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John 6:35-37  GODS FOREKNOWLEDGE OF WHO WOULD BE SAVED

 

Introduction:

 

    In our text last Sunday Jesus declared to a great

multitude that He is the true Bread From Heaven.  Our text

today repeats the last verse of that last and goes on to

place emphasis on God's foreknowledge of who would come to

Jesus for salvation.

 

I.  A more detailed explanation of Jesus as the Bread of

    Life

 

    In this message I want to go into a more detailed

explanation of the manner in which Jesus speaks of Himself

as the Bread of Life.  V. 35, "And Jesus said unto them, I

am the bread of life..."  It is common knowledge that man

gets his life-sustaining energies from the food that he

eats.  He eats the food, his body digests the food and the

nourishment that he derives from the food furnishes energy

for his body.

    All of man's energy to be active is from the food that

he eats.  His ability to work or play is from his food.  His

ability continue to live is from the food that he eats.  If

he stops eating, he will soon stop living.  Food is man's

source of physical energy.

    Bread is the main item in the diet of man.  It is the

chief food.  It has often been called "The staff of life."

Bread is the staff of life for man physically.

    It is in this sense that Jesus uses bread to illustrate

what He does for man spiritually.  Just as bread is the

staff of life physically for man, even so, Jesus is the

staff of life spiritually for man.  That is, Jesus is the

Bread of Life from the spiritual point of view.

    Now in order for man to get the benefit of bread

physically, he must eat it.  I have heard Sister Davis say a

number of times, "I didn't get this size just by looking at

food." You have to eat it for it to do you any good.

    Even so, if one is going to get any benefit from the

Lord's power to save his soul, he must believe in the Lord.

He must believe in Jesus that Jesus is the Christ, the Son

of God, the Savior of the world.  Men cannot and will not

call on a Savior whom they do not believe exists.

    In order to get the benefit of the Lord's saving power,

he must believe that Jesus can save his soul.  He must

believe the gospel message that God has sent His Son here to

this world to be the Savior of men and that He is able to

save those who trust in Him.

    Then in addition to believing that Jesus is real and

believing that He really can save lost sinners from their

sin, one must realize that he is a sinner and that he needs

to be saved.  He must want to be saved.  He must be hungry

for salvation.  He must want it.

    Finally, he must call upon Jesus asking Jesus to save

his soul and make sure that he will get to heaven.  Just as

one must eat bread to get the benefit of its energies, even

so a lost sinner must place his faith in Jesus in order to

get saved.  He must believe in Jesus.

    Once one places food in his mouth and eats it, he will

get the temporary benefit which food gives.  Even so, when

one places his faith in Jesus, he get the permanent benefit

of God's saving grace.  (V. 35), "...he that cometh to me

shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never

thirst."

    Jesus does not save a man one day and then turn him

loose to go to hell the next day.  When He saves a man, He

saves Him forever.  Jesus satisfies the need of the soul on

a permanent basis.  He will never hunger again.  He will

never even thirst again because he will never be lost again.

 

II.  The unbelief of the multitude of people

 

    V. 36, "But I said unto you, That ye also have seen me,

and believe not."  The problem with the great majority in

that multitude of people to whom Jesus was speaking was that

they had never trusted in Jesus to save their souls.  They

had come oh so very close!  They had seen the Savior with

their own eyes.  They had heard Him with their own ears.

They had witnessed His great power in a way that most people

only get to read about.  They had witnessed as Jesus took

the five loaves of bread and two fish and feed all that

great multitude.  They had personally eaten until they were

full.  They had done all this, but they had never eaten the

true bread from heaven.  They had not yet partaken of the

Bread of Life that gives the salvation of the soul.

    That is, at least, most of them had not.  There were a

few exceptions, but the most of them had never been saved.

    Now keep in mind that food does not do you any good just

by looking at it.  You have got to eat of the food before it

does you any good.  These people had seen the Bread of Life.

They had seen Jesus.  But the most of them had never partook

of that bread by placing their faith in Jesus to save them

and take them to heaven.  It was by their own choice that

they did not believe in Him.  Just as some, by their own

choice, do not eat food which is place before them.

 

III.  A clarification concerning this verse

 

    V. 37, "All that the Father giveth me shall come to me;

and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out."  Let

me caution you about one thing right here.  Some people

interpret this verse of Scripture to mean that God has

picked out certain people to be saved and that they are the

only ones who can possibly ever get saved.  They say that if

God had wanted anybody else to get saved, that He would

picked them also.    They say that God does not want anybody

else to get saved.

    Let me say to you unequivocally that this is not what

the Bible teaches and, therefore, this is not what Jesus is

saying in this verse.

    Never-the-less, Jesus does make it clear that God the

Father has given certain people to Him and that they will

come to Him for salvation.

    The question is:  What people did God the Father give to

Jesus?  That question is not hard to answer, once you stop

and think about it.  In fact, Jesus Himself in John 3:16-17

helps to answer that question.  "For God so loved the world,

that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth

in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.  For

God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world,

but that the world might be saved."   God sent Jesus into

the world for the purpose of saving everybody in the world.

God did not eliminate anybody from the opportunity to be

saved.

    Note also that God requires that one place his faith in

His Son Jesus Christ in order to get saved.  "...whosoever

believeth in him...")  God purposed for every man to have a

choice.  One could chose to believe in Jesus or he could

chose not to believe in Jesus.  His salvation depends on

that choice.

    However, Romans 8:29 also helps to explain this verse of

Scripture.  God knew beforehand who would chose to believe

Jesus and who would not.  Therefore, knowing this with

absolute accuracy, God the Father had already given certain

ones to Jesus that they might be saved.  Listen to Romans

8:29, "For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to

be conformed to the image of his Son..."

    So out of that great multitude of people, God had

eliminated nobody from being saved.  God had sent Jesus for

the purpose of saving all of them if they would only trust

in Jesus.  But God did know in advance which ones of them

would trust Him and be saved.  All that Jesus is saying here

in this verse is that all of those whom God knew would be

saved did believe in Jesus got saved.  All whom God had

given to Jesus based on His foreknowledge of who would trust

Jesus, did come to Jesus and trusted in Him just as God knew

they would.

    All of them saw Him.  All of them heard Him.  All of

them had been miraculously fed by Him.  All of them had

heard Him say that He is the Bread of Life.  All of them

heard Him explain that if they wanted to be saved they could

be saved if they would trust in Him.  But not all of them

did trust in Him.  Many of them were not saved on that

occasion and, no doubt, many of them were never saved.

 

IV.  About people today

 

    God also foreknew about people who live today.  Psalm

147:5 says that God knew the end from the beginning.  That

is, He knew every detail all the way from the beginning to

the end.  He knew who would live.  He knew who would repent

of their sins and trust Jesus Christ as Savior.

    He knew about us.  He knew about you.   He knew when and

where you would be born.  He knew what your name would be.

Unlike most people, He knows your full name.  He knows how

old you are right now.  If you are already saved, He knows

that.  If you are unsaved, He knows that.  He knows all of

the things you do and all that you say or think.  If you are

unsaved and you would like to be saved, He knows about that,

too.

    There is one thing of which I am sure.  I am sure that

He loves you and that He wants you to be saved.  That is why

He sent Jesus into the world.  He wants you to be saved.  He

wants everybody to be saved.

    Right now there is nobody more interested in seeing you

turn to Jesus Christ for salvation than God the Father in

heaven.  God is the one who sent Jesus to the cross to die

for us so that we would have an opportunity to be saved.

God is the one who sent the Holy Spirit to inspire the

writing of the Bible so that we would know how to be saved.

God is the one who called me to preach so that I would

preach the gospel to you this morning.  God is the one who

arranged for the Pleasant Hill Missionary Baptist Church to

be organized in this community many years ago.  God is the

one who is watching right now from heaven waiting for you to

turn to Jesus and put your faith in Him as your Savior.

    God already knows in advance what you are going to do

about Jesus.  If you are going to reject Jesus, He is

already sad about that.  Nobody regrets it more than God

does.  He still loves you.

    If you are going place your faith in Jesus Christ this

morning He already knows about that, too.  He is ready.  He

is waiting.  He is anxious to save you.  He is excited about

it.  He can hardly wait for you to turn to Jesus so that

Jesus can save your soul.

    Let me give this personal advice to you.  If you will

turn to Jesus today and trust Him to save your soul, you

will never, never, never regret it.  If you do not trust

Jesus Christ, you will forever regret it.

    Now is the time.  Now is your opportunity.  Now is your

chance to come to Jesus and place your faith and trust in

Him to save your soul.

 

Conclusion:

 

    I am going to call for the musicians to come forward and

lead this congregation in a hymn.  I am going to ask that

you all stand.  I am going to ask that if there is anybody

here who is unsaved who wants to be saved that you come

forward and place your faith in Jesus to save you.  Who will

come while we stand and sing?