Back to John chapter 6. This is such a powerful chapter. Christ coming down from heaven,
the Father, His will, the work of salvation, who it's for, It's
a powerful chapter. The title of this message this
morning is, By Whose Will Are We Saved? By Whose Will Are We
Saved? Unregenerate man has a will problem. That's his number one problem,
his will. He wants his will to be done
and not God's will. We know that by experience, don't
we? Man wants to be his own God. Over in Psalm 14.1, the fool
hath said in his heart, there is no God, but there is. It's
supplied by the translators to make it read better. It reads
like this. The fool hath said in his heart,
no God, no God for me. It's what the fool says, no God
for me. I will be my own God. I will rule my own destiny. My
destiny is in my hands. No, it isn't. The earth is the Lord, the fullness,
the fullness of it. And they who dwell therein, they're
in his hands. We see this will problem. in
its earliest stages in the rebellion of children against their parents. And I was thinking of myself
when I wrote it. I was thinking of myself. I know myself from a child. It starts young. You know, here's
the attitude. Buy me this, get me that, but
don't tell me what to do. Is that right? Don't tell me
what to do. But I need you to buy me some.
I want you to. I saw a kid throwing a fit yesterday. Throwing a fit in the store.
I want this, I want that. You do what I want. And that's the way people are
with God. That's the way they are with Christ. They'll have
Christ the miracle worker. The feeder of 5,000, but not
the sovereign. I want to read you, and I'm going
to read you what Charles Spurgeon said in a message, and it's in
A.W. Pink's The Attributes from God.
He quotes Charles Spurgeon, and I want to read it to you. I thought
it was very good, and it fits this. He says here, there is
no attribute more comforting to His children than that of
God's sovereignty. That's His will, His sovereign
will. Under the most adverse circumstances, in the most severe
trials, they believe that sovereignty has ordained their afflictions,
that sovereignty overrules them, and that sovereignty will sanctify
them all. There is nothing for which the children ought more
earnestly to contend than the doctrine of their master over
all creation, the kingship of God over all the works of his
own hands, the throne of God and his right to sit upon that
throne. On the other hand, there is no
doctrine more hated by worldlings, no truth of which they have made
such a football, as the great, stupendous, but yet most certain
doctrine of the sovereignty of the Infinite Jehovah. Now listen
to this. Men will allow God to be everywhere
except on His throne. They will allow Him to be in
His workshop to fashion worlds and make stars. They will allow
Him to be in His armory to dispense His alms and bestow His bounties. They will allow Him to sustain
the earth and bear up the pillars thereof, or light the lamps of
heaven, or rule the ways of the ever-moving ocean. But when God
ascends His throne, His creatures then gnash their teeth. And we
proclaim and enthrone God and His right to do as He wills with
His own, to dispose of His creatures as He thinks well, without consulting
them in the matter. Then it is that we are hissed
and execrated, and then it is that men turn a deaf ear to us.
For God on His throne is not the God they love, but it is
God upon the throne that we love to preach. It is God upon His
throne whom we trust." That's what I'm talking about
this morning. Whose will is going to be done? God's sovereign will
or our will? Listen to what our Lord said
in John 5 40, and you will not. You see, here's the problem.
We have a will problem and you will not come to me that you
might have life. You will not do it. If the Lord
leaves us alone, we will not come to him. We will not do it. We'll come to everything else,
but we will not come to him for life. He said, you got a will
problem. You will not do it. The sin problem
starts here. It starts in whose will is going
to be done. Listen to Isaiah 14, 12 through
14. How art thou fallen from heaven,
O Lucifer, son of the morning? How art thou cut down to the
ground, which ditched weak in the nations? For thou hast said
in thine heart, now listen, I will ascend into heaven. I will exalt my throne above
the stars of God. I will sit also upon the mountain
of the congregation in the sides of the north. I will ascend above
the heights of the clouds. I will be like the Most High
God. That's the will of man. That
is the fallen will of unregenerate man. He wants to sit upon the
throne. I want my will to be done. But
whose will is going to really be done? And by whose will are
we going to be saved? Well, listen to the scriptures.
Let the scriptures speak. Romans 9, 15, 16. For he saith
to Moses, I will. This is God speaking now. See,
Satan said, I will do this. I will do that. Now God speaks
over here in Romans 9. 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, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. By whose will are we saved? By
God's will. By God's will. Now those whom
he saves, are they willing to be saved? According to the Word
of God, in Psalm 110, He says, Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power and the beauties of holiness. That's
who's willing. Now, salvation here does not
start, and I'm going to start with verse 37. It does not start
with me. It doesn't start with you. It
starts with God the Father, and it starts with God the Father
before creation. These scriptures are so clear.
They are so clear In verse 37 all that the father giveth me
Shall come to me and Him that cometh to me. I will and no wise
or no reason cast him out. I Will not cast him out Salvation
starts with God the Father and God the Son. As he says over
in Isaiah 42, Behold my servant, mine elect. If we talk about
election, we have to talk about Jesus Christ first. We have to
talk about the God of election, not just a doctrine of election.
It starts with the God of election. God said, Behold, mine elect.
He chose Christ, His Son, to be the Redeemer, to be the Savior,
to come into this world and save a multitude of sinners. He chose
His Son to be the mediator between Him and men. Everything, everything
is mediated through Jesus Christ. Everything. AND ALL POWER AND
ALL AUTHORITY OVER ALL FLESH HAS BEEN GIVEN INTO THE HANDS
OF THAT MAN JESUS CHRIST. THAT'S WHAT IT SAYS OVER IN JOHN
17. 17-2 I BELIEVE IT IS. HE SAID
FATHER YOU'VE GIVEN ME POWER OVER ALL FLESH. HE HAS POWER
OVER ALL. THERE'S NO DICTATOR, THERE'S
NO PERSON UNDER THE SON THAT IS NOT UNDER THE POWER OF JESUS
CHRIST. And he said, you've given me
power over all flesh that I may give eternal life to as many
as thou hast given me. All power, all authority is in
his hands, all the elect are in his hand, all grace is in
his hand, all love's in his hand, and all covenant blessings are
in his hand. It's interesting how the Bible
class went along with this portion of scripture this morning. And
then Christ speaks in verse 38 of His purpose for coming down
from heaven. And what a powerful statement,
for I came down from heaven. He's talking to these men, and
they're standing there looking at Him in the flesh. Here stands
a man, a poor-looking man. He was born in poverty. He wasn't dressed in royal robe.
He was dressed in just very common clothing. And he's saying to
them, I came down from heaven. That's where I'm from above.
You're from beneath. I came down from heaven, not
to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. Not
that his will is any different, but he's showing his oneness
with the father in our redemption. He's showing his, His agreement
with the Father in our redemption. He says, I came down, not to
do my own will, but the will of Him that sent me. This is
the will of the Father. Has God saved you? God the Father,
His will was to save you. That's the Father's will. That's
His will. The Son came down from heaven,
and He came down to do the will of the Father. He was sent from heaven. He didn't,
and here's another thing. He didn't come on his own. He
was sent. He was sent just like those whom God calls to preach.
He sends them sin of God. He sends them to preach. Well,
he sent his son into this world. He sent his son into this cesspool,
this sewer pit. That is honestly what it is.
It's a sewer pit of corruption. You know, he speaks of the pit,
the prisoners of the pit, lifting them out of the pit. We are in
a sewer pit of sin and corruption, and it's our own. It's our own. And the Lord Jesus Christ came
in to lift us out. He lifted me out of the deep
miry clay, and he did so by becoming my substitute. He was sent by the father. He
has the authority of heaven behind him. And here's one of the serious
charges. If you reject him, you reject
the father. They made such a big claim of
God being their father. And he said, you reject me. You're
rejecting the one you call your father. You're rejecting him.
You're turning your back on him. Because he sent me. I didn't
come here on my own. And our Lord, listen, our Lord
not only receives sinners because He loves them, but He receives
them out of obedience to His Father's will. This is out of obedience to His
Father's will. Now, He says He did not come
of His own will, but to do the will of His Father. What is that
will? I'm interested in it. What is the will of the Father?
What is the will of the one who purposed all of this? Well, he says here in verse 39,
this is the father's will. You'd think we'd get up on the
edge of our seat. You'd think they would have perked up and
really listen. This is the father's will, which has sent me that
of all which he has given me, I should lose nothing. but should raise it up again
at the last day." He said, I'm not going to lose one sheep the
father gave me. Here he's speaking of the father's
will and the success of the son. All that the father gave me,
I will not lose one, not one. If one sheep, if one person that
was given to Christ perishes. Christ is a failure. Jesus Christ
is an absolute failure. That is so clear. You can't,
it can't be written any more clear than that. If he loses
one, he's a failure. You know, as we reckon things
among men, if we lose one, if you know, we have, we, if we
had 90, if we had a hundred sheep and one of them was lost, we've
said, well, we only lost one. Wouldn't we? Here's 99 of them. You're bound to lose something.
We're used to losing. We're used to losing a little
bit, a percentage. When I ran a business for another
man, he would have me write out a business plan each year. And
I had to put down a percentage of growth for the year, how much
growth was going to be. And he said, because you're always
going to lose, you're always going to lose some to your competition.
You're always going to lose something to the economy. But you're always
going to lose something. So you always got to be planning
for that. And so you've got to make sure in your plan that you're
going to overcome those losses. He's losing none. Christ said,
I will lose nothing, period. I will lose nothing. But I'll
raise it up again at the last day. Every last one of the sheep
will be there. They'll all be accounted for,
present. And it ought to give us great
comfort to know that it is the Father's will that all whom he
has given to Christ shall be saved and raised up again at
the last day. I'm going to come out of the
grave. My body, someday, my body is going to be buried in a cemetery. It's going to be put under, it's
going to go back to the dust. But now I'm coming out of that
grave. I believe that as sure as I'm standing here. I believe
I'm coming out of that grave. The grave to me is nothing but
a resting place for my body. It's a place where this old body
can go and be done away with, and he's going to raise a new
body, a glorified body, a body that's like his, a powerful,
we can't even begin to conceive The power of that body of Christ
that he has now and it will have, we will have. You know that one
time after he rose from the grave that the disciples were gathered
in a room and he appeared in their midst? We're going to have the same
capabilities that he has. It's beyond, it's beyond me,
beyond me. But the power of the body is
gonna be phenomenal, unimaginable, that body that he's gonna give
us to his people when he raises them from the dead. They buried a dear friend of
mine I've known for years. He sat under me at Hurricane
Road. He passed away a few days ago.
They buried him yesterday. Todd Nibert preached his funeral. I'm gonna see him again. I will
see him again. I'll see my pastor, Henry Mahan,
again. You'll see Rupert again. I'll see Rupert again. Because Christ said, I'll raise
him from the dead. I'll raise them there. They were
given to me my father. They were entrusted to me think
about this God took all his children and Entrusted them to his son
to bring home to bring home spotless He's gonna present a spotless
without blame. It says in the scriptures That's
how he's gonna present us and all of God's children are gonna
be there. I You know, a mother is never,
she's never happy if her child is stillborn. Carry it for nine
months and then it's stillborn? You take it from the womb to
the grave? That's what it would be like.
That's what it would be like for one of God's children to
perish. It would be nothing but a stillborn baby. Be taken from
the grave to hell. That ain't gonna happen. That's
not gonna happen. Christ said, I'll raise it up
again at the last day. He said here, and that of all
which he hath given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise
it up again at the last day. You know what our Lord said in
one place to his disciples? Not a hair of your head will
perish. Now, he said that the hairs on
your head are numbered. That's how minutely God knows
his children. He knows how many hairs on your
head. Jesus Christ will not lose any. And he says here, but should
raise it up again at the last day. I thought of Isaiah 42,
4. He said, my servant shall not
fail. He shall not fail. Turn over
to Isaiah 42. You got to read this. This shows the success of the
son. The success of our, of our Lord. Isaiah 42, one of my, I say favorite
chapters, but all of them are favorite chapters, but some speak
more than others to us at times. Behold, my servant, he's speaking
here of the Lord Jesus Christ, whom I uphold, mine elect, in
whom my soul delighted. I have put my spirit upon him.
He shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not
cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street.
A bruised wreath shall he not break, and a smoking flask shall
he not quench. He shall bring forth judgment
unto truth. He shall not fail, nor be discouraged. That word means broken. Till
he hath set judgment in the earth and the isles, the Gentiles shall
wait for his law, his gospel. He shall not fail, he cannot
fail, he will not fail. Impossible. impossible for him
to fail if he fails the whole trinity fails and then he says here in verse
40 he gives a further explanation of the father's will and this
this is the will of him that sent me here it is that everyone
everyone which seeth the son and believeth on him may have
everlasting life and i'll raise him up at the last day Everyone
which seeth the Son and believes on him. Do you see, do you understand
the gospel? Do you believe the gospel? Here's
a promise. I'll raise you up at the last
day. Here's the evidence. Here's the evidence of my election.
Here it is. I see the Son. I understand the
gospel. I understand the gospel. And
I have come to Christ. He that cometh to me, I will
know where I shall come. All that the Father giveth me shall come
to me. All that the Father giveth me. Now, what's the evidence
that I was given to him? Coming to him. And it's a continual
coming to him. It's not a one-time act. It's
a continual coming every day. Every day we continue to come
to Christ. You see and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. ALL
FOR WHOM CHRIST DIED WILL BE BROUGHT TO FAITH, THAT WE'LL
HAVE A REVELATION OF CHRIST THROUGH THE HEART. I'LL RAISE HIM UP,
HE SAID IT THE LAST DAY. THE HONOR OF THE WHOLE GODHEAD
IS AT STAKE. YOU KNOW, WHAT'S GOD'S CHIEF
GLORY? WHAT'S HIS CHIEF GLORY? HIS REDEMPTIVE
GLORY. THAT'S HIS, NOT CREATION, NOT
CREATION. IT'S HIS REDEMPTIVE GLORY. He's
redeemed the people and they are going to praise him. This
multitude of centers are going to praise him forever and ever.
If God leaves me or you alone, we will never come to him because
the scripture says a carnal mind is at enmity against God. I looked
at it. It's angry. Animosity is another
one of those words for enmity. Animosity against God. Charging God with being unfair. Charging God with folly. The
natural mind is enmity with God and we will never come to Him.
But by His grace, He draws us with cords of love and creates
faith in our hearts. Then the Jews, it says here in
verse 41, or the Jews, then murmured at him. He complained because
he said, I am the bread which came down from heaven. They didn't
even hear about the Father's will, did they? You know, sometimes
when somebody says something, it makes you mad. Everything
else they say, you don't hear, do you? You don't hear a word
they're saying. What they said made you mad,
and then everything else They just blah, blah, blah, blah,
blah. He didn't hear that. He said, I came down from him
to do the father's will. And they murmured and complained,
and they said, isn't this this is Jesus, the son of Joseph,
whose father mother we know. I wrote over top of that verse,
salvation must come by revelation. Because you'll never see him
for who he is unless he reveals himself. We know his mother and
father. How is it then he said, I came
down from heaven? How can he say that? He's born
of Joseph and Mary. No, he was. He's God. He's the
son of God. And that manhood, that body and
that manhood God created. He just used the womb of Mary
is all he did was use that womb. Nothing of Adam. Or of this human
nature of ours entered into his nature. He had and has the perfect
human nature. And in that perfect human nature,
he satisfied the law of God on our behalf. Jesus therefore answered and
said to them, murmur not among yourselves. Don't complain among
yourselves. No man can come to me except the Father which sent
me, draw him. I'll raise him up at the last day. Don't murmur.
You don't have anything to do with it. This is of God. Salvation's
of the Lord. It is written in the Prophets,
and I'm going to close. And they shall be all taught of God. All,
who do you mean? All his children shall be taught
of God. And here's the evidence. Now listen, here's the evidence
that you've been taught of God. Every man, therefore, that is
men and women, men and women. Every man, therefore, that hath
heard and learned of the Father. Here's the evidence of it, that
you have been taught of God. You come to Christ. You come
to Him and you keep on coming. You keep on coming. By whose
will are we saved? Our will or man's will? Did God
do all He can do and now the rest is left up to me and you?
Is that the way it is? God is light. We are darkness.
We don't want anything to do with that. God's holy. We are sinful. We don't want
nothing to do with holiness. We want nothing to do with holiness. I thank God, I thank God that
we are saved by the will of God, because I can never, ever be
lost. If God has purposed to save me,
I can't even destroy that. If I could, I would, but I can't. We are saved by the will of the
Father. What good news? What good news?