Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Neibert. We are located at 4137 Todd's
Road, two miles outside of Manowar Boulevard. Sunday services are
at 1030 a.m. and 6 p.m. Bible study is at
945 a.m. Wednesday services are at 7 p.m. Nursery is provided for all services.
For more information, visit our website at toddsroadgracechurch.com.
Now, here's our pastor, Todd Nybert. I've entitled the message
for this morning, The Place of the Will in Salvation. The Place of the Will in Salvation. Now, our text is found in John
chapter 5. I'd like to begin reading in
verse 1. After this, there was a feast
of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is at
Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is in the Hebrew
tongue called Bethesda, having five porches. In these lay a
great multitude of impotent folk, that means powerless, without
ability. In these lay a multitude of impotent
folk, blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the
water. For an angel came down at a certain
season into the pool, and troubled the water. Whosoever then first,
after the troubling of the water, stepped in, was made whole of
whatever disease he had. And a certain man was there which
had an infirmity, a weakness, an inability, thirty and eight
years, when Jesus saw him lie and knew that he had been now
a long time in that case, he saith unto him, Will thou be
made whole? Are you willing to be made whole? Now, the man that Christ asked
this question to was an impotent man. He lacked the ability to
walk. And it appears that this inability
was all of his fault through some kind of sinful course of
life that he had been living. We read in verse 14 of this same
passage of Scripture. Afterward, Jesus, finding him
in the temple, saith unto him, Behold, thou art made whole.
Sin no more lest a worse thing come unto thee." So it appears
that his sin had brought him into this state of inability
and it was all his fault. Now this man gives us a very
accurate picture of you and I. Unable. Completely unable to
do anything to save ourselves. We're in a state of inability. The Lord said in John 6, 44,
no man can come to me except the Father which has sent me
draw him. A state of inability. And this state of inability we're
in is all our fault. We're not victims. It's our fault. Our sin has brought us into this
state of inability. Hence the wickedness of this
state of inability. We're not victims. It's not like
something's happened to us. It's not our fault. No, it's
all our fault. Unable and responsible. That's a bad place to be, isn't
it? Unable and responsible. And the Lord asks this man this
question. Are you willing? Is it your desire
to be made whole? Now, I see from this that salvation
is being made whole. It's something God does for you.
You see, salvation is not what you do for God. It's what He
does for you. And the Lord says to this man,
are you willing to be made whole? You're made to be what you were
not. When God saves you, you're made
to be what you were not. Now, we're given a beautiful
illustration of this at the first part of the book of John, in
chapter 2, when the Lord caused water to be made wine. Now, He didn't make the water
look like wine or taste like wine. The water was actually
made to be what it was not. It was made to be wine. And when Christ saves somebody,
they're made to be what they were not. Listen to this Scripture
from 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21. Paul says, For He hath made him
to be sin. For us who knew no sin, that
we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." Now, in myself,
I'm not righteous, but if the Lord saves me, He makes me to
be what I was not. He makes me righteous, the very
righteousness of God. Christ's righteousness becomes
mine. Listen to this scripture, 1 Corinthians 1.30, "...of Him
are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us." wisdom
and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. Now that's being
made whole, isn't it? That's a complete salvation. And our Lord says to this man,
are you willing to be made whole? Are you willing? Is it your desire? The word will tier is the word
will or desire. And we see from this Lord, from
the Lord's question to this man, are you willing? to be made whole,
that the will does have a place in salvation. Are you willing? I'm asking you that right now.
Are you willing? Is it your desire? Is it your
wish to be made whole? We read in Revelation 22, verse
17, whosoever Let him take the water of life
freely. You know, the Bible speaks of
believing with the heart. Listen to me carefully. This
is so important. Paul said, with the heart, man
believeth unto righteousness. Now, what does it mean to believe
with the heart? Well, in the Bible, the heart means the whole
man. It means the understanding. It means the affections and it
means the will. With the heart man believeth
under righteousness." I understand that I don't have any righteousness,
and the only righteousness that I can have is Christ's righteousness
as my righteousness. I understand that. Not only do
I understand that, I love being saved by His righteousness. That's
my affections. I love being saved by Him. Not
only do I understand this, not only do I understand that Christ
is my righteousness before God, not only do I love Christ being
my righteousness before God, but if I was given a choice,
that's the way I'd choose. Would you rather be saved by
your righteousness or Christ's righteousness? Christ's righteousness.
That's my choice. You see, the will is involved
in this thing of faith. The understanding, the affections
and the will. Our Lord said to this man, are
you willing? Is it your will? to be made whole. Question, does this mean that
man has a free will? The answer to that question is
no. There is no such thing as free
will. Now what do I mean by that? That's
generally a given with most people. People talk about free will and
so on and preachers talk about free will. What do you mean by
free will. Now, God has a will. There's a such thing as the will
of God. But God's will is not free. Can God freely decide to
sin? No. Can God lie? No. His will is controlled by
his nature. There's no such thing as free
will. A tiger, for instance. A tiger,
if he wanted to, could eat grass. Would you stop him? If he wanted
to, he could eat grass, but he doesn't want to because his will
is controlled by his nature. It's not his nature to eat grass. A cow could eat meat, I suppose,
but it's against the nature of the cow to eat meat. The cow's
nature is to eat grass. Your will is controlled by your
nature. So there's no such thing as free
will. Men, preachers in our day, make
man's will the ultimate cause of salvation. Here's the message
that I hear preached in our day. God loves you. God wants to save
you. Christ died for you and paid
for all your sins. The Holy Spirit is calling you.
There's a place in heaven for you, but you have to, with your
will, Make a decision to accept what He wants to do or all of
it will be vain. You won't be saved. Your will
is the ultimate cause of salvation. Your salvation is in your hands,
not in God's hands. It's ultimately in your hands.
It's up to your will whether you decide to accept or reject
what He did. Now listen to me real carefully.
All that is is salvation by works. There is no gospel in that message. If you believe that way, you've
never even been taught that you're a sinner. You don't know what
sinful bondage is. You're yet dead in sin. You don't
understand anything about your need of grace. You're a stranger
to the grace of God. If you believe free will, in
that sense, you reject free grace. And you make man's will sovereign
over God's will. understand this whole notion
of free will is heresy. It's not in the Bible. It's not
true. And someone who preaches man's
free will as the deciding factor in salvation is a stranger to
the grace of God. No man by nature is willing. Ephesians 2, 3 says that we fulfill
the desires or the will of the flesh and of the mind and we're
by nature the children of wrath. even as others. In John chapter
5, verse 40, the Lord looked at some people and He said, you
search the Scriptures, in them you think you have eternal life,
and they are they which testify of Me, and you will not come
to Me that you might have life. Now in that statement, our Lord
may, we see, men have no spiritual life. He said, you will not come
to me that you might have life. We see that there is life in
Christ. You will not come to me that you might have life.
We also see that there's life for all who come. You will not
come to me that you might have life. If you come, you'll have
life. And you will not come to me. That is our sin, our wicked
will, that will that's chained to an evil nature. That's what
makes it so bad. The universal cry of man is,
we will not have this man to reign over us. Here's man's will. We read in Luke chapter 23 verse
23, and they were instant with loud voices. This is about the
crucifixion of the Lord, requiring that he might be crucified. And
the voices of them and of the chief priests prevailed. And
Pilate gave sentence that it should be as they required. And
he released unto them him that for sedition and murder was cast
into prison, whom they had desired. But he delivered Jesus to their
will." Romans 9, 16 says, it's not, talking about salvation,
it's not of him that willeth. How many different ways are there
to take that? It's not of him that willeth, nor of him that
runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. We read in John chapter
1, verses 12 and 13, that as many as received him, to them
gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them which believe
on his name, which were born, not of blood, not of the will
of the flesh, not of the will of man, but of God. Question, does that mean that
man's will has no place in salvation? Not at all. You see, Psalm 110,
verse 3 says, thy people shall be willing. in the day of thy
power. Thy people. Who are His people? Well, the same people of whom
it said in Matthew 121, Thou shalt call His name Jesus, for
He shall save His people from their sins. His people are the
elect of God, those God chose before time began to be saved. All who believe His people shall
be willing in the day of His power. Now these same people
were born with an evil nature, and their will was controlled
by their evil nature, but they're made willing in the day of His
power. You see, when God saves somebody,
He gives them a new heart. He gives them a new nature. And
now their desire, their will, is to follow Christ. Their will
is to be saved on His terms. That's what they want. Paul said,
after God saved him, he said, to will is present with me. It's
there. I want to be saved on God's terms. I want to honor Him. I want to
glorify Him. The will has been changed. Now, there's so many examples
of this. Think of Lazarus. He's dead. Does he have a will
for salvation? No. But when God gives him life,
he does. What about Zacchaeus? Did he
have a will for salvation? No, he was the chief among the
publicans. He was very rich, but God did something for him.
And now he seeks to see Jesus who he was. I love that parable
in the book of Luke about the king that made the great feast.
And he said, all things are now ready. Come. All things, nothing
you need to bring, nothing you need to do, all things are now
ready, come to the feast. And the scripture says they all
with one consent began to make excuse. They didn't want to come
and they came up with their excuses. And he told his servants, go
out into the highways and hedges and compel them, force them,
urge them to come in that my house might be full. Now, how is it that God forces
a man to be willing. I don't know, but He does. He
makes it to where you're willing to be saved by Him, where you're
willing to be made whole. Philippians 2, verses 12 and
13 says, Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for
it's God that worketh in you. both to will and to do of His
good pleasure. God makes His people willing
in the day of His power. Now, you've heard that saying,
you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink.
That's true, but God can, and God does. By omnipotence, he
causes his people to be willing in the day of his power. Now, I would like to spend the
rest of our time considering Revelation, chapter 22. This
is the last chapter in the Bible. And here we have the message
of the gospel in Revelation, chapter 22, verse 17. We read
and the spirit and the bride say, come. And let him that heareth
say, Come. And let him that is athirst,
Come. And whosoever will. Did you hear that? Whosoever
will. Let him take the water of life
freely. Now, what is the message of the
Gospel? Come. Come to Christ just as you are. I don't care how sinful you are.
I don't care how blind you are. I don't care if you don't have
any kind of experience at all. I don't care how much you know
or how little you know. The call of the gospel is for you to come
to the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, the gospel doesn't say
stay away. You've already stayed away. It doesn't say you can't
come, although you can't in and of yourself, but the message
of the scripture is come to Christ. Come to him for salvation. Come
to him for the will to come. If you don't even find yourself
willing, say, Lord, make me willing in the day of your power. Come
to the Lord Jesus Christ. The Spirit and the bride say
come and let him that hears say come. Do you hear what's being
said? Come. Whoever's thirsty. Let him come,
and whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." Now
this thing of coming to Christ, this is what you and I are called
upon to do. This is the motion of spiritual
life. You see where there's life, there's
motion, there's movement, and this is spiritual movement coming
to the Lord Jesus Christ. You leave one place so as to
go to another. You leave the way of salvation
of works and you come to the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the
evidence of divine election. John 6.37 says, All that the
Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me
I will in no wise cast out. This is what all who are taught
of God do. They come to the Lord Jesus Christ. Every man that had heard and
learned of the Father cometh unto me. This is the message
of evangelism. Come to Christ. This is what
the Spirit and the bride say. And I'm calling upon you. I'm
calling upon myself to come to the Lord Jesus Christ. Come to
him. He said, come unto me, all ye that are weary and heavy laden,
and I'll give you rest. He said, if any man thirsts,
let him come to me and drink. This is the call of the Gospel
to come to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, who is told to come in this
passage of Scripture? Well, him that hears. Do you
hear? Him that's thirsty. Do you thirst? Whosoever will. Whosoever, I
love that word in the Scripture, whosoever, I'm one of them. Whosoever
will. Are you willing to be made whole? Are you willing to be saved by
Christ the way He says He saves? Are you willing? Then come to Christ. Somebody
says, well, how do I come? How do I get there? I want to
read a passage of Scripture from Matthew chapter 8. And this passage
of Scripture, as much as any Scripture I think and all the
Word of God teaches, is what it means to come to Christ. And this is exactly what I want
to do. Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. You don't have to pay anything.
You don't have to do anything. You don't have to be anything.
Whosoever will, are you willing to be saved by Christ? Then you're
called upon to take the water of life freely. Now in Matthew
chapter 8, we read about a man who came to Christ, and he was
received. And I want to come the same way,
and I want to be received the same way. We read beginning in
verse 1 of Matthew chapter 8, When he was come down from the
mountain, great multitudes followed him, and behold, there came a
leper." Now we know from Luke's account that this man was full
of leprosy. There wasn't one square inch
of healthy flesh in this man's body. And he represents the sinner
who comes to Christ, full of sin. And he came and worshiped
him. Now, if you're going to come
to Christ, you're going to come the way this fellow did. You're
going to come full of sin and you're going to come worshiping.
The Lord is worthy of worship, whether he saves you or not.
You know, if the Lord would send me to hell, he'd still be worthy
of all worship and adoration. Do you feel that way? If the
Lord passed you by, he's still the Lord. And whatever he does
is right. This man worshipped the Lord
for who He was. He came and worshipped Him saying,
Lord. He knew He was the Lord. He knew
He was the dictator. He knew He was the one who was
in control. This leper knew that whether or not he was healed
was up to the Lord. It wasn't up to him. It was up to the Lord. He came to the Lord saying, Lord,
if You will, You can make me clean. Now he believed in the
Lord's ability to make him clean. He wasn't real sure about whether
the Lord was willing to do it, but he knew the Lord had the
ability to do it. He said, Lord, if you will, you
can make me clean, make me whole. It's up to you. And what's it say in verse three? And Jesus put forth his hand
and touched him. He touched somebody nobody else
would touch, that man full of leprosy. And Jesus put forth
his hand and touched him, saying, I will. Be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was
cleansed. Now if you come to Christ the
way that leper did, you're going to hear the same thing that leper
heard. I will be thou clean. Now back to John chapter 5 where
our Lord was talking to this man who was helpless. When Jesus saw him lie and knew
that it had been now a long time, in that case, he saith unto him,
Wilt thou be made whole? I'm asking you, are you willing
to be made whole? The impotent man, verse seven,
answered him. He didn't really understand what
the Lord was saying. He was still thinking about his ability. Sir,
I have no man. When the water is troubled to
put me into the pool, but while I'm coming down, another step
down before me. I'm unable. Well, he didn't hear
what the Lord was saying. The Lord didn't say, are you
able to get into the pool? He didn't say, are you able to
make yourself whole? He said, are you willing to be
made whole? This is something that I do.
This is not something you do. This is something I do. The Lord
says, are you willing to be made whole? Verse eight, Jesus saith unto him, rise, take
up thy bed and walk. Now, wait a minute. He couldn't.
He was crippled. Yes, but when the Lord said, told him to do
it, he could. You see, the Lord made him willing. Rise, take up your bed and walk. And immediately the man was made
whole and took up his bed and walked. And the same day was
on the Sabbath. Now, are you willing to be made
whole? Are you willing to be saved by
sovereign grace? Are you willing to be saved wholly
by Christ, by what He does for you? Are you willing to be made
whole? Somebody says, I'm not willing.
Well, then you won't be made whole. But if you're willing
to be made whole, you will be made whole by the Lord Jesus
Christ. Yes, the will does have a place in salvation. We are
made willing, Psalm 110.3, in the day of His power. Now, we
have this message on cassette tape, DVD, and CD. If you call
the church or write, we'll send you a copy. And we'd like to
invite you to services at Todd's Road Grace Church this morning,
1030, this evening at 6. This is Todd Kniper, praying
that God will be pleased to make Himself known to you. That's
our prayer. Amen. To request a copy of the sermon
you have just heard, send your request to messages at toddsroadgracechurch.com. Or you may write or call the
church at the information provided on the screen.