By Their Own Decision

Okay, so let's pray and then we are going to get started on our study.

Lord Jesus, again as we open up your word, we ask that through your Holy Spirit we may rightly understand, believe, confess, and do according to what you have revealed there.

All of this to your glory we ask in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, last week we did a mini topic.

We did kind of an off -topic subject. We took a look at the doctrine of sanctification and we noted that scripture teaches that we are sanctified the same way we're justified, by grace, through faith, apart from works.

So the question is, do you believe that what the scriptures say, that if you walk by the

Holy Spirit, if you walk by his power, if you ask the Holy Spirit to help you in this regard, that you will not gratify the desires of your sinful flesh.

That's the idea. We took a look at that last week. So this week, I'll put it out there, ask if there are any specific questions that you guys have in relations to either the sermon or a topic that you, kind of one of those burning questions as it relates to Lutheran theology.

There was a topic that was asked to be covered in the women's

Bible study yesterday that I thought was interesting, and that had to do with the topic of what's called synergism versus monergism, and where does the role of free will come in the life of a

Christian? Because if you've spent time as a Christian, then if you've been in any of the big box evangelical churches, then you've been told in those big box evangelical churches that when it comes to salvation, you have to make a free will decision.

You have to ask Jesus into your heart. And so, you know, the way you are saved, the way you are born again is by making a free will decision.

That's not how that works, okay? And so if you would, I'd like to kind of do a little mini topic on that, because I thought that that would benefit a great number of people, and then we can kind of work out from there.

And so, when we talk about the subject of free will, all right, this is going to sound crazy, but humanity and a lot of the church generally gets things backwards.

When it comes to the things that God has given us decision -making ability over, we have free will.

You have to think second table of the law, all right? So, you'll note then that you might have a neighbor who is somebody who's a member of a different religion.

You know, maybe he's a Muslim, or maybe this neighbor is a Hindu or a Buddhist, or you know, maybe they're into Wicca or something like this.

And you'll note that in talking with your neighbor that you don't feel any sense of danger in their presence, and you have no fear that they're going to pull out a knife, plunge it into your chest, and murder you, okay?

And you'll note that this is a good thing, because in general, I like the fact that, you know, the average person on the street is not prone to putting a knife into your chest, okay?

And you're going to note by not killing you, not murdering you, they're obeying one of the commandments, thou shalt not murder.

And so, you'll note then that when it comes to the second table of the law, the second table of the law relates to how we interact with each other, all right?

That in second table of the law, you actually have not a perfect free will, but you have a will that can be managed, all right?

And oftentimes, our wills are managed in this regard via coercion, fear of consequences, okay?

So, you know, again, I think I told the story a few weeks ago that, you know, there's an epic story that kind of circulates around this area of a fellow who drove up on a non -snowy spring day in, you know, drove up on a snow, you know, on a snowcat, you know, one of these snowmobiles to a bank with a ski mask on his face, and went in and robbed the bank.

And then it was a slow speed chase, they caught him eventually, because his getaway car, vehicle, was the snowcat's snowmobile.

And he ended up going to prison for 10 years after robbing the bank.

And no joke, after he got out of prison, he duplicated the crime, okay?

And the second time around, it was such an, you know, it was such a well -known story, because it's like up here in Minnesota, if you've been around any of these small towns,

I mean, everybody knows everybody, and everybody knows everybody's business. And so when he got out of prison, and then drove up, he drove up to the same bank on a snowmobile, same type of time of the year, to rob the bank a second time, thinking, you know, maybe he did something wrong, and he can get it right the second time.

And he didn't even get off his snowcat before they had called the police to let them know that, you know, he was going to be robbing the bank again.

And in fact, he gave so much lead time, that when he walked out of the bank to get back onto his snowmobile, the police were already there to arrest him.

It's just a stupid story, right? And so when you think about it, all right, a lot of American citizens, although they may be tempted to steal, for the part, don't.

Why? Because they don't want to go to prison, okay? They don't.

You'll note this is kind of how the course of nature of the law works. So first use of the law is for the purpose of curbing evil, and the idea then is that, you know, as much as I would like to pinch that fellow's head off,

I really don't want to go to prison. As much, you know, as difficult as there have been times in my life financially,

I don't want to go to prison. And the reason why we all pay our taxes is because we don't want to go to prison, right?

You get the idea. And then when it comes to, you know, gossiping and things like this, if you have friends that are keen on what's right and wrong, they might remind you, you know, you're gossiping about that person.

I really don't want to get involved in that and things like this. So you'll note then that we have the law written on our hearts.

This is what the scripture says in Romans chapter 2. And to some degree or another, you know, some people suppress that truth of God's law.

But, you know, but over and again the purpose of government, if you look at Romans chapter 13, is for the purpose of punishing the evildoer.

And so it is possible, when we talk about second table of the law, that you may have a pagan neighbor who is, well, more obvious in their obedience to the second table of the law than some

Christians that you know, or even yourself at different times, right? But you're going to know, no one is saved by their works.

So when it comes to second table of the law, there is some degree of free will.

We all have a sinful nature that desires to go contrary to what is in God's law, but our will can be coerced when it comes to second table.

First table of the law, we have a bound will, and this is by virtue of the fall. And so when we talk about free will, you have to make these distinctions.

Prior to the fall, Adam and Eve had legitimate free will. After the fall, no.

We're all conceived and born in sin, and we are by nature objects of God's wrath.

And what Romans 3 describes as all of sin, all fall short of the glory of God. None is righteous.

No, not one. Their throat is an open grave. So when it comes to first table of the law, we all have a bound will, and none of us are able by nature, because of our corrupting of our nature, none of us are able to love

God. And so we constantly break the first commandment, and we're incapable of keeping it.

That's kind of the issue. All right, I see that hand up. I'm nervous. We have a hand up. Okay, so the commandments that we recognize are on the first table of the law, these are the tables in relation to loving

God, are going to be the commandment, you shall have no other gods, remember the

Sabbath day, keeping it holy, and not taking the name of the Lord your God in vain. And by the way, the last, so first three.

And I did two and three out of order. It should go, having no other gods, not taking

God's name in vain, and then remembering the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Those are your three commandments in relation to the love of God.

And we're going to note, because we are corrupted in our sinful nature, we are incapable of loving God. And it's only then, through the work of the

Holy Spirit, that anyone is able to believe God, believe and trust in Him, and that's through the regenerative work of the

Holy Spirit, through either word or baptism. And so we recognize that those are the operative means that the

Holy Spirit has revealed in Scripture by which He works to regenerate people. Now over and again, when we talk about monergism,

God is the one who chooses, we're going to run into a problem, and the problem is going to be the question of, why is it that some, when they hear the gospel, believe and others do not?

Okay, that's a question we're going to have to put on the table just a little down the road, but I want you to know that it's on the table so we can discuss it a little bit more in depth.

But all of that being said, we're going to look at some clear passages in this regard, and I always like to begin with what

I consider to be one of the clearest texts in this regard, and then work out to some of the less clear, which by the way is the right exegetical practice.

If you're going to set up a biblical doctrine, any doctrine that's truly biblical, you're going to be able to find clear passages that teach it, and there's going to be supporting passages that are in step with the clear passages, and then anything that's unclear has to be judged by the clear.

Does that make sense? So there's an order here, and if you think about the

Christian faith, in Ephesians 2, 1 to 10, you have an extremely compact, very, very enlightening description of what we were before we were

Christians, how we stopped being that, and what we are as Christians, and where its source is, and where that comes from.

And then if I can, I don't know how else to explain this, but maybe if I have something blank to put on here.

The one thing I don't have is a whiteboard, and I don't think it would help too much, so I have to create a digital version of a whiteboard, and I know

I have something like that. I have access to that here in my tools, but I'm going to go this direction.

Hold on. We're going to go new, and we're going to go with new, create a new presentation, and I'm just going to delete these things so we have something that at least looks like a whiteboard, okay?

And exegetically, this is an important part of this, and I'll explain why in a minute.

When we were taught as kids in school how to do an outline, okay?

I'll go this direction, so we're going to go Roman numeral number one, actually capital

Roman numeral number one, main topic one.

Then what happens is you come in, and then it's subset of it, you know, a sub point one, and then, you know, and then, you know, there's this point that can come underneath that.

You kind of see how this goes, right? And so then when you get to the end of that, what happens is that if you want to make a brand new topic, this would be main topic two, all right?

And so, you know, this is how we're taught to do outlines. But in Ephesians chapter two, verses one to ten, it doesn't follow this outline system.

It follows an outline system that's called a chiasm, and that is spelled

C -H -I -A -S -M, chiasm. And a chiasm has a very different way in which it works, and let's just put it this way.

Chiasms are throughout the Old Testament, and they make a few appearances within the New. Chiasms are almost a uniquely

Hebraic way of doing outlines, and you don't really see it in many other cultures apart from, like,

Middle Eastern cultures or some Eastern cultures. But rather than main point number one, sub point one, sub point capital letter

A, sub point lowercase a, that's not how this works. A chiasm, what happens is that you have main topic, all right, or main point.

It's not even a topic. It's main point. It's kind of a thought, and then there's going to be subtopics, sub one, sub two, and I'll do,

I'll put in, I'll just do sub two because you can see it when I do it that way, sub two.

But what happens then is that coming out of the chiasm, you're going to have opposite point sub two, and then you have opposite point sub one, and then opposite main point.

And the idea here is that if you kind of look at the outline, it makes a V shape. So whatever your main topic or point is in your very beginning of your chiasm, what happens then, hang on a second here,

I need to see if I can move these over. There we go. We're going to move you over here, move you over here.

That looks a little cleaner. Hang on a second here. But the main idea then is, is that you have mirroring points and let's see here, let me have sub point two, there.

Okay, you have mirroring points and they, and so if I said, if I said black on the top part of the chiasm, at the very end,

I would say white. Okay, if the top point was up, the final, the final point in the chiasm would be down.

Does that make sense? They are, these are, these mirror each other thematically opposites.

And so this is, that's the, the kind of the main point. And you can see this then in Ephesians 2.

And if you were to look at this, you were dead in trespasses and sins in which you once walked.

And then you get down to verse 10, we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which

God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Okay. You can see that verse 10 is the mirror opposite of what we see in the opening main concepts here in verse one.

That's, that's your idea. So, and it does understand that in this section, it doesn't, the chiasm doesn't neatly follow the verse numbers.

Verse numbers are again, an apparatus and you kind of put onto the text for the purpose of making it easier to get to verses.

But whoever put these, the verse numbers together here, they did not, they did not keep the chiasm itself in mind as they were doing that.

They may have, they may not have even been aware of it. But when we start with this, this is where we'll begin with this.

And the verbs are the most important bit in the middle because the verbs run everything.

In fact, you're one of the things that we Lutherans are really, really uppity about is paying attention to verb tenses, verbs, and grammar.

Because if you, if you are not good at grammar, you're not going to be good at theology. Because we have a biblical text given to us by God and God used words.

He used nouns and he used verbs and he used adverbs and subordinate clauses and direct objects and indirect objects and, and things like this.

And so if you're, if you do not pay attention to these things, you're going to err greatly. So Ephesians 2, 1, you talking about your state before you were a

Christian. And I sometimes get emails from people who get really upset at me because they'll say, you keep saying that we were born dead in trespasses and sins.

It just says that we were dead. You know, to which I replied to those emails, well, tell me when we died.

When did that death take place? You know, cause you'll note that verse three has in there that we were by nature, children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

That means that every single human being conceived and a direct descendant of Adam and Eve has their sin, has the sinful corruption.

As a result of it, every single human being who's conceived in the natural way is by nature because of a corrupted nature, a child of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

So you can say that this is describing our state at our conception. We were conceived dead.

We were born dead. That's what, that's what David is getting at in the Psalms when he says, in sin did my mother conceive me.

Right? So it says you were dead in trespasses and sins. And this word, don't let that one go too quickly.

Dead is dead. Okay. And now I understand our popular movie culture. Okay. And that we now have a category, thanks to a really fun movie called mostly dead.

Okay. Okay. But mostly dead is not a biblical category when it comes to our state before God.

So we were actually truly born dead. What did God say to Adam and Eve? The day you eat of the fruit, you will surely die.

Did they die or not? Yes. And you'll note that scripture in talking about and defining the term death refers to spiritual death as well as physical death.

And then there's eternal death that, you know, there's the second death is hell. And so you get the idea.

So our state before God is dead. You were born a spiritual corpse.

Now a little bit of a note here. I'm not a marketing genius, far from it. But when

I spent my decades working in the corporate world, before I became a pastor, I, my focus was on sales, marketing, and putting together marketing materials and things like this.

And I know for a fact, I know what the, what the actual income levels are for people who sell self -help books at cemeteries.

Okay. Zero. They make no money. Okay. Okay. You'll note that we do not market to the dead.

Now I understand that the dead are able to vote in Chicago. That's a different thing altogether.

Okay. Yeah. Okay. But when it comes to selling self -help books, we don't, we don't, we don't sell, you know,

I don't see any guys out here marketing to the folks there in the, in our cemetery, in our graveyard.

So that being the case, dead means dead. And so what happens is, is that in much of evangelical parlance, the way the talk goes is they'll say something to this effect.

If you just take one step, you just make that first step, then

God will come the rest of the way. That sounds like weird advice to give to a dead person.

Okay. When, when we are conducting funerals here at Kongsvinger, I have yet to speak to the corpse and say, just come on.

If you just raise that hand a little bit and show me that you want to get out of that casket, then, then

God will meet you the rest of the way and resurrect you. All right. No, dead is dead. And so this is when we talk about that, that word comes into play and dead people don't make decisions.

They don't. In fact, scripture is very clear that you are not a Christian because you made a decision that act there's language that rules that out as to why you're a

Christian. So you were dead in trespasses and sins in which you once walked.

Okay. Greek word peripateo here is a Hebraism from, you know, from the way that the

Jews thought at the time. You see this throughout the old Testament. It means how you conduct your life, how you conduct your life in which you once walked following the course of this world, following the

Prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind.

And we were by nature, children of wrath, like the rest of mankind, super tight language describing our state.

Now we're well into the chiasm here and the middle part of the chiasm is going to begin now with the but God.

All right. I, you know, so we'll note that oftentimes the word, but when it is used has a magical eraser ability.

I used to hate it in the corporate world when I would get my annual evaluation. We all know how this goes, right?

Let's start with the things that we think that you're doing well, Chris. We've noticed that you're a team player, that you do turn in your

TPS reports mostly on time and that we don't have any issues regarding your attendance.

And then it comes out, then here comes the word, but. Okay. And but now then begins with here's all the areas where you have room for improvement.

Okay. And of course they always try to couch it in kind ways. You know, we're here to support you.

We're here to, you know, whatever. But the but basically makes it so all the positive things that they said, they cease to exist.

So I hate that way of doing it. And it's a terrible way to preach when somebody says, oh, well, you know, we're all, we're all a bunch of sinners, but God's going to judge you if you don't get your act together.

Well, that doesn't, that doesn't help me. That's terrifies me. Right? Right. So in this, in this case, then note, the, but is now going to get rid of the negative debt and trespasses and sins following the course of this world under the dominion of darkness, the

Prince of the power of the air that sons, we were sons of disobedience living according to the passions of our flesh, carrying out the body, the passions of desires of our body and our mind by nature, children of wrath.

And you'll know, and this is where we have to pay attention to grammar. And you know, so when we learn

Greek, we always know that in the Greek language, any noun that appears in what's called the nominative case.

So any noun that appears in the nominative case is the subject of the verb. All right.

If the noun plays a different role, if it's like showing possession, it shows up in the genitive.

If it's the indirect object, it'll show up in the data. If it's the direct object of a sentence, it'll show up in the accusative case.

There's four, there's four primary cases when it comes to nouns, but when a noun shows up in the nominative case, it is the subject of the verbs.

The verbs are being done by that noun. And so here in verse four, but God, the

Greek reads, Hade Theos. Theos is in the nominative.

That means the verbs that follow God's doing the verbs. He's doing the doing, and that's important, but God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses.

And then here's your first verb made us alive together with it takes five English words to press the wrong button.

I hate it when I do that. All right. Yeah. Okay. Because the great love of he made us alive together with, there we go.

Those five words are all compact into one Greek word.

And it's, it's a little bit of a tongue twister soon aids.

Oh boy. Yeah. It's not something that just rolls off the tongue.

Right. But here's the important bit. They ask is your noun who made you alive together with Christ?

God, no way around it. Absolutely zero way around it.

God made us alive together with Christ by grace. You have been saved.

And next verse raised us up with him. Still the same subject.

God is the subject of the sentence and the subject of these verbs. God made us alive together with Christ.

God raised us up with him. And then the next verb seated us with soon a coffee, sin seated us with him in heavenly places, three verbs, all run by God, the single subject and it's nominative.

So there's no way that you can say you made yourself alive, that you seated yourself with Christ or that you raised yourself up.

God did all the doing. Does that make sense? All right.

But you sit there and go, but when did I make a decision? You didn't.

Okay. God, the Holy Spirit came to you in either word or sacrament and your state was dead.

And God made you alive with Christ. God seated you with Christ.

You see it. Okay. So the verbs are unmistakable. The state is not one of making decisions.

God did the doing. He did the deciding. He's the one who raised you up. And there's reasons given.

He raised us up with him and seated us with him in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. So that here's your reasoning.

So that in the coming ages, plural, which is such a fascinating, fascinating phenomenon that we see in the

Greek over and again throughout the New Testament, you'll get a phrase that shows up with some frequency talking about God from the ages into the ages.

How many ages are there? Well, you're going to know in the coming ages, plural. In other words, when we get to the new earth and we finally see

Christ face to face, that will be the beginning of the new age. I'm not talking like, you know,

Shirley MacLaine here. I'm talking about an actual new age, but that's not the only one that exists. There will be an age after that one and an age after that one and an age after that one.

And I don't, I don't know what the differences are going to be, but you'll know from, you know, in the coming ages so that he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness towards us in Christ Jesus.

And then watch what's cut off in this. For by grace you have been saved through faith.

This is not your own doing. Let me say the words again.

This is not your own doing. But I asked Jesus into my heart.

This is not your own doing. God did the doing.

He did the didding. He didn't do nothing. Okay. So it's not your own doing.

It's the gift of God. Now what's the it? It, not, this is not your own doing.

What's it referring to? The whole kit and caboodle. It's talking about the grace. It's talking about the salvation.

It's talking about the faith. Even faith itself is given to you by God. The whole enchilada, the whole package, the big burrito itself is the entire thing is given to you as a gift by God.

And it's not your own doing. It's not the result of what you do. It's the workmanship of God. And I quote, he says, He says, He says, You do not boast of works so that no one may boast. That's an important bit.

Boasting in God's sight is a surefire way of being humbled by God. Which is one of the other reasons why

God has chosen that sanctification is done by grace through faith, humbly crying out to the

Holy Spirit asking for help, so that you don't end up becoming an arrogant, boastful jerk.

And then you'll note, we are His workmanship. Whose workmanship?

God's. Created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

Now the question then is, is that with passages this clear, are there other passages that say the same thing but maybe differently?

And the answer is absolutely, and I want to take a look at some of these. In 1 Peter, I want you to consider that Peter and Paul have the exact same theology.

The liberals and the secularizers out there within the visible church that sit there and say, well, you know,

Paul's Christianity was different than Peter's, it's belogna, okay? Just looking at the opening portion of 1

Peter, Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ. To those who are elect, exiles. So election comes into play here, by the way.

We are exiles of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Oslo, Minnesota, you know, and Horseheads, New York, you get the idea.

And can you really be an exile in the Virgin Islands, Carmen? I'm, you know,

I'm just looking at you going, this is not right, this seems wrong. But yeah, even you elect exiles in tropical regions.

Again, I'm feeling the need, Carmen, I'm getting a download, yes, I've got to do a pastoral visit in the middle of February of next year.

Duane will come with me and Becky too, we're going to stay at your house for a week or two. We don't want to be here during that time, just saying, you know, you haven't really lived until you've experienced a high of 30 below zero, okay?

That's living, I'm telling you. With 30 mile an hour winds, right. But let's keep going here.

Verse three, blessed be God and be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ according to his great mercy.

Watch the verbs. He has caused us to be born again to a living hope.

He did the causing, he did the doing, he did the didding. He caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiable, undefiled, unfading, kept in heaven for you who by God's power then you are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

You see, same concept. When talks about salvation, Peter is in complete agreement with Paul, who happens to also be in agreement with Jesus.

And I'll show you another text along these lines, but before we get there, consider what's also written in Paul's epistle to the

Colossians. Chapter one, and so from the day that we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will and all spiritual wisdom and understanding so as to walk in a manner worthy of the

Lord, fully pleasing to him. Now I want to make sure I didn't miss the point

I wanted, hang on, do, do, do, do, do. I'm going to look for a word, bearing fruit, yeah,

I know it's a little bit, all right, here it is, okay. He is the image of the invisible

God, firstborn of all creation. By him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through him and for him.

He is before all things, love this Christology, it's so good. In him all things hold together, you'll note that God's hand is still actively involved in keeping the universe from flying apart, right?

And he is the head of the body, the church, he's the beginning, the firstborn from the dead so that in everything he might be preeminent.

For in Christ all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

And then watch these words, you who were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death in order to present you holy and blameless above reproach before him, if indeed you continue in faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you've heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, right?

So you get the idea, he's the one who's going to present you, he's the one doing the doing.

And then there's a phrase I want to get in here, darkness, hang on a second here, darkness, and I know it's in this section so I'm going to just do a quick search in the epistles, there we go, and no, epistles are not the wives of the apostles,

I just have to make that clear, alright, alright, Colossians, verse 13,

Colossians 1, 13. So I just jumped off a little too quick, okay.

So watch the verbs here, talking about Christ, so from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the

Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work, increasing in knowledge, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the

Father, and watch the verbs, the Father who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light, he has delivered us from the domain of darkness, he has transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved

Son, in whom we have redemption and the forgiveness of our sins. So you'll note that this is constant throughout the

New Testament, when it comes to our salvation, God does the delivering, he does the doing, he seats us with Christ, he saves us, he does all of it, yes.

So the question is, which verses would they come up with to counter these, I'd have to think about that, it's been so long since I've heard their bad arguments, yeah,

I don't think there are any, well we're going to get to some more verses,

I can't think of a single verse that actually teaches that we make a decision, okay, I think it's one of these things where people assume free will and kind of read it in, that's generally how that goes.

Now let me show you some other clear passages in this regard. In the Gospel of John, so here's a verse that I would think that somebody would take out of context, and now that I think about it, there's a

Philippians verse that people take out of context too, to try to prove that we make a decision by our free will.

So in John chapter 1, I want you to listen to this verse and then

I'll stop at the point where you can twist it, but keep going to clear it up.

So talking about Christ coming into the world in the incarnation. Now the true light which gives light to everyone was coming into the world.

He was in the world and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own and his own people did not receive him.

But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. And you're going to note here, this is where people will stop and say, oh wow, see it says those who believe in his name,

God gave the right to become children of God. You stopped at the comma. You got to keep going in this verse.

So he gave the right to become children of God, and watch what's excluded, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

So when you finish the sentence itself, so that you do not think that this was based on a freewill decision, that you'll note that believing in his name is something that God gives you the ability to do.

And it's not by your will or the will of a human being, or the will of man.

And so you'll note, we are truly born of God. He has caused us to be born again,

Peter said. He has caused us to be born again. And then you'll note that as Lutherans then, we point to the biblical texts that make it clear how the

Holy Spirit is promised to be operative. He's promised to be operative in word, he's promised to be operative in the sacraments.

Now, if God the Holy Spirit is operative in any other means than this,

I'm not privy to that information as a pastor, I'm bound to stay within what is revealed.

I cannot speculate, speculation's out of bounds. So you get the idea.

So we know then that we're not born of the will of the flesh or the will of man, we're born of God, that God has chosen, he's the one who's caused us to be born again.

And then you'll note that in the Gospel of John chapter six, Jesus himself rules a few things out as it relates to free will.

And this is one of those sections that, well, the best way

I can put it is that this is another one of those sections where they have an ongoing verbal battle with Jesus.

So, let's see here, I want to get my verses set up here, no one,

I'm going to find this, hang on a second here, here it is, yep, there we go.

All right, let me put this in context. Verse 28, so they said to Jesus, what must we do to be doing the works of God?

Again, grammar matters. They ask a question and they want to know which works, plural, they need to be doing, to be doing the works of God.

Jesus answered her, at them, this is the work, tanergon, singular, this is the singular work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.

So they said to him, all right, what sign do you do so that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform?

Our fathers ate manna in the wilderness, and by the way, Jesus had just fed the 5 ,000, they're about ready to make him king by force.

Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, as it is written, he gave them bread from heaven to eat.

Jesus then said to them, truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, it was my father who gives you the true bread from heaven.

For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. They said to him, sir, give us this bread always.

Jesus said, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall never hunger, whoever believes in me shall never thirst.

But I said to you that you have seen me, and yet you do not believe. All that the father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me

I will never cast out. I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me.

And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.

For this is the will of my father, that everyone who looks on the son and believes in him should have eternal life,

I will raise him on the last day. So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, I am the bread that came down from heaven.

So they said, is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say

I've come down from heaven? Jesus answered them, do not grumble among yourselves.

No one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day.

And here's where vocabulary is important. So you'll note that when it comes to translation work, translating a

Greek text is not like decoding a text. There are words that are used in Greek that do not have an

English equivalent. That's just how this works. And so when we look at the word draws, the

Greek verb is helkouo, and I'm going to show you what that means, but I have to make it readable, hang on a second here.

So our verb is helkouo, all right, what does it mean? And I want you to listen to this word.

It means to move an object from one area to another in a pulling motion, to draw, with the implication that the object being moved is incapable of propelling itself or in the case of persons is unwilling to do so voluntarily.

In either case, the implication of exertion is on the part of the mover. So we do not have an

English verb that matches this word for word.

So you'll note that our English translation says, do not grumble, no one can come to me unless the father who sent me helkouos him, and I will raise him up on the last day.

So when I've taught on this in the past, I always make Jesus out to be basically a rodeo star, okay?

Because of our sinful nature, we're all a bunch of scared calves, and we've been put into one of them stalls, and the stall door opens up, a bell rings, and all of a sudden we're out there running in the rodeo, and out comes

Jesus, get along, you doggies, I'm gonna be drawing you on, and so he just throws that rope and grabs you, and he drags you into the kingdom.

And in doing so, no one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him, you've been drug into the kingdom, and that's the equivalent of what it means to come to him, all right?

And the verb helkouos makes it so that it's impossible for there to be anything else.

No one can come to me unless the father who sent me helkouos him.

It's not how you say it in Greek, but you get the idea. And then I will raise him up on the last day. The verb is, so, you know the reason why you're a

Christian? Because Jesus has hogtied you and drug you in.

Father chased you down, you know, you've been stalked by the lion of the tribe of Judah, he got his claws in you, and he just dragged your carcass all the way over into the kingdom of God, and then he breathed new life into you, and that's the reason why you're a

Christian. You know, you sit there and go, that's kind of cool, that's kind of cool, you know.

I remember years ago I was having a conversation with a lady who was trying really hard to be an atheist, and she was struggling at it.

She was really mad, she was really mad at God because she had been in an abusive marriage, and so I was doing pastoral counseling with her, and she goes,

I don't know what it is, I'm an atheist, I don't even believe in God, and I said, tell me a little bit about your childhood, you know, you seem to have so much anger towards God, it seems a little weird to me that, you know, for somebody who doesn't believe in God that you have so much anger.

And so I asked her about her childhood, and she told me that she had gone to a church and that when she was 12 she was baptized, and I go, oh, there's your problem right there.

And she goes, well what do you mean my problem, I said, see, Christ drug you into his kingdom and he gave you life in him, the reason why you're mad at God is because he exists and you've been made a child of his, you're fighting the faith that he gave you.

And she goes, oh, that makes sense. You know,

I don't know what ever became of her, but it was one of those aha moments where she goes, that's why I'm always so obsessed about, you know, so you'll know, so when

I talk to people, I'm always looking for a touch point where I can say, oh yeah, the

Holy Spirit was here and did his thing, and that explains why you're so screwed up, you know. We Christians are made to suffer horribly, it's just how this works.

So and then there's a follow up to this later in the same chapter, and Jesus goes on and he says in verse 65, this is why

I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted to him by the Father. So the idea then is that this is what we call monergism, and Lutherans are absolute sticklers when it comes to monergism,

God is the one who saves, the Holy Spirit is the one who draws, the Holy Spirit is the one who regenerates, he works through means.

This is how this works. And so when it comes to our salvation, you didn't choose

God, God chose you. Now, which always kind of leads to the burning question then, you know, since God works through means, why is it that when

I preach the gospel, some believe and some walk away and scoff? Answer, I don't know, okay?

And this is where a lot of people have done a lot of damage, okay? I told you that as a pastor,

I am authorized to tell you what the Word of God says. I am not authorized to speculate.

And so this is, the question as to why Bob, Jimmy, Jen, Steven, Louise, and Bill believe, but you know,

Billy Bob and them don't believe, why? I don't have an answer,

I don't know. I legitimately don't know, and I will say this, that some of the most pernicious errors in the

Christian church have been the result of people saying, oh, this challenge accepted,

I can figure this out, okay? And so the Calvinist says, ah,

I got it, so if A equals B and B equals C, therefore the reason why somebody doesn't believe is because they were a reprobate and they were elected to damnation.

How'd you come up with that again? Well, if A equals B and B equals C, then therefore the conclusion logically, no, you see, we don't do theology that way, okay?

We do theology with texts. Scripture says, it's not His will that any should perish, any.

Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Christ died for the sins of the world. So there are doctrines within Calvinism that are based on logic, not based on biblical texts, and the biblical texts say the opposite.

But within the Lutheran camp, there was also some really bad speculation along these lines, because we recognize that it is true that everybody who ends up in hell, it's their own fault.

It's not the fault of God, okay? God did not will for them to be there. Anybody who's in hell is there against God's expressed will written in Scripture.

So what happened is, in Lutheranism in America, in the 1800s, there was a group of people who came up with this wonderful idea, here's how it works.

The people who end up in hell is because they resisted stronger than other people resisted when the

Holy Spirit was working. Do you have a biblical text that says that? No, okay?

Now it's true that God's gifts are resistible, and that we resist the work of the

Holy Spirit, but we don't have a biblical text that says, if you resist up to this point, then the

Holy Spirit's going to rope you and drag you in, and if you resist beyond that point, then well, then you're on your own, and you're going to hell, okay?

This is how this works, okay? So I don't have any biblical text, that's pure speculation. Then you think of the

Arminian camp, all right? The Arminian camp within Calvinism, and technically they're on the

Calvinistic side of this. The Arminians came up with this really clever idea. They invented a doctrine called

Provenient Grace, all right? So you ask an Arminian, how is somebody saved?

Well, they have to choose God. Okay, but the texts say that no one chooses

God, it's not by a free will decision. They say, that's right, God is the one who chooses, so here's how it works.

Anytime somebody preaches the gospel, God gives a special dispensation of grace where he suspends the impact of original sin, making it possible for somebody after hearing the gospel to make a free will decision to ask

Jesus into their heart. And you say, do you have a biblical text that says that?

No, but it has to be this way. How do you figure, okay?

So the idea then is that if I could caution all of you, just stay within the bounds of scripture, and when scripture is silent, don't try to figure out what's in that silence.

I've seen so much damage done to people when they do so. And they sit there and go, well, but if we just leave it the way it is, then the

Bible contradicts itself. No, it doesn't. There's a difference between a contradiction and a paradox.

A paradox is when you've got two doctors disputing on what your cancer treatment should be. Sorry. I just had to do that.

Hang on a second, I need to have some coffee and revel in my victory here. So the idea then is that there is a paradox.

We recognize that everybody who's saved have been saved by a powerful, gracious act of God the

Holy Spirit. We know this is true. And everybody who is in hell, that is their own foolish choice and desire.

It's their fault. End of story. So we hold these things in paradoxical tension, and you don't solve the problem.

You just got to hold that out. So we recognize Christ has bled and died for everybody, and there is no doctrine of reprobation as the way the

Calvinists talk about it, and there is no doctrine of prevenient grace the way the Arminians talk about it.

Always and again, when I go down this road with somebody who holds those views, I am informed that I have a very simple view and I need to get a more complex theology.

No thanks. I'll stick with the simple texts. My job is to just plagiarize the

Bible. Do not lean on your own understanding. Yeah, election is the cause of faith, for sure.

So the question is, if Jen says the form of concord says election is the cause of faith. Correct. But we don't know how it works apart from the means of grace.

So we recognize that God's electing power is present where the means of grace are, where you hear the word, where the sacraments are being administered.

So that's the idea. Let me back up just a little bit because I know there's going to be some questions, and I'm going to see if I can be a little bit more diligent about getting here.

Kind of negative reinforcement. What does it mean when you draw nigh to God, he will draw nigh to you? So, Rachel, I think we answered that along the way, that nobody can draw near to God unless God draws him first.

And so the answer to the question is we will interpret it through the clear passages that we just looked at, especially

John 6, where it says that no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.

Let's see here. All right. James 4, 8.

Hang on a second here. Let's see what James is saying because somebody threw that into the mix.

Duplicate. And I know that when we talk about verses taken out of context, there's also one in Philippians, and I'll see if I can remember that because that's still on the table as far as a question.

So James 4. All right, 8. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you.

Okay, so here's our exegetical hierarchy of things. And you're going to note something is that James is written to Christians.

Christians now being regenerate, we have a regenerate will. And the idea then is that as Christians, we use our regenerate will to draw near to God.

This isn't talking to unbelievers. This is talking to believers to draw near to God.

So we would make that distinction primarily. And then we would put up all of the verses, like especially the

John 4, a sixth passage that relates to no one can come to me unless the

Father who sent me draws him. So taken out of context, he'll draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners.

Purify your hearts, you double -minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning. Humble yourselves before the

Lord. He will exalt you. This is a call to Christians to do that. James, this is part of the

Catholic epistles written to Christians. And I would note, as a pastor, I speak this way every Sunday, telling you sinner

Christians to, you know, you get the idea.

So here James is preaching the law to Christians to, let's just say, get them back in order because they're theologically straying into the era of antinomianism.

So that's your context. But there's one in Philippians. I think it's chapter 2.

And in Philippians chapter 2, it says something about, yeah, here it is. So watch this.

We'll take this out of context. When I was in Nazarene, this was one of the verses I would go to, especially when

I was first hearing the gospel and about biblical monergism. Here's the verse totally out of context.

Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. See, there it is, Philippians 2 .12. Ta -da!

Did you note that I started it in the middle of the sentence and didn't even finish it?

Okay, there's your problem right there. So grammar matters. So Paul says this, Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only in my presence but much more in my absence.

Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

So when you finish the sentence, just like we did in John 1, when you finish the sentence, you can't come up with a way of saying that this is saying you're saved by your decision.

You're not. So, in other words, God has done a big number on all of us.

Big number. All right. So I didn't sleep last night, so I might have missed this, but how is this different from a

Calvinist view? Rachel, a big difference. Calvinists don't talk about the means of grace the way we do.

Oftentimes Calvinists will refer to the means of grace as somehow being symbolic. We trust that the words of Scripture show that they're not symbolic and that God is working through them.

And then, of course, the Calvinists believe that somebody ends up in hell because they were elected to damnation.

We do not. No Scripture text says that. No biblical text says that. So Victor says,

Could one receive the faith brought by the Holy Spirit be considered a work?

No. Okay. So receiving the faith, because let's just put it this way.

Receiving the faith is like a dead person receiving life. Okay?

The dead person can't sit there and go, Look how I raised myself from the dead. I'm just the cleverest corpse ever.

It doesn't work that way. So no, you can't. Receiving is a passive thing.

You receive something passively. Like if a child receives a gift, parents did all the doing. The child received it.

Is that the action of receiving, not a work? Yeah, see, again, you're pushing just a little too hard on the idea.

Receiving cannot be a work. In fact, Scripture itself makes it clear that God works through means.

I'll show you another text. This will be a little more controversial. Titus chapter 3, which totally rules out any works on our part.

It says this in Titus chapter 3, verse 3. We ourselves, we were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice, envy, hated by others, and hating one another.

But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, Okay, watch your verbs. He saved us.

Who did the saving? He did. He saved us. Not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy.

And then we have this amazing part here. By the washing of regeneration and renewal of the

Holy Spirit. The washing of regeneration. Palaganesia here.

This is a word that only appears twice in the New Testament. Regeneration. Once in talking about how Christ will make the world new.

He'll regenerate the world upon his return. And here talking about how we are regenerated in Christ.

And the washing here, the Greek word is lutron. And that can only be referring to baptism. It's a religious ceremonial washing.

So you'll note that even baptism is not a work that any of us does. It's the work that God does. So he saved us not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the

Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior. Note the baptismal language.

He poured this out on us. So that being justified by his grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

So the idea then, even the receiving of salvation, being regenerated itself, those are synonymous terms, and you didn't do any of the doing.

It was done to you. Through the means of grace. I always thought the decision to receive

Christ was responding to the gospel. Yeah, no, it's not.

That's kind of the thing. If you're responding positively to the gospel, God's already done his work.

If you're sitting there going, I believe. And I'll end off on this, because I have to go now at this point.

Years ago when I was a Cub Scout leader, we had a Cub Scout den that met at our house, and we had a woman who would bring her son to our

Cub Scout meetings at our house, and her name is Jamie. And let's just say morally Jamie was kind of a train wreck is the best way

I could describe her. But over the weeks that she kept coming to our house, she said, boy, she could talk a lot too.

She always liked to hang out afterwards and talk and let the boys play. And one time she goes, you know, you guys seem kind of religious to me.

Tell me what you believe. And no joke, I mean, she comes into my house complete pagan that day, and I just laid out, we believe that Christ has died for our sins, and I preached the gospel to her, told her about the free forgiveness of sins in Jesus, and in the middle of the conversation she goes, you know what?

I believe that. And I go, you mean you believe that for a while? She says, no, I just started believing that right now.

I believe that. And she said, well, what do I do next? I go, I don't know.

I've never been taught this. It was out of my depth. And so I said, well, I think we're going to need to bring you to our church, and I'm going to have you talk to the pastor.

And she said, yeah, I want to do that. She came to church with us the next Sunday, and then she signed up for the adult catechism class.

She was confirmed, and she's still attending as a faithful member of that church in Lake Elsinore.

I told her she needed to be baptized. Yeah, she was baptized really shortly after that too. I mean, it was the most bizarre thing.

But in the middle of the conversation after preaching the gospel, she just goes, I believe that. And when

I asked her for clarification, she made it clear, like two minutes ago, no, now yes. Okay. So if you're positively responding to the gospel, the

Holy Spirit's already done his doing. He did his didding. So you get the idea. All right, that's where we're going to end off today, and hopefully that was a helpful conversation about free will and divine monergism.