This morning, our text is gonna
be found in Galatians chapter one, if you'd like to turn there. Galatians chapter one. Many wonder what the will of
God is, what the will of God is, as if it can change. I've heard men make the statement
that God has a perfect will and he has a passive will. You ever
heard that before? God has one will, one purpose. And if by passive is meant that
I can do something that changes or alters his will in any way,
I totally disagree with that because there's nothing I can
do to alter his will. But if by passive it means that
the lot falls in the lap, meaning that it's decisions that we make
and things that we do, but the whole disposing is of the Lord,
meaning he keeps his people. We really are making decisions,
but is it not the Lord that constrains us? Is it not the Lord that restrains
us? Not us that constrains or restrains him. If that's what
we mean by passive will, then I could agree with that. The
Lord allows us to do things, but at the end of it all, we
look back and say, surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all
the days of my life. It's not me, not unto us, O Lord,
unto thy name be all glory. Because left to myself, I wouldn't
seek your face. I wouldn't desire your truth.
I wouldn't want to know you in the free pardon of sin. It has
to be the Lord that gives that desire and gives that revelation.
Just like all things pertaining to God, he is not, neither is
his will, alterable. He can't be changed. It is just as his word is forever
settled in heaven, his will is forever settled. He can't be
dictated to. He can't be threatened. He's
unchangeable. That's what makes our God so
glorious is he cannot change. We change all the time. We'll
have emotions. One minute we'll be happy. The
next minute we'll be angry. The next minute we'll be sad. The
next minute we'll be happy again. We change all the time, don't
we? We're constantly changing. We're growing older. We're changing
in that regard. Our opinions change because of
our experiences. Not God. Not God. He knows everything. He knows
everything. He's all on the present. He's
everywhere all the time. He knows everything all the time.
He's God. He's sovereign. And his will cannot be changed.
His will cannot be changed. He says in Isaiah 46, remember
the former things of old for I am God and there is none else.
I am God and there is none like me declaring the end from the
beginning and from ancient times the things that are not yet done
saying my counsel shall stand and I will do All my pleasure. I will do all my, that's the
word of God. I will do all my pleasure. See,
he's God and I am not. He's God and you are not. Somebody
said, well, I know that, but yet our nature is to say, look
at me, I am God. Our nature does that. Our nature
does that. Understand this, if I can change
his will and if I can change his purpose, I'm God, not him. If I can change him, if I can
change his will, if I can change his purpose in anything, I'm
God. I've changed God. That means
I'm God, not him. But oh, that's not true, is it?
You can't change the Lord. He's unchangeable by definition. That's part of his isness. When
he said I am, he's the self-existing one. He doesn't change. He doesn't
change. The one true God we preach has
ordered all things in their shore, according to his own will, according
to his own purpose and grace, given to his people before the
world began. We read that in 2 Timothy 1,
verses nine and 10. Let's read this together in Galatians
chapter one. We're gonna read verses one through
five, and I've titled this message, The Will of God, The Will of
God. Paul, an apostle, not of men,
neither by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who
raised him from the dead, and all the brethren which are with
me unto the churches of Galatia. Grace be to you and peace from
God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ. who gave himself
for our sins that he might deliver us from this present evil world
according to the will of God and our Father, to whom be glory
forever and ever, amen. What is the will of God? That's
what we wanna know this morning. I've titled this The Will of
God. Well, what is the will of God? How do we know what the will
of God is? If we're taught of his spirit,
we will be made to know that no matter what His will is, it
shall come to pass, regardless of what it is. Now, we want to
find out what it is, and we're going to get to that. But if
you are taught of the Lord's spirit, and I'm taught of the
Lord's spirit, we're made to know that no matter what that
will is, it's going to happen. There's nothing that can stop
it. There's nothing that can contradict it. There's nothing
that could stand in the way of it. He's God. So whatever his
will is, is a done deal, insomuch that before time ever began,
God justified his people. Christ hadn't died yet on the
cross, but as far as God was concerned, the covenant of grace
was so sure and certain because it was God's will to redeem his
people. God justified his people before
the world was created. That's glorious, isn't it? Why?
Because his will cannot change, cannot change. It cannot be altered
or reversed. Isaiah 43, 13 says, yea, before
the day was, I am. That word he was in italics,
I am he. Before the day was, I am. That's what he said. And there
is none that can deliver out of my hand. I will work and who
shall let it? Are we going to give God permission
to do something? Are we going to choose to allow
God to do something? No, he's God. He's going to do
it, whether we give him permission or whether we allow him to or
not. He's going to do that, which
he will, because he's God. And we love him that way, don't
we? Understand, we're the powerless sinners. Powerless, that means
the complete absence of power when it comes to spiritual things,
when it comes to the things of God, we are powerless. We don't
have one iota of power, one microscopic bit of power whatsoever when
it comes to things pertaining to God. We're without God in
this world, we're blind, we're born dead and trespasses and
in sin, we are powerless. He has all the power. Good news
is whenever we find out what His will is here in a few minutes,
we have hope in our state that we're in right now. In our state
that we are born in, we have hope, not because of the state
that we're in, but because of what He did for those who are
in that very state. He came to this world to save
sinners. That was His purpose. His elected,
predestinated sinners, He came into the world to save them according
to His will. According to His will. We're powerless to get to God. You can't get to God. We can't
get to God. We're powerless to please God.
We can't please God in and of ourself. We're powerless to save
ourselves. Listen what Daniel recorded from
Nebuchadnezzar. Remember when Nebuchadnezzar,
he was, um, uh, struck down, if you will, from the Lord, wherever
he was lifted up in pride, the Lord told him, uh, you're going
to, for seven years, you're going to crawl. You're going to be
a beast. I'm going to show you who did what I'm going to show
you. It was my will that you have what you have and you're
nothing. That's what the Lord was going to show him. And that's exactly
what happened. Nebuchadnezzar became, for seven
years, he crawled like a beast. He ate grass like a beast. His
hair was like the eagle's feathers, or scripture says, and his claws
were like eagle claws. He became a beast. Why? Because the will of God. He was
going to get broken. He's going to get broken. The
Lord's going to show him that he's a beast. But it's a picture of our sin,
is it not? What we are by nature. What could Nebuchadnezzar do
in that situation that would have helped him? What could Nebuchadnezzar
do in that condition that would have fixed that condition? Nothing.
No, this was going to be God that was going to have to set
him free from this condition, from this position. And that's
exactly what the Lord did by his reason returned into him.
God gave him his reason back. And this is what Nebuchadnezzar
said. Very first thing he said when he came back, All the inhabitants
of the earth are reputed as nothing, and he doeth according to his
will with the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of
the earth, and none can stay his hand or say unto him, what
doest thou? See, we're not just weak. We're
dead dog sinners. We need a savior. We need a savior
to save us, to make us alive, to give us righteousness. We
don't have righteousness. To give us holiness. We don't
have any holiness. To give us redemption, to make
us sanctified and justified. We can't do any of those things
on our own. Without him willing to save,
we will remain dead. which brings us to our hope. What is our hope? The will of
God, that's our hope. The will of God is our hope.
It starts with God, and it ends with God, and all the work in
between, the beginning and the end, is of the Lord. That's why it's called His salvation. David in Psalm 51, after he had
sinned with Bathsheba and the Lord had given him repentance
by Nathan the prophet, he says, restore unto me the joy of thy
salvation. Not my salvation. Thy salvation. See, it was bought with the blood
of Christ. It belongs to Him. I need His salvation for me. I need Him to save me. That's the hope, that it would
be His will to save sinners. The scripture says, this is a
faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation. Christ Jesus
came into the world to do what? Save sinners. Save sinners. That's good news. That's His
will. That's His will, to be born a man, to live, to die,
to redeem His people back to the Father. That was His will
and purpose. That's why this world exists. Somebody said, I don't understand
what the world is all about. That's what the world's all about,
that's it. that God might save his people from their sin. That's
the reason it's spinning. That's the reason the sun's rising.
That's the reason the trees are budding for the glory of God
and the salvation of his people. That's what it's for. That's
what you don't have to wonder anymore. That's the will of God
that he would save his people. And that's exactly what the Lord
Jesus Christ did. John 530, when the Lord came
to this earth, Christ said, I seek not my own will, but the will
of my father, which hath sent me. The will of God was to save
his people from their sin that they might never perish. And
Christ, the scripture says, set his eyes like a flint, meaning
he had one purpose and he stayed on that one purpose. He focused
on that one purpose. He was in perfect obedience to
his father. even unto death, the death of
the cross. Perfect obedience. No, they'll
never perish or be plucked from his hand. Why? Because the scripture
says in 2 Peter chapter three, the Lord is not slack concerning
his promises. Some men count slackness, but as long suffering
to us, we're not willing that any should perish, but that all
should come to repentance. That's the will of God. That's
actually one of the most misconstrued verses in a lot of churches.
They say, well, if God's not willing that any should perish,
why isn't everybody saved? Or they say, well, God doesn't
really want anybody to perish. It's up to you. That's not what
he's saying at all. As a matter of fact, that word usward is
the whole reason that he's talking about who he's talking about.
The word usward is a reflection of just a verse or two before
that said the beloved of God. That's the usward. It's the Lord's
people. He's not willing to lose one
sheep. He's not willing to lose one that God gave to him in the
covenant of grace. Why? Because it's the will of
God. It's the will of God. This is
his will that his people shall never be lost to sin, to self,
to Satan, to the world. He's not going to lose one. He's
not going to lose one. This is his will. Turn with me
to John chapter six. Oh, those Pharisees, they constantly
were asking questions and trying to trap the Lord, and the Lord
just told them the truth. And you know what he told them?
The Lord said this one time. He said, you hate me because
I tell you the truth. That's what he told them. That's
why you hate me. I tell you the truth. And that's
the same conversation that they're having right now. John chapter
six, verses 35 through 40 says this. Jesus said unto them, I
am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never
hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. But
I said unto you that ye also have not seen me, and believe
not. All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him
that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. 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
that sent me. What is the Father's will? Well,
this is it right here. 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. It's the will of God that all
those who were given to Christ in the covenant of grace to come
to the knowledge of the truth and never be lost, never be lost. At his appointed time, he calls
his people. He calls his people. But if the
requirement here is that we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, that's
what he said. This is the will of God that whosoever that they
which everyone that seeth the Son and believeth on him may
have everlasting life. If it's our responsibility to
believe on him, when we examine ourself, we realize I can't believe
on him. Not in this flesh. Not in this
flesh. He's gonna have to do that. But
you know what the good news is? That was his will that you might
believe. That's why he was sent that you
might believe. This is God's gospel. This is
what he accomplished for his people, the ability for you to
believe. It's called faith, and he gives
it freely by his grace to his people. Therefore, we find ourselves
believing him. If the requirement is believing
on the Lord Jesus Christ, then God must be the doer of it. We
are born spiritually dead. The Lord has to make us spiritually
alive. We're born in trespasses and in sin. The Lord has to take
those sin and nail them to his cross and put them away so that
there's no handwriting of ordinances against us that's contrary to
us anymore. Christ must be made the propitiation
for our sin or our sin will remain. And that is exactly, exactly
what he did for everyone that he died for. This is the will
of God and this is our hope. All that the Father gave to Christ
will not be lost. They will come to him. They will
come to him because he will call them irresistibly. Irresistibly,
he'll call them and they will come to him. Do you know why? Because they are justified freely
by his grace. Because they are saved from their
sin. He lets them know about it. That's exactly right. Therefore,
the Lord tells us in John 10, my sheep hear my voice. I know
them and they follow me and I give unto them eternal life and they
shall never perish. See the hearing ear and the seeing
eye are of the Lord. They came from him. He's the
one that must give it or we'll remain blind and we'll remain
dead. And the good news is that is his will for his people is
for you to receive sight, for you to be able to hear his voice,
for you to be able to have life. This is what the blood of Christ
purchased on the cross of Calvary is the salvation of God's people. So how is it we're unable to
hear his voice? We'll read on here. Verse 41 tells us, the
Jews then murmured at him because he said, I am the bread which
came down from heaven. And they said, is not this Jesus, the
son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How is it that
he saith, I came down from heaven? And that's the point right there. They can't hear him. They can't
see him. They don't know who he is. He's
God incarnate. He is the fullness of the Godhead
bodily standing right in front of them. Imagine the beautiful
words that would have been flowing out of his mouth. They marveled
at it at some places, but they couldn't see him because the
Lord wouldn't allow them to. He wouldn't allow it. He said,
you will not come to me that you might have life, but my sheep,
they hear my voice. My sheep hear my voice. Verse
43 says, Jesus therefore answered and said unto them, murmur not
among yourself, 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.
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. The only
way that you and I can come to Christ is if we hear and are
taught of the Father. If the Lord enables us, if the
Lord causes us, if the Lord makes us, I like that word, make, we
gotta be made. We've got to be made. Somebody
said, the Lord saves you against your will. He gives you a brand
new will, because this will is not going to do anything but
curse God. I mean, that's the truth of it.
Our human nature curses God, hates God, because it's a sinful
nature and God is other than we are. We can't, our brains
can't comprehend His holiness, His righteousness, His truth,
His justice, everything that He requires, we can't enter into
it, nor can we perform it. God has to satisfy God, and that's
what Christ did for His people, according to the will of God.
According to the will of God. This is the will of God, that
His people be drawn to Him, by Him, to Christ. Be drawn by Him to Christ and
made to believe. And you know what you're made
to believe if you're His? You know what God's will is?
He makes Christ unto you all of your wisdom so that you don't
know anything but Christ. All of your sanctification so
that you have no holiness outside of Christ. All of your justification
so that you don't have any justification outside of Christ. All of your
redemption so that you can't be, you don't have any righteousness
anywhere else. He makes Christ all unto his
people, all, so that we say, thank God for his will. Thank
God that it wasn't up to me and my will, it was up to him and
his. Philippians 2.13 says, for it
is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good
pleasure. It is God's will for salvation
to be all of Him. And it is God's will to make
you and I, if we're His, to be completely dependent upon Him.
It's not only God's will to call us, but it's God's will to keep
us. And as he's keeping us, it's God's will to send us light afflictions
that causes us to cry out to him. Lord, I'm unable to find
peace right now. I'm looking in the wrong places.
And that's just how we are. We look in the wrong places for
peace. We look in the wrong places for rest. And these light afflictions,
as Paul talks about, they're grievous. That doesn't mean they're
easy. But compared to the suffering
of our Savior, we can say truthfully, they're light afflictions. And
yet the Lord, what he does is he causes us to find the end
of our rope, to find ourselves sinking like Peter, because we've
taken our eyes off of Christ, and it's his will that we are
made to cry out, Lord, save me. Lord, have mercy on me, the sinner. Lord, if you don't do something,
I'm going to perish. The disciples looked at the Lord.
The Lord was sleeping in a boat. And this is, I love this because
it's, in one sense, it's comical because it's so us. If the Lord
was sleeping in the boat, we'd do the same thing. But it's amazing. They had seen all these miracles.
They had seen the Lord perform so many miracles. And yet now
the Lord, there's a storm on the sea. And the Lord's sleeping. He's just resting. He's God. He doesn't have any doubt. He
doesn't have any fear. He doesn't have any, nothing
like you and I. He's looking to God completely
through faith. He believes the Father. Believes
the Father. And yet the disciples, they begin
to worry. Lord, they woke him up. Lord, do you not care that
we perish? Think about that statement. Is
that not us? Lord, we're gonna die if you don't do something.
You don't care that we're gonna die here? Well, of course he cared. What'd he tell him? Oh, ye of
little faith. Oh, ye of little faith. And what did he do? He said, peace, be still. And immediately, immediately
the storm ceased. See, the winds still know his
voice, he created them. The waves still obey his word,
he made them. I said this last Sunday, I'll
say this again. How often do we look at the storm
and the winds and the waves, see the lightning and hear the
thunder, and forget the one, the master that created it? Forget
to look at the one that created the storm itself, that controls
the storm, that's purposed the storm, that's seeded. It's already
finished. Whatever the storm's gonna do,
it's already finished. The Lord's already purposed it, and according
to his will, it's going to come to pass. Oh, for the grace to
look at our Savior rather than the storm. But as soon as he
said, peace be still, the storm ceased. And what do the disciples
say? What manner of man is this that
even the winds and seas obey him? Well, he was the God-man. He is the God-man. He's the one
that redeemed his people. All the miracles that he did
could not compare to the miracle of saving wretched, vile sinners
that he did on the cross of Calvary. That's the greatest miracle.
He saved his people from their sin. He did according to the
Father's will. God works in his people that
which is pleasing in his sight so that his will is accomplished
according to his purpose. Now turn back with me to Galatians
chapter one. Let's read this again. Paul, an apostle, not of men,
neither by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who
raised him from the dead, and all the brethren which are with
me at the churches of Galatia. Grace be to you and peace from
God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself
for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world.
according to the will of God and our Father, to whom be glory
forever and ever. Amen. Christ came on purpose. There's a lot of preaching that
happens that talks about Christ trying to accomplish something.
But Christ came on purpose. Christ was sent of the Father
on purpose. Christ became a man on purpose. Christ bore our sin in his body
on the tree, the scripture says, on purpose. This was not accidental. This was all predetermined. This
was why the world was created. When the Lord made the world,
it was for the sole purpose of the salvation of his people for
his glory. That's the purpose of it. God
became a man to save his people from their sin It was God's will
that he would suffer and die. It was God's will that his soul
would be made an offering for sin. It was his will that he
would have to, as the scripture says, as Jonah was in the belly
of the whale three days and three nights, so shall the son of man
be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights.
This was the will of God. This is why Christ was born.
This is why Christ lived. This is why Christ died. This
is how he saved his people from their sin. He shed his blood.
putting away our sin, and the Father was satisfied. This was
all predetermined. This was all purposed. This was
all according to his will. It was God's will to lay the
iniquity of us all upon the precious lamb and execute divine judgment
and justice until it was satisfied for us. It was God's will that
Jesus Christ would not only endure the cross, but he would satisfy
the laws, demands, so that you and I are no longer under the
law, but we're under grace. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness. That word is because. Christ
is the end of the law because of righteousness. This is the
will of God. This is what he purposed. Understand that God is only well
pleased with one and it's his son. And you and I must and we
have to be in Christ or we will be not be pleasing God. We won't
be and you can't get in Christ and thank God you can't get out
of Christ either because it's not of him that willeth nor of
him that runneth, but it's God that showeth mercy. Well, how
does he show mercy? According to his will, according
to his purpose. See, he's the king of kings,
the Lord of lords. And if God has purpose to save
you, you are saved. If God has purpose to keep you,
you're gonna be kept. If God has purpose to bring you
into glory with a body that's fashion likened to his, it's
going to happen. As a matter of fact, he views
it as it already happened. We just gotta go through the
motions of this life. Nothing can change God's purpose. Nothing
can change God's will. He's God. He's the alpha and
omega of salvation. That means he's the beginning
and he's the end and everything in between. Everything in between. All this was done with salvation
without our consent. You know what the Lord told the
disciples? He said, if I was hungry, I wouldn't
tell you about it. I wouldn't tell you. The Lord
wouldn't tell any man if he was hungry. He would ask of his father,
wouldn't he? Ask of his father. He didn't
converge with flesh and blood whenever he was determining the
salvation of his people. He didn't ask our opinion whenever
he chose to become the substitute surety for his elect. This was
according to the will of God. This was done without our consent.
This was done without our approval. This was done without our input
because it was the will of God. So regardless of our input, approval,
or consent now, it's still irrelevant because it's already finished.
No matter whether we, well, we approve of it if we believe him,
there's no doubt. We definitely consent to it and we're very
thankful for it. But if the Lord doesn't give us the grace to
be thankful, we'll hate the gospel because it's contrary to the
flesh. God's salvation was accomplished
according to the will of God. Who can disannul it? Who can
disannul it? Who can void it? Who can withhold
it? Name one that can withhold it.
No, if he's gonna give salvation, it's gonna happen. He's God,
it's his will. Who can change it? It's done. If God's will
is for the deliverance of his children, his chosen people,
they're delivered. They're delivered. If God's will
is for the salvation of his elected sinners, they're saved. They're
saved, because he's God. That's his will, and it is, and
it is. If he has willed to save us from
self, sin, and Satan, then we are saved, we are delivered,
we are set free. If the triune Godhead has purposed
and willed the salvation of his elect, then saved we are indeed,
because none can stay his hand or say unto him, what doest thou?
What doest thou? We read in Exodus, and I'm coming
to a close after this. We read in Exodus, the Lord said,
whenever I see the blood, I will pass by you. Well, if it's his
will to see the blood and then pass by us, then the good news
of the gospel is, is everyone he dies for, everyone that he
died for, will have the blood applied to them so that when
he sees the blood, he passes by them. Let's see, this is all
of God from the beginning to the end and everything in between.
Everything about the will of God is what secured salvation
for his people. It's what secured salvation.
If it's his purpose to pass by the blood, he's got to be the
one to apply it. And that's what the Lord Jesus
Christ did on the cross of Calvary. This is only done one way, according
to his will, once and forever on the cross. The last thing
I want you to see is who gets all the glory for this? Do you
get the glory? Do I get the glory? Who gets all the glory for this?
Do I get a little bit of glory for doing something? Verse five,
to whom be glory forever and ever, amen. God gets all the
glory. And the Lord's people love it
that way. We love it that way, we don't want any glory. Brethren,
this is the foundation of the book of Galatians. This is the
foundation that if you want to have peace with God, it's going
to have to come through grace. And it's all according to the
will of God. If you have peace and grace by the Lord Jesus Christ
and what he accomplished on the cross. This is the opening scene
for Galatians. This is what sets the tone for
the entire book. in the rebuke that Paul is giving
to those who are mixing law and grace. He's saying, no, here's
the beginning of everything. It's by the will of God, not
of the will of man. As we heard in the men's study,
you can look at John chapter one. He said, which were born
not of the will of man, nor of the will of flesh, but of God. It's God that does it. It's all
his will. It's all his will. We have grace
and peace with God one way, and that's through Christ, according
to the will of God. Let's pray. Father, we ask that
you would take this, bless it according to your will, for your
glory. In Christ's name, amen. Let's
take a break.