John 6:35

Order of Service

• Hymn — Holy, Holy, Holy
• Call to Worship — Exodus 34:5-8
• Prayer of Invocation
• Confession of Faith — Apostles' Creed
• Profession of Faith — Amy Deval
• Prayer
• Hymn — We Are God's People
• Prayer
• Offering
• Prayer
• Hymn — The Church's One Foundation
• Sermon
• Closing Prayer
• Hymn — Softly and Tenderly
• Benediction

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Sermon Title: Swimming in the Delights of Electing Grace

Scripture: John 6:35-48

I. Electing Grace Is Realized Through Effectual Calling

A. Distinction between God's general call and effectual call

1. General call: the gospel proclaimed to all people everywhere — Matthew 22:14
2. Effectual call: God's special, irresistible drawing of the elect to the Son — Romans 8:30

B. The effectual call is grounded in divine power, not human ability

1. John 6:44 — "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him"; the Greek for "can come" conveys ability or power
2. The word "draws" implies being led by force — Fallen man is powerless; God overpowers his resistance
3. 1 Corinthians 1:23-24 — To those who are called, Christ is the power and wisdom of God

C. John 6:37 — "All that the Father gives me will come to me"; the effectual call carries out its effect with certainty

D. Effectual calling is organic, not mechanical

1. As God breathed life into Adam, so the Spirit enlivens those dead in sin
2. The heart of Lydia in Acts 16 is a model: God opened her heart to receive the gospel
3. This doctrine incentivizes prayer — only God can change hearts; every believer on their knees is, as J.C. Ryle observed, a Calvinist in practice

II. Electing Grace Is Realized Through the Preservation of the Saints

A. John 6:37 — "Whoever comes to me I will never cast out"

1. The Greek ekballō (cast out) is almost exclusively used of removing those already inside
2. Those who are in will never be cast out — the strongest possible affirmation

B. 1 John 2:19 — Apostates "went out from us, but they were not of us"; those who fall away and never return were never truly in

C. John 6:39 — The Father's will is that Christ should lose nothing of all he has been given, but raise it up on the last day

1. The success of Christ's mission to the Father depends on his preserving every one given to him
2. The Son's reputation before the Father is at stake in the believer's salvation
3. Christ is currently at the right hand of the Father interceding for and sustaining his people — Hebrews 1:3

D. Perseverance of the Saints considers the doctrine from man's perspective; preservation considers it from God's — the elect will always cling to Christ, even with the faintest seed of faith

III. Electing Grace Is Realized Through a Teachable Spirit

A. John 6:45-46 — "They will all be taught by God"; closest parallel is Isaiah 54:13

1. The end-time people of God are those taught directly by God
2. Jesus, having seen the Father, is the definitive Last Days Rabbi and teacher

B. John 6:40 — Faith involves looking on the Son and believing; the Spirit opens the eyes to see Christ as the radiance of God's glory — Hebrews 1:3

1. 2 Corinthians 3:18 — "We all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another"
2. The veil of Christ's flesh is broken through by the Spirit's regenerating work

C. Calvin and Thomas Boston on the faculties of the soul: understanding, will, and affections

1. Before the fall: understanding is superior; will follows understanding; affections are ordered beneath
2. After the fall: appetites become supreme; the will and understanding serve the passions — this is the bondage of the will (Luther)
3. Election and regeneration restore the proper order: the mind is transformed, the will conforms to the knowledge of God in Christ

D. Election does not destroy free will — it is the only means by which the will can be truly free

1. The will is enslaved to sin and must be freed by Christ — salvation is described throughout the New Testament as freedom
2. God's electing grace penetrates the dead soul, transforms the mind by the Spirit, and sets the will free to choose what is good, right, and true in Christ