You can turn to John chapter
6. I think the three most humbling
times in my life. First, when God saved me. Secondly, when God used me. And thirdly, when she said, I
do. Those are three humbling times. It's amazing that God takes clay
pots, cracked pots, centers. He put this treasure in earthen
vessels. And I beg God tonight to take
the two earthen vessels He has chosen to put here tonight and
enable us to glorify His name, to preach the gospel of His glory,
the glory of the blessed God. What a responsibility and what
a great privilege at the same time to be able to I'm standing
here and bragging on the Lord Jesus Christ and His children to be able to do that. To be
used of God to do that. Now what I want to talk to you about tonight is
the will of the Father in the saving of sinners. And I start out with this question. By whose will? Are we saved? Our will or God's will? The Bible teaches us that we
are saved by the will of God, of His own will. Beget He us
with the Word of Truth. False religion teaches us that
we're saved by our will. I think I'll take God's Word
on it. I think I'll take God's word on it instead of man's word
on it. God's word teaches us that we are saved by the will
of God. Listen to Romans 9, 15, 16. For he saith to Moses, I will
have mercy on whom I will have mercy. I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. So then, it's not of him that
willeth. That's pretty clear, isn't it? I mean, I don't think
I could write it any clearer than that. It's not because of
your will. That's so clear. It's not of
him that willeth, nor of him that runneth. Our efforts, merits. But of God that showeth mercy. to a bunch of wretched people
like us. Now we know, and I have to start
in verse 37, I was going to start in verse 38, but I can't leave
verse 37 out because it's one of my favorite verses. And here's
the reason why. It's when I heard the gospel,
my pastor Henry Mahan, when I heard the gospel, The only thing that
kept me from going into despair, and I mean, I struggled. The
only thing that kept me coming was the latter part of this verse.
You know, the Scripture says all that the Father giveth me,
that has to do with election. But I was not concerned at the
time, and I'm still not concerned. Am I one of the elect, or am
I not? Here's what I was concerned with. I'm a senator. I need a
Savior. And Lord, You said, and I tell
you, this verse kept me alive, so to speak. It kept me alive. You said, He that cometh to me,
I will in no wise cast out. And I have learned over the years,
the best thing to take to the throne of grace is God's own
Word. This is a promise. This is a promise. Take the promises of God to the
throne of grace. God's a God of His Word. He promised
that He that cometh to me, I will in no wise, for no reason, at
any time, say no, get out of here. I won't do that. I won't do that. But in the first
part of that verse, It is written, all that the Father giveth me.
Well, what did he give the Lord Jesus Christ? Everything. Absolutely everything. As mediator,
all things are given into the hands of Jesus Christ. God has
turned, God the Father has absolutely turned everything over to the
Son. Everything, everything that moves,
everything that has an existence, all things are made by Him and
for Him. You and I just need to get over
ourselves, because it's not for us. It's not for us. This is all made for Jesus Christ. The only reason for my existence,
I like what it says about John, that the only reason for John
was to point to the Lamb of God. That's the only reason for John's
existence. is to say, Behold the Lamb of God which taketh
away the sin of the world. The only reason for this John's
existence is Jesus Christ. You take away Jesus Christ, there's
no reason for me, you, this earth, the universe, anything, angels,
there's no reason for us to exist. We exist for the glory of God's
Son. And the sooner we learn that,
The sinner will actually worship God and give Him the glory due
unto His name. Now, all things are given to
Him. Listen, He says over in John
17, all power and all authority is given to me. Well, He says
that over in Matthew. All power and all authority is
given to me in heaven and earth. But He says over there in John
17 that all power is given unto Him over all flesh. Now, how
does anyone come up with the fact that we can resist Him when
all power over all flesh is given to Him? And for this reason,
that He may give eternal life to as many as the Father gave
to Him. He has power over every person
that's on this earth, ever been on this earth, or ever will be
on this earth. Jesus Christ has all power over them for this
purpose that He should give eternal life to His men as the Father
gave to Him. Now, if He didn't have all power,
He couldn't do that. But all power is given to Him
to do that as the Mediator. Everything is under the authority
of that man, Jesus Christ. Everything. All power is given
to Him over all flesh. All in election are given to
Him. All the chosen are given to Him
in Christ. All grace is given to us in Christ. It all flows to us in Christ.
All the love that the Father has to us comes to us through
Jesus Christ. Everything in the covenant of
grace comes to us through Jesus Christ. Take away Christ and we don't
have a gospel. We have nothing. Now, He says in verse 38, For
I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the
will of Him that sent me. The Son came down from heaven.
Here's what He's saying. I am from above. You know, He
said that in one place. I am from above. You are from
beneath. I am from above. Here is one who came from glory
into this world, took upon Him flesh, and is telling us who
God is. He's revealing the Father. He's
from above, and this speaks of His deity. He is God. He is God. Over in Genesis chapter 1, in
the beginning, God, well, that's Jesus Christ. That's Jesus Christ. speaking and creating, also created
by Him. That's Him speaking and creating. He is the eternal God. This speaks
of His eternal existence. He said before Abraham was, He
didn't say I was. He said I am. I am. With Him it's always I am. It's
always present. You and I have passed, you know,
we have the past and with God it's always present. Everything's
always present with God. And he says here, I am. And he says he came down from
heaven not to do my own will, not that his will's any different,
but to show us that he and the Father are one. Not to do my own will, but the
will of him that sent me. He said in one place, my meat,
My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me. Oh, that we
could catch that Spirit. That our very existence, our
very food, our very reason for living is to do the will of our
Father. Isn't that? Well, there is one
that did that. There is one that did that, the
Lord Jesus Christ. The Son was sent He didn't come
of His own, He was sent. He was sent by the Father. He
has the full authority of heaven behind Him in saving those whom
He saves. He has the full authority of
heaven behind Him. And you know what else this means? If He came
from heaven and the Father sent Him, it means to reject Him is
to reject the Father. To turn on Him is to turn on
the Father. Those Pharisees didn't realize
that. They claimed God to be their Father, and here they're
rejecting the Son. When Philip said, show us the
Father, and it suffices, he said, you're looking at Him. You're
looking at Him. He that has seen me has seen
the Father. But I want you to know this. The Lord Jesus Christ, He receives
sinners, He received all those that the Father gave to Him,
not only because He loved them, but out of obedience to His Father. Out of obedience to His Father's
will. This is the Father's will. You would think that we would
be up on the edge of our seat when we hear of the Father's
will. We're getting ready to speak
of the Father's will, you'd think we'd be... I want to hear what His will
is. I want to know what His will is. And here's a revelation of the
Father's will. You want to know it? Here it
is. And this is the Father's will,
which has sent me, that of all which He hath given me I should
lose nothing. But she'd raise it up again at
the last day. You see, the will of the Father here is between
the Father and the Son. It's not, here's the will of
the Father, you quit going to the movies, you quit drinking,
you quit this, you quit that. No, this is the will of the Father
between the Father and the Son in saving sinners like me and
you. It ought to give us great comfort
to know that it's the Father's will, it's His will, that all
for whom Jesus Christ was given, that they should be saved and raised up again at the last
day. It's His will. Who hath resisted His will? Salvation is not based on my
will or anyone else's will. It's based on our Father's will.
And the Scripture says He does all things after the counsel
of His own will. And we make no progress. We make
no progress in salvation until this matter is settled. This
is the first matter settled in salvation. Whose will? Whose will is going to reign? Whose will is going to reign?
By whose will are we saved? God's will. And here's the Father's will,
that of all which he hath given me, I should lose nothing, but should
raise it up again at the last day." You know, that word there,
nothing, he said, I should lose nothing, that's more than that
I shouldn't lose any. But he said, I should lose absolutely
nothing. He said, not a hair of your head shall perish. I'm not trying to be funny here,
but I expect a forehead of hair when it's over. Because he said,
not one hair of my head will perish. Not one hair. He knows how many hairs on my
head. He knows on his children. He knows every hair. He said,
all your hairs are numbered. That's how minutely he knows
you. He knows you. David said, He knows my down-sitting
and my up-rising. He knows my thoughts are far
off. You think you know yourself? No, I'll tell you who does know
you, though. The Lord knows you. He knows your sinfulness. He knows your weakness. He knows
your need. As many as needed healing, He
healed. Anybody need spiritual healing
here? And even if we're physically
healed, He's the one that does it. He's the one that does it. Not a hair of your head shall
perish. Jesus Christ will not lose it. One sheep, whom the Father gave to Him.
Isn't that good news? I know, I know, I know some people
from my past that believe you can be saved and lost, saved
and lost, saved and lost. And then there was those who
believed once saved, always saved, and once you accepted Jesus as
your personal Savior, that you were saved forever. I'll tell
you what my eternal security is. The Father gave me to the
Son. and made Him my surety, made
Him my responsibility to bring me home. Now, if that doesn't
give you comfort, that Jesus Christ is responsible for me.
Now, if you were responsible for me, that might be a good
thing, why not? But Jesus Christ being responsible
for me, behold, my servant shall not fail. He will not fail. He cannot, He will not, He shall
not fail to bring every last one of them home. And everything
about me, my body, I'm gonna have a new body. Everything about
me is gonna be redeemed and be brought home. He's gonna raise it up again
at the last day. You know, our Lord said in one
place, he that believes in me shall never die. You know, I
actually believe that. I believe I'm not going to die.
I believe I'm going to change places. It's like I change clothes
before I come over. I put this suit on. Took my rug
clothes off and put my suit on. That's what, we're not going
to die. Believers are not going to die.
You're going to go to be with the Lord and you're just going
to change. Their body's going to be changed
from this old vile, and that's how the scripture speaks of this
body. Corruption. This corruption must put on incorruption. And this mortal must put on immortality. That's good news. There's nothing
morbid about that, is there? That's good news. If one person perished for whom
Jesus Christ died, then the will of the Father means nothing.
It's zero. It means nothing. And Jesus Christ
is a failure. In fact, the whole Trinity is
a failure. If one sheep, just one sheep,
he said he had 99, he had 100 sheep, and if one goes astray,
he goes out and gets that one. Most people, they figure that's
a pretty good business ratio if you only lose one, but not
with God. He'd lose his glory. I wouldn't lose my glory if I,
in a business sense, If I took a hundred sheep out and a lion
got one and I come back and I said, well, a lion attacked and got
it. But I brought 99 back, that's
a pretty good return. But in heaven it's a total loss.
That's a total loss. To lose one is a total loss.
It's over with. God's not God no more. If that
could happen. But our Lord's no failure. He's
no failure. He said He'll raise it up again
at the last day. God said over in the Psalms,
I have laid help upon one that's mighty. He laid help, God laid
help upon God. Now that's mighty isn't it? He didn't just lay it upon a
man like me or you. He laid it upon the God man,
but God. He's God. And He said, I'll raise them
up again at the last day. One day at the end, all the graves
are going to open, and the bodies of the saints. That new body. This is over my head. I'm over
my head. But it's so. It's true. But then He goes on
here in verse 40. And this is the will of Him that
sent me. Here's His will. that everyone
who seeth the Son and believes on him may have everlasting life,
and I'll raise him up at the last day." He goes from the will
of the Father giving all things to the Son, and the Son's gonna
raise him up, and now he's attaching faith to it. And this is the will of the Father,
that everyone that seeth the Son... What's the evidence that
I was given to Christ? You know what it is? I see, I
understand the Son. I understand who Jesus Christ
is. Now to me, that's a profound
statement. I understand who Jesus Christ
is. I understand the work that He,
His work of redemption for me and for all those whom He saved.
I understand the work of redemption. When I see the cross, I see the
mighty God in the flesh dying and putting away my sins. Not
making an attempt to do it and not making it a possibility.
But putting away... I died in Christ. I died 2,000
years ago. Let's live in the reality of
that. Live in it. It's real. Paul said to count
it over in Romans. Reckon it to be so. He's talking
about that old adage. Since you'll not have dominion
over you, if you're not in the law, you're under grace. Over in Romans. I kept thinking of the chapter
right now. When he says reckon it to be so, it's saying count
it to be so. Count it to be real. I don't
feel it to be real. The Bible's not written to feelings.
It's not written to your feelings. It's not written to my feelings.
And feelings have nothing to do with it. I mean, I can feel
good today and bad tomorrow. Our feelings are like the weather.
It rains, cloudy day, we kind of have a cloudy attitude. It has to do with faith. It has
to do with believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. I have learned
that whether I feel good or I feel bad, I take God at His Word. Take Him at His Word. But I don't
feel it. Take Him at His Word. This is the will of Him that
sent me, that everyone who seeth the Son and believes on Him may
have everlasting life. All for whom Christ died will
be brought to faith in Christ. There'll be a revelation of Christ
to the heart. It'll be God revealing Christ
in you, not just to you. You're not gonna learn some facts
about Him, but He's gonna be a living reality in your heart. That's why Paul said that over
in Philippians, I'll probably remember it by the time I get
there, over in Philippians chapter 3 I believe it is. I'm not going to quote it, I'm
going to read it. Over in Philippians chapter,
let's turn to chapter 3. Paul says, listen, let me go
to verse 8, verse 7. Well, what things were gained
to me, those I counted lost for Christ? Yea, Dallas, I count
all things but lost for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus
my Lord, there in Philippians 3.8. For the excellency of the
knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I suffered the
loss of all things, and do count them but done, that I may win
Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness,
but the righteousness which is the law, not having my own righteousness,
which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of
Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith, that I may
know Him and the power of His resurrection, the power of His
resurrected life in me right now. I want to know the power
of Christ who's risen. Christ who is eternal life. I
want to know that power in me as I live out my life that God's
given me on this earth. That's what I want and that's
what all believers want. And they don't want this until
Christ is revealed in you and He becomes real to you. He becomes
your life. He becomes your meat and drink. He becomes your all in all. And
I'll raise him up, here's the promise, I'll raise him up at
the last day. The honor of the gold, the whole Godhead is staked
on Jesus Christ's success. You know that? It's staked on his success at
Calvary. If salvation were up to our will,
we would all be lost. You ever notice this? I pointed
this out several times back home. You know, man talks about his
will. And it always jumps out at me
that when the Lord is casting out devils, not one time has
any one of them ever asked for mercy. And not one human being
will ever ask for mercy until God shows mercy on them. That man, that demoniac, had
that legion of devils in him? They said, let us go to the pigs.
They didn't ask for mercy or forgiveness. If you come to 12
minutes before our time, it's not in it. It's not in us
to sue for mercy because we don't want it. Christ said, you will
not come to me that you might have life. You actually think
you have it. By nature, we think we have life.
We think because we can talk to each other and communicate
with each other, we can do the same with God. No, we can't.
You and I are flesh. It's like two dogs barking at
each other. But they can't talk to me. And I can't talk to them. That's the difference. That's
the difference. You and I are just like two dogs
barking at each other. And we can talk. We can communicate. God is spirit. And you and I
are not. We died in the Garden of Eden.
We died in Adam. God has to quicken us by His
Spirit, that which is born of the Spirit of the Spirit, before
we can communicate with God. And then when we do it, we communicate
with God through Jesus Christ. We communicate through Him. Now
our Lord said to the Jews, He said, now don't murmur among
yourselves. They were murmuring, complaining. That's just what they do. That's
who they are. Complainers complain and that's what they do. And
that's all they ever did. And they said the Jews murmured
at him because he said, I'm the bread which came down from heaven.
They completely missed what he was saying about the Father's
will. They were so caught up in him saying he came down from
heaven because they knew he was claiming deity. They knew he
was claiming to be God. They knew that. And they couldn't,
they just shut down. I mean, they didn't hear anything
else. You know, you say something in a message, and I've had people
do this before, like, they shut down, they just shut down. They
don't hear anything else you have to say. Well, just think, if you
had to say, I'm afraid of coming down from heaven, they wouldn't
hurt anything, would they? But it made them mad. It made
them mad. They knew what he was saying.
You know, the depravity of the human heart is most revealed
in murmuring, which comes from unbelief. The
root cause of it is unbelief, but our depravity is most revealed
in our murmuring, complaining against God. If we believe that all things
are of God, what do we have to murmur about? If we're going to murmur, let us
complain about ourselves. And they said here, and I'm gonna
try to wind this up. And they said, is not this Jesus,
son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How is it he
said he came down from heaven? They thought they knew him. They
thought they knew him. But they didn't know him, did
they? He's not the son of Joseph. He's
the son of God. He's the son of God. This shows us that salvation
has to come by revelation, or you and I can never know. But
it says in verse 43 and 44, Jesus therefore answered and said unto
them, murmur not among yourselves, no man can come to me except
the Father which sent me draw him. And I'll raise him up at
the last day. The Father doesn't sit passively
by as a spectator. He's active in our salvation.
He's active. He said, my Father worketh hitherto
and I work. And you don't need to murmur about this for one
reason. You don't have anything to do with it. You just murmur
about something you don't have anything to do with. That's right. You don't have
anything to do with this. Don't murmur about it. It takes
a divine operation of the Spirit of God to draw a sinner to Jesus
Christ. Are you drawn to Him? Boy, that's
good evidence. God's at work if you're drawn
to the Lord Jesus Christ. He says here that no man come
to him except the Father sent me. Draw him. It's written in
the prophets, and they shall be all taught of God. Every man
therefore that heard and learned of the Father cometh unto me.
And what He's teaching us here is salvation's not left in human
hands in any way, shape, or form. Would infinite wisdom do that?
And besides, whose will is the wisest? Mine or God's? It can't be mine because mine
is connected to a sinful nature. And secondly, I don't know what's
going to happen a second from now. And God has ordained everything
from now, from past to present to future. He's ordained everything. I would rather hang my soul on
the will of God than on my will. And God did not leave, God did
not put His Son through such torment and such wrath on Calvary's
tree. His vision was so marred more
than any man. And then at the end of the day,
He said, now it's up to you. Are you serious? Are you serious? That God would leave it to Him. I'm trying to think of a kind
word. A God-hater. We're all God-haters. We're all born with a natural
enmity to God. Every person born in this world comes into this
world right off the bat, crying lies, and hates God. We were all enemies in our minds
about wicked works at one time. And God hasn't left it in our
hands, it's in His hands. And He teaches His children by
His Spirit, by His Word, and by His ministers. And listen, Jesus Christ is the lesson. I sure hope I know Him more now
than I did 40 plus years ago. He's the lesson. Christ said, take my yoke upon
you and learn how to live. Learn from me. Learn from me. I'm the lesson. I'm the lesson. And our Lord, in order for us
to learn, must give us a new heart because you can't instruct
an old heart. You can't instruct a dead man. Can you? You go stand
at a casket and see if you can instruct a dead man. They put
you in a straitjacket, and they ought to. You can't instruct
a dead man. It's a living man that's instructed.
It's the living that God instructs. He's got to give us life in order
for us to be instructed. And He teaches us the way of
salvation, and Jesus Christ is the way. He's the way. And everyone whom he teaches,
this is a hundred percent, this is a hundred percent true. Come to Christ. Everyone whom
he teaches, every one of them, always come to Christ. Always. It happens every time. It happens
every time. It's like this statistic that
I heard on death one time. They said one out of every one
person dies. It happens every time. And everyone
whom the Father instructs, that person comes to Christ. And let me close right here in
verse 47. And verily, verily, truly, truly,
what I'm telling you is the truth. The truth is telling the truth.
I say unto you, he that believeth on me hath everlasting life. The evidence of life is that
you believe. False religion, Arminianism,
has it, they have it. If you believe, God will save
you. If you believe, God will give you life. If you really
believe, you have eternal life. You wouldn't believe at all.
You wouldn't believe at all if God hadn't saved you. God's got
to save you first before you believe. He's got to give you
life before you believe. Oh, I'm so glad that my salvation
is by the will of the Father and the work of the Son, and
I've got nothing to do with it. I would mess it up.