It Is God's Will That You Be Saved!

3/30/24

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Sermon Transcript

Good evening. Well, thank you, Justin, for that introduction and also for the invitation to be here tonight. I’ve really been looking forward to this. I hope you have as well. And thank you, Paul, for the wonderful singing and wonderful song selection. Appreciate that.

What is God’s will for you? That question is the theme of our gospel meeting. And there could be no more important question than that one. What is God’s will for you? What is God’s will for me? How I answer that question and what I do in response to that answer are the most important things I will do in this life. My goal and your goal should be to first correctly determine God’s will and then to faithfully obey God’s will. My entry into the kingdom of heaven is determined not just by what I say or by what I think but by whether I do the will of God. Matthew 7:21, “Not everyone who says to me Lord Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.”

Even Jesus the Son of God did not seek his own will but rather sought the will of God the Father. John 5:30, “I can do nothing on my own as I hear I judge and my judgment is just because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me.” And we know that a servant is not above his master in Matthew 10:24. So if Jesus sought the will of God the Father, so must we. And the only way to determine the will of God is to look into the Word of God. It is in God’s Word and only in God’s Word that he reveals His will to us today. John 12:48, “The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge. The word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day.” And so we must study the Word of God to determine the will of God and then we must obey the will of God.

And our question tonight and tomorrow is this, what is God’s will? And when we open the Word of God we will discover many important truths about the will of God. And the first important truth about God’s will that we will consider tonight is perhaps the most important and the most wonderful truth of all. Absent this first truth about God’s will we would not be tonight. We would have no hope. We would have no blessed assurance. Absent this first truth about God’s will, Jesus would never have come to this world.

And what is that most important and most wonderful truth about the will of God? It is this. It is God’s will that you be saved. Why is that truth about God’s will so important and so wonderful? Because if your salvation had not been God’s will then Jesus would never have given up his life for men. Jesus would never have been raised from the dead because Jesus would never have died. There would be no cross. Absent that truth about God’s will there would be no gospel. There would be no good news, only bad news. Absent that truth about God’s will there would have been no promise to Abraham of a worldwide blessing. There would have been no promise to King David of an eternal kingship. Absent that wonderful truth about God’s will we would have no Bible, we would have no need for it.

It is God’s will that you be saved. But how do we know that statement about the will of God is true? The answer is that God has told us that it is true. We read it in God’s Word. Ezekiel 33:11, “Saying to them as I live saith the Lord God I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked.” 2 Peter 3:9, “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness but as patient towards you not wishing that any should perish but that all should receive and reach repentance.” 1 Timothy 2:3-4, “This is good and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior who desires all people to be saved and to come to knowledge of the truth.”

And God does not just tell us that. God shows us that. From the beginning of the Bible to the end of the Bible, we see God working on every page, every page to bring salvation to all people through Jesus Christ. And when Jesus appeared, He brought that salvation, that promised salvation. Titus 2:11, “For the grace of God has appeared bringing salvation for all people.” And so listening to what God has said and looking at what God has done we can know this with complete certainty. It is God’s will that you be saved. And we know from the verses that we just read that that wonderful truth applies to all people. All people. God desires all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.

Well now that we know what God has said, our next question is this, how do people react today to what God has said? Well, some people are surprised by it. For some people, that wonderful truth about God’s will is unexpected. It is not what they expect to hear. It is not the attitude that they expect God to have about the lost. They’re surprised by it. And why are they surprised by it? Because they do not know God. Many people today view themselves as standing on a trapdoor with hell beneath and God holding the lever and just waiting for that first mistake to pull that trapdoor open and send us into hell. Even in the church I think we meet some people with that thought. You know I think we all know people who have just enough religion to make themselves miserable. Why are they miserable? Because they do not know God.

The God revealed to us in the Bible is not a God with his hand on a trapdoor waiting for us to make a mistake so he can spring it open. If that had been the will of God for mankind, then why did he ever send Jesus to this earth? We know that it is not God’s will that any should perish. 2 Peter 3:9. We know that God wants everyone to be saved. 1 Timothy 2:4. Luke 15:7 tells us that there is great joy in heaven when a sinner repents. What is God’s view of the lost? Does God delight in giving their well-deserved fate? Does God enjoy getting the final word and sending them on to their final destiny? No. It is not God’s will that any should perish. God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked. God wants everyone to be saved.

Far from waiting to drop us through a trapdoor, God has done everything and given everything so that we can be saved and it is God’s will that we will be saved. If I am standing on a trapdoor, it is not because God put me there or because God wants me to be there. If I’m standing on a trapdoor, it is because I put myself there by my sin and I have chosen to continue standing on that trap door by my refusal to obey the gospel. You know I like what C.S. Lewis said. He said there are two types of people. Those who say to God your will be done and those to whom God says your will be done. If I refuse to obey the gospel of Jesus Christ then it is my will that I be lost. And so some people are surprised by what God said but they shouldn’t be surprised and if they knew God they wouldn’t be surprised.

Well others have a different view of what God said. They have a different view of God’s will. They don’t believe it. Much of the denominational world today is infected by a false system of belief that is called Calvinism. And one of the major false doctrines of that false system is that God does not desire that all people be saved. Now I know that sometimes when we talk about other beliefs we’re accused of putting words in people’s mouths and maybe sometimes we do that. So to answer the question of what John Calvin believes I’m just going to let John Calvin tell you. Quote, “We call predestination God’s eternal decree by which he compacted with himself what he willed to become of each man. For all are not created in equal condition. Rather ‘for others,’ close quote.”

Now, let me ask a question to all the teachers and former teachers in the room. Back when I was a teacher, before the first day of class, they’d give me a list of students, and so I’d know the name of everybody who was gonna be in class the next day. What if I had gone down that list before the first day of class and just written an A or an F next to each name, just kind of randomly. And then, let’s say on the first day of class, I told the students about the list. I said, “Thank you for signing up for my exciting math class. Each of you is going to receive either an A or an F in this class, and I’ve already determined your grade, And there’s nothing you can do to change it. And I’m not going to tell you what it is until maybe later. But please come to class and do your best anyway.”

Now what reaction do you think I’m going to get from those students? I think they’re going to say, “That’s not fair. You’re showing partiality to some.” And they’d be right. And I suspect I would never get back any homework from any of them. Why turn in your homework if your grade has already been predetermined? Why go to class? Why take any exams? You know, it seems like the students should just kind of sit back and hope they’re on the A list. After all, the list is fixed. Can’t change the F to an A, you can’t change the A to an F. They were all determined before they even showed up for class. Absurd, you say? Yes, it is absurd. And yet, how many of our neighbors have been taught to believe that God operates exactly that same way, not when it comes to your math grade, but when it comes to your eternal destiny?

Friends, that is not what the Bible teaches. What the Bible teaches is that it is God’s will that you be saved, that all be saved. We just read it from the Word of God. God wants everyone in his class to get an A. Those who reject that wonderful truth about God have rejected the Word of God. The Bible says it is God’s will that all be saved. So we’ve looked at what God said, let’s look next at what God did. What did God do?

Yes, God told us what He wants. He wants all people to be saved, but what has God done to make that possible? And perhaps before we ask what God did, we should ask this question. Why did God do it? Why is it God’s will that all be saved? There is only one possible answer to that question, given the price that was paid for that salvation. John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.” Romans 5:8, “God shows his love for us and while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.” 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, “You are not your own you were bought with a price.” The will of God that all people be saved is explained by the love of God and The love of God is shown by the price that God paid for our salvation. God loved and so God gave. God loved and so God paid the price. God loves us. That statement sounds so simple. But how can we ever understand it? How can we ever explain the love of God? I don’t think we can at least not completely. But we can all be thankful for it. And we can all respond to God’s love by loving God in return and showing that love through our obedience. 1 John 5:3, “For this is the love of God that we keep his commandments and his commandments are not burdensome.” The more we love God the more we want to seek and faithfully follow the will of God.

But now let’s get back to our earlier question, what did God do to make our salvation possible? What God did is this, God made a plan for us. Now, I have a confession to make. I have sometimes been accused of over planning things. My motto has always been that failing to plan is planning to fail. And I can appreciate a good plan, but there has never been a plan like God’s wonderful plan of redemption. Never. All throughout the Old Testament we see God moving all of the pieces into place, into their perfect position, so that at the perfect time and in the perfect setting, Jesus could come into this world to bring salvation to all.

But some might say, “I thought the gospel was simple and you’re making it sound kind of complicated.” Yes, there is simplicity in the gospel of Christ, 2 Corinthians 11:3, but the plan of God that brought us that simplicity is a very elaborate and involved plan that God did for us. Yes, there are specific steps to salvation, and we’ll talk about those tonight. But God’s plan for our redemption started long before those steps were revealed. When did God’s plan for your salvation begin? Well, Revelation 13:8 describes Christ as the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Paul, likewise, in Ephesians 1:4, tells us that the church was in the mind of God before the foundation of the world. We know from Acts 2:41 that the church consists of those who are saved. So if God was thinking about the church before the foundation of the world, God’s desire to save all people must go also back before the foundation of the world.

And so in looking at what God did for us to be saved, we must begin before the creation. And we see God’s plan again in the promise to Abraham in Genesis 22:18. He would bless the entire world through the seed of Abraham. And we see God’s great plan again in the promise to King David. Psalm 89:4, “He would build His throne for all generations.” The eternal throne of Christ. We can look at many, many other Old Testament passages showing God working page after page to bless the entire world through His Son.

But here is a perhaps surprising fact about the great plan of God. The Bible is not the only place where we can read about it. We can also see that great plan in history books. You know, if you really want a faith-building exercise, pick up any secular history book that covers the time, the history of the world prior to Christ, and look for those questions that those historians say they can’t answer. In most cases you will find the answers to those questions in the Word of God. And very often those answers will be directly related to what God was doing to prepare the perfect setting for Christ to come into this world. It makes for a fascinating study.

After Jerusalem was destroyed by King Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BC, Daniel was told there would be four kingdoms from his day to the day of Christ. Four kingdoms. And history books tell us the same thing. The Babylonians were followed by the Persians. Persians were followed by the Greeks. The Greeks were followed by the Romans. And when Christ came, Rome was in charge. And what did Daniel tell us would happen during the days of the Romans? He was told that Christ would come to this world and would establish his eternal kingdom, the church, Daniel 2:44. “And in the days of those kings, the Roman kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to other people. It shall break in pieces these kingdoms and bring them to an end and it shall stand forever.”

Now much of that history from the Babylonians to the Romans happened during the period we usually refer to as the time between the Testaments. And sometimes I think we ignore the time between the Testaments because we think God didn’t have anything to say about the time between the Testaments. So we kind of skip from Malachi to Matthew and assume not much happened in between. But just because those events happen between the Testaments does not mean that God was silent about those events. And in fact when we open the Word of God, we find that he was anything but silent about those events. Daniel chapter 11 is one of the most intricate detailed prophecies found anywhere in the Bible and it is almost entirely devoted to the time between the Testaments. Zechariah 9-11, again very detailed prophecies, again largely focused on the time between the Testaments.

Now, you mean to say that Alexander the Great is in the Bible? Yes, he is. He’s in Daniel 11 and he’s in Zechariah 9. And in fact, you know according to Josephus when Alexander the Great brought his army toward Jerusalem the high priest came out to meet him. And what do you think the high priest said to Alexander the Great? The high priest showed Alexander the Great where he’d been talked about in the Word of God. He’s in there and that’s between the Testaments, the rise of Rome over the Greeks. Is that also in the Bible? Yes, it is. It’s in Daniel and it’s in Zechariah.

One of the most wonderful pieces of evidence for God outside the Bible is secular history. Secular history books to all but the most blind. Those secular history books show us God Moving all the pieces in the place for Christ to come into this world. How else can we explain the rise of Alexander the Great? How else can we explain the rise of the mighty Roman Empire? History cannot answer those questions, but the Bible does. Both Alexander and Rome rose from obscurity to conquer the known world. Why? Because it was God’s will that they do so, so God could fulfill his promise to Abraham a promise made 2,000 years earlier.

The Roman Empire, it started out as a small dusty village on the Tiber River in the 8th century BC. Who would ever have looked at that group and said they are going to conquer the world? God knew and God told Daniel, and Daniel wrote it down. Historians today are still asking these questions. Let me just give you an example. What I’m about to read to you does not come out of some religious history book. It comes out of a secular history book. Here’s what it says. “Lying at its heart is a mystery as profound as any in the records of human civilization. How on earth did the Romans do it? How did a single city one that began as a small community of cattle rustlers camped out among marshes and hills end up ruling an empire that stretched from the moors of Scotland to the deserts of Iraq?” The answer to that profound mystery is found in the Word of God in the book of Daniel. Those cattle rustlers became the Roman Empire because God decreed it and God decreed it while they were still cattle rustlers.

What about Alexander the Great? How did he do it? How did Alexander the Great create the largest empire the ancient world had ever seen by age 30? Never defeated in battle. He founded cities that remain to this day. How did he do it? It is forever a puzzle to anyone who has not studied the Bible. But Bible believers know the answer to that puzzle. God used Alexander the Great to create the perfect setting for Christ to come into this world. It was no accident that Jesus came into this world when and where he did. The where had been prophesied and as for the when, Galatians 4:4, “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son.”

God created the perfect setting for Jesus to come into this world, establish His eternal kingdom, proclaimed the gospel. How is it the perfect setting? You know the Greeks had a hobby. You know what it was? Warfare. Palestine was a battlefield when the Greeks were in charge. If that had still been going on when Jesus came into this world, the gospel would have had a whole lot of trouble ever leaving Jerusalem. Rome put an end to that with the famous Pax Romana, the Roman peace. But the perfect cradle for Christ was not just Rome, it was Rome and Greece together. Greek culture combined with Roman peace. The Greek language, been around since 800 BC, in which the New Testament was penned, has twice the vocabulary of Latin. Those who believe that Christianity is anti-intellectual and irrational, they should note that Christianity began at a time of intellectualism and rationality. And again that was no accident. It was no accident that Christ came into this world established his church not in a time of superstition but in a time of rational inquiry. Greek thought is admired to this very day. In fact, it has been said that the Greek contribution to Western philosophy was Western philosophy.

So in the first century we find the Greek language, we find the Greek culture, and we find the Roman peace. Friends, that was not an accident. God did that. He did it and then he did it and at that perfect time in that perfect setting Jesus was born in Bethlehem so he could live a perfect life, die on the cross of the perfect sacrifice, be raised from the dead, send back to heaven the right hand of God so that his gospel could be proclaimed to the entire world. The eternal kingdom of Christ was established in Acts chapter 2 just as Daniel had prophesied in Daniel chapter 2 and the word went out first from Jerusalem in Acts chapter 2 just as Isaiah had prophesied in Isaiah chapter 2. And so God’s great promise to Abraham made 2,000 years earlier was fulfilled.

Now, having looked at just some of what God did so that we could be saved, I think we’ll all agree God left nothing to chance. Everything was planned by God in great detail. God did a lot of hard work for us. Our part in the plan may be simple. God’s part was not. And in fact, that is precisely what the Apostle Paul tells us in Romans chapter 10. Romans chapter 10. Let’s start in verse 6. “But the righteousness that’s based on faith says, ‘Do not say in your heart who will ascend into heaven, that is to bring Christ down, or who will descend into the abyss, that is to bring Christ up from the dead. But what does it say? The word is near you in your mouth and in your heart, that is the word of faith that we proclaim. Because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead you will be saved.’”

Now what is Paul saying there? What Paul is saying there is what we just said ourselves, that God did the hard part. God did the hard work. We don’t have to ascend up to heaven and ask Christ to come down. Why? Because God already did that. John 3:16. Well, we don’t need to descend into the abyss and raise Christ up from the dead. Why not? Because God already did that. That’s what Paul is telling us here in Romans 10. So what then must we do? What is our role in the plan of God? We must obey the gospel and if we confess that Jesus is Lord and if we truly believe that God raised him from the dead, then we will obey the gospel. Otherwise we would be a hearer of the word and not a doer. James 1:22-25. And that which we must do is not difficult. We read it earlier in 1 John 5:3. It is not burdensome. Obeying the gospel is easy compared to what God did. That’s what Paul is telling us here in Romans chapter 10. God did the hard part for us.

That’s the good news. But where there’s good news, there’s also bad news. And Paul tells us the bad news just a few verses later in the exact same chapter, Romans 10:16. “But they have not all obeyed the gospel.” So yes, Paul tells us in Romans 10 that the gospel is not just something we believe, the gospel is something we obey and Paul also tells us in Romans 10 that not everyone has done that. Now let me ask you this, could there be any statement sadder than that one? After all that we have seen that God did bless the world through Christ and to bring salvation to all. Can there be any statement more sad than to hear from Paul that not everyone has done that?

Yes, it is God’s will that you be saved and yes God has done everything and given everything so that you can be saved but there is one thing that God cannot do. God cannot obey the gospel for us. God cannot create a free will human being who has no free will. God cannot create a free will puppet. Whether or not I obey the gospel of Jesus Christ is entirely up to me. It is my decision. Yes, God has done the hard part, but I also have a role to play. Philippians 2:12, “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” We have a role to play in our salvation. But what is that role? What must we do?

When it comes to our salvation there is no more important question than that. And the first thing we should note about that important question is that we are not the first to ever ask it. And in fact that same question was asked by those who heard the very first gospel sermon in Acts chapter 2 on the day that the church was established. Let’s start reading in Acts chapter 2 in verse 36. “Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ this Jesus whom you crucify. Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart and they said to Peter and the rest of the Apostles, brethren, what shall we do?” Peter said to them, “Repent, be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” Acts 2:38.

Well, what is God’s plan of salvation? What must we do to be saved? Now if you’re listening to TV preachers this is where you’re going to start seeing them pick and choose a lot of different verses that have something to do with salvation while ignoring many others. Now let me tell you something, something you already know, that is not the way to study the Bible or anything else for that matter. To answer this vitally important question of what must we do, we need to study all that the Bible has to say on the topic. When preachers start picking and choosing verses, it reminds me of a story of a fellow who was also thinking about the will of God and he thought, “You know, I wonder what God wants me to do with my life.” He said, “I’m just going to open my Bible at random and just put my finger down on a verse, and I’m going to do that, because that must be God’s will for me.” So he did that, and his finger came down on Matthew 27:5, “And Judas departed and went and hanged himself.” Well, he didn’t like that one very much, so he said, “Let me try again.” So blindfold back on, finger back down, he lands on Luke 10:37. “Go and do thou likewise.” He said, “Okay, I’m going to give it one more chance.” So Bible open, finger down, he lands on John 13:27. “That thou doest, doest quickly.” We must never study the Bible like that man. Never. Especially when it comes to our eternal destiny. And when you listen to those TV preachers, I don’t know about you, but they remind me of that guy. That’s not how you study the Bible.

So what must we do? Well, to obey the Gospel, we first have to hear it. Romans 10:17, “So faith comes from hearing.” Hearing the Word of God. Okay, I’ve heard it. I guess that’s it. Well, if Romans 10:17 was the only verse we looked at, we might conclude that that’s all we have to do. But Romans 10:17 can’t be the only verse we look at. Let’s keep looking. Let’s look at the entire Word of God to see what God wants us to do. Let’s consider the entire Word of God to determine the will of God.

Yes, we must hear the gospel, but that’s not all. We also have to believe it. Hebrews 11:6, “Without faith it is impossible to please Him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him.” And yes, we must believe the Gospel, but that’s not all. We must repent of our sins. Acts 3:19, “Repent therefore and turn back sins may be blotted out.” So yes, we must repent, but again, that’s not all. We must also confess that Jesus is Lord, Son of God. Romans 10:9, “You confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” And so yes, we must hear. Yes, we must believe. Yes, we must repent. Yes, we must confess. But that’s not all. We must also be baptized in water for the remission of our sins. We just read it. Acts 2:38. “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.”

And after having done all of that, that’s still not all. Still not all. We must be faithful unto death. Revelation 2:10, “Be faithful unto death and I will give you the crown of life.” Now let me ask you a question. Which one of those steps can I leave out? Are any of them optional? Do I get to pick and choose? And let me ask a question about that question. Why would we ever ask it? Why would we ever look at the simple plan of God and start trying to figure out how we can make it even simpler? Why would we ever do that? I mean after all are we trying to do the least we can do? Is that our goal here? Is it is that our attitude after all that God has done for us? God did the hard part. Are we unhappy with the easy part?

Now, if you’re discussing these issues with your friends, the most likely step that they’re going to try to erase from the plan of God is baptism. So let’s focus for just a moment on that step. And again, let me ask a question. At what point in that process of salvation do I cross the line from lost to saved? At what point does that happen? At what point in that process am I delivered from the domain of darkness to the kingdom of his beloved son, Colossians 1:13? When does that happen? Well, to help us answer that question, let me give you an illustration.

If I tell you that you can know with certainty whether you are standing in the state of Texas or the state of Oklahoma, what does that statement necessarily imply? It implies that there must, there absolutely must be a clear dividing line between Texas and Oklahoma so that no matter where I’m standing, I can always look down and see which side of that line I’m on. Otherwise, how could I always know which state I’m standing in? Well, the Apostle John tells us the same thing, not with regard to Texas and Oklahoma, but regard to whether I am saved or I am lost. John tells me I can know. 1 John 5:13, “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life.”

I can know. And if I can know whether I am saved or lost that means there must, there absolutely must be a clear dividing line between being saved and being lost. There must be a line so clear that I don’t ever have to wonder. I can just look and see which side of that line I’m on. What is that dividing line between Texas and Oklahoma? It’s water, the Red River. And what is that dividing line between the saved and the lost? It is water. It is baptism in water for the remission of sins. Acts chapter 2:38. But wait, you mean to say that baptism is the precise point where you go from being spiritually dead to being spiritually alive? Yes, that’s what I’m saying. And doesn’t it make perfect sense? How did Paul describe our baptism? Romans 6:4, “We were buried therefore with him by baptism.” Colossians 2:12, “Having been buried with him in baptism.” Our baptism is a burial. Now that’s a lot of questions tonight. Let me ask the very toughest one right now. Do we bury dead people or living people?

When I am buried in that watery grave of baptism I am buried as a dead person but I am raised from that watery grave a living person to walk in newness of life. God has given us the steps to salvation in his Word and those steps are not burdensome and the step of baptism is the step where I step out of the domain of darkness into the kingdom of his dear Son. That is the plan of salvation revealed to us in the Word of God, the entire Word of God.

So what have we seen? We have seen the most wonderful thing we could ever imagine about the will of God. It is God’s will that all, everyone, you, me, everyone be saved. And we have seen all that God has done throughout history, even before history to bring about his wonderful plan of redemption and we have seen our own role in that wonderful plan. We have seen what we must do to be saved. It is God’s will that you be saved. Now there may be some here tonight who after being baptized into Christ and added to His church have drifted away from Christ and from His church. If so, I have some wonderful news for you. It is still God’s will that you be saved. If you need a second chance, then you’ve come to the right place because our God is a God of second chances. And if you don’t believe just consider the example of the Apostle Peter.

In Mark chapter 14, Peter told Jesus that he would stick by his side no matter what happened. Peter told Jesus he would go to his death before he ever denied him. And yet Peter fled and Peter denied Jesus three times. Could Peter have a second chance? Just a few days later an angel speaks to the women who found the empty tomb and what does that angel say to them? Mark 16:7, “But go your way, tell his disciples and Peter that he goeth before you into Galilee.” Did you catch it? “And Peter.” How Peter must have rejoiced when he heard those words conveyed to him. And Peter, Peter had a second chance and while we’re still breathing we can all have a second chance because our God is a God of second chances and Peter and me and you. If you need a second chance tonight, God will delight in giving you that.

Now there may be others here tonight who have never obeyed the gospel of Christ, who’ve never had their sins washed away in the waters of baptism, to arise walking in newness of life. If so, I have some wonderful, wonderful news for you. It is God’s will that you be saved. You know, there’s one parable of Christ that perhaps illustrates this aspect of God’s will better than any other and it’s the parable of the prodigal Son in Luke chapter 15. I think we’re all familiar with that parable. When that young son started home he must have wondered what kind of reception he was going to get from the father. Maybe his father would just slam the door in his face. Maybe his father would reluctantly accept him back, but let him be a servant. Or maybe his father would say, “I told you so. You had your chance. You blew it.”

At any point on that long walk home, do we think that young son ever pictured the reception that he actually received? Luke 15:20, “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him, and felt compassion, and ran, and embraced him, and kissed him.” That beautiful parable has been called the gospel and the gospels and the heart of the gospel. But where in that beautiful picture of repentance and forgiveness do we find Jesus? How can that parable be the heart of the gospel without Jesus playing a role? Well, I think Jesus does play a role in that parable. But we have to look closely to see it. Isaiah 9:6, I think, gives us a hint about where to look. In that verse we find that one of the titles for the Messiah was everlasting Father. And I think that the Father in that parable does not just represent God the Father but also shows us God the Son.

And to see why I think we need to read that parable and hear that parable through the eyes and ears of someone in the first century. Those events would not have occurred in a vacuum. The entire village would have known exactly what happened. And when that young boy came walking home penniless and without his inheritance, they would have heaped scorn on him. They would have ridiculed him. Why? To show their disapproval of him and to and to preserve his father’s honor. The whole village would have known what was happening and they would have been there to enjoy the spectacle. And yet what does the father do? He runs to that young boy. Why? To spare him that. To spare him that ridicule. To spare him that shame. And given the normal garb of the time, that father would have had to have taken that robe and pulled it up to run. And he did that. And what do you think those villagers would have done if that father ran down the road like that? They would have heaped their scorn and ridicule on him. Look at that fool running to meet that worthless son.

So what do we see in that parable? We look at it through first century eyes. What we see is that by leaving his home and running down that road, the father was taking on himself the scorn and the ridicule that was due his son. What we see is that father leaving intentionally the comfort and security of his home so that he can take on the shame and the humiliation that was due to that errant son. So where is Jesus in that parable? Let’s listen as Paul answers that question in Philippians chapter 2, starting in verse 5. “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, being in the form of God, did not think it robbery to be equal to God, but made himself of no reputation, took upon him the form of a servant, was made in the likeness of men, being found in the fashion of a man, he humbled himself, became obedient to death, even death on the cross.”

In that one parable we see the incarnation of Christ, we see the sacrificial atoning death of Christ, we see the gospel of Christ, the cross is at the heart of that parable, and if you have never obeyed the gospel then the message of that beautiful parable the prodigal son is God’s message to you. It is God’s will that you be saved. Are you living tonight in that far country? If so, God is watching for your return. God is waiting for your return. God is longing for you to come and God will run to meet you when you do. Why? Because it is God’s will that you be saved. But is that also your will?

That’s the only remaining question. You know we’re told to pray about the will of God. Matthew 6:10, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” When it comes to your salvation, the answer to that prayer depends on you. God has done everything. God has withheld nothing so that you can be saved. The only thing God has not done is the one thing God cannot do. God cannot make you obey the gospel of your own free will. That is your decision and yours alone. Do you want to be saved? We know that is God’s will. Is it your will? The fatted calf, the shoes, the robe, the ring, all for me unworthy son, but sweeter to me the most wonderful thing, God ran to meet me. I saw God run."

It is God’s will that you be saved. Do you want to see God run? Then walk down this aisle and come and obey the gospel of Jesus Christ while we stand and while we sing.