Welcome, friends, to another
broadcast of Morsels for Zion's Poor. Men are born thinking that
they have within their power the ability to choose right from
wrong, good or evil. This concept is most often referred
to as man's free will. It seems plausible and in fact
very logical to men to hold on to this notion. When challenged
about this theory, I've seen men digress in fits of rage and
vitriol that would cause a sailor to blush. They're often quite
exasperated that anyone might so much as question this view,
which to the majority is sacrosanct and above scrutiny. We are quite
certain that man has the ability to choose evil and to walk contrary
to the commandments of God. He has demonstrated that ability
and power to choose from the very beginning, as Adam chose
to disobey God's clear directive not to eat of the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil. The Lord Jesus said to the Pharisees,
Why do you not understand my speech? Even because ye cannot
hear my word, ye are of your father the devil, and the less
of your father ye will do. This is indicative of the very
nature of man, especially those of a religious mindset. The psalmist
said it like this, the wicked are estranged from the womb.
They go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies. So without
doubt, man can choose evil, which he does with striking regularity.
The other premise, however, finds no basis in the scripture. Man
cannot and does not choose to do good. Paul quotes the psalmist
saying, as it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one.
There is none that understandeth. There is none that seeketh after
God. They are all gone out of the way. They are together become
unprofitable. There is none that doeth good,
no, not one. Man's inability is not physical
in nature, but is rather rooted in the seat of his desire. A
man can only choose those things which he desires to choose, and
no man by his own nature can desire anything but that which
Paul describes as fulfilling the desires of the flesh and
of the mind. Now, this is not to say that
man cannot be taught to live according to some moral rule
or societal expectation, either through religious instruction
or natural teaching. Even dogs can be taught to sit
or heel at their master's commands. It is a great mistake, however,
to think that the keeping of a law or obedience to some religious
order is righteous in the eyes of God. Many hold up the Ten
Commandments as the standard by which men are supposed to
live. They chisel them on monuments and print them on yard signs
to remind men of their obligation, as if this was God's standard
and that by doing so they can influence men to keep them. Even
sadder, though, than those who live with a total disregard of
these commandments are those who think that they walk in obedience
to them. It is far more difficult to teach
a man who thinks he is a law-keeper of his wickedness than it is
to show the man who disregards the law of God that he is corrupt.
According to the Lord Jesus Christ, that man who looked upon a woman
with lust, even though he never was in the flesh unfaithful to
his wife, was just as much a breaker of the law as was that man who,
in disregard of the seventh commandment, became physically joined to another
woman. The standard of God's righteousness cannot be chiseled
in stone. The benchmark of that righteousness,
which alone is accepted in heaven, is the Lord Jesus Christ, who
did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth. God allows
no deviance from a perfect keeping of his law. It is not righteous
in his sight for a man to outwardly obey the Ten Commandments or
even have a desire to keep them in his heart. Only a perfect
righteousness can avail in the courts of heaven. Any standard
other than this one which gives a man any sort of comfort that
he has some righteousness before a holy and almighty God, is nothing
more than a delusion and an exercise in self-righteousness. That man
who has fled to him for refuge and embraced his righteousness
as his own knows that all that the Ten Commandments can do is
remind him of his inability to keep them. Each time he looks
at those tablets of stone, he is condemned, except he knows
but of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom
and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. The only righteousness
which he can claim is that which is provided to him by that which
is imputed to him by the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Absolutely
no man will be received into the presence of God on the basis
of any other righteousness than his. There is therefore now no
condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not
after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit
of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of
sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was
weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of
sinful flesh, and for sin condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness
of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the
flesh, but after the Spirit. For a free CD containing 15 of
these radio broadcasts, send an email to forthepoor at windstream.net.