I love that hymn that we just
sang. That's our hope. The Lord will
enable us to worship him, to praise him. I was thinking, Adam, as you
were reading from Psalm 29, and how oftentimes the Lord repeats
the voice of the Lord, the voice of the Lord, the voice of the
Lord. It's only his voice that can give peace. That's how that
Psalm ends. He shall give them peace. If all we hear is the voice of
a man, there's no way that one man can speak peace to another
man's heart. False prophets try that. Scripture
says they speak peace, peace when there is no peace. But when
God speaks, that's our hope. We worship him that the Lord
will speak and that he will enable us to hear his voice. In Acts chapter nine, when the
Lord revealed himself to Saul of Tarsus, the scripture says
that Saul had other men with him and they heard a voice, but
they saw no man. Saul, on the other hand, saw
the Lord Jesus and said, who art thou Lord? I am Jesus whom
thou persecuteth. We can hear the sound of words
without seeing the man, the Lord Jesus. And our hope always when
we gather for worship is that the Lord will cause us to see
Christ. Though we look through a glass
darkly as we just saw in the first hour, it causes the longing
of our hearts to see him face to face. Let's open our Bibles
together to John chapter six. John chapter six. The Lord has miraculously multiplied
the loaves and the fishes to feed the 5,000 and sent the disciples
away across the Sea of Galilee while he stayed behind and prayed.
And the scripture says that he saw them struggling in the midst
of the sea. It's in the middle of the night.
Oh, it's a wee hours of the morning, scripture tells us. They're in
the middle of the Sea of Galilee, a storm that God has sent. They're in fear of their lives
and the Lord comes walking on the water to them and they're
terrified. They thought, what could be worse
than this life-threatening storm than for a spirit to come? And the Lord spoke to them and
he tells them in verse 20, It is I, be not afraid. It is I, be not afraid. And as we saw last Sunday, the
word there is I am. The Lord is revealing himself
to these terrified disciples that he is God. He's God, don't
be afraid. I'm in charge of this, I sent
this, you're mine, the waters will not overflow
thee, the fire will not burn thee, don't be afraid. The evidence that the Lord, that
the disciples heard what the Lord was saying is in the next
verse. And I've titled this message,
The Evidence and the Result of Salvation. The Evidence and the
Result of Salvation. What is the evidence that I've
heard the voice of God? What is the evidence that he
has spoke peace to my heart? And what is the result of that
revelation? that he has made of himself to
me. I need to know that. And I have
two very simple points, the evidence and the result of salvation. And both of those points are
found in this one verse. Let's read it together. Then
they willingly received him into the ship. That's the evidence. Then they
willingly received him into the ship. The evidence of salvation
is willingly receiving the Lord Jesus Christ. And immediately the ship was
at the land where they went. They were safe. They were saved
immediately. Now, willingly receiving the Lord
Jesus Christ, and this is not, I'm not splitting hairs here.
We're not just trying to be particular and specific about doctrine. This is a matter of life and
death. This is a matter of heaven and hell. To understand the distinction
between the evidence of salvation and the cause of salvation. Very important distinction. Critical
difference. Because most believe that willingly
receiving the Lord Jesus Christ is the cause of their salvation.
God's done his part. God loves everybody. Christ died
for everybody. God wants everybody to be saved.
Man's got a free will. And so, willingly receiving the
Lord Jesus Christ is what makes what he did work for you. and it becomes the cause of men's
salvation. You hear it all the time. You hear false prophets telling
you to accept Jesus and you'll be saved. It's not us that has to accept
him, he must accept us. The Lord Jesus Christ is not
running for office. You don't make him Lord, he is
Lord. Willingly receiving him into the ship, is the evidence
that God has done a work of grace in the heart. Psalm 103 verse
3 says, he shall make his people willing in the day of his power. We need a work of God's supernatural
power done in our hearts birthing us by God alone. It's a work of
the Spirit of God before we're going to be willing to receive
Him. The willingness of receiving
the Lord Jesus Christ is the evidence that God has
done a work of grace in my heart. It's not decision that I've made,
it's not a work that I've performed, it's not something that I've
done to obligate God to save me, it is not the cause of my
salvation, it is the evidence of it. The distinction could
not be more drastic. We hear men say, if you will
believe, then God will save you. And this is the lie that the
whole world believes. Everybody believes that they
have a free will, that they can choose God whenever they decide
to choose God. This is the original sin. This is the original sin. When
Satan said to Eve in the garden, God does not want you to eat
of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil because he knows
in the day in which you eat of it, you will be like God. Prior to Eve taking that fruit
and Adam eating that fruit, the original sin, the fall of man,
Adam and Eve were innocent. They didn't know the difference
between good and evil. All they knew was good. All they
knew was God walking with them in the cool of the day. And Satan
was saying to them, God knows that there's a difference between
good and evil. And because he's God, he always
chooses that which is good. And if you'll eat of this fruit,
you can be like God. You can have a free will. And
like God, you will use that will to always choose good over evil. 2 Thessalonians 2 says that because
man has no love for the truth, They have no love for Christ.
Therefore, God has sent them a strong delusion that they should
believe the lie. The lie. The lie is that I have
the power to save myself with my will. That same passage of scripture
in 2 Thessalonians 2 speaks of man setting himself up on the
throne of God. And that's what we've done. In
our fallen, sinful state, we have set ourselves up on the
throne of God. And we have believed the lie
because we have no love for the truth. And it's not until the
Lord gives us a love for Christ in the new birth that we will
willingly receive him into the ship. We have no desire for him. What does the Bible say? about
the will of man. Romans chapter nine, I will have
mercy upon whom I will have mercy. And I will have compassion upon
whom I will have compassion. God speaking. Therefore, it is
not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth. It is not
by decision and is not by self effort, but it is of God that
showeth mercy. If we have been made willing
to receive the Christ of scripture, the evidence of that is that
we know that that willingness, here's our evidence, child of
God, believer, this is our evidence, we know that that willingness
was the evidence of our salvation, not the cause of it. We know
that. We know that had the Lord not
done a work of grace causing us to love Christ, we would never
have come. You say, well, doesn't man have
a will? Certainly has a will. You exercise
your will thousands of times every day. Every time you move
your hand, every time you take a step, every time you turn your
head, every time you speak a word, you are choosing to do that which
you have the greatest desire for. You've been given two or
more options and you are choosing that option which the will desires. Now here's what the will cannot
do. The will cannot choose anything against itself. You can't will one thing and
do something else. Everything you do, you did it
willingly. That's what the will is. And
therein lies the problem. In our fallen sinful state, Prior
to the new birth, we have no desire for God. We have no will
for Him. Why would we choose Him? Here's what the Bible says. The
Lord Jesus said this, no man can. You remember in school,
when you were, I don't know, second, third, fourth grade,
I can remember the incident when it happened to me. My school
teacher was gonna teach me a lesson. And I ask if I can do something,
maybe go to the bathroom or something. Went to the teeth, can I go?
And she looked at me and she said, I don't know, can you? And she taught me very quickly
the difference between ability and permission. And she taught me that when I
ask that question, I don't say, can I do something, but may I
do it. May I do it? The Lord Jesus said, no man can
come to me. No man has the ability to come
to me except the father which sent me draw him. And if you remember over there
in the book of James when James is rebuking the church for being
prejudiced towards the rich and receiving the rich and treating
them in a special way and putting the poor in the back seat. And
James says, do you not know that it's the rich that drag you into
court? They're the ones who... who bring
you before the court of law and they're the ones and the same
word that James uses is the one that the Lord Jesus uses when
he says no man can come to me, no man is able to come to me
except the father which sent me drag him. Make him willing. Are we willing? Yeah, we're willing.
we're willing we come we come willingly but our willers got
to be changed because by nature we won't be like God by nature
we believe that we can choose between good and evil we believe
that we have the power of virtue and righteousness to do that
which is good in the sight of God and left to ourselves The
scriptures are clear, we can't. Turn with me to Exodus chapter
15, Exodus chapter 15. The children of Israel have just
crossed the Red Sea and Moses is leading them in a hymn of
praise. And in this hymn of praise, Moses
is identifying the spirit of Egypt. Now, Egypt and the taskmasters
of Egypt represent the legalistic religions of this world. What
did those taskmasters do when they put the children of Israel
in slavery and in bondage? They required quotas that the
children of Israel were never able to achieve. And if they
got close to achieving their quotas of making bricks, they
took away the straw and they increased the quota. And the
taskmasters were never satisfied with the labors that the Israelites
performed. There you have the law. The law
of God can never be satisfied by us. And God sent Moses, the
deliverer, to bring the children of Israel out from under the
bondage of that legalism. And they crossed over the Red
Sea, and now they're in the wilderness, being led by God. And Moses offers
up this song of praise. And I want us to just look at
one verse in this psalm. It's a long psalm. Verse nine,
because this is what free will, self-righteous works religion
says. Always. And I want you to notice
there's six I wills in this one verse. And six in the Bible is
the number for man. We were created on the sixth
day, 666 is the number of judgment, it's the number of man. And in
order for us to be right with God, we've got to be a seven. We've got to be a seven. And
seven is perfection. And seven is Christ, that's the
day of rest, isn't it? That's the Sabbath day, the day
of rest. So here's the spirit of all men
when they come into this world. Prior to the new birth, prior
to a work of grace, the enemy said, I will pursue, I'll seek after God, I can do
that. And I'll overtake him. I've got
the power to overtake God. I've eaten of the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil and I'm like God and I know the difference
between right and wrong and I can choose that which is right. I've
got the ability to do that. I can make a decision for God.
I can exercise my will. And I will divide the spoil. I'll take the work that Jesus
performed and the reward that he earned by himself on Calvary's
cross and I'll divide a portion of that to myself. This is free will religion and
I'm trying to make a distinction here because the willingness
to receive Jesus into the ship is always, if it's salvation,
it's always the evidence, not the cause. Here's men making their will
the cause of getting a hold of God. I can get a hold of Him. I can get right with God. My lust shall be satisfied upon
them. What is man's lust? His desire
to be like God. And you listen to men who believe
that a decision they made and a prayer they prayed and a will
they exercised is what caused them to get saved and they will
tell you about it. They'll tell you what they did
and when they did it and how they did it and how they obligated
God to save them. What are they doing? They're
satisfying their lust to be God and they're taking pride in what
they did in order to get saved, as they say. I will draw my sword. Now what
is the sword in the Bible? The sword of the spirit is the
word of God. And when the Lord Jesus comes
in the book of Revelation, he has a tongue like a flaming sword. So I'll draw my sword. I'll speak the right words. I'll
pray that prayer. I'll make a decision. I'll make
a commitment. And God will save me as a result
of what I have done. My hand shall destroy them. What is the hand in the Bible?
It's a picture of works. What I perform by my hand will
save me. Now that's the freewill gospel
right there. And men read, well, they willingly received Jesus
into the ship. And that's why they were saved.
No, it's not why they were saved. It's the evidence that they were
saved. It's the evidence that they believed what they heard
the Lord Jesus say when he said, I am, be not afraid. The evidence that they believe
that Jesus was the Christ, the son of the living God, is that
they willingly received him into the ship. We are born spiritually dead. And a dead man can no more believe
the gospel than a blind man can see or a deaf man can hear. We're dead. The new birth is
God making us alive. The Lord Jesus said to Nicodemus,
Nicodemus, ruler of the Jews, member of
the Sanhedrin he was I mean Nicodemus walked around with his tassels
and robes and everybody in Jerusalem got out of the way and everybody
thought you know if anybody's going to heaven surely Nicodemus
is what a good man what a holy man he is and the Lord Jesus
looked at Nicodemus and said Nicodemus except you be born
of the Spirit You cannot see the kingdom of God. You can't
even perceive of it. How are you going to choose it?
You can't even see it. And Nicodemus said, how can I
be born again? And the Lord Jesus said, oh,
Nicodemus, the spirit is like the wind. He listeth withersoever
he wills. You can't control him. Lord, The evidence that I'm saved is
that you've made me willing. And that I didn't do anything
to pursue you or to overtake you or to draw my sword or to
divide the spoil or to put forth my hand. Lord, you did it all. You did it all. And you've made
me willing. And what hope I have. Willingness
to be saved, that's faith. Doesn't the Bible say, call upon
the name of the Lord and thou shalt be saved? Yes, it does. And then the next part of that
verse is, how shall they call upon him in whom they've not
believed? And how shall they believe on
him in whom they've not heard? They've not heard. And how shall
they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except
they be sent? You see, there's the calling
upon the name of the Lord is the result, it's the last step.
The preacher has to be called, the preacher has to be sent,
Hearing ears have to be given so that faith can be given so
that the result of all of that is your call. Calling on the
name of the Lord is the evidence that God has done a work of grace
for me, not the cause of it, not the cause of it. The distinction could not be
more different. It is a willingness to be saved
in such a way that God gets all the glory. A willingness to be
saved on the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ alone. That's a miracle of grace. I'm not going to come like that.
I'm going to hold on to something, some contribution that I've made.
Well, you won't be saved. That's not the willingness to
receive him into the ship as I've heard his voice say, I am,
I am all your salvation. I am the eternal self-existent
God who creates and sustains all things physically and spiritually. It's a willingness to believe
that Christ himself did all the work of my salvation. He did
it all. When he said it is finished,
he finished the work that the father sent him to do. Willingness to worship him as
your sovereign. Willingness to look to Christ
Jesus alone for all of your righteousness. Willingness to believe and bow
to the entire revelation of Christ given to us in scripture, which
is all of scripture. Then, Look at me if you will
at our verse again in John chapter 6 verse 21. Then, they were terrified, they
thought they were going to die. But when they heard his voice,
then they willingly received him into the ship. Brethren,
the evidence of our salvation is our willingness to receive
salvation the way God made it. To receive Christ the way he
is. Well now, wait a minute, doesn't
the Bible say in John chapter one that he came unto his own
and his own received him not, but to as many as received him,
to them gave he the power to become the sons of God? Yes,
it does. Before we look at the rest of
our verse in John 6, turn back just a few pages to John 1. And
let's look at that verse. John 1, verse 11. He came unto
his own. He came to the Jews and the Jews
received him not. because he robbed them of their
righteousness. Judaism was then and is today
a very legalistic religion. And men took pride in what they
offered to God as the hope of their standing in the presence
of God. And the Lord Jesus came and declared himself to be who
he is. Tom, you read it this morning
in the men's study from Luke chapter four. when the Lord Jesus
went back to Nazareth and opened up the scriptures to Isaiah chapter
61 and revealed himself as the Christ. And they wandered at
the gracious words that proceeded out of his mouth. They thought,
we thought this was the son of Joseph. Could it be that this
is the Christ? And then he interpreted for them
what it meant to be the Christ. When he said to them, in the
days of the prophet Elijah, there were many widows in Israel, but
God showed mercy upon none of them except for the widow of
Sarepta, the Gentile woman. And the days of the prophet Elisha,
there were many lepers in Israel. Israelites that were lepers but
God showed mercy upon none of them except for Naaman the Syrian
who was a Gentile. And the wonderment of the gracious
words that proceeded out of his mouth turned to rage. Rage. They actually instantly
tried to murder him. Why? Well, the obvious reason. He's identifying himself as the
Christ. The one who will have mercy upon
whom he will. He took from them their free
will. He took from them their righteousness. And he declared
himself as the sovereign and they would not receive that.
They would not receive that. So when we receive him into the
ship, we're receiving him as he's revealed for who he is. And here's what John tells us,
John chapter one, he came into his own, his own received him
not, they wouldn't have anything to do with him, they wouldn't
believe on him. He took from them all the hope of their salvation
and Christ does that today. You'll get a lot better hearing
today from an irreligious person than you will from someone steeped
in free will works religion when it comes to the gospel. At least
that's been my experience. The people that are most resistant
to the gospel, not that the irreligious aren't self-righteous, they are
too, but they don't have as much to lose as the religionist. But as many as received him,
verse 12, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even
to them that believe on his name, they received him willingly into
the ship. Notice the next verse, which
were born. Before they could receive him,
they had to be born. They had to be born of the spirit.
which they had nothing to do with. What did you have to do
with your natural birth? You didn't have anything to do
with the conception of it. You didn't have to do with the
gestation of it. You didn't have to do with the
delivery of it. You didn't have anything to do with any of it.
You were passive in your birth. And the same thing's true in
our spiritual new birth, which were born not of blood, not of
descent, That's what that means. Not of the will of flesh. Not of dedication. I'm gonna
dedicate myself to God and he'll be obligated to. I'm gonna receive
him, I'm gonna do my part and he will save me. Nor of the will of man. Not of
decision. So the Lord tells us it's not
of descent, it's not of dedication, and it's not of decision. The reason they received me is
because they were born of God. They were born of the Spirit
of God. Child of God, here's what we're
saying, here's what we're resting in right now. Lord I have received
you as you are revealed in scripture and you've stripped me naked
of all of my righteousness and you've left me to have nothing
but Christ and I rejoice in that for had you not done that work
of grace in my heart I would not have believed on you I would
not have received you under my ship I would have received a
false Christ they willingly received him into
the ship. Brethren, this is the evidence
of our salvation, not the cause of it. Such an important difference. Now go back with me to our text
and we'll consider much more briefly the second part. And
immediately the ship was at the land with they went. They were in a life-threatening
storm. They wanted to be safe. They desired to stay alive. And now, their feet were on solid
ground. Now they were secure. Now they were out of harm's way. Now they had no reason to be
afraid. They had reached their destination. They were saved. Willingly receiving him into
the ship is the evidence that God has done a work of grace
in the heart. And being safe is the result of it. There is now, therefore, no condemnation
to them that are in Christ Jesus. The Lord Jesus Christ took all
the sins, all of my sins, my past sins, my present sins, all
my future sins. He took them in his body upon
that tree and he put them away by the sacrifice of himself and
I have no fear of the wrath of God. In Revelation chapter six, this
word land is the same word that means a place to stand. Well,
that's the literal definition of this word in the original
language, a place to stand, a firm footing. And in Revelation chapter
six, those who did not receive Christ, those who were not born
of the spirit ran to the mountains. and they cried for the rocks
and the mountains to fall on them and hide them from the face
of the Lamb for they said, Who shall stand before Him? Who's going to stand in the presence
of a holy God? How can I stand in the presence
of a holy God? If I have the Lord Jesus as my
advocate before the Father, I have nothing to fear. The wrath of
God's been quenched. He is my propitiation, the Bible
says. In other words, he's put away
the judgment of God. The full fury of God's wrath
fell like the fire of God upon Calvary's cross. and the Lord
Jesus put that fire out. And I have no, perfect love,
that's perfect love. What Christ did is perfect love.
Perfect love casteth out fear. What is the result of Christ
being brought into the boat, being willingly received? What
is the result of that? I can rest now. I have a place
of rest. I have a safe haven. I have a
comfort. I don't have to rely upon the
false hopes of free will, works religion, wondering if I've done
enough. I have a savior that satisfied
God's justice. I have one who made himself an
offering to his father and the father saw the travail of his
soul and the father said, I'm satisfied, I'm satisfied. Oh, what a rest, what a... The Bible calls the Lord Jesus
Christ our surety, our surety. Why is it that your religious
friends always want you to approve of their religious activity,
or they always want you to refer to them as a brother, or you
always want you to commend them for something that they've done?
Why is it? Because they don't have a surety
in heaven. And the only surety they have
is the false assurance that they get from other men. That's it. They need to be bolstered up. I had somebody say to me one
time, as a preacher, this is a man not in this church, but
he said, you need to speak peace to my children's hearts and you're
not doing it. It's not my place to speak peace
to anybody's heart. Only God can do that. If I'm
faithful to lift up Christ, my hope and prayer is that he will
reveal himself as the I am and say to your heart and to my heart,
be not afraid. Be not afraid. I brought you
safely to the other side. You now have land to stand on. You've got a surety in heaven.
You've got an advocate with the father. You've got a sin bearer
that's put away all of your sins. You have a righteousness before
God. You need not ever fear the wrath
of God. The Lord Jesus turned their sorrow
into joy. He turned their fear into peace. He turned condemnation into comfort. If you'll turn with me to Psalm
24, we'll close. Psalm 24. Look with me at verse three. He I'm sorry, Psalm 24 verse 3,
who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord and who shall stand
in his holy place? How are you and I going to stand
in the presence of a holy God? And the Lord answers that question
in the next verse, he that hath clean hands You remember the
hand is a symbol of works. And the scripture says that he
was wounded for our transgressions. Why did they drive nails through
the hands of the Lord Jesus? Because that's where our sin
is. It's in our hands. You remember Uzzah? They were
carrying the ark and the ark looked like it was going to fall.
the cart and Uzzah just reached up to sort of steady it and God
killed him right there on the spot, why? Because he put his
hand to Christ. The Lord said when you build
an altar don't hew the stones, don't put your hand to it, you'll
defile it. Everything that our hands produce
is sinful and defiles and the righteousness of God. And now
David's saying, who's gonna stand in the presence of a holy God?
I'll tell you who's gonna stand, he that has a clean hand and
he that has a pure heart and he that has never lifted up his soul onto vanity nor sworn deceitfully. He that's never had a vain thought
about himself. And here's what the Bible says
about me and you. Every man at his very best state is altogether
vanity. All the thoughts we have about
ourselves are so vain. We're all so vain. Who is it
that never had a vain thought? Who is it that never spoke a
deceitful word? Who is it that had clean hands?
Who is it that has a pure heart? He's the one that's gonna stand.
Look at verse five. He shall receive the blessing
from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation. They received him willingly into
the ship because God had given them ears to hear what the Lord
Jesus said when he said, I am, be not afraid. And the evidence
that the Lord had given them faith to believe the word of
God is that they received him into the ship. It wasn't the
cause of their salvation, it was the evidence of it. And the
result of their salvation is that they had a safe place to
stand. They could stand in the presence
of a holy God because they have now a Savior who stands in their
stead and represents them before a holy God. They're found in Christ, found
in Him. Not having their own righteousness,
which is of the law, but that righteousness which is by the
faithfulness of the Lord Jesus Christ. My brethren and my friends, this
is the evidence of our salvation. And this is the result of our
salvation. We keep coming to Christ. Oh, did the storms go away? No, the Lord's going to stir
up another one. You're not in a storm right now. If the Lord
tarries, you're going to be. He's going to keep his children
needful. And so this pattern of hearing, receiving, and resting
is an ongoing experience day by day for the child of God.
We're not talking about, well, I heard and I received and I'm
rested, so I'm done with that now. No, there's gonna be lots
of storms, lots of storms, and we're gonna have to keep hearing,
and we're gonna have to keep receiving, and we're gonna have
to keep resting, amen? All right, Tom? Number nine in the spiral hymnal,
let's stand together.