Well, turn with me this morning in your Bibles to John chapter six. John chapter six. As I’m sure you’ve also been noticing as we’ve come through John chapter six, John chapter six is one of the most incredible passages of scripture. And it is that for many reasons. We’ve been studying Jesus’s sermon here in John 6 on the bread of life for several weeks now. And this sermon is so rich and profound that sometimes we forget about how this chapter started. John 6 started with the miracle of Jesus feeding the 5,000, 5,000 men plus women and children. That’s how it starts off in John 6. And then it’s followed up by the miracle of Jesus walking on the water. But as amazing and awesome as those miracles were, that is not what makes John 6 such an incredible passage of scripture, such an amazing chapter of the Bible. It is, in fact, Jesus’ preaching. that makes this chapter so remarkable.

Already in this sermon of Jesus, we’ve seen he’s taught the crowds that he is the bread of life. That he’s the one who’s come down from heaven to give eternal life. He is greater than Moses because Moses never provided anyone with bread. But it’s God who provides the bread from heaven. And this life-giving bread was standing before them. All these crowds had to do was come and believe in Him. As we looked at last time, they needed to repent of their sin and believe that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of God.

And if they did, they would never hunger again. And they would never thirst again. But as we left off last time, these crowds still had a problem. Despite all of these things they had seen and borne witness to and heard him tell them, they were following him but not believing in him. They had seen his miracles. They’d eaten of the material bread that he gave them. And again, they were following him. and looking for more.

But their problem was that they didn’t believe. They didn’t believe in who He is, despite all of the evidence that they had. They didn’t believe. And you might be thinking, as we study through all of these things, how could this be? How could they not believe? Anyone who could see Jesus face to face, and could see him perform miracles like that. How could they not believe?

You might have witnessed to loved ones, family members, friends in the past, and they just don’t want to hear it, and they think you’re making it up, and that’s what you believe, but I don’t believe any of that. And you might think, well, if only they were there and they could see, if they could see what Jesus could do, and they could hear Jesus himself, then they’d believe. They were there. They saw. They heard. How is it that they didn’t believe? Well, Jesus answers that question for us in our text today. And he does so by pointing us to the sovereignty of God. The sovereignty of God. It can be a debated topic, at least as it applies to some things.

You see, most Christians believe in the sovereignty of God. The sovereignty of God simply means that God is in control. Almost anyone who claims to be Christian will agree, yes, God is in control. Fundamentally, sovereignty is what it means to be God. If God is not in control, then how can he be God, right? That’s who he is. And again, generally, just about every Christian will agree, yes, God is in control. That is, until it comes to the subject Jesus is talking about. until it comes to the subject of salvation. Is God ultimately sovereign over salvation?

I mean the Bible tells us that we need to believe. It tells us that we have to do that. So that means at least that aspect of salvation depends on us, right? Jesus himself had just said in verse 35 of John chapter six, he who comes to me will never hunger, and he who believes in me will never thirst. He tells them what they had to do. They need to come and believe. So the responsibility is on them, right?

So God’s sovereignty must have its limits, right? He is sovereign over providing the way of salvation, but he’s not going to force anybody to accept it. He sovereignly provided the Savior in Jesus Christ who paid for our sins on the cross. He’s sovereign over that much, but when it comes to the salvation of individual people, That must be up to the individual, right? But is that the correct way to frame this discussion? As though it’s an either or debate. That God is either sovereign or man is responsible. It’s one or the other. Either God is sovereign or man is responsible.

Speaking about this type of thinking and in direct reference to our passage this morning, R.C. Sproul, who I’m going to quote a few times this morning, he said this. The vast majority of Christians today are what we call semi-Pelagian in their theology. They read the statement of Jesus in John 6, 37 this way.

All who come to me, the Father will give me. That’s Arminianism. We come, we decide. Then the Father recognizes our decision and makes us gifts to the Son. But that’s not the way Jesus taught it. Jesus said, the ones who the Father has given to me will come to me, every one of them. You see, it is correct that man is responsible for coming and believing in Jesus. That’s what Jesus truly said in verse 35. He was telling them they needed to come to him and they need to believe in him. They’re responsible for what they do in response to His Word. Romans 2 tells us, you are without excuse, oh man.

But does that responsibility that is evident in Scripture, does that responsibility remove God’s sovereignty from the equation? Does God still determine in His righteous and sovereign will Who will respond by coming and believing and who will not? Well, that is the focus of our text this morning. And what we’ll see in this text is both man’s responsibility and God’s sovereignty.

And that is how we will structure these two verses this morning. Verses 36 and 37, we see man’s responsibility, number one, and number two, followed up by God’s sovereignty, as Jesus explains to us. So allow me to read these two verses this morning before we dive into them.

John chapter six, verses 36 and 37. This is the word of the Lord. 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 never cast out. Those are the verses we’ll focus on here this morning in John chapter six. And the first element of God’s plan of salvation that we see here is in fact man’s responsibility. Man’s responsibility to come and believe in Jesus. We briefly looked at verse 36 last week as we saw the problem that these people still had.

Even though Jesus gives them the answer, They still have the problem of not believing in Him, not believing what He’s telling them. And it’s a clear rebuke of them for not believing. They had all the evidence they needed. They had all the signs He had done. They had His word they were hearing. There was no reason why they should not believe in Him.

This is a similar Rebuke to what Jesus gave the Jewish leaders in John chapter 5 that we just covered in John chapter 5 verses 38 and 40 He says and you do not have his word abiding in you for you do not believe in him whom he sent You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life It is these that bear witness about me and you are unwilling to come to me so that you may have life.

Jesus is confronting them for failing to believe in him. We saw this back in John 3 with Nicodemus. Jesus tells Nicodemus in John 3 verse 7, you must be born again. And then as Nicodemus questions him and doesn’t understand what he’s even talking about, in verses 10 and 12, Jesus answered him and said, are you the teacher of Israel?

And you do not understand these things. You should know better. You have that responsibility. Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and bear witness to what we have seen, and you do not accept our witness. If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? Nicodemus, you’re responsible for these things. You should know them, you should believe them, and yet you don’t. You need to believe in him. You must be born again. This is the responsibility given to the people Jesus is confronting in these passages. That was their responsibility.

And later, in John’s gospel, as Jesus’ public ministry is winding down, he explains to his disciples the reason he came Not only to save sinners, but to present the truth to those who didn’t believe in Him. John 15, verse 22. He says, if I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin. Meaning, they might have an excuse if I had never said anything to them.

But then he continues, but now, they have no excuse. They have no excuse. He was there. They heard. They have no excuses. They are responsible. I mentioned Romans 2 earlier, where Paul says, you are without excuse, oh man. Well, earlier in chapter 1 of Romans, verse 20, Paul says, for since the creation of the world, His invisible attributes, both his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. Man has responsibility to believe in God, to believe in Christ, to the point where everyone is without excuse. Every human being is responsible to come and believe in Jesus Christ as their Savior. There is no excuse.

We see other places where this is explained. In Acts chapter 17, verse 30, Paul says, Therefore, having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now commanding that men everywhere, that everyone everywhere should repent. So it’s clear from Scripture and here from verse 36 of John chapter 6. Man is responsible.

We do need to come. We need to come and believe. And every person will be held accountable for whether or not they trust Christ for their salvation. And again, just about everyone who’s a Christian agrees with that. We all know that we have to believe. We have to come to him. We have to come and believe in Jesus Christ. We are responsible to do that.

But the difficulty comes in understanding God’s sovereignty over that. Understanding God’s sovereignty over that aspect of our coming and believing. Because we’re responsible to. But God’s sovereign over it. But first we’ve seen here in verse 36 man’s responsibility to come and believe. And next we see, God’s sovereignty. In verse 37, all that the Father gives me will come to me. And the one who comes to me I will never cast out. So here Jesus answers the question of who is ultimately sovereign over salvation. Man is responsible. Man is commanded to repent and believe in Jesus Christ.

But why doesn’t everybody respond and come and believe? Why didn’t everyone here come and believe? Is it simply because some are smarter than others? Is it because some made a better choice than others? These crowds, they saw the same miracles and heard the same preaching the disciples did. Why was it the disciples who came and believed and not the crowds? And without them even asking that question, Jesus answers it for them.

All that the Father gives me will come to me. Every single person that the Father’s given to the Son will come to Him. All of them. See, salvation is not solely dependent on our human will and volition are wanting to. We saw this in John chapter one. John starts off the gospel by explaining this in John chapter one, verses 12 and 13.

But as many as received him to them, he gave the right to become the children of God, even to those who believe in his name, who were born. Not of blood. Not of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. They were born, born again of the will of God.

As Paul says in his entire chapter on this subject, Romans 9, but in verse 16 of Romans 9, Paul says, salvation does not depend on the one who wills or on the one who runs. but on God who has mercy. God is the one who must show mercy and grant salvation to the individual. Jesus called them to come and repent and believe in him, but it’s God who gives those things. It’s God who grants repentance.

Acts 11, verse 18, God has granted to the Gentiles the repentance that leads to life. God has granted that to them. He’s given that as a gift. And in 2 Timothy 2, verse 25. Correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may give them repentance, leading to the full knowledge of the truth. God may grant them repentance. It’s His to grant. It’s His to give. And not only does God grant repentance, God grants faith. Faith is a gift from God. Ephesians chapter two. Continuing from where I stopped in our reading earlier, picking up in verse eight now. For by grace you have been saved through faith.

And this is not of yourselves. The faith, the grace, the salvation, none of it. It’s not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. not of works, so that no one may boast. You see, if it was only human responsibility, if it was only up to us and our willing and deciding and making that choice all on our own, we’d have something to boast about. What a great choice I made. So that no one may boast. It’s all been given by God. There’s nothing you can boast in. Because anything that you do, God causes that in you. It was given to you. You can’t boast in a gift that was given. You didn’t give it. It was given to you freely.

And then this passage in Philippians chapter 1. Verse 29, for to you, believers, for to you it has been granted for Christ’s sake, not only to believe in Him, because that’s been granted, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake. Man is responsible to repent and believe, and it’s God who grants. repentance and belief. Both are true. It’s not an either or. Both are true. We must believe and God does that in us. God grants belief to us. It’s not either God is sovereign or man is responsible. It’s God is sovereign and man is responsible. God’s sovereignty over salvation is one of the bedrock doctrines of our faith.

Without it, you cannot make sense of so much of Scripture. Without it, you can’t make sense of John chapter 6. Because not only do you have verse 37 here that says, all that the Father gives to me will come to me. And the one who comes to me I will never cast out. Look down a little bit. Jesus keeps this theme going in his sermon. Verse 44, no one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. Why aren’t these people coming to me? No one can come to me unless the father draws him.

And verse 65 and 66. This is where Jesus wraps up his sermon. He was saying, for this reason I said to you. He’s reiterating the main point of the sermon. For this reason, I’ve said to you that no one can come to me unless it has been granted him from the Father. Underline that in your notes. This is Jesus’ sermon, the main point. No one can come to me unless it’s been given to him from the Father. He’s repeated it three times now.

And then, verse 66, as a result of this, as a result of this truth, as a result of God’s sovereignty over salvation, many of his disciples went away and were not walking with him anymore. It’s a hard truth. It’s a hard thing to understand. Because in our minds, it doesn’t seem to make sense. How can I be responsible if God is sovereign? But both are true. Both are here. And the sad fact is there are many today who respond the same way as these crowds to this foundational truth.

I don’t want to hear that. I don’t want anything to do with that. That doesn’t make sense. Because many of us have made idols in our hearts. And one of the idols that we have in our hearts is our own autonomy. Our own ability to make choices. I can choose what I want. It has to be my decision. And this is what makes sense to our human minds.

But that is not what ultimately determines the truth. What ultimately determines truth is scripture. And in case you think I’m only pulling this out of this one place in Scripture, what does the rest of Scripture say about who is ultimately sovereign or in control of the salvation of individuals? Let’s look at a sampling of the many passages we could go to, but just a few that agree with and support What Jesus is saying here in this sermon about God being in control and only those whom he draws can come to him. Matthew 22 verse 14, many are called, few are chosen. Mark chapter 13 verse 20.

Unless the Lord had shortened those days, no life would have been saved, but for the sake of the elect whom he chose. That’s a double underline there. In case you missed the word elect there, whom he chose, the elect ones that he elected, the chosen ones that he chose. He shortened the days. Acts 13 verse 48, when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord and as many as had been appointed to eternal life. Appointed by who? Who appointed them to eternal life? God did.

One of our favorite passages for any Christian, Romans 8, 28 to 30. That for those who love God, all things work together for good. For those who are called according to His purpose, because those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers. And here’s the golden chain of salvation. And those whom He predestined, He also called. And those whom He called, He also justified. And those whom He justified, He also glorified. He does it all.

Ephesians 1 verse 4, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, Colossians 3 verse 12, so as the elect of God, the chosen ones of God, holy and beloved. First Thessalonians chapter 1 verse 4, knowing brothers beloved by God, your election, your having been chosen. Second Thessalonians chapter 2 verse 13, we should always give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you as the first fruits of salvation. I have more here, I’m not going to read them all.

There’s so many places you can go because this truth runs through every page of scripture. God is in control of everything. If there is a single thing in which God is not in control, then he’s not sovereign at all. God is sovereign. All of scripture testifies to the truth that God is sovereign and He’s sovereign over the salvation of individuals.

He chooses and elects who will come to Christ and He brings them to Himself. And all mankind is responsible for coming and believing in Him. All who will be saved. And everyone who does come to Him and believe in Him will be saved. And everyone who does not will suffer under the wrath of God poured out for their sins for eternity. And while these two truths may seem incomprehensible and irreconcilable to us, they’re both truths revealed in Scripture. Only those given to the Son by the Father will come to Him. And yet all who are given by the Father will come to Him. Every single one of them.

John 6 verse 37 guarantees the success of our evangelism. It guarantees the success of worldwide missions. God will bring His people to Himself. We will catch fish. There’s fish to be caught. He has His people out there. We need to go find them. We need to go bring the gospel to them. But every single one of them that are His will come. They will come. It is God who works in our salvation. It is God who brings all those who are His to his son.

This truth of the sovereignty of God is not only foundational for the Christian faith, this is what undergirds what we call the doctrines of grace, the doctrines of God’s grace in salvation. Again, I quoted R.C. Sproul earlier, speaking on this verse. He said, if we could understand the import of this single verse, all the theological battles of the ages over election and divine sovereignty and human responsibility would vanish. Because it’s clear. God says that humans are responsible, and yet he is sovereign.

And in fact, All of the doctrines of grace can be supported in these two verses. These doctrines are often explained using the acronym TULIP, although I think that some of the words could be better selected than the five that are given there for the acronym TULIP, but at least it’s easy to remember. But think about these two verses, John 36 and 37, in relation to the doctrines of grace. The first doctrine of grace is total depravity.

The T in TULIP, total depravity. Verse 36, I said to you that you have seen me and yet you do not believe. Why don’t they believe? Why is it that although they had seen everything they had seen, they still didn’t believe? That’s Jesus’ point. Because we are totally depraved.

And no one seeks God without God’s intervention. Romans 3, verse 10, as it is written, there is none righteous, not even one. There is none who understands. There is none who seeks for God. That’s why they didn’t believe. No one understands. No one seeks after God. That’s why they didn’t believe what he said and what they saw him do.

As I read earlier in the service, Ephesians 2 verse 1, and you were dead in your transgressions and sins. This is all of us. Before God sovereignly grants repentance and faith to us. That’s the T. Total depravity in verse 36. The U in TULIP is unconditional election.

All the Father gives me. The Father elects and gives to the Son everyone who will believe. We looked at a lot of verses already that speak to this, but it’s very clear in this verse, all that the father gives. The father has them and he gives them to the son. There’s a certain people whom are given to the son. It’s very clear and scripture declares, we’ve looked at a lot of passages, that God unconditionally elects those who will be saved.

So that’s the T and the U. Then there’s the L, limited atonement. This is one I don’t love the word choice because of how it gets confused. I prefer definite atonement or a particular redemption. That is to say God accomplished salvation through Christ for a specific people.

There’s a definite amount of people. There is a particular group of people who are redeemed. We see that in verse 37 too. All the father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me, there will be these ones who come to him. Because there are the ones whom Jesus purchased in his death.

Jesus isn’t just hoping that some people figure it out. He isn’t just hoping that someone takes advantage of what he did on the cross. He knows who they are. He knows who they are who were chosen before the foundation of the world. There’s a certain people whom he died for because he purchased redemption for those ones.

Next is the I in irresistible grace. They will come to me. All the Father gives me will come to me. They will come. There is no doubt. And as I’m sure we all are witness to, they don’t come at first. Sometimes it takes a while. But if they’re His, they will come. They are irresistibly drawn to Him and redeemed by Him. Father draws and those who are drawn will come. And lastly, we see the P of TULIP, the perseverance of the saints.

This is in the end of the verse, verse 37. The ones who come to me, I will never cast out. You see, once you’re chosen and called and redeemed and you believe, you’ll never be lost. because He is the one who will never lose you. Whether or not you become lost, whether or not you can be lost, is not up to you. Thank goodness. This is the assurance of our salvation. It has nothing to do with whether or not you can keep yourself saved. If you’re truly saved, if you’ve come to Him and you believe that He saved you from your sins, you cannot be lost. That’s all of the doctrines of grace in these two verses. This is God’s sovereignty over salvation.

And yes, they are difficult doctrines to grasp and wrestle with, to understand how this works. It was difficult for these crowds to understand. Many of them didn’t. As a result of this, many of the disciples, the ones who were following him, went away and were not walking with him anymore.

But these truths of the responsibility of man and the sovereignty of God and salvation are found in scripture. While we may not fully understand how they work together, we must believe in them. We must believe they’re true, because the Bible says so. For believers, the truth of the sovereignty of God in our salvation is one of the most comforting truths in the Bible. It truly is.

God loved us enough. to choose us and to call us to Himself. And because He’s the one who worked salvation in us, we cannot be lost. We are safe and secure in Him, if you are in Him. If you have not yet come to Christ for your salvation, if you can feel Him calling you to Himself today, You need to surrender and come to Him. All who are drawn by the Father will come to Him. If He is drawing you, you will come to Him. You need to repent and turn from your sin and believe in Jesus Christ and trust that He took the penalty for your sin. And if you do come and believe in Him, You are safe and secure in his arms and he will never cast you out.

Let’s stand and close in a word of prayer. Our God and Father in heaven, we are amazed by what your word reveals to us. In these few short words of Jesus, the most mysterious things in the universe are revealed. That you would save wretched sinners like us, who would never understand and never seek you, without you bringing us to yourself. Without you working in our hearts and drawing us to Yourself and creating in us a new heart with which we can believe in You. God, we are amazed at Your goodness and Your grace and Your mercy. We don’t understand often what our salvation requires. We don’t understand how you work all these things together where we are responsible to come to you and yet you are sovereign over it all. But Lord, where we don’t understand, we have faith.

We believe that what you say is true. We thank you for the gospel. We thank you for Christ, for sending him to die For unbelieving sinners like us who would never want him, we thank you for doing that anyways and bringing a people to yourself. We praise you and we glorify you for what you’ve done in us and what you’re doing for your own glory. We pray this in Jesus’ name, amen.