John 6

Let's open our Bibles to John chapter 6 and return back to our study of God's Word. I think the message this morning will go along with what we've been hearing already. And we're going to be wading through some deep thoughts and subject matter, but I believe God is able to make it simple for us, easy to understand.

I'm going to look at John chapter 6, verses 36 to 40. We left off last time, two weeks ago, in verse number 35. I'm going to read those verses and give you a little review, just to remind you where we've been, and then we'll pick up and look at verse 36 down to verse number 40.

So let's read, starting in verse number 36 here. Jesus is speaking, but I said unto you that you also have seen me and believe not. All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.

For I came down from heaven not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. And this is the Father's will which has sent me, that of all which he has given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. And this is the will of him that sent me, that everyone which seeth the Son and believeth on him may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the last day.

Heavenly Father, we thank you, Lord, for the preciousness of your word and the fact that we can have it in our hands. Lord, I remember as a young man looking at this book and not having any understanding of what's in it, not having any light. I had not a teacher.

Lord, thank you that we can open it up now and understand it and that we can have light and we can prepare ourselves for eternity and to have our sins washed away in the blood of Jesus. And so this morning we appeal to you again for help and mercy and grace. We acknowledge that you're a God of great mercy and compassion and a God that is full of grace.

So, Lord, give us grace, grace to hear and grace to speak and grace to understand the truths in your word. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

Well, just to give you some review, you remember we talked about the feeding of the 5,000 and how the Lord had provided a table in the wilderness and did a miracle. 5,000 people were fed Jehovah Jireh, the Lord. Jesus is showing himself to be Jehovah, the true and living God.

And he fed 5,000 miraculously. So we followed these people as they followed Jesus and the disciples across the sea. And they get across the sea and the Lord looks at them.

And if you look back to verse 27 of John 6, he says to them, Labor not for the meat which perishes, but for that meat which endures unto everlasting life. You've been following me and you're laboring to get the food that I gave you back there. But there's something more important than laboring for this temporary food.

But labor for a meat that does not perish. Labor for the things that'll go on forever. Instead of going into your mouth, giving you a burst of energy and then going out to draw labor for things.

Yes, we have to labor for those things to provide. But the emphasis of our life is seek ye first the kingdom of God. Look at verse 28.

This is all review. Then said they unto him, What shall we do that we might work the works of God? Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God that you believe on him whom he hath sent. So the great work that God asks of each one of us is simply this, to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.

Because every work comes out of that. If you're not a child of God, if you not believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, everything you do, it may be even seemingly good, is a dead work. And so you need to, first of all, receive the work that God has done through his son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

This is the work. If you want to do the work, you start right here. You believe on the Lord Jesus.

Then I can save your soul. I can give you the spirit of God who will bring forth those fruits that will give you a life of good works. And so he directs them to believing, believing on the Lord Jesus.

And this whole chapter we'll see has a lot to do with believing the gospel, believing the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, let's keep reading here in verse 30. They said, therefore unto him, what signs showest thou then that we may see and believe thee? What doest thou work? Our fathers did eat manna in the desert.

As it is written, he gave them bread from heaven to eat. And so they say, well, show us something that we can see and then we'll believe. And it's interesting, they bring up the Old Testament story of Moses and how God sent manna down from heaven and fed the Israelites.

They say, do something like that. What's amazing to me is he just did it yesterday. He just fed 5,000 in miraculously.

And like the Bible says, you know, they consider not the miracle of the loaves. Their hearts were hardened. And so even here, show us something.

And yet the Lord just fed 5,000 of them. And the Bible says back in chapter 6, verse 14, they saw it and they wanted to make him a king because of what he had just done. And yet here they're asking for a sign.

Bring us manna down from heaven. Well, let's keep reading. In verse 32, then Jesus said, Verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven, but my father giveth you the true bread from heaven.

For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the world. And so we learned last time that the true bread, and always in the Bible, the true is that which has to deal with the inward. That's the true grace.

That's the true holiness. That's the true bread, the bread that feeds the soul. That's the true bread.

And so the Lord says, I am that true and living bread. If you want to live forever, if your soul wants to live forever, you need to eat this bread. And then they say in verse 34, Lord, give us this bread.

And then Jesus claims in verse 35, I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. And last time we left off with those two verbs, he that cometh to me, that's a present continuous tense, that eth ending, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.

And so as you come to Jesus, as you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, you can receive the manna from heaven and sustain your life spiritually. And that is why we have the Lord's Supper. I talked about that last time too.

It's very important that you keep the gospel in memory because your life depends upon you believing in the gospel. Bible talks about those who fell away from the gospel. They fell out of grace.

And so we're to believe the gospel and continue to hold on to the gospel. First Corinthians 15 says, if you keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless you have believed in vain. And so every month we take the Lord's Supper.

We eat of his flesh and we drink of his blood in memory to keep it in memory until the Lord comes. Because it's important. It's important for your soul.

And so Jesus is the bread of life. And he defines what the true bread is in verse 48. This is all review.

We'll get here, get to verse 36 in a minute. But in verse 48, he says, I am the bread of life. Your fathers, indeed, man in the wilderness and are dead.

This is the bread which cometh down from heaven that a man may eat thereof and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever.

And here's what the bread is. And the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. That's what this bread is.

That's coming down from heaven. It is his death. It is his suffering.

It is the gospel of Jesus Christ. And he that will take the gospel into his heart and eat it and continue to eat it and keep his eyes fastened on the cross, he shall live forever. While he goes on here, we'll talk about it later on in the next few weeks.

He talks about the blood and eating the flesh and eating the blood. But I want to come back here in verse number 36 and start this morning. There's a lot of deep things in here.

And I don't say that I know everything. Obviously, I don't. The wisdom of God is unsearchable.

But I'd like to try to clarify some of these things here. Verse number 36, it starts out, Jesus said, But I said unto you that you also have seen me and believe not. Now, there's a great multitude of people that are following the Lord Jesus here.

Many of them have already seen some of his miracles, the feeding of the 5,000. They've come across the sea. They are following him.

And some of them are true believers. Some of them are true sheep. They are like Peter over in verse 69.

Peter says, And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God. And so there are some true believers amongst this multitude that are following Jesus. But there are also some imposters like Judas.

Verse 64, But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not and who should betray him. So in the midst of all this crowd are those who are believers and those who are imposters.

They are there with other motives. Judas was one who wanted some of the money from the bag. But there are many who are wavering.

There are many who are unsure. And they are following him. And if you jump down here to verse number 60, I'm jumping ahead, but I want to give you the context here.

Many, therefore, of his disciples, when they heard this, said, This is a hard saying. Who can hear it? When Jesus knew it himself and his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them, Doth this offend you? Some of the things that Jesus was saying was offensive. And then verse 66, From that time, many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him.

So you have this dynamic of this multitude of people. Some are true blue sheep. Some are true believers like Peter.

Some are imposters like Judas. Some are wavering. They are back and forth.

It simply describes the soil. I think that Caleb mentioned a few weeks ago. Some of it is good ground.

Some of it is thorny ground. Some of it is stony ground. And some of it is hard ground.

And so you have this multitude of people. And some of them are true. Some of them are wavering.

And some of them are not true. Well, the book of First John says this. They went out from us because they were not all of us.

And there's always going to be tears amongst the wheat. And the thing that Jesus used to divide the wheat from the tears was the word of God. And he spoke the word of God without compromise.

And the word of God was like a sword. It severed the wheat from the tears. And even Judas there was with them for a number of years.

But the word of God severed Judas. And so we here as a congregation, I believe that philosophy, our philosophy is not to go around and point out people. You're saved.

You're not saved. You're saved. You're not saved.

The Bible says the Lord knows them that are here. And I'm not the judge of those things. But I do know this, that the word of God is given to us as a discerner of men's hearts.

And so as the word of God is preached, the Bible says many will go out and walk no more with you. And so as we lift up the word of God, I believe God can do a cleansing work in our hearts. Those who love him and want to pursue him will come to the light.

And those who do not love him and don't want to pursue him and believe in him, they will walk away from the light. And so the word of God is that which makes that discernment. And so he says in verse 36, that you also have seen me and believed not.

He's talking to many in this group of people. Verse 37, all that the Father giveth me shall come to me. And him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out.

I'd like to talk about this little phrase here because it's mentioned in John a number of times. All that the Father gives to me. Who are these that the Father gave to Jesus? This is an interesting concept.

Verse 39, he repeats it again. And this is the Father's will which has sent me that of all which he hath given me, I should lose nothing. Who are these that Jesus says the Father has given him? Let me share with you.

And I believe right here in the context, the Lord tells us, gives us our answer. So jump down to verse number 64 again. Verse 64 says this.

But there are some of you that believe not for Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not and who should betray him. Jesus knew. And he had what is called in the Bible foreknowledge.

That foreknowledge was given to him by his Father. He knew before. As a matter of fact, when he walked by those disciples, he said, Peter, follow me.

He knew, Peter's heart. He knew before who his sheep were and who were not his sheep. And so you have in the Bible this idea of foreknowledge.

Knowing before. The whole book of Revelation is foreknowledge. You and I know what's coming in the future at the second coming of Christ because God has revealed it to us.

He has given us foreknowledge. The Old Testament book of Daniel, God gave Daniel much foreknowledge. He could see out into the future and see what was coming.

And so God has foreknowledge. God knows the end from the beginning. God knew from the beginning of the world who would believe on his son and who would not believe on his son.

Who would continue in the faith and who would fall away. That make sense? Think about it this way. We live in this period of time called time.

And time started way back at creation. And it will end at the end of the world where there shall be time no more. Actually, there was some time markers given in creation about the stars and the sun and the moon were given for times and seasons.

And this whole concept of time is for the created order. God lives outside of time. He is an eternal being.

He transcends time. We live in time. And it's hard for our minds to understand how God could live outside of time.

But God lives outside of this realm called time. We plot along. We're way back here.

We plot along in this thing called time. We see days passing and weeks and months. And we see ourselves getting older.

And God never gets older. And so we live in this thing called time. But God, he lives outside of it.

And he transcends time. And so we plot along here. And we don't know the future.

And in fact, some of us are getting old enough, we forget the past. We start losing our memory. And so we can't see unless God reveals to us what is coming in the future.

But God, this is his nature. God is present over all these things. I mean present, meaning present tense.

God is present over it all. He transcends time. He is what the Bible calls the great I am.

I am, meaning I, present tense, am everywhere at all times. I transcend time. And so Jesus says, before Abraham was, I am.

Abraham was in the past, but before him, I am. Not I was, I am. Jesus said it this way in Revelation 1, I am alpha and omega.

Not I was alpha and I will be omega. I am alpha and omega, the beginning and the ending. And so God transcends this whole thing.

He can be here at the same time he can be here. He can be at the beginning at the same time he's at the ending. And so he transcends time.

God is an eternal spirit. And here's the amazing thing to me about the incarnation of the Lord is that this eternal God actually came down into time. And that's an amazing thought that he was born into this world.

And he was limited in many ways. He actually grew in stature in favor with God and men. He actually got old as he began to age and he limited himself.

He became a man born of the Virgin Mary. He came into this created order and he became flesh. And I want to read to you again here at Philippians chapter 2. We've talked about this passage before.

You don't have to turn there. Let me just read to you real quick. It says, let this mind be in you, which is also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God.

He was on the same level, but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men. And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. And so this eternal God came down to our created order, our time order, and he was birthed into the world.

He was or he became incarnate. And that's an amazing thing. It's not the message here this morning, but this is an amazing thing.

The incarnation of Christ. But this eternal God has total foreknowledge. He knows everything.

He knows the end from the beginning, and the Lord knows his sheep. And we'll see that later on in the book of John. You could have come to the Lord here when he was walking with Adam in the garden, and you could have said, Lord, who are your sheep? And the Lord, even before all of us were born, he could have told you back then, these are my sheep, all of my sheep.

I know from the very beginning. I know everything. That these are the ones who will come and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Lord could look at this crowd here this morning, and he could tell us who is his sheep and who is not his sheep. And that's true. There's some here that are not his sheep.

There are some probably who will fall away. But the Lord could look out over this crowd, and he could tell you, there's my sheep, there's not one of my sheep. And a thousand years ago, the Lord could have told us who his sheep are and who his sheep are not, because God has foreknowledge.

And God gave that foreknowledge to his son. We read about that in verse 64. Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him.

And that understanding was given to him by the Father. Now, I'm going to make a statement here. I'm going to try to prove it in the book of Revelation.

But I believe God gave Jesus understanding of a list of who his sheep were. These are your sheep. And we'll see this here in just a minute.

But Jesus knew who the sheep were. He knew from the beginning. It says who believed, who believed not, who should betray him.

And you can just picture it this way. The Father gave Jesus a list of all the names of the true sheep, those who would believe on the Lord Jesus and continue in the faith. That was revealed, was revealed to the Lord.

And I believe, I think that the Bible demonstrates this, that it's called the Lamb's Book of Life. The Lamb's Book of Life. Listen to this verse, Revelation 17, 8. And they that dwell on the earth, it's talking about those who worship the beast, they shall wonder whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they beheld the beast that was and is not and yet is.

This book of life was written from the foundation of the world. How can you write a book? The Book of Life. And the Book of Life, by the way, has all the names of the true sheep.

How do you write that book from the foundation of the world, from clear back here, from the very beginning? The only way you can do that is if you have foreknowledge and that you know the end from the beginning. And so Jesus knew the end from the beginning. Revelation 13, 8 talks about the Book of Life again.

It says that all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him whose names are not written in the Book of Life or the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Even the crucifixion and this very book, the whole plan of God was something that was in God's foreknowledge, even from the foundation of the world. So you could have come to the Lord back before he created Adam and Eve in the garden and said, Lord, you're creating humans.

They're going to live for many, many years. Who is going to be believers and who is going to be an unbeliever? And the Lord could have said, here they are. Here are my sheep.

These are the ones who believe my plan and believe on my son. And that understanding was given to the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus knew his sheep.

He knew who they were. Now, I know there's an argument of Calvinism, and I'm not a Calvinistic type person, but there's one of two options here to believe. And I'm not going to talk about Calvinism here this morning, but you can believe this.

You can believe that from the beginning of creation, God arbitrarily chose certain people. For example, he said, this young man is going to be mine. This young man is not.

And I'm just going to choose and force my will upon both of them. You can believe that God is predetermining the souls of men to heaven or to hell, and there's no choice. Or you can believe that God gave man choice, but he foreknew.

He foreknew their choice, what they would do. And from the foundation of the world, God knew. He knew me.

Matter of fact, he knew me before, the Bible says, before I was formed in my womb or my mother's womb, he knew me. And so foreknowledge. Now, Romans chapter 8, verse 29, which describes these things, says this, for whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate.

Foreknowledge in the Bible always comes before predestination. God foreknew you would believe on his son, therefore he predestinated you. You know what he predestinated you to? Says to be conformed to the image of his son.

It doesn't say he predestinated you to be saved or lost. It says because he foreknew that you would be a child of his, he then predestinated your life to be conformed into the image of his son. I believe the air of Calvinism is that predestination is always put first.

Actually, foreknowledge is first. Whom he did foreknow, them he also did predestinate. And I'll try to explain that here in just a little bit.

1 Peter chapter 1, verse 2 says, we are elect according to the foreknowledge of God. Elect, chosen according to the foreknowledge of God. Romans chapter 9 has a very interesting passage.

It talks about Jacob and Esau. Jacob and Esau, two boys that went opposite directions. And the Bible says that even before they came out of the womb, having done neither good or evil, God said, I love Jacob and I hate Esau.

Someone says they're not even born. God must make a choice. Poor Esau was hated before he was born.

Boy, what a blessing to be Jacob. He was loved before he was born. No, think about it this way.

God has foreknowledge. And God knew these boys like, even before they were born, the direction they would choose, their heart toward him and his Messiah and God foreknew. And he saw Esau going this way.

He said, I hate Esau. And he saw Jacob going this way. He said, I love Jacob.

It's so foreknowledge. And we'll get back to John here in just a little bit. I don't want to get off track, but I want to give an illustration I've given before when I taught about foreknowledge and predestination.

Let's have, let's say as a congregation here, let's give a feast to all the people in Martinsburg. We'll plan a big feast. I know we don't have a very big building, probably 300 people, let's say, live in Martinsburg.

And we're going to have a feast. And we go out and every one of us go to every door. And every person in Martinsburg is invited to this feast.

Whosoever will, we say, can come. We're going to have a feast. We're going to have a wonderful meal.

We're going to give gifts to you. You're all invited, the whole town of Martinsburg. And so we come together and we say, now what are we going to do? Because what if 300 come? What if only three come? How are we going to set the tables? What are we going to cook? And how much food are we going to need? And while we're working through that, we get a knock on the door and an old gray haired man comes walking in the door.

He introduces himself and he says, he's a prophet of God. And he wants to let us know and give us some foreknowledge. And that foreknowledge is this, that you're going to have five people come to your feast and I'll give you their names.

And he gives the names. Now God gives foreknowledge. He's given it throughout the Bible.

Prophets received revelation, foreknowledge. And so here we are. We now know that there are five people that are going to respond to our invitation and we now can plan accordingly.

And so what do we do? We even know their names. We've set a table right here. We take the pulpit away.

We've set a table and put five places on the table. And we even put the names of the people at each place. Well, the day of the feast comes, we only ordered enough food for five people.

The day of the feast comes and these five people walk in the door and we knew who they were. And they sit down at that table. You know what they think? What? I thought you said you invited the whole city.

You only invited us. No, no, no, no, no, no. We invited everybody.

Everybody was free to come. Well, then how? How do you know to only set five and how do you know our names? Put our names here. Well, we tell them we had a visitor who gave us some foreknowledge.

And he could see into the future. And he told us that you would be the ones who would respond. And I believe God has that foreknowledge.

And I believe all of us are given the freedom to choose to come to the banquet. But God knows how many of you are going to choose it. He has foreknowledge.

And we'll talk about predestination here in a minute. But let's go back here to John 6. We're getting off the subject. John 6 verse 37 says, All that the Father giveth me.

Now, when Jesus came into the world, the Father said, Here are my sheep. All that the Father giveth me shall come to me. And him that cometh to be, I will in no wise cast out.

There's a wonderful promise there. These sheep that God foreknew would believe on His Son and continue in faith, the names of them were given to the Lord Jesus Christ, who knew from the beginning. It says in verse 64, and here's a wonderful promise.

He says, I will not cast him out. I will not cast him out. Now, why will not Jesus cast him out? Well, let's keep reading in verse 38.

For I came down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him that sent me. In other words, I didn't come down from heaven to do what I wanted to do. I came down from heaven to do what my Father wanted me to do.

And the next verse tells us what the Father wants. And this is the Father's will which has sent me, that of all which he has given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. That's the will of God.

Brother, when the will of God is, it'll be that way. Amen. And so God gave these sheep to his Son, and his Son said, I'm not here to do my own will.

I am going to keep those sheep. None of them are going to be lost because that's the will of my Father, and I've come here to do the will of my Father. I should lose nothing.

Now, here's something I think it ought to encourage your heart. Maybe this subject doesn't interest you, but if you're a true believer here this morning and your heart is like Peter's, I believe with all my heart that Jesus the Christ, he'll never be lost. He will never be lost.

All who truly believe in Jesus till the end will never be lost. The Bible says Jesus will raise you up at the last day. So I believe in eternal security, by the way.

This kind of eternal security. And I'll explain that in a minute. But if you're a believer on the Lord Jesus Christ and you continue in that faith, you will never be lost.

Jesus Christ will not lose you. And something else he says, jump over to John chapter 10, and he gives us another thing that won't happen to you. In John chapter 10, verse 25, Jesus answers them, I told you and you believe not the works that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me.

But you believe not. Notice this in verse 26, because you are not at my sheep, as I said unto you, my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. Now you want to know if you're a true sheep here today.

One of the ways to know if you're a true sheep is if you hear the voice of the son of God and follow him. And if you're a sheep, you'll hear his voice and you'll follow him. And his voice comes oftentimes through the word of God.

And so if you say I'm one of these sheep, I'm a believer on the Lord Jesus, and I'm not hearing his voice and I'm not following him. There's a real concern that we have for your heart, whether or not you're truly his sheep. And so Jesus said that the marks of a true sheep is a true sheep hears my voice and he follows me.

Keep reading verse 28, and I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. The idea here is no one can steal you out of my hand. In other words, if you're a believer on the Lord Jesus, you're in good place.

Amen. No one can steal you out of his hand. Verse 29, my father, which gave them me is greater than all and no man is able to pluck them out of my father's hand.

You don't have to fret today that the devil might snatch you away from the father. You don't have to fret it. I want to read to you a beautiful passage here in Romans chapter eight, in the same context of predestination and all of this.

In Romans chapter eight, verse 35, it says, who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? As it is written for thy sake, we are killed all the day long. We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.

For I am persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. So you are secure, by the way, very secure. And your security is in the anchor and that is the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And as you hold fast to the gospel, no one can take you out of his hand. As you cling by faith to the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. And by the way, I want to just remind you again, it says in Romans eight, you are loved today because of your belief in his son.

That's why you're loved. You are loved not because you do a bunch of good things. The Bible says, if you love him, keep his commandments, but you are loved by God because of your faith in his son, in the Lord Jesus Christ.

And so I believe some of you, I probably have a problem with this, but I believe in eternal security of all God's sheep. None of God's sheep are going to perish. They're all eternally secure.

God knows who they are. I mean, if we take this group of 120 people, let's say 80 of you, I don't know how many are truly God's sheep. And God knows that you're going to endure to the end and you're not going to perish.

The devil can't pluck you out of his hand because your faith in Jesus Christ will keep you secure. But there are some of you maybe who are going to depart. Things are going to get difficult and you're going to depart.

The word of God is going to get too much for you. You're going to make choices and you're going to go the other direction. And in 30 or 40 years, you'll be gone.

You'll be maybe an atheist. You'll be apart from the church of God and you'll be lost. The Bible says they believe for a while, but in time of temptation, they fall away.

So as I shared last time, are you sure? Do you believe like Peter that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God? Well, here's something beautiful. Verse 30, in John chapter 10 here, verse 30, it says, I and my Father are one. Here is, again, the deity of Christ.

I and my Father are one. But this comes after verse 28 and 29. Let me read to you verse 28 and 29.

I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. Whose hand is he talking about there? He's talking about his hand, Jesus. Nobody will pluck you out of my hand, Jesus says.

Now read verse 29. My Father which gave to me is greater than all and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. Now he makes two statements, same statement, but he says my hand and my Father's hand.

Now if Brother Stephen, some of you remember Brother Stephen's where he'd get up here and say, Brother Jerry, here's how that is. There's the Father's hand and there's Jesus' hand. But if no man can pluck you out of Jesus' hand, then Jesus says no man can pluck you out of my Father's hand.

Then the next verse he says, I and my Father, excuse me, are one. And Jesus is claiming here his deity. He and the Father are one.

God the eternal spirit came down into time, into creation, and was made in the likeness of sinful flesh. He submitted himself to humanity, to being tired, to being weary, to weeping, to being hungry. He submitted himself to human nature.

Well, all his sheep are going to make it. None of them will perish. Now let's go back here to John 6 and keep reading.

John 6 verse 39, it says, And this is the Father's will, which has sent me, that of all which he hath given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. That's all the Father gives me. That's foreknowledge.

And verse 40, And this is the will of him that sent me, that everyone which seeth his Son and believeth on him may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the last day. Verse 40 is the free will of man, the choice of man. Everyone which seeth his Son, you have an opportunity to either believe on him and have everlasting life, or reject him and have everlasting damnation.

So God knows every true believer. And none of them will be lost. Now I'd like you to turn with me to Romans chapter 8. And something I think is important for us is we heard some testimonies here this morning.

To understand, very important lesson, I think, about foreknowledge and predestination. But look at Romans chapter 8 verse 29. It says this, For whom he did foreknow, he knew ahead of time, he foreknew, those who would believe on his Son, he also did predestinate, or he predetermined, that those whom he foreknew would be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

And here's where you get the idea of predetermined or God foreordained. He predetermined that those whom he foreknew would be conformed to the image of his Son. Now this is an amazing thought.

And it's something that ought to guide our life. And I want to leave you with this very important lesson, I believe, that if all this that I've shared is true, that God foreknew all of his sheep, and those he foreknew, he has predestined or predetermined that life and situations and circumstances are all going to be used to conform that person into the image of his Son. Then you and I can understand why everything comes our direction.

And if you jump back one verse in verse 28, we can understand this verse better. And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purposes. Everything that comes to a true believer, all the trials and temptations and struggles and heartaches, all are used to conform you to the image of his Son.

And that's why, as Brother John said, you ought to be able to thank God for it. And we don't even know our own hearts. And sometimes God has to bring things into our life allows things into our life to get to deep recesses in our hearts, to refine our hearts and our motives to conform our hearts into the image of his Son.

So if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you know God has your best in mind, you're never going to perish, you'll be lost as you hold your faith. And that God is now conforming you into the image of his Son. Then everything that comes your way, you need to acknowledge, God is trying to change me into the image of his Son.

God is trying to mold me into that image. So I need to embrace what's coming, thank God for it and search my own heart and respond to it in a Christlike way. And when you have that understanding and mindset that everything that comes to a sheep, to a child of God is to bring conformity into his image, then you can be thankful for everything.

As a matter of fact, Peter says, when trials come, rejoice! Rejoice in the trials and temptations, because God is working in you quality that is the same quality as is in his Son. His purpose is to make you like his Son. I heard a story one time about Silversmith, you know, they did this way back, they don't do this anymore, but Silversmith cooked the fire, get it hot, melt the silver.

And when they bring the silver out, they let it dry and harden. And if the Silversmith cannot look on that piece of silver and see his image in that piece of silver, then there's impurities in it. And so he puts the silver back down into the fire and lets the fire burn off the dross and the impurities.

And he brings some silver out, lets it harden and more and more, he begins to see his own image in it. And that's a beautiful picture of the trials and afflictions that God brings into our life are an attempt to bring the conformity of the image of his Son. And so the Bible over and over says, rejoice, take joy in temptations and trials, knowing that these things are brought on to bring out qualities, character qualities that will conform us into the image of his Son.

And here's something I think we need to be very cautious of. When we have trials and afflictions, avoid murmuring and complaining. You know, as they came through the wilderness, all the murmuring and complaining, God was trying to bring them to a place of maturity through trials and afflictions and some temptations and testings.

But as they were brought into those things, they complained and they murmured. Who was it this morning that got up here and talked about, we shouldn't be murmuring and complaining about all the things that we're going through in life. These trials and afflictions, but rather were to ask, Brother John said, give thanks.

Because these things have a goal in mind. God's purpose is to take his sheep, and I trust most of you are his sheep, and to conform you in the image of his Son and everything that comes down the pike to you is to minister to some area where you need conformity. So I think what to do with our children, you know, trials come, sit the children down and say, hey, here we go.

We've got another opportunity. God is trying to mold us into the image of his Son. So let's respond to this thing in a good way to please the Lord, thank him for it, rejoicing it.

We're going to come out the other side when this fire is over and we're going to be more conformed in the image of his Son. Get a bunch of people who have that heart and attitude, we'll be in a good shape. Get a bunch of people who have trials and afflictions and God doesn't like me, you know, and all this kind of stuff.

It doesn't do well. Murmuring and complaining and discouragement, they come from a lack of faith. They come from a lack of understanding God's purposes and plan.

Oh, if the children of Israel would only understood that all these trials that the Lord was bringing them through was going to lead them into the promised land. If they would respond to them properly, but every time they murmur and complain, finally God said that's enough. You're going to stay in this wilderness and go in a circle for 40 years.

And so if we view life, Paul said in 1 Corinthians that these things were written for our examples. If we view life as coming out of Egypt when we were converted, and now our life is this journey through the wilderness. And when God brings to us trials and temptations, don't murmur and complain.

Can I get an amen for that? But be thankful. But I want to say this to those of you who are not Christians. Those who are not his sheep, trials and troubles are preparing you, think about this, for destruction.

Look over at Romans chapter 9 verse 22. By the way, this all flows together here. Romans 9 verse 22 says, what if God willing to show his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much long suffering the vessels of wrath, fitted to destruction, and that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he hath before, prepared unto glory.

Listen, you're only in one of two camps. You're either being prepared unto glory or you're being fitted to destruction. And you know when a sheep faces trial and affliction, that makes the sheep better.

When a goat faces trial and affliction, that makes the goat worse. And some are waxing worse and worse, and some are waxing better and better. I'm supposed to be pressing on the upward way, amen? New heights I'm gaining every day, and you'll see this in humanity, that those who are his sheep are heading on the upward road.

They are getting more and more like the image of Christ. Those who are not his sheep are going further and further down. They are getting deeper and deeper in bondage and in affliction.

And so you have people going two directions. And you can tell whether you're a sheep or not in large part by the direction you're headed. What are you doing? Where are you heading? Are you his sheep? Pharaoh here in this chapter was fitted to destruction.

God knew Pharaoh would not believe on him, and therefore he fitted his life for destruction. He ordained his life for destruction. So let me exhort you to please believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and the gospel and never let go.

It is your link to life and being raised the last day. And everything God does in your life, he does to conform you to the image of his Son. Trials will purify the saints, but the same trials will drive away the goats.

In time of temptation, they fall away. You face this as a sheep. Temptations come.

What does temptations and trials often do? They make us more willing to do the right thing and to follow the Lord. And so as trials and temptations come, respond to them in a proper way. And today, I just want to encourage some of you, maybe you say, my life is waxing worse and worse.

Boy, I see it. I mean, my life is just going down, down, down, down, down. And maybe somebody doesn't even know it.

Down, down, down, down. You know, that may mean that you're a goat, but you know, you can still change that. Amen.

You can still change it. I mean, I take the thief on the cross. His life was going down, down, down, down until the last hour of his life.

And he came to the Lord Jesus and he was saved. You can change that course anywhere along life. So if you see your life heading in the wrong direction, something not right, then you need to humble yourself and just cry out to God for mercy and ask him, I want to be a sheep.

I want everything in my life to work together for good. To conform me into the image of his son. Which leads me to this question and I'll close.

As you hear the word of God this morning, are you a sheep or are you a goat? Are you heading to the conformity of his son or his life heading you down? Sin is becoming a greater master. Your heart is getting colder and colder and you're heading toward destruction. Jesus knows his sheep and his sheep know him.

My sheep hear my voice and they follow me. And so God knows who are his sheep here today. I can't walk through here.

None of us can and say you're a sheep, you're not, you're a sheep. It's not for me to be a judge. But I know the word of God can bring that judgment.

This morning, do you see yourself as a sheep or a goat? Are you being conformed in the image of his son? Or are you heading further and further down? Let's close and we'll open it up for anyone who'd like to share. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. Thank you for the beauty of the eternal God who came down and was incarnate in the person of Jesus Christ and laid his life down for us.

Thank you also that you keep us, Lord. You ever live to make intercession for us. Those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.

I pray, Heavenly Father, you'll give us all the grace and see clearly why trials and afflictions come, why difficulties come, that we can respond to them in a Christ-like way, in a way that pleases you, in a way that will lead us into the promised land and not into a 40-year wandering in circles in the wilderness, Lord. And so we pray as we heard this morning that you would bring forth good fruit in our hearts from your word as we looked at it today and taught it. Bless us now, we pray in Jesus' name, amen.

All right, does anyone have anything you'd like to share? It's a time of confession, a time of adding to what we share, time of correction, yes. To me, when we have trials and tribulations and discouragements and whatever it is, we want to draw closer to Christ. He's a shelter in the time of storm.

And it makes the beauty of Christ better and better. When we see how weak we are, how failing we are, and we looked at Jesus, he's the answer for everything. If we just can trust our heavenly father, our savior.

You know, it amazes me, it amazes me that he had so much love, that he died for us. And then he came and said, cast all your cares upon us, on him, for he cares for you. So he is the one that is our heavenly father.

He's the one that can see into the heart of man. We cannot fix the problems within, but God can. He's a searcher of the hearts.

Man will try to fix the outside, God will try to fix the inside. So let's be faithful to our heavenly father. So picture yourself as one of those Israelites coming out of Egypt, going through the wilderness, and oh, three days without water.

Oh, Lord, where's the food? Problems arising, difficulties. And how do you respond to all those things? Those things are written for our admonition. Upon whom the ends of the world are come.

Anybody else? Yeah, thank you for the message. I really appreciate the way you outlined that with God's foreknowledge and cleared that up. I also just wanted to ask if there's anybody here that wants to have that prayer this morning and have that turning, I wanna be a sheep.

And just wanted to offer that if you're not on the right path, the right direction, you feel like you're being fitted for destruction and wanna cry out to the Lord for his mercy. Today is the day of salvation and turn and respond to this message, I wanna be a sheep and make that offer. Anyone who would like to make that decision, feel free to come to me, Brother Cleet, anyone here, some of the brothers or sisters, if you're a young lady, and we can help you to get on the course of being conformed to the image of his son.

Yes. I believe that we need to, as a people, pray for our families. Ground zero today for Satan is God's family.

We need to pray for our nation. Our nation was established upon Jesus Christ and God our Heavenly Father. We are the only helpmate to Israel, that's why we exist.

We need to pray for the peace of Jerusalem, a place that there's war every day, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. That is a place of war that none of you have been through. And yet, so many times today, we forget those people.

We forget that that's God's chosen holy city, Jerusalem. And we need to be praying for our brothers and our sisters. God says that the prayers of a righteous man availeth much.

Are you praying for God's people? Are you praying for repentance? But we, as a nation, need to repent. And we need to seek God first. We, as a people, need to be on our knees, crying out to God that there would be freedom, righteous freedom in his people today.

And one day very soon, God is going to look to his son and say, my son, go and redeem your bride. And at that moment, all time shall stop. There will be no repentance from then on.

And Christ and the angels will come and redeem the bride. Are you the bride? Have you given your whole life to Jesus Christ? Have you given your family and everything that you possess to him? Is he the author and finisher of your faith? And will you praise him no matter what the circumstance, no matter where the place? Does his light so shine in you? Amen. Anyone else? Brother David, would you prepare to close us in prayer here in a little bit? Anyone else? Prayer requests, other than the ones that are mentioned today, we have some families that are not here.

Anybody have a prayer request before we close in prayer? I believe next Sunday we're going to have a baptism. We have a church picnic coming on July 6th, right? And so we'll be making some plans and announcements for that. Any other announcements or prayer requests? Let's pray for those things that were mentioned here.

Our country. Next Sunday, the youth gathering will be at Brother Cleats. At what time? When is it? After the baptism.

After the baptism. Okay. All right.

Yes. Okay. Contact Brother Mike if he brought food for the food shall.

Yes. All right. Brother David, why don't you close us with a word of prayer? Then we'll have our Bible memory.

Why don't we all stand and close with a word of prayer? Father, we thank you for your word today. We thank you for the opportunity we have. We thank you for the Spirit of God that rolls men to yourself.

Thank you for the opportunity that has been called upon everyone here. The word that goes out, that you want to desire, and it's your will that we be sheep, not goats. That you want to protect us and guide us.

Deliver us, Lord, from our blindness. Lord, you have a predestined plan. Know that we are your sheep.

And Lord, you know that you have just held it by faith. Amen. Scroll back.

Your souls shall have no pleasure in this. We are not of those who draw back from the midst of perdition. Those that believe in the saving of the soul.

Father, we thank you for the great grace and deliverance that is brought in Jesus Christ and the great gospel, which we praise you for. Father, we just pray that for everyone here, that on that wavering place, wavering back and forth, they won't stop and come over to the promised land. We pray, Lord, that they will come out from our sheep and believe.

That by our believing, they can be saved. By being saved, they can be transformed into the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. By the presence of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, they will endure to the end.

Lord, we praise you for this great grace. Father, we do pray for this country, as this man and gentleman here behind me has mentioned. We do pray for our country, that we as believers would be that light.

We'd be that light there upon the hill. And Father, we just pray that you would shine light, give us understanding, as we heard yet earlier this morning. That you would shine light, that we might have faith to believe, and that we continue in our race.

Lord, we give you glory, Father. Blessed is the meal you're serving us for every time, that you've allowed us to come together with the body, to have food, and just to have an opportunity to be thankful. We thank you for what you've put before us today.

We're just grateful for light in Jesus Christ. We do this in praise of you. Amen.

You can be seated just for a minute. Okay. Caleb has an announcement.

I just had an announcement regarding the picnic. It is July 6th. Sorry for all the back and forth.

The building will open up. It's at the Honey Run School. It's a gymnasium with a kitchen and a baseball diamond and lots of flat area, not much shade.

So if you have shade tents, umbrellas, whatever, you'll probably want to bring those. The building opens up at nine. And at 10 o'clock, we will have some type of formal gathering, a time of worship, maybe a little bit of prayer.

And then the scheduled events will begin at that time. So you can come anytime between nine and 10. I encourage you to be there by 10.

If you don't have the address and you're not on the church group text, just contact me and I'll get that to you. As far as food, Ellie is taking charge of that. And she will be contacting you sisters individually in the next couple of weeks and let you know what needs to be brought.

And then you can tell her what you can bring. Thank you very much. I'll borrow your book there.

I wasn't here last week, but I'm assuming that you went on. Am I correct in saying that John 3, 7 is the verse for today? Okay. So let me pick a couple of names here.

That's all right. I got you. All right.

Well, I see that one of them's not here. I'll pick another one. Looks like it's an easy one.

All right. First of all, we've got Caleb Frost. Caleb, why don't you give us your Bible verse? The lost are depraved and cannot.

A new birth is a must. John 3, 7. Marvel not that I send to thee. He must be born again.

All right. That's an easy one. Judson, do you have your Bible memory verse down? John 3, 7. Marvel not that he must be born again.

Okay. All right. Well, I'll do one more.

That's pretty easy. How about if I do one more? Someone says no, please don't do it. I'm trying to get some new names here.

Oh, this person's not here. Getting new names. But Elijah Loniker.

Is he here? Oh, there's Elijah. All right, Elijah. Why don't you give us your Bible verse? John 3, 7. Marvel not that I send to you.

You must be born again. Good. All right.

When we walk with the Lord in the light of his word, One glory he sheds on our way. While we do his good will, he abides with us still. And with all who will, trust and obey.

Trust and obey. For there's no other way.