Good evening. This message has
been in the works for quite some time, mainly because I've been
scared of it, to be honest with you. It's a subject that I was
not very comfortable with off the bat. The title of this particular
message is, The Comfort in the Absence of Free Will. The Comfort
in the Absence of Free Will. I guess it's just a few of us
here that have grown up in an actual grace church. There's
one particular verse that attacks free will or brings it out, one
or the other, depending on if you're a believer or not, because
there is a misunderstanding of this verse. And so I will be
using John 3.16 as the main point of the message. And growing up in a grace church,
I heard the Word. I heard the truth of what a message
should be. and the actual words of a believer,
and a grace preacher, and visiting grace preachers, and my house
was full of people who understood the grace of God. But this verse
I didn't understand, and I would come across it quite a bit because
I live in a town that is in the Bible Belt, and I live in a public
school that has a lot of churches around it, and I was surrounded
by people who thought they knew the Word of God. And you can
actually attest, I guess, my sister's marriage according to
someone stepping in and defending the Word of God, and with my
brother-in-law defending my sister for the way we believed. We knew
what we were supposed to sound like. My sister and I didn't
believe in it until a certain point in time, but we knew the
difference between this verse of a believer and a non-believer,
but we didn't believe. That's why I was wary of this
particular verse, is because I had heard the word and knew
others believed it wrong, but myself, I didn't believe it correctly
as well. I don't know why they believed
it wrong, I just knew that that was wrong. And fortunately, the
Lord opened my heart to actually finally hear it. And it didn't
just take that verse, it took a lot more than that, because
if you read that plainly and you remove the grace of God,
it sounds like everybody's saved. It truly does. The comfort of
free will is such a false support. The thought that some could tell
God when they would like to be saved. That's the definition,
I guess, of free will. John 3.16 reads, for God so loved
the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believed
in him should not perish but have everlasting life. And so
in my lifetime I've come across two interpretations of that.
A non-believer in which they see that as a blanket or a patch
of comfort. I can turn to that when I feel
bad and I'm okay because it says he's already got me done, now
I can go do what I want. As soon as the pastor says, in
closing, I can wake up and walk away from the pew and I can go
outside and I can do what I want to do. A believer, though, can
see that this is the mercy of the election that has been provided
to his people. So there's a false belief that's
attached to this particular verse. Man would sure like to ensure
their own salvation. Man will give the Lord. Give
the Lord what? Give the Lord what? An audience? An ability to save a wretched
sinner? Lord is actually a noun that
someone or something having power, authority, or influence, it's
a master or ruler. It does not sound like the equal
of man. This is someone, in this case,
the Lord Jesus Christ who has control over the sand, the sun,
the earth, the wind, our imaginations of whatever grandeur you want
to be, but not over men. Yet the wind of a hurricane is
more powerful than men. So if God, you give him the ability
to control the wind, and yet the wind can kill a man, but
a man can control the God? I'm not good at math, but that
equation doesn't balance very well for me. Why doesn't men who God cannot
control Just stop the wind. If the hurricane is so dangerous,
why don't they just stop the wind? If sin is so powerful,
but yet you have control of when you're saved, just stop sin.
Just stop it. You'll never cuss again. You'll
never lie again. Just stop it, and you can go
to heaven. Right? Free will. It's a false
assumption because of man's depravity. These men have the power to ask
to go to heaven in their own time. at their own comfort, that
they can humanely use logic. We're very good at logic. We
use science to prove that we can wave our hand through water,
we can wave our hand through air, but we can't wave our hand
through a solid object. And there's science behind that
that says that we have control over all that, and that's why
that's there. That's not why it's there. That's
the logic that'll get you into heaven in your appointed times
when you fall back on your own opinions, your own ideas of what
it takes to be saved. Making Asks to be Saved. I typed
this into the computer using a Grammarly correction app. I
don't know if you're familiar with that, but it's basically
a teacher saving piece so we don't say something wrong in
an email. It corrects it before we send it to the parents. And
I typed in, and it had a fit with this phrase, these men have
the power to ask to go to heaven in their own time. They can ask
to be saved. And it wanted to correct it,
they can ask to be saved. The correction suggested was,
they can be asked to saved. They can be asked to saved. Gramerly's
wrong. Gramerly's wrong. Humanly speaking,
Grammarly is wrong. There's no way you can ask to
be saved. It just doesn't happen. On your own accord, I should
say. There's a correction to that statement as well. On your
own accord. Our Lord does not ask to save us in our appointed
time. It's not a comfort level that
we say at a certain point in time, Lord, I'm good now. Okay, I've hit 70. I feel pretty
comfortable that it's time that I go ahead and be saved. He does
not require permission on any point in time. Now I go back
to my 13-year-old self being angry for no reason because I
was confused. I didn't know why uptown when
they rang the bells they'd send, those were the sinners uptown
because they're not here. And I didn't actually understand
that, just like I didn't understand John 3.16. I'd itemize it because
why would my parents lie to me about this? That was the only
validation of the whole thing. I knew my parents were good people
and they were going to put me in the right way and get me into
heaven. That's all I knew because I went
to the church. I met in the storefront. I met
in the house. Older church, now we got a new
church. Now we got a newer church in my lifetime. And that's all
I knew is if I followed what they said, what they said, what
Drew was talking about, and I did it good, and I prayed hard enough,
and I did my actions properly, I'd be okay. But that was the
whole point. It was if I. Everything was always
if I. That's free will. That's free
will. And the only line I knew was, it had to be in this building. It couldn't be anywhere else
that that could happen, unless it was when Drew or my dad or
somebody said, well, Joe Terrell's coming. Well, yeah, he's good,
because they told me he was. When Tim came, he knew it. He spoke well, because they told
me he spoke well. And that's free will. That's
free will because I had aligned myself again, I said I all the
time, I, if I do, because they said, not because of Christ,
it was never because of Christ. Our Lord though, He saves by
one way, His love. His love for His people in that
appointed time. He saves. I repeat, for the third
time, He saves, not us. John 5, 40 reads, and ye will
not come to me that ye might have life." That removes us all together.
And that's what I hope we see from here on out. I have several
verses here that that's exactly what you see. Ye will not come
to me that ye might have life. Well, how am I going to get there?
It says in John 3.16, I'm good. How could men ever be considered
more than their Creator? Sin? Man loves himself all the
way to hell. That's not nice, but that's the
truth. We love ourself all the way there. A believer who has been shown
the humility, the humility there is only one version of salvation,
only one. By the grace of God, by the mercy
of God, by mercy that he has shoved us to see what we are. You know, that's a pretty good
typo there. By mercy that He has shoved us to see what we
are. He has showed us to see what
we are. Sinners damned by eternal existence by our own nature. That's who we are. And yeah,
when I called Drew, I cried. I cried before I called him.
It took me a while to get together because you're in your own little
spot that the Lord, He just shoves you to the wall and says, yeah,
this is what you are. You're nothing. You think you
can get here? No, you can't get here, but you
can by one way, my mercy, that he shows you what your nature
is and then, then yeah, you can beg and you can plea and you
can pray and you can thank the Lord that he has done that to
you. He's humbled you. Bleak thought
to anyone except a believer. A believer thinks about that
and says, oh, thank you. A non-believer is scared to death.
They walk as many aisles as they possibly can, they give as much
as they possibly can, and leave and do the same thing over and
over again with no reprieve. And yet, once that happens, the
reprieve is all the time. All the time for us. We are constantly
given the mercy of God because we have been shown our true nature.
We know what awaits us because our religious blinders have been
finally removed. Not by free will. but by the
grace of God, that He has showed us our true nature and more importantly,
His true nature of mercy. John 3, 36. The Father loveth
the Son, and hath given all things into His hand. That includes
us. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, and
he that believeth not not the Son shall not see life, but the
wrath of God abideth on him." The belief only comes from Christ
Jesus. Love to grant them the ability to love back. We didn't
have the ability to love. We didn't have that until it
was put in by Him. But it's an amazing thing to
see if you keep reading in the scripture that that love was
put in before the creation of time. The love that is given
to us at that appointed time to love Him back. the ability
to love was given by Christ. And you tell me in that statement
if you can find free will. A believer who has been shown
the humility by the grace, the mercy of God, now understands
free will. It's God's free will to save.
It's His free will. What about a false prophet? Are
there false prophets out there that can lead people astray?
And then you can see free will in them from the pulpit. Pastor
says, I can be saved when I want. Jeremiah 23 says opposite of
that. Let's turn there real quick.
Jeremiah 23. Jeremiah 23 and the first four verses. The fear that brought me up here
was, man, I don't want to say the wrong thing, and this is
why. Look at this. No one up here should be saying the wrong
thing. Jeremiah 23, one through four, woe be the pastors that
destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture, saith the Lord.
Therefore, thus saith the Lord God of Israel against the pastors
that feed my people, ye have scattered my flock and have driven
them away and have not visited them. Behold, I will visit upon
you the evil of your doings, saith the Lord, and I will gather
the remnant of my flock," he's still going to save, "...out
of all the countries, whether I have driven them, and will
bring them again to their folds, and they shall be fruitful and
increase. And I will set up shepherds,"
an actual preacher, "...over them which shall feed them, and
they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall they
be lacking, saith the Lord." That's a promise There's still
the free will of other people around you cannot affect you
because the effectual love of God will eventually save you.
He says, somebody's going to do damage. They have our previous
pastor here. Looks to me like he goes ahead
and saves them anyway. He's going to find that appointed
time to put somebody up here to hear or to preach the actual
word and you'll be saved. Why? Because you're one of him.
That eliminates the world's free will as well, not just the one
that we think we have before we're saved. I'm going to throw the heavy
ball right here. This is my favorite verses. I
used to think it was in Lamentations, but I have moved to Ephesians
chapter 2. The New Testament has a couple
of pieces in it, doesn't it? It talks about the grace of God
and absolute clarity where it's really hard to get it wrong.
And yet, I guess, free will comes in all the time. Ephesians chapter
2, verses 8 and 9. Nope, I'm sorry, I'll go further
than that. I'm sorry. Oh, 8 through 10. For by grace are ye saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves, It is the gift of God. Not of
works, lest any man should boast, for we are his workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained
that we should walk in them. Now I don't know how old that
pen is in there, but it just says no free will below verse
10 in there. Let's look at these verses for
just a second. If you have any questions of
how the Lord saves, or as well as your own condition, here it
is in basically three verses. For by grace, in verse eight,
are you saved through faith, and that not of yourself, it
is the gift of God. Not of yourself, there goes free
will right there. Not of works, there's free will
that takes care of our free will, our actions to guide us to heaven. And this goes along with the
hymn we just read, Lest Any Man Should Boast. What are you going
to boast of when your free will is gone and the Lord exposes
you of who you are? Instead, you drop down and you
pray for mercy. And that prayer and that beg comes from Him.
Isn't that interesting? It's kind of, you know, you can
almost take it in a logical sense. I would never do that, but if
you try to explain to people, there's such a mercy in knowing
what we are. And yet you tell somebody who
believes in free will and they say, oh, such an insult because
they don't get it. And that's where it is such a
blessing to a believer. While we should be spreading
the word, we should also be sitting in reverence to know that we
know our own condition. And what a humility it is that
we've been even exposed to that. Verse 10, but we are His workmanship
created in Christ Jesus. That says we are by His grace
made as Christ entering heaven, equal in front of God unto good
works. Well, that's not our works. The
Lord only does good works for His own, which God hath ordained
before the election of time that we should walk in them, those
good works. Where do they come from? From Him. It is not of
our accord. Only by the Lord's Savior do
we receive these. So where then is free will? Go
ahead, save yourself. Would it not be easier to just
commit to heaven just in case? I like those. See, we're currently
into the spot now where Lent started today. And we are a heavy
Catholic area in reality in this town. And it's kind of interesting
that we do this sacrifice, and if you don't do the sacrifice,
you don't get into heaven. Of course, the Catholics have
the backup role where you can pray them out of purgatory. Thank you. And that's just such a free will
religion, if any religion should be. Man ran where there's someone
over the head that's part of a pyramid scheme, basically,
where he's running the show. But that's what it is. It's save
yourself. I remember a kid when I went to high school, he gave
up gum or he gave up something. I don't remember what he gave
up, but I asked him about it and he goes, I don't really like it anyway. I think
you could tell a story kind of like that too. I just don't like
it anyway. That's them saving themselves.
That is them saving themselves. Lentenism is a time where I guess
some religions do it, some religions don't, but it's an era where
you're supposed to give a sacrifice in order to feel better about
the people who are less privileged and you're supposed to grow further
in faith. Go ahead and save yourself. Would
it not just be easier to commit to heaven just in case? And I
love that phrase because you've said it with a relative, Drew,
and I've got some friends that have said, I'll come when I'm
ready. Now they've heard it. They've
heard the truth. They'll come when they're ready.
Just cover all your bases, just in case. We also teach in our
school Hinduism and Buddhism. They believe in reincarnation.
That has humanly created a backup door just in case this one didn't
work out, you can try it again. That's all that is. That's free
will just in a non-Christian form, if that's what you want.
If you can save yourself, then get out of debt while you're
at it. Promote yourself as well at work. Make your day a little
easier. Improve your health while you're
at it. I wouldn't mind losing about three or four pounds. Maybe
I just will that while I'm at it. Become wealthy. It's obviously
your choice. That's free will. Why is this
earth so uncontrollable and yet a human can control the afterlife? Just hurry up and save yourself.
Humility by only the Lord Jesus Christ can save. By the grace
of Him can you believe. By the mercy given for free do
we believe the free will of Christ. By the love of our Savior to
know what we are, we ask for true salvation because we know
we have none. We wander in dark places sometimes
because I think even a believer can sometimes go back to those
bad habits and not as in we resort back to non-believing, but it's
human nature to go back and I think we can sometimes use, and I like
this word a lot, we use logic, we can reason ourself into, it's
okay if I just do a part of my belief in this box and I'll omit
this one for now. That's a common thing because
it's comfortable. And I think it's pretty easy to lie to ourselves
sometimes as well and say, well, my sin that I just committed
is just not that bad. And in the future, I hope to
come to a reprieve on that. We can place salvation in our
own areas. However, thankfully, the Lord
shows us we have nothing. We have no abilities except Christ. He is our all. And that word
means everything. He's our all. You have an issue
with finances, He's our all. You pray and you get a million
dollars, that's not what that means. That's not what that means. He's
our salvation, He's our comfort. He will provide amongst us. He will provide. This thing burns
down. We go upside down. One of us
has got a house again. They make Bibles again. He's our all. In our darkest
spot, He's our all. In our best spot, He's our all.
John 6, 44. free will no man can come to
me except the father which has sent me draw him and I will raise
him up at the last day it is written in the prophets and they
shall be all taught of God every man therefore that heard and
had learned of the father cometh unto me John 665 it's a pretty
redundant book in the proper way And he said, therefore said
I unto you that no man can come unto me except it were given
unto him of my father." I don't see free will in any of that
at all. That dispels John 3.16 read by an unbeliever right there.
If you want to hang John 3.16 by itself and not believe, You
would never catch the glimpse of it, and in a little bit I'll
show you what my father and I were talking about the other night,
Drew and I, and it's the entirety of John 3, 16. You gotta read
around it. You will not come to the Lord.
You cannot come to the Lord. Dad preached the other day on
Lazarus. He's dead. Go ahead, get up, dead man. Show
me his free will until who showed up. Rise. It was a command and life was
given. Believe and life is given in
that appointed time. Let us see that the Lord is merciful. He loves his people. He saves
and he grants a salvation. His salvation, it is for only
the elect. You have no way to enter into
the kingdom of God. I found this on the porch a little
while ago. verse Thessalonians 5 it's actually
a trick of a teacher that you make kids turn the page so they
refocus verse Thessalonians chapter 5
verse 24 now remember I just said Salvation is for only the
elect. You have no way to enter into
the Kingdom of God. But look what happens here. Faithful is he that calleth you
who also will do it. He will call you. He will call
you. Well, I don't have free will,
so how do I get into heaven? If I don't have free will, how will
the Lord ever save me? He's going to call you. He says
He's going to do it. That's not a well-if-you. You
know, when you see the promises in this Bible, they're absolute. To say something will do it.
I've gotten up in the morning at 8 o'clock and told somebody
I'll be there at 4 in the afternoon and something comes up. Can't
do it. That's a mild example. Mild example
of what humanity has to offer. Faithful. Faithful. He's faithful. That's a beautiful word. Someone
who won't leave you. Never hurt you. He's going to call you. He's
going to do it. He's going to save. So then what
is your comfort? It is that the Lord has delivered
his son to select and deliver you. John 3, chapter 13, I'm
sorry, John 3, verses 13 through 16. This will be my last point
here. John 3, chapter 13 through 16. And in my Bible it's read, this
is from the Lord himself, that no man hath ascended up to heaven,
no free will, but he that came down from heaven, only one person,
that's the Lord Jesus Christ himself, even the Son of Man,
which is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.
Look on him and live just like the serpent. that whosoever believeth
in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that
he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him
should not perish but have everlasting life." Now if you read that in
context, that relieves every bit of free will out of that
passage and instead shows the glory of Lord Jesus Christ and
the mercy he bestowed upon us. look upon Him and live. The only way you believe is because,
not of your design or my design, but because of mercy of the limited
atonement of salvation that allowed you, allowed you to believe so
you will never perish. No free will. No free will. Instead, a believer looks at
verses 13 through 16 and they don't see free will, they see
life. Life and love, the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen and amen. We pray for you. Father, we thank you for
this message. We thank you for the timing of it. We thank you
that it was your time. Your time is the only thing that
matters. Father, we pray that you would give us grace to see,
always to see, and always to love, and always to look to Christ.
For we look to ourselves far too often. When trials arise
and storm clouds come up, we'll look to our wallet, we'll look
to our friends, we'll look to this or that. Father, cause us
to ever look to You quickly and singularly and frequently. Father, we thank You for this
Word. We thank You for this time. We
thank You for Your grace. And we thank You for Your Son.
It's in His name we pray, Amen.