June 2, 2017 Show with Greg Nichols on “Man’s Will: How is it Free & How is it Bound”

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Now here's our host, Chris Arntzen.

Good afternoon, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, Lake City, Florida, and the rest of humanity

living on the planet Earth who are listening via live streaming.

This is Chris Arntzen, your host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, wishing you all a happy Friday on this

second day of June 2017, and I must tell you that I was very richly

blessed at the Banner of Truth U .S. Ministers Conference at Elizabethtown

College in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania, where I was over the last three days.

It was such a joy not only to rekindle old friendships with people that I

haven't seen in decades, but also make new friends,

meet for the first time men that I have interviewed before but have never seen face to face,

and also to meet men that I've never even heard of that were quite fascinating brethren

in Christ who expressed great interest in becoming guests on Iron Sharpens

Iron Radio, and also meeting many of you in the listening audience who immediately approached me and

told me of how much you love this program.

That was indeed a refreshing blessing, obviously, and then also meeting a number

of the men in attendance who want to become regular listeners to Iron

Sharpens Iron Radio who had never before heard of the program.

So all in all, it was a wonderful time, and the messages were all

a blessing, all powerful, and I have to admit that my favorite of all,

because he was the one that was specifically preaching rather than teaching,

that was Jeff Thomas, formerly the pastor of a Reformed

Baptist church in Everest with whales, now Pastor Emeritus and

an itinerant evangelist and writer.

But what a blessing he was indeed, and they all were.

I wanted to make that clear.

All the speakers were a wonderful blessing, but there's something that was close to my heart

with everything that Jeff Thomas had to say and preach.

And today we have someone who is no stranger to Jeff Thomas.

We have, returning to Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, Greg Nichols, one of three pastors at Grace Emanuel Reformed

Baptist Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan, author of What Does the Bible Say About God? The

Biblical Doctrine of God, Truth for Eternity, and Lectures in Systematic Theology, Volume

1 and 2, I believe, is now out.

I'll get an update on that.

Today we are addressing man's will, how is it free, and how is it bound?

One of the most controversial issues in the body of Christ that sadly, 2

,000 years later, still divides the body of Christ.

But it is my honor and privilege to welcome you back to Iron Sharpens Iron,.

Pastor Greg Nichols.

Thank you very much.

It's my privilege and my honor to be.

I am familiar with Jeff Thomas.

The first time was in 1971, and the

preacher was Jeff Thomas.

And I've continued under the sound by God's grace

ever since.

I'm very, very thankful for.

Every memory of that dear.

You know what struck me about him?

One thing, one of the many things is that while some

brothers in Christ, while they age, they soften many of their

views, they become more ecumenical with those outside of evangelical

Christianity, and they just get more tolerant with error.

But Jeff Thomas was not that way at all.

And he tells it like it is, is more boldly committed perhaps

to the truths of the Reformation than ever before, and does not

candy coat the issues when it comes to the division that we have as heirs of the

Reformation with the Church of Rome, or with liberalism, or with the excesses of the

charismatic movement.

He is still as bold as ever, making the dividing line

more clear than it has been in recent years, because of it being

blurred and muddied with the modern ecumenical movement that wants peace

at any price, and even at the cost of truth.

So it was very good, refreshing to hear that from Jeff.

Good.

I'm thankful for the blessing that he has been in my life.

And in studio with me once again is my visiting co -host from time

to time, Charlie Liebert, who is the founder of SixDayCreation .com.

It's great to have you back in the studio,.

Charlie.

Hi, Chris.

Great to be here.

And Charlie is also a member of Redeemer Orthodox Presbyterian Church here in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

And if anybody would like to join us on the air with a question of your own about the will of man, our email

address is chrisarnsen at gmail .com, C -H -R -I -S -A -R -N -Z -E -N at

gmail .com.

Please give us your first name, your city and state, and your country of residence if you live outside the USA.

And I know that I have you do this every time you're on the program, Pastor Greg, but for those of our listeners who just discovered

you, who have never heard this program before, and perhaps I may have a lot of new people listening who are at the

Banner of Truth Conference who have never before heard of you, if you could let us know

something about Grace Emanuel Reformed Baptist Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Grace Emanuel is a church that holds to.

The 1689 London Confession of Faith, and our church has been in existence

several decades.

We belong to the Reformed Baptist Network

Cooperative effort of 26 or so, 1689.

We're one of the churches involved in

operating Reformed Baptist Seminary online and

modular -based seminary work

also, and there are various limits

to saying those two things.

And as you said, I'm one of the pastors.

The person who teaches the most here at Grace Emanuel now is a young

fellow.

I guess I say young because his name is Jeff Junker of the

Word of God, probably 70 of the time now.

So we're very thankful for his ministry.

You mentioned the Doctrine of Man, the second volume?

Yes.

That second volume is not yet published.

We hope God willing to have it published by Christmas.

Right now it is finished.

The format of it, or my Doctrine of Man course,

formatted over the summer, hopefully, six by

nine book, and hopefully that book

would be available from various publishers such as Solid Ground, I hope.

I hope our dear brother at Solid.

Ground would be willing to carry that.

I'd be shocked if he wasn't.

Well, I don't want to be.

Presumptuous, but I sincerely hope that Solid Ground would carry it.

Great.

Well, I

will be.

Praying about that, and I will also be informing and updating my listeners about that as we

continue to hear updates from you.

I'm sure we'll, God willing, be having you back on the program to continue

having interviews on various categories within your volumes of

this series that you are part of.

Today, as I mentioned, our theme is one of the most controversial

within Christendom that has divided brethren, sadly, for two millennia.

It is the question of man's will.

How is it free, and how is it bound?

I think that you might be willing to admit, Pastor Greg, that

although the entire problem does not lie at our own feet,

there is somewhat of a blame that we are indeed guilty of, I think, as

Reformed Christians, in perhaps the poor way we communicate to

others what we believe about the will of man.

Of course, we may have books and booklets and sermons titled things such

as, man's free will does not exist, free will a myth,

the free will heresy, and things like that.

If we don't explain further what we mean after making a statement like man

has no free will or free will is a myth, we may mislead, and we in fact, I think, do mislead

our Arminian and Roman Catholic brethren and others who are outside of Reformed

faith.

By the way, when I said Roman Catholic brethren, I meant that in regard to those who are truly

believing the gospel in spite of the damning gospel of the Roman Catholic Church as declared

as dogma in the Council of Trent.

I don't want to mislead anybody to think that I believe we have brethren who are believing

in Trent's definition of the gospel.

But, having said that, don't you think that sometimes we are unclear

when we dismiss the existence of the freedom of man's will, because there is freedom involved in

it, that being image bearers of God, there is still freedom involved in the will of man, is there not?

Well, in answer to that question,.

I can't respond, I probably shouldn't respond to,

or imbalances of individual writers.

But as far as Reformed Baptists are concerned, what we have in common is the 1689 London

Confession of Faith, and the 1689 London Confession of Faith does not denigrate the

term free will, but rather, in chapter 9, it uses the term free will,

and the confession is entitled, quote, of free will, end

quote, and it does not denigrate or attack or spit on that term.

And so, commonality of that which unites us in our

commitment to the 1689, we're not like that.

We don't have that type of extortion in

our confession, and with regard to the confession, the confession

acknowledges free will, and it does define the limits of,

and it defines those limits very clearly with respect to human beings in the state of sin.

Safer than going down the road of, well, that individual's imbalanced, but I

think that your point, if we're not careful, it's quite

possible with

regard to what Reformed Baptists actually,.

What the Bible actually says.

And I think from my own experience, having conversations with

Brethren in Christ of the Arminian persuasion, or those who are simply not

Calvinistic, believers in the doctrines of sovereign grace, theologically Reformed, however you want

to label us, there is an erroneous

conclusion drawn by many, even if they don't use the term,

they are very often assuming that we believe in equal ultimacy,

that there is just as much of a miracle taking place,

or a supernatural experience taking place, where God is equally active

in the saving of his elect who are damned.

The non -Reformed people very often believe that God is supernaturally

just as much actively involved in the reprobation of man, in

that he is importing into man, perhaps who would otherwise be

neutral morally and spiritually, he is importing into man an evil will,

a will that disobeys him, a will that seeks to satisfy his own sinful lusts.

But this is not at all what historically Reformed people have ever believed, is

it?

Certainly not.

Well,

tell us what you believe the Bible says in regard to the freedom of

man's will, and for those of you who are wondering why Pastor Greg Nichols

keeps repeating the phrase 1689 London Baptist Confession as if this is some kind of an authority

that is equal or superior to the scriptures, that's not at all the

case.

The 1689 London Baptist Confession, and the Westminster Confession, and the three

forms of unity that many in the Dutch Reformed tradition adhere to, and the

39 Articles of Religion that the Reformed Anglicans adhere to, and the Savoy

Declaration of the Congregationalists, these are summaries of

biblical teaching that these groups believe to be accurate

translations or definitions or the main

teachings of scripture that are exegeted by the writers of these various confessions and

creeds.

Of course, in the history of the church there are also bad confessions that contain much

teaching of men that is not in the scriptures, but these are just summaries of what the Bible

teaches, are they not these confessions, and specifically the 1689 London Baptist Confession that you and I adhere to?

Yes, the reason I.

Highlighted them, the reason that I highlighted

them, you

asked if

there may

be individuals that do this or that, but if you want to

know what Reformed, that's a

summary of the things most surely believed among us.

The question wasn't, well, what does the Bible say about this, or what does the Bible say about that, but what about

Reformed Baptists, and how do they act here, and this or that?

So that's the reason I highlighted the confession, that's the reason I said it.

But what you just said about the confession of faith being a summary of what.

Bible teaches, that's true.

We have a question or comment from our co -host Charlie Lieber.

Yeah,.

Two things I want to mention.

First of all, I regard the confessions and the catechisms as a great systematic theology, okay?

That's kind of what it is.

But secondarily, I would say this article, along with Westminster, is basically identical.

Right.

So the Presbyterians and the.

Baptists are on the same page on this one.

Right.

I assume that was the case since...

That is

true, and

that is right.

On some aspects of

the identical on this subject,.

That is absolutely right.

And by the way, Charlie Lieber is not a pastor, but he is... Apologist.

He's an apologist as a parachurch organization, but he's a member of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church.

Oh, I see, okay.

And well, I'm going to read a part of

Romans 3, and I want you to reflect on that, or

respond to it, Pastor Greg, and let us know what you believe this is

telling us about the will of man.

Romans 3, starting in verse 10, there is none

righteous, not even one.

There is none who understands.

There is none who seeks for God.

All have turned aside.

Together they have become useless.

There is none who does good.

There is not even one.

Their throat is an open grave.

With their tongues they keep deceiving.

The poison of asps is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.

Their feet are swift to shed blood.

Destruction and misery are in their paths, and the path of peace they have not known.

There is no fear of God before their eyes.

Now, obviously, as we have been saying in the outset of this broadcast, we believe that there is a

freedom that is intrinsically a

part of the will of man.

All men are image -bearers of God, and we do have a freedom involved in our will, but

what would this say about that freedom?

Well, I'm not sure that

that text is explicit of the

freedom of the human heart to choose, but

with that

text and

their light, and that's

why they are

mentioned and etc.

Wouldn't you say that this is in reference to all men apart from

regeneration?

And the reason why I was tying it in with our subject is because there's got to be a reason why Paul

specifically is saying, no, not even one, and if we all

have a completely free will, that is free to do anything that we

choose to do, why is it that none of us, apart from regeneration, apart from receiving the miracle of

rebirth, why is it that we are not understanding?

Somebody could read the Bible a thousand times from cover to cover, and without

the Holy Spirit's enlightening, he may not understand hardly a word other

than basic facts and truths, there would be a certain measure of blindness there,

and that none of us are seeking for God, unless we are seeking for some kind of benefit of religion,

and no one is doing good, not in regard to the way God defines good,

and that we keep deceiving, and we curse, and we are filled

with bitterness, and on and on we could go according to what Paul has said, quoting

in part from the Old Testament scriptures, and there must be a

reason for that, in regard to the will of man, there's something that is

not allowing man to do absolutely anything that would be

in the realm of pleasing to God.

And before

we get into, say,

an exposition of a text like this, because

this text is talking about what is commonly called total depravity.

There are two aspects of original sin.

One is the extent of original sin, and

another is what you're more talking about, which is the

incapability to change themselves, to

morally improve, to become righteous when they are wicked, to want to

become right with God, which they don't want to become, because their heart is such that they would never

want that.

It's not what they want, because of the way they.

Are, because their heart is that way.

So tell us, going back to the freedom of man, what you have in the,

not only the scriptures, but what you have summarized in our confession that does teach that there

is indeed a part of man's will that is free,

that we are not, and this would probably be further explained, that God or

Satan, neither God nor Satan, force us either to

come to Christ and embrace Him and follow Him, and nor does

Satan force us to commit evil acts.

There is a freedom that is involved in a will of man.

If you could tell us, in summary, some of those biblical and confessional

ways that we can see that more.

Clearly.

Okay, I'm going to say a couple things about it in terms of putting it into perspective.

I feel, first of all, the nature of man is an important

foundation of this whole discussion.

One of those is the capacity of will, the capacity to will.

Then you also

have, you know, the

divine covenant with man, and then the more, and

the, and then what I,

mysterious,

free agency, or come, or sometimes called free will.

And then after that, you have human sin, the

nature of sin, which are represented, and actual sin.

And so where you deal with these questions that you're raising, you deal with them when you address the concept,

why is man's original status of righteousness mutable?

How could that possibly ever change if man is inherently, essentially good in his

heart?

Feel, his capacity to moralize, his capacity to choose and think, all of those are

righteous.

The heart is set and fixed on good, and

if that's true,

if not,

simply can never be explained.

And as long as these mysteries remain in the Bible, there will be among

Christians, or three of

these mysteries, and they're all relevant to the subject and questions that you're asking, Chris.

And of course, the way we are as theologians and stuff, and I'm not, it's not a criticism of Professor Murray,

I don't take, that's not what I mean, I have the highest respect for him.

But whenever we run into things that we don't know what to say about them, what we do is we

coin big 50 cent terms, and we use them.

So the good professor has coined three huge terms with regard to these three mysteries.

He refers to them, three insoluble problems associated with human sin, the ontological problem,

the dispensational problem, and my favorite name, the psycho -genetic problem.

I tell the students in Reformed Aptus Seminary that there are two ways to

flunk the course, and B, solve these

problems.

The ontological problem, the problem of who?

Who is in control of sin, and who is responsible for sin?

God is in control, man is responsible, no one will ever be able fully to explain that with

human logic.

Second problem, the dispensational problem, the problem of why?

Good,

you

have to change,

as Will would have to

change, how could that possibly happen?

Three problems,

the ontological problem, the problem of why, the psycho

-genetic problem, the problem of how, you're never going to solve those problems.

And a lot of times, the divisions and the controversies come from efforts to solve the problems, or from

struggling with the fact that we can't explain all this with human logic and reason.

It's beyond our capability fully to comprehend and explain it.

So we have to embrace what Scripture says and leave it with God.

In fact, we're going to pick up right where you left off, because we have to go to station break.

If you'd like to join us on the air with a question of your own about the will of man, our email address is

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Hi, I'm Mark Lukens, pastor of Providence Baptist Church.

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Welcome back, this is Chris Arms,.

And if you just tuned us in, our guest today for the full two hours with about 90 minutes to go is Pastor Greg

Nichols, and I am determined never to call him Pastor Greg Reynolds during this program,

as I have done in the past for some reason that I can't determine.

And he is pastor of Grace Emanuel Reformed Baptist Church in Grand Rapids,

Michigan, and we are discussing man's will, how is it free, and how is it bound,

which is really at the heart of the Reformation debate between Martin Luther and

Erasmus.

And if you'd like to join us on the air with a question of your own, our email address is chrisarnson at gmail

.com, chrisarnson at gmail .com, and before we went to the break, we were just going to get into

a summary of where you believe that the Bible, and also the summary

of the scriptures in the 1689 London Baptist Confession, where the areas

of man's freedom are made most clear.

Yeah, thank you.

Thank you so much for that, brother.

I appreciate that.

I have to admit, from time to time I still giggle about that, and from time to time I send you emails

in which I sign I'm Greg Reynolds.

For those of our listeners who are unaware of the actual Greg Reynolds, he's an Orthodox Presbyterian minister and author,

and I've had him on the program too, and I don't know why I just keep interchanging the names

there.

I feel honored to be called Greg Reynolds.

Let me just read you what the Confession says about this in Chapter 9, Paragraph 1, probably, would be a good

place to start.

That's a fact that we know in hindsight, in retrospect, but it's a mystery

of how mutable in his heart is

mysterious, as I said, with psychogenetic problems.

Talks about the will of man.

The will of man is a capacity of the human heart, or of the human soul, the capacity to

purpose, desire, and it has to do,

they say, that on

choice.

He's murder evil

once, and that's the

first.

The human will is not by any

necessity of nature, or the Westminster Confession, this is the one word difference, adds absolute

determined to do good or evil.

Now, what they're talking about is, that could be misleading, to determine

is to set or fix characteristically.

That is, the Westminster and London

Confessions are referring to what the old writers would call the habitus of the will, and they mean that

human nature itself does not mandate that every human

align to a common and unalterable moral habitus.

They mean that some human wills can be set on good, and other

human wills can be fixed or determined or set on evil.

They do not mean that there can be a human will or a human heart with no moral

fixation.

They do not mean that a human will can be morally neutral.

Some human beings, the righteous, have their wills fixed, determined, and set to do what is morally

good, and other human beings, equally human, the wicked, have their wills determined and

set and fixed to do what is evil.

And they explain that in the next paragraph, where they talk about the will

of male choices in the state of sin, and then the heart of man in

the state of grace, and the righteous in the state of

grace and glory, the wicked in the state of sin.

So that's clearly what they mean there.

So they say that it's possible to be human and have your will set on doing evil, those in the state of

sin.

And it's possible to be equally human and have your will set and fixed on doing good, those in the state of

grace and those in the state of glory.

And that's what they mean when they're saying that the will is that the freedom of the will means that it's possible for its habitus,

its moral fixation to change.

It's not by any absolute necessity or necessity of nature.

Now that could be very human being to have a will morally neutral,

neither set on good nor on evil.

It's not what they mean.

But I think what they're saying is balanced freedom of choice, that people are

not fooled

by that.

So when the

non -Calvinist or

non -reformed

person.

Starts making claims about us or accusations about us,

which often devolve into slander,

when they say that we don't believe man has a will at all or is able

to choose anything on his own, that we are basically God's robots.

But they are wrong because we do make choices all the time.

We have the ability to choose what we want for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

We have the ability to choose what we want to pursue as a career, who we

choose to marry.

There are many things that we do every moment of every day in our lives, every second of every day in

our lives that we choose to do.

But the issue isn't it really that, as in Romans 8,

in regard to the natural man, in regard to the condition of all of us apart from the miracle of

rebirth, is that the mind set on the flesh is

hostile towards God, for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is

not even able to do so.

And those who are not in the flesh cannot please God.

So therefore, I'm assuming we can conclude that although man's will is free, we are not

free apart from regeneration to please God.

And pleasing God would include choosing to follow him, repenting,

and having a saving belief in him.

Those would involve things pleasing to God, and therefore there's something preventing us

from being able to do that.

Prior to the miracle of rebirth.

Am I right?

Yes.

I would put it that

no human being is a puppet, not in the state of innocence, not in the state of

free agency, or is integral to the way

that

they

say, quote, the state

of sin, good

accompanying, is not

able by his

own strength to

impair himself.

And they quote, as support for this, one of the texts,

7, the carnal mind is enmity

against God,

for indeed can

it be?

And

those that

are not morally, an

ability of man that he's lacking as a

mind, he has a will, he has capacity to choose.

It's a moral inability.

It's that his heart is sinful through and through, so sinful that he never wants

to, and never would want to, and never could want to morally change so as

to be right with God.

Jesus summarizes this in John 540, sums it up when he says, you do not will, you do

not desire, want to come to me that you might have life.

Sinners are not robots, they act as they please, freely, according to their heart, but they have no heart for

God.

So total inability, one of the

characteristics of

immoral

agency, certainly have

the power they want to do,

whatever they love it, if they delight in.

The thing is that the heart is what...

Right.

And then Charlie Liebert has another question or comment.

I think the differentiation here can be fairly simply stated by saying, it's not that they can't,.

It's that they won't.

That's it.

Yeah, you could put it this way, they can't because they don't want to, they can't because they

want to.

They won't choose to, they won't choose to.

Okay, well why would then in verse 7 of Romans 8, Paul under the

inspiration of the Holy Spirit does say, the mind set on the flesh is

hostile towards God for it does not subject itself to the law of God for it is not even able to do so.

That's right, it is a matter of can't, but what we're saying is, what I'm saying is, I think what

the brother's saying too...

Charlie Liebert.

Charlie, right, I know, I almost called him pastor again, sorry.

That it's a moral inability, it's not a metaphysical, it's not

like you're asking a kid to 500

pound weight and holding him guilty when he can't.

I'm not talking about a moral inability,

the heart loves sin, they're acting freely, they're acting of their own choice, there's no compulsion

against will, there's freedom and liberty to do exactly what they want to do and feel like

doing and love to do morally.

The thing is, they don't have any ability morally to change

themselves from being in a state of sin to put themselves in a state of grace.

That's what it's saying they cannot do.

It cannot happen, they don't have the capacity to save themselves.

And would it be rightly said, I've heard it said...

That's what that text is saying.

You're right, and I've heard it said by some of our Reformed brethren that men

have the ability to choose, but they always choose according to their

nature.

That's right.

And if you are by nature of the devil, of your father the devil, but prior to

rebirth, you are going to choose accordingly.

You're always going to be choosing things that please you in some way.

And when you are born again, you now have the ability to please God

being his child and having a new heart, having received a heart transplant from Christ,

having your heart of stone removed and now having a heart of flesh.

You are given the ability to please God by the things that you do, by the ways that you obey him,

and so on.

Yes.

Let me read to you the next statement about free agency in the state of grace.

It's LCF 94.

When God converts grace,

he frees him from his natural bondage.

Son shall make you free, you will be free indeed.

They quote that.

And by his grace alone, enables him

freely to will that which is spiritually

good.

Amen.

Yet to will and to work for his good pleasure is the weapon.

So as that by reason of his remaining corruptions, he does not perfectly.

But does also.

And there's a

distinction between the state of

tremendous mystery associated with regeneration.

How does an almighty sovereign God work upon a human heart to

change the human will?

In fact, if you pick right up on that, when we return from our next break, this is our midway break.

If anybody would like to join us.

And by the way, we have a lot of listeners waiting to have their questions answered.

And we'll get to as many of you as we can when we return.

If you'd like to join them, our email address is chrisarnson at gmail .com.

Chrisarnson at gmail .com.

We'll be right back.

God willing, with Pastor Greg Nichols, right after these messages from our sponsors.

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Welcome back.

This is Chris Arns.

And if you just tuned us in, our guest today for the full two hours with about an hour to go is Pastor

Greg Nichols, one of three pastors at Grace Emanuel Reform Baptist Church in Grand Rapids,

Michigan.

We are addressing man's will.

How is it free and how is it bound?

Before I return to our discussion, I have a few special announcements to make

by some of our sponsors.

From June 22nd through the 23rd, the organization known as

Sermon Audio, which many of you are familiar with.

Sermon Audio is having the Foundations Conference in New York City where I will be attending

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Pastor Jesse Barrington of Grace Life Church in Dallas, Texas, who I've had on this program before.

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For still our ancient foe is the theme, and that is obviously a line from A Mighty Fortress, that wonderful

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And then, last but not least, in January, the G3

Conference returns to Atlanta from January 18th through the 20th, 2018.

And I am delighted to have an exhibitor's booth at that conference, God willing.

And I thank Pastor Josh Weiss of Praise Mill Baptist Church who is organizing this event for

arranging that I would have a free exhibitor's booth to promote Iron Sharpens Iron Radio because we promote

everything that they do over at Praise Mill Baptist and the G3 Conference.

And the speakers at this event include, God willing, Paul Washer, Stephen Lawson,

Votie Balcom, H .B. Charles, Jr.

And by the way, I've been mistakenly saying he's the new president of the Southern Baptist Convention.

That was an error.

He is the new president of a conference that the Southern Baptist Convention holds.

So I said that without having all the facts and I apologize for that.

Tim Challies is also gonna be one of the speakers.

The aforementioned Pastor Josh Weiss of Praise Mill Baptist Church.

My dear friend of many years going back to 1995, Dr. James R. White of Alpha and Omega

Ministries is one of the speakers.

Tom Askell, another dear friend who is the pastor of Grace Baptist Church

in Coral Ridge, Florida, and he, or Cape Coral, Florida, I'm sorry.

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Now we are returning to our discussion on man's will.

How is it free?

How is it bound?

With our guest Greg Nichols of Grace Emmanuel Reformed Baptist Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

And before the break, we were talking about the mystery of regeneration.

In fact, let me read a text from

the Gospel of John in chapter 1.

We have, starting in verse 9, there was the true light, which coming into the world enlightens every man.

He was in the world and the world was made through him.

And the world did not know him.

He came to his own and those who were his own did not receive him.

But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in his name

who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh,

nor of the will of man, but of God.

And there we have the mystery of regeneration, of rebirth

being mentioned here by John in the first chapter of his Gospel.

If you could pick up where you left off on that,.

Pastor Greg.

Yes.

Thank you, Chris.

I was speaking about the fact that God is omnipotent,

beyond infinite power.

The human heart morally, without turning human being,

a puppet is not responsible for the actions of the ventriloquist.

And when a sovereign God controls sinners, he controls not wooden dummies, but

free moral agents.

The Bible just asserts unambiguously that God is in control

and without turning them into puppets.

It says, quote, the heart of the Lord and he

turns, he will.

Proverbs 21 verse one.

So free moral agency, man's free moral choices.

This does not cancel God's sovereignty.

God predestines, controls, determines everything that happens in this world,

including everything that fallen men do and choose to do morally.

For example, with regard to Joseph's brothers, the scripture says, in Genesis 50 verse

20, you meant it to do with their heart, their capacity to

purpose, want, moral capacity, moral

choices.

You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good.

Amen.

God controlled what they did without turning them into puppets.

He had a different purpose.

The different intention than they had.

And yet he was in control of what they did.

And again, Isaiah and Isaiah 10, seven says, Oh, a Syrian rod of

my anger, the rod indignation

self against him that hues with it.

How be it?

He means not so, but it is in his

joy and to cut off people, not a few.

So he's talking about the Assyrian.

He's saying that he's going to use the Assyrian like an ax in his hand.

God's in control.

The Assyrian is just an act.

And yet it's not the intention of the Assyrian.

He means not so.

This is not what he intends.

This is not what he wants.

This is not what he chooses.

This is what he chooses.

It's in his heart, his capacity to will choose design and want

and desire.

He wants to destroy.

He wants to cut off people, not a few.

He doesn't want to serve Jehovah.

He doesn't want to be an ax in my hand.

He doesn't want to do my will, my bidding.

He does what he wants to do.

He makes the moral choices that he wants to make.

He does that freely out of his own heart.

And this is what's in his heart.

He doesn't intend mean and purpose.

What I intend mean and purpose.

And here God is controlling the free moral choices of human beings in

infinite and incomprehensible power without turning those human beings into puppets.

He means not so.

He did God's purpose, even though he wasn't aware he was doing it.

He didn't want to do it.

He was doing what he wanted to do.

He wasn't a puppet.

He means not so.

But God accomplished his purposes through him.

Hoetherian, rod of mine anger, because he has infinite, omnipotent power that we

can't even begin to conceive how it works.

The only plausible meaning of the Bible on these issues is that sinful man in the state of sin is

a free moral agent who morally chooses what he wants to do and does it.

And he's accountable to and under the control of a sovereign God.

Yes, and unless your understanding of what Paul

is saying in Romans 9 will cause an immediate knee

-jerk reaction from the unbeliever that says,

why does God still find fault with us because for who resists his will?

If that isn't the immediate knee -jerk reaction from what Paul is saying, then you are not

explaining it correctly.

And for those of our listeners who don't know that specific area of

Romans 9, we have starting in verse 18, he has mercy, meaning God has mercy on whom he

desires and he hardens whom he desires.

You will say to me then, why does he still find fault for who resists his will?

On the contrary, who are you, oh man, who answers back to God?

The thing molded will not say to the molder, why did you make me like this?

Will it or does not the potter have a right over the clay to make from the same lump one

vessel for honorable use and another for common use?

So this whole puppet or robot analogy is immediately dismissed by

Paul writing through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in these verses.

Basically, there are some things involving mystery that only have one answer.

You have no reason to talk back to God.

Oh, that's what

I call the ontological problem.

That text is just basically highlighting, summarizing that problem that why does he

still find fault for who withstands his will?

Because men are supposed to make their own moral choices and yet a sovereign God

is in complete control of them without turning them into puppets, without in any way violating their free

moral agency.

How can he do that?

Only God knows that.

Amen.

All right, I'm going to go.

To some of our listener questions because I don't want to leave all of our listeners out of this discussion.

We've got a lot of listeners who have responded and I hope I can get to all of them.

Murray in Kinross, Scotland says, I understand from what has been said that

Adam had no moral will to eat of the other trees in the garden, including the

tree of life, but chose to believe a serpent and eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

However, after this, in Genesis 3 verses 22, God decides to throw

Adam out of the garden lest he eat of the fruit of the tree of life and live

forever.

Wouldn't this imply that Adam had the will to choose what is good or what is not good and

that God had to act to prevent Adam from acting contrary to his own will?

I'm a little bit confused by this myself.

I believe I understand the logic of what he's saying, but I don't think that the purpose of that

is to say that man has the capacity to choose to

do what is morally good.

And this is before the fall he's talking about, so Adam would not have been in a state of sin.

Well, no, he's talking about Genesis 3, 22 being after the fall when man is in a state of

sin and he throws him out of the garden so that he won't choose to do what's good is what he's saying.

Okay.

I don't think that that's...

I think that that's not a...

Well, thank you, Murray and Kinross Scotland.

Please continue spreading the word about Iron, Sharpens Iron in Scotland and beyond.

We always love hearing from you.

We have another listener.

We have all the way in Slovenia.

We have Joe in Slovenia and I am enlarging his font

because it's very tiny.

The font of his email.

And he says,.

Dear Brother Chris,.

Thank you so much for dealing with such great topics like this with wonderful guests like Brother Nichols.

Please help me with a clear and concise statement describing bondage and freedom regarding

our will.

I've thought for some time that the scriptures teach us that apart from Christ, we

are all in bondage to sin and unable to exercise free will in matters pertaining to God in any

way that is pleasing to him.

Once he draws us to himself and grants us regeneration and faith, our will is then freed in salvation to choose

attitudes and behaviors that are in obedience and pleasing to God.

Is this an accurate summary of the reformed doctrine of the bondage and free will?

How could I make my description more clear, concise, and biblically accurate?

That's a very good question.

And also with regard to the former question, I understand the logic

that the brother's using.

Let me just say that, you know, we have to take and interpret, be

logically deduced from a text in the light of what is clearly taught and emphatically taught

clearly in scripture.

And when you do that, you see that that is not what that text is actually teaching because it would

contradict a clear teaching of the word of God in so many other passages, which I would like to get to for that

very reason.

Now, respecting this second question, I will offer a couple of definitions that

I hope will be helpful.

I already read the ones from the Confession of Faith.

This is Professor Murray's definition of total inability

as it is given the exact quote.

This is in Collected Writings, Volume 4, published by the Banner of Truth in

1977 out of Edinburgh.

This is Volume 2, pages 85 and 86.

And in that place, Professor Murray says, and I quote,

natural state is psychologically, morally and spiritually

capable of the understanding, affection and will, which will

enable him to be subject to the law of God, respond to the gospel of his

grace, appreciate the things of the spirit of God, or do

the things well -pleasing to him, end quote.

And in those phrases, the good professor is referring to Romans 8, 7.

He's alluding to chapter 2.

And my work, I offer a similar definition.

I say that total inability,

not physically or metaphysically, but morally and spiritually

impossible to emancipate or resurrect themselves from

this state cannot make their evil,

cannot comply with God's law or believe in Christ and be saved or

appreciate and receive spiritual blessing or please God.

Now, in order to support this, and this is important, Professor Murray collates and

exegetes five types of scriptural support.

He uses Matthew 7, Matthew 12, 33 to 35,

Luke 6, 43 to 45, John 6, 44, 45 and 65, Romans

6,

verse 11, 6,

and John 3, 3 and 5.

Now, 23,

also do

evil and Matthew chapter 7, verse 16 and 18.

You know them by their fruits,

forth evil fruit.

A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree.

Again, Matthew 12, 34 and 35, you brood of vipers, being

evil speak what is good for the mouth speaks out of

that which

good treasure, what it brings out of his evil treasure.

What is

they were astonished out of

measuring among themselves who then can be, can be

saved.

And Jesus looking upon them says with men, it is impossible

for with God, all things are possible.

Control the more.

Again, in John 3, 3 and 5, the text on regeneration, Jesus said, verily I say to you, except

the man cannot

accept a man be born of water and of spirit, he and again

in John

chapter 6, verse 44, 45, no man can come to me

except the father which has sent me draw him and I will raise him up at the last day.

And, uh, and he said, therefore, I said unto you that no man can come to me,

except it were given unto him of my father

speaks about people.

And again, Romans chapter 7, 17 and 18 and 20, where he speaks about

people being slaves of sin and being transformed,

emancipating us from the law of sin and death.

The text that has been alluded to before, we quoted

that God, no mind, the mind of the flesh

is enmity against God, can't be subject to the law of God,

speaks about being unable to receive

the things of the spirit of God.

Ephesians chapter 2

has a resurrection from, cannot resurrect themselves.

Jeremiah 13, 23 and Matthew 7, 6, 45.

They cannot comply with God's law.

We cannot

please resurrect themselves from mistake.

They can't because they, and they don't want to.

It's not that they're forced against their will to be unable to, they don't want to do any of this.

Amen.

And I'm going to read you a question from a brand new listener, or actually, I don't know if he's a brand new listener, but he's a

first time questioner anyway.

And I'll have you answer it when we return from our final break that we're going into.

Mauricio in San Pedro, California says, does God, the Holy Spirit

influence the Christian to do good works?

Is it the Christian's will or the Holy Spirit's that accomplishes good

works?

That is Mauricio in San Pedro, California.

We're going,.

And we'll get your answer,.

Pastor Greg,.

When we return.

This is our final break.

If you'd like to join us on the air, now is the time to do it.

And you do it quickly because we're running out of time.

ChrisArnson at gmail .com.

ChrisArnson at gmail .com.

God willing,.

We'll be right back after these messages from our sponsor.

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Give yourself unto reading.

The man who never reads will never be read.

He who never quotes will never be quoted.

He will not use the thoughts of other men's brains, proves that he has no brains of his own.

You need to read.

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Hi, I'm Pastor Bill Shishko inviting you to tune in to A Visit

to the Pastors Study every Saturday from 12 noon to 1 p .m. Eastern Time on

WLIE Radio, www .wlie540am

.com.

We bring biblically faithful pastoral ministry to you and we invite you to visit the Pastors Study by calling in

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Our time will be lively, useful, and I assure you, never dull.

Join us this Saturday at 12 noon Eastern Time for a visit to the Pastors Study.

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For generations, Christians have enjoyed gathering and growing at Harvey Cedars.

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By the way, my apologies I should say to my friend Pastor Bill Shishko.

I just cut off the last part of his ad for his program, and he said, because

everyone needs a pastor, and that is very true.

And I accidentally cut the last couple of words of his ad off when I started the Harvey

Cedars commercial too prematurely.

But before the station break, Pastor Greg Nichols, when we were having

our conversation that we are continuing now for the next half hour on man's will,

how is it free?

And how is it bound?

We had a guest, a first time questioner from San Pedro, California,

Mauricio, who says, does God, the Holy Spirit influence the Christian to do good works?

Is it the Christian's will or the Holy Spirit's will that accomplishes good works?

Hi, Chris.

Hey, how are you?

Let me get to that question in just a moment, if I may.

Sure.

We'll address it.

Happy to address it.

And if someone wants to look up a couple of texts, one would be Ephesians chapter 2 verses 8 to 10.

The other would be in Philippians chapter 2 verses 12 and 13.

In the meanwhile, I would like to just complete before I go to a slightly different aspect of this topic, which that

question is, I would like to just complete the thought that I was making.

And that has to do with, I offer definitions and scriptural support,

but you know that commonly we hear objections to these ideas of totally,

one of those, it's often said, it's commonly

ability,

no ability, that it's not fair otherwise.

So how can God hold people responsible for in the state of sin if

they don't have the ability morally to repent and believe?

How can that possibly be right?

That's not right.

That's not fair.

Right.

So I think that that ought to be at least addressed briefly.

Definitely.

Yes, definitely.

Or metaphysical.

It's not a metaphysical inability.

Sinners do not lack.

No, they don't lack a mind.

They don't lack a heart.

They possess all the faculties essential to comply with God's gospel and God's law.

So their inability to repent and believe does not come from,

it's not physical inability.

It's not like, as I said before, asking a child to lift a 500 pound weight and say, and hold them

responsible.

That's a caricature.

And it misconstrues the case because the child is physically unable to lift a weight.

But the sinner has no physical or bodily inability, no metaphysical inability in his

soul.

They have all the capacity of will and mind and feeling that they need to obey

God's gospel and God's law if they wanted to.

They can't obey the gospel because they don't want to repent and believe.

They never will want to repent and believe or to obey God unless God changes their

moral.

The scripture does not teach

ability always go together.

It says that God requires for that they will never do and can never do

because of their evil nature.

The Bible clearly teaches it.

And so total inability is like asking someone who hates you to lift a feather for you.

He can't do it because he won't do it because he refuses to do it because he hates you.

Now here's another thing.

It's like requiring a drunk driver to obey the traffic laws.

Now I use this illustration because it shows clearly ability don't

always go together.

You can't say, well, drunk drivers have no responsibility to obey traffic laws because they have no

ability to drive in a straight line.

But if responsibility always and a drunk driver is not responsible,

keep the traffic because he can't drive in a straight line.

So it is not true that responsibility always implies ability.

The drunk driver is responsible to drive the car.

So if it's unfair to require drunk drivers to obey traffic codes, then only then is God unfair and

unjust when he requires sinners.

He's requiring what sinners drinks a wine of sin have no

moral ability to do.

I know that illustration breaks down.

It's not right to say that there's always ability when there's responsibility.

That's just not true.

And one thing I just wanted to quickly ask you about that because you were using the analogy

that God doesn't ask a child to pick up a 500 pound weight.

But does he not and has he not when he commands

men to do things that we are incapable of doing and the Arminian

or the non -Calvinist says, oh, he would never do that.

Well, in John 5, when Jesus sees an invalid lying

in the street and he says to him, do you want to get well?

And the invalid says, Sir, I have no one to help me into the pool when

the water is being stirred while I am trying to get in.

Someone else goes down ahead of me.

And then Jesus said to him, get up, pick up your mat and walk.

And at once the man was cured.

He picked up his mat and he walked.

So even though God commands all men to repent and believe.

And we are morally incapable of doing that each and every one of us because we're made out of the same lump of clay, even

the born again believer and the pastor are made out of the same lump of clay with the unrepentant

prostitute and murderer.

And here we are being commanded to repent and believe.

But he gives us with the miracle of regeneration and the miracle of being

receiving or being given a new heart.

We do, those of us who are born again, repent and believe.

So isn't that in a sense, God does command of us to do

things we cannot do, but he makes some of us in his mercy capable of doing what he commands?

Yes, that's exactly right.

And that's a good picture of it, the illustration you gave.

But what I'm saying is that it's not unfair because he

holds traffic laws.

Right.

And they have the responsibility to do it.

I didn't get them drunk I went out and got drunk.

Their fault.

And they're still responsible to do what they have no moral ability or desire.

Anyway, I just wanted to that briefly try to illustrate he

always must imbalance

free offer and well -meant offer.

And God is sincerely and genuinely calling

and we must always

and even though we can't illustrate it or explain it, and even though there's a great

ontological problem, there's a great mystery that we can never solve or explain.

We have to hold both total inability and the free well -meant sincere offer of Christ

together and never give up either of those two things.

Even though we can't explain how they fit together.

Now let me get to the that was asked the will of

the Holy Spirit and the will of the Christian in doing good works.

It says that God

afore prepared that we would walk in them.

Then it also work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

For it is God that works in you to will.

It's good pleasure.

He works in us to will.

So clearly the will of the Christian is involved.

The will of the Christian and the will of God are both involved.

There's no contradiction between that because he works in us to will what

pleases him.

He works in us to choose what pleases him.

He works in us to want what pleases him.

He works in us to resolve to do what pleases him.

And he enables us by grace to do it.

There's no contradiction at all.

It's not either or but it's both and.

Well, thank you, Mauricio from San Pedro, California.

And since you are a first time questioner, you have won a beautiful new New American Standard

Bible.

Compliments of the publishers of the NASB and compliments of our friends over at Cumberland Valley

Bible Book Service.

CV for Cumberland Valley bbsforbiblebookservice .com.

Cvbbs .com.

And we thank Todd and Patty Jennings, owners of Cumberland Valley Bible Book Service for

their faithful support of Iron, Sharp, and Zion, who will be shipping that out to you.

Keep your eye open in the mail for a package with a return address.

Cvbbs .com.

We also thank, of course, the publishers of the NASB who have been sponsoring Iron, Sharp, and Zion radio ever since we

went on the air back in somewhere between late 2005 and

2006.

So we thank them for their faithful sponsorship.

We would not be on the air without the publishers of the NASB Bible.

And we have Jenny from Ben Salem, Pennsylvania,.

Asks,.

Based on your experience, why do non -reformed believers consistently impose their false

understanding of God's sovereignty over all matters of men?

For example,.

Why do they insist that they are the ones coming first to Christ and not admitting that,.

Scripturally,.

It shows quite clearly that God calls first, not men?

That's Jenny from Ben Salem, Pennsylvania.

It's hard to walk a mile in someone else's shoes, but I think

they're praying and they're on their knees

what they might say when they're in a theological argument.

That's right.

I also, a lot of times, Christians have problems with

subjects like this because, logically, it's very difficult to gather

that our minds cannot fully fathom.

Like, we cannot fully fathom, logically and with human reason.

How can it be possible that the Bible teaches both total inability and the free, well

-meant sincerity to all in the state?

And sometimes people struggle with things they

can't logically and with reason fully explain.

I think that's a lot of it sometimes,

the question.

I know that a lot of Arminians and non -Reformed Christians

believe that they are defending the love and character of God

and their attempts at saying that he gives men all equal ability to come to him on their own

esteem with some prodding from the Holy Spirit but not actually requiring the transformation and

regeneration of the Holy Spirit.

And they really don't have a logical ground to stand on because we don't have an

equal playing field.

Some children are born to nurturing Christian parents in the Bible belt.

Some children are born to Muslim parents in the Middle East.

And if they were to come to faith in Christ, it would be a miracle in itself because most of them have never heard the gospel.

But secondly, they would be tortured or murdered most probably if they did.

So it's not like it's an equal playing field.

Not to mention the places throughout the globe for centuries in the deepest, darkest jungles

and areas of the world where there was never a gospel witness and there are still areas that don't have any gospel witness

where men never heard anything about Christ.

So it's not an equal playing field that would make their argument more logical.

Am I right?

Yes, and you can tell

them and explain.

I mean, now you're in the area of

how is that

why God ordains?

Why people have no

ability?

He doesn't give them that ability to do it.

And yet his offer is sincere.

People struggle with that.

They really struggle with that.

Yeah, unlike God.

But the fact that they can't explain things like that because I can't.

But I believe the Bible clearly

and nobody can be saved unless the father draws him, unless he creates repentance and faith and

regenerates the soul.

Bible clearly teaches both.

So we believe both, even though I cannot logically explain it.

And people struggle with that.

And I think that gives rise to a lot of this difficulty is the fact that it's beyond our ability

again.

Well, unlike God, who alone has the power of sovereign election

in his hands, I have two North Carolinians who each have a question, and I

don't know if I'll have time to ask them both.

So I'm going to do an eeny, meeny, miny, moe, which is not the method that God uses, even though our Arminian

friends seem to think that's what we're saying.

But I'm going to start with Seth in Greensboro, North Carolina.

And there's no way that you could thoroughly answer this question in the time we have, but maybe it's a short answer if it's possible.

Some men have said that Luther and Jonathan Edwards had slightly different views on man's will.

Could you elaborate on the similarities or differences if there are any?

No, I cannot.

That's not an area where I am knowledgeable enough to have an answer.

So I thankfully was able to answer that question very briefly.

And yeah, I had Walt Chantry on my program once, and he seemed to take objection

to some of Jonathan Edwards' understanding of the will, but I don't have time to go into that

right now.

I see.

Well, I really am not knowledgeable enough on that aspect of historical theology to know how to give

an answer to that.

And Casey in Kannapolis, North Carolina,.

Says,.

How many more volumes of lectures in systematic theology can we expect?

And will they be available in hardcover?

Will they be put together in one volume hardcover edition one day too?

I am desperately looking for a classical 1689 Reformed Baptist systematic theology, and I'm exploring becoming a

Southern Baptist convention pastor.

I would love a copy of your new systematic theology.

As a pastor,.

How can we teach the Bible's doctrine of total depravity and monergistic regeneration in a non

-condescending and understandable way?

Members in a Baptist church that have had a bad view of Calvinism, mainly because they've

been taught wrongly or had bad experiences with Calvinism.

Well, that's a whole bunch of questions.

I was going to say, those are six wonderful questions.

Those are wonderful minutes.

But basically, thank you very much for those excellent questions.

Those are really good questions.

And basically, to have humility in our hearts and love for people in our hearts is the essence of pastoral ministry and

also love for God and desire to glorify God.

And to open up the scriptures is the best way to present it, to open up the comprehensive testimony of scripture

and to ground your people in the scripture is the best way to address any topic.

And that topic in particular.

And the other questions have to do with systematics.

God willing, and if I don't know what a day may bring,

the doctrine of Christ and the doctrine of the and Christian

life and Holy Spirit and sometime later on, God willing,

and all bounties.

And speaking of a child being asked to pick up a 500 -pound weight.

I don't know about that.

I would love to see it hard cover, but I don't know.

That's a question.

Well, I want to want to make sure that everybody has the website for Grace Emanuel Reform

Baptist Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

That's girbc .org, girbc

.org.

And of course, the solid ground Christian books where you could get anything written

by Pastor Greg Nichols.

Almost caught myself there.

You could go to solid -ground -books .com solid -ground -books .com.

And of course, if you want to hear Jeff Thomas, who is the visiting preacher at Grace Baptist Church of

Carlisle.

This Sunday,.

Go to gracebaptistcarlisle .org for more information.

Gracebaptistcarlisle .org.

Jeff Thomas is the aforementioned retired pastor from Aberystwyth, Wales, who I was

speaking about at the outset of this program.

Pastor Greg Nichols, it's been such a delight to have you on the program, and I look forward to having you back very soon.

Thank you for the privilege.

Always a delight with you, Chris.

And also our brother in San Pedro, California, give me your full mailing address because you're getting a free

New American Standard Bible.

And I want all of you to always remember for the rest of your lives that Jesus Christ is a far greater Savior than you are a sinner.