200407.ser
“The Will of God”
CLBC February 8, 2004 a.m.
Subject: The Sovereignty of God
Theme: The Will of God
Passage: John 6: 28 - 65
I said last Sunday that the passage of scripture we are studying today is full of doctrine.
We live in a day when many Christians dislike the word doctrine. “Doctrine divides,” they say,
“and we want unity! Let’s all get together, in the love of Jesus! Let’s sing lots of praise choruses.
Let’s just worship God! That is God’s will!”
Is it? How would we know that unless we study God’s Word? And what is doctrine but
just another expression for the teaching of God’s Word? Now if we want to find out what the
Bible says about God’s will then the passage before us today is a great place to start. Let’s really
examine this passage and find out what God’s will is. The first thing we notice is that:
1. Jesus Christ is utterly committed to the will of God.
If you want to know something about the will of God, look at Jesus Christ as he walked
this earth. No other human being has been so totally obedient to the will of His Father as Jesus
Christ was and is. Listen to his own words: John 6:38 "For I have come down from heaven,
not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.”
From eternity past to eternity future, God the Father and God the Son, and God the Holy
Spirit planned the entry of Jesus Christ into this universe, into this solar system, into this world,
yes, into human life, for one purpose.
Before man was created, they planned it!
Before Satan rebelled against God, they planned it.
Before our first parents ever disobeyed God and plunged the whole of
humanity into a state of rebellion and sinfulness, they planned it.
Sin did not catch God off guard. The incarnation of Jesus Christ was not a secondary plan
by a frustrated God; it was the eternal plan of God, and in the fullness of time Jesus Christ was
made flesh and dwelt among us. Why did he come? He came to do His Father’s will! It was not
bothersome to obey the Father’s will, for the Father’s will was the Son’s will. He had no other
will, and though it involved rejection and death by crucifixion, Jesus’ one and only plan was to
carry out His Father’s will to perfection and to completion.
And what was that will, we may ask?
2. The Father’s will is the salvation of every person whom He has given to the Son.
Listen to the Word of God: 39 "This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all
He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. 40 "And this is
the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have
everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day."
Let’s break those verses down and see what they teach.
a. God the Father has given a chosen people to His Son.
Jesus speaks “of all He has given Me”
Now admittedly this is not a popular teaching in our day. Man wants to believe that the
choice is entirely man’s to make. Now it is true that man does have responsibility to turn to Jesus.
The problem is not his responsibility, but his ability. Keep listening to this message and you will
find that, apart from the gracious working of God’s Holy Spirit, not one person has the ability to
turn to Jesus.
But far more pervasive and dangerous than the teaching of human responsibility is the
teaching that God will save everybody. Universalism: - People want to believe that after all, God
is a good God, God is a loving God, God is a kind God, and that in spite of man’s shortcomings,
God is too kind to exclude anyone. People think that they are actually flattering God with this
belief. But that teaching will never speak of man’s rebellion; it will never speak of man’s sin; it
will never speak of God’s holiness; it will never acknowledge that sin is so foul and the human
heart so set against God, that if there were no hell, the unchanged rebel would make his own hell
in his attempt to escape from God’s glory.
One other teaching that is very prevalent today that would dispute this scripture is the
belief that there is no God and there is no heaven and there is no hell, and there is no life beyond
the grave. “No,” people solemnly tell you, “this life is all there is. Hell is right here on this earth,
and death is the end. There is no life beyond; there is no judgement; there is no accountability for
our actions. Dead is dead!”
But none of this is according to the Word of God. God’s Word tells us that God has given
a chosen people to His Son.
You see, God did not send His Son on a fruitless errand. Jesus didn’t come to earth
and die on the cross to see whether or not some people would believe. God sent His Son to
save His people from their sins!
b. So effective is the work of God the Son that every one of those chosen people will come to
Him.
37 "All that the Father gives Me will come to Me,”
Jesus said these words in the face of the grumbling and complaining of the people who had
been following Him. He pressed home His claims and people began to drift away. In fact, the
entire crowd left until there were only 12 men standing with Jesus. Think of it! While the
multitudes were leaving Him, Jesus confidently asserted that the ones whom the Father was
calling would come to Him.
Now let’s look again at what it means that they shall come to Jesus. I showed you last
week that this coming to Jesus involves believing in Him, trusting in Him, entrusting our lives to
Him as our Saviour and Lord. Listen again to those verses.
v. 28, “This is the work of God that you believe in Him whom He sent.” In v. 35, He
says, “He who comes to Me will never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.”
In v. 40 “This is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son, and believes in
Him, may have everlasting life.” v. 45 “Therefore everyone who has heard and learned from
the Father comes to Me.” v. 47 “He who believes in Me has everlasting life.” v. 64 “But there
are some of you who do not believe. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who
did not believe.”
So this coming to Jesus gives us salvation. It gives us everlasting or eternal life. And Jesus
makes the absolute promise that every person who God gives to Him will come and receive the
forgiveness of their sins and the complete satisfaction of their souls.
Application:
Dear ones, do you see the application of this truth? God has a people whom He will
bring to faith in Christ. He still has a people here in the Cowichan Lake area who will come to
Christ. We don’t know who they are, so we need to be faithful and preach and teach and witness,
and pray, in full expectation that God will bring those people of His choosing to His Son.
c. The third thing we see in these verses is that Jesus will never cast away or reject those
whom the Father has given to Him - those who come to Him in faith.
In verse 37, we read, “the one who comes to Me, I will by no means cast out”. Look at
verse 39 "This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose
nothing,”
Oh, dear ones, let others dispute the question of eternal security if they wish. It is perfectly
true that no one may presume upon his salvation. No one may brag about being secure while
walking in disobedience. There is no pride and no boasting in believing that we are secure in
Christ. It humbles us into the dirt to think that Jesus Christ should love us so much that He gave
His life for us. We cannot lay claim to anything in ourselves that is worthy of His grace.
But with a humble, submissive heart, we dare to believe these words, “the one who comes
to Me, I will by no means cast out”. “of all He has given Me I will lose nothing,”
Application:
Our efforts in this community will not be in vain. Have we visited homes without seeing
results? Have people promised to come, and not kept their promise? Let no one despair. Let no
one think that our efforts are without effect. God is carrying out His perfect will. Some will come.
Some will be hardened still more. Some may take a long time before they respond. But God’s
Word will not fail. God will draw those of His choosing and those who are truly drawn to
faith by God will never be lost!
There is one more thing I want you to see with your own eyes in this passage.
d. The Lord Jesus promises that He will raise every one of these believers up at the last day.
v. 39“of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last
day.” 40 "And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and
believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day." 44 "No
one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the
last day.” 54 "Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise
him up at the last day.”
Let’s see, Jesus repeats that expression 1, 2, 3, 4 times in these few verses. Surely He
must mean what He says.
What is he saying? He is saying that He is not only the Saviour of the soul, but He is the
Saviour of the entire person, body soul and spirit. These bodies which form the vehicle in which
the real you moves about; these bodies which age and wear out, which die and we lay in the
grave, are also important to God.
The scripture makes it clear that when Jesus returns, our bodies are going to come out of
the graves. Oh, not this old flesh and blood body which has decayed as such, but a new body
perfectly equipped for eternity - a new body and yet absolutely related to the old body. Every time
we stand at the grave side of a believer we rejoice that “to be absent from the body is to be
present with the Lord”. When a believer dies, the real you goes to be with the Lord but that is
not yet the end of the story. For Jesus is coming back and when He returns all the saints will come
with Him and will receive their new and glorious bodies perfectly suited to the new heavens and
new earth which He is bringing into being.
Oh, dear ones, I would have you also consider carefully Jesus’ words “in the last day”.
Those words are worthy of careful study.
Now one more vital truth from this passage:
e. No one can come to Christ apart from the drawing of the Father.
John 6:29 "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent." John 6:44
"No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at
the last day. John 6:65 And He said, "Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to Me
unless it has been granted to him by My Father."
I said earlier that it is not a matter of responsibility, but of ability. The Bible makes it
perfectly clear that every person is dead toward God spiritually. It says that every person’s mind
has been blinded by the god of this age, Satan.
Unsaved people do not have the ability, in themselves, to trust Jesus Christ as their
Saviour. But praise God, God does not leave it up to ourselves. He so works that people are
drawn to Him, and are led to believe in Christ.
Now, how does He do it? Does He just zap people and save them. whether or not they are
ready to believe?
No, listen again to what the Word of God says: John 6:45 "It is written in the prophets,
‘And they shall all be taught by God.’ Therefore everyone who has heard and learned from
the Father comes to Me.”
He draws people through the teaching and preaching of His Word. He draws people
through the witness of others. He draws people by the circumstances of life.
His Holy Spirit speaks to your heart. He convicts you of sin. He reveals to you Jesus
Christ who loves you and gave Himself on the cross for you. He turns your mind to the things of
God. He touches your emotions with the power of His love. He turns your will until you will to
do the will of God.
People love to talk about man’s free will. People continually say that God will never
violate your will, so you must decide. Dear ones, is it yet clear that left to yourself you would
never will to receive Christ? But oh, dear ones, He does not leave it to your will - He so reveals
Christ, and so works on your heart that your will is changed. Where once it was set against
Christ, now you find that your heart is warm toward the things of Christ. Where once you could
not understand God’s Word, now you find that His Word is attractive and powerful, and that it is
making sense. Whereas once your sensual nature was taken up with the things of this life, and the
pleasures of the moment, now you find that those things no longer seem important, and that the
most important thing in life is that you should be saved; that you should know Jesus, that you
should have eternal life.
This is the drawing power of God!
Is there someone here in this service today who is being drawn to Christ? Is there
someone who has never understood the gospel, but it is beginning to make sense? Is there
someone who used to be indifferent or even opposed to churches and religion and Christianity and
faith in Jesus. Did you used to scoff at it, perhaps make fun of Christians, and feel proud that you
didn’t need a crutch, like those people did?
And yet, today, you are sitting here, and there is something working in your heart. You
are aware, as never before, of your sin. You know that you need to repent and turn to Jesus. You
would really like to know for sure that your sins are forgiven and that you have eternal life.
Oh, dear ones, come to Christ. Come and confess your need of His forgiveness. Come and
ask Him to forgive you and come into your life, and make you a new person.
For this is the will of God!
Amen!
