Now, tonight I would like for
you to open your Bibles to the 6th chapter of John. The 6th chapter of John. I want
us to think together tonight on this subject, the Father's
will. The Father's will. In John 6, 39, and this is the
Father's will. which hath 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 every one which seeth the sun, and believeth
on him, may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up
at the last day. Now, my will is the essence of
sin. If you'll hold our scripture
text there, mark it somewhere so we can come back to it, and
turn to Isaiah chapter 14. Now, I presented this several
weeks ago and stressed it fully, so I'll not go into it again.
But the essence of sin is the will of the creature pitted against
the will of God. That is the source of sin. That's
the essence of sin. That's the heart of sin. Most
preachers are content with condemning the byproducts of sin and the
results of sin. John the Baptist was not content
with that. He said the axe needs to be laid
not to the limbs, not to the branches, but to the root of
the tree. And you're not actually dealing
with the source and essence and heart of sin until you get down
to the root of the matter. And here's the root of the matter
in Isaiah 14, verse 12. Our Lord is talking about the
fall of Lucifer, the fall of Satan, who was once a mighty
angel, who was once an inhabitant of glory, who once dwelt in the
presence of the Lord God, but who fell because of his own will. And it says here in Isaiah 14,
12, How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the
morning? That speaks of his power, that
speaks of his beauty, that speaks of his glory before his fall. How art thou cut down to the
ground, which did weaken the nation? That speaks of his influence.
But now this speaks of his sin, verse 13, For thou hast said
in thine heart, Now, if you'll hold that right there and let
me read something to you from the book of Matthew. Thou hast
said in thine heart. Now, the Lord Jesus Christ was
speaking to the people here, and he says, Every plant which
my heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up. Leave them
alone. They are blind leaders of the blind, and as the blind
lead the blind, they'll fall into the ditch. And Peter said,
Well, Lord, declare unto us this parable. And Jesus said, Are
you yet without understanding? Do you not understand that whatsoever
entereth in at the mouth goeth into the belly, and is cast out
into the draft? But those things which come out
of the heart, those things which come out of the heart, they defile
the man. For out of the heart proceeds
evil thoughts. Out of the heart proceeds murders,
adulteries, fornications, thefts, lies, blasphemies. These are
the things that defile a man. To eat with unwashing hands defiles
not a man. So over here, the Scripture says
of Satan in Isaiah 14, you said this in your heart. Heart sins
are defiling sins. Heart sins are the source of
sin. This is where sin begins. This
is where sin has its start. This is where sin meets its condemnation. This is where sin meets with
judgment, is in the heart. Thou hast said in thine heart,
I will ascend into heaven. I will exalt my throne above
the stars of God. I will sit also upon the mount
of the congregation in the sides of the north. I will ascend above
the heights of the clouds. I will be like God." That was
Satan's problem, his will. That was Satan's problem, his
will. That was Adam's problem, his will. That was the problem
in the days of Christ. Turn to Luke chapter 23. Our
Lord said, You will not come to me that you might have light.
You will not come to me that you might have life. He said,
O Jerusalem, how oft these Jews, how oft would I have gathered
you to myself as a hen that gather her brood, but you will not. And then when these people crucified
the Lord of glory, look at Luke 23, 25, and watch this carefully
now. People who talk today about wanting
their own free will, people who talk about us suppressing the
human will, People who talk to us today about not giving enough
freedom to the will, I don't want to be turned over to my
will. They turn Jesus Christ over to the will of the people
and they nail him to a cross. Look at Luke 23, 25. And he released
unto them him that for sedition and murder was cast into prison,
whom they had desired. In other words, Pilate stood
there and said, now it's customary that on this day I release unto
you a prisoner. Who do you want, Jesus Christ
or Barabbas? Barabbas had been imprisoned
for sedition and murder. Sedition and murder. And these
people had the freedom of choice. They had the exercise of their
own free wills. And they refused Jesus Christ
and chose him who had been in prison for sedition and murder.
Now what's this next line? He delivered Jesus to their will. That's one of the most significant
statements in this whole Bible right there. Underscore it. Go
back and read it some more and think about it. Pilate says,
all right, I'm turning Jesus Christ over to your will. Do
with him what you will. and they nailed him to a cross.
They spit in his face. They plucked out his beard. They
lacerated his back. They jammed a crown of thorns
down on his head and they spit upon him. And then they took
him out and put him on a cross and danced around his cross and
laughed at him and mocked him and humiliated him in his nakedness. That's man's will. My will is
the essence of sin. My will is the source of my fall. My will would crucify my Lord. My will says I will not go to
Christ. And submission to God's will
is the essence of holiness. The essence of sin is my will. The essence of holiness is God's
will. The Father's will. The Lord Jesus Christ prayed
in Gethsemane's garden. Not my will, but Thy will be
done. So I want to know the Father's
will, and here in our text tonight we have it. We have it clearly
defined, the Father's will. Christ said in John 6, 39, and
this is the Father's will. He said in verse 38, I came down
from heaven not to do my own will. I came to do the will of
him that sent me, the heavenly Father sent me. I came to do
his will. And this is my Father's will. And he says that twice. He says
it in verse 39, ìThis is my Fatherís will,î verse 40, ìand this is
the will of him that sent me.î It was the will of God that conceived
salvation. Salvation was not born in the
will of man, it was born in the will of God. The thought originated
with God. I want you to turn to the book
of Ephesians, and let me show you something here thatís very
enlightening. I gave this the other night over at the Rosemount
Baptist Church in Western Salem, and an individual told me after
the service that it was most helpful to him, most helpful
because he had had some difficulty with the sovereignty of God in
salvation. Here in Ephesians 1, verse 3,
I want you to watch this carefully. Ephesians 1, verse 3. Paul starts
with what he has. He starts with what he is. He
says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who hath blessed me. God's blessed me. God's blessed
me with the knowledge of my sin. God's blessed me with the knowledge
of my inability. God's blessed me with the knowledge
of Christ as my Savior, my Lord, my Redeemer. God's blessed me.
You can only start with what you have. You can start with
what you have and trace it back. And that's what Paul does. He
says, God has blessed me. God stopped me on my road of
rebellion. God stopped me on my road of
sin. God stopped me on my road of
blasphemy and revealed his Son to me. Now he's blessed me. Now
he takes a step back and says in verse 4, according. God blessed
me according as he chose me. Now let me ask you this, did
you choose God or did he choose you? The scripture says that
God chose you. The Lord Jesus Christ looked
at his disciples and said, you didn't choose me, I chose you.
You hath not chosen me, I've chosen you. Herein is love, not
that we loved God, 1 John, but that he loved us and gave himself
for us. We love him because he first
loved us. We sought him because he sought
us. It was God who stopped you in
your rebellion. It was not you who stopped God.
You see, He chose me. He blessed me according as He
chose me. Well, when did God choose you?
Well, look at the next line. He chose me in Christ before
the foundation of the world. Now, here's the thing. Everything
that God does in time, God decreed in eternity. Father, Scripture
says, Known unto God are all His works from the beginning.
And salvation is certainly his work, according as he chose me
in Christ, that I should be holy and without blame before him
in love." Having. Now what's the next step? Paul
is going back. He said, God's blessed me. I
know what I have. I know what God has made me.
I know what God has revealed to me. I know that I have a relationship
with him because he chose me. He takes a step back. And then
he goes back another step and he said, according as he had
predestinated me to the adoption of children. Now, the word predestination
occurs in the New Testament four times. If you want to count that
scripture in 1 Peter that says foreordination, and many people
say that is also predestination, but four times it occurs in the
New Testament. And each time it has reference
to what God has determined that we should be. God had predetermined,
God had before the event determined the outcome. And it has to do
with what we're going to be. Each time that the word predestination
is used, it refers to our being conformed to the image of Christ.
In Romans 8, and also in Ephesians 1, it said, God hath predestinated
us to be conformed to the image of his Son. In other words, if
you go down to the bus station tonight, a bus will pull into
the lot there. And you go out, you're on your
way to Atlanta, and you walk out on the platform of the bus
station, there are three buses there, not down this little bus
station, but in the big cities, three or four buses. You look
up there, it says Memphis. You look up here, it says Little
Rock. You look over here, it says Chicago. Well, you don't
want in any of those, they're going the wrong way. You look
over here, it says Atlanta. Oh, there's my bus. And you get
on that bus because it's been predestinated, its destination
is Atlanta. And its destination has been
determined prior to the day it came in, or the hour it came
into this station, you see. Its destination is Atlanta. It
has been predestinated. It has been predetermined. In
the office of the bus terminal, they said that bus is going to
Atlanta. Bus number 614 with driver number 816 is going to
Atlanta. Put Atlanta on it. That's where
it's going. And God Almighty hath blessed
me, Paul said, and he takes a step back and he says, according as
he chose me to salvation in Christ. And he takes a step back and
he said, God predetermined, God predestinated that everybody
whom he chooses is going to be like Christ. And God has predestinated
the route, God has predestinated the means, God has predestinated
the agents, God has predestinated all of these things to bring
these whom he chooses to be like his Son. They have the mark of
Christ on their hearts. They have the mark of Christ
on their souls. They're going to be like Christ.
That's God's determination and that's their destination, to
be just like Jesus Christ. Now look at the next line. It
says here, "...having predestinated us unto the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will."
Now that's where we started, this whole thing. God's will.
It was God's will that conceived this thing of salvation. It was
born, it was thought in the will of God. So Paul starts where
he is. God has blessed me. I know that. I know God. I know the gospel.
I know Christ. I know the truth. God has given
me a divine nature. God has given me a love for him
because he chose me. He picked me out. He picked you
out if you're his own. He chose you out of darkness,
and out of death, and out of disease, and out of sin, and
brought you to life because he predetermined that he's going
to have a people like his Son. And all of this was born in his
will. Now, Paul starts where he is,
but if you want to start from the other direction and come
this way, you start with the will of God. And you say, the
pleasure of God's will, salvation was all born in the will of God.
He said, I'm going to have a people. And he predetermined that they'll
all be like Christ. He predestinated they'd be like
Christ. Well, I suppose God will have
a people, and God predetermined that they should be like Christ.
Who's coming? Who's going to be like Christ?
You will not come to me that you might have life. Somebody
said, well, if Jesus Christ came to that door and knocked, everybody
in the building was going to be the first one to get up and
let him in. Yes, if they were alive, they would. But suppose
they're all dead, who's going to get up and let him in? He's
got to come first and give them life, you see. He's got to choose
them. They won't choose him, he chooses them. And he chooses
them and then he blesses them with the knowledge of his Son.
So it was born in the will of God, salvation was shaped and
formed in the will of God, faith, the atoning sacrifice, the new
birth, perseverance. It was the will of God that brought
all these things about. Now let's look back at our text.
Let's look back at our text. And this is the Father's will. This is the Father's will. There's
no ifs, there's no buts, there's no maybes, there's no asking,
there's no requesting, there's no begging, there's no permission
sought. This is my Father's will. That's the way our Lord Jesus
Christ states it. There's no begging here. There's
no permission sought. He said, this is my Father's
will. that of all which he hath given
me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the
last day." That's his will. You want to know God the Father's
will? His will is sovereign. It's all together, absolute,
independent. It's the will that calls all
things out of nothing. It's the will that creates something
out of nothing. His will cannot be defeated.
He said, none can stay my hand or say unto me, what doest thou?
It proceeds on an everlasting, determined course. His will is
fixed and unchangeable. He said, I am the Lord, I change
not. Would you have God change? Well,
you say, yes. How? For the better? How can
perfection change for the better? Or for the worse? Would he still
be God if he changed for the worse? This is the sovereign,
conquering, unchangeable, fixed, determined will of God. that
of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing." Now,
this is the thing that really gives me joy and delight here,
and that is that it's the will of the Father to show mercy. That's what gives me great delight.
Turn to Exodus 33, that it is the will of the Father to show
mercy. I can go out here and preach the glorious good news
of salvation to the blackest sinner. Because it's the will
of the Father to show mercy. I will, he said, show mercy. In Exodus 33 verse 18, Moses
said, Lord, show me your glory. Exodus 33 verse 18, Lord, show
me thy glory. And God said in verse 19, I will
make all my goodness pass before thee. I will proclaim the name
of the Lord before thee. I will be gracious. I will be
gracious. It is the Father's will to be
gracious. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and
I will show mercy. I will show mercy on whom I will
show mercy, but I will be gracious, and I will show mercy. And it
is the Father's will, it is the will, the determination of the
Heavenly Father to show mercy and to be gracious. This is the
will of Him which sent me. This is the Father's will which
has sent me. Christ is the obedient servant
of the Heavenly Father's will. He's no counterfeit Savior. He
comes with authority. When he forgives, it's the Father's
will. When he shows mercy, it's the
Father's will. When he loves, it's the Father's
will. When he prays, it's the Father's
will. When he intercedes, it's the
Father's will. When he receives a sinner, it's
the Father's will. This is the Father's will which
has sent me. He calls him in Isaiah 42, my
servant, and he says, He shall not fail. This is the Father's
will which has sent me. Look at verse 39 again. That
of all which he hath given me, I should lose nothing. Up until
today, I didn't put a great deal of significance on that word
nothing. Well, not like I do now. Having looked at it a little
while and thought about it and studied it a little bit, it doesn't
say that I should lose no one, it says I should lose nothing. Christ certainly shall lose no
one. That's right. All that my Father
giveth me, he said, shall come to me, and him that cometh out
of nowhere is cast out. That's true. That's verse 37,
just in this same chapter. All that my Father giveth me,
he'll lose no one. But here it says he'll lose nothing.
This is my Father's will, which hath sent me as the servant that
shall not fail, that of all which he hath given me I should lose
nothing. And one of our commentaries gives
us this help, Christ redeemed our souls, and therefore not
one soul shall be lost. Christ redeemed our bodies, therefore
not one body shall be lost. Christ redeemed our possessions.
What Adam lost, our inheritance. We were kings one time, and Adam
lost it. We were priests one time, and
Adam lost it. We were heirs of all that God
has, and Adam lost it. We had a perfect body one time,
and Adam lost it. And that's what he's saying here.
This is the Father's will, which hath sent me, that of all which
he hath given me I lose nothing, but raise it up. again at the
last day. In the last day my inheritance
shall be restored, and I shall have the redemption of my body."
Spurgeon said this about this verse of Scripture here. Do I
hear someone say, I think the doctrine of divine sovereignty
and salvation is dangerous? I think the doctrine of God choosing
and saving whom He will is dangerous. My dear friends, who is this
doctrine dangerous to? If God has taught it, there can
be no danger to the man who desires God's will to be done. It can
only be dangerous to the man who is afraid of the will of
God. At the same time, I contend there
never was a truth that foolish people could not distort and
turn into some kind of mischief. Now, we'll all agree that ropes
are good things, but many people have hung themselves with ropes. And there's many a grand doctrine
in the Word of God which men have turned to their own destruction,
but we cannot be shaping God's truth to fit the ideas, the folly,
the sin of men. The question then is, not is
it dangerous, but is it in the Bible? If it's in God's Word,
let none of us ever say it's dangerous. Let the Word of God
speak and let us submit. Let us bow. There's nothing in
the world that can put into a man real force, real gratitude, real
submission, like the belief that God, according to the good pleasure
of his own will, had chosen him to eternal life and put in him
an unconquerable nature, and that Jesus Christ has been engaged
all of his life and death and resurrection and intercessory
work. to bring all that is his to the
right hand of God. You might whip a slave into battle,
but a son will go there willingly. All right, let's notice this
second thing now. This is the Father's will. Verse 39. And we cannot deny, this is the
Father's will, which has sent me. that of all which he hath
given me, I should lose nothing, but raise
it up at the last day. Now the second, verse 40. And
this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which
seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting
life, and I'll raise him up at the last day. We have in verse
39 the divine will in salvation. We have in verse 40 the human
response to the divine will. This is the Father's will which
hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me, divine grace,
divine predestination, divine election, divine revelation,
Verse 40, this is the will of Him that sent me, that everyone
that seeth the Son and believeth on Him, human response, human
need, human cry, human call. If God, now watch verse 39, if
God looks down on men in acceptance and approval, It is through his
anointed Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what verse 39
is saying. This is the Father's will. This
is the Father's determination. This is the Father's good pleasure,
that all that he hath given to me, all that he hath chosen in
me, all that he hath designed and purposed and predestinated
in me, in the divine counsel, I'm not going to lose anything.
I'm going to raise it up. That's verse 39. Now, look at
the human response. Look back the other way. Look
back as a man to the Father. And this is the will of Him that
sent me, that everyone that seeth the Son, if men look up to God in hope
of acceptance, in hope of approval, in hope of mercy and forgiveness. It's got to be through the sun.
You see, the same thing. It's got to be seeing the sun
and believing on the sun. It's like you have an hourglass
here and the sand's up here in the top. And as it goes down
to the bottom, it goes through this one hole right here, and
then it accumulates the bottom. You reverse it and turn it over.
That sand, in order to get down here, has got to come through
that one hole. And Christ is the one, one connecting link
between Almighty God and the sinner. And if you look at the
sinner from the Father as the sand down through the hole, it's
got to go through Christ. And if you look as the sand,
and that's what we are, as the sands of the seashores, you look
from the bottom of the mug, from the pit of the depraved world,
you look back to God, you've got to look through that one
thing, and that's through Christ. Somebody says, well, suppose
I haven't been given to Christ. Well, let's look at this thing
carefully here. This is the will of Him that sent me that everyone,
that everyone, Our Lord has a people from every tribe and nation,
the scripture says, and that includes a man with great faith,
with little faith, with no character or little character, with riches
or poverty, black or white, Jew or Gentile, high or low, learned
or ignorant. You have no right to suppose
that you have not been given to the Son. And I say that for
this reason, he hath all power over all flesh. He's the Lord
of the dead and the living. He's the Lord of all. In a sense,
everything is His. That's right. In a sense, everything
is His. Everything is rightfully His. Everything in heaven, earth,
and hell is rightfully His. Every knee shall bow and confess
that He's Lord. Now let me say this. I've heard
preachers say, come forward and make Jesus your Lord. You can't
do that. You can't make Jesus Lord. You
don't have any power to enthrone Jesus Christ. You don't have
any power to make a king. You don't have any power to make
a king on earth, let alone a king in heaven. I can't recall some
men the kingmakers. I'm not a kingmaker. The Heavenly
Father is the kingmaker. He's already made Jesus Christ
king. You don't make him king. You
don't make him Lord. The Father made him Lord. You
Submit to his Lordship. You bow to his Lordship. You see, there's a difference
there. We don't make Christ Lord. He
is Lord. We bow to his Lordship. We submit. We recognize it. We don't make
him Lord. We recognize his Lordship. And
Jesus Christ is the Lord over this world. He's the Lord over
this nation. He's the Lord over this city.
He's the Lord over this town. He's the Lord over this church.
He's the Lord over every soul sitting out there and every soul
out yonder in the world. He's the Lord. Now one of these
days the scripture says every knee is going to bow and every
tongue is going to confess his Lordship. You'll do it here or
you'll do it in hell, but everybody's going to do it. You'll do it
here or you'll do it in hell. You'll do it here and in heaven
or not here and in hell, but you're going to confess his lordship. So no man has the right to say,
well, I'm not going to call on Christ because I may not be one
of the elect. You don't have a right to say
that. I may not have been given to Christ. There's a sense in
which he owns everything. And whether he sends you to heaven
or hell, you ought to acknowledge his Lordship. That's right. Whatever he does with you, you
ought to acknowledge his Lordship. And if acknowledging his Lordship—now
watch this next line here. This is the will of him that
sent me, that everyone would see as the Son. Now, I cannot
see the Son with these natural eyes. But when I read of him
in God's Word, when I hear of him from God's prophet, when
he's set before me in God's message, in his true character, then the
eyes of my understanding discern him. The sense of faith recognizes
him. Now, if by that sight and that
knowledge and that information I can see who he is and what
he came to do and why he came and who sent him and believe on him, and believe on him. For God so
loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever
believeth on him. He that believeth on the Son
hath everlasting life. He that believeth not the Son
shall not see life. Go ye into all the world and
preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved. He that believeth not shall be
damned. What things soever we desire when we pray, And we shall
have them. All things are possible to him
that believes. Believes. He that seeth the Son,
this is the will of him that sent me, he that seeth the Son
in the record, in the message, on the cross, in the tomb, on
the right hand of the Father, he that sees that, understands
that, and believes it, hath everlasting life. And I'll raise him up at
the last day. or the refuge have I none, hangs
my helpless soul on thee, leave, O leave me not alone, still support
and comfort me. For brother Mahan, after I have
believed on Christ, may I not after all perish? Now let's see,
this is the will of him that sent me. Do you believe that
God's eternal design is going to perish? Well, no, I don't.
Do you believe God's eternal counsel is going to fail? Well,
no, I do not. Do you believe God's eternal
purpose is going to fall? Well, no, I do not. Then why
would you think that verse 40, which is the will of God also,
would fail? This is the will of him that
sent me, that of all that he gave me in everlasting counsels
in the eternal purpose, in the everlasting covenant of which
I'm assured, and of which my blood is the blood, the atoning
power, I'm not going to lose anything of that. He turned right
around in the human response and he says, he that seeth me
and believeth, I'm not going to lose him either. I'm going
to raise him up at the last stage. So he that seeth the Son, and
believeth on him, it is the Father's will that he too be raised at
the last day. Now there was an old gentleman
in England who was approached by a skeptic or an agnostic,
and the skeptic said, You say you're a believer on Jesus Christ?
The old man said, That I am, that I am. He said, what if after
believing on Jesus Christ all these years, you should at last
perish and go to hell? He said, well, the old man said,
well, he said, I would lose my soul, but God would suffer a
greater loss. And the man was amazed. He said,
you'd lose your soul? What would God lose if you went
to hell? He said, God would lose his honor
and his glory. Because God said in his word
that he that believeth on the Son of God hath everlasting life
and shall not come into condemnation. And I believe on the Son of God
and therefore if God sent me to hell he would lose his word,
his honor, and his glory. This is his will that the eternal
purpose will be fulfilled. This is his will that those who
believe shall also be saved. Our Father, wilt thou honor thy
word tonight to the heart of every person here. Give confidence
and assurance and hope in Christ Jesus. Teach us thy will and
thy way, O Lord. Bring every knee to bow and every
heart to submit and every tongue to confess, even in this life,
on this earth, in this hour, the Lordship of thy Son, Jesus
Christ our Lord, who alone is worthy of praise, who alone is
worthy of the kingship, who has the right to reign, who purchased
that right in his death on Calvary's cross. I bless this message tonight
to our understanding, to our prophet, and to thy glory. Everywhere
thy word is proclaimed tonight, for we ask it in the name of
thy Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Amen.