We looked at the will as what
it is. It is a choice. And that choice is always consistent
with the desire, intent, affinity, and inclination of the mind.
That's what the will does. It chooses. When we say, I will,
you sing, Choose and that choice is based on the self or the determination
of your mind. Whatever your mind is The will
does not have a will it is not self-determining The will is
a revelation of the desire of the mind we saw also last week
that the will cannot be coerced or Because in reality, it is
never addressed as an actor. The will is never addressed as
an actor. A person may be forced to do
what he does not want to do, but he cannot be forced to choose
what he doesn't want to do. He can be forced to do it, but
he cannot be forced to choose it. He cannot be forced to want
it. And that's what the will operates
on, your want and your desire. Now today we're going to look
at the concept of inability. Inability as it pertains to the
will. We've read two verses of scripture
here that deal with that subject. In the two verses that we use
as text, we are confronted with the idea of inability. In Romans
it is declared that the natural man, the man possessed of a natural
or a carnal mind, cannot be, and the word is cannot be, cannot
be subject to the law or the word of God. The natural man
cannot be subject to the law of God. Now the reason of force
behind that inability is the enmity of the mind. That's the force behind that
inability. So the inability is consistent
with the desire and intent of the mind. For just before this,
it says the flesh minds the things of the flesh, the spirit minds
the things of the spirit. So the inability is consistent
with the desire and intent of the mind. In the passage of 1
Corinthians, we see that the natural man, who is the man with
a carnal mind, cannot receive or know the things of the spirit. The word cannot, neither indeed
can be. He can't know spiritual things,
he can't receive them. The reason, of course, behind
that revealed inability is the preference of the mind. Spiritual
things mean nothing to those who have a natural or a carnal
mind. They mean nothing to them. They
are foolishness. They are accounted as having
no value whatsoever. They are considered foolishness
to the natural man. And note the language that was
used. They are not considered foolish, but rather foolishness. The essence of whatever it is
that makes a thing foolish is what The spiritual things are
to the natural mind, and since the natural mind cannot know
spiritual things to his mind, it is not worth knowing. It is foolishness to him. And
so you have inability addressed, not in reference to power, but
in reference to preference. That's the title of this message,
Power and Preference, because it's important to understand
when we're looking at the will as it's employed in our life. Usually when we speak of inability,
it comes from the principle of spiritual death. We talk about
death, we know a dead man can do nothing. And we have death,
God uses the idea of spiritual death so we can understand somewhat
what he's talking about. We can never fully grasp it,
but we do have natural death. When we lay a person out in a
coffin and we look at them and they look alive, they have all
the equipment they had before they died. But they're lacking
life. But they have ears, and eyes,
and a nose, and a mouth, and feet, and hands, but none of
those operate. And that's how we would think
of inability. Inability to hear, inability
to respond. But what death really is, is
an inability for one realm to have fellowship with another
realm. It's a person who no longer has anything to do with his environment. There's not an interaction. Death
stops there. So we understand inability in
that sense. Since dead men can do nothing,
it's only reasonable to account that spiritually, or spirituality,
which is born of life in Jesus Christ, is impossible then for
a dead man. That's not hard to understand,
is it? It's impossible for a dead man to have life. Our Lord said
as much throughout Scripture. In John 5, verse 39, He says,
you search the Scriptures for in them you think you find eternal
life, but they are they which testify of Me, and you will not
come to Me that you might have life. And to the same group of
people, He says, you cannot believe Me You cannot believe the Father
if you give honor to one another. You cannot. That's an inability. John 6.44, our Lord says, No
man can come to Me except the Father which has sent Me. Draw
him. He repeated the same sentiment
in John chapter 14 and verse 6. Yet, as we know that men are
dead in trespasses and sins, we know naturally, but we can't
tell that, can we? I can't look out at this congregation
and say, well, there's a dead center. That will never hear
anything. I don't know. We don't know that.
So death, even when our Lord speaks of it in that sense, is
still somewhat of a mystery to us, just like real death is a
mystery to us. I've stood by many a coffin of
friends and people I love, and suddenly it was a realization
that a curtain, a kind of wall, has suddenly been hung down between
me and them. We who just maybe days before
had sat and conversed and laughed and talked together, now that
is gone. It's a mystery. It's a mystery.
You ever wonder why so many people show up at funerals? Not really
out of respect for the dead. Because it's a mystery. People just sit there in awe.
What in the world has happened? What's going on? So it's a mystery.
But it's also obvious We know that some people come to Christ,
don't they? Some people come to Christ. All
of the elect, according to Scripture, do. For Christ said, All that
the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to
me I will in no wise cast down. So all the elect do, and they
do so willingly and voluntarily, and they choose to do so. Men
who come to Christ choose to come to Christ. They voluntarily
choose to come to Christ. What's the difference between
that dead man and that one that comes to Christ? Generally, when
men speak of inability, we speak in terms of power. We speak as
if a person may want to do something, but cannot, or may try to do
something, but cannot. That's what we usually talk about
when we talk about inability. Well, even if you want to, you
can't. You know, because he's prohibited. I may want to fly. I may want
to fly. I may even try to fly. I may
even choose to fly. But I cannot fly. Because I don't
have the ability to fly or the necessary equipment to bring
myself from the earth to the air. I don't have the power to
do so. And that's usually what we think of in terms of, well,
you can't fly. You don't have the ability. And
that has to do with power. I don't have the power. But what
if I didn't want to fly? Or I had no interest or inclination
to do so? Flying meant nothing to me, and
therefore did not choose to fly or will to fly. Would that have
to do with power? It would have to do with preference.
That's the difference, and that's important to understand when
we're talking about the will of man. Then the matter of power
would not enter into the picture, but preference. Affinity or inclination
would be the source of my inability. But I would not choose, or rather
I would not choose what I did not want, and neither will you.
That will always be the case. You will never choose what you
do not want. You may be forced to do it, but
you will never freely, voluntarily choose to do it. You never will. In the matter of the natural
mind, we do not suppose that a person would want to know God
or to understand spiritual things, yet he was hindered by inclination.
We wouldn't think that. The fact that he wants to do
something reveals the inclination, and thus he would choose a will
to love God and know God. If a person wants Christ, he's
got Christ. If a person wants Christ, he'll
have Christ. Because that's what he wants.
That's what he wants. The problem with the natural
mind does not rest in power, nor it rather rests in inclination. If a person has no inclination
of the mind toward Christ, there is no possibility of him choosing
Christ. It's that simple. If he doesn't
have an inclination, there is no possibility of him choosing
Christ. The strongest determination of
the mind determines the will or the choice. We know that any
inclination of the mind toward God is a consequence of the will
of God in operation of grace upon the mind, presiding over
the mind of man, renewing the mind, making him a new creature
with a new mind and a new heart, changing the mind by grace. And once the mind is changed,
that is the heart and the inward man, the man will simply choose
what he wants. He'll choose what he wants, as
opposed to what he chose when he only had a carnal mind. It'll
be a different choice, but the will won't be different. It'll
be a different desire, but the same will. What does he desire
now? He desires God, by God's grace.
What will he choose? What he wants. If he has a carnal
mind, not operated only by the grace of God, he loves sin, sin
is his life, what will he want? He'll want sin. So what will
He choose? He'll choose sin. That's what
He does. That's what you and I do. That's what you and I do
in this matter of the will. Once the mind or the heart of
the inward man is changed, the man will choose what he wants. So when it is said that a man
cannot choose Christ, we do not employ the word cannot to indicate
that he may want to, but is hindered. We never employ the language
that way. The problem with the religious false notion of free
will is that they assert that man has the ability to choose
what he does not want. And that's the falseness and
the error of it. That's the error. They put man
in a natural state of probation from birth, dangling between
good and evil, and they assert that he is inclined toward neither. That's just a lie. It's simply
not the truth. This is denial of imputed sin
of Adam and the bent and inclination of the mind, the carnal mind,
and the heart. Sin is agreeable to the natural mind. It's agreeable
to it. The natural mind is inclined
toward it. It has an affinity toward all
things that are opposed to God. The carnal mind is enmity against
God. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit. That's what we're talking about
when we're talking about inability. We're talking about preference.
We're talking about preference. Sin is agreeable to the natural
mind. Spiritual things are not agreeable to the natural mind.
So if they're not agreeable to it, they're not going to choose
you. If I laid down a penny and a $50 gold piece, and you thought
about those things, I'm pretty sure I know what you'd pick up.
The $50 gold piece would be much more agreeable to you Then the
penny would. Why? Because you preferred that.
It'd do more for you. Right? That's your preference. I don't like liver. I like his
chicken livers when they're fried. That's the only liver I like.
But I don't like liver. I like the gravy. It's got onions in
it. I like that a lot on biscuits. That's good. But I don't like
liver. I don't like the consistency.
I feel like the longer I chew it, the bigger it gets in my
mouth. I don't like liver. If you set before me a rib eye steak and some fried liver, what am
I going to choose? What's agreeable to me? The natural
man, spiritual things are not agreeable to him. The spiritual
man, spiritual things are agreeable to him. Sin is agreeable to the natural
mind. Spiritual things are not. Natural
men prefer the house of sin to the house of prayer, so their
choice will follow the determination of their mind. It's not a mystery.
It's just plain common sense. Generally, when we speak of ability,
we say, for example, a man can do anything. I'm sure we told
our children, you can do anything. Haven't we told our children
that? Nothing's just go for it. You can do anything now what
we mean by that is we built into that assessment is the knowledge
that that this is true providing that all things that might prevent
them or Hinder them have been removed. That's you know Because
we don't say you can eat a mountain because we know that's not true
then we might say it but you know I'm sure it would be speaking
metaphorically we wouldn't mean it and For example, a man can
walk across a valley provided that valley is not flooded by
a raging torrent. I saw some beautiful valleys
a couple weeks ago in Iowa and some beautiful plains covered
with corn and the next day they were covered with water. I see a valley, I want to walk
across it, but it's flooded and there's a raging torrent. which
would surely make that walk impossible and dangerous and deadly. Now,
I may boldly be forced to change my mind. I might rather bodily
be forced to change my mind about the walk for fear of drowning.
What am I doing? I'm choosing the more agreeable
of the two scenarios. Let me see, living or drowning? Living is more agreeable. I'm
not going to walk across the valley if it's full of water.
However, he's bodily held back by his choice. However, his will
cannot be forced because nothing enters his choice. He still wants
to get to the other side of that valley. Bodily he's held back,
but his choice is not held back. He will simply choose what is
most agreeable with him at the time of the choice. He will choose
not to walk into a flood because it is agreeable and consistent
with his mind to live rather than to drown. The body may be
forced, but the desire can never be forced. It can never be forced. There is an old adage that says,
convince a man against his will, he's of the same opinion still.
You ever heard that? Convince a man against his will,
he's of the same opinion still. What that is merely saying is
that the will is always exercised in that which is agreeable to
the man. You can enslave a man. You can wrap him in chains. You
have hindered his body, but his mind and thus his choice is free
to choose what's agreeable to his inclination. I don't care
how many chains you put on him. His body can't move, but his
mind still wants what it wants. John Bunyan was in prison, in
a cell that prevented his body from movement. But his mind,
and thus his choice, was walking through the wicked gate, through
the slough of despond, shucking the burdens of sin on his journey
to the celestial city. And he never moved outside the
prison cell. But he was doing, choosing what
he wanted. He was willing. You see, his
mind and thus his will were not hindered. When we say the inability
of man, we're not talking about his mind being hindered. We're
not talking about that. We're talking about his mind
choosing what it wants, unless God does something about it.
Unless God changes the mind. You see, choice cannot be forced
nor hindered. The wheel always embraces that
which is most pleasing to the mind at the time of choice. It will simply do that. So when
we're talking about cannot, in this sense, especially in these
two verses, we're talking about preference, not power. Now next week, or next time we
meet, we're going to look at cannot in reference to perception. The choice or will cannot deal
with things that it cannot perceive. And we'll look at that next time.
All right. Father, bless us through our
understanding. We pray in Christ's name. Amen. Good day. God bless
you.