I'm going to eat lunch after
the service. Everyone, please stay and have
a good time of fellowship, and we will not have services this
evening. I've entitled the message for
this morning, Willing to Do His Will? Question mark. Willing to do his will. I'm going to try to answer two
questions from the passage of scripture I just read. How can I know if what I'm hearing
is from God and not from man? When I think of Me standing up
here claiming to be a spokesman for God, it absolutely scares
me to death. I'm making that claim. I better
be. You know, every preacher, when
he gets up, he's claiming to be a spokesman for God. How can I know If what I'm hearing
is from Him, and am I willing to do His will? Now, if those questions are answered,
the Lord's blessed us, hasn't He? How can I know if what I'm
hearing is from God and not merely the opinion of some man's view
of what the Scripture says? And am I personally willing to
do his will. Verse 16, Jesus answered them
and said, my doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me. He is one with his father. And his doctrine is the doctrine
of his father. My doctrine, the doctrine of
God. Now I want to warn us, never
use the word doctrine in a disparaging way. This is the doctrine of Christ.
We have said, I've said, you said, well, that sounds like
dry doctrine. The doctrine of Christ is never
dry doctrine. I might have a dry heart. You
may have a dry heart, but the doctrine of Christ is never dry. It is the doctrine of God. The Lord said my doctrine. shall drop as the rain. Don't you pray that that's what
happens this morning, that his doctrine will drop as the rain. Hold your finger there in John
7 and turn to 2 John. 2 John. 1 John, 2 John, 3 John, 2 John. Verse 7. For many, note that word, many. For many deceivers, note that
word, deceivers. Many deceivers are entered into
the world who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. Now that statement, and we're
going to consider that in a few moments, represents everything
we believe. The brilliance of that statement,
that so much could be said in that one simple statement. That's what I love about John's
writings. Sentences with just a few words
and all one syllable can contain an infinite amount of truth. This, the person that does not
make this confession, John tells us, is a deceiver and an antichrist. Look to yourselves that we lose
not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive
a full reward whosoever transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine
of Christ. Hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine
of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. Back to John chapter 7, Jesus
answered them and said, My doctrine, the doctrine of Christ, is not
mine, but his that sent me. Now look at this statement in
verse 17. If any man will do his will." If any man is willing, this is
his desire, this is his will to do his will, God's will. He shall know of the doctrine,
whether it be of God or whether I speak of myself. He that speaketh
of himself seeketh his own glory, but he that seeketh the glory,
his glory that sent him, the same is true and no unrighteousness
is in him. Now, if I do not know, love and
approve of the doctrine, his doctrine, the reason behind it
in me. is an unwillingness to do His
will. If I don't understand the doctrine,
if I don't believe the doctrine, here's why. Because I am unwilling
to do His will. That's the reason behind it.
Anybody that does not receive the doctrine of Christ. Here's
why a sinful unwillingness to do his will. If I leave here this morning,
not having received and embraced and loved and believed his doctrine
behind it in me is an unwillingness. to do his will. Am I willing to do his will? Have I been made willing in the
day of his power? Can I say with Paul, to will
is present with me. Right now, to will is present
With me, am I in this number? Whosoever will let him take the
water of life freely. I repeat, am I willing? I hope
we're all asking ourselves this question right now, and I hope
we're going to understand what it means. Am I willing to do
his will? Verse 14. Now about the midst of the feast,
the feast of the tabernacles, you'll remember his brethren
said, go up to the feast, show everybody how miraculous you
are and how you can do these things to get a following. And
he didn't go. But afterwards he went up secretly, the scripture
says, and then he taught openly in the temple. Now about the
midst of the feast, Jesus went up into the temple and taught
and the Jews marveled saying, How do I know if this man led
or is having never learned? He never even went to school.
Where'd he learn to read? Where'd he go to seminary? What credentials
does he have? He hadn't gone to any of our
seminaries. Why should we even listen to him? Where's he coming
up with this? They were listening to him and
they were amazed. I'm sure they were astonished
by his wisdom and authority. I love after the Sermon on the
Mount The scripture says the people were astonished at
his doctrine for he taught as one having authority, not like
the scribes. Now when the Lord spake with
authority, that doesn't mean he spake with a big booming voice
and you just trembled at the authority of his voice. No, everything
he said recommended itself of being nothing less than the very
word of God. That's what that authority is.
Oh, with what authority he spake. He spake the words of God. Verse 16, here's the Lord's answer to their
objection. How knows this man letters? He's
never learned. Jesus answered them and said,
my doctrine, my doctrine. Now, before we go on with what
he says, let's remember that passage of scripture we just
read from John chapter seven. The doctrine of Christ is all
comprehended by this simple statement. Whosoever confesseth not that
Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God, but is of that
spirit of Antichrist. Now think about this statement.
Whosoever confesseth or confesseth not first what I believe and
what you believe must be something we publicly confess and identify
with. You know why you're here? You
identify with this message. You're making a confession. This
is the message I believe. I'm hanging the hopes of my salvation
on what's being said right here. I'm publicly preaching it. I'm
not staying in the background and saying, well, this is what
I believe, but I won't preach it from the pulpit. What a man
preaches from the pulpit publicly is what he believes. Confess. Plead guilty. Whoso confesseth not that Jesus
Christ has come in the flesh or who confesses that Jesus Christ
has come in the flesh. Here is what we confess. Number one, we confess He was
before He came. We confess he's the eternal son
of God. He was before he came. He's God. Jesus Christ is God. Jesus Christ is the creator of
the universe. He was before he came. And Jesus
Christ came in the flesh. God was manifest in the flesh. When we preach Jesus Christ,
when we confess Jesus Christ, we confess He is Perfect God,
complete God, and perfect man, the God-man. He's just as much
man as if he were not God at all. He's just as much God as
if he were not man at all. He is the God-man. We preach
who he is. He came in the flesh. And he did what he came to do. Now isn't that everything we
believe, the person and work of Christ? Who he is, he came
in the flesh and whatever it was he came to do, he did. He's incapable of failure. He
couldn't do something and it not end up happening. I love
it in John chapter six, verse 38, where he said, I came down
from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him that
sent me. This is the will of him that
sent me, that of all which he hath given me, I should lose
nothing. But raise it up again at the
last day. He tells us very clearly, this is the will of him that
sent me, that I save the elect. Those the Father gave me. And this is the will of him that
sent me, that everyone that seeth the Son, everyone who sees who
I am, everyone who sees the son and believes on him. Now, if
you see who he is, you know what you're gonna do? You will believe.
You will. I mean, you'll be forced to.
You can't help it. If you ever see who he is, you
will believe. And everyone who believes, he's
gonna raise up at the last day. My doctrine. Who I am, what I've accomplished, the person
and work of Christ. He was before he came, he came
in the flesh and he did what he came to do. I hesitate to use the word brilliance
of that, but how all truth is contained in that simple little
glorious statement. My doctrine, that's his doctrine.
is not mine, but his that sent me. Now remember, my doctrine, he
is equal to the father. Look in John chapter five. Verse 16, this is after he healed
that man on the Sabbath day. And therefore did the Jews persecute
Jesus and sought to slay him because he had done these things
on the Sabbath day. Now, why were they so upset?
He is showing no regard for their religion. That's why they were
so upset. He shows no regard for their
religion. You do these things on the Sabbath
day, you're not supposed to work. And I love the way the Lord says,
but Jesus answered them, my father worketh hitherto and I work. No works on the Sabbath day,
I'm working. And my father's doing the same
thing. They had no understanding of what the Sabbath day was in
the first place. And he demonstrated an utter disregard for their
religion. Therefore, the Jews sought the
more to kill him because not only had he broken the Sabbath,
but said also that God was his father making himself equal with
God. Equal with God. That's okay. One time. Don Fortner was really,
if you're out, if your phone rings in service, and then one
time while he was preaching, his phone rang. And he thought,
well, I better not be so hard on people when that happens.
True story. He made himself equal with God. My doctrine is not mine, but
his that sent me. My words are his words, his words
are my words. My doctrine is his doctrine,
the doctrine of God. You know that passage of scripture
in John chapter 14 verse 1 where the Lord said, let not your heart
be troubled, you believe in God, believe also in me? Now that
word also is translated many times, even so. As in Adam die,
all die, even so, in Christ shall all be made alive. It's the same
word, even so. You believe in God, even so,
believe in me. Do you believe God's all powerful?
Even so, believe me, I'm all powerful. Do you believe God
is absolutely sovereign? Even so, believe in me, I'm absolutely
sovereign. Whatever attribute we speak of
God, he has in all of its fullness. dwelleth all the fullness of
the Godhead in a body. My doctrine is not mine, but
his that sent me. And I love the way he's always
bringing out how the father sent him. That's why I came. The father
sent him. Back to our text, verse 16, my
doctrine They were questioning, where's this man coming up with
his doctrine? My doctrine, the doctrine of Christ. It's not
mine. This is not some human production,
but his that sent me. Now look what he says in verse
17. If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine.
whether it be of God or whether I speak of myself. Now, if I
hear the doctrine of Christ and I can't get it, I don't understand
it, I don't receive it, there's a reason. I am unwilling to do
His will. That's the only reason why a
man would not receive the doctrine of Christ, because he's unwilling
to do His will. Will, now somebody's thinking,
what do you mean by doing his will? What is meant by that?
Turn with me to Matthew chapter seven. This passage answers that
question. Verse 21. Not everyone that saith unto
me Lord, Lord shall enter into the kingdom
of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my father, which
is in heaven. Many, I know that word, many
will say unto me in that day, that day of judgment, Lord, Lord,
Have we not prophesied in thy name? In thy name have we not
cast out devils? In thy name have we not done
many wonderful works? Notice the quantity, many. Notice
the quality, wonderful. They thought they'd done as well.
I mean, we've preached in your name. We haven't preached in
our own name. We preach in your name. We've
used your name. We've had works of power that
only you've enabled us to do. We can cast out demons. And as
far as our works go, they're wonderful. What's this thing
about doing your will? We thought we'd done it. Verse
23, and then will I profess unto them, I never knew you. Can you imagine the shock of
that? I never knew you. Depart from
me, ye that work iniquity. Now, they thought they'd done
his will, but look what he says to them. What is it to do his
will? I want to know, am I willing
to do his will? What is it to do his will? Well,
somebody says it's his will that you keep all the commandments.
I would agree with that. I would agree with that. You
ought not ever break any of the commandments of God. You ought
to keep the 10 commandments perfectly. But you know what the Lord said
at the end of this passage of scripture to these fellows? He
said, did not Moses give you the law? None of you keep it. None of you, none of you keep
it. You go about to kill me, is what
you're wanting to do. What is this thing of doing His
will? Not, okay, someone says, well,
I try to keep the commandments. I try to keep the 10 commandments.
And I'm not gonna speak against that, but I know this, you haven't
kept one, once. What is this thing of doing His
will? I'm not talking about, I know what I ought to do. I'm
talking about something you do. What is this thing of doing his
will, willing to do his will? Well, these people asked in John
chapter six, what must we do that we might work the works
of God? That's a good question, isn't
it? What must we do? Do that we might work the works
of God. And the Lord gave a very specific
answer to that very specific question. This is the work of
God. that you believe on Him whom
He hath sent." That is doing His will. What must I do to be saved? Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. You look to Him alone, nothing
more, nothing less, and nothing else. What is it to do His will? It's to look to Christ only. To believe on the Son. It's to trust Him. as all that's
needed to make you perfect before God and you know you don't need
anything else but Him. I can't do that. You're unwilling
to do His will then. That's all that would cause that.
If you're willing to do His will, you are willing to look to Christ
only right now. as your salvation. You're willing
to do his will. Somebody says, no. Here's the
problem. You're unwilling to do his will. What is this thing of doing his
will? It's the act of trust. Second Timothy 1.12, Paul said,
I know whom I have believed. I'm persuaded he is able to keep
that which I've committed to him. against that day. He's talking about the day of
judgment. What have you done, Paul? I've committed the entire salvation
of my soul in every respect, in every aspect to Him. I'm trusting
Him only. That's what it is to do His will. It takes willingness to do His
will to do His will. And that willingness has to come
from God, doesn't it? Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. We don't trust Christ unwillingly.
We trust Christ because that's what we want to do. Don't you
want to trust Christ alone? When Paul said, the will is present
with me, it's present with me, right? That's what I want to
do. I want to look to Christ only. I will know the doctrine
that it's of God if I will to do his will. And if I will to
do his will, I won't be fooled and I won't be deceived. I don't
want to be deceived, do you? I don't want to deceive myself.
I want to do his will. Now look what he says in verse
18. Now here's how I can know if what I'm hearing is of God
or just some man's opinion or man's thoughts. Here's how we
can know whether I'm representing myself or whether God sent me
to preach his gospel. He gives us a way we can know.
Verse 18. He that speaketh of himself seeketh
his own glory. But he that seeketh his glory
that sent him, the same is true. And no unrighteousness is in
him. Now this is how I can know if
what I'm hearing is from God. Who gets the glory? Who gets the glory in your salvation?
You know, if I would say that to anybody, I'd say in Lexington,
they'd say, well, God does. Everybody'd say that. God gets
the glory in my salvation. Isn't that what the Pharisee
said? I thank thee, O father, or I thank thee, God, that I'm
not like other men are. He gave God the glory, didn't
he? I thank thee, he gave God the glory. But that, we know
really he didn't, did he? He said, I thank thee that I,
am not as other men are." And he talked about the things he
did. I fast twice in the week. I give tithes of all that I possess.
I don't commit adultery. I'm not an extortioner. I'm not unjust. I'm sure not
like this miserable publican. he didn't really thank God, he
was thanking himself. As far as that goes, when the
Lord said he prayed, he prayed thus with himself. He thought
he was praying to God, but it didn't get any further than the
ceiling. God wasn't hearing this acceptance. The way you can tell
if you really believe that he gets the glory is by the doctrine
we believe. If I believe that, for instance,
if I believe, listen to me real carefully, if I believe that
God loves all men the same. And if I believe that Jesus Christ
shed his blood for all men without exception, and he wants to save everybody,
And His salvation is offered to everybody. I hear of the free
offer of the gospel. God's offering this to you. God's offering you His salvation. But it's up to you as to whether
or not you'll accept it or whether you'll reject it. If God loves all men the same,
Jesus Christ died for all men the same, God the Holy Spirit
calls all men the same, and some of those same men are saved and
some are not, Who gets the glory in their salvation? He did the
same thing for all of them. The difference is what one did
that the other did not do. That means man gets the glory
in salvation. That's exactly what that means.
If my salvation is dependent in any measure to any degree
on something I must first do before I can be saved, I get
the glory. I get the credit. Now you can take this in so many
different directions. Let's say I believe that my only
hope is to be saved by the grace of God and the blood of Christ.
On Judgment Day, I'm going to be rewarded according to my obedience
here on earth. And there's higher rewards in
heaven. The more obedient ones get a higher, I guess, a bigger
mansion or maybe drive a bigger car or whatever, you know, something.
And the ones who didn't do as well, they're kind of down, they
live in some kind of hut or hovel down here. And you look at these
two people and what? Who gets the glory there? Well,
the one that was more obedient. That's man getting glory. That's
the bottom line. That's man getting glory. Now,
in every aspect of my salvation, if I'm saved, it's because God
elected me. Amen? Do you believe that? If
you're saved, it's because God chose you as salvation. Now,
who gets the glory in your election? Did he choose you because he
foresaw you'd believe, or he foresaw you'd be good, or he
foresaw... No! He did it freely as an act
of His grace in my redemption. Who gets the glory? Jesus Christ. I get no glory. He didn't redeem
me because He saw something in me that I could... No! He did
it for His own glory's sake. You know, when I stand in heaven,
I'm going to be a trophy of His grace. There isn't anybody that's
more dependent upon the grace of God than me. And if you're
a believer, you say the same thing about yourself. In my justification,
when I stand before God, sinless and without guilt, perfect, righteous,
who gets the glory? Jesus Christ gets the glory. It's his righteousness I'm saved
by. In my regeneration, who gets
the glory? My free will? Of course not.
God birthed me into the kingdom of heaven. He willed my salvation
of his own will. Begat he us through the word
of truth and my preservation. The fact that I persevere all
the way to the end. Who's that due to? Kept. by the power of God through faith
unto salvation. God gets all the glory in my
salvation. And when I stand before God, who's gonna get the glory in
my salvation? Jesus Christ, the Lord. Who gets the glory? Now, when you're hearing preaching,
number one, if I don't receive the doctrine of Christ, It's
because I'm unwilling to do His will. It's my fault. It's from a sinful, wicked, willful
rebellion toward the truth of God. It's not an intellectual
problem. It's not because I'm not smart enough to figure it
out. The gospel is simple. Christ is all. In every respect,
Christ is all. And if I hear something that
gives man any glory in any way, in any respect, it's not of God. Now, if you do something and
somebody turns around, let's say at work, you perform something
and somebody takes credit for it, isn't that offensive? Isn't that evil? Well, for a
man to take credit for what God has done, Who gets the glory? Verse 18. He that speaketh of himself seeketh
his own glory, but he that seeketh his glory that sent him, the
same is true. And no unrighteousness is in
him. Now that's talking about the Lord, first of all. That's
also saying somebody that's actually seeking the glory of Christ in
what they're saying. You can believe what that fellow
is saying. That's the way you can know whether
what you're hearing is of God or of man. Who gets the glory? God does. Christ does. God the Holy Spirit does in every
aspect of our salvation. And then the Lord says in verse
19 to these people he's speaking to, did not Moses give you the
law And yet none of you keep the
law. Why go ye about to kill me? The
people answered and said, thou hast a devil. You're demon possessed.
Who goes about to kill you? That's all they've been doing. May the Lord make me and you
willing to do his will. That means to trust Christ only.
Are you willing to do that by the grace of God to look to Christ
only. And may we be enabled to see
who gets the glory. If in my preaching, I leave you
thinking about, oh, I need to be like him. I've preached myself
and not the glory of Christ. Am I willing to do His will,
look to Christ alone, and who's getting the glory of my salvation?
May the Lord impress this in our hearts. Let's pray. Lord, we ask in Christ's name,
that name that's above every name, that you would Make us
willing to do your will and to look to Christ only. To be just like the apostle Paul,
to commit the entire salvation of our soul to him against that
day, to where we're looking to him to answer for us. And Lord,
will you enable us from our heart to give you the glory in everything
and give no glory to men. Lord, we confess that in every
aspect of our salvation, you get the glory in everything. Lord, enable us to Rejoice in looking to Christ
only and enable us to rejoice in you getting the glory in all
things. Now bless this message for our good and for your glory. Lord, as we. Have this time of fellowship
together. We ask that you would bless our time together. Lord,
we're so thankful for this assembly. We're so thankful for our friends.
We're so thankful for those who love you, love your glory. Look
to your son only as everything in their salvation. Lord, unite
our hearts in the fellowship of your gospel. In Christ's name
we pray. Amen.