Now, last time we looked at the
biblical concept of inability. Well, the Bible says in several
places that a man cannot do certain things. The natural mind is enmity
against God, is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed
can be. Neither indeed can be. And several
others we looked at last week. We looked at first the concept
of inability as it related to preference or what a person desires
or what's in a person's mind as to what he desires. In the matter of spiritual things,
man in nature has no preference toward them, no preference of
mind toward spiritual things. That does not say he's not religious
or does not pursue religious avenues. We do that by nature
also. We are born religious folk. But there is no preference of
the mind because the carnal mind is enmity against God. So it
doesn't prefer God to seek after spiritual things. It is in that
sense that we say a man is unable or cannot, cannot. In that sense we do not presume
that a person would want to choose spiritual things and would be
unable to, but rather his inability would rest in the fact that he
did not want spiritual things. Now the will or the choice is
always consistent with the preference of the mind. A person will always
choose what he wants. always. There will never be any
case where he does not. Now he may be forced to do something
that he does not want to do, but you cannot force a person
to choose it. For the will is simply a revelation
of what the mind chooses or what the mind desires. A person may
be forced to do something as many throughout history, for
example, were forced to convert to this or that religion. But
a person cannot be forced to choose that thing. It is in this
sense, the sense of preference of the mind, that inability is
applied to the will. And the word comes off as cannot. Because a person has a call mind,
he cannot be subject to the book of God. Cannot be subject to
it. It doesn't mean anything to him.
Has no preference for it. Now in this sense, it is in this
sense that men can be held morally accountable for their choice.
They can be held morally accountable. They cannot say that they were
prohibited by some outside force, but must rather confess that
they had neither inclination or affinity toward the things
of the Spirit, because they didn't. Now today we'll consider another
side of the concept of inability as it pertains to the will. We'll
look at inability in the matter of perception. And in the matter
of embracing spiritual things, perception is paramount. Or in
the matter of embracing anything, perception is paramount. In the
three verses I chose as text, a general principle is established.
The principle is that God hides some things from some while revealing
them unto others. He hides some from some while
revealing it to others. Our Lord said concerning the
wisdom of men, In 1st Corinthians chapter 1 and verse 21, he said
after that in the wisdom of God, that is according to God's wisdom
and according to God's purpose, after that in the wisdom of God,
men by their own wisdom could not know God. So part of the
wisdom of God and part of His purpose was that men by their
own wisdom could never know Him. Could never know Him. Barnard
said that the thing that angers people most is when they find
out that salvation is by revelation. And that revelation is according
to the will and purpose of God through this word and through
the gospel only. Now unless or until God reveals
salvation to men and that by spiritual regeneration by the
Spirit through the preaching of the gospel, men cannot perceive
it. They cannot perceive it and are
thus unable to choose it. They can't perceive it. They
certainly can't choose it or wheel towards it. It is precisely
what our Lord told Nicodemus and what Nicodemus proved to
be true by his response to what the Lord said. In John chapter
3, if you'll turn there just for a moment, in John chapter
3, Nicodemus felt as if he perceived spiritual things. Now he was
a religious man and a student of the Scriptures, but to understand
fully the whole idea of this man coming to Christ, we need
to go back a few verses in chapter 2 of John. It says in verse 23,
Now when he was at Jerusalem at the Passover, in the feast
day, many believed in his name when they saw the miracles that
he did. As you and I probably would,
we would believe just like these people did. But Jesus did not
commit himself unto them, because he knew all men, and he didn't
need any man to testify of him, for he knew what was in man.
So he didn't commit himself to them. Then the very next phrase
is, there was a man. There was a man of the Pharisees
named Nicodemus, one of those who believed because of his miracles
probably. One who evidently came to testify
of him, but now our Lord is going to set him straight and prove
that he doesn't need him. There was a man of the Pharisees
named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. The same came to Jesus
at night and said of him, Rabbi, he called him Rabbi, there was
a teacher, We know that thou art a teacher come from God.
Now he said we know that. The word he used is oida. We
know because God revealed it to us. That word oida means by
revelation. We know that thou art a teacher
come from God for no man can do these miracles that thou doest
except God be with him. Now, his assessment of how he
knew that supposedly that God had revealed that Jesus Christ
was a man of God was because he was able to do miracles. That's
how he got it. Now, but look what our Lord says.
He said, we know, and our Lord said, Verily, verily, I say unto
you, except a man be born again, that is, born from above, he
cannot see. The word is Edo. He cannot perceive. That's what that word means. He cannot perceive. And that
means to perceive with the senses. He cannot discover. He cannot
discern. Except a man be born again, he
cannot see, perceive, discover, or discern the kingdom of God. You have said that God has told
it to you, but I'm telling you, unless you're born from above,
that ain't gonna happen. That simply cannot be true. It
means to perceive. So Nicodemus actually proved
that what our Lord said to him is true. That when he was presented
with the concept of being born from a blood or regenerated,
he immediately resorted to the only thing he was able to perceive. He wasn't being a smart aleck.
He was talking about what he perceived. He said this, How can a man be
born when he's old? Can he enter the second time
into his mother's womb and be born? Was he being a cutie? No, he was saying what he perceived,
what he understood. Our Lord said, you can't perceive
the kingdom unless you're born from above. To prove that our
Lord was telling him the truth, he said, well, am I supposed
to go back in my mother's womb? Now, he had a perception of the
concept of birth, didn't he? He just didn't understand the
kingdom of God. He didn't understand spiritual
principles as I said before. He resorted to the only thing
he perceived and could perceive and that is the natural realm. The natural realm. Note the rebuke
that our Lord gave to him in verses 10 through 12. Jesus said,
Thou art thou the master of Israel, and knowest not these things.
And in verse 11, We speak that we do know, and testify that
we have seen, and ye receive not our witness. Verse 12, If
I told you of earthly things, and you believe not, how shall
you believe if I tell you of heavenly things? So that was
the rebuke of our Lord Jesus Christ. Know not, receive not,
believe not. What's he talking about? He's
talking about perception. being able to perceive. Our Lord
said this in 1 Corinthians 2, verses 14 and 15, The natural
man, which Nicodemus was, the natural man receiveth not the
things of the Spirit, for they are foolishness to them, neither
can he know them, nor discern them, or discover, perceive,
because they are spiritually perceived. Now in time I believe that Nicodemus
was revealed these things, but at this time he was unable to
perceive them or discover them because at the time God had concealed
them for his glory, had hid them because he was wise and prudent,
and had not revealed to him these things because they were for
the kingdom and not for him. Now, it's needless to say, since
our God had concealed them and hid them and they were not His
to know, when we talk about His will, we can say without question,
He would not choose them because He did not perceive them. He
could not perceive them. Now, man cannot choose a thing
if it is outside the realm of his perception. The difference
is light and darkness. A blind man may perceive that
light exists when you tell him, what light is, he may have a
perception that it exists, but his eyes cannot perceive light. He may understand that there
is such a thing as light, as many people understand that there
is such a thing as spiritual life, but they don't have any
contact with it. They don't have any true perception
of it, they just know that it is. A natural man may perceive
that there is such a thing as something spiritual, but he cannot
perceive spiritual things. That's what the clear declaration
of Scripture. He cannot want what he cannot perceive. Religion
tries to get men to want things that they can't even perceive.
A fish may see from the realm of its water existence a bird
in flight, but it cannot perceive what it is to be a bird in flight.
But it can see it. But it can't perceive it. Now
there are two reasons why that fish cannot perceive what it
is to be a bird in flight. The two reasons are this. The
first is that the nature of the fish is to live and reside in
water. That's the nature of the fish.
Everything about it is made for and conducive to the realm in
which it exists and flourishes. Its perception resides entirely
in its realm of existence. Now listen very carefully. Within
that realm, its choices are freely made. They are freely made within that
realm. And since it's unable to perceive
anything outside that realm, its choices will be within the
constricts of that realm. It may leave the Atlantic coast
and end up in the English Channel. But it didn't fly. And it had
no perception of the ships that were going by. It had no perception
of the birds that were flying. It had no perception. What did
it perceive? The realm in which it existed. The realm in which
it existed. Secondly, a fish is content in
its realm. And I use an anthropological
term to say that. I'm a little bit of humanizing
a fish, but I've seen some fish and they look like they're happy. So it's content in its realm.
It does what it wants in its realm. And it possesses a true
liberty there. In its realm. So both perception
and preference address the fish's inability to be anything other
than a fish. Or to perceive anything other
than a fish. Our Lord said it this way in Jeremiah chapter
13. Jeremiah chapter 13. I believe it's verse 23 I'm looking
for. Here it talks about the very
same thing and compares it to being in sin. It talks about
this realm in which a person or a thing lives. Verse 23 says, Can the Ethiopian
change his skin? I've talked to black people over
the years and I've told them, you know, that I made the mistake
of saying, well, I understand where you're coming from. They
said, no, you don't. And I said, well, I think I understand where
it is to be. No, you don't. You've never been stopped driving
down the street just because you were black. And I must admit,
I cannot perceive that. It's outside my racial realm
of understanding. You know, some people, some white
people think that they can be Indians. They can't be. They
will never be. There's a culture that is beyond
their ability to perceive. It's simply that. But here our Lord says, can an
Ethiopian change his skin? Can he be something other than
an Ethiopian as to the color of his skin? Or can a leopard,
a spotted cat, a leopard, can he change his spots? Now, I remember
one time Jack Shanks was teaching this in a religious school he
was teaching for young people. And he said, a leopard can't
change his spots. And the little boy raised his
hand and said, yes he can. And Jack said, no he can't. And
he said, yes he can, he can change from this spot here to that spot
over there. That's not what this is talking
about. He said, can the Ethiopian change
the color of his skin? Of course not. The answer of
course is no. Can the leopard change his spots?
No, of course he can't. Then this is how it applies to
natural and spiritual things. Then may ye also do good which
are accustomed to doing evil or which practice evil. And of
course the question is also no. For the good realm And the evil
realm are two different things. Two different things. And one
cannot perceive the other. The things of the Spirit are
hid from the man in nature according to Scripture. There is no case
where natural men will desire the things of the Spirit because
these do not exist in the realm of nature. Spiritual things do
not exist in the realm of nature. They exist in the realm of the
Spirit. And therefore they cannot be perceived in the realm of
nature because they're simply not there. And a person who is
a natural man, a carnal man, a man born into this world, this
world is his life. This world is his realm. Sin
is his realm. That's his realm. He cannot perceive
anything outside the realm. If a man in nature cannot perceive
the things of the Spirit, he cannot exercise his will toward
them. No one can choose what he or
she cannot perceive. It's that simple. You can't do
it. Also, as the fish in water, man's
nature has liberty of will to choose anything he desires in
the realm of existence. I have no difficulty saying men
have free will, If I can then add the caveat
that it's within the realm in which they exist. Men choose
all the time. They choose what they want all
the time. They never choose what they don't want. They may be
forced to do what they don't want, but they never choose what
they don't want. They never will to do what they don't want to
do. Never will. Even in that realm. that realm
of life for the man, born of woman, born under the law, born
into this world as a natural man, he will never choose what
is inconsistent with the desire of his mind. He'll never do that. Unless you can figure out how
to want what you don't want, choose what you won't choose,
love what you don't love, will What you will not. Doesn't make
any sense, does it? So to even imply that he might
choose what is unavailable and foreign to his mind is utter
nonsense. Man is free to choose what he wants and what he wants
is entirely in the perception of his mind. Our Lord said it
this way in Romans chapter 8 and verse 5, They that are of the
flesh Do mind the things of the flesh, and the aid of the Spirit. Do mind the things of the Spirit. Our Lord said to Nicodemus in
John 3.6, He said, That which is born of the flesh is flesh,
and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit. So these two
are totally different things. The error of what is called free
will religion is that they assert that natural man has the ability
to enter the spiritual realm from the carnal by the power
of his will. They deny the preference of the
carnal mind that it is enmity against God, therefore it prefers
to hate God than to love Him. and that he minds the things
of the flesh, and they assert that the will is self-determining,
or that the will has a will of its own, and is therefore able
to desire that which it does not desire, or perceive what
it cannot perceive, or choose what it cannot choose. Man is
not in a state of limbo. He's not born in a state of limbo.
He's not dangling between the natural and the spiritual, able
to choose or reject. one or the other. Man is born
natural and carnal and sinful and will freely pursue what he
can and what his realm offers being completely unaware that
any other realm even exists. Even when he hears about the
spiritual realm, he immediately thinks that they must be talking
about something that can be attained by natural means. Isn't that
the way it is? When you tell a man about the
gospel of grace, and God doesn't awaken him to what he is and
to what grace is, he begins to conjure ways in which he can
bring himself to that state of grace. It almost always is legalist,
but nonetheless, he believes. Why? Because he's in the flesh. That's how he thinks. That's
how he operates. That's how his mind operates. Though man is
bound to his nature, he does not feel it. We talk about being
enslaved to sin. We are. We are bound in fetters
and chains of sin. Those are metaphorical and perhaps
hyperbolic terms in Scripture, but nonetheless, they teach that
we can't get out of our fix. Man in sin. Bound in sin. In chains of sin. In slavery
to sin. Here's what he thinks about that.
That's my life. He don't feel enslaved. He freely
chooses what he wants in that life. If he wants a Cadillac,
he buys a Cadillac if he can afford it. If he wants a new
mower, wants to kiss his girl, he just goes for it. Right? Just does what he wants in that
life. He has no idea that the weight of sin upon him would
send 10,000 worlds to hell. He has no idea. Why? Because
he doesn't feel it. Because that realm is the only
realm he knows. The only realm he knows. Because
he cannot perceive the spiritual, it simply never enters into his
thought process. Though he may attain to the highest
aspiration of the spirit of man. Because man is a spiritual creature. Not in the spiritual things of
eternal life, this book, Life in Jesus Christ. But man has
a spirit. The Lord said that. No man understands
the spirit of man except another man. Man has a spirit. And he can achieve great things.
I know some, I read about people and I see people and they can
do things and I'm going, wow! You know, I wish I could do that.
I wish I had that kind spirit. There have been, there are some
very kind people within the natural realm. There are some very philanthropic
people who give away their whole fortunes in the natural realm. And within the spirit of man,
they've reached a high plane. They have. They've risen, as
it were, above others in that sense. He may attain to the highest
aspiration of the spirit of man. He will, apart from being born
into the spiritual realm, never go beyond the boundaries of his
existence. However, in that realm, His will is free to explore the
uttermost borders of His nature, and He can think the highest
thoughts within that nature, all those that are available
to Him, and He may become the best He can be within that nature,
within the constructs of that nature, He can be anything He
wants to be. What's to stop Him? The only problem is, He can't
perceive any other state of existence. So he will not choose it. He
cannot. Because he cannot perceive it.
Because he cannot perceive, he cannot prefer. And because he
cannot prefer, he cannot choose the spiritual life that only
comes from God. That which is born of the flesh
is flesh. That which is born of the Spirit is Spirit. Now
next week we will look at free agency. as it applies to the
will. Father, bless us through our
understanding. We pray in Christ's name. Amen.