[0:00] We can turn back to John chapter 6. I'd like us to think about verse 37.
[0:13] John chapter 6, verse 37. All that the Father gives me will come to me.
[0:30] And whoever comes to me, I will never cast out. And particularly the second clause. Whoever comes to me, I will never cast out.
[0:52] This verse, as we know, is one of the best known verses in the Bible. And I suspect that the vast majority of us here can say it by heart.
[1:06] That if we were asked to stand up and repeat it, we've heard these words since childhood. And therefore we could stand up and say quite easily, whoever comes to me, I will never cast out.
[1:25] Some of us might wish we understood the first clause.
[1:39] Because as we look at it, all that the Father gives me will come to me. We realise that there's a great deal of mystery about that clause.
[1:59] And we wonder what it means. And what it may mean for us personally.
[2:11] We may say to ourselves, Am I in the all that the Father gives to Jesus?
[2:24] And as we think about it, we may say, How can I find out if I am among the all?
[2:39] Well, the way to find the answer to that question is not by focusing on the first clause.
[2:53] Rather, we get the answer by thinking about the second clause. The first clause, All that the Father gives me will come to me, is a secret between the Father and Jesus.
[3:15] But the second clause, Whoever comes to me, I will never cast out, is a promise by Jesus to everyone.
[3:29] And that therefore means it's a word to each one of us. What has Jesus got to say to each one of us here tonight?
[3:48] This is what he's got to say. And listen to it. Because it's said to us individually. Whoever comes to me, says Jesus, I will never cast out.
[4:08] If the first clause in the verse is rather complicated and beyond our ability to understand, the second clause is elementary and simple and straightforward.
[4:39] Jesus assures us, whoever comes to me, I will never cast out.
[4:57] As we think about this verse, I would like to, first of all, think about some types of people that commander this whoever.
[5:10] never. And then secondly, what does it mean to come to Jesus? And then thirdly, what does Jesus mean when he says he will never cast us out?
[5:32] Now as we think of the types of persons that can commander this overall word, whoever, we can first of all think of it in this way, that it applies to us whatever age we are.
[5:55] As I look at your faces, some of us have been in this world for six, seven, eight, perhaps longer, decades.
[6:19] And perhaps throughout all these years, you have heard the invitations of Jesus many times.
[6:33] And yet, tonight, you are still not a believer in Jesus. The number of times you have heard the gospel, you probably cannot count.
[6:53] yet Jesus says to you, despite the fact that you have said no to him on all these occasions, Jesus says to you, if you come to me, I will not cast you out.
[7:23] he doesn't, he doesn't, as it were, hold it against us in the sense that he says to us, I'm going to take this promise from you.
[7:37] As long as you have breath in your body, Jesus comes and says, him that comes to me, I will never cast out.
[7:50] so to those of us who have rejected Jesus many times, he says, come to me.
[8:03] but then at the other end of the age spectrum are those of us who are young and they are looking out on life and you've got many journeys ahead of you and no doubt you're looking forward to them.
[8:35] Literal journeys where life may take you and also other journeys who you'll marry, things like that. But do you know what the best way is to prepare for each of these journeys?
[8:54] is to make the shortest journey of all and that short journey is to come to Jesus.
[9:10] You don't even have to move from where you are to come to Christ. He is near you and if you make this short journey to Jesus he will help you make every other journey you will ever take.
[9:35] and then there's others who are in between and you're facing all the pressures of life all the legitimate things that come our way and as we know Jesus says in the parable of the sword that the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches they can stifle the gospel but Jesus says to those of us who are in these situations come to me and I will help you with all these circumstances that come along.
[10:31] So this message speaks to us whatever our age is. Here's a promise for us. If we're old if we're young if we're in between and of course I should have said when I was speaking to those who are young that the promise of Jesus doesn't begin say when you become 12 or 13 this promise is for children that if they come to Jesus they will be blessed.
[11:21] it also refers shall we say to our abilities as well as to our age.
[11:36] No doubt some of us are more intelligent than others and perhaps in life we have accumulated a lot of knowledge or perhaps we're looking forward to gaining more and more knowledge to satisfy our intellectual capacities and of course there are many important things that we should know but let me tell you this that if you get to the end of your life and have never come to know Jesus Christ on the day of judgment you will be called a fool.
[12:36] Whatever knowledge you are capable of knowing if you don't come to know Jesus if you never come to him for the forgiveness of your sins you will have missed out on the most important knowledge that there is.
[13:02] And of course this invitation is not just for those who have got a higher mental capacity ability is for those of us who may find lots of things hard to understand but here's something that's simple but yet immensely profound and if you come to know this knowledge you will have an awareness of life that is far above any knowledge that can be gained in a university or any other means.
[13:52] So come to Jesus whoever you are for this knowledge that you must have this knowledge of having your sins forgiven which comes by knowing Jesus.
[14:17] This promise also goes out to every one of us despite the sins that we have. Those of us who are not Christians at this moment God how do you think God sees you as he looks down upon you just now?
[14:47] So what he sees is individuals with different amounts of sin on their shoulders. Jesus knows how much sin each of you is guilty of and some of you I'm sure have a big pile on your shoulders.
[15:19] sin but to the person here with the biggest amount of sin Jesus says to you come to me and I will not cast you out.
[15:41] Your sins are not the reason you're not coming to Jesus. It's because you don't want to come.
[15:59] That's why you haven't come to Jesus to have your sins forgiven. You cannot say to Jesus my sins are too many for you to deal with.
[16:17] You cannot say to Jesus I am such a sinner that your power cannot change me. Jesus has changed far worse sinners than anyone in this room.
[16:40] and he says to each of us each of us with our sins come to me and I will not cast you out.
[16:59] So in other words Jesus is saying to every person here come to me. he's not leaving anybody out.
[17:13] He's saying come to me. But as we look at this verse we can see that this is a word picture that Jesus is using.
[17:32] A word picture of faith. he is saying that somebody must come to me. And therefore he's saying that the person is somewhere where he or she must leave in order to come to Jesus.
[17:53] So in this word picture there's a location where we are. What kind of locations can we be in? As Jesus speaks to us where or what kind of locations do we find ourselves?
[18:15] Well one location what I'm sure some of us are is the location that we can call self righteousness.
[18:29] We know what self righteousness is. it's the way whereby we try to make ourselves as good as possible.
[18:44] And there are various ways whereby we can do that. We can be self righteous by being religious.
[18:56] us by endeavouring to keep God's commands at least in an outward way. And by doing that think that somehow or other we have made ourselves better.
[19:15] Now of course it is a good thing to keep God's laws outwardly in order for society to function. We have to do that.
[19:27] But having a mere outward lifestyle does not mean that we have come to Jesus.
[19:40] It just means we are still where we were. Now other people can show self righteousness by being neighbourly.
[19:54] And of course it's very important to have a community spirit. But being nice to your neighbours is not the same as coming to Jesus.
[20:12] Other people and at first this may seem surprising other people can show self righteousness by living sacrificial lives.
[20:26] And they can spend their lives in the service of others. And it's good to go out of our way to help others.
[20:41] And some individuals make enormous self sacrifices on behalf of others. But they are still in the location of self righteousness.
[21:01] Another location that we could mention and that's the location of pleasure. Jesus speaks to us as pleasure seekers.
[21:16] And we have to admit that there's nothing wrong with seeking pleasure. We were made to enjoy things.
[21:32] We were primarily made to enjoy God. We know what our first shorter catechism answer is. That man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever.
[21:48] We were made with this intense desire to have joy. And we cannot avoid seeking it.
[22:04] but sadly many people are seeking to satisfy this God given longing.
[22:22] They are seeking to satisfy it not only with illegitimate pleasure but with temporary pleasure.
[22:40] We live in a pleasure mad society we could say in the sense that people are running from one type of pleasure to another trying to satisfy this longing in their heart.
[22:58] And each Monday morning they get up feeling as empty as ever. And I'm sure that's the location where some of us are.
[23:18] Where were you last night? others of us we could say at a location that we could just call by the word delay.
[23:39] Delay. you know that you cannot by your own activities make yourself right with God.
[23:53] You know that. You also know that there's nothing that the world can give you that can satisfy you.
[24:04] You know that. but for some strange reason you are refusing to come to Jesus.
[24:18] And the only explanation is that you are delaying it. but you have to remember that each of these locations are away from Christ and because each of them is away from Jesus they are all equally dangerous because as we'll see shortly coming to Jesus is essential.
[25:02] So that's the locations that we are in. What is the road out of them? When Jesus says come to me what's the road he's indicating?
[25:19] Well we can first say what the road is not. The road is not attempting to get to Jesus by keeping God's law.
[25:42] We can say that across this road God has put up a sign that says road closed.
[25:56] Road closed. Before Adam fell in the Garden of Eden he got to God as it were by keeping God's commandment.
[26:11] But once Adam fell that road was shut. and has never been reopened. The road to Jesus is by faith.
[26:38] At the same time we can say that this word picture of Jesus tells us what repentance is. Because it says to us or he says to us that we have to leave somewhere.
[26:58] And leaving is the essence of repentance. Repentance does include being sorry for for our sins.
[27:14] So as we look at our location whether it be self righteousness or pleasure seeking or just delay we can be sorry that that is where we are.
[27:31] And that's a good start we could say but it's not sufficient because we have to leave where we are.
[27:45] And that's what repentance requires. Repentance means saying to God I am sorry that I am self righteous.
[27:58] I am sorry that I am seeking satisfaction outside of Christ. and I am sorry that I have delayed all these years in coming to Jesus but repentance doesn't take place until you leave these locations.
[28:23] And therefore repentance and faith go together. So what is faith in Jesus?
[28:34] There are many ways it could be described but one essential aspect of faith is the dependence.
[28:56] It is to depend on Christ alone. It's to see that he did for us by living his perfect life and dying on the cross to pay the penalty of sin that what he did for us is what we need to depend on.
[29:27] As I'm sure we've been told often God requires two things of us. He requires us to give him a perfect life and he requires us to pay the penalty of our sin.
[29:43] And we can't do either. We can't live a perfect life because we're sinners and we can't pay the penalty the full penalty for our sins because it will take forever to pay it.
[30:05] In the gospel Jesus says to us I've done both. I've lived a perfect life says Jesus and if you depend on me I'll give you the merits of my perfect life and that will become your standing before God and you will be as acceptable before God's throne as if you had lived that life yourself.
[30:41] death and of course as we were remembering today his death that was on behalf of sinners as he bore God's wrath against sin but he did it as a substitute he did it for those who would depend upon him and it comes down to something very simple to ask yourself do you depend on Jesus that's what it comes down to do you depend on rely on Christ alone have you ever said to Jesus Lord as the apostle Paul did when he said
[31:47] I know whom I have believed and I am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day are you relying on Jesus that's the road depend on Christ say to Jesus my self righteousness cannot save me my searching for pleasure cannot satisfy me my delaying and coming to you before has been sinful but now I come and I cast myself on you and if you do that you will have come to Jesus no matter how many sins you've got if you come to
[33:00] Jesus they'll all be forgiven and of course Jesus says here to those who come that he'll never cast them out and what does that mean well again many answers could be given but for example he will never cast us out of heaven 25 trillion years from now if you trust in Jesus tonight you will be in heaven and throughout all that period Jesus will never once regret taking you to heaven and into the infinity beyond he will never cast you out another way of looking at it is that he will never cast you out of his family once you're in his family once you're a child of
[34:22] God you're a child of God forever and Jesus will never regret sharing his eternal inheritance with you as he gives to you from the rivers of God's pleasures and as you are satisfied to the full throughout eternity it will be written across your mind I'll never be cast out he'll never cast you out of his heart he'll never cease to love not wonderful promises to each one of them I'll never cast you out so we've thought about who should come we've thought about how they come briefly when should they come when should each of us come to Christ the answer is now right now why should you come to Jesus right now the answer
[36:10] I'm sure you know because if you don't come to Jesus the place that you will go to sadly is a lost eternity and you don't know when that may happen all you know is that it will happen at the end of your life but when your life is going to end whether you're young or old is not in your hand and therefore the fact that at this moment if you do not believe in Jesus at this moment you are a step away from hell should cause you to come to
[37:14] Jesus right now there's only one more question and it's this there's only one that you can ask why are you not coming as that describes you why are you not coming to Jesus shall we pray too