Whenever I step before you, I
never presume upon the presence of God. I ask for His presence. I ask that He would bless you,
He would bless me. I ask that He would magnify His
name. So let's read just one verse. At least to begin with, John
6, 37. These are the words of the Savior.
He says, All that the Father giveth me shall come to me. And him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. Here our Lord Jesus in words
that are very powerful and very simple. He says there are some
people in the world given to Him by the Father. And He says
they will, they must believe Him. They will and they must
come to Him. They will and they must believe
that He is who He says He is. They will and they must believe
that this is the one all the prophets wrote about. They will and they must believe
Him and find in Him a full Savior such as they need. These people,
all that the Father gave them, they will and they must come
for forgiveness of all of their sins, for acceptance before God,
and for a righteousness that is absolutely glorious beyond
description. For it is the very righteousness
of God established by the Savior through his substitutionary work. The Savior says, and there's
no mistaking what he speaks here. There's no way to misunderstand
this. The words are very simple. Most
of them are single syllable words. He just says, all that the Father
giveth me shall come to me. And of these that do indeed believe
Him, which is the same as coming to Him, He says that, I'll never
cast them away. I'll never cast them out. Note
what He had said to these people who were gathered around Him. He had just said to them, back
in verse 35, I am the bread of life. And that glorious statement
must have been very startling to those who surrounded him. He had said this back up another
verse, verse 33, he said, For the bread of God is he which
cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the world. He is stating
to them his deity. His deity. That is, his pre-existence. He didn't just begin to live
when Mary gave birth to him. He didn't just begin his existence
when the Spirit of God formed him in the womb of the Virgin. He came down from a heaven. That
means he existed before. The rest of us, we all began
our existence at conception. But this man, his existence,
it goes back forever. For this is God over all, blessed
forever. You remember that the Savior
had said back in John chapter 5 about His Father, He said,
worketh hitherto, and I work." And the Jews were offended at
him because he talked about God being his Father, and they were
ready to stone him. Well, he says again that God
is his Father. Back and look at verse 32. Then
Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses
gave you not that bread from heaven, but my Father. giveth you the true bread from
heaven." Once again, He tells them, My Father. Now this is a different group
of people than He spoke to in John chapter 5, because in John
chapter 5, He's speaking to the Jews in Jerusalem. At the end of John 5, we know
He goes to Galilee. Now the people in Galilee, they
hear him say the same thing. And we know this as you get over
to verse 41, then they murmured at him. Well, he's causing people
to be upset wherever he goes. And that which they're most offended
at is his identity, that he's God. He says, I'm the bread that
came down from heaven. If He didn't come down from heaven,
He can't help us. He can't save us. If He's just like you and me,
there's no redemption to be found in His blood. There's no righteousness
to be found in His death. In fact, if He's like you and
me, He's just a sinner. He's just a sinner. And it is
for certain one sinner cannot redeem another sinner. One sinner
can't save another sinner. The Savior announces to them
that He came down from heaven. He's sent by the Father of mercy. And they began to murmur about
this. This upset them. They found it
to be very disagreeable to them, the things that he said. They
were offended. They took issue with his doctrine. It was his word. Here are the things that offended
them. Number one, his identity. Number two, what He said. What
He said. You see, there's life in what
He said. There's life in His words. He spoke over here. Look a little
bit further over in John chapter 6 here. In verse 59, these things
said He in the synagogue, as He taught in Capernaum. Many
people therefore, or many therefore of His disciples, when they heard
this, they said, this is a hard saying, this is a very offensive
saying, a very offensive word or doctrine. Who can hear it? When Jesus knew in Himself that
His disciples, they murmured, they grumped at it, He said unto
them, Does this offend you? What, and if ye shall see the
Son of Man ascend up where He was before? It is the Spirit
that quickeneth the flesh, profiteth nothing. The words, the words
that I speak, their Spirit, their light, His words, His words. It's the reason we stick with
the Word of God. We stick with the Word of our
Lord Jesus. This is where the authority is. This is where the life is. This
is where the power is. It's in the Word of God. So these
are the two things that offended the people about Jesus of Nazareth. His identity, that is, who He
said He was. Number two, what His doctrine
was. His doctrine. The doctrine offended
them. And this is what offends people
today. Who He is. What His doctrine
is. And His doctrine is substitution. His doctrine is sovereignty. His doctrine is salvation by
grace. His doctrine. Does His doctrine
offend you? Does this offend you? You see, salvation is either
by man's free will or by God's free grace. Which is it? When we say, based upon the Scriptures,
that God's salvation is by His free grace, then we also then
ask, does this offend you? Does this offend you? These people
were offended. They took issue with what the
Savior said. That's why there are lots of
preachers today, they just don't tell the whole story. They hold
that which is offensive back from their congregation. I've
actually known some preachers who, they had this idea, well
people will get saved through their preaching. leaving out
certain doctrines that are distasteful to the natural man. And then
later, as they grow in grace, they'll teach them the deeper
doctrines of the Word of God. But that isn't consistent with
the preachers of the Scripture. Go to the book of Acts chapter
20. Here we have the Apostle Paul. He's speaking to the Ephesian
elders. He gathers them together. He
wants to meet with them that He might say some final words to them. And then He goes on toward Jerusalem,
which they didn't want Him to go there. But look at Acts chapter
20 in verse 17. From Miletus, He's sent to Ephesus. He called the elders of the church
And when they were come to Him, He said unto them, You know from
the first day that I came into Asia, after what manner I have
been with you at all seasons, serving the Lord with all humility
of mind, and with many tears and temptations, which befell
me by the lying in wait of the Jews, and how I kept back nothing
that was profitable to you, that is, to your souls. I didn't hold
anything back that was beneficial to you." Well, then we might just ask
this question, what is beneficial? Not only to them, but to us.
What is beneficial to those who listen to the Word of God? Well, go over to the book of
II. 2 Timothy chapter 3. Let's see
what is profitable. Because this is what the apostles
said. I didn't hold anything back that was profitable to you,
to your souls, to your spiritual well-being. It goes on in that
passage in Acts 20. He says, I preach the whole counsel
of God. Over here in 2 Timothy chapter
3, he says in verse 16, 2 Timothy chapter 3 and verse 16, he says,
"...all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is..."
What is it? Profitable. We say, I don't think this passage
of Scripture ought to be preached to a mixed group, that is, people
who are unbelievers and people who are believers. Well, first
of all, you don't know who's a believer and who's an unbeliever. I suspect that every time we
meet, there's a mixed group. But the second thing is, are
you going to decide that which will be profitable? Are you going to go through the
Scriptures and say, well, this shouldn't be preached to the
lost. This should only be delivered
to the saved. Are you the one who makes that
decision? Am I supposed to make that decision? Or is all of the
Word of God profitable? That is beneficial. You need
to put these Scriptures together. Here's the Apostle, and he says
to these Ephesian elders, I haven't held back anything that was profitable
for you. That which was beneficial to
your spirit, to your spiritual growth, to your salvation, That
which was good for you, I preached to you. I didn't hold anything
back. If it offended you, I still preached
it. And then he says to this young
preacher, Timothy, he says concerning all of the Scriptures, he said,
it's inspired of God. God breathed. That's what it
means. God breathed. And he said, it's
all profitable. Because you see, it's all about
Christ Jesus and His work of redemption. Even in the Old Testament,
those obscure passages that maybe we very rarely look at, They
set forth our Savior either in picture, they set forth His person
in picture, they set forth His work in picture, or they set
forth the sinfulness of man and therefore the necessity of His
work of redemption. But all of the Old Testament
Scriptures is about the Lord Jesus. Just because we don't
understand a passage, just because we can't break it up and discern
everything about it, that doesn't mean it isn't profitable. If
it's God's Word, it has to be profitable. And he says here in 2 Timothy
chapter 3 that it's inspired of God and it is all profitable
for doctrine. For doctrine. For discovering, for illustrating
and for confirming the doctrine of God. For discovering and for
illustrating and for confirming the doctrine of man's sin. For discovering, for illustrating,
for confirming the doctrine of salvation by substitution. It's all profitable for doctrine,
for doctrine. And the doctrine of the Word
of God is salvation is not up to you, it's up to God. The doctrine of the Holy Scripture
is not free willism, no, no, no, but free grace, free grace. Don't be afraid to set forth
the doctrine of God's electing grace, God's sovereign grace
to sinful people. to people who you suspect don't
know the Lord. Listen, it shuts them up to God's
grace. That's the only hope we've got
is God's grace in Christ Jesus. And the Word of God does that.
It shuts our mouths. It backs us in a corner. You've
got no way out except a sovereign God who's got to show mercy to
you, but He doesn't have to, but maybe He will. We've got
to shut men up to that. You see, there is an idol that has existed ever since Adam
fell into sin. It is an idol found throughout
the world, in every culture, every nation, Every language is found throughout
the world. It's an idol found in every religion
without exception. It is an idol concocted by man's
sinful intelligence. It is an idol that we worshipped. Because this idolatry is passed
on to the children of every father and mother. You know what that idolatry is?
Look at Colossians, the second chapter, and I'll show you. And this is something we run
into every day. Colossians chapter 2. And I won't have the time to
read all of these verses, but here the apostle talks about
the legalists, verse 21, they teach, touch not, taste not,
handle not, which all are to perish with the using, but after
the commandments and the doctrines of men, which things indeed have
a show of wisdom in, here's the idolatry, will worship. That's it. That's the idolatry
of the day. It's always been the idolatry
among mankind. Will worship. Free willism. It's what we battle. That's the enemy. Those who teach
salvation by man's free will. You see, here's what we have
to understand, and I know that you do, the salvation of your
soul, it's not left into your hands, it isn't determined by
your so-called free will, it is determined by the will of
God. We've got to put the crown on
the head of free grace, and rip it off the head of free willism,
because they can't exist together. You see, if man's will is indeed
free, then God's will isn't free. Think about that. If man's will
is free, then God's will is not free, for His will is dependent
upon man's will. That's just outright heresy. This is the idol of the day. Turn back to John chapter 6.
And it's our responsibility to tell this generation which we
minister that salvation is not accomplished by man's will, by
free will, by the free grace of God. Because our wills are
bound. Our wills are under the authority,
the power and the control of sin and Satan. Look at John 6
and 44. Here's what the Savior said,
No man can come to Me except the Father which has sent Me.
Draw him, and I will raise him up at the last day. Keep this
in its context. These people back in verse 36,
the Savior said of them in verse 36, that ye also have seen Me
and believe not. That is, you won't come to Me.
You won't come to Me. And now He says in verse 44,
you can't come. You can't come. And it isn't
that the Lord is saying, no, you can't come. You have no ability to come. You see, it is a fact that our
God is more willing to show mercy than we are to receive it. Now
that's fact. Listen, if He wasn't more willing
to show you mercy than you were to receive it, you wouldn't have
any mercy. You wouldn't have any grace. Because God's not willing that
any of His people should perish, but that all of them should come
to repentance. The issue is our own bondage
to sin. You remember what the Savior
said in John 5.40? He said to the Jews, and ye will
not come to me that ye might have life. You won't come, He
says there, and here He says you can't come. Now you can say,
if you want to, oh they will come and they can come, but the
Lord Jesus says they won't come and they can't come. I think
I'll take His word over yours. I think He knows exactly the
condition of man's heart. I think He knows how stubborn
man's will is. I think He knows how dead in
sins and trespasses that we are. He says, you can't come to Me.
It's always profitable to preach doctrine up, There's a little
statement found in Hebrews chapter 10. Let me just show it to you.
Just two words that I want to point out to you in Hebrews chapter
10 and verse number 10. And if you would allow me, I'd
just like to take these two words and emphasize them. Hebrews chapter
number 10 and verse 10. The first two words are by the. Here are the two words, which
will. There's the issue. Which will
is it that reigns? Which will? In your own conversion experience, you say you're a believer, you
rest in the Lord Jesus, He is all of your hope. You believe
His blood and you believe His righteousness. Whose will was
active and effectual in your conversion? And if you say it was your will
that made the difference, and I say this as Lovingly, as I
can say it, if you believe it is your will that made the difference,
you don't know anything about the grace of God. You just don't
know. You see, those who are saved
by God's grace, they have this testimony. The Lord saved me. It isn't I gave my heart to Jesus. It isn't I made my decision.
It isn't I said yes to the Holy Spirit. That's not our testimony. Here's what's wrong with will
worship. Here's what's wrong with free
willism. It always begins with I. I. I did this. I did that. I lit the Lord. Really? Oh, I fear you're still in the
bondage of iniquity. You're still in ignorance. Because
salvation is of God. And those that God saves, He
makes them to understand who it is that saved them. We understand and we rejoice
that salvation is of the Lord. It's all of grace. All of grace. And I say to you, if you attribute
salvation, any part of your salvation, to your will or to your work, you're really a self-worshipper. That's really what free willism
is. It's worshiping self. Because you're the one who makes
the difference. Oh, you may talk about God, you
may talk about the Lord Jesus. You may talk about redemption,
you may talk about the Holy Spirit and regeneration, but make no
mistake, those who believe that man has a free will and they
are saved due to their free will, they are will-worshippers. They
are not God-worshippers. If you think your salvation turns
upon the axis of your own decision, your own will, or your own work,
you just don't have that salvation which is of the Lord. Because those saved by God's
free grace gladly confess, the Lord saved me. He did it. He did it in a righteous way.
Because you see, those who believe in free willism, they really
trust their own decision. They don't trust Christ. It isn't
the Lord Jesus Christ. It's their own belief that they
rest on. Their peace is not derived from
what the Savior has done, but from what they have done. In fact, those who believe in
free willism, in their opinion, the thing that separates them
from the damned, is their free will. Too hard? Too harsh? No. No, that's not too harsh. I have in my office, I have an
ink pen and a little holder on the very front of it. A lady
had this engraved for me years ago. Who is getting the glory? Just examine your salvation asking
that question, who is getting the glory? And if you've made
the difference, that means you're getting the glory. That can't
be. God's not going to allow it.
You won't get the least amount of glory in salvation. It's of the Lord. You see, the
Word of God is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction,
for instruction in righteousness. That's why we preach all the
counsel of God, all of the Word of God. We're going to shut people
up to the righteousness of our Lord Jesus. We're going to shut
them up to redemption. We're going to shut them up to
satisfaction by His death. There's no other hope that you've
got. There's no other way of salvation.
We're going to back you in the corner and we're going to say
to you, listen, either God's going to have to save you or
you're going to perish. And you'll come to this conclusion
in your own soul if God deals with you. You'll say, Lord, if
you don't do something for me, I'm a goner. I'm a goner. Back here in John chapter 6,
quickly. Again, He says in verse, I want
to read this, verse 44. He says, No man can come to Me
except the Father which has sent Me. Draw him and I will raise
him up at the last day. He can't come. It isn't that
you don't have His permission to come. If you're thirsty, come. If you're
hungry, come. What is it that the sinner lacks?
Well, he lacks life. He lacks ability. And please,
don't confuse ability with responsibility. You are responsible to believe. I'll preach that from From now
on, that's your duty before God, to obey the Gospel. Believe this
Savior. Rest in His blood and death. But your responsibility is a
totally different thing from your ability. You don't have
the ability. Who wasn't wanting an old preacher
years ago? He said, I got so upset because God commanded me
to do that which I couldn't do. God commands me to believe and
I don't have the ability to do that. Well, whose fault is it? You
don't have the ability. Your sins have separated you
from God. See, it's our fault. And if we do obey the Gospel,
it's because God makes us willing in the day of His power. Let
me give you this reference. Let's go to Romans 9 real quick. Time is running through the hourglass
here. The sand is running through the
hourglass. Look at Romans chapter 9. I had Bill read that section
that this came from. And I'll just read a verse or
two here in Romans chapter 9. Look at verses 15 and 16. For he saith to Moses, and this
is what he read earlier. For he saith to Moses, Romans
9.15, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will
have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then it is
not of him that willeth. Why would you want to say it
is of him that willeth? when God says it's not of Him
that will it. We're so stubborn. Isn't it an
evidence of our own depravity that in spite of what God says,
we'll say the opposite? It is not of Him that will it,
nor of Him that runneth. That's a strenuous exercise. Some of y'all are runners. That's
more strenuous than walking. It's more strenuous than jogging.
It's running. That's putting forth a real effort.
I like walking. You like running. You've got
to put forth more effort. This is what the Lord is saying.
This matter of you receiving mercy, It's not due to your will
and it's not due to you making a very strenuous effort. It's God that shows the mercy.
It's God that's got to show the mercy. Well, does that mean the will
of man is not involved in the reception of the Lord Jesus in
the believing of the gospel? Yes, the will is involved. Oh yes. Does this mean there
is no putting forth of an effort? That there is no action of men
in receiving the Lord Jesus and embracing the gospel wholeheartedly? Yes, man's will is involved and
there is an intense involvement of the soul in salvation. You
say, well, you've just got me thoroughly mixed up now. Let's
put it this way. God doesn't come to you and pick
you up by the nap of the neck and throw you into the kingdom
of God and then jerk you up to heaven and say, hey, you're here
whether you want to be here or not. What does He do? He makes us
to be willing. That's what He does. He makes
us to be. Those of us who are saved here
tonight, are you saved against your will? No, I wanted His mercy. Didn't you? I wanted His grace. I wanted His salvation. But here's
the issue. Who is the one that worked in
me to make me want His salvation? Psalm 110 verse 3, Thy people,
this is the words of the Father to the Son, Thy people shall
be willing in the day of Thy power. And this matter of running, of
strenuous effort, listen, we take the kingdom by force. I tell you, I want God's salvation,
don't you? Man, this is something that weighs
on my heart all the time. I'm all the time interested in
the safety of my soul. It's not something like, oh well,
maybe I'm okay, maybe I'm not okay. It doesn't really matter.
God's sovereign. If I'm destined to wind up on
the right side, I will. If I'm destined to wind up on
the wrong side, that's the way it's going to be. Hey, with me,
I don't know how it is with you, but I'll tell you what, I want
Jesus Christ. I want His salvation. I want
the forgiveness of sins. I want this righteousness and
I'm going after it. Where do I find it? In Christ.
And I'll tell you, we've got to preach
this Gospel this way. If anybody is saved, God did
it. If you perish, look yourself
in the mirror. Because you'll see the One who's
to blame. That's you. Is it free will? Or free grace? Let me give you this and I'll
quit. Go back to John 6. And I'll give
you this. John chapter 6. He says in verse
44, He says, No man can come to Me except the Father which
has sent Me. Draw him. I love that word, draw. Over in John chapter 18, they come to arrest the Savior. There's a high priest serving
and it says in Simon Peter, he drew his sword out. That sword
didn't jump out of its sheath. He wasn't just standing there
and then all of a sudden, whoo, there comes a sword out. No,
that sword was acted upon. He drew it out. The sword was
absolutely passive. Who's acting? Simon Peter. And that's a good illustration
of what happens in conversion. We're absolutely passive. No
man can come to me. We're like that sword in the
sheath. And we'll stay there unless an
almighty hand puts his hand on us and draws us to himself. That's when we'll come. That's
when we'll come. It's the same word that's used
over in the last chapter of the book of John, where they threw
their nets out and they were full of fish. They drew the net
back to the ship. That net didn't come back on
its own. That net was dependent upon the
hands of the disciples pulling it back in. That's the way it
is with you and me. Our salvation is dependent upon
this. Our great omnipotent God taking
hold of us and drawing us effectually unto Himself. And something miraculously
happens in the draw. He makes us willing. He makes
us alive. And we give Him the glory of
this salvation. It's got to be one way or the
other. Free will or free grace. Free will, that's the devil's
doctrine. Yep, it is. You say, what about
these churches that preach free willism? I'm telling you, it's
the devil's doctrine. That's will worship. It's idolatry. Do you think your will made the
difference? You're absolutely wrong. It's the Lord who works in us
to will and to do of His good pleasure. Let's sing a closing
song.