You read it in Time Magazine
and the New York Times, you hear it on TV, and people love to
talk about free will. So it's pretty much a given in
which we live. But in all those cases, they
deny the effects of original sin or what happened in the Garden
of Eden. One man said there's three things
that people are basically ignorant of. That is, what happened in
the fall, what happened on Calvary, and what happens when God saves
a sinner. And men are woefully ignorant
of what happened in the fall. And when men deny the original
sin, they do not do so openly. And the reason is because the
Bible is clear that all that are born of a woman into this
world are born in a state of sin and guilt before God. They are possessed of a nature
of sin and they have a determinate bent or will to sin. And to deny this is to call God
a liar and prove that the truth is not in us. When John wrote
his first epistle to the church in general, he said this in chapter
1 in verse 8, he says, If we say we have no sin, that is,
we say we are not born sinners, we say we have no original sin,
We say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not
in us. Then in verse 10 of chapter 1,
he says, If we say we have not sinned, that is, the act of sinning,
we make God a liar, and His Word is not in us. The Bible is clear
about man being born in sin. Scripture says, In Adam all died. Those who are represented by
Adam Those who were in Adam's loins, those who proceeded from
Adam's loins, all of them died, and they died when He sinned
against God in the Garden of Eden. That's imputed sin. The way it says it in the Scriptures
in Romans chapter 5, verse 12, it says, Wherefore,
as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin. And so death passed upon all
men." And this is a very weak interpretation of the English,
these last few words, these last five words. It says, "...for
all have sinned." But you probably have a marginal reading, and
you'll see these words, "...in whom all sinned." When Adam sinned,
we sinned. We sinned. That's imputation.
just as Levi paid tithes unto Melchizedek in the loins of Abraham
long before Levi was born. That was imputation. Abraham paid tithes for Levi,
but it was accounted as Levi having paid the tithes. When
Adam sinned against the Lord, it is accounted as if we sinned
against the Lord. And that's how he sees it, and
that's how it is. We have looked at this truth
as the teaching God sheds light on the will of man. And we've
been on this for seven or eight lessons now. And we have seen
that man can choose anything he wants. He can choose anything
he wants within the realm in which he exists. He can choose
anything he wants. He is by nature not spiritual,
but carnal. And apart from a work of sovereign
grace, man simply acts according to his nature. To his nature. And he acts freely within that
realm as a fish swims in a fishbowl. That fish is absolutely free
to do anything he wants to in that fishbowl. But he can't get
outside that fishbowl. And if he did, he would die.
He would die. Man cannot, however, leave the
realm of death, and of his own free will enter into the realm
of life. Our Lord told Nicodemus that you must be born again.
He also, they said, that which is born of the flesh is flesh.
That which is born of the Spirit is spirit. We remember that Paul
wrote in Romans 8, verse 78, the carnal mind, the natural
mind, the mind that you are born with, the carnal mind is enmity
against God, is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed
It can be. And we also know in 1 Corinthians
2, verses 14 and 15, it says, The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit. They are foolishness to them,
neither can he know them, nor discern them, because they are
spiritually discerned. Neither can he know them. But then the spiritual man discerneth
or understandeth all things, because he has an unction from
on high. Considering the biblical use of the word cannot, which
we looked at the last two times, We have found that there are
basically two principles that apply when you see a man is said
to cannot in the Bible with reference to his ability. The first principle
is preference. Preference, which embraces affinity
or inclination. And since the will of man is
the choice of man, and that's what the will is, it's the choice
of man. The will does not determine itself,
it is not self-determined. It is determined by the mind's
desire, or the heart's desire. It is man's choice, and that
choice is merely a revelation of the desire of the mind. Man
will always choose, and this is never, ever any other way. Man will always choose what he
wants. He always will. He will never
choose what He does not want. Now, He may be made to do something
He does not want, under duress or force, but He will never choose
that freely. He'll never choose that. He just
simply won't do it. Since the will of man is
His choice, He'll never choose anything but what He wants. Now,
by nature, He does not want the things of God. These verses I
just quoted. Romans 8, 7 and 8, 1 Corinthians
2, verses 14 and 15, John 3, verses 3 and 6. This simply states
that man does not want or neither is inclined toward God. So when we say a man cannot choose
God under that sin, See, a man, like the Lord, says, you will
not choose me. And He uses the word cannot understand
the things of the Scripture. Since He don't want these things,
and they are foolishness to Him, so in this sense, we could say
man cannot because he will not. He cannot because he will not. It's not preferred. He doesn't
want it. It's not the desire of his mind. The second principle
is that of perception. perception. A person cannot choose
what he cannot perceive. Our Lord told Nicodemus, unless
you're born again, you cannot perceive. Edo, you cannot perceive,
understand, grasp the things of the kingdom of God. You see,
man in sin cannot perceive the things of the Spirit because
they lie outside the realm of his knowledge and understanding.
Therefore, he will not choose them. He simply will not choose
them. And in this sense, he will not
because he cannot. As to preference, he cannot because
he will not. As to perception, he will not
because he cannot. Are you thoroughly confused now?
Good, I'm glad. The difficulty men have with
this truth, that natural man is determined toward sin and
is capable only of choosing among diverse sins, is how that a man
that is so determined can be held accountable for his sin.
That's where people struggle. That's where the struggle of
what is called freewillism, that's where it comes from. This is
what they can't understand. They can't understand that if
a man is determined towards sin, if that is his nature, and he
can't go outside that realm, then how can he be held accountable
for his sin? And that is a reasonable question,
isn't it? To them, this seems unfair. Their
thinking is not unreasonable, but we must realize that we are
not dealing with human reason. We are dealing with divine revelation.
I think it was old Gordon Bayless used to say, this is a really
logical book. Just not to us. Just not that
it's a really logical book. But their theory is that if man
is determined or inclined to sin and unable by his own will
to rise above his station or his sin, then God cannot hold
him accountable. And that is a reasonable, logical
way of thinking on a natural realm. This was basically the
argument that men put forth as Paul wrote the words of our text
in Romans chapter 9. There were some folks that didn't
agree with him, and Paul knew that they wouldn't, so he wrote
how they wouldn't agree with him, and he was inspired to do
so by the Holy Spirit. Men get an answer from God, which
does not sit well with their carnal religious mind, but nonetheless,
it's how God answers them. Now God in this chapter, Romans
chapter 9, is declaring Himself to be absolutely and totally
sovereign in all things. He has declared that He loved
Jacob and hated Esau. Now some who are proponents of
what they call free will, and we know that the will is
free only within the realm in which it exists, They believe that
free will is something different we look at, but those who propose
that say that he loved Jacob, but he loved Esau less. He loved
them both. This is not what God said. In the original language, the
word psalmi is utterly abhorred. An active, vital hate. Jacob
have I loved. Malachi 3, I think it is. Jacob
have I loved, and Esau have I hated. That's an active, Hey, you mean
God hates people? God says He does. So who are
you going to believe? Me or somebody who says, well,
He loved him this? That's what God says. God says
He hates the workers of iniquity. He hates the workers of iniquity.
He loved Jacob and he hated Esau. And that has met with the carnal
notion that men have the capability of judging the righteousness
of God. Back up here in verse 13, it
says, As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I
hated. What shall we say then? This is what men respond. This
is how men respond. Is there unrighteousness with
God? Doesn't that make God unfair
if He loved one? If He didn't love them both the
same, He would give them both the same chance? That's the way people
talk. Spurgeon said everybody has the
same chance. None at all. No chance. That's the chance
you've got. But they judge the righteousness
of God to be unfair. Paul uses the most adamant negative
in the Greek language when he said, God forbid. And that simply
means no, not never, no, never, never, never let it be. It's
a whole list of negatives. A whole list of negatives. God
inspires then Paul to use the record or to write down the record
of the use of Pharaoh. Pharaoh was a king. But remember,
the king's heart is in the hands of the Lord. And like the rivers
of water, he turneth it with us wherever he will. It is the
king of kings who puts kings on the throne. It is the king
of kings who takes the kings off the throne. That's his business. That's his business. But Pharaoh
was a king because God had put him on the throne. Why did God
put him on the throne? He was a cruel taskmaster to
the Jews. You see, when Joseph was alive,
that Pharaoh that was over Joseph, he died. And Joseph had died.
And the new Pharaoh didn't remember Joseph, so he made life for the
Jews a living hell down there in the land of Goshen. Why did
he do that? Why did God put that kind of
person on the throne? He says it this way, verse 15,
For he said unto Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have
mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth,
but of God that showeth mercy. For the Scripture said to Pharaoh,
Even for this cause or purpose have I raised you up. that I
might show My power in thee, and that My name might be declared
throughout all the earth. Therefore He has mercy on whom
He will have mercy, and whom He willed He pardoneth." Why did He raise up Pharaoh?
Because he was the property of God. God is the sole proprietor
of this universe and all the habits thereof. God raised him
up for this reason, to put him down. to make His power known, and
to show people that He'll have mercy on that bunch of rebels
called Israel, and He'll harden that rebel that He put on the
throne named Pharaoh, because it's God's business. And again,
men have difficulty with this concept. So we come to what we
read as our text. Thou wilt say then unto me. Now
if that's true, if God uses you and uses me just as He sees fit,
if ultimately the will that always gets done in this universe is
God's will and not ours, if our will works within the realm of
God's purpose and will, even though we are acting freely and
doing all the vile things we want to do, we're still doing
God's will. We just don't know how it works
out. There were those who gathered around the cross of the Lord
Jesus Christ. There were those who gathered in that marketplace.
And they cried, crucify Him, crucify Him, turn Him over to
our wills. And Pilate turned Him over. He
said, let His blood be upon our heads. This is what they wanted.
They were full of venom and vile. This man will not have reign
over us. We want to get rid of him. He says He's God and we
don't believe it. We're going to put Him out of business. That
was what they wanted. And so they acted. And our Lord
said they were like doggies. little cows. They were being
herded, and punched, and gouged, and goaded to move in a certain
direction. They had no idea. They said,
we hate him. But they were being moved. And
the record is that against thy holy child Jesus, both Pontius
Pilate and Herod, the Jews and the Gentiles gathered together
for to do whatsoever the Lord had ordained to be done. Acts
4.29. How does that work? Really well. Works just fine. That's how it
is. He hardens whom He wills. The
natural response of man is then, well, if God does that, how can
He find fault with me if He made me this way? How can He find
fault with me? Why dost yet thou find fault? For who can resist His will? If we're this way and He uses
us, if we see fit, how can we resist His will? How can we resist
His will? And the free will person will
say, well, that makes us puppets. You know, I hear people say all
the time, well, that's all right. We're not puppets. But I'd rather for
God to pull my strings than for me to pull His. If we're going
to be a puppet, let me be the marionette. Let God control the
strings. Why do they yet find fault? Who
hath resisted His will? And here is the answer you get.
The answer you get. How can God hold us responsible
or accountable if we are how we are? To that God answers in
such a way that tells man that he does not even have the right
to ask such a question. This is where it really fouls
up the minds of people who believe that their salvation is by free
will, is that they don't have a right to ask God what He does.
That bothers them. They want some answers. I'll
never forget. I think it was Biafra. This is really going to date
me. I don't know if y'all remember Biafra, where those children
were starving to death. They were dying. They showed
pictures of them on the TV, and their eyes were all budging,
and their tummies were swollen. It was the saddest thing, saddest
thing to see those children like that. I remember one preacher
stand up and said, well, somebody's going to have to answer for this.
And he was talking about God. No, he don't. You don't have to answer that. We know he's in charge of all
things, but I'm telling you what, he's not going to tell you why he
does nothing. And I'm convinced you really don't want to know
why he does stuff. You think about it. What if he
took your child in order to providentially bring one of his elect to him? You wouldn't like that. if you knew it was going to happen?
What if it's going to cost you a great deal for Him to bless
somebody up? It wasn't like that. That happens all the time. God
does as He pleases, with whom He pleases, however He pleases.
God answers this. He said, Nay, no, shut up, no,
but O man, creature of the dust, maggot on a dunghill, you who
drink iniquity like water, you who love sin, you who practice
sin, you who come forth from your mother's womb speaking lies
as soon as you were born. Nay, but O man, who are you that
you would dare reply against God or answer against what God
has said?" Now did God answer his question? Well, I just don't
understand how God holds me accountable. He made me the way I am. God
says, you don't have the right to ask that question. I'm God and you're not. Shall the thing formed say to
him that formed it, why hast thou made me thus? Y'all ever
worked with clay? God worked with clay, metaphorically. He took a great big lump of adamic
clay and he split it. All of the same nasty lump of
clay. And he took this lump over here and he said, this is going
to be a trophy and it's going to show forth my artistry and
my skill. I'm going to make these my children
out of this. And this part of that clay I'm
going to make as vessels to be used for a little bit and then
cast on the pile of potsherds. What if God did that? Well, let's read on. Hath not
the pot of the power over the clay? Of the same lump to make
one vessel unto honor and another to dishonor? What if God, willing
to show His wrath and to make His power known, Endured with
much long-suffering, the vessels of wrath fitted or made up for
destruction." God makes up some of His vessels for destruction.
What does it say? What if He did that? Some people
say, well, I don't think that's right. It don't matter. You can't
reply. You're to clay. Clay has no say. "...that He
might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy,
which He had aforeprepared to glory." Here's the thing. out
of that Adamic clay before the world ever began, before there
was a lump of clay for humanity to be created out of or made
out of. God separated and severed one
part of that lump of clay and said, these are the treasures
of my grace. They are the jewels that I will make up. They are
my blessed children. I love them. It's just a lump
of clay. That's what we are. We're dirt. And of that other rest, he said,
I'm going to use them. I'm going to use them for my
glory. They're going to glorify my wrath. They're going to glorify
my justice. They're going to glorify the
exacting nature of my law. And I'm going to use them to
help these. They're going to make money. I'm going to give
them good jobs. I'm going to make nations out of them. And they're
going to help these, my people. And they're not even going to
know they're doing it, but they're going to be used to help them. And then when
I'm done with them, I'm going to throw them away. What if God's
like that? The believer says, well, I don't
have anything to say. He's God. He's God. In Job 33, verse 12
and 13, it says, God's greater than man, and He does not give
account of His matters. He doesn't give account of His
matters. You see, man has a nature that loves sin, and having a
nature that loves sin, a nature that is inclined to sin and has
an affinity for sin, that does not excuse sin. That does not
excuse sin because a man does what he wants to do. He does
what He wants to do. And He does it freely, choosing
that which He desires. Now this is not a struggle for
man. It is the course of His mind and His heart. And if He
could be honest, He would freely admit... If He could be honest,
which He can't be, but if He could be honest, He would freely
admit that in His heart He has no interest in God. If you could
get Him to be honest. Our Lord said He looked down
from heaven. and saw this in my men, the fool has said in
his heart, there is no God. No God for me. I don't want anything
to do with God. He will not be able to claim
that God didn't elect him. That's what the free will people
say. Well, that's what I remember I told you old Charles, I can't
think of his name now. Of course, he's about the same
way. The father of modern evangelism
said this, he said, if I get to heaven, or when I get to heaven,
if I found out that God chose a people from the foundation
of the world, I'm going to sink my fist in his face and call
him unjust. Now, can you imagine a man saying
that? He's the father of modern evangelism. But that's what he
believes. Why does he believe? Because
he just believes it ain't right for God to be God. So he said,
no, God, for me, I'm going to be God. I'm going to decide what's
going on. Man will not be able to claim
that God didn't elect him. He will admit that he hated God,
as is clearly seen in the final revelation in the Word of God,
when all those who thrive off the delicacies of the great or
Babylon's religion take up arms against Christ because they want
to defend and preserve their wicked ways and their wicked
choices. That's what they want. A man not doing anything against
his will, he's doing what he wants. A man shakes his fist
at God, it's because he's freely doing what he wants. And here's
the beautiful part of that, if a man bows to God, he's freely
doing what he wants to. Because God's done something
to his mind and his heart and made a new creature out of him. They're wicked choices. Look
over at 1 Peter 2 right quick. I've not got much longer. So
try to stay awake, best you can. I will, too. 2 Peter 2, this is how those
false teachers are described, having eyes full of adultery
that cannot cease from sin. Why can't they? First of all,
preference. They love sin. Second of all,
perception. They don't know anything but
sin. They don't know anything outside that realm. Their wicked
choices do not abrogate their blameworthiness. And in this
we are not addressing physical inability, but moral inability. Moral inability to do a thing
does not necessarily destroy freedom or liberty of will. Jonathan
Edwards gave an illustration concerning this. A woman of honor
and chastity may have a moral inability to prostitute herself.
Morally, she can't do it. Now, physically she could, couldn't
she? But morally, she could not make
that choice. It couldn't happen. It couldn't happen. Nobody would
have any difficulty with seeing the truth in that statement.
She could not do so, yet her freedom of choice or will is
not compromised, is it? Simply because she can't do that.
I can't be a prostitute. Does that mean her will is compromised?
She's doing what she wants. Or in this case, refusing what
she doesn't want. And nor is her inability to diminish
the value of her virtue. It doesn't diminish it. So religious
men like to think that freedom of the will means that men are
born with their will poised between good and evil, and are able to
choose one or the other. Now we've already seen throughout
Scripture the absurdity of this notion, and in truth the actions
of religion deny that they believe what they assert. They assert
this, but they don't believe this. I'm going to prove that
to you. a very prominent college here in the South, a Christian
college here in the South, so-called. They hold to the false notion
of freedom of will, that man's will is poised between good and
evil, yet they won't allow boys and girls to mix without supervision. Why? They won't do it. Kind of reminded
that woman who got the Sears catalog, got some catalog and
she gave it to her husband. She tore out all the pictures
with women in bras and panties. She gave it to her husband, he
looked at the Sears catalog. What do you think he thought of when
he got to those pages that were torn? You know what he was thinking
of. Sure you do. Why won't they allow
boys and girls just to be themselves? After all, they're poised between
good and evil and, you know, they'll choose one or the other.
Why do they squelch the freedom of will? Because they know that
left to themselves, boys and girls will pursue what they desire
and their choice will be to fulfill their desire and find the easiest
pleasure in each other. You know that and I know that. I never told my daughter or son
just to go out and do what they wanted. I never told them that. I warned them against the dangers
of their own nature and admonished them to do what was right or
suffer the consequences of any bad actions. And I prayed that
God would prevent them from evil. Why did I do that? Because I
knew that they were born in sin and they were born with the same
nature as me. If a man's will is poised between
good and evil, if it really is just poised between good and
evil and we don't know which way he's going, why don't we throw
open the doors of the penitentiary? Why don't we just do that? And
allow these dangling felons to make their free choice? If we
love free will so much, why don't we do that? Because we know why
they're there. And we know what they'll do.
They'll do just like we would unless God prevents us. Religion places controls and
restrictions on men and women in hopes of keeping them from
being what religion knows they are but denies they are. Now God prohibits certain things
because He knows what is in man. He admonishes us to not commit
fornication. Commands us not to do that. Why?
Well, you know, none of us have problems with ever doing anything
like that. We would never do anything like that. Why did God
tell us that then? Huh? He knows us. And free will says that man is
poised and he can go either way. No, he's done gone! All the way
down. Like water to the bottom of a
ravine. Believers pray for God to intervene and keep even wicked
men from doing what they naturally desire. Because the believer
knows that man, left to himself, will pursue that which is against
God unless God intervenes and arrests him by sovereign grace
and brings him to the feet of the Savior. Well, that's what
this lesson is about today. And next we'll begin to consider
man's will in light. of God's will. Okay. God bless
you. You're dismissed.