As Mike just said, the Scripture text today, the sermon text is from John chapter 6 verses 33 through to verse 40. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. Then they said to him, Lord, give us this bread always. And Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. He who comes to me shall never hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst.

But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will by no means cast out. For I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of Him who sent me. This is the will of the Father who sent me, that of all He has given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. And this is the will of Him who sent me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the last day." Let's pray.

Lord, we thank you for these words of life that have been presented to us this morning. Lord, I pray that we would see today and Lord, those of us whose eyes have been restrained, they would be opened. Lord, that all our desires and appetites for the food that perishes would go away. Oh Lord, that you would wean us off this world. Father, help us to fill ourselves with the bread that comes from heaven.

Oh Lord, that we would not hunger or thirst for these things that are passing away. Oh God, I pray that for each one of us Lord that as we hear your words this morning that you would speak to our hearts, and Lord, that we would drink deeply and we would eat off your table. Oh Lord, give us and grant us our desires to know you more, to love you more, and to feed upon you this morning. In Jesus' name, Amen. It's such a delight to be in this chapter of the Word of God.

You know, we've been working our way slowly through John chapter 6. It's a very long chapter, 71 verses, and we're capturing the moments that describe the glory of Jesus Christ. And in our time this morning, I'd like to point out several of the ways that we see the glory of Jesus Christ. John, an eyewitness of the Lord Jesus Christ, said that he beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten Son of the Father. He saw His glory.

And John is sharing these things with us, and so I'd like to speak of those things this morning. As you can see in the outline, you know, If God wanted to draw you to Himself, how would He do it? Or if you're already a disciple of Jesus Christ and if God wanted to compel you to love him more. What would he have to do to do that? Or what would he have to do to make you want to believe?

And I think this is what we find here. This is what John is doing. He's constantly displaying the glory and the beauty and the love and the superiority of Jesus Christ. This passage is no different. In fact, John says very clearly why he wrote this testimony of Jesus.

He said, these things were written that you might believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and that in believing you might have life in his name. Everything that John puts down here on these pages is to help us to have life in his name. And over these weeks in John chapter 6, because we are still in John 6 and we'll be in it for a few more weeks, We've been asking, you know, how is it going with you? Are you feeding on living bread? Are you resting in the shadow of his wings?

Are you going to the place where there's true bread? Are you just going and eating chaff and starving your own soul. Is that, you know, how are you doing? I think that this passage should give us two levels of understanding of the bread of life. And the first is the whole matter of salvation.

That when you come and eat the bread of life, you're eating living everlasting bread, and that bread works eternal life in you. And you become a Christian. You're born again. So I think that's one level. And I remember when I first read these words when I was very young, and it was, I read these words and I wanted that bread, and I tasted that bread, And it was in these sections of John that I believe I was converted.

So that's one level. Eat the bread of everlasting life, Jesus Christ. Be saved. Turn from your wicked ways and turn toward Him. That's one level.

The other level, I really believe, is part of sanctification because he speaks of this in terms of the present tense of your life. You keep eating this bread. And It's also a matter of sanctification. And the true Christian never feels like he ever gets enough. He always wants more.

And I trust that's where most of us are here today, But if not, that somehow the Lord would show you his glory. And if you've loved him, if you know him, you want to follow him, you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you've turned from your sins, then, you know, here you are in another moment just to receive encouragement from him, to keep seeking him, and to put aside the chaff of this world and turn to the bread that is true bread. And so I pray that God would be so marvelous and among us that we would be nourishing and sustaining ourselves on him. And you know, Is He the one who's booing you up? Is He the one you're turning to in all these things?

Well, as you know, this is a long chapter. The first scene of the chapter unfolds in verses 1 through 15 where Jesus feeds 5, 000, maybe 10, 15, maybe 25, 000 people. It's the miracle that's recorded in all the Gospels. It's an absolutely astonishing act. And then in the next scene, the Lord Jesus Christ stills a storm, and he walks on the water.

The disciples are out on a boat and there's a storm that rages and Jesus is praying on the mountain. So we learn from one of the other gospel writers. And they're crying out and then Jesus walks on the water acting as if he's going to pass them by. He gets in the boat, the storm is stilled, and the boat is transported to their destination. And he says to them, be of good cheer, I am here, be not afraid.

And that's really kind of the message that he's, the Lord Jesus is always saying to his children. But why was that miracle there? There's really no explanation. It just kind of, it almost sticks out strangely like a bush in the desert. You know, what's this doing here?

And I think that what the reason John puts that miracle there is just to demonstrate the absolute sufficiency of Jesus Christ in all of our trials. In that trial on the sea, it was the Lord who appointed the trial. He was the one that rules the wind and the waves. He whooped up that wind and those waves, and then he rescued them from them. And then in the third scene is where we are right now.

It really begins in verse 22 all the way to the end. It's this discourse, this conversation that Jesus has with people and the religious leaders. On the other side of the Sea of Galilee in the synagogue of Capernaum. All this happens in the synagogue of Capernaum. We learned that from verse 59.

We haven't passed by that yet, But the Lord Jesus is delivering a very clear message, and I think it's declared, well, in many places, but verse 27 is critical. Do not labor for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, my Father, " and then verse 32, my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. So in this long chapter I just want us to be calibrated as to what's happening and what the flow of it is. And so there are two recurring themes that run all through this. And you really have to read all 71 verses to see how it all fits together.

I do believe they're a unit. It begins with the terms after these things. Chapter seven begins the same way. So I think John wants us to see this unit. He wants us to see the whole picture.

It's easy to get dialed into one little piece like I am the bread of life and miss everything else because that is astonishing. But the first theme that continues to arise is that Jesus is the bread that gives you life. And you see that in verse 35, I am the bread of life, whoever comes to me shall not hunger. You see it in verse 41, I am the bread that came down from heaven. In verse 48, I am the bread of life.

In verse 51, I am the bread that came down of heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And in verse 55, my flesh is true food. And the whole chapter actually ends really as a result of this whole discussion and controversy over what Jesus said. So when we think of this chapter, we should think of living bread because it is a common fixture running through the entire thing from beginning in.

The second theme is like it because it runs all the way through it. And that is, what does it look like to be a true or a false disciple? That might be one of the main messages here. And you find the disciples are responding in different ways. Now the word disciple in this chapter both refers to true believers, true followers, and the false ones.

It's very interesting and so in like like in verse 26 Jesus he says you seek not because you saw the signs, but because you ate the loaves and were filled. And in verse 36, you have seen me and yet do not believe. In verse 60, this is a hard saying. In verse 64, but there's some of you who do not believe. Verse 66, from that time many of his disciples went back and walked with him no more.

And it's a picture of true and false disciples, because false disciples are always part of the gatherings of the people of God. It's always that way. It's always been that way. And so what I want this morning to do is to try to bring to the surface the ways that John displays the glory of Jesus Christ while he is observing what Jesus said in that synagogue in Capernaum. And the first thing, I'll give them to you before we walk through them, first of all in his glory he satisfies his own.

He says I'm the bread of life. Secondly, He exposes the unbeliever. Thirdly, He receives sons and daughters from his Father. And fourthly, he keeps his own. Fifthly, he transports his own to the land without tears, the land of everlasting life.

So this is the glory of Jesus Christ. John wants you to see Jesus Christ in this way and so I hope that we can see him that way as well. And so let's begin with this first manifestation of the glory of Jesus, and that is that he satisfies his own. Verse 34, then they said to him, Lord, give us this bread always. And Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life.

He who comes to me shall never hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst." Now, the first thing we notice here is that the crowd delivers a command to Jesus. They're telling him what to do. They say, Lord, give us this bread always. And I think that there are two ways to ask that question. My position is that these disciples here, the false disciples, they were asking not for spiritual bread, they were asking for physical bread.

They wanted their bellies filled every day just like Moses filled their bellies. He didn't actually fill their bellies. It was God. But I think they're still on the welfare amazement track. What have you done for me today?

Food and health care. Food and health care. That's kind of what they're looking for. They want to be successful. There are two ways to say, Lord, give us this bread.

Lord, I need you. I want you. Or Lord, make me successful. Those are the two ways. And the false disciples want to be successful.

And that's what we see here. And then the Lord Jesus shows that he is living bread for their souls. Now this is, He says, I am the bread of life. This is the first of the seven I am statements in the Gospel of John. And he's saying, I am the one who satisfies you.

It's not the physical bread that is satisfying. He's saying, I've come to satisfy your soul, like who you really are. And so he says, I am the bread of life. And you're aware of these seven I am statements. I am the bread of life.

I am the light of the world. I am the door. I am the good shepherd. I am the resurrection and the life. I am the way, the truth, and the life.

I am the true vine. All of these are given to us to give us sort of a multifaceted view of his beauty and glory, his goodness, Just how absolutely wonderful he is, more wonderful than anything else. There's nothing like him. There's no bread like him. There's no light.

There's no door. There's no resurrection. There's nothing like him. And that's what he's saying here. You know, Saying that he is so good, it really ought to threaten the whole self-help industry, the whole counseling industry, the whole drug and alcohol and marijuana industry, the whole pornography industry should die on these because he really is more satisfying than all, it should put to death even the sports industrial complex because he's more satisfying than anything you can possibly imagine.

But what does it really mean? Does it mean that you won't have any more longings? It can't mean that. It means that there's this acknowledgement of our humanity. We'll have longings, but our longings will be satisfied.

We can go somewhere to have them satisfied. You know, when the children of Israel were wandering the desert, We learn in Deuteronomy chapter 8 that God had them wandering the desert and He gave them manna for a reason. He gave them manna to humble them so that they would realize that man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God." They had desires for bread, but in the wilderness God wanted to teach his people that he was the answer. That man shall not live by... Like the physical bread was just...

In some way it was inconsequential. It was just a sign. It was just pointing to something greater and that he's the one that satisfied. That you need the bread from heaven, you need his words in order to satisfy you. So we crave these things, that will not go away, but how do we satisfy them with that which is actually satisfying?

You know, that's why Isaiah says, why do you try to satisfy yourself with that which is not bread? It isn't working. So if you feed on him, you will be satisfied. Now, we all know that we fall short. We all are just a jumble of desires and cravings.

And we know That's true. And our problem is that we go to the wrong places for that. And Jesus is saying, no, go to me. Go to me for all these cravings. Every craving you've ever had, go to me.

We always want to go somewhere. We want some alternative reality for our health. We seek to fix our marriages, we seek to fix ourselves with things that really don't satisfy. I was reading a book this week, and I had to laugh at how the author described this problem that we have. And He really exposed this quest for satisfaction and how we try to fulfill ourselves.

And here's what he says, he says, We conclude that the barriers to abiding joy are the unhealthy choices that clog our lives. The root problem, we think, is that we're stuck in a rut of predictability, so we must unstick ourselves with novelty. We turn to self-improvement, make new resolutions, scour the internet for list blogs that promote, that promise lasting change with easy effort. We buy productivity apps for our phones. We resolve to become better parents, better spouses, better friend winners, and more purposeful people influencers.

We need to sit less and walk more. We need to sleep more and eat less. We need to get to the gym a few times a week and lose fat and build muscle. We purge fast food, drop the carbs, fork down more vegetables. We drink more water, less coffee, less soda.

We buy organic, fair trade, RBGH free, gluten free, free range. We pay off credit cards. We build our savings. We clip coupons. We invest money in a new retirement plan and set aside some funds for a future vacation.

We clean out the garage, we purge our closets of junk, we buy apps to track our steps and measure our progress and planners to micromanage our days. We commit to staying on top of our emails, checking our phones less often, watching less television, visiting the library more, and reading our neglected stack of books. We chase a list of changes to sharpen our daily routines, to tweak our daily habits, and to find our daily joy. So it's no surprise that how-to books promising this high-powered life sell by the millions. And then the author says, you know, all this really boils down to just helping yourself.

Now, everything that he just listed in here, you know, probably has some compelling good to it, right? But the heart of the matter for the satisfaction of our hearts is Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ alone. It's seeking Him. It's meditating upon His Word. It's hearing and obeying His Word.

That's where life is really found. And Unless all these things somehow have their source in hunger for Jesus Christ, they don't satisfy. They might provide a nice short-term fix for something. And you know what? We do need a lot of fixes.

How many fixes do you need? I mean, I need many fixes in my life, but coming to Jesus Christ and feeding on Him is the heart of the matter. Isn't it the thing that your flesh hates the most and you avoid in so many different ways? When Jesus says, come to me, all you who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Come to me.

Come to me. Come to the fountain of living waters. That's where life really is. You know, this morning, my wife Deborah came down the stairs, and she said that, she told me, I always meet her, when she comes down to the stairs, I hear her come down, I always get up earlier than she does. And I hear her come down and I go and I meet her at the bottom of the stairs.

And she says, she says, Scott, you know, this morning I was singing a song I hadn't sung in probably 40 years. Because she wakes up with a song. She actually wakes up with songs in her heart. I wish I did that more. But she did, and she said she woke up to this song.

I think probably the last time we sang this song was when, you know, she was in her maybe early teens or maybe not even over 40 years ago when we went to church together in California. And it was the song, Just a Closer Walk with Thee. Just a Closer Walk with Thee. I said, Deborah, that's my whole sermon. But it's also my biggest problem, you know.

And I often go to bed with a sense of foreboding, and I often wake up the same way. I know people have different personalities. And I think that this personality trait has been formed by unbelief and self-concern. It might be also sort of part of the pastoral territory. It's one of those occupational hazards of always hearing bad news or somebody doesn't like you, and they're going to hear a better preacher saying, come on, I've got to find a better body, family.

It happens all the time. You never really get used to it you know but anyway so I go to bed with foreboding and I sometimes wake up and I've got it when I wake up in them I mean I need I need my heart to be fed when I go to bed when I wake up I try to read a song to Debra before we go to bed but if my heart has too much foreboding in it, I just don't do it. Maybe that never happens to you. But I need it. I need to go to the bread.

I need to eat that. It changes. And it's remarkable to me how many times this little short thing I'll read to her, it just turns me around. Just a closer walk with thee. I am weak, but thou art strong.

Jesus, keep me from all wrong. I'll be satisfied as long as I walk. Let me walk close to thee. And the lyrics were appropriate for the morning. But I think Jesus is just reflecting what Isaiah said.

You know, why do you spend your money for that which isn't bread? Why do you go to all the wrong places for satisfaction? Jesus says, come to me, come to me. Well, The next way that Jesus displays his glory, and John describes it as an eyewitness, is not only does he satisfy his own, he satisfies, But secondly, he exposes the unbeliever. That's verse 36.

Jesus said, but I said to you that you have seen me and yet you do not believe. So he's exposing their status, the danger they're in. They're there, they're part of the crowd, but they don't believe. Now, in verse 36 and verse 40, we learn that there are two different kinds of seeing. Did you notice that when we read it?

This idea of seeing is mentioned twice, and there are two different kinds of seeing, in the same way that there's two different kinds of wanting bread. And in verse 36, there's a seeing, seeing the stuff and not believing you're detached. And then in verse 40, it's a different kind of seeing, it's seeing and believing. So Jesus is telling these people, you don't believe. And I think that we're coming to the edges of a significant doctrine of the Bible.

It's the doctrine of total depravity. That man is depraved. Jesus is declaring, exposing, their unbelief. And they were blind because of their depravity. Their problem was their inability because of their depravity.

And they could not see, except on the surface of things. Now, you know, this chapter does speak of what unbelief looks like. Now, there are many qualities of it, and I think we run into one of them right here. It's hardness of heart, but some kind of participation with the flock of God. Now here are I think six qualities of the unbeliever that you can draw from John chapter 6.

One, they are drawn by earthly physical benefits. They want their bellies and their bodies satisfied. Number two, they follow a large crowd. It may be that they want to be identified with the big and successful. Everybody can relate with that.

Thirdly, they want to see an exciting spectacle. Number four, they tell God what to do. Number five, they are participants, not poor takers. And six, they have not been given the Son. In other words, they don't have a new owner.

But their spiritual condition is that they are dead to sin. And of course, the whole doctrine of total depravity is not that we're as bad as we could be, like we could be a lot worse, but every part of us has been tainted by sin. That we're bad everywhere, but we're not as bad as we could be anywhere. And so that's the doctrine of total depravity. And this is the most damaging aspect of the human personality and human relationships.

And it causes us to be blind to that which actually satisfies. That's the tragedy of depravity and we are afflicted with this thing and so Jesus exposes their depravity you know in the same way that maybe even this morning you're thinking, I don't really believe, I'm just here. My parents made me come here. But Jesus wants you to know who you are if you are really His, if you want him, if you love him, if you desire to follow him. He wants you to know that.

And so he displays his glory by exposing us. And my prayer right now is that the Holy Spirit would expose personally and intimately to every person who is an unbeliever, that you would know. There is not any way for other people to know, but there is a way for you to know. And I'm just praying that God would show you who you are. That's what Jesus was doing in the synagogue in Capernaum, and we're doing it right now.

We're just doing the same thing that he did, trying to. And then the third way that he declares his glory and exposes it to us is that he receives sons and daughters from his father. Now there's a very terse, striking, beautiful statement at the beginning of verse 37. Do you see it there? "'All that the Father gives me will come to me.'" So there's a sequence involved, and it gives us an insight into salvation.

How does it happen that you desire to follow Jesus Christ? First of all, there is a particular number of people who will come to Jesus. All will not come. The only ones that come are all that the Father gives me. Everyone doesn't come, But all that the Father gives me will come.

That's what Jesus is saying. This is what theologians have called limited atonement. There are different names for that, but God chooses certain people. And He chooses those people and He gives them to His Son. And if you don't believe in the doctrine of limited atonement, then you can't believe in hell because atonement is limited, obviously, in the Bible.

And, You know, I remember in the early days of walking with the Lord, you know, me and my friends who had become Christians would walk around and we'd say, why us? Why did God choose us? This is crazy. He must be crazy. It wasn't because of our personalities.

It wasn't because of our giftedness or our value. It wasn't for anything like that. This passage makes it clear. Don't you love to sing those words in that song? It has two titles, How sweet and awesome is this place, or how sweet and awe-inspiring is this place.

And those words, why was I made to hear thy voice and enter while there's room? Why? Why, Lord, was I made to hear thy voice? That song is very consistent with what Jesus is saying here, doctrinally. And then this phrase makes it clear that God gives converts to Jesus.

God hands them over to His Son. He gives them a love for His Son. He gives them a consciousness of their sin. And He gives them a sense that they lack so much and they need Him. They don't just need another stroke of self-improvement.

That isn't what they need. It's not personal success that they need. They need Him. God gives them to His Son. And He takes sinners out of their uncleanness, out of their harlotry, out of their self-satisfaction.

He takes them in that state while they were dead in their trespasses and sins. While they were sinners, while they were enemies of God, God takes them and He gives them to His Son. How about that? Here, you take them. What a wonderful thing is to be taken by Him.

And you know, this is the doctrine of election. God in his sovereign wisdom and mercy chooses those whom he will save. And he takes them and he gives them. Now what does election mean? It means that God has a delight to save sinners.

It's not your personality, it's not your morality, it's not your wisdom, it's not your mind, it's His mercy. And He delights to show mercy, rescuing the unworthy, the bad personalities. He rescues you with all of your baggage. How about that? And he gives you to his son.

Because the Father gives sinners to his son. You know, the doctrine of election and limited atonement, it should encourage us very much because It is the disposition of a holy, almighty God to extend grace to the unworthy. That's what election is. You don't want the conditions for your salvation to be your righteousness. You want Him to want you.

Because it's only mercy that can make Him want you. It's good to believe in limited atonement and election because it means that there's someone who loves you and who wants you. And he's going to get you. And he's going to wrap you in his arms, and he's going to give you to his son, Jesus. Thomas Goodwin, the 17th century Puritan theologian, defines election like this, pure act of good pleasure.

He says, Consider that God in choosing you not only loved you, but delighted to love you. It was not barely an act of will that he would choose some. He cared not whom, as being indifferent about it, but it was an act of love, and not of love only, but of good pleasure and of delight. God rejoiced over you from everlasting, and his intentions are to do you good with his whole heart and with his whole soul. So in election, God has mercy on rebels.

Self-centered, self-righteous, not beautiful, lost in their trespasses and sins, and he gives them to his Son. And so it shows the love of God, not because we were such fantastic people with great personalities that drew him to us, but he loved us because he loved us. And he planned it before the world began. The next way that John wants us to see the glory and the beauty of Jesus is how he keeps his own. He not only gives you to the Father, but then to the Son, but the Son keeps you, and thereby the Father keeping you.

So in verse 37, And the one who comes to me, I will by no means cast out." Camp on those two words. Cast out. For I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. This is the will of the Father who sent me. That of all he has given me, I should lose nothing." Look on that word lose, not cast out, not lose.

So it's a very remarkable thing that he says here. He says, for I have come down from heaven. Can you imagine hearing somebody say that? Just you're in the synagogue in Capernaum and somebody just said, I came down from heaven. OK?

And they kept listening to him, because he was healing the sick and raising the dead, and he was stilling storms, and He was walking on water. And he was ruling the wind and the waves, and everybody knew it. That's why he was able to walk into the temple and clear the temple, and nobody touched him. He had a little bit of gravitas because he was real. These were real miracles.

These weren't Benny Hinn miracles, okay? He healed everyone, and it was real. So he says, I came down out of heaven. They didn't lynch him, probably because they saw what he was able to do. And he explained what was his Father's will.

So we get a window into what the father's will. What is God's will for your life? What does he want for you? You know, what does he want from you? And he's explaining the will of his father.

He says, not to do my will, but the will of him who sent me. So what he's gonna say here has to do with the meditations of God the Father and God the Son in their unity together. And the first thing of course is that the Father will give him. But the second is that he won't cast them out, and he won't lose them. And this is the perseverance of the saints.

He'll keep you to the end. I wonder If the miracle that took place in the boat was partly to speak of this, because Jesus gets in the boat and he gets them to the end right away. The boat is transported to the shoreline. When he is in your boat, he's going to get you there. And He will not cast you out and He will not lose you.

Now this is the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints and This is God's power to keep us and never cast us out. He's prepared an everlasting inheritance and He will get you there despite your stupid decisions, despite all the problems that you came into the Christian life with and created once you became a Christian, he is going to get you there. He will keep you. He wants to keep you. And God is very defensive really toward his people.

You remember what he says in Romans, Who will bring a charge against God's elect? Who? Anybody? You want to bring a charge against God's elect? I'm here.

I'll answer. Because God's elect are protected for all eternity. And He won't cast you aside because of your foolishness. He'll keep you. Like we sang, He will hold you fast.

Why? The sound doctrine in the song says, for my Savior loves me so, He will hold me fast. You know what? That's your only hope. If you think getting better and self-improvement is going to hold you fast, you just might perish that thought.

You can't ever do it good enough. You know, look at you, you see this doctrine all over the Bible. How about Moses? You see the perseverance of the saints in Moses? Absolutely.

He murdered someone and God kept him. How about Abraham? How about Nebuchadnezzar and David? How about Peter, who denied Jesus three times? If there's any doubt that God can't keep you, perish it.

There's too much in Scripture to teach you that He'll hold you. How much perfection does God need from you to keep you? You know, a lot of times we think that about God because That's how we treat other people in our lives. A wife doesn't perform at the standard that the husband is used to receiving, and he says, I'm not keeping you. It's a performance mentality.

We're all bent that way. And so you end up with this culture of divorce because people don't want to keep each other. But God's not like that. He's not like that at all. He keeps you.

He won't lose you. He will chase you around, and He will not allow you to be lost. That's why Paul said, Who shall separate us from the love of God? No one can pluck us out of his hands. Fifth way, the last way.

He transports his own to a land without tears. Now, I use this terminology, land without tears, as code for everlasting life. So in verse 4, we read, and this is the will of him who sent me that everyone who sees the Son and believes, notice that's a different kind of seeing, and believes in him may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the last day." Here in verse 40, we see the objective of God, and that is to resurrect and to bring into everlasting life. And God is defining his objective. And it's dependent upon seeing the Son and believing him.

You know, To see and believe is to embrace. It's not just to think about some idea about Jesus. It's to embrace with desire, with a wanting to turn away from the ways of this world to the ways of the Kingdom of Heaven. That's what believing means in the Bible. That's what seeing means here.

And so you must believe in the Son, and then He will raise you. This is the doctrine of resurrection. There are two ways that resurrection happens. One is that there is a spiritual resurrection of life in this life where one is given eternal life. That's conversion.

That's a resurrection. And then there's the resurrection of the body for the final judgment. And when your body is resurrected from the grave, your body joins your soul, and you meet before God the Almighty and His Son. So, this is the doctrine of resurrection. And when you're resurrected to everlasting life, when you believe in Jesus Christ, you have everlasting life at that moment.

You don't wait until heaven to have everlasting life. You have it immediately, as John has already very clearly stated. It's interesting, we're having a baptism today this afternoon, and we're going to celebrate this verse right here. This raising, this resurrection, it's a real resurrection. It's both spiritual and it's physical, and it's everlasting in its nature.

You know, I was looking at this term, everlasting life, and I ended up at Baker's Bible Dictionary. I'm just going to read you a couple of phrases out of it. Everlasting life is the divinely bestowed gift of blessedness in God's presence that endures without end. This relates especially to the quality of life in this age and to both the quality and duration of life in the age to come. For example, quote, his love endures forever is repeated 26 times in Psalm 136 alone.

Elsewhere in the Psalms, forever is used to describe God's reign, and then speaks of all the different ways that forever or everlasting is mentioned in the Bible. But we've already heard this from John. John said, In him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. We've already read, For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life, the very same thing that John is reporting when he was seeing the glory of Jesus Christ in the synagogue in Capernaum.

You know, at the end of this chapter, the disciples, the true disciples will say, after everyone else is leaving Jesus, they say, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. And that's the whole issue here. And there's this, as you can see, There was much rich doctrine, either explicitly or by implication, in this passage of Scripture. And I couldn't help but recognize—and there were some authors that saw this and documented it that I read.

But what's here is what are called the doctrines of grace. And what are the doctrines of grace? Well they're stated in what some people call the five points of Calvinism, total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace, and the perseverance of the saints. So it's all here in just a few verses before us. And so who is Jesus?

What is he all about? He satisfies his own in a world full of things that cannot and never will satisfy. He exposes the unbeliever in His kindness to bring them to repentance. He receives sons and daughters from His Father, and they become His own. And then He keeps them, and He won't cast them out, and he won't lose them.

And then he transports his own to the land without tears. Behold the glory of Jesus Christ. And maybe in these verses we could say the same thing that we read in the first chapter of John. We beheld as glory the glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. Would you pray with me?

It's you, Lord, that we need. Lord, help us to want You more, help us to find You more, seek You more, to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness so that all the right things will be added to us. Lord, deliver us from this success syndrome in this world, but to want you and you alone for your own sake, for blessings from heaven, for spiritual blessings in the heavenly places, that we would keep seeking the things that are above where you are, seated at the right hand of God. Lord, that you would form us into a church that cares about the presence of your son Jesus. Oh Lord, that you would, even today, that you would do two things in us, that you would shrink our appetite for the things that don't satisfy, but that you would grow more, just even today, grow our appetite for what does satisfy.

Oh Lord, enlarge our hearts and save souls. Amen.