Is not that I did choose thee? Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Nyberg. We are located at 4137 Todd's
Road, two miles outside of Manowar Boulevard. Sunday services are
at 10.30 a.m. and 6 p.m. Bible study is at
9.45 a.m. Wednesday services are at 7 p.m. Nursery is provided for all services.
For more information, visit our website at toddsroadgracechurch.com. I've entitled this morning's
message, Free Will, Faith, and Fatalism. I think you'll understand
why I entitled this after a few minutes. This story begins in
verse 11 of Luke chapter 19, and as they heard these things,
he added and spake a parable because he was nigh to Jerusalem,
and because they thought that the kingdom of God should immediately
appear." Now, at this time, Christ was actually very popular with
the multitudes. They thought he was going to
go to Jerusalem and establish a kingdom and deliver them from
Roman oppression and Roman rule and make Israel, once again,
the mightiest nation in the world. This is what they were thinking
was going to happen. They thought legislation could
bring about power to Israel, and everything could be restored
in the way it should be. And they were very excited about
this. And they thought that's what the Lord was going to do.
And the Lord gives them a parable to let them know that that notion's
just not so, and that's not the nature of His kingdom. My dear
friends, His kingdom is not a political kingdom. We're not trying to
get him in legislation and change the government. He said, my kingdom
is not of this world. And all political activism in
the name of Christ is wrong. You can just write that down.
So he gives them this parable, verse 12. And he said, therefore, a certain
nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom
and to return. Now he's talking about himself.
He is that certain nobleman that's gone into a far country. When
he ascended back into heaven, To us, that's a country far away. He went into this far country
to receive His kingdom, to receive the glory of the achievements
that He accomplished here on earth, to receive His lordship
that He achieved when He worked out a righteousness for His people
and saved His people from their sins. Romans 14, verse 8 says,
For to this end Christ both died and rose and revived, that he
might be Lord both of the dead and the living. Now, somebody
says, won't you make Jesus Lord of your life? You can't do that.
He already is your Lord. He's the Lord of the dead. Now,
you might not be willing in it, but He's still your Lord. You
might not even realize it, but He's still your Lord because
He's sovereign. He's in control. He's the Lord of the dead, those
who are dead in trespasses and sins and have no love for Him.
He's still their Lord, and He's going to do with them as He pleases.
All things are fair Him. but he's the Lord of the living.
Oh, like he said to Thomas, my Lord and my God. And like Thomas
said to him, my Lord and my God. Oh, he's he's our Lord. He's
the Lord of every believer. And he went back to this far
country to receive his lordship. And because of what he did on
earth, he's counted by his father, Lord of Lords and King of Kings. And he achieved for himself glory
that he wouldn't have achieved had he not done this. He went
to gained for himself, received to himself this kingdom. And
what did he say? He says in verse 11, he's going
to return. Oh, thank God he will return. Christ is coming again. And he
called his 10 servants and delivered them 10 pounds and said unto
them, occupy until I come. Gain by trading, until I came."
He gave them each a pound. I don't know how much money that
is, but it was a certain amount of money. It had a certain value.
And he said, you take this and use it and trade with it and
occupy gain by trading until I come. You see, The Lord God
is a God of means, and He uses the means He sets to use. He employs those means for His
will to be done. For instance, He uses preaching.
It pleases God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that
believe. This is a means God uses, and
He says, you use the means. I've given you Intelligence,
I've given you ability. You use what I've given you and
you take that pound and use it for my glory. You've got my word,
read it. Hear my word preached. Use the
means, preach the gospel. Give, having been given, give
freely. Having been forgiven, forgive.
Having been shown mercy, show mercy. Be a light, be a salt,
be a witness of me. He says, occupy till I come.
I'm returning, but until I return, you use all your time and energy
and resources. Occupy till I come to spread
my gospel. That is the means God uses. Occupy until I return. Now, in the following verses,
we have three separate responses to this command, occupy till
I come. The first response is found in
verse 14, but his citizens hated him and sent a message after
him saying, we will not have this man to reign over us. We're not going to have it. We
will not. We have a free will and we will
not have this man to reign over us. That's the first response,
free will. The second response is found in verse 16. Then came the first saying, Lord,
thy pound hath gained 10 pounds. And that's the response of faith.
He didn't say, well, I have gained 10 pounds doing what you told
me to do. He simply said, thy pound has
gained 10 pounds. That's the response of faith.
And then we read in verse 20 of the response of fatalism.
And another came saying, Lord, behold, here is thy pound. which
I've kept laid up in a napkin. For I feared thee, because thou
art an austere man. Thou takest up that thou layest
not down, and reapest that thou didst not sow." Now that is the
response of fatalism. And we're going to consider all
three of those responses. The response of free will, the
response of faith, and the response of fatalism. Now, when he is
gone to secure this country, here's what these people say,
but his citizens hated him and sent a message after him saying,
we will not have this man to reign over us. Free will. Now, what do men mean when they
speak of free will? Most people think that it's a
given that man has a free will. What is meant by man having a
free will? It means that the deciding factor
in man's salvation is his free will. God wills his salvation. The devil is against his salvation,
and he's the one who casts the deciding vote as an act of his
will. Salvation is ultimately in the
hands of man's free will as to whether or not he'll accept or
reject Jesus Christ as his personal Savior. It makes salvation ultimately
dependent upon your choice. God loves you, Christ died for
you, and He wants you to be saved, but as to whether or not you're
saved, it's up to an act of your will. Salvation is ultimately
in your hands. Now, that's what's meant by free
will. Men can choose to be saved if they want. It's all up to
them. Now, that would be an accurate
description of most of what goes on under the name of Christianity.
Now, listen to me again. Here's the message that I hear
preached. God loves you, wants to save you. Christ died for
you. But as to whether or not you're
saved, it's up to an act of your will, whether or not you'll accept
Jesus Christ or reject him. And that is an accurate, that's
not a caricature, but that's an accurate description of, I
would say 99% of the preaching goes on today. Now, here's the
problem with it. There's no gospel in that message.
There's really no good news in that message. No one can be saved
by that message, the message of free will. And let me tell
you what's behind the message of free will. Look what it says
in verse 14, but his citizens hated him. Now, men don't hate
a Christ who is in their hands. who they can do what they want
with, but men hate a Christ who has absolute control of them.
They hated Him and sent a message after Him saying, we will not
have this man reign over us. Somebody that tries to promote
free will hates Christ's will and Christ's reign and Christ's
control. And it says, it, show such a
high opinion of yourself. We will not have this man reign
over him as if you could do anything about it. He will reign because
of who he is. Now, free will is an absurdity. There is no such thing as free
will. God And I say this reverently,
but God doesn't have a free will. God can't choose to sin. God
can't choose to lie as an act of His will. You see, your will
is controlled by your nature. God has a holy nature. Everything
He does is holy. God has a just nature. Everything
He does is just. He's righteous altogether, and
His will is determined by His nature. And man's will is determined
by man's nature. If you have an evil nature, if
you have a nature dead in trespasses and sin, that's what's going
to control your will. Just the idea of free will, if your will
is totally free, if you need to lose 20 pounds, you can do
it just like that. You wouldn't even think about it. It wouldn't be
an issue. Or you could will to make yourself stronger. It's ridiculous. You can will
yourself to get well when you want to get well. There's no
such thing as free will. I've even heard people call man
a free moral agent. He's not free, he's a slave.
He's not moral, he's immoral. He's not an agent, he's a servant
of the devil by nature. Free will is ludicrous. It's ridiculous to say a man
has a free will is to say he's free from God's sovereign will. That's the bottom line. You're
saying you're free from God. That makes man in control and
not God. To say man has a free will is
to deny God's sovereign will. To say that man has a free will
is just not according to the scriptures. And you know, if
you believe, if you really believe in free will and you've got some
kind of God, your God's a weak God. He's a pygmy God. He's a
God who can't save unless you let him. He's a worthless God.
He's a God that's not even worthy of worship. That's the God of
free will. He's a false God. He's not even
real. And anyone who really believes
that man has a free will has such a low view of God. But what does the Bible say about
this issue of free will? What does the Bible say? Romans
9, verse 16 puts it this way, it's not of him that willeth.
nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy." James
1.18, James says, of his own will, begat he us through the
word of truth. John said in John 1.12 and 13,
for as many as received him, to them gave he the power to
become the sons of God, even to them which believe on his
name, which were born not of blood, not of the will of the
flesh, not of the will of man, but of God." Now, these fellows
said, we will not have this man reign over us. But look what
verse 15 says, and it came to pass that when he was returned,
having received the kingdom, they might have said we're not
going to have him reign over us in his kingdom, but he does.
He received this kingdom. And while man might boast of
a free will God's will will be done. And if a man says, we won't
have you reign over us, you really don't have any choice. He will
reign over you. Now I can say to everybody listening,
all men everywhere, you and me, we're in God's hands. We're in
the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ, and he's going to reign, and
he's going to do with us whatever he's pleased to do. If he saves
us to glorify his grace, hallelujah. If he sends us to hell to the
praise of the glory of his justice, he's right. He reigns. The very idea of free will is
an absolute absurdity, and deep down, you know that's so. Man's will is controlled by his
nature. Now, here's the second response.
Remember he said, Occupy till I come. Occupy till I come. He gave everybody a pound and
said, Occupy till I come. Verse 16, Then came the first
saying, Lord, I through an act of my free will, chose to obey
you, and through my diligence and hard work, I was able to
increase the pound you gave me to 10 pounds. Is that the way
he talked? Oh, no, that's not the way a
believer would ever talk. You will notice the absence of
the word I in his confession. He said, Lord, thy pound. That's all he said. Thy pound
hath gained 10 pounds. You see, he had some understanding
that salvation is of the Lord. Thy pound hath gained 10 pounds. Now, he did what the king told
him to do. The king said, occupy till I
come. He did what the king told him
to do. The king says, believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. He believed. He believed
the gospel. Come unto me, all you weary and
heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. He came. He did what the
king told him to do. Love one another as I have loved
you. He did that. He did what the king told him
to do. Preach the word. And that's exactly what he did.
He preached the word. He didn't try to hide it. He
preached it knowing that's all God will bless is the truth of
the gospel. Forgive as you've been forgiven.
He forgives. He did what the king told him
to do. Go ye into all the world and
preach the gospel to every creature. He was involved in that command.
did what the king told him to do. He occupied till he came.
You see, faith hears the word of the king. It's not up for
debate. It's not up for negotiation. Thy pound hath gained ten pounds. Another said, thy pound hath
gained five pounds. But this is the obedience of
faith. Perhaps this would be helpful to understand what the
obedience of faith is. James used the example of Abraham. God said to Abraham, Take now
thy son, thine only son, whom you love, and offer him up as
a burnt offering to me on a mountain that I'll show thee up." Now,
God had already promised that the Messiah would come through
that boy, Isaac. In thee shall all the nations
of the earth be blessed through that boy. And Abraham believed
God. He knew the Messiah was going
to come. And even when the Lord told him to take Isaac and kill
him, when they got to Mount Moriah, he said to the servants, You
wait here while I and the lad go yonder and worship and will
return to you." He believed even at that time that God would raise
him from the dead because he knew God had promised that the
Messiah would come through this boy. And so he thought, if I
kill him, God will raise him from the dead because God's not
going to go back on his word. He believed God. Now, if he would
have said, I can't kill this boy because then your word won't
come to pass. What he would be saying is, is
there something that will cause your word to not come to pass?
No, he would only prove by that he didn't believe God. He proved
he believed God when he was willing to offer up his son as a sacrifice. Now, that's the obedience of
faith. Thy pound hath gained ten pounds. Faith believes God. Faith does what God says to do. Now, when you hear in the gospel,
come unto me, you come in your heart. When you hear of resting
in Christ, they which have believed to enter into a rest, you rest. You rest. You really believe
that all you need is Christ. You obey the gospel. You hear
what the gospel says and you believe. That's what faith does. It believes what God has said. Now, according to the scripture,
When we were yet without strength in due time, Christ died for
the ungodly. I see myself without strength
and ungodly, so I believe Christ died for me. And I rely on Him. He only is my rock and salvation. I rely on Him. I obey the gospel. Thy pound. I don't talk about
what I did with it. I always say, Thy pound. Thy
pound. Salvations of the Lord. He did
it all. Paul said, I live yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.
And the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith
of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. And that's the response of faith. Thy pound hath gained ten pounds. And then thirdly, we have the
response of fatalism. Look with me in verse 20. And another came, saying, Lord,
behold, Here is thy pound, which I have kept laid up in a napkin. For I feared thee, because thou
art an austere man, a harsh man, a severe man. I knew you were
sovereign. Thou takest up that thou layest
not down, and reapest that thou didst not sow. All of a sudden,
this man has become God's judge. And he says, I didn't do what
you told me to do, because I knew you're sovereign. I knew salvation
is not by work, so I didn't even try. I've just kept it laid up
in a napkin, and here it is back. I knew you were sovereign, so
I didn't do anything. I know works don't enter into
salvation, so I didn't work. I didn't read the Bible because
that's a work. I didn't bother to come to hear the gospel preached
because I don't want to be legalistic about something like that. I
know that you're absolutely sovereign, therefore I do nothing at all.
Anything that I would do would be an act of presumption and
a work. I'm not going to seek your face because I can't find
you. There's no point in it. You're a severe man. You're sovereign. You do whatever you want. There's
nothing anybody can do about it." And here he shows what he
really thought about the master. He said, you're harsh. You're
austere. You just arbitrarily do whatever
you want, and there's nothing any of us can do about it. Therefore,
we do nothing. Just wait and see what happens.
What will be, will be. You're in control. I did nothing.
Here is your pound back that I've kept laid up in a napkin. Now, what this fellow said about
the Lord was not true. He had a misconception of God's
sovereignty, and he used God's sovereignty as an excuse for
his lawlessness, rebellion, slothfulness, and wickedness. He said, I wouldn't
dare try to do anything because I know salvation is not by works.
I wouldn't dare. Because of who you are, you're
absolutely sovereign. And what he's doing is making
accusations against God that really were not so. He even accused
him of being unjust. He said, you take up what you
didn't lay down and you reap what you didn't sow. What a horrible
accusation against God. You see, this fellow thinks he's
sound in his theology, but he doesn't even know who the Lord
is when he makes a statement like that. He was a fatalist. I didn't do anything. I knew
I couldn't. I knew you're sovereign, so I
didn't do anything. That was his misconception, actually,
of the sovereignty of God, and it was just an evil statement. But you know, the Lord will meet
a man on the ground he comes. You know, if you come pleading
mercy and nothing more, he'll give you mercy. If you come like
this man, thou art an austere man. He'll say, okay, I'll meet
you on that ground. Look how he replied to him. And
verse 22, and he said unto him, out of thine own mouth will I
judge thee, thou wicked servant. And in Matthew's account of this
same parable, he called him a wicked and slothful servant. He was
using his misconceptions of God as an excuse for his indifference
and his lack of doing anything, him not seeking the Lord, him
not seeking to do anything, saying that would be a work. He was
lawless in his life and used the sovereignty of God as an
excuse. And look how the Lord spoke to him. And he said unto
him, Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee, thou wicked servant.
Thou knewest that I was an austere man, taking up that I laid not
down, and weeping that I did not sow. Okay, you want to come
to me that way? I'll come to you this way. Wherefore
then gavest thou not my money into the bank, that at my coming
I might have required mine own with usury? And he said unto
them that stood by, Take from him the pound, and give it to
him that hath ten pounds. And they said, Lord, he hath
ten pounds. For I say unto you that unto every one which hath
shall be given. Now if you have Christ. Listen
real carefully. If you have Christ, you have
every spiritual blessing. You're going to be given and
given and given. He hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ. If you hath, he that
hath the Son hath life. If you have Christ, you're going
to be given. Oh, the grace of God in giving
and giving and giving. And from him that hath not, even
that which he hath shall be taken away from him. And we know that
this from Matthew's account, this servant, this wicked servant
was cast into outer darkness where there's weeping and gnashing
of teeth. He was not saved. He did not
have saving faith. Oh, he had some kind of theology
that he thought he was orthodox or correct in, but he had no
saving faith and he was cast away. And then the Lord says
in verse 27, But those mine enemies, which would not that I should
reign over them, bring hither and slay them before me." That's
what the Lord Jesus says of those who say, we'll not have this
man reign over us. He says, bring them hither and
slay them before me. Now, the gospel is about the
kingship of Christ. He's the king that's went to
a far country to receive his kingdom, and he's going to return.
He's king. He's the eternal king. He lived
as a king. He died as a king. He was raised
as a king. He's a king now, ruling and reigning
in absolute control, and he's going to return as a king, and
he's the eternal king. He's the king of kings and the
Lord of lords. He is king. Now, what is your
response? to his kingship." Well, you have
one of three responses. You may have the response of
free will. Well, I can accept him or reject
him. We will not have this man reign over us. And That response
will get you in hell. That's all it'll do for you.
Remember those same people who said, he will not have this man
reign over us? He said, mine enemies that would
not that I would reign over them, bring them hither and slay them
before me. He's in absolute control. So watch that. Watch that. Or
there's the response of faith. Lord, thy pound. have gained
ten pounds. He said, Occupy till I come.
This is the obedience of faith. He did what he told him to do. Occupy till I come, and he did.
He believed, he preached, he read, he did, he used the means
God said to use. He had faith. He believed God. And then the third response is
that of fatalism. Oh, I know you're the king. I
believe in your absolute sovereignty and control of everything. Therefore,
I wouldn't dare do anything. I wouldn't make a move. I wouldn't
try to hear you. I know you're sovereign. If it's
your will for me to be saved, I will be. If not, I won't be.
So nothing I can do. Therefore, I'm going to do nothing.
Here's your pound back. I've kept it laid up in a napkin.
Now all that is is fatalism and it's based on a wrong view. To
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