Christ did not say this until evidence of unbelief and a rejection of his word began to be evident among the people.

[14:25] At this time, the Lord Jesus Christ was speaking to a multitude of people who had been attracted to him, partly by his teachings, partly by his miracles.

[14:37] And after he had been discussing, and discoursing with them for a while, it became very evident, the Lord of course nailed their hearts, that they were not receiving his teachings.

[14:52] As he said, but I said unto you, that ye have seen me, and believe not. It was evident that work was being rejected from the unbelief of their hearts.

[15:08] Very well, the Lord said, this doesn't alter the purpose of God in this matter. All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, whether you believe me or not.

[15:21] For this does not depend upon just whether you will or not, but whether you are given to me of the Father or not. But mind, he only said that when the unbelief of their hearts began to be evident in their rejecting of his word.

[15:41] And it is very encouraging to such as bear matters upon their heart heavy, for we live in a sad day today.

[15:57] And in fact, there is such general, at least in this country, there is such general disregard for the word and truth of God, and so on.

[16:09] But it is very comforting to feel that the purpose of God won't be thwarted by this. That all that the Father has given to Jesus Christ will come to him just the same.

[16:24] That will never thank you. And as I have often said, whatever men may say for or against the doctrines of election and predestination, if it were not for those doctrines, there would be nothing to ensure that there would be any believers in Jesus Christ at all in the world.

[16:51] For when things get down to the low margin that they do, at least in this country today, such a very small proportion pay any regard to the way of truth at all.

[17:07] And who can say how large a proportion of them is only a formal regard? Now what is to stop that very margin fading out?

[17:19] And there would be none at all. And there would be no one in this country to believe in Jesus Christ and love the gospel. Brethren, there is nothing to prevent that.

[17:33] But God's sovereign purpose in election of men to eternal life, there is nothing to prevent it. You heard me say before, that election secures the church.

[17:50] And that will be a church in the world. An election secures it. Because all that are given to Jesus Christ, to the Father, will come to him.

[18:02] They certainly will. Let us ponder on this first part then, this morning. All that the Father giveth me.

[18:14] And we might spend a few moments reverently meditating on the person of the Father, the giver.

[18:25] All that the Father giveth me. The Father. Now, I do want the blessed and glorious truth of the Trinity to be clear in our understanding and in our hearts.

[18:43] We worship one God and only one God. There is no other. But the divine nature has ever existed in three divine persons.

[18:58] The Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Now, these three are one in the divine nature.

[19:09] But distinct each in their personality. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Now, this is not a truth that is often expressed in so many terms in the Bible.

[19:29] But it continually appears. For the Father, who giveth to the Son, must be a distinct person from the Son.

[19:40] It is one divine person in the eternal purposes of his mind and will giving to another divine person.

[19:59] All that the Father giveth me. And this gracious name, Father, is relative.

[20:12] The Father is the Father of the Son. The eternal Father of the eternal Son. And relative also to all who are given to Jesus Christ.

[20:26] Because by that they are adopted into the living family of God. And so, he is their Father. And so, he is their Father.

[20:37] For although, there comes a time when, such as are called by grace, come to know and to believe that God is their Father.

[20:49] That he was their Father by his adopting grace. Always. And what a privilege it is to have the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ to be a Father to us.

[21:08] And I wish we could enter into this beautiful word more than we do. I mean the words that Jesus taught the disciples to pray.

[21:19] When ye pray, say, Our Father, which art in heaven. Our Father. For he is not only the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ.

[21:33] But of all who by his grace, being born again of the Holy Spirit, believe in him. I think one reason why we hesitate to use this word in prayer is because it is so often used in a formal manner.

[21:53] And that creates in our mind a kind of a reaction against the use of it. But, still it is a very blessed word to use. John Bunyan, somewhere, said that he often felt an especial feeling of enlargement and love when he felt he could call God his Father.

[22:16] A special enlargement in his heart of love. Well, I wish we could feel that. Towards God the Father. For he is the Father of all who truly believe in Jesus Christ.

[22:32] Their heavenly Father. And he has to then, all the love of the Father, the compassion, the wisdom, the grace, our Father.

[22:47] Well, we read then, all that the Father giveth me. There are people given to Jesus Christ. And when?

[22:59] In this word, of course, it is expressed in the present tense. Give it. But in other scriptures, as the Lord speaks in them, he speaks of it in the past.

[23:14] All that thou hast given me. So on, in other passages. Well now, why the difference in the tense? Between the past and the present?

[23:25] Well, I will venture this word. With regard to the divine nature of Jesus Christ, they were given to him before the foundation of the world.

[23:39] And that's in the past. But with regard to the Lord Jesus Christ, as he came into this world, in human nature.

[23:51] For he came into this world in human nature. They were given to him in the present tense. As regards it being in his human nature, then present in the world.

[24:04] Or you may understand it in this way. There's no tense with God at all. There is with us. There's the past, the present, the future.

[24:18] But though it is very hard to us to realize it, tenses do not enter into the divine nature at all.

[24:29] There is no sense in which something is past with God, present with God, or future with God.

[24:40] I think Dr. Watts puts it in that very simple and very sublime way when he said, He fills his own eternal now and sees our ages wait.

[24:56] There's no tenses in the divine nature. It's an eternal now. So what he may be said to have done, he is still doing.

[25:08] And what he may be said to do in the future, he is doing. It's the present always. All that the Father gives. The Father gives us a number.

[25:23] We cannot say how many. But John, who saw them in the book of the Revelation, saw them see a very great number, innumerable, whom no man could number, out of every kindred and tribe and kindred and tongue, before the throne of God and of the Lamb.

[25:48] Now what John saw in Revelation, Jesus Christ means in this text. They were all given to Jesus Christ, before the foundation of the world.

[26:00] And, if they had not been given to Jesus Christ, they would never be before the throne of God and of the Lamb in heaven.

[26:11] Never. You must trace it scripturally, believingly, all back to God's eternal purpose of grace in Jesus Christ, before the foundation of the world.

[26:26] And you can trace it all through, up to the end in Revelation, and see it from a mighty multitude before the throne of God and of the Lamb.

[26:39] And they all came to Jesus Christ. Every one of them. They all came to him. Now, if you consider this, all that the Father giveth me, doesn't it show first his foreknowledge?

[26:55] For whom he did foreknow, he did predestinate. for how could God give to Jesus Christ a number he did not foreknow did not foreknow they would ever exist at all that would be impossible God foreknew all that he gave to Jesus Christ so it wasn't only a foreknowledge of them as to their existence in years to come but it was foreknowledge of purpose towards them in giving them to Jesus Christ and would you speak surely in this the sovereignty of his grace and of his love for why should he have given any to Jesus Christ there's no claim on that it was his sovereignty why should he have given some to Jesus Christ and not all again it is his sovereignty and why should he have given any to Jesus Christ because of his grace and his compassion towards them and there is no other scriptural way of understanding these deep and profound purposes of God in the salvation of men and why were they given to Jesus Christ they were given to Jesus Christ to redeem them and how did Jesus Christ redeem them by his most precious blood and that makes redemption to be the redemption that it is not an indefinite universal redemption but a redemption of a people distinctly given to Jesus Christ or although there is a purpose of their salvation in election the accomplishment of it is in redemption now for the last minute or two this morning because I don't want to leave the subject quite there

[29:15] I read all that the Father giveth me shall come to me now this is the only answer to the question of one personal interest in these eternal truths there is no way in which anyone can know whether they were given to Jesus Christ except by their coming to him and there is no need of any supernatural revelation about this matter the answer is in our own hearts all that the Father giveth me shall come to me I only just take the minute or two left this morning set before you the certainty of this word shall come to me shall come to me and it certainly doesn't depend on the will of man at all nor on any predisposition in his heart or mind it is entirely dependent on the sovereign purpose and power of God shall come shall come and it implies first divine power the word shall come implies the power will most certainly bring that to pass and the wonderful thing it is for the power of God to act effectually in our hearts in this way but it isn't as I understand it the power alone of the divine perfection in God for he is almighty in his nature but it is a gracious power it is powerful grace and it is gracious power and because it's gracious power it acts in a gracious manner and for the power of God to act in a gracious manner is simply and clearly this to overcome graciously and powerfully everything in every one given to Jesus Christ that must be overcome before they can come to him now you just think very quickly how much there needs to be to be overcome for one thing an unconcern about one state and case and salvation need to be overcome there are worse things than this but this is one men are in their natural state entirely unconcerned about this they are unconcerned about it the concerns of this life cares pleasures profits advantages and what not entirely possess their minds now this must be overcoming them this unconcern about their souls it must be overcoming them it must be brought to a state of real soul concern and nothing but the power of grace can do that oh how will you preach and labor to bring a concern upon the hearts of our hearers about their souls they just didn't listen to us and that's the end of it do we preach about eternity they're not worried do we speak about hell they're not alarmed do we speak about heaven they've no desire do we show them how solemnly are under the condemnation of god's holy law doesn't worry them they're just where they were now my friends this unconcerned this thoughtless careless unconcerned that must be overcome and they must be brought to concern about their souls before they would ever come to

[33:52] Jesus Christ and if it's left to them they never will be if it's left to the ministers they never will be it's only the sovereign power of grace can break through this careless faultless heedless unconcerned that possesses them now when the father begins to work all that the father giveth me shall come they will be brought into a state of concern about their souls there are other matters there's the power of unbelief Jesus said that they would not believe the power of unbelief possessed in souls unbelief is a dreadful power in the soul and nothing but the power of divine grace can overcome the power of unbelief and then of course there's that indisposition that feeling aversion even to spiritual things for

[35:11] Jesus said ye will not come unto me that ye might have life ye will not come it isn't that election says you mustn't it's that men say we will not that's the position exactly ye will not come and something that's overcome that will not and bring people to that case and state intimated in the psalm my people shall be willing in the day of my power faith personally shall be willing because it's a day of power and it's the gracious power that acts on the will and makes the will willing and then oh think of the power of Satan in men's arms that strong man arm and what strong armor he has to keep out the word of truth from entering into the hearts of men but they shall come the power of

[36:26] Satan strong as it is shall be overcome in them the strong man arm may keep his goods in peace for a while but presently are stronger than he cometh and he is overcome men do not realize what power Satan and unbelief has in their heart if they would try to free themselves from it they couldn't but they have no desire to free themselves from it such as the helpless condition of men with regards to spiritual things now then the text says all that the father giveth me shall come to me shall come that powerful grace will overcome the hardness of their heart that power will overcome the stubbornness and ill will of the mind and the unbelief and the power of Satan and they shall come for this power of grace acts on the will to make it willing it acts on the conscience to make it sensitive it acts on the spirit to make it responsive it acts on the heart to make it penitent

[37:51] I close this morning there are two ways in which the father causes all that are given to Jesus Christ to come to him in this powerful way or rather three first the power of his grace quickens the soul into a new life and all spiritual concern springs from spiritual life in the soul the dead know not anything secondly the father teaches it is written in the prophets they shall be all taught of God everyone therefore that has heard and has learned of the father cometh unto me the father gives new life to the soul and then teaches the soul that quickened by the holy spirit and teaches such things as will cause the soul to come to

[38:59] Jesus Christ and thirdly we read no man can come unto me except the father which hath said me draw him now there you have it quickening teaching drawing that's how the father causes all that are given to Jesus Christ to come to him and that's how I came to him I believe if spiritual life had never been brought forth in my soul I should never have come to Jesus Christ my mind was far to otherwise distosed and if the father hadn't taught me I shouldn't have done anything of Jesus Christ in such ways wise as I should have come to him but he who taught me my ruined condition taught me Jesus Christ and if

[40:01]  I hadn't felt the drawing of the love and the attraction of the preciousness of Jesus Christ I don't think I should have come to him well now that's my testimony that's behind my preaching quickening teaching drawing and I do pray that everyone listening to me this morning may understand it and follow me from their own experience in these matters all that the father giveth me shall come to me and the rest I will leave to this evening all that cometh to me I will in no wise cast down architecture to do as you and