Salvation Is of the Lord

Let's open our Bibles to the Gospel of John chapter 1. We have been looking at the prologue of the Gospel of John over the last several Wednesday nights. We are coming tonight to verse 13, and I will read that text and then we will read the verses leading up to it. Verse 13, breaking right into a thought, says, Who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. Of course, the preceding verses need to be read in order to put all that into context, and that's what we're going to do in just a moment. Excuse me.

I'm going to take another cough drop at this time. But let me say a few things by way of introduction before I read the preceding verses. Many of you are aware that in the book of Jonah, when Jonah was in the belly of the whale and thought that his life was over, he cried out to the Lord for mercy. He prayed.

He repented. He was in the belly of the whale, of course, because of his sinful rebellion against God. And you know that he got there because the sailors of the ship that he was on, trying to flee in the opposite direction from where God had told him to go, had at his insistence thrown him overboard because Jonah knew that he was responsible for that terrible storm that was threatening to capsize the vessel, a storm that even seasoned sailors were frightened of.

And so they threw him overboard at his insistence. They were reluctant to do that, even these pagan sailors, but they did, and a whale swallowed him up and down he went in the belly of the whale down into the ocean. Of course, being swallowed by the whale was actually God's provision for his protection and preservation. It wouldn't have looked like that, I'm sure, to the sailors who saw to their, no doubt, their amazement, when they tossed him overboard and saw this huge whale come up to the surface and gobble him up and as far as they were concerned, he was gone forever. Somebody asked me just recently if Jonah died in the belly of the whale and was resurrected by the power of God. And there are some who think so, and I would say we really don't know, but please keep in mind that he cried, he prayed, he cried to God from the belly of the whale for deliverance, and God answered that prayer.

So if he did die and was resurrected, then he had to be resurrected before he prayed for deliverance, which to me, though it's not impossible to think of it that way, to me that seems a little strange. It seems likely that he was kept alive in the belly of this fish, was not digested, did not become a meal for the whale. That, of course, is a miracle in itself, but was preserved in that location and then when he cried out to God for mercy, God had the whale vomit him up, spit him out on the shore, on dry land, and Jonah was saved. And in the course of that, Jonah said these words, salvation is of the Lord.

Now he knew that. He was in a desperate condition. He knew that there was no hope of escape except by the intervening and sovereign power of God. And upon realizing his utter helplessness and crying out to God from total desperation, Jonah received mercy and was saved. He was rescued from the belly of a whale by a miraculous delivery that could only come from God. And so he said, salvation is of the Lord.

That phrase has become a descriptive phrase for those who understand the sovereignty of God in salvation. Jonah's salvation that he was speaking of, of course, was a physical deliverance. God saved his life.

God saved him for future ministry. That was deliverance. That was physical deliverance, physical salvation, which in his case was certainly of the Lord. But it has been taken up as a phrase to describe spiritual deliverance, the salvation of the soul, which is also of the Lord. And that's what we're going to look at tonight in John 1 13, a text that drives us to sovereign mercy for salvation. Men suppose that an emphasis upon God's sovereignty and salvation will discourage men and women from calling upon God from coming to Christ.

But the opposite actually is true. It is as men become more aware of the total helplessness of their condition and their complete helplessness to do anything about it themselves that drives them to cast themselves as beggars upon the mercy of Christ, where no one has ever yet been turned away. But it is precisely because few perceive themselves as totally, completely and helplessly lost that many who make professions of faith are not truly saved. You can't be saved until you see yourself as lost. You can't be saved until you are desperate for salvation that comes only from God. It is only when one comes to see that there's nothing that he can do in any way, in any part to bring about his salvation that he is cast upon Christ and upon Him alone. And that is what we read in John 1 13.

It drives us away from every human refuge so that we are driven to the only rock of our salvation, the rock that is higher than I. Now, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him, nothing was made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men, and the light shines in darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

There was a man sent from God whose name was John. This man came for a witness to bear witness of the light that all through him might believe. He was not that light, but was sent to bear witness of that light. That was the true light, which gives light to every man coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world did not know him.

He came to his own, and his own did not receive him. But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become the children of God, to those who believe in his name, who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. Well, thus far in these verses, we have seen the nature of the Savior, that he is eternal.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God. We learned that he is God. He's equal with God, and he is God. He was in the beginning with God, and he was God. He is God. We learned that the Savior is the Creator of everything.

Without him was not anything made that was made. He is Creator of all, which of course can only be said of God. We learned that he is the source of life. He was the life that brings light into the world, and he is not only the source of life, but the revealer of life.

The light is the revelation of the life that is found in him, and that he gives to those who cast themselves upon him. We also learned some things about human beings in this passage. We learned that we are creatures.

We are created, unlike the Savior, who is uncreated, who is eternal. But beyond that, we learned that we are sinful. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. We learned that we are blind. The darkness did not comprehend the light. That's a total blindness that cannot even perceive light. Some people are legally blind, but they have a little bit of sight, and they can tell the difference between light and darkness.

But total blindness leaves a person unable to discern whether it's day or night, whether he's in darkness or under a spotlight. And spiritually speaking, that's where we are. We are blind. We are blind to the light that comes from Jesus Christ, and we are hostile to God. He came into the world, and the world was made through him, and the world did not know him. He came unto his own, and his own did not receive him.

This is a description of the nature of humanity. And yet, there are those who escape from the condition that has been here described, and they are revealed to us in verse 12. But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become the children of God, to those who believe in his name. There are those who are rescued out of this condition of sin and blindness and rebellion against God.

There is no detectable human qualification for those who are thus rescued. They are simply described as, by this phrase, as many as, as many as, as many as received him. To them he gave the right to become children of God to those who believe in his name. As many as received him were given the full authority to become children of God. And they are characterized by a reception of Christ, not a rejection of him, a trust in Christ, not a skepticism about him. They are characterized as being those who are yielded to Christ, not a rebellion to him. And as those who continually believe, who believe, we read in his name, verse 12, but that is a present tense participle. It literally is our believing.

Continue to believe in his name. Now the question is, what makes the difference between those who are described as dead and blind and rebellious and hostile and rejectors of all things spiritual and those who receive, who believe? What makes the difference between those two categories? Is the difference good works?

Not according to this text. Is the difference the better sense of some to come to Christ when others have no such good sense? In other words, I had the wisdom to come and others did not so I can attribute salvation to myself, to my wisdom, to being shrewd enough, smart enough, savvy enough to come to Christ, not the way this text reads. Is it my innate faith within me that caused me to come to Christ when others did not as we sang at the beginning, heard sung at the beginning of the congregation, why was I made to hear thy voice and enter while there's room, when thousands made a wretched choice and rather starve than come?

What makes the difference? And I can assure you that it's nothing within man. There's nothing within us that we can boast.

What's the explanation of this redeemed host? And it is the verse that we're looking at tonight. Reading verses 12 and 13 together, But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become the children of God, to those who believe, who are believing in his name, who were born not of blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God.

As Jonah said, salvation is of the Lord. These who received him were described in verse 12. These who were granted the right to become the sons of God, these who believe and are believing in his name, were begotten by God. Were begotten is an aorist passive. That indicates something that took place in the past which has present results. And what this is telling us is that what is described in verse 13, begotten of God, took place prior to the believing of verse 12. As many as received him, to them he gave the right to become the children of God, to those who are believing in his name who were born, who were begotten prior to their believing on his name, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God. It is an aorist passive.

The aorist indicates that which took place in the past but has continuing present results. The passive indicates that this is something that was done by another, who were begotten, not out of themselves, not of anything they did, but were born of the Father, born of God, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God. And of course John is the one who talks about salvation in terms of a birth. And we can understand that much just by our experience with human birth. We know that none of us are responsible in any way for our own birth.

That was entirely in the hands of another. It was entirely accomplished by something that others did, and because of what they did, we showed up. We were given life. We were conceived. We were developed. We were birthed. We came into this world as living creatures, and we had nothing whatsoever to do with it. It was done for us.

It was done to us. It was done by others than ourselves, and that's what is described here. Our spiritual birth was not of ourselves but is in fact of God. God acted upon those who came to faith in Christ. God imported life to them.

And to make that very clear, John discards several possibilities that people sometimes look to and makes it clear that these are impossibilities. They do not explain the new birth. Who were born not of blood, or literally, it's plural, not of bloods. This has to do with human descent.

This has to do with human heritage. The Jews in Christ's day were often, many of them, most of them were under the delusion that they were the children of God by blood, by birth, by human descent, by parentage, because they were in the line of Abraham, because their parents were in the line of Abraham, because they were born into this line to whom promises were made. They imagined that that, therefore, secured their position as sons of God. But John says, no, those who are rescued out of sin and blindness and eternal condemnation were not brought into that condition by blood. It has nothing to do with human descent. Nor, we are told, in my Bible, it says the will of the flesh. It could also be translated the desire of the flesh. It didn't come about because of the desire of the flesh, because something within us in our human flesh desired to be rescued. Because the Bible is clear, our human flesh has no desire for spiritual things.

As Paul tells us in Corinthians, the natural man, that's who we all are by our first birth, that's what produces our flesh, the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God, they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, because they're spiritually discerned. We can have a desire for things that are beneficial to our flesh. We can have a desire for health, a desire for happiness. Yes, even a desire for heaven, because we'd rather go to this happy place called heaven than to the place of torment called hell.

We can have a desire to avoid doom, pain, sorrow, but what we don't have is a desire for righteousness. What we don't have is a desire to be freed from our sin and separated from our sin. What we don't have is a desire for Christ. What we don't have is a desire and a hunger for the word of God. We don't have that.

We can't produce that. That doesn't come by the desire of the flesh. Nor, thirdly, does it come about by the will of man, by the exercise of his will. Anyone's will, yours or anybody else. No parent, of course, can will salvation upon his child. No preacher can will salvation upon a member of his congregation. No evangelist can will salvation upon anyone to whom he is preaching the gospel. It doesn't come about by the will of man.

Anyone else's or yours. Not by your will, but rather by the work of the Holy Spirit in bringing about regeneration. Man's free will is not able to regenerate. Does man have a will? Yes. Does he exercise his will? Yes. Does he make choices?

Yes. But because of our condition, our will does not make a choice in the direction of Christ and righteousness. It does not.

It does not. And this text, therefore, delivers the death blow to the, and I'll say this deliberately, the idol of free will that many people hold on to. It is an idol. It is a false doctrine. It is a fiction that free will is, in essence, our savior, our free will to lay hold upon Christ. Some put free will upon the throne. And ultimately, they wouldn't say it this way, but ultimately God doesn't rule the universe. Man's free will does, because man's free will makes the decisions and choices that ultimately decide what's going to happen in this universe.

But that is not what the Bible teaches. Does man have a free will? Again, if you mean, can he choose? Yes, he can.

And he does. He has freedom of choice. But if you mean, is man's will morally neutral? Is man's will as capable of righteous choices as it is of sinful ones? Then the answer is no.

I've already quoted one text that makes it clear. Man does not have the ability to choose truth, Christ, righteousness. He doesn't have that in himself.

He doesn't choose that way. That's why Martin Luther, the father, really, of the Protestant Reformation, wrote a book. I've got a copy of it.

I've read part of it. Wrote a book entitled The Bondage of the Will to demonstrate that man's will is not free, it's bound. It's in bondage, the bondage of the will. He considered that in many ways to be the very heart of the Protestant Reformation, the very heart of the distinction between biblical salvation and the errors of the Roman Catholic Church, who championed the idea of man's free will. This is why Charles Spurgeon preached a famous sermon entitled Free Will, a Slave. I've got a copy of that also in my study in a little pamphlet form.

That one I have read in total, though it's been several years ago since I read it. Free will, a slave. It's a paradox, isn't it? There's one sense in which man's will is free, but there's another sense in which it is enslaved. Because, and here's the point, if I can make this point, will always chooses in accordance with desire. Does man have a will to choose what he desires? Yes. He's free to choose whatever he desires.

Really. In that sense, he has a free will. But what's the problem? Our desires are determined by our nature. And what is the condition of man's nature? It is dead to spiritual things. It is blind to spiritual things.

It has, it hates the light. Men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil. Man's nature will never of itself desire light, truth, spiritual life, Christ, righteousness.

And because man has no desire for those things, it's not within his fallen sinful nature, he will never choose those things. He chooses according to his desire. And his desire is determined by his nature. Therefore, if man is going to choose Christ, something must change his nature.

And indeed, that's what it's all about. If nature changes, desire changes. If there's something that can change my antipathy toward Christ to a desire for Christ, then I will choose Christ. My nature has changed.

My desire has changed. I will choose Christ. I will choose righteousness. I will choose spiritual things.

That's what I will choose because that's what I desire, but I can only desire them if first of all my heart has changed, if my nature has changed, if something's changed that gives me new desires. So the question, therefore, is does God overcome man's will? Does God superimpose himself upon man's will? And the answer is yes and no. He does.

Thank God he does or else there's no hope. But we're not aware of that. We're not conscious. It's not like we want to go to hell, but God forces us to go to heaven or the other way around as some people imagine it. I'd like to go to heaven, but God is going to force me to choose hell.

It's not that way at all. God so works within our nature to give us life, to give us a change, to give us new desires that the sense is that this is what I desire. But the question is what's the explanation for a person who is dead and trespasses and sins, who loves darkness because his deeds are evil, who has no understanding nor desire for spiritual things?

What's the explanation for how such a person, why such a person, will now desire the opposite of what his nature has all along desired? And the answer is he has been changed. He has been born of God.

As many as received him, to them he gave the right to become the children of God, to those who are believing in his name, who were born not of blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God. And when you understand that, that shuts off all hope that is grounded in man and forces us to place all of our hope upon God and his mercy and his power. The sinner is shut up to God alone. The evangelist is shut up to God alone. The parent is shut up to God alone for the salvation of his children.

The petitioner is shut up to God alone. And what this does is make us beggars, totally dependent upon God for salvation. And this is where we must be, for this is where salvation's mercy is found.

There is bread for beggars. There is mercy for those who understand their helplessness and appeal to God to help them, to do for them what they cannot do for themselves, to save them from themselves. Oh, to be saved from Myself, dear Lord. Oh, to be lost in Thee.

And that's why John says later, After all that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. Shall we pray? Father, we want to pray for the Bixby family in France and particularly for this dangerous bill that's being considered in France that could make the work of the Gospel illegal in that country. Oh, Lord, we pray that in your mercy you will hold that back.

And a similar bill in the United States also, the Equality Act, needs to be stopped. And, oh, Lord, we appeal to you to do that. We pray for missionary Herb Taylor that you will continue to bless him as he ministers so faithfully and effectively in the Hispanic community all across America. We pray for the Institute for Creation Research and the wonderful work they're doing that you will continue to sustain and strengthen and provide for them. We thank you for the good report from Paul and Tricia Snyder on the improvement of Paul's health and the prospect of returning to the field.

We thank you for the good report from Ryan Kelly and his dissertation. We pray for Mebaneh Pro Tem Gill Auditory. We continue to pray for our sister Drew Guthrie as she battles cancer and for Karen Bova as she's dealing with the death of a mother and a granddaughter.

What a deep loss. We pray for Dwayne Craig's father and for those in Manjar that are facing this armed aggression and hostility, great danger to Christians and to the gospel there. We pray for their protection. We pray for Laverne Waugh that you will continue to sustain her, for Mike Webster in France as he's battling cancer, and we pray for David Moxley that you might give him a good report when he goes to the doctor in a few days.

And, Father, there are a host of others. We're glad you know every need. We're glad that you have appointed every trial. We're glad that you are in control of every trial. We're glad that you are able to make all things work together for good to those who love you and who are the called according to your purpose. We gladly yield ourselves into your sovereign and merciful care as we ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.