I want to bring the message this
morning out of John chapter 6 verse 38-47. The title of the message
is The Will of the Father. The Jews saw a lot of miracles
by Christ, yet they believed not that he was the Son of God.
They thought that he might be Elijah or John the Baptist, risen
from the dead, or some prophet, but not the Son of God. In spite
of all that they saw, they remained in unbelief. Miracles of themselves
have never saved anyone. They have never created faith
in the heart. That is the work of God. Now
the next few verses assure us that the Son shall not fail.
That He was given a people to redeem. And that people will
hear and believe and come to Christ for all their salvation.
And they shall be saved. So now listen to the scriptures
as we go through these verses. Our Lord said 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.
He became incarnate. He came on a mission, and that
mission was first and foremost to do His Father's will. He said
in one place, my meat is to do the will of Him that sent me.
Christ did not come into this world of His own will only, but
with the full consent and will of the Father. He was sent to
fulfill His Father's will. Christ not only receives sinners
because he loves them, but because it is the will of the Father
for him to receive them. He receives them out of obedience
to his Father as well as out of love to them. And he says
in verse 39, And this is the Father's will which hath sent
me, that of all which ye have given me I should lose nothing,
but should raise it up again at the last day. It ought to
give us great comfort and joy to know that our salvation, our
eternal glory, is the Father's will. Salvation is not founded
on my will or man's free will. It is founded on the will of
God, the will of the Father. And what is this will? Our Lord
said that of all which he hath given me, I should lose nothing. Our Lord said in one place, not
a hair of your head shall perish. speaking to His disciples. Christ
will not lose anyone for whom He died. And those for whom He
died are the ones the Father gave to Him before the world
was. If one person ended up lost for whom Christ died, then the
will of the Father means nothing. And Christ is a failure. In fact,
the whole Trinity is a failure. But we know through the Word
of God that's not going to happen. because our Lord says this, but
shall raise it up again at the last day. There will be a resurrection
day when all the bodies of the saints shall rise. Not one shall
be left in the grave. Not one shall perish. The whole
body of Christ shall be complete. And he says in verse 40, And
this is the will of him that sent me, that everyone which
seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting
life. and I will raise him up at the
last day." Christ further explains the Father's will. Everyone,
he says, would seeth the Son and believeth on him. We have
no trouble with whosoever will. Let him come. Whosoever will,
let him come. I say to anyone listening to
me, whosoever will, let him come. But we know that for a person
to be willing to come to Christ is a divine work of God. We know
that for a sinner to see the Son and believe on Him there
must be a revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ as a sinner and
everyone who has been given that revelation of who Christ is will
see, believe, and come to the Lord Jesus Christ. And all those
who see and believe will be raised to eternal glory. The honor of
the whole Godhead is at stake here If salvation were according
to our will, we would be lost. But it is according to the will
of the Father, which never fails. Now the Jews murmured at him
because he said, I am the bread which came down from heaven.
They knew what he was saying. They knew that he was speaking
of his divine existence. They knew He was saying that
He was equal with the Father, and they murmured. This is the
same word used in the Old Testament when they murmured in the wilderness.
The depravity of the human heart is revealed most in our murmuring. If we believe that all things
are of God, that He is sovereign over all, then we have no reason
ever to murmur at all. Our complaint should be about
ourselves, and our sinfulness, and our dullness, and our own
ignorance. I tell you this, the scripture
says, it's of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed. And
they said, is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father
and mother we know? How is it then that he said,
I came down from heaven? They thought that they knew him.
They thought they knew His parents, but how far from the truth they
were. This is the Son of God. This shows us that salvation
comes by revelation. They could not see past His flesh.
Had they believed Him, they would have seen Him for who He is,
the Son of God. Jesus therefore, in verse 43,
Jesus therefore answered and said unto them, Murmur not among
yourselves, No man can come to me, except the Father which hath
sent me draw him, and I will raise him up at the last day."
The Lord previously spoke of the will of the Father in salvation.
Now He speaks of the work of the Father in salvation. The
Father does not sit passively by as a spectator. He is active
in drawing sinners to Christ. Our Lord said, My Father worketh
hitherto, and I work. And he tells them not to murmur.
You know why he tells them not to murmur? Because they have
nothing to do with this. No man left to himself will ever
come to the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the work of God. Christ
is light, man is darkness. Christ is holy, man is evil.
A lost man will never come to Christ for salvation until the
Lord shows him his need of him. He'll never do it. Because until
that happens, he sees no need of Christ. It takes a divine
operation of the Holy Spirit of God in the heart to draw a
sinner to Christ. The sick man must see his need
of the physician before he will go to the physician. And a sinner
must be brought to see his need of the Lord Jesus Christ and
how Christ is the only one who can meet that need before he
will ever run to Him. And our Lord says, and I will
raise him up at the last day. Those who see believe and are
drawn by the Father will be eternally saved. Now verse 45, 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. Salvation is not left in human
hands, it is all of God's. The salvation of every sinner
is in the hands of the sovereign God of heaven and earth. Our
Lord refers to the Old Testament Scriptures in Isaiah 54, 13. Go back and read that sometime.
God teaches His children. He gives them a new heart, a
new mind, and then He instructs them. And the lesson is Christ. Christ said, take my yoke upon
you and learn of me. He teaches them who God is. For
the first time they have a right understanding of who God is.
He's not the man upstairs. He's not my co-pilot. He's the
Almighty Sovereign God of heaven and earth. And then he teaches
them who Christ is. He's God man. He's God in human
flesh. He's the mediator between God
and men. He's the high priest over the
house of God. He's the Lamb of God. He's all in all to the center. To God's children. He teaches
them who and what they are. Sin. Sin is not a bad habit. It's not a flaw in my character.
It's a wicked nature I was born with. And they are taught this. And He reveals their need of
Christ. And great is their peace, especially when He raises them
up at the last day. Every man whom the Father teaches
comes to Christ, and Christ only. Don't you go to some other man
or preacher or priest. Don't go confess your sins to
some priest. Christ is the High Priest over
the house of God. We go to Him and confess our
sins, not some earthly man. Run to Christ. Look to Him. And leave all others. Leave all
others. Only Christ will do for a needy
sinner. Now religious people will go
to just about anything that will give them a clean conscience
or quiet their conscience. But a needy sinner must have
Christ and Christ alone. Now he says in verse 46, Not that any man hath seen the
Father, saith he which is of God, he hath seen the Father. In case someone thinks that he
is saying that those who are taught of God hear an audible
voice and have seen a physical appearance of God, he said that's
not what he's saying. Now, if a man, you hear a man
on TV or radio or in a pulpit saying that God spoke to him
audibly and that he has seen a vision of God, turn that man
off. We have a revelation of God, of Christ, in the Scriptures,
and that's all the revelation we will have. Now we don't see
physical appearances or hear audible voices now. Christ is
not saying that. He's saying the only one who
has seen God is the one that is of God, meaning the Son of
God. Now he says in verse 47, Verily,
verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting
life. He's not going to have it. He
has it. And it's not how long it is. It's the quality of it.
He has eternal life. He has the life of God in him.
It's evident that a sinner who believes on Christ has life or
he would not believe. Faith is the evidence of spiritual
life. It is not the cause of it. Faith
is not the cause of spiritual life. Repentance is not the cause
of spiritual life. It's the evidence of life in
the soul. It's the evidence that God has
done a work in you, that He's created in you. A new heart,
a new nature. God has done that. And that faith
and repentance is the evidence of it. Our Lord says in verse
48, I am that bread of life. I am that life-giving bread. I am what every dying sinner
needs. I am that bread that fills every
hungry soul. I am that satisfying bread that
sinners need. I am the fulfillment of all those
types. I am the bread of life. Are you
hungry? Come to Christ. You thirsty? Come to Christ. I say to every
sinner listening to my voice, Come and welcome to the Lord
Jesus Christ. He delights to show mercy. Until
next time, may God bless His Word.