Rambo: A True Story of Redeeming Grace for Those Dying and Know It

0:46And so what I want to do this morning is remember him. His birthday was last Thursday. He was a man that many of you knew, but many of you didn't know. And I think what happens in church, people come and they go. And the memorial services, we buried him about four and a half years ago. The memorial service really isn't necessarily the place to adequately commemorate him. And what I want to do this morning is take us through some biblical principles that we would all do well.

1:30To live by. And these principles were exemplified in the life of Rambo. It is truly a story of redeeming grace. And I really give that to those of it's for us who are dying, and we know it. A story of redeeming grace. Well, I'm just going to jump into this. Many Vietnam or many war veterans, their lives can be divided up into really their pre-war years, their years of war, and their post-war years. I think the same is true for Rambo. His pre-Vietnam wars, that war that really defined his life. There was the pre-Vietnam wars. He was actually local, maybe just up in Robertson County. And what I didn't know until nearly just before his death is that he was a member of Emmanuel Baptist Church back when Brother Wilton first came on. He said, if you will look into the yearbook, you will find that I was a member. And so, sure enough, I've got a yearbook that goes back to 1967, and there's Rambo's name in it.

2:53Had some kind of church affiliation in his pre-Vietnam years, and then Vietnam came around. I didn't know him then. Then, his post-Vietnam years, I didn't really know him then. But then Rambo came back and he entered into another war later on in life, and it was a war with cancer. And it was in those cancer years, in those final years of his battle with cancer, which was long, that Rambo returned to Emmanuel Baptist Church. And so he came back up here. And it was in the final years of his war with cancer that I came into the picture of Rambo's life. I met him about four and a half years before he died. So after being gone for over for nearly 40 years, he came back to Emmanuel. And when he came back, he came back thinking he only had six months to live. The doctors had pretty much, his cancer was all over his body, several different kinds. He was really in, did not have long to live, six months, thought he was coming to die. However, God had other plans for him, and God graciously gave him another four and a half years, and four of those years were in pretty good health, at least for a person dying of cancer. And so, and it was in these years that I witnessed a man truly experience God's redeeming and transforming grace. And many of us here at Emmanuel, if you were close enough to what was going on, saw it as well. And it was in these years that we all came to know, to love, and even learn from a Vietnam veteran named Rambo. And so, this morning, what I want to do is to give you three biblical principles that were exemplified in the life of Rambo. Three principles that we would all do well to live by. Three biblical principles. Number one, first approach God humbly, approach Christ, approach God humbly. You know, one of life's biggest questions is: how does one step into God's favor? How do you go from a state of not being blessed by God to under that state of being favored? It's a profound question.

5:27Proverbs 16:14 says, The fury of a king is like messengers of death. And then in Proverbs 6:15, but in the light of a king's face is light, his life, and his favor is like a cloud with the spring rain. Now, these proverbs are true of any king throughout the age. If the king is angry with you, things are not going to go well. But if the king His favor is upon you, then things go well. Certainly, this is true of earthly kings. It is also true of the eternal king, and more especially true of the king, eternal king of the universe. And there is a proper protocol to approaching God, and it is that approach through humility. It is very different than what Joe Osteen reads in his book. Let me read to you a quote about how he talks about the favor of God. He says, Let me encourage you to start expecting and declaring God's favor in your life. Every morning before you leave the house, say something like this: Father, I thank you that I have your favor. Your favor is opening doors of opportunity. Your favor is bringing success into my life. Your favor is causing people to want to help me. Then go out with confidence, expecting good things to happen, expecting doors to open for you that may not open for somebody else, knowing that you have an advantage.

7:09So start declaring God's favor in your life. Very different from what the Bible teaches us. We are to, the protocol is not declaring God's favor. That's probably going to get you in trouble. I don't recommend it. Approach Him with humility and then receive. What he has to give, which is his favor. But that protocol is humbleness, humility. Peter and James both cite the truth given in Proverbs 3:34. James in 4:6 says, God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Again, Peter, in 1 Peter 5, 5, God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble, or gives favor to those who are humble. That's the protocol. That's the disposition that receives God's favor. And it's a universal axiom: God is opposed to the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. The word for humility literally means lowliness of thinking, lowliness of mind. To think of yourself in light of eternity, to think what a little thing you are, your strengths, what a little thing your strengths are in the grand scheme of eternity, a lowness of your self-view, mindful of your limitations. That's what humility is.

8:39A lowliness of mind. You see, it is foolish to be proud. Number one, it's foolish for us to be proud because we're but mere men, right? Mere mankind, men and women, right? When I say men, I mean men and women, okay? So universal, right? We are fleeting. We have nothing to enduring about us unless God grants it. Second thing is opposed. God is opposed to the proud. It is foolish because we are but mere men, and it is also foolish to be proud because God is opposed to the proud. Literally, he scoffs or he mocks. He mocks the proud. And you know how he does it? By giving grace to the humble. That's what God, he mocks the proud by giving grace to the humble.

9:38And that grace is his unmerited favor. So we should remember two things. If we attribute anything to ourselves, we rob God of his glory. But not only that, remember the second thing: if you attribute things to yourself, you not only rob God of His glory, but you will meet Him as your adversary. You have to give Him the honor due to His name. There is a proper protocol in approaching Christ. In the parable in Luke 18:9, Jesus says a parable, and He tells this parable to some people who trusted in themselves. They were trusting in themselves that they were righteous, and they viewed others with contempt. We're good. We've got it. We've met God's requirement. We're going to get to heaven, and God's going to. Want our autograph type thing. Now, I think some of us would probably not be where those Pharisees are. We'd not be so maybe boastful in ourselves, but we do have this subtle thing going on that, you know what? At the end of the day, I think God's going to weigh it. I'm going to be good enough. I'm mediocre, yes, but so is heaven, because in my mediocrity, I'm just going to get there. And he's going to welcome me in based on my mediocrity. And we bring heaven down.

10:59But these two men, Peter tells this, he says, Let me tell you about those who trust in themselves. He says, Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself, God, I thank you that I am not like the other people. Swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector here. I fast twice a week. I pay tithes of all I get. What an incredible guy I am.

11:27How great I art. But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, the sinner. And Jesus says, I tell you, this man went to his house justified rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted. Look at John 6, 37. There's a promise there. The second, all that the Father gives to me will come to me. And then look at this statement. And the one who comes to me, I will certainly not cast out. The word for coming, it's a present part of the one coming, the one who comes and keeps coming. Let me tell you something, I will not cast out. The word for coming is used by the centurions. Remember in Matthew 8, he comes to Jesus, please, come help my servant. Jesus says, okay, I'll come. He says, no, I'm not worthy for you to come under my house, but you give the word, and he will be, my servant will be healed.

12:44And he uses that word, and he says, I say go, and people go. I say come, and they come. There's a protocol. And Jesus said, marveled at his faith. You remember that? The whole idea of coming, the one coming to Jesus must go down that protocol, that protocol of approaching Christ. I think Rambo is an excellent illustration of how one is to come to Christ. He was a military man, and he understood rank and order. If there's one thing he understood, it was that proper protocol.

13:23And as I observed his final years, I saw a man who understood the protocol on how to. Approach God in true humility. There are four characteristics that the Bible teaches us about a humble person. I mean, there's many more. I'm just going to talk to you about four of them today. But four characteristics. First, a humble person listens to God's word. A humble person listens to God's word. In Isaiah 66:1, God is declaring, heaven is my throne, earth is my footstool. I don't need anything from you.

14:04I created all these things. And then he says this in verse 2, my hand made all these things, thus these things came to being, declares the Lord. But to this one I will look, to him who is humble and contrite of spirit and who trembles at my word. This is the one that captures my attention, the one who is humble. You see, the primary way we relate to one another is through words, right? Words are what we used to communicate, to relate to one another. And a person who repeatedly breaks his or her word will find it hard to have communication with or communion with anybody, right?

14:52If a father or mother, friend, or employee, if you don't trust a person's word, you have no basis for Communion, a relationship. I learned this early in junior high through a rather painful experience with my father. I remember after shop class one day, I was exposed to model glue and matches. And if you know anything about model glue and you apply open flame, you get lots of fire. That's what they, you know, you get exposed to a lot of things in shop class. Well, I immediately took the, me and a couple friends, took some model glue and some matches, went into the stage in the little junior high that I was in, put some on there, lit the match, big old fire, and kind of got in trouble. Scared. Good thing the whole place didn't burn down. See, you can learn things at public school.

16:03But what happened is they called my dad in, and my friends and I, we were all scared, and we're just, we're not going to, we're going to, we didn't do it. Didn't know anything about this, right? We're thinking we can get away with it, you know. So my dad comes in and standing there with the principal, and the principal says, we have reason to believe your son did such and such, such. And my dad looks at me, did you do that? No, didn't do it, dad. And this goes on for a little while with the others. Finally, somebody cries. Cracked and said, yes, we're guilty, we're guilty. It's a good thing. It's a good thing somebody owned up. It wasn't me, to my shame.

16:40But afterwards, as we were walking out, my dad said to me, You know, son, the only thing we have is our word. You and I have to stick together. And if I can't trust your word, we have no basis for a relationship. That was one of those lessons that just stuck with me for the rest of my life. In fact, there is, I believe it was my dad or somebody told me, if your word isn't good, then there isn't anything about you that is good. Because it is that word through which we can relate to one another. So if you don't trust God's word, you have no basis of a relationship with him. Because God is a speaking God. He speaks through that which he has spoken. He raised up prophets. He spoke through them as he said he would. And through those prophets, he continues to speak today through that which was written. And if you have no, if you do not trust his word, you have no, you're not humble, and you have no basis of communion with him. Just understand this. God knows how to speak. He knows how to speak. And he knows how to speak truthfully. At least give him that.

17:58Or you will find yourself. Meeting God as your adversary. He is a speaking God, and he knows how to speak, and he can be trusted. So a humble person listens to God's word. Second, a humble person takes their sin seriously. And I could say this about Rambo. He took his sin seriously. Let me give you a few quotes. He said, There was a time when it didn't matter to me if 40 of my best friends were in the room next to me. If I was given the order to take them out, I'd do it.

18:40He said, I fit the profile of a killer that my superiors were looking for. I remember one day he came in, I have blood on my hands. I have blood on my hands. And I can remember one of the first times I saw Rambo. He would sit right over here, and as I would preach about the forgiveness of God and things, I would see these hands go up, and I would see tears come down his face. I'd see these big, strong hands. That was one of the first times I ever saw. He's like, who is this guy here? He raises his hands not during the songs, but during the sermon.

19:24I could tell this was a man who was really wrestling with those deep issues of life. Life. I have blood on my hands. Blood on my hands. And as I later got to know him and listened to him, I came to realize that Rambo's troubled conscience involved a lot more than the blood that he had shed in war. He was deeply grieved over his sin in general, and especially those sins that had hurt other people in his life.

19:55Jeremiah 13:23 says, Can an Ethiopian change his skin, or a leopard his spots? In other words, no, a person cannot change their skin. A leopard can't say, I want to change my skin or change my spots. I want to rearrange them like a different pattern. No, impossible. And then Jeremiah says, This, Neither can you do good who are accustomed to doing evil. That's the state of man. If we lie, we are liars, right? Let us take our sins seriously. If we are thieves, or if we steal, then we are thieves. If we enjoy the pornographic entertainment in small, mild, or large doses, we are adulterers, fornicators, and sexually immoral. Let's own it. Something has to change. Matthew 7:18 says, A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree. Tree produced good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into a fire. There's something that needs to change on the inside. So a humble person takes his sin seriously.

21:15Humble person listens to God's word, takes sin seriously. And a humble person, number three, asks for Christ's favor. You know, one of the best pictures in Scripture of humility before Christ is the thief on the cross. Let me just read to you. You remember, it's the scene in Luke 23. I'll pick it up in verse 40, but what's going on is the other criminal is up there mocking Jesus. Well, if you're the Christ, why don't you get us down, get yourself down, mocking him? And then the other criminal said this.

21:51But the other answered, and rebuking him, said, Do you not even fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? In other words, we're all under the same sentence of condemnation here, but there's a difference about him and us. He goes on in verse 41, he says, And we indeed are suffering justly, for we are receiving what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong. And then he said, basically, he's saying, look, we deserve this. We own our sin. We're guilty of our sin. But this man, he's innocent. He doesn't deserve this. And in verse 42, And he was saying, Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. And he said to him, Truly I say to you today, you shall be with me in paradise. What a picture. This thief on the cross, he had no righteousness, he had nothing to bring, and he had nothing to give. He's crucified. He's up there on the cross. He's at the very end of his life. He has no time left to go do great things for God.

22:59And yet he received favor. The favor of a child of the king. He had nothing to bring. He had nothing to give. And yet he received sonship, citizenship in heaven. That's a picture of humility. One of the times when Rambo was about to die, or thought he was about to die, as I've learned, the cancer decline is a series of peaks and valleys. But the overall decline is going down. And there are some times when it looks like a person may be on death's door and then they revive and then get healthy for a while and then go down. That's kind of the pattern. And there were several times when Rambo would be in those valleys where he thought he was near death. And he would call me in and we would talk. And he told me on one. Occasion, he said, you know why I came back to Emmanuel? And I'll quote him, as best I can remember. I came back to Emmanuel because I thought it was better to die as a thief on a cross near to Christ rather than far away from him.

24:14In other words, he associated the church with the presence of the living Christ. He said, I came back here to die because I didn't want to die someplace far away from Christ. And that's what drew him back. And this is what coming to Christ looks like: proper protocol, approaching humbly with nothing to bring, nothing to give. A humble person listens to God's word. A humble person takes their sins seriously. A humble person asks for Christ's favor. And a humble person receives what Christ gives. Right? It's rude not to accept a gift. That's not humble. After coming to Christ, you must receive what He gives, or you're not being humble.

25:08He gives forgiveness, so receive it. To not receive it is to be proud. He gives a new heart, so walk in it. He gives you a new master. He gives you a new way forward. And he gives you his promises that are simply to be believed. Look back at John 6:37. The one who comes to me, I will certainly not cast out. You cannot not believe that without raising your throne above his. A humble person simply believes, receives. So, Rambo, as I witnessed his life, he came to God humbly. Like the thief, he didn't ask Christ to change his standards. He didn't blame God for his sin. He didn't blame the government for his sin. He took ownership of it. And he was not ashamed to come publicly. As I said, he would stand, he would raise his hands during the sermon. I can remember his hands, right, and as we would pray, those hands would go up. And I can remember even after he was in hospice and was doped out on whatever kind of meds and having trouble with hallucinations. I didn't know what all was going on in his mind. But I was called to come in, and I came in, visited him, and he was getting kind of loopy. And I talked, I couldn't make any sense. We were talking. I said, Rambo, let's pray.

27:00And all of a sudden, I saw these hands go up to heaven, and a sobriety of mind came in. Never will forget he came publicly. He was baptized. He was re-baptized. Obviously, he would have been baptized as a kid coming up here if he hadn't been baptized already. But then he wanted to come up, baptism. And I believe that was his true baptism, the baptism that followed his true conversion. So let us, each of us, come to Christ humbly. Let's approach Christ humbly. Let us own our sins. Let's not excuse our sins. Let's not try to put our sin or excuse our sin or blame somebody else for our sins. Let's not expect God to change his standards of sins. Let's just own them and come in and let us receive what he gives.

27:59He gives forgiveness of sins. Hebrews 10:18 says, Now, where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer any offering for sin. It's done. Matthew 11, 27, Jesus said, All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal him. So He says, Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. You know what he gives? He reveals the Father to you, and he gives rest to you. That's what he gives.

28:37So let us come to him and let us do so unashamedly. The only thing to be ashamed of is our sin, not his righteousness. So there are three biblical principles I want to keep moving on to live by. Number one, approach God humbly. Number two, approach man generously. You know, another one of life's biggest questions is: how does one step back into life after receiving God's favor? Once you have received a new life, a new heart, forgiveness, how do you step back into life? How do you relate to one another? I think the answer is very simply: approach your fellow man generously. Approach your fellow man generously. Be generous, number one, because of the character of God, and number two, because of the command of Jesus. God is generous to us. That is part of his character. That is part of his disposition. He is generous, extremely generous. Psalm 145, 16 says, You open your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing. That is what God does. Christ's command to his followers in Matthew 5:42, give to him who has. Asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you. And he doesn't put any qualifiers in it. And sometimes that's one of the hardest scriptures for us to wrestle with. He says it again in Luke 6, verse 30. He says it a little differently, but he says the same. Give to everyone who asks of you, and whoever takes away what is yours, do not demand it back.

30:26And he says in verse 38, Give and it will be given to you. They will pour into your lap a good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over. For by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you in return. So be generous with what you have received. God has been generous to you. You be generous to your fellow man. Well, God was kind to Rambo. He redeemed his soul. He changed his heart. And he extended his life. Almost as if a twist of God's humor. Rambo came up here thinking he was going to die within six months, and God extended his life over four years, four and a half years, and many of those some good years.

31:27I gave you some of the quotes of Rambo. I just want to give you. Just some other photographs, just to remember. I want you to remember just the military Rambo. There he is, eating at one of our fellowships, one of our many. There we're talking out there in front of that awning that needs to come down. There he is in there preparing food. He lived to serve this body up here. He served in the kitchen. He bought food, shopped, and all kinds of stuff. Really served. I don't know what's going on.

32:01There he is on a tricycle, you know, on an adult tricycle. There he is, cooking with his apron on in the kitchen. You get the picture. But God had a sense of humor. And I love his post-Vietnam days. God made Rambo a man of means. They struck oil on his property. Now, here's an individual, a character like Rambo, who all of a sudden has come into oil money. He's afraid of the government. He amassed, well, let me just say it to you like this.

32:45For Rambo, there were three Gs and three Fs. And we had this conversation. He says the three F's are firearms, food, and faith. He says, and then you need the three G's: guns, gold, and God. And that's what he amassed. Those of us who are here can remember his house. He had false doors, false rooms, extra, and they were filled with food, guns, and ammunition, and lots of it. And I thought it was funny one time.

33:20I was told he bought a bunch of gold back in the 70s, and I don't know, a lot of it. And then he hid it. And then here we are. He's close to death. He goes, oh, yeah, I've got all that gold out there. And so several years, you know, 40 years later, we're out there, or some people from the church and others are helping him try to locate where he put all this gold. And they found it.

33:44And it was in the dog food. Yeah, it was in the dog food. There's the moral of the story. There you go. Put your gold in the dog food. Nobody will ever find it. Not even the dog. Hilarious. He had amassed so much food. And you could still have, yeah, come to my garage. If anybody wants some dried beans or some dried coffee or whatever, please come to my house. I've got it for you. They trailer loads. We helped load trailer loads. Many of them went to Mexico. You remember Mario's big old trailer, you know, filled up. I mean, it was incredible. The 55-gallon drums that I was told were filled with ammunition.

34:31I mean, this guy was ready. It was funny. And then God saves him, transforms him. And then all of a sudden, faith and God, which were in the number three pole position, went to number one. And as Rambo's faith blossomed, faith and God moved from number three to number one. Firearms and food gave way to faith and friends. Guns and gold took a back seat to God. And all that was passed on. He gave generously. He gave generously in forgiving others. He gave generously in his repentance. He was generous. His repentance came with restitution. You remember Zacchaeus, who said, Lord, half of my possessions I will give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will give back four times as much. And Jesus said, Today, salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham. I believe this is one of those one instances in Scripture where Jesus is smiling. You can feel Jesus's smiling, Jesus' smile through the pages of Scripture. Well, Rambo was generous. He wrote letters of restitution and repentance to people he had wronged, and he would ask me to look them over. And I was like, wow, God is really doing something in this man's life. He chaired. The Elm over here, our lighthouse mission, he chaired that for a couple of years. He gave of himself, his time, his resources. He had stored up a lot, and he gave a lot. I remember one particular episode that stuck in my mind. We have a panhandler up here, and we get panhandlers. You know what that is? Somebody comes up with the story, I need money, and please give me money. And they get pretty good and elaborate in their stories and lies. And sometimes I wonder, how stupid do you think I am to believe this? And after a time, you can get cynical to this. For instance, we had the many of you may remember the $12.50 man. His story was always the same. He always needed $12.50. We had another guy, and we just called him that, the $12.50 man. Then we had the $8.50 man. We had, they come around. Well, I remember one time this guy, this person came up and was one of these individuals, and he asked for money. Rambo was there. And I started going down, like I did. I remember when the $12.50 man came, or I think it was the $12.50 man. He says, you know, my wife is ailing. She's down in Navasota and she's about to die. I got to get her medication. But before I get her medication, I need $12.50 to fix the tire. And so, can you give me $12.50? And I said, you know, get in the car. What? Get in the car. So he gets in the car. We start driving. He goes, Where are we going? I said, we're going down to Navasota. Why are we going down to Navasota? Because of your ailing wife. We don't have time to fix the spare tire. We got to get you down there right now and take care of her before she dies.

37:44He looks at me and says, You know what? Why don't you pull over and let me off up here? I see somebody who can help me out. What about your ailing wife? And so, this is one of these individuals, and I had, and Rambo just pulled out money and gave it to him. And I said, You know, he's a shyster. He says, You know, I don't have too much time left. Jesus doesn't withhold from those who ask of him, neither will I.

38:15And you know, I got it that day. You know, my ministry isn't just to catch people in their lie, but to truly minister to their need. And that has marked, that event has marked my ministry ever since. So, if you are a Christ, approach everyone generously. Be generous in forgiving others. Be generous in making restitution. You can only give forgiveness if you have received forgiveness. Be generous in making restitution. Be generous in serving others. Be generous in serving kindly to one another. Be generous in favoring other people through interpretation. People's actions through the lens of favor. Be generous in thinking well of others. Be generous in esteeming others. You know what this boils down to? Be generous in loving one another. Our time is short.

39:17Well, three principles to live by. Approach God humbly. Approach man generously. Three, approach eternity confidently. How does one step into God's favor? Approach God humbly. How does one step back into life? Approach man generously. That brings up another one of life's biggest questions. How does one step into eternity confidently? And the answer is by believing Christ's promise. By believing Christ's promise. You see, death is inevitably going to come. It's not the end, but a passing from one state to another. As you pass from this state, you go into the next eternal state, and your destiny is sealed.

40:05So approaching death summons us to rethink our religion, rethink our philosophy, rethink our whole being, and it shakes us to our core. And as death drew near or draws near, there will be many times, or there may be times of deep questioning, uncertainty. Was my profession true? Did I repent and do it just right? Did I leave anything out? But uncertainty is the result of self-focus, just so you know. Your uncertainty will come as you navel gaze and look at yourself. Certainty comes from a God-focused perspective. And the same was true with Rambo.

40:56How does one approach eternity confidently? Well, you don't do it on a feeling. I can remember on one occasion after Rambo was baptized, he was again facing what he thought was death, and he called me to come to him, and he said, Pastor, I don't feel any different after all that's gone on these wonderful years. I really come down to it. I don't feel any different. You know, he thought he was about to step into eternity, and his feelings were failing him.

41:29And so we spent some time in John chapter 6, verses 37 through 40. And I was able to explain to him and look from the text that Christianity isn't about the feelings of man, but about the promise of God. Our feelings are going to come and go, and they are not reliable sources of truth. They can even be deceitful, and even our minds will deteriorate. No, Christianity is built on something far more secure. And that is upon the promises of God.

42:03Let me look at this text, John 6, verse 37, and just read it to you. I want to read it to you, and then I want to see one promise that not only gave Rambo confidence for eternity, but will also give you confidence as well. John 6:37, All that the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me, I will certainly not 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 him who sent me, that of all he has given me, I lose nothing, but raise it up the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in him will have eternal life, and I myself will raise him up the last day. One promise, look at that, the end of verse 37: the one who comes to me, I will certainly not cast out. In no way, no way possible will I cast him out. That's the strength. That's the promise. The one who comes, not going to cast him out. And he gives two reasons why this promise is sure. Or there are two reasons here.

43:14Verse 37, all that the Father gives to me will come to me. You see, when a person comes to Christ, there's something far greater going on than just what meets the eye. All that the Father gives me, that's a gift. The eternal Father giving the eternal Son an eternal gift. And it would be rude for the Son not to take the Father's gift. And so he will certainly not cast out anyone who comes to him because the one who comes to him is a gift from the eternal Father to the eternal Son.

43:54And so he's certainly not going to cast it out. And then he gives a second reason. There's a second reason there in verse 38. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that of all he has given me, I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in him will have eternal life, and I myself will raise him up on the last day. And if you get the context of John chapter 6, what just has happened? Jesus has fed the 5,000. He literally created matter out of nothing, fed a multitude. He walked on water. And it's kind of like, okay, why has this one come among us? Why did he come? We see his power.

44:53What did he come for? And he says, this is the will of my father, that everyone who beholds the Son, And believes in him, I myself will raise him up the last day. I have come for this reason, not to walk on water, but to raise the dead, to accept those that God has given to me, and for me to personally raise him and her from the dead. That's why I came. So that's another good reason. I'm certainly not going to cast those out who come to me because my whole purpose for coming is to raise them up. Those who come to me, I will raise up. So by coming to Christ, God transfers the responsibility of a soul from themself to God. When Rambo came, the responsibility of his soul was transferred to the eternal Son.

45:57You see, eternal security is not a matter between God and man. Eternal security is an issue between the eternal Father and the eternal Son. And those who come to him, he will not cast out. Certainly not. Rambo had come to Christ. Jesus promised to never cast him out. And he entered eternity not upon a feeling, but upon a promise. Jesus is the shepherd of our souls. And this is the promise. This text is what brought Rambo a great deal of strength and comfort as that day of death came. In fact, he wrote me a letter and he said, Here, don't open this until I die. And the final letter that he gave to me was all about this promise in John chapter 37, or John 6, verse 37.

47:02He knew he was about to die, and he went to God not on his feeling, but upon the promise. Well, we all are terminal, aren't we? The difference between many of us is some of us know that, some of us don't, or live as if we don't. In Rambo's case, that long battle with cancer was a blessing. It gave him time to prepare, to think. But our days are numbered, and you do not know how many more you have. So these principles to live by are for you. Approach Christ humbly. Why?

47:51So that you will be saved. Approach man generously. Why? So that you will glorify the God who has saved you. And then believe Christ's promise that he's not going to cast anyone out who comes to him, and that includes you. Believe that promise so that you will approach eternity confidently. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we do thank you for your word. We thank you for your testimony that is sure. We thank you, Father, for how you work in the lives and hearts of those among us. Father, we thank you that you allowed us the privilege to be able to behold a man come to you, that we could see the true redeeming grace at work and transforming grace at work. Father, we thank you that you've given us the privilege, an unveiling, a revealing of a sort of one of the sons of your kingdom.

49:04And, Father, we thank you for drawing hearts and minds to you. We thank you for the work that you are doing among us. And Father, we just pray that you would give us, grant us this humility, grant us this desire to come and this desire to keep coming. And Father, we just pray that you would have your work in our lives. In Jesus' name.