Go ahead, if you would, and turn
with me to John chapter 6. We'll look at verse 44 here and
then move on to some other passages. John chapter 6, verse 44. We've all heard the phrase, able
and willing. Able and willing usually refers
to someone who both can do something, has the skills, has the resources,
capacity to do it, and wants to do it. They have the motivation
or intent to do what they're able to do. It's often used to
emphasize that both conditions are met, both able and willing. Example. looking for someone
that's able and willing to work overtime if needed. And so-and-so
is able and willing to take on more responsibility. And then
there are also those who are not able and willing. It means
just the opposite. The person neither has the capacity,
has the ability, nor the desire to do something. It's just a
hard no. No. Can't do it and wouldn't
do it if I could. He was not able or willing to
help with the project is an example. They're not able or willing to
negotiate on the price. It usually refers to just a dead
end. No capability, no cooperation,
no willingness. Now the Bible, the Word of God
tells us a great deal about those who are able and willing and
those who are not able and willing. And what is it that these two
parties are or are not willing to do? To come to Christ that
they might have life. Life. being eternal life, everlasting
life, never-ending life. Well, who wouldn't be willing
to have that? What's the difference between
these two types of people? Well, as I've said many times,
it's not what, but who makes the difference. It's God who
makes the difference. The Bible even asks that question,
and of course, the Bible answers it. But the question Paul asked,
for who maketh thee to differ from another? What's the difference
between those who can and are able and those who cannot and
not willing? And Paul goes on and asks another
question, what hast thou that thou didst not receive? Now,
if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory as if you didn't
receive it? And then Paul answered that question
to the church at Rome in Romans chapter nine, verses 15 and 16. And he said, for he, God. God
said to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and
I will have compassion on whom I'll have compassion. So then,
this is the result. It's not of him that willeth.
It's not of him that runneth. but of God that showeth mercy."
So Paul clearly answered that question. And then again, he
resolved that question with his answer to the church in Ephesus.
In Ephesus chapter two, or Ephesians chapter two, verses eight and
nine, he said, for by grace are you saved. How? By grace. Through faith. Through believing. And that,
not of yourself. Just in case you don't know what
grace is, unmerited favor given by God, I'm going to go on and
tell you a little more. It's not of yourselves. It's
the gift of God. Not of works. Lest any man should
bow. I think he got the point across,
don't you? It's about grace. It's not of
you. It's a gift. It's God's gift. It's not of your works, because
you're going to boast, and God's not going to share His glory
with anyone else. And then, the Lord Jesus Christ
Himself answered that question for the multitude of followers.
Right here in our text, in John 6, verse 44, look at it. No man can come to Me except
The Father which hath sent me draw him, and I'll raise him
up at the last day. It is written in the prophets,
and they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that
hath heard and hath learned of the Father cometh unto me. So we must conclude one of two
things, because it can't be both. Man is either able and willing
to come to Christ or man is not. Either God elects some, chooses
some to salvation and passes over others, or God draws everyone
so they must respond and accept or reject God's calling. It can't
be both. Either people are spiritually
dead and don't have the ability nor the will to respond, or God's
grace is resistible and ineffective. It's one of the two. And either
you're saved 100% by God's doing, or salvation is by man's will
and man's choosing and man's ability. It can be both. But the Scriptures are clear.
God makes the difference. Salvation is of the Lord. Man is dead and trespasses in
sin. Man has no ability, man has no
will in the matter of salvation. The Lord said it very plainly
in our text, no man can come. That word can means just what
it says. No man has the ability to come
to Christ. No man has the life to come.
He's dead. A dead man can't come. A dead
man has no power, no desire, no capacity or will to do so. No man can believe in Christ,
come to Him, unless God Himself initiated. I can find great confidence in
that. Because I know I'm dead in trespasses
and sin in and of myself. I know I don't have the ability.
I know I don't have the will. The election of God and His preservation
is my only assurance of being saved. If salvation is only offered
and must be freely accepted, I can easily be turned away by
the same fickle will that accepted it. If I will to be saved, then
I will to be lost. But if God wills me to be saved,
I can't be lost. Oh, what great confidence we
can have in God's sovereign control over all things. It's God who
makes me perfect in every good work. to do His will, God working
in me and God working in you, that which is well pleasing in
His sight through Jesus Christ, Hebrews 13, 21. And that being
the case, I need not trust in my obedience, nor in my choice,
nor in my faithfulness, to come to Christ in order to be saved.
I only need to trust and rest in Him and His finished work. Don't you like that? Oh, I love
that. Human ability is not enough because
we don't have any ability. Man's dead, has no ability. By nature, men and women are
dead in trespasses and sin, incapable of choosing God and coming to
Christ apart from His divine intervention. So we must concur
that if salvation is left up to the sinner, no sinner is ever
going to be saved. Not a one. Heaven will be empty
and hell will be full. It's called sovereignty in salvation. It's called irresistible grace. I like that term. I can't resist
it. If God sets His affection on
me, I'm going to receive it. It's not universal. It's not
universal redemption. It's particular redemption. It's distinguishing grace. It's
God distinguishing, choosing who receives it. And they can't
resist it. They'll receive it. So we clearly
see that we're not able. We don't have the ability to
come to Christ. We don't have the capacity to come to Him.
So, what about the will to come to Him? Well, if we don't have
the ability to come, then we certainly don't have the willingness
to come. If we're dead in trespasses and sin and can do nothing, then
we cannot will for something to be done. If a dead man's not
able, can he be willing? Well, no. Now the Lord had already dealt
with man's will in the previous chapter. Look back at chapter
5, verse 40. You know these verses, they're
precious. Gives those who have no hope,
hope. In verse 40 here, John chapter
5, the Lord Jesus says, and ye will not come to me that ye might
have life. You will not. The reason men
and women don't have eternal life is because they refuse to
come to the Lord Jesus who is life. You will not come to me
that you might have life. What does that say about man's
free will? Anytime I hear somebody say,
you know, I gave my heart to Jesus and I let Jesus take control
of my life and I Willed to be saved. I want to say, you will
not come. You will not come to Christ that
you might have liked. No man can come to Christ except
God draw him. So who's salvation of? But they'll argue with you. Now listen, this isn't about
ignorance. People say, well, they're just
ignorant. Well, I agree. But this is about willful rejection. You will not, will not come. They had the Scriptures. They
had the Old Testament prophecies. They saw all the miracles that
the Lord Jesus did. None but God could do the things
that He did. They even said that. The Pharisees
even said that. They chose not to come to Christ.
There wasn't any lack of evidence. There was only a lack of desire. Look at the previous verse here
in John chapter 5, verse 39. The Lord said, Search the Scriptures,
for in them, that being the Scriptures, you think you have eternal life,
and they, the Scriptures, are they which testify of Me. That
word testify there means witness. The Scriptures are they that
witness in me, the Lord said. What do they witness to? They
testify, they present evidence. That's what the Scriptures do.
They testify and bring evidence that Jesus Christ is salvation. They point to Christ. Just like
John did on that day. Behold the Lamb of God. They
take away the sin of the world. They point to Him. They give
evidence to Him being the only One who can save. Verse 40 is
the heart of the problem and the issue. You will not come. Four little words. The longest word, four letters. You will not come. They were unwilling, despite
all their knowledge. Well, they'd searched the Scriptures.
They thought they... And the Pharisees and the scribes
knew them frontwards and backwards. but you will not come. They were
unwilling despite of their knowledge. And here we see the futility
of man's intellect. Listen, it doesn't have anything
to do with it. The most intelligent people in
the world, some of the most intelligent people that I've ever met in
this world reject the simplicity of the gospel. Life comes in
and by and through Christ alone. There are multitudes of intelligent
people who don't believe that. No excuse, but self-righteousness. No, no, no, no. I've got to do
something to be saved. There's something that I've got
to do. What are you going to do? You're dead. You can't come. You're not willing to come. Boasting is excluded. How then can any incapable and
unwilling sinner be saved? Well, look at Psalm 110 with
me. You know these verses. We're
not preaching anything new. Better not. Look at Psalm 110. Here in Psalm 110, verse 3, David
wrote this. How is any incapable sinner,
unwilling sinner going to be saved? Right here. Thy people,
speaking of God's people, shall be willing when? How? In the day of thy power. Sinners are made willing one
way, only by the power of God, in the day that His power was
displayed toward them. Now, notice there that the words
shall be are italicized. The verse should read, Thy people
willing. Thy people willing. They are
the only ones that will be willing, His people. Not the whole world,
but His people in the world. That word willing in this verse
means a free will offering. This willingness is granted by
God's power alone. Well, I thought you said that
man doesn't have a free will, man don't. It's only given by
the power of God. Only God can give a man a willingness,
a voluntary willingness, to come to Christ. This willingness is
granted by God's power alone. It means that God's people freely,
voluntarily, plentifully, will be willing to bow to Christ. I believe it was Brother Montgomery
that said it one time, I'll never forget it. He said, God's not
going to drag a believer unwillingly to heaven. You know, he's not
going to be kicking and going, no, I ain't going to go. No,
he makes us willing. He makes us willing. Freely. Plentifully. Willing to bow to
our Savior. David is saying, Lord, Your people
will offer themselves freely in the day of Your power. Not
before. Not before. Lord, only You can
make us the sinners that we are able and willing to come to Christ. Did you notice how He does so?
Again, verse 3, look at this. I always stop right there. It
says, In the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning,
Thou hast the dew of Thy youth. These people, your people, God
says my people, will be willing because of the beauty of Christ's
holiness. Christ's holiness is going to
cause them to see their need of His holy garments. What are those holy garments?
Christ's perfect righteousness. That being the purity provided
by His righteous covering. Our righteousness, our covering,
filthy rags. You ever seen a poor beggar on
the street and his clothes are dirty and they got holes in them?
That's our righteousness. That's our righteousness. We
need that perfect, holy, bright, shining righteousness of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And this holiness comes from
the womb of the morning. What does that mean? It's talking
about freshness, it's talking about newness, newness of life. Christ's freshness is seen in
the dawn of the light of the morning, the beginning of a new
day. Behold, all things have become
new. Old things have passed away. Everything's new, it's fresh,
like the dew in the morning. Thou hast the dew of thy youth.
Dew is fresh. You go outside in the morning
on a sunny day and you can just see it glistening on the grass.
It looks so refreshing. It's refreshing, it's renewing,
it's abundant. Dew represents our joy that comes
in the morning. Psalm 30 verse 5 says, for His
anger endureth but for a moment. In His favor is life. Weeping
may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. That's
the dew of His youth. The believer's newness is as
fresh as the dawn of the light in the morning, like the beginning
of a new day. Because that's what it is. It's
the dew of youth. Never to die. Never to die. No matter how old I am when I
leave this life, I've got the youth. I've got the dew of youth. Never die. Oh, people would pay
millions for it. Give me a potion that caused
me to live forever. I don't need a potion. I've got
the means. The Lord Jesus Christ speaks
of a new day where all things have become new. A new day where
old things are passed away. Aren't you glad? A new day where
we are all made able and willing. The word willing is an adjective
to describe someone who's ready, prepared, inclined, eager, happy,
glad, keen, enthusiastic to do something. What is that something? to come to Christ that they might
have life. That's it. God's call to come
to Christ started soon after man's fall. Turn with me to Genesis
6. Look at this. You know this.
Again, it's common. No, nothing common, but just
familiar verses is what I meant to say. Genesis 6, verse 5. Look at it. Man fell in the garden. Oh, it was a horrific thing.
Verse 5, God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth.
Why? Because the wickedness was great
in the man. That's why. And every imagination
of man, of the thoughts of man's heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that
he hath made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.
And the Lord said, I'm gonna destroy man of whom I created
from the face of the earth, both man and beast and the creeping
thing and the fowls of the air, for it repented me that I have
made them. But Noah, but Noah, he found
grace in the eyes of the Lord. Now look down at verse 17. God
says, and behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon
the earth to destroy all flesh wherein is the breath of life
from under heaven, and everything that is in the earth shall die. I'm gonna wipe it all out. But
with thee, Noah, you who have found grace in my eyes, will
I establish my covenant and thou shalt come into the ark and thou
and thy sons and thy wife and thy wife and thy son's wife with
thee." You're going to come to the ark. No man can come. No man has the ability to come.
God in the day of His power makes man able Now I want to show you
two things that prove everything that I've endeavored to say this
morning, and then I'll finish. First, the call of God. Second, man's, particularly Noah's,
obedience to that call. Look at, turn over a page, you
may not have to, Genesis chapter 7, look at verse 1. And the Lord said unto Noah,
Come thou and all thy house into the ark, for thee have I seen
righteous before me in this generation." Now let me just take a second
to explain that. Noah was a sinner just like everybody
else. When the Lord says here, I have
seen you righteous before me in this generation, He means
just that. Compared to everybody else in the world, Noah was,
well, at least he had thoughts of God. He found grace, unmerited
favor in God's eyes. He was righteous compared to
the rest of the wicked world in which he lived. So God here
commands Noah to enter the ark before the flood of God's wrath
begins. And God, by infinite grace, entered
into a covenant with Noah. We just read it, a promise that
he would preserve Noah and his family alive. The rest of the
world was going to be annihilated. But those who were in the ark,
preserved. You know what that's a picture
of. And this covenant, this promise
that God made was fixed. It was ordained by God to be
before the worlds were ever framed. And God gave Noah the ability
and the willingness to obey Him. If not, Noah wouldn't have either.
Noah would have died with the rest of the world. Now, Noah
wasn't carried into the ark by force. Like I said a moment ago,
God don't drag His people into heaven against their will. He makes them willy. Noah wasn't
carried in by force. It wasn't against his will or
by threat of violence. Noah, like we do our children,
hey, if you don't mind me, I'm going to wear you out. God didn't
say that to Noah. Noah entered into the ark voluntarily. Noah entered into the ark cheerfully. I can just see him going into
that ark. Just as happy as he could be.
Noah acted in perfect freedom. Friends, that's so with the believer
in Christ. There's a decree in heaven ordaining
the salvation of the Lord's chosen people, and the ones that He's
chosen are happy about it. Even though God had purposed
and decreed the salvation of His elect, we must still preach
the gospel to all. You know, that's the Arminians'
argument against the sovereign election of God. Well, if you
believe only the elect are going to be saved, why don't you just
preach to them? We'll put a red mark on them,
and that's who I'll preach to. But I don't know who they are.
Only God does. So we preach to all sinners. We preach the gospel to all.
We don't know who God's elected. The gospel demands all sinners
to come to Christ. We preach to all for all are
commanded to come. Now I don't know whose names
are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. But I do know that all
are commanded to come to Christ. So we preach to all. I must declare
to all that whosoever believes in and on the Lord Jesus Christ
shall be saved. And we as fishers of men, we
cast out that gospel net into the sea, believing that Christ
knows every fish that's going to come into that net. He knows
the others too, but He knows who's going to come into that
net. But it's not my business. It's not my business to which
fish belongs to him. I simply, as a servant of God,
a fisherman of men, cast out the net. The end result is the Lord's
doing. Noah cast out that net for 120 years and didn't catch
a single fish. Didn't make one single convert. Didn't catch one fish. And as
a preacher of righteousness, he kept preaching. Perhaps his preaching
maybe had profited his wife and his sons and his sons' wives,
but outside of his own family, his words fell on deaf, unbelieving
ears. You see, a preacher can only
give a general call. It's what we call a general call.
We preach the gospel to every creature. But God's call to Noah
was a different kind of call. It was an effectual call. Effective. Always effective. Noah's call
was a personal call. The Lord said to Noah, come thou. You come. Noah came. It was personal and it was effectual.
Resistance wasn't an option. Men and women can close their
ears to a common call. I don't want to hear it. Don't
want to hear it. Not going to hear it. And that's what they did in the
days before the flood came. The Scripture's clear. For many
are called, but few are chosen. You ever wonder what that Scripture
means? That's what it means. God gives a general call to all,
but only few really hear. Only few wind up in that net. That's what that word draw means.
Except the Father would send me to draw Him. refers to a fisherman's net. Men and women will go to hell
every day with the words of God's true preachers ringing in their
ears. And the sad part about it is
that it'll ring in those ears forever. Forever. They willfully rejected the word
of God that they heard. But then there's a silent call.
A silent call, which we call the effectual call. And any and
all resistance that may show itself at first is sweetly overcome. The first time the Lord called
me, I didn't come, but the Lord dealt with me. He prepared me. He kept dealing with me. He wouldn't
leave me alone. He didn't grab me by the neck
and say, come, you rebellious rebel. He dealt with me. And He brought me. Sweetly overcome. The sinner's
will is no longer headstrong and obstinate. In power, God's
grace calms it and makes it obedient to the command of the Lord to
come. For who hath resisted He as God's
will? It wasn't Noah's will that saved
him. That's what I'm trying to say. It was God's will and God's
power in the call that saved him. That's why God's people
are named the called. Romans 8, 28. All things work
together for the good of them that love the Lord, who are what?
The called. Why are they called? According
to His purpose. God didn't beg sinners to come. God didn't say, Noah, won't you
just please come? Please come. It was a command. Come now! And Noah came. Come or you'll perish. God's
wrath is going to soon fall. The ark, Christ, is your refuge. The ark, Christ, is your deliverance. The ark, in the ark, Christ,
there's safety. Come to the ark. Get into the
ark. It's the same today. Dear lost
one, you must come to Christ or you too will perish. God's
wrath is going to soon fall. Christ is the only refuge. Come
thou unto Christ is the command. You know, for Noah, all the preparations
had been made. All the Lord's work was finished.
The Lord told him what to do. Build thou an ark. Build it just
like this. Call the animals by two and bring
them into the ark. Prepare all the food that they'll
need for this length of time. God had prepared the work. The work was finished. The only thing left for Noah
to do was what? Come into the ark. That's all
that's left for us to do. We can do nothing to save ourselves. The work's been finished for
us. And all that's left for you to
do is to come into the ark. God'll make you able and God'll
make you willing to come. If not, you too will perish.
The storm of God's wrath is coming, but all those in the ark be saved. He said, come thou in all thy
house. When God calls a man, to come
to Him. He's going to tell His wife.
He's going to tell His children. He's going to tell everybody
He knows. I've got a message for you. I've got some good news
for you. You'd better listen. You hear
that hammer? God's wrath is coming. Look at verse 16. This is so
precious. I love this. And they that went
in, male and female of all fleshes,
God had commanded him, and the Lord shut him in." How wonderful it is to come to
Christ and be shut in. Some of you know what that's
like. And the Lord shut him in. It's God who seals His people
in Christ. No one else can open or close
that door. This is God's divine act of protection. This is God's divine separation
from destruction. It's in the ark that took the
full force of the storm while Noah and his family were safe
inside. Don't you see the picture? Beloved
is Christ who took the wrath of God in our room instead so
that we wouldn't have to. And listen, when God shuts you
in, you're shut in. You can't be half in and half
out. The ark was by God's instruction
to save Noah from judgment. Jesus Christ was sent by God
to save his people from their sin and eternal judgment. The ark had one door. Christ
is the door, the only way to salvation. The ark was covered
in pitch to seal and to save. Christ's blood covers our sin. He's our atonement. A storm of
judgment hits the ark, not Noah. The wrath of God falls on Christ,
not the believer. Noah had to enter the ark to
be saved. The sinner's got to be in Christ to be saved. And
God shut the door. God seals His people in Christ.
And that's the best. What confidence! What assurance
we can have in that! in whom ye also trusted, after
that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation,
in whom also, after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy
Spirit of promise, which is the earnest, the down payment of
our inheritance, until the redemption of the purchased possession,
unto the praise of His glory." Who gets the glory in our redemption?
God does. Christ does. And in order for
God to be just, sin had to be dealt with. Sin got to be punished
in order for God to be just. And the wrath of God fell from
heaven. It fell from heaven on Noah just
as it did the rest of the world. What was the difference? The
only difference was the difference that God made. Noah was in the
ark. That's the only difference. That's
the only thing that's going to save you and me. We'll be spared
if we're in Christ. God's wrath is going to fall
upon Him instead of us. So we see Noah's call. Let me
just for a few seconds tell you about the second thing, Noah's
obedience to the call. Noah came into the ark, him and
his wife and his sons and their wives. and their obedience was
unquestioning. We don't find them asking anything. Well, now if we come into this
ark, how long are we going to be there? And what is there to
eat inside there? We've got something to eat? They
didn't ask that. They came in unwavering faith. They didn't ask anything about
the reason for the command. They came as they would be. They
passed through that doorway, and they were in the ark. And
they were safe. So it's my prayer that by the
Spirit of God and the power of God, that you, dear sinner, who
are yet without Christ, will yield and bow to the divine command
of God, which says, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou
shalt be saved. You see, if God be pleased to
make it so, He'll give you the ability to come. And He'll make
you willing to come, won't He, Steve? He'll make you willing
to come. And it's by His mighty power
that He does so, to trust in the only One who could do for
you what you yourself could never do. This is all accomplished
by the sweet, effectual, personal call of God's Holy Spirit. Come, ye sinners, poor and needy,
weak and wounded, sick and sore! Jesus ready stands to save you,
full of pity, love, and power. Let not conscience make you linger,
nor a fitness fondly dream. All the fitness that God requires
is that you feel your need of Him. Do you feel your need of
Him? Then come, come to Christ, come
to the earth. Come ye weary, heavy laden, lost
and ruined by the fall. If you tarry till you're better,
you'll never come at all. If you have not come to Christ,
come.