The Father's Will

(No. 1117)

DELIVERED BY

C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"And this is the Father's will which has sent Me, that of all which He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. And this is the will of Him thatsentMe, that everyone which sees the Son, and believes on Him, may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day." John 6:39,40.

SUCH is our impertinent curiosity that we would gladly peer between the folded leaves of the Divine purposes. The eager thirst of man to discover secrets, to solve mysteries, to draw aside the folded curtains and to ascertain that which is past finding out, tempts him full often to the wildest conjecture and the most adventurous speculation. How many would rush to any part of the earth were it possible to light upon a spot from which they could reconnoiter the times and the seasons to get a sight of the future? To know that which God conceals seems to be one of the depraved desires of the human heart. This presumptuous enquiry is both foolish and sinful. What have you to do, O man, with God's councils? To obey Him is your work, not to attempt to know what He does not please to reveal.

But let us understand that the Gospel is an extract from the will of God and such an extract that it contains the very essence thereof. Certainly there is nothing in the will of God contrary to the Gospel. Among the unrevealed things there cannot be anything in conflict with the revealed things. None of the secrets can possibly contradict those Truths of God which He has seen fit to unfold. O then, you that want to know the will of God, here is something of it for you closely to observe and diligently to study! If you want to read that will, here it is given to you in two forms—"This is the Father's will, (the will of Him which has sent Jesus, His only-begotten Son, to be our Savior), that of all which He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day."

And here is that same will, again, opened up before you, if you have but hearts to receive it—"This is the will of Him that sent Me, that everyone which sees the Son, and believes on Him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day." The will of God is our salvation. It was from the will of God that the very thought of salvation first arose. Had we been left to our own wills, we should have been willing to wander further and further from God. No man originated the idea of restoration for our race—God Himself willed it and it is from the purpose of His Grace that all our hopes begin—and the will which originated salvation shaped and formed it. It was God's will that ordained salvation by faith, salvation through an atoning Sacrifice, salvation by the way of the new birth, salvation by the way of perseverance up to perfection.

God cast in His own mold the way and modus of salvation and it has been His will that has shaped it. Like a vessel revolving upon the wheel before Him, His fingers have made the form and fashion of it. According to His own will He begat us that we might be a kind of first fruits of His creatures. It is His will that has brought those of us who are saved into the knowledge of the Truth, by which will, also, we are sanctified and upon which will we rely as the motive force which shall bear us onward throughout the entire of our lives. It will bear us over the regions of death and bear us into the land of the perfect where we shall see the face of God without sin.

Now, it is about this will of God that we are going to speak, taking the two phrases as setting forth the Divine side of salvation and the human side of salvation. You know, beloved Friends, that the general custom is, with the various denominations of Christians, to take up one part of the Bible and preach that part. And then it is the duty of all divines on that side of the question not to preach anything but that. Or if they find a text that looks in rather a different direction, these gentlemen are expected to twist it round to suit their creed—it being supposed that only one set of truths can possibly be worth defending. It never having entered into the heads of some people that there can be two apparently irreconcilable Truths which, nevertheless, are equally valuable.

Think not that I come here to defend the human side of salvation at the expense of the Divine! Nor am I desirous to magnify the Divine side of it at the expense of the human. Rather would I beseech you to look at the two texts which are together before us and to be prepared to receive both sets of Truths as Truths of God. I think it a very dangerous thing to say that the Truth lies between the two extremes. It does not—the Truth lies in the two, in the comprehension of both— not in taking a part from this and a part from that. Not in toning down one and modulating the other, as is too much the custom of today, but in believing and giving full expression to everything that God reveals whether we can reconcile the things or not.

We must open our hearts as children open their understandings to their father's teaching, feeling that if the Gospel were such that we could make it into a complete system, we might be quite sure it was not God's Gospel. For any system that comes from God must be too grand for the human brain to grasp at one effort—and any path that He takes must extend too far beyond the line of our vision for us to make a nice little map of it and mark it out in squares. This world, you know, we can readily enough map. Go and get charts and you shall find that men of understanding have indicated almost every rock in the sea, almost every hamlet on the land. But they cannot map out the heavens in that way, for albeit that you can buy the celestial atlas, yet as you are well enough aware, there is not one in 10,000 of the stars that can possibly be put there.

When they are resolved by the telescope they become altogether innumerable and so far exceed all count that it is impossible for us to reckon them up in order and say that is the name of this, and this is the name of that. We must leave them—they are beyond us. There are deeps into which we cannot peer. Even the strongest glass cannot show us much more than a mere corner of the starry worlds. Thus, too, is it with the doctrines of the Gospel—they are too bright for our weak eyes, too sublime for our finite minds to scan except at a humble distance. Be it ours to take all we can of their solemn import, to believe them heartily, accept them gratefully and then fall down before the Lord and pour out our very souls in worshipping Him.

I. Well, now we come to our two texts. The first is the DIVINE SIDE OF THE WORK OF SALVATION. It needs to come first—such is its dignity. "This is the Father's will which has sent Me, that of all which He has given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day." Mark attentively the announcement, how Sovereign its character—"This is the Father's will." Majestic words—"This is the Father's will." No, "if." No, "but." No asking and requesting of men. No bending the knee to their choice or caprice. No asking them if they will please to have it so. But—"This is the Father's will."

That is the will which is altogether absolute and independent, revolving on its own axis, the will that called creation out of nothing, the will which cannot be thwarted, for it is Omnipotent. This is the will which none may stand against, for it proceeds ever on its eternal course. It is a fixed will, for God is not fickle as we are. He does not will this today and that tomorrow. "I am God," He says, "and change not." He is "the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of a turning"—a fixed, irresistible will, standing the same from everlasting to everlasting—not subject to change.

Would you have it change for the better? How could that be? Can God be better? Would you have it change for the worse? Would God be God if He could be worse than He is? How can it be that perfection can change? It must ever remain perfection—a change were to bring in imperfection into that which is complete. To God's eternal mind there is no past, there is no future—

"He fills His own eternal now, And sees her ages past."

Looking as He does, from Heaven, He takes in at one glance all those periods of time which we are accustomed to call ages and cycles. They are all as the twinkling of an eye to Him, for "a thousand years in His sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night." Let me, then, again read these words. They concern the salvation of His people. "This is the Father's will."

I say again, how grand they are! "This is the Father's will." O God, I trembled at Your will until I read those lines! I knew not what Your will might be and since I knew it must be accomplished I cowered down at Your feet in terror until I read that mercy is the Father's will, that love is the Father's will, that salvation is the Father's will—and then my heart

flew into Your bosom with ecstasy and joy to think that Your Omnipotent, unchangeable will should be such goodwill! So full of benevolence, so full of love!

Following the current of this testimony, we are introduced to the obedient Servant of that will. "This is the Father's will, which has sent Me." Read the 38th verse—"For I came down from Heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him that sent Me." Christ, then, is the obedient Servant of His Father's will. But why does He say, "not to do My own will"? The meaning, I doubt not, as Dr. Owen well interprets it, is first or primarily in reply to the malicious charge of the Jews, "that He was not intent to accomplish or bring about any private purposes of His own, distinct or different from those of His Father." But more than this, "the will of God, which Christ came to fulfill, is sometimes taken for the commandment which He received from the Father."

So He says in the 40th Psalm, "I delight to do Your will, O My God: yes, Your Law is within My heart." As though He should proclaim, "all that You require at My hand as Mediator I am ready to perform." Was it not to this end that He did verily "take on Him the form of a Servant"? And for the same cause did not the Father expressly call Him His Servant, as you read in the 42nd chapter of Isaiah—"Behold My Servant, whom I uphold, My Elect, in whom My soul delights; I have put My Spirit upon Him: He shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles"? Thus is He the Servant of the Father in the accomplishment of that work for which the Spirit was put upon Him.

Moreover, "will of God" may be taken for His purpose, His decree, His good pleasure to fulfill, which Christ came into the world. It is thus, little by little, that the full sense of the words breaks on our minds. Now, as I turn that over in my mind, "not to do My own will, but the will of Him that sent Me," I am prone to reflect, "It is for me to lay down my will at God's feet." Well, it is but fit and right for all of us to do so. For every one of us to say, "I came not to do my own will," seems natural and proper. But Christ, Beloved—His will is perfect! His will is as complete as the will of God, Himself! It is, in fact, coincident, must be coincident, with the will of God. But He speaks as God-Man—Mediator—and He puts it so that He may be to us the pattern of complete resignation and perfect obedience.

"I, even I, who have no difference with God, who am God, who wills as God wills, yet I came not to do My own will, but the will of Him that sent Me." Why do you think it was necessary that He should say that? It was necessary, as I have already said, as an example to us, but further necessary that every one of us may know that Christ is no amateur Savior come into the world to save without a commission and without authority. He has come here willingly enough, but still, the reason of His coming is His Father's will. When Christ forgives a sinner it is His Father's will! When Christ receives a rebel to His bosom, it is His Father's will!

He does not save us clandestinely or in any manner inconsiderate of or contrary to the Divine purposes, nor yet in some such way as though by the tenderness of a Friend He would rescue us from the sternness of a Judge. No, no, in no wise—for all that Jesus does is the Father's will, as He would say of us—"I say not that I will pray to the Father for you, for the Father Himself loves you." The will which Christ is doing is the Father's will! All that He is engaged to bring about is according to the will of the Father. Let us bless His name for that.

Well now, it would appear that God, in His Divine will, was pleased to give to Jesus, His obedient Servant, a number of men out of mankind who were to be His. Is not that the plain meaning of the passage, "This is the will of Him that sent Me, that of all which He has given Me I should lose nothing"? The Father gave to the Son, then, a number. I believe it is a number that no man can number—a number far beyond the bounds of our thought. But He did give a certain number whom He, Himself, had chosen from before the foundation of the world—and these became the property of the Lord Jesus Christ.

They were put under a different government, being placed under the mediatorial sway of the Son of God. They became disciples—not by their own natural inclination, but by His gracious calling. They became Christ's flock. He their Shepherd. They were to become Christ's body. He was to be the Head. In due time they were to be Christ's bride. He was to be the Husband. They were to be Christ's Brethren and they were to be conformed to Him that He might be the first-born among many Brethren. Now this is a great transaction full of sublimity—let us not forget it or slight it. There was a day before all days when there was no day but the Ancient of Days. And then the Ancient of Days, in His eternal wisdom transferred a number of men whom He had chosen into the hands of Jesus Christ. It is of no use quibbling at it! It is true! It was so and it is so, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it. God's eternal and electing purpose severed from the mass of mankind a people who were to belong to Jesus. Let us say "Amen" to the record.

The next thing we learn here is that all these persons Jesus Christ undertook to keep. It was the Father's will that of all who were given to Christ He should lose—what?—"lose nothing." This is a very remarkable expression! It does not say He should lose none—that is true—but lose no thing, "nothing." The Lord Jesus Christ, therefore, has taken all those who were given of the Father to Him, into His custody. He is the Surety, He is responsible for them and He keeps them. In what way does He keep them? Seeing they were lost, He redeemed them. Seeing they were far from Him, He fetches them back BY His Grace, by the power of His Spirit. Seeing that they are still prone to wander He restores their souls. Seeing that they are imperfect He sanctifies them and He continues the work of sanctification. And He will make them, one day, to be without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing.

But the text says He will, "lose nothing," by which He means that while He will certainly not lose one that His Father gave Him, He will not lose any part of one of them. For look at that child of God who died a few months ago. We laid him in the grave with many tears, and we believe his spirit is taken up to the right hand of God. But where is his body? Ah, we should not like to exhume it—it would be a terrible spectacle if we should take it out of that coffin, or open the lid and look at all that mass of putridity! Surely this is part of one of Christ's people that has been lost! Ah, but it is not His Father's will that Christ should lose anything of what was given Him—and therefore He adds, "I will raise it up at the last day."

When the trumpet sounds, the dead shall come forth from their graves and there shall not be left in the grave a bone, nor a piece of a bone, of one of the Lord's redeemed—they shall come again from the land of the enemy—and leave nothing behind them. When Israel came out of Egypt the great Master did not bring some of the people out and leave some behind. Oh, no! Neither did He bring all the people and leave their property behind. Did not Moses say to Pharaoh, "There shall not a hoof be left behind"? Not a solitary lamb of all the flocks—there shall not one be left behind. And so out of the entire company that God the Father has given into the custody of Jesus, there shall not only not be one soul lost, but no part of any one of them—neither of their body, of their soul, nor of their spirit. Death shall yield up its captives, they shall be completely free—

"Then all the chosen race

Shall meet around the Throne,

To bless the conduct of His Grace

And make His glories known." That is the Divine side of salvation, and that is the Truth of God which this first part of our text teaches. Do I hear somebody say, "I think that doctrine is dangerous"? My dear Sir, who is it dangerous to but fools? If God has taught it there can be no danger in it! At the same time there never was a Truth of God which foolish persons could not distort and turn into mischief. Ropes are good things, but many people have hung themselves with them. And there is many a grand doctrine which men wrest to their own destruction. We cannot be shaping the Truth of God down to consult the folly and sin of man. The question is, is it in the Bible? If it is there, let none of us ever say it is dangerous.

"Well, but," you say, "is it not all about secret things?" Is it so? Then you need not be at all alarmed at our talking about it, for none of us can divulge anything which is secret—therefore you need not be under any concern that we shall do it. If it is secret, then so far as it is secret we cannot intermeddle with it. But we do say this—whatever of it has been revealed is for us and for our children—and we are not ashamed to speak of what God was not ashamed to declare. Moreover, we have proved it to be a good, comfortable, solid, soul-sustaining, sanctifying doctrine, for if there is anything in this world that can put force, life, energy into a man—it is the belief that God has chosen him unto eternal life—has put into him an unconquerable nature which is engaged to bring him safely to the right hand of the most High! Why, the gratitude of a man that believes this becomes the master power of his life!—

"Loved of my God, for Him again

With love intense I burn.

Chosen of Him before time began

I choose Him in return."

Slaves are whipped to the battle, but the free man goes cheerfully to fight for the cause dear to his heart. The man that only lives a good life because he is afraid of being damned is a mere hireling in the House of God. But the man who knows that he is God's child and never will be anything else—that God loves him and must love him—says now, out of no desire of reward and no fears of punishment, being saved, forever saved, "I love my Lord with all my heart and soul and

strength, and I will render to Him the obedience of a child which is infinitely superior to the obedience of a slave." I question the possibility of virtue to a man who cannot say—"I am saved." He that does good works in order to his being saved, or in order to keep himself from the peril of being lost, acts from a selfish motive and believes in himself rather than his God.

But he, on the other hand, who feels that he is bought with a price and is delivered, is saved, is a child of God, can say, "Now I have not myself to consider but my God. Now will I live for Him. Now will I spend and be spent, that I may glorify His name." The Lord grant to us to be brought into that condition in which we can understand and enjoy this doctrine and may we then, by our lives, prove our gratitude for the great benefits we have received of Him.

II. Now I am going to take the HUMAN SIDE, and I think I hear somebody say—"Though I liked the first part, I know I shall not like the second." Dear Hearer, what right have you to quibble at anything that is true? Somebody on the other hand may say, "I do not believe in this first part, perhaps I may in the second." My dear Friend, I wish you would give up that notion of picking and choosing parts of God's Word that are agreeable to your taste, but rather take the whole, from the beginning of it to the end of it, so you shall find pleasure and profit all the way through.

Truly, Brothers and Sisters, it is shocking to think of the theoretical difficulties that people make for themselves by a kind of smart criticism that seems clever but lacks common sense! In this very chapter, at the 27th verse, you read— "Labor not for the meat which perishes, but for that meat which endures unto everlasting life, which the Son of Man shall give unto you." The fact is, you get here two paradoxes in one sentence. You are told not to labor for that meat which no man can procure without labor, and you are told to labor for that bread which no man can procure by labor, because it is a free gift.

Nevertheless, the thing needs no explanation. It is clear as daylight to every discerning heart. Here, then, is the human side of salvation—"This is the will of Him that sent Me, that everyone which sees the Son, and believes on Him, may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the last day." Observe, there is no lowering of the tone. The same august words strike us on the threshold of each announcement. "This is the will of Him that sent Me." The freest proclamations of the Gospel that can ever be given are as much Divine as are the plainest declarations of distinguishing Grace. Listen, then, with equal attention to this second part, for this has the same imprimatur, the same Divine stamp upon it—"This is the will of Him that sent Me."

Notice again that there is the same obedient Servant engaged on this occasion as before. Whether you look at the Divine side or the human side of salvation, the most conspicuous object is still Christ Jesus. If God looks down on men it is through His Anointed, or if men look up to God, it is through God's Christ whom He has sent. The points of difference we will therefore dwell upon. In this second verse the persons described as partakers of the benefit of salvation are thus described—"Everyone which sees the Son, and believes on Him." What are we to understand by these words— "Everyone which sees the Son"? We cannot see the Son now with our natural organs of sight, for Jesus has gone up to Heaven. With these optics we cannot scan His features or perceive His Presence.

But when we read of Him in the Evangelists, and when we hear of Him from the mouths of His servants, we do, in effect, see Him evidently set forth before us. The eyes of our understanding discern Him. The sense offaith recognizes Him. Now if by that sight, that knowledge, that information, we are led to believe on Him, then we have everlasting life. Whoever he may be—"Everyone," it says—"Everyone which sees the Son, and believes on Him," comes in for the same privilege. This includes the man with great faith, but it equally includes the babe with little faith. This includes the man of reputable character, but it equally includes the man whose character has been, up till now, disreputable. "Everyone that believes on Him."

Does it mean that if I believe on Him I have eternal life? Yes, whoever you are. You may listen to it in the dark, I do not want to look at you to discriminate between one individual and another. The assertion is wide enough for all of you. Are you a black man, or a white man? Are you a yellow man, or a brown man? It matters not. Are you rich, or are you poor, one in the higher ranks, or one obscure and despised? It matters not. Whoever you may be, every child of man that is born of woman that sees the Son, and believes on Him, shall have eternal life. Are there no exceptions? None whatever! Can it not be supposed that some characters may be excluded? None are excluded, therefore, but those who exclude themselves. The learned and polite, the ignorant and rude—"everyone which sees the Son, and believes on Him, may

have everlasting life." That is to say, to go over the same matter yet again, every man, woman, child—every one of the human race that trusts his soul with the Son of God has everlasting life.

"Well, but," says one, "suppose I should not have been given by God the Father to the Son?" You have no right to suppose that. If you believe in Jesus Christ you have everlasting life. I could explain, I think, a little to you, at least I have a way of explaining it to myself, how these two meet. I do not care to explain it. I do not think it is necessary at all, for it is so. There never was a soul that believed in Jesus, yet, but God the Father had given that soul to Christ. There never was a soul that trusted the Savior but it turned out that, after all, that soul had been ordained to do so from before the foundation of the world! We will not attempt to answer objections. There is the Truth of God, the plain, naked Truth of God! This is the will of Him that sent the Savior into the world, that everyone that sees the Son, and believes on Him, should at once have eternal life. O what a splendid Gospel that is!

Now, when I go out to preach I have not to say, "I am going to preach to God's elect"—not at all—"Everyone which sees the Son, and believes on Him, may have everlasting life!" Nor have I to say to myself, "Now I shall pick out certain characters that I think must be a delineation of God's chosen." I have no right to make any picking or choosing. There is the Gospel—"Go you into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature. He that believes and is baptized shall be saved." And this, again, is the Gospel—"That everyone which sees the Son, and believes on Him, may have everlasting life." There let it stand, then. We will not clip its wings but we will rejoice in its simple Truth!

Now it appears that these persons who believe in Jesus, whoever they may be, are already in a present state of safety, for as soon as they believe on Him they have everlasting life. They are made alive unto God. They receive a spiritual life which they never had before. The Holy Spirit comes into them and quickens them. Whereas they were up to then dead in trespasses and sins, the Holy Spirit makes them alive unto God by Jesus Christ. And this is true of everyone that sees the Son and believes on Him. This life which is thus given is a life that cannot die, for it is everlasting. Everlasting life is freely and sovereignly bestowed, so that every Believer has in him a vital principle which cannot be destroyed any more than God Himself can. For as God's life is everlasting life, so the life of every Believer is called "everlasting life."

O see the blessedness of this, "that everyone which sees the Son, and believes on Him, may have everlasting life." We do not seem to want to preach upon that. I like to roll it over under my tongue. I should like everybody here that is perplexing himself about the doctrines of the Gospel and saying, "Perhaps I am shut out from the mercy of God," to go home repeating these words. Therefore I will repeat them again—"that everyone which sees the Son, and believes on Him, may have everlasting life." And since notwithstanding this gift of everlasting life the bodies of Believers die, Jesus Christ has added here that it is the will of the Father that He should "raise him up at the last day." It seems, then, Beloved, that no Believer shall be lost and nothing of a Believer, for if his body must be put into the ground— corruption, earth and worms shall but refine his flesh till at the sound of the last trumpet he shall put it on afresh!

"I will raise him up at the last day." Then it seems that if I am a Believer in Jesus I may conclude that God the Father gave me to Christ to save me and that Christ will save me and keep me until He, Himself, shall descend from Heaven with a shout and call His own redeemed out of the graves. Thus the two truths are reconciled—may they be reconciled in our experience as well as in our faith!

Now then, to close, let me say to any troubled person here present—beloved Friend, never fear that there is anything in the secret purposes of God which can contradict the open promises of God! Never dream, if you are a Believer, that there can be any dark decree that shuts you out from the benefits of Grace. Decrees or no decrees, "this is the will of Him that sent Me, that everyone which sees the Son, and believes on Him, may have everlasting life." Lay hold, therefore, on Christ with all your heart, poor Sinner! Ask not to know whether your name is in the Book of Life. Come just as you are, by God's own invitation, and lay hold on Jesus Christ!

The woman in the crowd could not tell whether it was written in the book of the decrees that she should be healed, but she came behind the Savior and touched the hem of His garment and was made whole. The dying thief did not stop to enquire, "Was I chosen of God before time began?" But he said, "Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom." Now you, in like manner, act upon your present crisis and fit your prayer to the present opportunity. The doctrine of decrees never operates upon a man's ordinary life. What hungry man would stop, or hesitate and say, "I cannot tell whether it is the purpose of God that I should eat"? But when the provision is spread out before him he eats.

Would the weary man vex his soul with misgivings and say, "I need to know whether it is the purpose of God I should sleep?" No, but he acts like a sensible creature and goes to his bed at the time of rest, grateful for the interval of deep repose that can renew his strength and freshen his vital powers. Now you go and do likewise. Do not rebel at the purposes, or deny them, but act upon the precepts and rejoice in them! They are the guide for you. Rely upon the promises! That is the way for you to realize them. And inasmuch as the clear promise rings out from the Eternal Throne, "Him that comes to Me I will in no wise cast out," go and see if He will cast you out.

Come, you vile Sinner, you foul Sinner, you devilish Sinner—come you who are stained with every sin—come and see if Christ will reject you! And remember that the text that should encourage you stands hard by that which may embarrass you—close to it—where Jesus says, "All that the Father gives Me shall come to Me; and him that comes to Me I will in no wise cast out. For I came down from Heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him that sent Me." I do pray that those words may encourage many souls to come!

And once more, fear not that if you believe, your believing will end in failure. If you believe in Jesus Christ, the text says, "It is the Father's will" that you should "have eternal life" and be "raised up at the last day." The question sometimes comes to one's mind—"After I have believed in Jesus and placed all my hope in Him, may I not, after all, perish? Is there not something expected of me in which I may fail? If I rest upon Him as a rock, yet still, are there not some other props and buttresses needed, and if I shall not supply them shall I be safe at last?" Well, I frankly confess if there is anything needed as the ground of a sinner's hope beyond the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ, I, who preach to you, must certainly perish, for I can sing the hymn we sang this morning with all my heart—

"Other refuge have I none, Hangs my helpless soul on You. Leave, oh leave me not alone, Still support and comfort me."

We desire to abound in good works. We desire to destroy every vice and forsake all falsehood and all evil. But we cannot depend on these things! We cannot mix them up with the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ! Our one hope lies here, that Jesus died, and God has said it, "He that believes on Him has eternal life, and shall be raised up at the last day." Now, suppose, after all, you should believe on Him and find, at last, that you are not saved! Beloved, the supposition cannot be entertained for a moment, for it is written, "It is the Father's will." Is that will to be thwarted? It is written that He has sent Christ—has Christ come in vain? God must be false to all His promises, belie His oath, degrade His Son before He can suffer a soul that sees the Son and believes on Him to perish!

You are all safe enough if you are resting there. Do not let a doubt disturb you. Go your way full of peace and consolation, and the Lord be with you! But, oh, if you have never believed in Jesus, may your spirits never know any rest till you do! May you never be content till you flee to Him and rest on Him! The Lord grant it, for His dear name's sake. Amen.

PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON—John 6:22.