Let's explore free will for a
moment. Free will. We need to do more Q&A because
y'all got some big ones. Well, let's ask the question,
what is the will? What is the will? The will has
been argued in philosophical circles and scientific circles
and religious circles, which can also be scientific and philosophy.
Theological circles, the will is the desire or the volition
of an individual. So I have a will and that will
is I have things that I want to do and things that I want
to accomplish and things that I like and things that I don't
like. So I have a will that basically sets in motion and sets in pattern
the way I operate and rule my life. When you add free to that, what
most people think, as I will use the lingo, that man has been
given a libertarian freedom of the will, that they have the
liberty to choose and do anything they want to do and to make decisions
in any aspect of life. Scripture doesn't teach that.
You see the prophets, the Old Testament, King Cyrus was made
by God to call for a census so that God could put people together. The devil was made by God to
consider Job and sent to destroy his life. Just Jesus, Caiaphas, the disciples,
Judas, Iscariot, is it me? He'd already gotten paid. I mean,
you know? And he'd changed his mind. Worldly
sorrow. There is no freedom of the will. Let's explain it this way, as
the Old Testament teaches. Can a leopard change his spots? No. Can he desire it? Sure. He
can desire it, but he can't. Can an Ethiopian change his skin? No, not at all. So there's some
things that are about our human condition that we cannot, no
matter what we desire, that's called make-believe, when we
want something that we cannot do. It's not free will, it's
make-believe. It's fantasy land. And that's
why we have all the superheroes. and all of the witches in wardrobes
and all the other different things that we have and all the potters
and everything else, Star Wars, it's all just make-believe fantasy
because man wants to be able to do these things but he can't
and so he just writes stories about them. And that's really
what free will when it comes to salvation is. It's a fairy
tale. It's a fairy tale about a man
who has all the ability to do anything he wants to do, and
he comes across this wisdom about this God who provided an opportunity
for him to be saved from judgment, and he goes, let me ponder. I
think I'll choose this. This makes sense. The Bible teaches
that many choose that way, but that they're not converted. Scripture
shows that no man can choose to believe in God, that it must
be a gift. The Scripture says that sinfulness
of the human condition has completely and fully corrupted the choices
of man, the will of man. Total depravity is the historical,
radical corruption is the more contemporary, but it is utter
depravity. That means that even in our freedom,
or even in our will, I'm going to use the word free again, even
in our will, if we want to say we want to be good people, we
go out and do good things, what does the Scripture say about
those choices? What are they before God? Filthy rags. Filthy rags. This goes back to
the very first thing that I talked about when it comes to repentance.
Unless a man, woman, child, I say man, I mean a human, unless a
man is able to change his mind to think that his salvation or
her salvation is only in the hand of God, there's no hope
for them. And no one can do that except
they're converted. How? By the teaching of Scripture,
by the hearing of Scripture, by the teaching of the gospel
of Christ. And that goes directly into the idea of sanctification. People think they have the freedom
and the will to be holy. I'm just going to be holy now.
I'm going to walk around holy. Friends, when we know people
who think they're walking around holy, they're the most unholy
people that exist. When we look at ourselves and
say, wow, look how I'm living for Jesus, we've lost our minds. And it is a very dangerous thing.
And what happens is people come to the place where just in the
sanctification idea or this maturity idea and this free will idea,
all of this really boils together. It boils together with the questions
that I mentioned on Sunday where Eddie and I are going to sort
of extrapolate in the weeks and months to come. And it comes
down to what people believe about how God saves His people. How
has God saved His people? See, that's the gospel, isn't
it? That God has saved His people through Jesus Christ alone. And
that God is the author of salvation by grace you have been saved
through faith. And this faith is not of your
own doing, but is a gift from God so that no man can boast. So how is it that it's free will
if it's a gift? And here's how they answer that.
Well, you've got to accept it. Accept what? A changed heart? Guess what? You can't accept
the fact that you have a changed heart and mind and faith until
it's been given to you. And you observe it, and you recognize
it, and you see it, and you believe. So there's no freedom there.
So when it comes to free will, as I said, we could talk for
hours and hours and hours, the Scripture denies that very thing. But why is it so necessary for
people to hold on to this idea? People believe that God is a
maniacal monster if He doesn't give man freedom. But God Himself
has revealed to us that man's volition, that man's will is
corrupted by a sinful nature. So here's the answer that most
people give. Well, God gives a measure of grace to all people.
When they hear the Bible, the Holy Spirit sprinkles some grace
dust. And then they have just a fleeting moment where they
could choose God. But God wants it to be a choice.
That's what they say. Because God is most glorified
in the choosing, in the freedom of His people. Really? That's
not what we see in Israel. Is Israel not the temporary shadow
of the reality of the redemption of the church? And where did
Israel ever walk with God? Never! They never did. They were
constantly put in slavery, they were constantly brought out of
slavery. But God would say, for my sake and for the sake of my
name, I'm going to bring you into your own land, and it's
only going to be for a little while, because you're going to fail,
you're going to fail, you're going to fail. And they desired it just like in
Jesus' day. They desired their own land, their own temple, their
own government, everything. They wanted it all back the way
that they thought it was, but it was all a shadow. If it weren't
for God's sovereign election, If it wasn't for God particularly
paying for the sins of His people, no one would be saved. If God
did not snatch us out of the domain of darkness, we'd still
be blind running thinking we were wise and really we were
fools.