Youth & Outreach Director, Hunter Newton, preached this message on November 23, 2025. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Audio Transcript
Pastor Robert is out sick this morning. Pray for him. Pray for his recovery. I do not have a message on the book or from the book of Luke. Ready?
So this is what we have will be in John 6:37, one single verse.
I say, friends, as we prepare our hearts. It’s on page 947 of the Pew Bibles. If you brought your Bible from home, I don’t know what page it’s on, but it’s on page 947 of the Pew Bible. We’re going to be in John 6:37. No slides.
I don’t have slides for you this morning either. In high school, I was what you would. I always consider myself, I guess, a fringe kid. Like, popular enough to be on prom Corp, but not popular enough to be prom king. Like, good enough to be a varsity athlete, but not good enough to be the star.
Popular enough to sit at the cool kids lunch table as long as there was room for 10 people or more. You kind of get the drill, like on the edge, one foot in, one foot out. But the kids who always made me feel like I belonged were the kids who always made me feel like I belonged were the kids who loved to build rockets and talk about Star Wars. And I never had to question where I stood. Like this idea of not being good enough for the popular kids just did nothing but inflamed my desire for approval and attention.
But these guys who would talk about how ridiculous the concept of the midi chlorians and Jedi blood is, and some of you are like, I have no idea what you even just said, but some of you really understood what I just said.
With those guys, I was never concerned about being myself. I knew that they would not kick me out. This basic desire to feel loved, accepted, valued, important, like you belong, I think is God given. And we look forward to that one day, don’t we, when we will be face to face with God himself and without the presence of sin and we will feel totally, wonderfully accepted, seen, known and loved. And I think it’ll be just, I imagine it will feel like, you know, the deep sigh.
Not just because you, you know, you sit down and you make a noise, but just the deep sigh of the soul.
We just want to know that we are safe to belong. Somewhere in the Gospel of John, shortly after the bread of life discourse, after Jesus just gets done feeding the 5,000, then he says, I am the bread of life.
I am who you need. I am your everything. He says in verse 37, I will never cast you out.
This promise that he will never cast us out. This promise that we will never have to fight to belong and be accepted in the kingdom of God. If our hope is in Jesus, that is true of us. That’s our big idea this morning. Jesus will never cast out any who come to him.
Jesus will never cast out any who come to him.
This is something that he was trying to explain to his hearers then and to us today. Jesus will never cast out any who come to him. Two ways the text kind of explains it. Jesus will never cast us out because we’re given to him by the Father. Jesus will never cast us out because we’re given to him by the Father.
And the second way, Jesus will never cast us out. Period. Jesus will never cast us out. Period. It’s a bit shorter this morning, but I’ve never heard somebody complain that the preacher talked too little.
So Jesus will never cast out any who come to him. John 6:37. Just one single verse or passage this morning. It’s on page 947 of the Pew Bibles. John 6:37.
Everyone the father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will never cast out. This is the word of the Lord.
Jesus will never cast us out because we’re given to him by the Father. How does that work exactly? I don’t know. We don’t know. But it’s true.
The Bible declares it to be so that God the Father gives us to God the Son. And it’s a theme that runs throughout the the Bible. Right. We think about Israel being God’s chosen race and then that being expanded to the church in the New Testament. What a wonderful joyous truth.
But then Ephesians 1 says that we are predestined to be adopted as sons and daughters of God before the foundations of the world. And then first Peter 2. 9 calls us a chosen race, a holy people. That’s a wonderful promise. That’s a wonderful truth.
This should be deeply comforting to the believer. Friends, if you know Jesus, if we know Jesus, it is not by accident. It’s not by happenstance. It’s not something that just stumbled into. It’s very purposeful.
If you know Jesus, he does not regret it. Let me just say this really clearly again. To those who struggle with feeling like they’re accepted, to those of us who feel like screw ups or we cannot get our act together, if we feel like we’re a mistake, please hear me say this. God does not regret saving you. God does not regret saving you.
He does not regret saving us. He’s not wringing his hands, thinking, well, if I had known that this was part of the deal when I chose to save Matt, or if this was part of the deal when I chose to save Luna, like I wouldn’t have done. No, he doesn’t regret it. It’s purposeful. He chose before the foundation of the world to make such a thing possible.
That should be healing, that should be comforting, that should be reassuring. If your faith is in Jesus Christ, that is part of God’s wonderful design to redeem a people for himself. And it’s wonderfully and deeply trinitarian too. God the Father gives us to God the Son through the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit. All three persons of the Trinity are involved in the process and they are beyond ecstatic about it.
It’s a wonderful, wonderful gift.
God the Father gives us to God the Son and we are regenerated by the Spirit.
Friends, do I have permission to call you a name? This morning I just wanted to point out that the scriptures call us time and time over. Especially the New Testament calls us beloved. We are beloved. And that’s a term for closer than even your closest family, closer than even your closest friends.
That is how God deeply and wonderfully and beautifully describes us. Time and time over. He calls us beloved. If you know Jesus, this is true of you. Because God the Father gave you to God the Son.
Beloved, rest secure in knowing that you are a love gift from God the Father to God the Son. It’s on purpose. God very pointedly decided to do so. One of the things that as we study the Trinity, we see how it’s interwoven, how he is interwoven into everything. There’s.
It’s not only an awesome evangelistic approach compared to like, it’s a wonderful proof for the truth of Christianity compared to a religion such as Islam. Islam would say that Allah is all loving and has always been loving of others. And Christianity would say the same thing. But the issue with the Muslim approach is that Allah was alone before the creation of the world. He had to make something in order to love.
He had to make something because he needed someone to love. That’s inherently selfish versus God. The triune God has always had perfect love satisfied within himself. And first John 4 tells us that God himself is love. So he’s always been perfectly, totally content.
And the Book of Acts tells us that he doesn’t need anything out of human hands. He didn’t need to make us. But God has always been satisfied by the love within himself. So he’s always been inherently loving because he’s always been loving the other persons of the Trinity. And so he made the world not out of selfish ambition, not because he needed somebody to love, but God the Father gives us as a love gift to God the Son.
Why did God make the world out of an overflow of the love that was within himself? And you and I are part of that plan. That is good news. This takes the pressure of performance off. This takes the idea of I’m not good enough away.
This has now become and should be our primary identity. The most important thing about you, if you know Jesus, is that you know Jesus, that God the Father, before the foundation of the world, decided to give you to God the Son. We should then live like it, because who gave us to Jesus? God the Father. And that makes us incredibly important and valuable in the sight of the one who puts the stars in the sky.
Charles Spurgeon, the great 19th century British preacher, puts it like, he who counts the stars and calls them by their names is in no danger of forgetting his own children. He knows your case as thoroughly as if you were the only creature he ever made or the only saint he ever loved. He will never cast us out because we are given to to him by God the Father. Jesus will also never cast us out. Period.
Jesus will never cast us out. Period. Full stop. No if, ands, buts, questions. There’s nothing we can think of or do to out sin the cross of Jesus Christ.
Friends, if we come to him in earnest, genuine repentance, he will not turn us away. He will not say, get out of here. Spurgeon’s helpful again. He says, among the lost souls in hell, there is not one that can say, I went to Jesus and he refused me. That’s it, friends, there’s not.
Jesus is not saying to anybody who approaches him, get away from me. I don’t want any business with you. No. If we come to him in earnest, genuine repentance, turning away from sin and turning to me and say, jesus, would you take care of this for me? Would you help?
I want to live my life for you. I want to repent. He’s not said one time to anybody who came to him in earnest gentleness, genuine repentance. He’s not said, get away, you’re gross, you’re disgusting, you’re too far gone. Because, friends, the gospel is just as scandalous for a Nazi war criminal or a serial killer as it is for you and I.
And if you don’t believe that, you don’t really understand the Gospel yet because our sin, one sin, is enough to separate us from God forever and ever. But he offers this to us. Beloved, the Gospel totally and fully and finally blots out our sin. That’s not an excuse or a license for sin. Romans 6 says that should we continue to sin so that grace may abound, by no means but our sin has been paid for if we know Jesus.
Psalm 103, 12, 13 says, as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him. What a tremendous gift that can only come from God himself. Isaiah 53 says that Jesus in his humanity was punished for our sin so that we can live with gospel certainty. Friends, in other words, beloved, in other words, Jesus did not die and then rise again for you to be unsure of your salvation.
What a wonderful evangelistic thing. And in case you’re unaware, there are the seedlings, the sparklings of revival happening in the Western world. For the first time in a couple of generations, the number of religious nones, not n u n but n o n e s, is shrinking. People are curious whether it’s about Christianity or something else. People want to have spiritual conversations.
So this is just a free, easy to use evangelistic thing. And it’s not that maybe you don’t lead with it, but it’s not that weird to ask somebody, what do you think happens when you die? Because we need to think about it like these are the ultimate questions. And for the believer, it is not arrogant whatsoever to say, I know 100% for certain that I will go to heaven. In fact, it would actually be arrogant to say.
To say, I don’t know. Because that’s trusting in ourselves rather than the work of Jesus. If we know him, we can say 100% for certain that we know we will spend eternity with him. Because if our hope is in Jesus, the price has been paid and we are as secure as he is. Friends, brothers and sisters, if we know Jesus, our salvation is as secure as he is, he would have to be pulled down and out of heaven in order for us to lose that.
Our hope is not in works or our job title or having the corner office or the bank account balance, the outside reputation. Our hope is in Christ. Christ alone.
If you’re like me, if you’re your own worst enemy, your own worst hater, your own worst fill in the blank, your own worst critic, I’m sure some of us are thinking, yeah, but what about but what if? But what if? But what about this? What about that? The Puritan writer John Bunyan, using his King James English, offers a helpful hypothetical kind of dialogue between our common objections and how he thinks Jesus would respond.
And I think based on this text, we can understand how Jesus would respond. He says, so this reminder, this would be us and then what we think Christ’s response would be. But I am a great sinner, say you. I will in no wise cast out, says Christ. But I am an old sinner, say you.
I will be in no wise cast out, says Christ. But I am a hard hearted sinner, say you. I will nowise cast out, says Christ. But I am a backsliding sinner, say you. I will in no wise cast out, says Christ.
But I have served Satan all my days, say you. I will in no wise cast out, says Christ. But I have sinned against light, say you. I will in no wise cast out, says Christ, But I have sinned against mercy, say you. I will in no wise cast out, says Christ, but I will have no good.
But I have no good thing to bring with me, say you. I will in no wise cast out, says Christ. Maybe a modern paraphrase translation would say, well, Jesus, you don’t understand. I still have these deep, dark, hidden things. Jesus says, I will not cast you out, but my sins are against you.
We could say, Jesus says, I will not cast out. Who better than to forgive those sins? If we know Jesus, if we’ve come to him in real, genuine repentance, he will not cast us out. He will not look at us in the face and say, get away from me, I never knew you.
This single verse cuts the throat of our subtle legalism. I mean, that’s what it is really, friends, if we are struggling with assurance of our salvation, it is a subtle form of legalism trying to say I can add to the gospel or earn this, because it was never ours to earn in the first place. It cuts the throat of our subtle legalism and it provides real gospel assurance when we try to raise objections to Christ on offer of pardon. We’re subtly saying, this is all up to me. But when we look at this promise, these healing, balming words, these words that provide rest for our soul, like the sort of rest that he talks about in Matthew 11.
He says, Come to me, all of you who are weary. Come to me, all of you a burden. I will give you rest. That’s the promise here when he says, I will never cast you out. And if we can be certain of our Salvation.
This should shape how we live. If that pressure is off, if we know we no longer belong to ourselves, but we belong to Jesus, if we know that he will never stiff arm us and say get away. The pressure is off to perform. We never have to wonder if we can sit at God’s lunch table. He’s always open, always welcoming.
If we come to him, how should our lives look different? That’s something you’re gonna have to make space to answer this morning. Can’t answer that for you. But if you’d like to pray with someone, if you came with a weight that is too great to bear, or if you want to know more about who this Jesus is, we’re gonna have people in the back that you can pray with. You can just leave right now or during the last song or right after service.
They’ve got name tags on the say Prayer team. Please go there. As we get ready for a final song, I want you to to just pray about God. How do I need to respond this morning? Maybe ask yourself a question like Jesus, have I really tried to reject your offer of pardon?
Have I lived like and felt like you’re trying to cast me out?
You’re welcome to remain seated if you’d like, or you’re welcome to stand. But the invitation is simple. Take even for a brief moment. And for some of us it’s maybe the only brief quiet moment we can say, God, how do I need to respond to you this morning? I’m gonna pray and we’ll give you the space to do just that.
We’ll give you space to wonder what it means to know and believe that Jesus will never cast out those who come to Him. Let’s pray. God, you are gracious and wonderful. Far better to us than we ever could have deserved. That is a promise that you give because you love us, you know us and you see us.
We pray for hearts in the room that have never come to Jesus in the first place. That they would, they would come to him in earnest, genuine repentance and they would talk to somebody here. This morning we pray for those in the room who do know youw. Maybe there’s something that they that they or we’ve been hesitant to bring to your feet because we’re wondering if this is the time that your grace is going to run out. But we thank you that there’s promises like John 6:37 says, all those the Father has given to me will come to me and I will never cast them out.
You will never stiff arm us. Jesus, what a gift What a promise. Let us then consider how we should live. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.