Would you turn to John, Chapter
six? The inspiration to that song
we just heard is found in Acts, Chapter 20, verse 28, where we
read where Paul said to the Ephesian elders, feed the church of God,
which he purchased with his own blood. That's an awesome verse
of scripture. John, chapter six, I'm going
to attempt to preach on a subject of infinite vastness this morning,
I'm going to try to preach on the will of God. The will of
God. Let's read verses 38 through
40 together and look for this Word concerning God's will, verse
38. The Lord said. For I came down
from heaven. Not to do mine own will. But the will of him that sent
me. And this is the father's will. Which is sent me. that of all which he hath given
me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the
last day. 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. The will of God. You know and I know that a lot
of bad things have been done under the banner of the will
of God. Somebody makes a decision concerning
what course they're going to take, and they say, well, I'm
doing this because I believe it's the will of God. Somebody will make a decision
that greatly affects their life or the life of others, and they
say, well, I believe this is the Lord's will or The Lord is
leading me in this direction. I've heard people say that, and
I've said that myself. I believe this is the Lord's
will. Many people make themselves miserable
searching for God's will for their life. They hear things
like, well, God's got a wonderful plan for your life, and they
think, well, I need to find out what it is. And they make themselves
miserable in this search for God's will. Obviously, religion
says a lot of things about the will of God, but there are things
that the Bible will not support, like it's not God's will for you to
be sick. It's not God's will for you to
have these financial difficulties. Or things like it's God's will
for all men to be saved, and then they'll quote 2 Peter 3
9, where God is not willing that any should perish. And they say,
see, there's proof of that. And they'll use a half a scripture.
They don't read the whole thing. They use a half a scripture to
support their position. You know, you can prove anything
you want with a half of a verse. You really can. Someone else may think, well,
it's an exercise in futility. And it's bordering on presumption
to think that you can know God's will. You think you can know
God's will? Well, it's not presumptuous if
he makes it known. Ephesians 1 9 says, having made
known to us the mystery of his will. Now, that's not a presumptuous
thing. If he's made it known, I can
know it. You see, the Bible has a lot
to say about this subject. And actually, this book we call
the Bible is a declaration of his will. That's what this book
is. It's a declaration of His will. The prophecy came not in old
time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they
were moved by the Holy Ghost. This book we call the Bible is
a declaration of the will of God. Now, I'm going to spend
probably about two thirds of my message on the introduction
before we get to our text. So nobody get scared with this
introduction. It's going to take a while, but
I hope it'll bear fruit. First thing I'd like to say is
there is such a thing as the will of God. This is not just religious language.
There is such a thing as the will of God. You see, God is
a person. He is not an impersonal force. He is a He. He worketh all things after the
counsel of His own will. Ephesians 111, Daniel 435, He
doeth. according to His will in the
armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. And
none can stay His hand or say unto Him, What doest thou? He's
God. He has a will, and His will is
essential to His being. His will is who He is. He cannot
be God without His will. His will, the will of God, is
who He is. I've heard people try to compartmentalize
His will. Well, this is the directive will
of God, but this is the permissive will of God. You ever heard that?
This is the directive will of God, and this is the permissive
will of God. Kind of like one aspect of His will is not quite
as much His will as the other aspect. Now, this was definitely
His will. He directed this, but He just
allowed this to happen. It wasn't so much his will, but
he allowed it to happen. Now, does the Bible make that
distinction? The directive will and the permissive will? Let
me show you a passage of scripture in Isaiah chapter 45. Verse 5. You know, this verse of scripture
used to kind of scare me. It doesn't anymore. I love this. Isaiah 45, verse 5, I am the
Lord, and there is none else. There's no God beside me. I girded
thee, though thou hast not known me. He's speaking to Cyrus, that
they may know from the rising of the sun from the west that
there's none beside me. Nobody can even be compared to
me. I'm the Lord, and there's none else. I form the light.
and create darkness. I make peace and create evil. I the Lord do all these things. You know the best way to deal
with that verse? Take it as it is and bow. All things are of Him. Romans 8, 28 says, and we know
that all things work together for good to them that love God,
to them who are called according to His purpose. Now what's meant
by all things? You know the answer to that. All things. All things,
all the good stuff. I'm thankful for the good stuff,
aren't you? Acts of the Lord. I think it's interesting the
way we say, when something good happens, boy, that was providential.
And you know, every time we say, that was providential, we deny
the meaning of providence in the first place. All is providential. All the bad stuff, all the seemingly
difficult things and painful things and hurtful things, Amos
said in Amos chapter 3 verse 3, shall there be evil or verse
6, shall there be evil in the city and hath not the Lord done
it? Let me give you a couple of things
that the Bible actually teaches concerning this thing of the
will of God. Now, first, he has a will. And he's got the power
to perform his will. That's why his will is always
done. But there are two things that the Bible teaches regarding
the will of God. First, there is the secret and
the revealed will of God. There's the secret will of God,
and there is the revealed will of God. The secret will of God
is the stuff that He has willed that you and I don't know anything
about. There's a lot of that in there. You see, He's purposed
everything. He's decreed everything, but
a lot of it you and I just don't know anything about. For instance,
he has already determined what will take place today. He knows
exactly what's going to happen with you this afternoon, in the
next minute, tomorrow. You don't know, though. He does,
but you don't. It's all clear to him. He's purposed
it all. You just don't know what it is
yet. That is his secret will. His revealed will is what he
makes known by his providence or by his word. Now, last night,
you probably planned on being here this morning. I'd say you
did. But you didn't know for sure
that you'd be here because you might get sick. You might get
killed. You didn't know what would take
place. But you're here now. So you know for sure it was His
will for you to be here. What was His secret will last
night, His providence has made known right now. Now it says,
you know, I know right now while I'm speaking to you, I know it's
the will of God that I be preaching to you. Well, how do you know
that? Because I'm doing it. That's how I know. I'm doing
it. It's revealed. Now, it's my intentions on preaching
to you tonight. I'm looking forward to the message.
But I don't know for sure that I'll be here. Something might
happen to me. I don't know. That's still in
secret. There's the revealed will of
God, and there is the secret will of God. Now, His will is
revealed either by providence when it happens. Somebody says,
I just want to know the will of God for my life. Well, you're
up to your neck in it right now. You really are. You're up to
your neck in it. It's God's will. He makes his will known by what
happens in Providence, and he also makes his will known in
his word. How did Joseph know when he was
getting ready to die that 400 years later, Israel would come
out of Egypt? And he says, when you do it,
take my bones and bring them back to the promised land. How
did he know that would take place? God made it known in Genesis
15. He said, this is what's going to take place. He said this to
Abraham, you're all going to be in Egypt for 400 years. And
after that, I'm going to bring you out. And so when Joseph said,
take my bones and bring them out, because this is going to
happen. How did he know? Because God had made it known
in his word. That is the revealed will of
God. Deuteronomy 29, 29 says this,
the secret things belong to the Lord. But those things that are revealed
belong to us and our children forever that we may do all the
words of this law. Now, there's the secret will.
That's the stuff we don't know. And there's the revealed will.
That's the stuff we do know. And we know it either because
providence has made it known and we're experiencing it or
because he's made it known in his word. Now, that's the first
aspect of the will of God that the Bible actually teaches. He's
got a will. He's a person. He's got an absolute
will and an absolute directive. There's the secret will of God,
stuff we don't know. There's the revealed will of
God, the stuff that we do know. Now, here's the second thing
that the Bible actually teaches regarding his will. There is
his will of command. And there is his will of decree. There is his will of command,
and there is his will of decree, and there is a distinction. And
the Bible makes this distinction. First, let's talk about his will
of command. His will of command is his commandments.
His commandments. Turn to Romans chapter 2. Now,
let me show you that this is what the Bible actually teaches.
Romans chapter 2. His will of commandment is that
thou shalt and thou shalt not. It's what he commands you to
do. This is his will of commandment. If he commands you to believe. You're responsible to believe.
If he commands you to obey, you're responsible to obey. There's
his will of commandment. Look at Romans chapter two, verse
17. Behold, thou art called a Jew.
He's speaking to the Jews. And you restest in the law. And
you make your boast of God and knowest His will. And approve
the things that are more excellent being instructed out of the law.
You see, you know His will because you know the law. You know what
He says to do in His law. This is His will of commandment. Now, when we sin, this is very
important. Young people listen to this.
You hear about the sovereignty of God, that God's in control
of everything. And you might have a tendency
to say, when you sin, when you disobey God, you say, well, it
was God's will for that to happen, or it wouldn't have happened.
Is that right? You're breaking God's command.
That's breaking His will. You can break His will of command. And here's why I'm saying this. Do you know you can never blame
the will of God for your sin? Well, God's in control of everything.
God's absolutely sovereign. Therefore, when I sin, it's His
fault. I mean, He decreed it. It's all
part of His plan. It's all part of His purpose.
Therefore, I shouldn't be held responsible. You will be. There is such a thing as the
will of God's command. And then there is the will of
God's decree. And what that means is that all
that happens in time. Everything. Someone says, I don't
believe that, well, that was decreed. That was decreed. I don't believe that for a second.
Well, I know that that's part of God's purpose, too. Everything
that happens in time, I don't care what it is, is all according
to His will of decree. He purposes everything. Now,
let me show you this in the Scripture. Turn to Isaiah 46. Verse 9. Remember the former
things of old, for I am God, And there's none else. I am God
and there's none like me. You know, if you try to give
an illustration of God with some kind of earthly illustration,
if I try that, all we're doing is committing idolatry because
there's no one he can compare, be compared to. He says there's
nobody like me. Now, look what he says in verse
10, declaring the end. This is what's going to take
place from the beginning. And from ancient times, the things
that are not yet done, saying, my counsel shall stand, I will
do all my pleasure, calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man that
executes my counsel from a far country, yea, I've spoken it,
I will bring it to pass, I have purposed it, I will also do it. Everything that happens in time,
and I mean everything, is all happening because of His will
of decree. Somebody says, do you believe
in absolute predestination? Absolutely. Absolutely. And not only do I believe it,
I love it. This is my God we're speaking
of. I love predestination because I love the God of predestination,
the one who controls all things. So when we talk about the will
of God or when the Bible talks about the will of God, these
two distinctions are made. First, there's the secret will
and the revealed will. And then there's the will of
command and the will of decree. Now, I want to give you five
things the Bible clearly teaches regarding God's will. First of
all, God's will is eternal. Acts chapter 15, verse 18 says,
Known unto God are all his works from the beginning. You see, God doesn't dwell in
time like you and I do. There's not a yesterday and today
and tomorrow. He's always in the ever-present
now. He dwells outside of time, and
when He decreed something, and even using the word when, it's
always been. There wasn't a time when it happened.
It's always been. And His will is eternal. He never responds to anything. His plans never get messed up.
His will is absolutely eternal. Secondly, His will is immutable. We read in Hebrews chapter 6
verse 17 of the immutability of His counsel. That means His
will never changes. Whatever His will is, that's
His will. It's not going to change. God's
not a man that He should repent. You can't change His will. It's
set. It's decreed. It is fixed. Well, why pray? Because He says
to pray. That's how God brings His will to pass, through the
prayers of His people. God's will is immutable. He said, I
am the Lord. I change not. Therefore, he says
of Jacob are not consumed. His will is efficacious. That means it's always done.
It's always done. Turn with me to Psalm 135. Psalm
135. Verse five. For I know the psalmist said
that the Lord is great. And that our Lord is above all
gods whatsoever the Lord pleased. That did he. In heaven. And in earth and the seas and
all deep places, you see, the Lord God is all powerful. And because of that, His will
is always going to be done. His will is never thwarted. It's
never thwarted. His will is efficacious. His
will is always done because He's God. Now, my will is not always
done. As a matter of fact, I don't
have any control over anything. Not a thing. But He does because
He's God. He's got the power to make sure
His will always comes to pass. His will is efficacious. And I like this. Here's the fourth
thing I want to say that the Bible teaches regarding His will.
It's His will that determines His will. It's His will that determines
His will. He worketh all things after the
counsel of His own will. Literally, after the will of
His own will. His will determines His will. I love what the Lord said when
he said you hid these things from the wise and prudent and
revealed them unto babes even so father for so it seemed good
in thy sight and you know what I'm satisfied
with that doesn't matter whether I am or not it's the way it is
whether I'm satisfied with it or not but I'm satisfied with
that whatever he does is right and he never responds to anything
He never does something in response to something. He never responds. He only acts. His will is His
will, and it's His will that determines His will. Here's a Scripture that underlines
this. Turn to Romans 9. Talking about Jacob and Esau.
Jacob is the one God loved and saved. Esau is the one God hated
and passed by. Verse 11, For the children being
not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the
purpose of God, according to election, might stand not of
works, but of them that call it. Now, God loved Jacob. God saved Jacob. God hated Esau. He passed by Esau. Now, did you
notice in reading that passage of scripture, it says the children
being not yet born, neither having done good or bad. God's love
for Jacob wasn't because of some kind of good he did. It wasn't
prevented from some kind of evil he did. It's not of works. God
does what he does simply because he wills to do it. And that makes
it good and right and glorious. That's the God of the Bible.
And then his will, according to the scriptures, is sovereign
and it is free. Now, this is seen in creation.
When we talk about God's sovereignty, that means God has a will, God
has the power to make sure his will comes to pass, and God does
in fact make his will come to pass. He does. He'd do it according
to his will. It's sovereign and it is free. It's sovereign in creation. You
know, when he created this universe, he didn't have any help, did
he? He didn't ask your advice on it. He didn't ask mine. He
didn't have anybody to ask. It was simply an act of His will. He willed this universe into
existence. It's sovereign in creation. It's sovereign in providence.
That means everything that happens, happens because of Him. He's
in control of it. He doesn't have to have a contingency
plan. He doesn't have to have a plan B. Everything that happens,
He's in control of. And He's most especially sovereign
in His will and salvation. You're there in Romans 9. Look
with me in verse 15. He saith to Moses, I will. There's that will of God. I will
have mercy on whom I will have mercy. And I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. That is God's sovereign Will
look in verse 18 of Romans 9, therefore, have he mercy on whom
he will have mercy. And whom he will. He. Heart. And that's my introduction. That's my introduction, the will
of God. Now, turn back to our text in
John, Chapter six. And in this passage of scripture,
we have the will of God, we have the will of God's decree, and
we have the will of God's command. Now look with me in verse 38. These are the words of the Lord
Jesus. And he says, For I came down from heaven. Not to do my own will. I think of when our Lord was
in the Garden of Gethsemane. And He prayed as a man. He knew
what He was getting ready to experience. He was getting ready
to experience the wrath of God as the sinner's substitute. He
knew He was getting ready to be made to be sinned. And the
Scripture says He sweat great drops of blood. He was sore amazed,
being in agony. And He said, Father, if it be
possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, what's the
rest? Not my will, but thine be done. That's why He came. I came down
from heaven. What if I told you I came down
from heaven? You'd look at me like I was an idiot. And I would
be an idiot if I said that. But He did. The Eternal Son came
down from heaven for this purpose. I came down from heaven Not to
do my own will, but the will of Him that sent me. And here's
God's will and decree in verse 39. And this is the Father's
will which has sent me. That of all which He hath given
me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the
last day. Now, who are those that the Father
gave Him? They're the elect. They're God's
elect. Those are those the Father chose
before the foundation of the world. Turn over to John 17 for
a moment. When our Lord is praying this
great high priestly prayer for His people, six times He mentions
those the Father gave Him. Look in verse 2 of John chapter
17, "...as thou hast given Him power over all flesh, that He
should give eternal life to as many as..." Who? as thou hast
given him. Verse 6, I have manifested thy
name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world. Verse 9, he says, I pray for
them. I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast
given me, for they are thine. Verse 11, and now I am no more
in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee.
Holy Father, keep to thine own name those whom thou hast given
me. Verse 12, while I was with them
in the world, I kept them in thy name. Those that thou gavest
me I've kept. Look in verse 24. Father, I will
the day whom thou hast given me be with me where I am. Now, when our Lord came down
from heaven to do his Father's will, his Father's will was not
for him to save everybody to ever live, was it? Now, be honest
with the Scripture. He didn't come here, and this
is the way most religion presents what He... He came to make salvation
possible for everybody. He came to give everybody an
opportunity to be saved. If you just do your part, then
you'll be saved. He came to make salvation available
for all men. That's what most people say,
and there's not a word of truth to it. Not even a word. There's no gospel in that message. He came to save the elect. He said, this is the will of
him that sent me that of all which he had given me, I won't
lose even one of them. Now, the message of Jesus Christ
dying for everybody. And paying for everybody's sins
and making salvation available for everybody is a message of
salvation by work. If Christ died for all men without
exception, but all men without exception are not saved, then
the blood of Christ has absolutely nothing to do with salvation.
Now, is that so or not? If he paid for man's sins, if
he died for everybody and one man's saved and one man's lost,
and yet he paid for their sins equally, That would mean that
his blood didn't save the man who was saved. It was something
the man did. Because he died equally for a
man who wasn't saved, he ends up in hell. That makes a message
of salvation by works. On the cross, he saved all he
died for. Turn to Hebrews 10 for a moment. Verse 9, Then said He, Lo, I come. These are the words of the Lord
Jesus Christ. This is a quotation from Psalm 40. What did He come
to do? To do Thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that
He may establish the second. By the witch will, by God's will,
we are sanctified, declared to be holy, actually made holy through
the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every
priest stands daily ministering, offering oftentimes the same
sacrifices which can never take away sin. But this man, after
he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, he sat down
on the right hand of God from henceforth expecting till his
enemies be made his footstool, for by one offering he had perfected forever. Them that are sanctified, you
know what that means? That means I was perfected by
what He did before I was ever even around. That's how much
salvation is by grace. That's how little your works
have to do with it. It was accomplished before you had any works good
or bad. He hath perfected forever them
that are sanctified. Now, before I go on, I want to
ask you a question. Is this good news to you? Is it good news? The only thing that would prevent
this from being good news is self-righteousness. You see,
a self-righteous person, and I know we're all that by nature,
but a self-righteous person would say, well, that means that my
good stuff doesn't count. That's not going to save me.
That's bad news. But if you don't have any good
stuff to save you, it's good news. Good news to me. I love this. I just love this. One Scripture, 2 Peter 3. Now I want to read a verse that
I quoted halfway, and we'll see that it teaches actually the
opposite of what most people say it teaches. Verse 9. The Lord is not slack concerning
His promise, as some men count slackness, but is longsuffering
to us-ward, us included in that promise everybody Christ died
for, all who believe. He's long-suffering to us-ward,
not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
Do you know if God's not willing for you to perish, you know what?
You ain't going to perish. If He's willing for you to come
to repentance, you know what's going to happen? You're going
to come to repentance. You know this verse that people
used to teach God wants everybody to be saved, actually teaches
the opposite, doesn't he? He's going to save his people.
Now back to our text in John chapter six, we've been talking
about what God's will of decree and here's what we're going to
consider in closing. John chapter six, God's will of command, verse
40. And this is the will of him that
sent me. Now, whenever I talk about God's will of decree, the
next thing that comes into my mind is, well, how can I know
if I'm somebody he decreed to save? How can I know? I mean, am I
just going to have to wait until I get to heaven and find out?
How can I know? Let's read this verse 40. And this is the will of Him that
sent me, that everyone... Now notice in verse 39, He spoke
of all that the Father gave me. I'm not going to lose one of
them. He talked about this all. And then In verse 40, he speaks
of everyone. He talks about individuals. Everyone. He talks about the all, and he
talks about the everyone. Now, I want to see if I'm one
of these everyone's, don't you? I want to see if I'm one of these
people. Now, look in verse 40. 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. Everyone that seeth the sun. Now there are 16 different Greek
words in the New Testament translated to see. And here the word means
literally to be a spectator. spectator is. I'm a spectator. I love sports. I love to watch
sports. I'm a spectator of sports. I don't actually participate
in the game, but I'm a spectator. Now, there's a very real sense
in which salvation is a spectator sport. Now, I've heard people say, The
opposite. Salvation is no spectator. Yeah,
it is. There's a very real sense of
which salvation is a spectator sport. Let me give you an example
of what I'm talking about. Do you remember when David was
going to fight Goliath? And if he won, you know who else
won? All of Israel. And if he lost,
you know who else lost? All of Israel. Now, when he went
down in that valley to fight Goliath, You reckon He had some
spectators? You reckon there were some people
looking upon with keen interest what He did? Because they knew
if He won, they won. If Christ wins, I win. I am a spectator of what He does. And I tell you what, I look upon
what He does with keen interest. You know, people say, well, does
it make any difference what you believe? Sure it does. Sure it
does. I look upon what he did with
keen interest. I'm a spectator in that sense. Now, I see the son. I see the
son. Now, I don't see him physically.
I don't know what he looks like physically. I don't have any
idea. Don't even have a clue. You know, whenever I try to even
imagine what he looked like, I start feeling bad because I'm
probably making some kind of false image of him. I don't know
what he looks like. I've never seen him, but I've
seen the son. I've seen, I believe, I'm a spectator
of this, I believe this all together. I believe that He's the Son of
God. Do you believe that? I believe He's the second person
of the Blessed Trinity, God the Son. And I believe He's the Son
of Man. I believe He's the Man, Christ Jesus. I believe He's
the God-Man. I've seen the Son. I see, although I've never seen
Him physically. I do see that He Himself is all
in salvation. You know what that makes me in
salvation? Nothing. And He's all. And I see that and I believe
it. I see He's all in the Scriptures. I see this. Now, I see the Son. I do. Now, no, I haven't seen
Him physically. I have not experienced. What
people said they've experienced, but I do. I do see the sun. I
see the son of God. I see the son of Mary. I see
that he's all in the scriptures. I'm a spectator of him. You know
when you see what happened when David beat Goliath. Remember
what happened? Israel took off after the Philistines
then. They started participating in
after the victory was already won. They went after the spoils.
And that's what we do by faith. By faith, we go after the spoils. We believe what He's done. But
He doesn't end there. He says, This is the Father's
will which is sent me, that of all which He hath given me I
should lose nothing, but raise it up again at the last day.
This is the will of Him that sent me, that everyone which seeth the
Son and believeth on Him may have everlasting life. Now, not only do we see the Son,
we believe. That means we rely upon Him. Now I'm relying, right now, I'm
relying on this. When He said, it is finished, my salvation became history.
I'm relying on Him. I'm not just believing in Him,
I'm believing on Him. That means I'm relying on Him. My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. On Christ, the solid rock,
I stand. All other ground is sinking sand. I am relying on who he is and
what he did as everything in my salvation and that's the evidence
that he did it for me faith is the evidence of things not seen
I am relying right now while I'm talking to you I believe
that in him I am perfect before God without sin I'm relying on
him now. This is his will of command that
everyone that sees the sun and believes on him has everlasting
life. Now listen to me. Everybody in this room. It's
true. God elected the people and he
didn't elect everybody, isn't it? It's true. It's true that
Christ died for the elect and accomplished their salvation.
That's true. That's true. But this is just as true. God
commands all men everywhere to repeat God command you to repent
God commands you personally to believe to rely on his son God
commands you to and you're right to do it comes with his command
ever boy girl man woman in this room God commands you to believe
the gospel then believe If He commands you
to do it, you can do it. If He commands you to do it,
you can do it. You can rely completely on the
Lord Jesus Christ. God commands all men everywhere
to repent. I'm in that bunch. It's God's will for all who see
the Son and believe on Him to have everlasting life. Look up
at verse 37. John 6, All that the Father giveth
me shall come to me. How thankful we are for that
and how thankful we are for the rest of that verse. Him that
cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. May God give us grace
to come. Let's pray together.