The Will Of God Series

 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,