WWUTT 886 Your Will is to Do Your Father's Desires?

Jesus said to the Jews, you are not of God, but you are of your father, the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires.

This goes with something Jesus said previous that no one can come to him unless the father draws them.

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Here once again is Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. We come back to our study of the gospel of John chapter eight.

Once again, I'm gonna start in verse 39 and read through verse 47. As we work to finish up this particular section, the apostle

John wrote, the Jews answered Jesus, Abraham is our father. Jesus said to them, if you were

Abraham's children, you would be doing the works Abraham did. But now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God.

This is not what Abraham did. You are doing the works your father did. They said to him, we were not born of sexual immorality.

We have one father, even God. Jesus said to them, if God were your father, you would love me for I came from God and I am here.

I came not of my own accord, but he sent me. Why do you not understand what

I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. You are of your father, the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires.

He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him.

When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me. Which one of you convicts me of sin?

If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? Whoever is of God hears the words of God.

The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God. I was reminded of a statement that Jesus made back in John chapter six.

And in fact, it's twice that he makes this statement in six that no one can come to him unless the father draws them.

When the people continue to argue with him about the things that he had been telling them about being the bread who has come down from heaven, saying that no one can have eternal life unless he eats of my flesh and drinks of my blood.

And as they continue to bicker over these things, Jesus said in John 6 65, this is why

I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted to him by my father.

So we are either children of God through Jesus Christ or we are children of the devil.

If we are children of God, we've been adopted into his family by faith in Christ.

We have been made the sons and daughters of God because of the blood of Christ. It's a blood relation, but it is by adoption that we have come to this because we were born in sin.

As David said in Psalm 51, in sin was I born, in sin did my mother conceive me.

We read in Genesis that the thoughts of man are always evil from his youth.

So we are in a state of evil rebellion against God. This is the original sin.

This is the nature that we are born with as descendants of Adam. It's federal headship that we read about in Romans chapter five.

You are either under the federal headship of Adam or you're under the federal headship of Christ.

We're all born under the federal headship of Adam and his line is fallen.

It has been corrupted because of the works of the devil. As it says in 1 John 3, 8, the reason the son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.

So Jesus Christ undid what had been done in Adam so that all who believe in Christ are set free from that bondage, that enslavement to sin that we are born into every man, woman and child born of the line of Adam.

We are born again into the line of Jesus Christ and through this we are adopted.

By faith we are adopted into the family of God. You are probably familiar with the golden chain of salvation or the order of salvation.

The order of salutis is the way that it is referred to. It starts in Romans 8, verse 28 and goes through verse 30.

We know that for those who love God, all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose.

For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

And those whom he predestined, he also called. Those whom he called, he also justified.

And those whom he justified, he also glorified. So taking this passage, this section of scripture, we come up with what is referred to as the order of salutis, the order of salvation.

And it begins at least according to the framework that's given to us in this passage. It begins with foreknowledge, those whom he foreknew.

Then it's predestination. He predestined to be conformed to the image of his son. Those whom he predestined, he also called.

Those whom he called, he also justified. And those whom he justified, he also glorified. Now that's certainly true.

What we're reading there is an order of salvation. However, it's incomplete. There are some steps in there that are not addressed, but we come to a fuller picture of when we, you know, do the systematic study of the order of salvation as it's laid out for us in the

Bible. The order of salvation begins first with election. And in that category of election is also that term that I had referenced earlier, foreknowledge.

What does foreknowledge mean? Well, first of all, let me tell you what foreknowledge does not mean. Foreknowledge doesn't mean that God looked down the tunnel of time at a decision that we were gonna make someday, and therefore elected us because of that future decision.

If that's what foreknowledge meant, that means that we control God's decision for us, even though we've not been born yet to make such a decision, but we tie

God's hands before we even come into existence that he has to choose us because we make a certain choice someday.

That is absurd logic for foreknowledge to be defined like that.

That's not what foreknowledge is. Foreknowledge means that God placed his love and affection on us even before we were born.

This is what David talks about, I think most plainly in Psalm 139.

This is the Psalm where he says, "'You have searched me and known me. "'You know when I sit down and when

I rise up, "'you discern my thoughts from afar.'" And he says, "'Even before a word is on my tongue, "'behold,

O Lord, you know it altogether. "'You hem me in behind "'and before you lay your hand upon me.'"

Going on, skipping down to verse 13, "'You formed my inward parts. "'You knitted me together in my mother's womb.

"'I praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. "'Wonderful are your works.

"'My soul knows it very well. "'My frame was not hidden from you "'when I was being made in secret, "'intricately woven in the depths of the earth.

"'Your eyes saw my unformed substance. "'In your book were written every one of them, "'the days that were formed for me "'when as yet there was none of them.'"

God had already written for us every one of our days in his book before we were even born.

That's God placing his love and his affection on us, knowing us in a spiritually intimate sense before we are even born because that's how great

God's love and his grace is. Even though he knows the sin that we are gonna be born into, yet he places this affection on us before we are born.

That's what foreknowledge means. It doesn't mean that he's looking down the tunnel of time at a future decision that we're going to make.

That's called soothsaying. God doesn't look into the future as though he needed to learn something about the future.

He ordained it. He established it. He decreed it from before the foundation of the world.

That's why he knows what is going to happen. And he has placed this affection on us because his grace is just that incredible.

So again, the order of salvation begins with election. He chose us before the foundation of the world.

You think of also in Ephesians chapter one, "'Blessed be the God and Father of our

Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.

Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him."

Same sort of statement that was made in Romans 8, 29. "'In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace with which he has blessed us in the beloved.'"

Verse 11, "'In him we have obtained an inheritance having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will.'"

This is all wrapped up in that understanding of election, having been predestined for salvation.

Number two is atonement. So first of all, before the foundations of the world were laid,

God predestined for salvation those whom he meant to save. The second step in that order of salvation is atonement, sending

Jesus Christ to die for our sins, to redeem those whom God had chosen or elected before the foundation of the world.

Number three, the third step in the order of salvation is the gospel call. So after Christ died, resurrected from the grave, he told his disciples to go out, preaching the message of the repentance of sins, the gospel that would be delivered to the ends of the earth.

So there's the gospel call, the call to turn from sin and believe in Jesus Christ.

The fourth step in the order of salvation is an inward call. So when you hear the gospel call, there are some that are gonna respond to it favorably, and there are others that are gonna become more resistant to it.

Like whenever you hear the gospel, you can't just be neutral about it. You have to react to the gospel in some way, shape or form.

A person is either gonna have their heart softened to the gospel and accept it and believe it, or a person's heart is gonna become even more hardened against God than it was before they heard the gospel.

It's gotta be one reaction or the other. Everyone responds to the gospel somehow, either accepting it or resisting it.

So with the gospel call, then next comes the inward call. The person who responds to the gospel has the inward call of the

Holy Spirit in their heart. A person who becomes resistant to the gospel does not have that change.

That change has not happened in their heart. Their heart was hard before God, before they heard the gospel, and it is even more hardened before God now that they've heard the gospel because no inward change has happened in them.

But the person who hears the gospel and is convicted by what they hear, like they're actually hearing a calling, a wooing, the

Father calling them to him when they hear the gospel proclaimed, this is the inward call, or what's also referred to as the effectual call.

It is when God calls a person to himself. The person whose heart is hardened against the gospel is not being called by the

Father. Once again, no one comes to the Father unless the Father draws him,

John 6, 65. This is a reference to effectual calling. That's what

Jesus is talking about. This is the theological term that we've given it, but it's not extra biblical.

It's not outside of scripture. It is totally from what scripture teaches us, what Jesus himself said.

We might ascribe a theological term to it, but it doesn't mean we made up this term and then tried to sandwich it in the

Bible somewhere. The term comes to define something that we see clearly stated for us in the scripture.

When a person receives something different in their heart that's different than the external calling, one has an external calling that they do not respond to.

Another hears that external calling and they do respond to it. It's because they had an internal calling, an effectual calling from the

Father wooing them to himself. What's going to happen next? That's stage four. The fifth step in the order of salvation is going to be regeneration.

That person's heart is regenerated to now respond to that gospel.

They've had the effectual call. Now they're going to respond to it because they have a regenerated heart from the

Holy Spirit where previously, according to Romans 3, no one understands, no one seeks for God.

So they didn't get it. They weren't looking for God, but now because their heart is being regenerated by the

Holy Spirit, now they are able to respond to this message that they hear because of a work the

Holy Spirit is doing in their heart. Titus 3 .5, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the

Holy Spirit. And this goes back to Ezekiel. I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules, as God said to the prophet

Ezekiel. So this is regeneration that happens in the heart when we hear the gospel and we then respond to it.

The sixth step in the order of salvation is conversion. It's faith and repentance. So we now understand the gospel.

We're responding to the gospel. It brings about faith and we turn from sin and we desire the righteousness of Christ.

And all a part of that regeneration and conversion is gonna be conviction over our sin.

That we hate the garment that has been stained by sin and we desire to be clothed in the righteousness of Christ, knowing that we cannot stand in God's presence if not for the righteousness that we're given in Jesus Christ to be received by faith.

The seventh step in the order of salvation is justification. At that point, we are now holy in the presence of God.

He declares us righteous by the merit of Christ, not by our own merit.

It is by grace you are saved through faith and this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a result of works so that no man can boast.

So we are declared innocent before God by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.

It's justified. Next, eighth step in the order of salvation is we are adopted. We are made sons and daughters of God.

Now it's not necessarily that all of this is kind of going through a step -by -step phase and it's kind of like you can pinpoint, well, here's where that happened, here's where that happened.

All of this is really divinely mysterious but this is the way these things will happen according to what scripture has laid out for us.

And adoption is the eighth step in that order of salvation. That we are adopted into the family of God as sons and daughters and we call to him as Abba.

Now there are some who will say that adoption is what we will receive when we get to heaven.

Well, there's a certain sense in which that could be true. For example, Romans 8 .23 says, not only the creation but we ourselves who have the first fruits of the spirit grown inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

So there is a certain sense in which adoption is used talking about our entering into the eternal, imperishable, incorruptible kingdom of God.

But just a few verses before that in Romans 8 .15, it says the following, for you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry,

Abba Father. So you have that adoption now, if you have been justified and adopted into the family of God by the blood of Jesus Christ.

The next step in that order of salvation is sanctification. You've been justified, you've been adopted, now you're being sanctified.

You're being grown in holiness and it's kind of like justification in action.

You are showing by your actions and your progress of faith that this conversion that happened to you was genuine.

It wasn't just a passing opinion. It wasn't just a moment that happened in your life, but the evidence of that moment doesn't appear in your life for the rest of that time on, okay?

So the understanding of your salvation is not because you made some sort of prayer of declaration at a particular moment, but that repentance and faith are ongoing in the life of a believer.

How are you growing and maturing? Now in your knowledge of God, of his word, your love for God and your love for others, all of these things are gonna be evidences that the justification that you've received, the grace of God that's been given to you was real.

It was genuine. It was eternal. There was an eternal transformation that happened there, not something momentary that took place.

The final step in that order of salvation is glorification. And once again, Romans 8 .30, those whom he predestined, he also called.

Those whom he called, he also justified. And those whom he justified, he also glorified. Now there is a glorification that we have already received because of the promise of the hope that is laid up for us in heaven.

Colossians 3 .1, if then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.

Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. So there is a sense in which we have already been glorified in that we have received the promise of the glorification that we will share in with God in eternity.

But there's also a sense in which that glorification has not yet happened because it hasn't yet become our reality.

We're not existing or living in that glorification yet. So we are waiting eagerly for the glorification that is promised us in Christ Jesus.

So that's the order of salvation. Now, why do I bring that up in context with what we're reading here in John 8?

Because once again, Jesus says to the Jews that you are not of your father,

Abraham, or you would be doing the things that Abraham did. Abraham was a friend of God. That's the way the scriptures describe him, that God called him friend.

But you are not of your father, Abraham, or you would know who I am. Abraham knew who

Jesus was. But those who are children of the devil hate

Jesus because they're not actually children of God. They can claim we have one father, even

God, which the Jews said in verse 41. But Jesus said to them, if God were your father, you would love me for I came from God and I am here.

I came not on my own accord, but he sent me. Why do you not understand what

I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. You are of your father, the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires.

So as we talk about the order of salvation, that whole thing of being broken away from their federal headship in Adam and being born again into the federal headship of Christ has not happened for these individuals.

It hasn't happened for them. And Jesus is saying to them that you are not the father's children.

You are of your father, the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires.

If you are the children of God, then you will hear his voice and you will respond to it.

Those who are not the children of God will not listen to the voice of the father because he is not their father.

Their father is the devil and they do what they see. Their father, the devil doing, whether or not they've paid verbal acknowledgement of being followers of Satan.

So that's why we have that understanding of the order of salvation because salvation is from beginning to end the gracious work of God.

And if a person has come into that salvation, it is because they heard the voice of the father who had elected them from before the foundation of the world that we might be adopted as his sons and daughters and hearing his voice, we listen to it and obey it.

But the person who does not know God and has not been chosen by him and has not been called of the father, they've not been drawn by the father, they won't listen to that voice.

They will reject it and they will follow after the path of Satan instead. I thought we were gonna finish up this section today, but clearly not.

We'll work on finishing this up tomorrow and actually keep going, hoping to finish up John 8 this week.

And so we'll go all the way to the end of the chapter, verse 59. Let's conclude with prayer. Our wonderful heavenly father, we thank you for the adoption that we've received through Jesus Christ, the righteous one.

And I pray that we would walk in his righteousness. If we've been justified and we've received the righteousness of Christ, we would wear it and we would show evidence of it, proof that we are your children.

When we do the things that the father has asked of us, we desire to be worthy sons and daughters of God, not because we know acting in such a way saves us, but because we know we have been saved and called according to your spirit to be adopted through your son, that we might become the sons and daughters of God.

So lead us in your ways that we might show ourselves part of your family and likewise call others to repentance that they would receive this wonderful, gracious adoption, repenting of sin, believing the gospel, that they also might find themselves to be the children of God.

It's all your work, heavenly father, not ours, your will be done. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

This is a production of First Southern Baptist Church in Junction City, Kansas. Find us on the web at www .utt