In Celebration of Free Will (John 6:35-45 Jeff Kliewer)

That we are called his children. That's a tease pastor. You get to flesh that out as we go further

Before I take us into Into the scripture reading. I just want to acknowledge our pastor for Demonstrating his multi -sport prowess

You guys know him as a basketball player He has told us about that before but I understand that he dominated the field of play out outside during the

Turkey Bowl Hopefully the time was was rich in fellowship and I understand that there were no injuries

So praise God for all of that. I want to turn us this morning to Psalm 135 verse 5 for I know

I Know That the Lord is great and that our

Lord is above all other gods I know that our Lord is great that our

Lord is above all other gods Here's the thing knowing the greatness of God is

Not an issue of having the intellect or having sat in Sunday school classes

Or even reading in the Bible about the greatness of God Knowing that the

Lord is great as a matter of the heart It's a matter of having this

Surrender to him and to his sovereignty deep in your heart Because you know what?

I don't care what it is There is nothing in this world that is going to match the greatness of God And so we rejoice in what he does for us.

We rejoice in who he is The world is going to present a lot of things to you, but they are not

God. There is one God Yahweh, I know that our Lord is great and that our

Lord is above all other small g gods Some announcements ladies this coming

Saturday is a girls night Cookie exchange. I think there's a movie involved ladies.

Come on out bring friends neighbors It's at Saturday and here in the church at 630 gentlemen our

Our Gatherings are our Monday gatherings. It's not tomorrow, but it's the following week.

Just a call ahead We're changing back to the church building instead of a

Cracker Barrel God has blessed us with enough guys that it's getting difficult to really fellowship in the middle of a public restaurant

We're coming back here. So Monday at 6 o 'clock You can go to Cracker Barrel if you want and have breakfast, but the rest of us are going to be here

Anyway number three, we are still looking for your inputs on Christmas service

Christmas is a Sunday this year our congregation our sanctuary can hold about 220 people

If we have the fullness of people that are coming on a good Sunday, we're like 250

We don't fit so we have to be two services We would really like to know if we can fit all of us in the sanctuary for one service

It helps the pastor it helps the worship team. It's great to get together with the family together

By the way, there still is going to be a New Year Christmas Candlelight service on Saturday, correct time to be announced on that There's a youth ministry that's coming up Jeff had it in his pastor

Graham. You can read about it It's going to be ministering to the seeds of hope ministry. It has to do with a blanket drive

I think it also has to do with homemade cookie drive So read about it and be part of it a great way for us to minister to those in need

The nominating process is on is going and it's it's starting to ramp up.

This is your last opportunity Please if you're not in a position to at this point in time to serve on the board for whatever reason and And you believe your name might be on the list.

I need you to contact Rob he's the chairman one of the elders pastor

Jeff myself Michael Stockland, we need to get that list correct because it's going out in the next day or two

So we need you to to respond to that Our Christmas Day we're seeking to have one service

We're also looking ahead to the following Sunday, which would be New Year's Day And we recognize that not everybody might want to wake up for a nine o 'clock service on New Year's Day So in a couple of weeks, we're just going to be looking for a show of hands

So we know if we should plan one service on New Year's Day or to have to the police ministry continues

We've had our third week now It has been very very well received by our brothers and sisters in the police department

I send out an email to the families that are involved each week on Monday.

There's been a couple of scheduled changes So I'm going to send out an update to the schedule.

So you have that Please remember our normal weekly gatherings come back tonight for prayer meeting.

It's an awesome time Tomorrow night the men continue in their apologetics study

This is going to be a fascinating one. They all are by the way, there's nothing in the apologetics. That's not fascinating But they're going to be pursuing the origins of hell

That's something I've never really considered I asked pastor earlier today and he's not sure

When did God create hell? I don't know but you can ask that tomorrow night at the men's

I don't know if they have the answer to that But come back for that the women's studies The precepts on Wednesday.

We are back meeting. We took last week off because of the Thanksgiving week We are back together this week at at 12 o 'clock here in the sanctuary and we're resuming in Ephesians Please join us with that and all the small groups that are going on There are plenty opportunities to be part of your growth one with another let's go to prayer

With the psalmist Lord we profess the goodness of God We proclaim that we know that our

Lord is great We know that our Lord is above all other gods the supremacy of our

God is something we stand sure on and we rejoice in So Lord, we pray surrendering to you.

We surrender to your sovereign will Your sovereign will that is never is never opposed can never be defeated

We rejoice in that and our confidence in you. We pray Lord confessing and professing your goodness

For all the things that you have done and the what you've blessed us with This time of the year

Lord, we start to focus on the coming of Messiah who came as your gift Came as your perfect lamb who died for our sins

He now sits at the right hand of the Father Interceding for us we acknowledge

Lord with the psalmist that we know that our Lord is great We know that our Lord is above all other gods

Superior to anything the world offers. Thank you father Lord, we do pray for those in need in this time of year as we approach the holiday season as we reproach the birth of our

Lord, we know that those that are still grieving the loss. It's a tough time of year We pray

Lord for them be their very presence their comfort Lord many who are still struggling who are struggling with diseases injuries

Illnesses Lord, you are the great physician. We lift them to you Pray for those

Lord in our midst to lead us spiritually thinking of our pastor of the elders for the leaders of the different study groups

We pray Lord for the guide of your Holy Spirit for the power of your word We pray the truth has never deviated and we

Lord we lift up each of these individuals protect them from the attacks Satan would not want these words to be out.

So he is on the attack protect them Lord We pray pray for those in our country and authority We pray

Lord that they would turn to you Lord that your grace would touch their hearts that they would turn to you that this country would be governed according to your will so Lord today as we

Anticipate your word as we join our hearts in song and in worship of you We pray that your

Holy Spirit would would speak to our hearts speak through our pastor with the words of truth

We need to hear we pray these things In Jesus name. Amen Romans 5 says where sin increased

Grace abounds all the more. Let's stand. Let's Let's praise God for his amazing

Marvelous Loving Lord Grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt yonder on Calvary's mount our poor

Blood of the Lamb was still grace grace

Great grace that will pardon and cleanse with Grace God's great grace that is greater than all

Dark is the stain that we can not hide

What can avail to wash it away? Look, there is flowing a crimson

And snow you may be today great

Grace that will pardon and cleanse with God's great grace that is greater than all

I said Marvelous infinite matchless great freely bestowed all who believe

You that are longing to see his face

This moment his grace receive grace great

God's great grace that will pardon and cleanse with great

God's great grace that is greater than all

Great God's great grace that will pardon and cleanse with Great great

God's great Grace that is greater than all house

Grace that is greater than all sin Lord God, we just thank you.

We praise you for your amazing grace So undeserving are we Lord God, but your mercy was poured out on us

Psalm 63 Three and four because your steadfast love is better than life.

My lips will praise you So I will bless you as long as I live in your name.

I will lift up my hands Savior say

Indeed is small Yes watch and Jesus All to him

I Now indeed

I And All to him

I Crimson When before the

I Complete Jesus died my soul to see

Jesus She To him

I Crimson Oh Cuz Jesus Crimson Sin To see the dawn

The darkest day Christ's on the road

Yeah, I sinful man torn and beaten

Nailed to a cross To see the pain

Written on your face Bury me

We Oh The daylight fleas

Now the ground be me quakes as its maker bows his

Head Curtain torn into Dead are raised to life

It's the power of the cross

Christ became For Oh to see my name

Written in the walls for through your suffering.

I Life is mine to live

Oh Please be seated

Good morning Let's pray father we praise you this morning for your glorious grace

But not as we should We praise you as Seeing through a dark glass

And I pray Lord that we would see a little more clearly this morning what grace has done for us

Lord we pray that you would help us to see wondrous things from your word help us to behold your glory and That glory displayed in your grace towards sinners like us because apart from your grace we would be helpless hopelessly lost

Open our eyes Lord and help us to leave this place more in awe of your grace

Worshiping more Sincerely, we pray that we would be more thankful as a people that we would have better attitudes more of a

God -Centered worldview Help us to love you because you first loved us in Jesus name.

Amen We celebrate Great feats of human will

So when Scotland was oppressed by England and one named William Wallace appeared

He couldn't be stopped and by the force of his will he fought for freedom

We love freedom and we love Willfulness we love the power of the human will to overcome think about when communism was competing

With capitalism on the world stage and the United States and Russia were in a Cold War by the will of the

American people Somebody landed on the moon What a testament to human will the power of the human will to overcome

That was done in opposition to the Russians who are pushing communism

Think of Rudy. How many of you like the movie Rudy about that football player who played for Notre Dame?

Maybe it's a little old -school. Some of the younger people are looking at me like they've never seen it But Rudy did not have the physical gifts

He didn't have what it takes to play division one football But by the sheer force of his will he was able to make the team and We celebrate that that willpower

Maybe some of you have seen the movie unbroken the story of Zamperini who was taken captive during World War two and was tortured in a

Japanese internment camp But he was unbroken the power of his will

Could not be defeated And surely you've heard of William Wilberforce When slavery was throughout the the

English United Kingdom Empire and there was a slave trade taking place. He withstood it and with goodwill towards people and Sheer willpower he fought and fought for 40 years until finally he saw the defeat of slavery in The English Parliament.

It was his will that would never give up until the cause was won they willed their way to victory and How many of us here?

Understand the importance of the will we each have a will and we must exercise our will by our choices and Some choices we make will result in very bad outcomes

Other choices will result in good outcomes and we must make good decisions.

We have a real will We're not robots. Did you know that church? We're not puppets on a string we must make choices we have a

Will that reflects the image of God our creator God has a free will and we likewise have a creaturely

Will now what makes a will so good? Well, it must first of all be virtuous

William Wilberforce was fighting for a good cause so he had good will but secondly it must be powerful the force of the human will

Accomplishing things is to be celebrated We notice when somebody wills their way to victory an athlete who just wouldn't let his team lose is

Commended because they have willpower they won't give up they fight until the fight is won but neither human virtue nor human power is infinite

There are limits to the will of a creature So America we were able to go to the moon right by the power of the will of the

American people We went to the moon, but we didn't go to Andromeda a distant galaxy

That's beyond us. That's beyond human capacity to reach

It's not an infinite will likewise Wilberforce fought for the freedom of People and yet in our day and age in this very country people are enslaved

Through this thing called abortion Their freedom taken away in fact their very life snuffed out and as free as this country is

There are still elements of oppression We're not completely free and an ever -growing government that takes more and more power over people and over churches

So there are limits to our freedom Think of Rudy He played for Notre Dame But he didn't play for the

Eagles There were limits to how far he could go just by the sheer force of his will.

Zamperini He fought against the Japanese in the internment camp, but when he came home

He fell victim to the power of the bottle and became an alcoholic

But there was a power that was higher than his own will that set him free and That power which delivered

Zamperini from alcoholism That power is a truly free will

Meaning a will without constraint. It is the will of God We celebrate free will but we often mean the will of mere creatures what we ought to celebrate is the free will of God infinite in virtue

Perfect in character the will of God is also infinite in power.

There is nothing that he cannot do His will is perfect and infinitely strong We're still creatures and so being created things we ought not be worshipped, but God deserves worship now this introduction as I've given it raises a dichotomy

Two seeming polar opposites that don't seem to fit together and it raises what has been

Probably the biggest debate in church history intramurally between Christians and that is the struggle between God's sovereignty on one hand and human responsibility on the other hand the struggle between the will of God an infinite will and Humans still having some creaturely will how do those things fit together because the longer you think about it

The more it seems impossible for us to understand How do you reconcile these two things?

Well for some people it's easy to do Like Charles Spurgeon. He says I don't need to reconcile

Divine sovereignty and human responsibility because you don't reconcile friends They're not at odds in Spurgeon's mind.

They're just two truths that you need to accept both of them You need to accept that humans have responsibility a real creaturely will but you also need to accept that God predestines whatsoever comes to pass

To the first point this should be enough to prove the case Joshua 24

You guys remember the end of the book of Joshua once Joshua has said and done Everything that needed to be said and done he ends this way if it is evil in your eyes to serve the

Lord Choose this day whom you will serve whether the gods of your fathers

That they served in the region beyond the river or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwelt

But as for me and my house, we will serve the

Lord Do you see the choice that needed to be made you can choose to serve idols or you can serve

God Choose for yourself, but as for me We will serve the Lord. Do you see human responsibility?

We must make real choices and that that is given to us as a capacity to choose between two things but likewise

The choice of God the freedom of God to determine whatsoever comes to pass is also taught in Scripture Ephesians 1 11 in him we have obtained an inheritance

Having been here's the dirty word to many predestined But it's in the

Bible According to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will all things

Not some things, but all things work according to the counsel of his will

So we have two seemingly Incompatible truths

But the part of the Christian who reads the Bible Is not necessarily to be able to solve every mystery

Deuteronomy 29 29 says The secret things belong to the Lord our God But those things that belong that are revealed belong to us and to our children

Forever that we may do all the words of his law. In other words, there are some secret things that are beyond us

Believe it or not if you're a know -it -all there are some things that you don't know

Amazing you may never solve the mystery of sovereignty and human responsibility

Some people like myself struggle with that for years for me. It was between the years 2005 and 2010

I just thought about it all the time trying to reconcile the two Other people maybe you thought about it for five minutes.

And then you said Secret things belong to the Lord our God Basically you and I and whoever else struggles with this question all end up at the same place

Deuteronomy 29 29 There will come a point where our minds will not be able to figure it all out

But that does not mean That we are to believe anything and everything

That we desire to believe it doesn't mean we resort to philosophy and just picking

Ideas that seem right to us because there's a second half to Deuteronomy 29 29

The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed

Belong to us and to our children forever that we may do every word written in the law

So there are things revealed. So I ask you three questions To Which there are answers in other words, you will either get these questions right or wrong

Heaven forbid that anybody say that a religious belief is wrong Because in our postmodern world, there's only your opinion and your truth versus my opinion and my truth and nobody's ever wrong

But in God's world Because this is his world not ours.

There is such a thing as absolute truth So here are the questions to consider today the answer to which is

Definite and not up to us Number one what comes first?

the giving of a person to the Sun or The coming of a person to the

Sun let me rephrase Does a person get saved come to faith

Because God first gave them to the Sun Which would mean that it's

God's will that's ultimate he's the free one who's ultimately deciding this or Does a person

By their own will come to the Sun and therefore they're given to him

Which comes first? Okay, we're gonna answer that as we get into the text today question number two whose will is

Ultimately free whose will is ultimately free meaning unconstrained

Can anything thwart God's will Could there be a man let's say

Judas or Paul or someone who was so obstinate so obtuse so arrogant

That even though they hear the gospel of Jesus they refuse to come and God cannot conquer that obstinacy

Can God's will be thwarted by the will of man? That's the second question and Then lastly

What is the nature of man? Are we neutral? Meaning we're born into the world tabula rasa blank slate and we can choose to go this way or we can choose to go that way or are

We born in sin But God gives grace to everybody

Making everybody neutral where they can make a choice That's called prevenient grace.

That's Wesley's doctrine or Third effectual grace. Are we so dead in sin?

That we cannot come to Christ By any resource in us it requires effectual grace from God outside of us to bring us to God In other words how dead is dead?

That's the third question So we're gonna get to those because that is the flow of the text turn with me to John chapter 6

Let's open up the Bible It's time now to take a deep dive some sermons that I preach are very political or relevant or practical

Other sermons are deeply theological This is one of those meaty sermons.

So if you're a baby Christian and all you want is is milk You might have trouble chewing with no teeth, right?

But the meat of the word according to Hebrews 5 this actually is for a mature Christian This kind of sermon a more theological sermon doesn't have the practical appeal that right off the bat

You know why it's relevant, but I want to tell you a secret It's these kind of sermons that bear the most fruit in your life over time

Hear me Because as you begin to think differently about God that's theology study of God it changes your whole perspective on life

By studying these kind of doctrines that we're gonna get into and we're only gonna say what Jesus said No more no less

We're gonna quote it and read it and explain it By studying these things it changes your perspective on life and over time that bears more fruit

Than what the temptation would be which is okay. This is kind of deep. We're gonna kind of skirt past this part and Move to the more practical relevant stuff

If you do that you miss out on what changes your very heart Your worldview how thankful you are how joyful you are

How much you appreciate grace and salvation and God himself

So let's read it John 6 35 to 45 Verse 35 is sort of the linchpin of the sixth chapter of John remember

John 6 is a huge sermon It is all about bread because Jesus had multiplied the bread to feed the 5 ,000

Then he walked on water and now they're gonna talk about bread and in verse 35. He's Making a very definitive statement to be the bread of life

So that's key because they were kind of obtuse Leading into verse 35.

He had already said to them that the that Verse 33 the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world

He's talking about himself. He's claiming to be the bread and they're still thinking physically in verse 34

They say sir, give us this bread always They don't want him. They want physical bread.

So in verse 35, it's the clincher The last sermon I preached last week he says

Explicitly I am the bread of life Now I say it's a linchpin because now that something changes in the text now we move to the response of The people the crowd and Their response is unbelief

So the question becomes why aren't they believing him? They've seen the miracles and Jesus will answer their unbelief.

Let's read it John 6 35 to 45 Jesus said to them

I am the bread of life Whoever comes to me

Shall not hunger and whoever believes in me Shall never thirst but I said to you that you have seen me and Yet do not believe

All that the father gives me will come to me and whoever comes to me I will never cast out

For I have come down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me and This is the will of him who sent me that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me

But raise it up on the last day For this is the will of my father that everyone who looks on the

Son and Believes in him should have eternal life and I will raise him up on the last day

So the Jews grumbled about him because he said I am the bread that came down from heaven They said is this not

Jesus the son of Joseph whose father and mother we know How does he now say

I have come down from heaven? Jesus answered them do not grumble among yourselves

No one can come To me unless the father who sent me draws him and I will raise him up on the last day

It is written in the prophets and they will all be taught by God Everyone who has heard and learned from the father comes to me

So in verses 35 and 36 we have the problem and that problem is unbelief

They've heard the claim I am the bread of life and yet we're told in verse 36

But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe the problem is

Human sinfulness Unwillingness to come to Christ This is of course consistent with the nature of man

Earlier in John chapter 2 verse 25 We were told that Jesus did not entrust himself to them because he knew what was in a man

What was in a man? Well, it was sin. It was unbelief in John 8 34

Jesus will answer a crowd and say truly truly I say to you everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin

So are people free or are people enslaved? according to John 8 people are enslaved to sin in Romans 8 verses 7 and 8

Paul says the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God For it does not submit to God's law indeed it cannot

Those who are in the flesh cannot please God So in verses 35 and 36 we have

The problem introduced which is that Jesus has told them the truth. He has claimed to be

God But Yet they do not believe

Okay. Now at this point, we've made the first point. There's a problem. That's human unbelief How would you expect

Jesus? to answer human unbelief

Well, you'd think maybe he's gonna rail against them and he's going to appeal to their to their will and begin to try to persuade them or Maybe he'll just cast them off and condemn them as hopelessly lost

But what follows in the text is nothing short of astonishing Because he turns the conversation away from their hard hearts and unbelief

On to God and his sovereign power his freedom the freedom of God to save Whomever he will one of the most hard -hearted men of that day was a young Pharisee named

Saul and he will turn out to be a persecutor of Christians, but even that hard heart of Saul can be turned and Changed by the grace of God you see what what

Jesus does here Is turn the conversation away from their hard hearts on to The grace of God look at it.

First of all, and this should be the first point that we celebrate Rather than lamenting the wickedness of man that rejects him

Jesus has a God -centered view a father -centered view where he takes this vertical and celebrates

God's freedom To save look at verse 37 now, here's the first celebration and it is the answer to my first question

Some theological traditions say it's up to you by your free will to come to God And if you do that, then you're given to him for all eternity

But you're determinate of that you have to come comes from you Look at the text verse 37 says all that the father

Gives me Will come to me Which comes first the chicken or the egg the giving or the coming?

In order for this to be a sentence an English sentence translated from the

Greek in order for it to say anything it must say That the giving of the fathers of a people to the

Son comes first Do you see that? Whenever I used to read the book of Acts, I would think the coming proceeds the being given to eternal life and So as I read through chapter 13 of Acts I thought that's what it said and somehow my mind just skirted over verse 38 because of my supposition my presupposition

I assumed that all those Who came to believe in the

Son of God were appointed to eternal life But Acts 13 48 actually says all who were appointed to eternal life believed

Which came first the being appointed to eternal life or the believing Acts 13 48 says all who were

Appointed to eternal life believed here in John 6 37. It says all that the father gives me will come

That's an interesting teaching, isn't it? When does the father give to the

Son? Prior to their coming to him prior to them having faith now if you look back at verse 35 coming is believing

Coming Coming is like eating bread. It says in verse 35 Whoever comes to me shall not hunger you don't hunger because you're eating from the bread of life and There's this is not a different idea in verse 35

But the same idea in a parallelism at the end of verse 35 whoever believes in me

Shall never thirst so coming is believing the idea here is having faith.

What comes first? to be given of the father comes before you're believing that is an interesting teaching and It's hard for us to swallow

Especially as we esteem The will of man that we think has to be finally determinative in truth here the

Bible clearly teaches that the father gives a Gift to the son if it was my anniversary and I came home with a wonderful gift for my wife and I gave her the gift and she was so excited

It was something she had wanted and it showed how thoughtful I had been and she said, thank you

And she was so happy and I turned to her and said Well, I had to do it

It's our anniversary. I don't have a choice. I had to get you something Would that be particularly flattering to my wife?

And how do you think she would receive that comment? She'd probably leave the gift and say take it back.

No, she wouldn't she's she's sweet But that would be putting my foot in my mouth, right? You see what's happening in verse 37 is that the father is giving a gift to his son and He is free to do it and he wants to do it.

He wills to do it It's coming from his desire his will and he offers that to his son the

Moravians who were missionaries Used to say to receive to return to the lamb the reward of his suffering

They would go across land and sea lay down their lives for the gospel because they wanted to give to the lamb the reward of his suffering

That's why they were missionaries. They wanted to give him a gift. They were so thankful for salvation

They wanted to give a gift in verse 37. There is a free gift

But that gift here this church is you who believe You were given to the son by the father before you ever believed

You were appointed to eternal life before you believed this is that doctrine of predestination election that the father has predestined us unto adoption

Ephesians 1 5 and Ephesians 1 11 and This is according to his will

It comes from his desire from his determination from his heart. He's not forced to do it

He's not responsive to something that you do rather you're coming to him because you're being given by the father to the son

It goes on to say in verse 37 whoever comes to me. I will never cast out this one coming

Jesus will secure their future So the father gives the gift and the son keeps the gift and surely brings that gift

Which is a people for his own possession He brings that gift to heaven and it's a certain transaction can't be lost

We celebrate free will right? We like Rudy's will We like Zamperini and how strong he was

How strong is our Savior if he's given a gift, which is your heart your soul

Let me tell you he will not lose it If you think

Rudy is strong and Zamperini are strong and the American will to go to the moon is strong How much more

The will of the son to keep what the father gives him He who began a good work in you will complete it until the day of Christ Jesus Because Jesus is not only the author but the perfecter of your faith.

He's the finisher You see salvation is the work of God. It is the

Trinitarian work of the father you are given to the son. He keeps you and by the

Spirit He seals you until the day of redemption This is the work of God Now that should be a clincher.

We shouldn't be having all these debates for thousands of years because that's pretty clear Which comes first, but the second question is whose will is celebrated in the

Bible? There are only a few passages that deal with this subject as a unit

This one Ephesians 1 Romans 9 and a few others here in the passage the subject is unbelief and what accounts for that unbelief and How does somebody get saved and the answer is given in the text

Here and in Romans 9 and Ephesians 1 there's a clear teaching on this subject, but there are some teachers who like a

Pinball player anybody you guys remember playing that old arcade game pinball where that little balls bouncing all around From one obstacle to the next

Many people handle the Bible like that They say okay. Well, this is here in the

Bible But 2nd Peter 3 9 and 1st Peter 2 4 and Matthew 23 37 and they're like a ping -pong ball or a pinball getting bounced all around here we have a

Passage of Scripture that deals with this particular subject and it expounds upon it

Not only does it give that answer to the first question in verse 37.

It gives the ground The very basis for what I'm saying to you today, and that's the second point whose will is free

Who can determine with absolute power Whose will look at it with me in verses 38 and 39 that word for in the

Greek. It's gar it means the basis for the thing previously said

You follow me? We just saw in verse 37 that the giving of the

Father to the Son is the issue Well, why is that what is this based upon?

Answer for I Have come down from heaven

Not to do my own will But the will of him who sent me

Verse 39 and this is the will of him who sent me that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me

But raise it up on the last day Whose will is that issue here

It is the will of God The word in Greek is thelema

Thelema this is the will of God. Well, why does Jesus say he's not doing his will But the will of the

Father Answer Jesus has two wills Correspondent to the two natures within the one person

Jesus is one person with a divine nature and a human nature in his human nature his human will

Would be to avoid the suffering of the cross but in Gethsemane. What does he say? Not my will but yours be done in other words in his human will through that nature of his humanity he wouldn't desire to go suffer a

Gruesome and excruciating death on the cross But in his divine will

Through that divine nature. He shares that will perfectly with the Father you see that the

Father's will is that what he submits to He does the Father's will perfectly and always and what is the

Father's will? Here in the text we're told it says this is the will of him who sent me that I should lose nothing of All that he has given me

You see underneath The giving of you a people for God's own possession to the

Son underneath that is what is called the will of God God has a will that is a purpose for everything that happens under the

Sun and This teaching is ubiquitous present everywhere

Through the Bible. That's a new word if you don't know that word just means present everywhere all through the

Bible There is a teaching on the will of God One of those places that we've already mentioned is

Ephesians 1 11 He works all things after the counsel of his will when you have time later, you can go to your notes and look up some of the other passages that talk about that and Isaiah 46 9 and 10

Nebuchadnezzar knew it in Daniel 4 verse 35 Over and over again.

We are taught that God has a will and That will is all -encompassing and it cannot be thwarted

He does whatever he wants in the heavens and on the earth We're going somewhere with this.

This will make a difference in your life Let's see the last point If that's the case the first point being that God Gives a people to the

Sun. It's his predestining work. He's elected people to believe Not the other way around and the basis of this is his will what he has desired.

He has determined lastly What is the nature of man?

Let's look in the text He says for this is the will of my father that everyone who looks on the

Sun and Believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day

So how did the people respond? What's the nature of man? So the

Jews What does it say? Grumbled about him

Because he said I am the bread of life when Moses led the people out of Egypt And they were in the wilderness and just after a couple of days being without food.

What did the people do? They grumbled they complained give us food

Did you bring us out here in the wilderness to starve to death and they're grumbling and complaining and so God says

I'm going to send bread from heaven And then once that bread from heaven came to them and they ate manna in the wilderness for many years

What did they begin to do? Grumble and complain because it's so tasteless and bland and it's getting boring

They grumbled you see the parallel here in verse 41 Jesus is the bread but their response is to grumble about him

I Am the bread that came down from heaven, but we know Joseph. We know your father

How can you say that you came down from heaven Jesus answered them? He first of all rebukes them for that grumbling.

What does that say about their nature? Are they free or are they slaves?

They're slavishly captured to their own sin nature now verse 44 is crucial for understanding a

Biblical worldview and it explicitly says no one can come

To me unless the father who sent me draws him and I will raise him up on the last day so we know

The giving of a people to the father. We know it comes from his will now. We're being told how that happens

You can't come it explicitly says you can't no one comes no one can come

Why because you're dead in your sin You're a slave to sin and even confronted with the truth.

You don't want it. You will fight against that You will rebel against the king You will not come because anyone who sins is a slave to sin

It's a problem, isn't it? No one can come the text says so how do theologians answer this question?

I'll give you three paths through this text. The first was offered by Pelagius Pelagianism ignores the verse and denies it explicitly

Because Pelagius against Augustine said that man is not born dead in sin. There is no original sin

You're basically a blank slate and it's up to you to choose but the Bible says no one can come

And so Pelagianism is out don't believe it. The second option is

Wesleyanism This is the idea of prevenient grace in between the first half and the second half of verse 44 is

The free will choice of man, but you say wait a minute How can they make that choice because it says no one can come

Wesley proposes that there's something called prevenient grace that God gives

Prevenient grace meaning a grace that goes before the offer of the gospel Or in the offer of the gospel and that grace renders every heart back to that place of being neutral you see what he's doing there and So because of prevenient grace now you can choose

No one can come in their natural state but prevenient grace makes them neutral and now they can either go right or they can go left

They can become a sheep or a goat. It's really up to them. That teaching is also false and Explicitly contradicted by the text.

Okay, the answer and what the Bible is clearly teaching here is effectual grace

If we were in school, I'd say repeat after me effectual grace everybody says effectual grace I want you

I want that term in your head Effectual grace is grace that accomplishes the thing for which it was sent

It does what it was sent to do Like his word in Isaiah 55 look at the text.

I'll give you a couple of quick reasons and we'll be done in verse 44

There is no separating the two hymns as In HIMS find the word hymn in the verse

No one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him and I will raise him up on the last day

The first hymn is not some nebulous group Encompassing all people whereas the second one is specifically the one who has come

What Jesus is saying is the hymn is the hymn the same hymn The one who is drawn is certain to be resurrected and That's repeated from verse 37 on Again and again, we're told

I will raise him up on the last day. I will

Anastasio I'll resurrect him As surely as Jesus kept his promise.

I Have power to lay down my life and I have power to take it up again in The same way that Jesus can resurrect his own body from the grave or call

Lazarus from the grave. He will resurrect you and Who is it that he's referring to in verse 44?

It says no one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him The drawn one we are told will be resurrected

That's the first point you can't separate the hymns the same one who is drawn

Will be resurrected. So if you're drawn you're resurrected the only way that a

Wesleyan could then be consistent is just be a universalist and Say everybody's drawn and that's why everybody will be resurrected

But of course, that's not what the Bible teaches. The Bible does teach that some will be saved and others will be lost and What it's clearly saying here is that the one drawn by the father

Will be resurrected So to be drawn Yields the certain outcome of going to heaven

That's very important. It proves the point Next Look at that word draw in the

Greek. The word is helcou. Oh, it doesn't just mean a wooing

Like you were like summoning a bird like you had a bird call or something and you might be able to get a bird to Come to the the bird feeder in your yard

It's not a summoning the word means to drag To draw when

Peter drew his sword the word was helcou. Oh, he did it Later in John chapter 21 when the miraculous catch a fish it says they they helcou.

Oh, they dragged the net It's that idea of being dragged.

The same word is used in Acts when Paul is dragged before the court

Forcefully what's happening here in this verse is the drawing of the father is his overcoming your resistant will

The Apostle Saul before he was the Apostle Paul He was a persecutor of Christians But God blinded him and spoke to him and said

Saul Saul. Why do you persecute me? Who are you Lord? He wasn't being wooed and summoned.

He was being dragged and he was given eyes to see and then his physical eyes were opened and Everything changed you see the nature of grace.

It takes a dead sinner like me dead in my trespasses and sins but God By his mercy by grace

Resurrects the dead sinner. That's what's happening here. That's what that word actually means draw

If you're not convinced yet, there's fortunately for you One more verse and that's verse 45 the clincher here

It is written in the prophets and They will all be taught by God Everyone who has heard and learned from the father

Comes to me. Is this saying that all people in the world head -for -head every person who's ever lived is

Taught by God or does all here refer to the same group of people the elect the ones who come

Well, the answer is very clear when you open the Old Testament the verses to which this refers

The first is Isaiah 54 verse 13. It's referring to the new covenant people those who have received faith and believed and They have the renewal of the

Holy Spirit Turn with me one last place to Jeremiah chapter 31 verses 33

And 34 if you noticed in John chapter 6 It said as the prophets plural said so it's not only referring to Isaiah 54 verse 13

Which is the direct quote prophets plural means this is the teaching of the prophets so Ezekiel 36

Jeremiah 31 These also apply the new covenant

Church do you realize that you are in the new covenant? The old covenant follow me.

We're done after this. I promise and I'll just wrap it up Okay, the old covenant was written on stone

It was external to you the Ten Commandments on two tablets of stone You can see it

But it's outside of yourself You have trouble obeying it because there's something wrong in you, right?

The new covenant is not written on tablets of stone. It's written on tablets of hearts

It's the work of God the Father teaching you on the inside so you can hear me preach today and receive nothing from it or The Spirit of God can work in your heart to change you from the inside out now look at this verse

This is the promise of the new covenant And this is what Jesus refers to Jeremiah 31 verses 33 and 34 for this is the covenant.

It's referring to the new covenant That I will make with the house of Israel after those days

So now the days in which we live declares the Lord. I will put my law where?

Within them and I will write it on their hearts not external and tablets of stone

He's gonna do this teaching work on your heart And I will be their God and they shall be my people and no longer shall each one teach teach mark that word his neighbor and Each his brother saying know the

Lord for they shall all know me From the least of them to the greatest

Declares the Lord for I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more

The gospel offered to you is the forgiveness of your sin the cleansing of all your sin

It will be thrown and forgotten in a sea of forgetfulness You will be washed and cleansed with blood

But not everybody accepts this What must happen for someone to come to believe?

The drawing of the father what we're told in John 6 44 No one can come unless they're drawn and then clarifying that point verse 45.

It is to be taught of God It is God's Supernatural work in your heart to teach you

That these things are so New Covenant ministry of God This is grace and this in closing in application

This should change how we see the world Why did you come?

When maybe your neighbor has not it's because you were given

And do you know if your neighbor is given or not? No, none of us here knows the identity of the elect and So you'll notice this offer is made to everybody.

We preach Christ in him crucified to everybody. We don't know who will come We can't reconcile divine sovereignty and human will we don't know these mysteries

So we preach the gospel to everybody but listen It's the grace of God that draws some

It's his work in their hearts the teaching ministry of the father drawing them in order that they would believe that's what

Jesus said In John 6 35 to 45. Amen So the answers to those questions are very obvious now, right?

Number one what comes first the giving or the coming? The giving secondly whose will is free and sovereign and Unstoppable and ultimate it's

God's will that we celebrate not human will because human will is enslaved dead in Trespasses and sins and lastly what is the nature of man?

It is not enabled by a some provenient grace It is not able to come it is dead and sin

But for the grace of God, so when you look around in the world and you go offering

Christ and some will come and others will not and When you see somebody just like the people in this

Bible who were hardened to the gospel They didn't want to hear it. They were bored. They were indignant.

How do you claim to be the bread of life? They don't believe what you're saying. I want you to think this way from now on but for the grace of God There go

I Do you see that? That's the point Jesus didn't pile scorn on them to say there's so much worse.

How could they not come? Whereas I Was humble enough to come

He didn't do that. Instead. He exalted grace and He taught us who now believe

To give all the glory for the Father now in closing wouldn't that be the purpose of life?

Why do you exist? Ephesians 1 5 and 6 says It was to the praise of his glorious grace

So having come You give all the glory to him

No merit in yourself You were given to God Wow that changes everything doesn't it?

That's a God -centered biblical worldview. Let's pray So father these have been some deep teachings today and I confess

I was tempted to try to spice it up with more stories and Relevant applications, but Lord your word is power in and of itself doesn't need help

So I do pray for those who are struggling with these doctrines. I Pray that they would continue to wrestle the way

Jacob wrestled with the angel of the Lord Who was pre -incarnate

Christ, I think Wrestled all night long the will of man versus the will of God But ultimately

God you touched his hip and that settled the matter. The will of God is ultimate and Jacob walked the rest of his life with a limp

But looking God we're looking heavenward I Pray the same for all of us who wrestle with these questions

The struggle is good It's how we get to know you more by wrestling with your word

But I pray ultimately we would submit to the only sovereign God and like Jacob new name

Israel Walk in newness of life With the heart of gratitude and thanksgiving

Thank you for teaching us The truths of your word things we could not know of our own, but we today have been taught of the

Father Thank you God for your word your word is truth in Jesus name.

Amen Gift of grace is

Jesus my Redeemer There is no more for heaven now to give

He is my joy my righteousness and freedom

I said fast love my deep and boundless pea

To this I hold my hope is only Jesus For my life is ever bound to him

Oh How strange and divine I can sing all is mine yet not

I but through Christ me Night is dark, but I am not forsaken

For by my side my Savior. He will stay

I labor on in weakness and rejoicing

For in my knee his power is displayed

For this I hold my shepherd will defend me through the

Deepest valley he will lead All the night has been won and I shall

Overcome yet not I but through Christ me

No fate I dread. I know I am forgiven

The future sure the price it has been paid

For Jesus fled and suffered for my part

And he was raised to overthrow the grave

To this I hold my sin has been defeated

Jesus now and ever is my plea

All the chains are released I can sing I am free

Yet not I but through Christ With every breath

I long to follow Jesus For he has said

That he will bring me home And day by day,

I know he will Till I stand with joy before the throne

To this I hold my hope is only Jesus All the glory evermore to him

When the race is complete Still my lips shall repeat yet not

I but through Christ in me When the race is complete still my lips shall repeat

Yet not I but through Christ Yet not

I but through Christ in me Paul addresses the subject in Romans 9 10 and 11 9 about the sovereignty of God 10 very much about the responsibility of man

But he closes Romans 11 with these words. Oh The depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways?

for who has known the mind of the Lord and who has been his counselor or Who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?

For from him and through him and to him are all things to him