Bondage Of The Will

All Hallows Day or All Saints Day was first celebrated May 13th, 609

A .D. when Pope Boniface the fourth dedicated the Pantheon in Rome to the Virgin Mary later on it was changed to November 1st by Pope Gregory the third who dedicated the chapel in honor of all saints in 837 or 837

A .D. Pope Gregory the fourth ordered its churchwide observance you need to celebrate this holiday and they started commemorating martyrs of the

Christian faith and eventually it just turned into celebrating martyrs and all saints

November 1st but we know that that date the night day before was changed in terms of the the idea of a holiday or a reformation day because on October 31st

Luther posted the 95 thesis on the castle door in Wittenberg and so usually churches will have a

Sunday night service or a reformation service to talk about some great truth of the reformation so tonight is the bondage of the will

I have a question for you how free is the will of the unbeliever is it totally free is it kind of free is it a smidgen free or is it bound and the real question of the reformation was do we believe in free will or do we believe in free grace now you've got to put your thinking caps on tonight because you might be tempted to say emotional things like well my

God would never force me to believe or my God would never act make me act like a robot and my

God this that and the other really the point is we have to figure out what does the Bible say so to start tonight

I want to give you a little quiz from my friend R. Scott Clark and you can either choose A or B one is free will and the other is free grace these are the competing thoughts free will and free grace and we'll define these things later but just it's good to start off with a quiz all right

I like giving quizzes which one's true A God chooses those who of their own free wills decide to believe is that true or is this true

God gives faith to those whom he has sovereignly chosen B okay good

I was going to say if you chose A I was gonna wonder what

Pastor Steve taught you for the last three months because when I left you would have chosen B A or B which one's true

God's blood has redeemed all but it is our faith in him that saves us

B Christ saves every person whom he redeemed with his blood

B good I like that you know the best part about preaching and having kids answer questions and even rhetorical questions that aren't supposed to be answered is that they're listening

A or B though okay

I'm gonna switch it around the visitors must think this is what happens on Sunday morning preaching is not dialogical congregation it is monological proclamation alright

I'm switching at this time the holy A the Holy Spirit regenerates the elect and enables them to believe or B those who are willing to believe enable the

Holy Spirit to regenerate them and the answer is A good that's perfect let's say you're a believer and most of you are professing believers here tonight and your relative isn't let's say you had a twin sister or brother and you're a believer and they aren't what's the difference between you and them that's really the question where is the difference found in other words is the difference found in you and what you did or who you are are or is the difference found in the sovereign hand of God I could ask you this way why are some people saved and other people aren't saved is it because the spirit worked

A or B those of free will open their heart to give

God a chance if I had a little microphone up here and we had a testimony time we had a testimony time this morning with baptism and I were to give you the microphone you would come up and I would like to give a testimony

Christian to how you came to Jesus Christ without the work of the Holy Spirit I wonder how that would work and that is the work of your own free will versus the

Lord did it all can you say of my own free will I have turned up to the

Lord I did not need his help at all I didn't need the Holy Spirit's regenerating power Spurgeon had a prayer for those kind of people

Lord I was born with the glorious free will I was born with power by which I can turn to you of myself

I have improved my grace if everybody had done the same with their grace that I have they might have all been saved

Lord I know that you do not make us willing if we're not willing ourselves you give grace to everybody some do not improve upon it but I do there are many that will go to hell as much bought with the blood of Christ as I was they had as much of the

Holy Ghost given to me they had as good a chance and were as much blessed as I am it was not thy grace that made us to differ

I know it did a great deal still I turned the point I made use of what was given to me and others did not and that's the difference between me and them and Spurgeon went on to say that's the prayer of a devil so let me give you a background tonight on the

Reformation and this topic and then I'm gonna ask you a series of questions we're gonna look what the Bible says about the will okay if you said no not okay

I'm still gonna do it Erasmus was a Roman Catholic and he wrote a book entitled the freedom of the will or the diatribe of the freedom of the will and he wrote that in 1524 he was a key scholar he helped us a lot in the

Reformation because although a Roman Catholic he helped put together the Greek New Testament 1516 remember they used to have the old

Vulgate in Latin but the Bible was written in the New Testament in Greek and so Erasmus helped us rescue the text out of the

Latin translation but Erasmus had a high view of man he didn't see original sin as all pervasive he didn't like Augustine's pessimistic view of man and he the enlightened

Erasmus and banking on the Renaissance and enlightenment thought that education was the key to salvation if you can just be educated enough if you can cultivate your mind enough if you can have enough religious kind of experiences and imitate

Christ enough you can be saved because you're not really dead in Christ I mean dead in your sins you are just sick

Luther didn't like that and so he writes the book called the bondage of the will 1525 how many people read that oh excellent so we have the chosen and the unchosen okay good it is a great piece of theological writing it is probably what started the

Reformation in many senses B .B. Warfield called it the true manifesto of the

Reformation and Luther himself said burn all my books except my children's catechism and the bondage of the will he thought it was that important because it comes to the very heart of the gospel and Luther wrote to Erasmus and he said this you have attacked the real thing

Erasmus that is the issue you have not worried me with the papacy purgatory indulgences and such like trifles rather than issues in respect of almost all to date have sought my blood in other words people are trying to kill me because I'm after the

Pope but you Erasmus really know the issue and here's the issue it's the issue of the will is the will in bondage to sin or is it free now probably what we should do at the very beginning is ask the question what is free will let me give you some definitions one definition free will is the mind choosing free will is the faculty of choice to will is to choose and you can decide between two alternatives to pick this thing or that thing

Arthur Pink writes choice necessarily implies the refusal of one thing and the acceptance of another the positive and the negative both must be present to the mind before there can be any choice freedom is the ability to choose according to our desires so before we choose something we must first desire it and so I think it was

Edwards who said free the will is the mind choosing and so what's before us here's the big picture can we as unbelievers choose between going to heaven and not going to heaven do we have the ability to choose freely and what we're gonna say in this message tonight is and here's what

Luther said because of Adam's fall we're sinful and we can only make choices based on our sinful nature and will always choose to sin that is to say if we hadn't sinned

Adam hadn't sinned in our place you might be able to choose between obeying God and not obeying God but now that our nature is corrupt we can only make choices within that corrupt nature we can sin all we want to in matter fact we do as unbelievers but could we ever say

I based on my own bootstraps can decide to follow God without any of his help

I can decide to follow him or not based on my own free will and that great songwriter

Augustus Toplady he kind of was really getting under people's skin when he said a man's free will cannot cure him of even a toothache or a sore finger yet he madly thinks it is in his power to cure his soul in summary you have an ability to make choices but it's tied to your nature and so when

I teach kids this topic I think okay can you get a lion to eat pretzels well maybe you can

I don't know force it down his throat I haven't thought that far ahead but lions don't want to eat pretzels why because it's in their nature to eat meat and so if our nature is sin sin sin because of the fall could we ever choose

God on on our own without his help that's the real issue so let me give you a series of questions that will help you understand what do we mean when we talk about the bondage of the will do you believe in free will free to choose on your own without any of help from God or bondage of the will slave to sin and we need

God's help to rescue us question one now we'll get to the Bible are unbelieving men and women dead spiritually answer kids you should just say

A. I went to Canada this summer and everybody jokes about how they say

A all the time and you get up there and they say A all the time A just all the time

A so maybe they're always choosing A are unbelieving men and women dead spiritually let's turn to Ephesians chapter 2 and just see what you already know this is of course not physical necrosis this is spiritual and this is not total depravity because there are some good things that people do

Hitler spared some people in the French villages when priest begged him but the depraved man can do no spiritual good without God working those natives showed

Paul extraordinary kindness Acts 28 on the island of Malta and people can build hospitals and feed the poor and give water to those in need but you cannot do anything good in God's eyes as an unbeliever because Adam's sin has affected you and you are sinful what does

Ephesians 2 .1 say this is for the unbeliever and you were dead in your trespasses and sins the best way to think about this is spiritual inability you're going to need to be rescued and we would all believe that the doctrine of sin and depravity is pretty much assumed in our society we have legislation because people can't be trusted we can't have just promises between people we need contracts you lock your door at night because you can't trust other people you can't even have just laws in the society because you have to have police to enforce the law why because men and women are sinful

I know it's a humbling doctrine but it is true one man said we are as blind as cyclops with his eye poked out and if you want a little more humorous discussion when it comes to depravity remember old dear

Abby you'd write in and get advice remember dear Abby she couldn't even get along with her sister that was sad but dear

Abby I'm 44 and would like to meet a man my age with no bad habits sincerely

Rose dear Rose so would I isn't that great that is so great when

I was a kid I would watch those commercials and it would show old people fallen and then they'd have to have a little button to call the the ambulance and they would always say what

I know isn't power isn't powerful commercials and media

I'm falling and I can't get up every part of man is fallen intellect conscience heart total being and the will is also included what does

Paul say look at that and you emphatically we're dead in your trespasses and sins he's saying everyone this is not just gang members and terrorists everybody and and he sums up our condition as unbelievers with one word dead necros can you not remember in the prodigal son where the dad said this my son was dead he was dead to me he was still alive can't you hear

Jesus when he would say follow me and allow the dead to bury their own dead he's not talking about physical deadness but he's dead to God Colossians 2 you were dead in your transgressions one man said the salt flavors every drop in the

Atlantic and to sin affect every atom of our nature yes Jesus said you search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life and it is these a bear witness of me and you are unwilling to come to me that you may have life that's depravity that's why

Jesus goes on to say no one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws me true or false it does not depend on the man who wills of the man who runs but on God who has mercy true because that's

Romans 916 here's what I'm driving at with this message since we are slaves to sin since we are dead in our trespasses and sins somebody's gonna have to make us alive somebody's gonna have to rescue us and he's going to get all the credit here's evangelicalism

God has done his part you do your part but our part as unbelievers would always be to sin

Steve Cooley was it John Gershner who said there's always room for deprovement

I mean we're so sinful we can't get any better but we could always get worse question 2 well let me just yeah that's good question 2 are unbelievers free from indwelling sin

I don't think believers unbelievers are free from indwelling sin let's find out let's go to Romans chapter 6 so we're not free from being spiritually dead are we free from indwelling sin so if somebody ever said to me

I believe that unbelievers have free will my first question is are they free to choose God on their own second question is are they free from their own sin

Romans 616 we're talking about slavery here no human is totally free you're either a slave to sin are you slave to Christ and that's what's going on here

Romans 6 Romans 616 do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience you are slaves of the one whom you obey either of sin resulting in death that's one option or of obedience resulting in righteousness but thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you are committed and having been freed from sin you became slaves of righteousness isn't that fascinating slaves of sin back there in verse 17 once slaves of sin if someone said to me

I believe that unbelievers have free will I say they're slaves to sin because here that's exactly what the text says how free are you question 3 are unbelievers free from the world's influence let's go back to chapter 2 of Ephesians okay so you have unbelievers and they're dead in trespasses and sins they are slaves to sin and are they influenced by the world does the world influence their system of thinking and I think the answer is yes and if I want to try to be funny if I was on the radio show

I would say I can't even watch a Big Mac commercial without getting hungry and wanting one even though I never go to McDonald's but just the influence of commercials what does

Ephesians 2 say I mean how can you be free when you're dead how can you be free when you have indwelling sin and you're a slave to it and how can you be free when you do what the world does in which you formally walked according to the course of this world and what do people in the world do they live for self they live for hedonism and all the other isms and materialism and education and everything else they're living for that and here the text says you walked in them you didn't just dip your toe in you walked in these as a as a manner of life now here's here's the big one number four are unbelievers free from Satan's will let's turn to 2nd

Timothy 2 .25 please 2nd Timothy 2 .25 Paul is writing to Timothy he's gonna help him pastorally and what does he say if you can't remember that men and women are spiritually dead so how could they be free if you can't remember that unbelievers are free are not free from indwelling sin how could they be free if you can't remember their influence by the world how could they be free remember this verse this is it this would have made

Luther's book much shorter 2nd Timothy 2 .25 with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition if perhaps

God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil having been held captive by him to do his

Satan's will the ruler of the world the ruler of the of the demonic forces is controlling unbelievers

Ephesians 2 says according to the prince of the power of the air are you free from Satan's will turn to another passage

John 8 please and you can see as one man called this dancing the devil's tune

John chapter 8 I like the sounds

I like a lot of sounds doesn't bother me at all but it makes me look

I don't know what happens you know when when I first started preaching every little sound would distract me and then you get older is it because I've just preached more or is it because I'm just deaf

I don't know which one it is John 8 31 you're gonna see something here all false religion is forced when you think of Hinduism and Buddhism and every other is them its forced and forced by Satan Jesus said to the

Jews who had believed him John 8 31 there's just nothing like we're just watching

Jesus deal with people if you abide my word you are truly my disciples and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free they answered him we are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone can you hear what they're saying

I thought the Jews there's a little place called Egypt if I remember rightly we've never been enslaved to anyone how is it that you

Jesus say you will become free Jesus answered them by the way when

Jesus is talking to unrighteous people who know they're unrighteous what's his

MO how does he talk to them kindly warmly when he's talking to self -righteous people how does he talk to them

I mean it is duck I remember sometimes when my mom would spank me before she spanked me she'd say

Mike you're gonna get a blistering we don't talk that way anymore it's probably because DSS is around but you're gonna get a blistering this is a verbal blistering

Jesus answered them truly truly I mean we say amen amen at the end of our prayers he sometimes says it at the beginning of what he's gonna say here's the import

I say to you everyone who practices sin is a what slave to sin how free is a person who's a slave the slave does not remain in the house forever the son remains forever so if the son set you free you will be free indeed

I know that you are offspring of Abraham you're Jewish yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you

I speak of what I've seen with my father and you do what you've heard from your father uh -oh they answered him

Abraham is our father Jesus said to them if you were Abraham's children you would be doing the works

Abraham did but now you seek to kill me a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God this is not what

Abraham did you are doing the works your father did they said to him we were not born of sexual immorality we have one father even

God Jesus said to them if God were your father you would love me for I came from God and I am here

I came not of my own accord but he sent me why do you not understand what I say it is because you cannot bear to hear my word and here it comes circle it verse 44 you are of your father the devil and your will is to do your father's desires that is true friends of every single unbeliever he was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him and when he lies he speaks out of his own character for he is a liar and a father of lies he's talking about their dad but because I tell you the truth you do not believe me which one of you convicts me of sin if I tell the truth do you not believe me whoever is of God hears the words of God the reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God if you say to yourself an unbeliever is free to do whatever he wants how can he be free to do whatever he wants or whatever she wants when they're a slave to Satan and they do what their father does who is the father of lies.

Number five men and women are unbelieve... unbelieving men and women are dead unbelieving people are not free from indwelling sin unbelievers are not free from the world's influence and unbelievers are not free from Satan's will and here is the $25 ,000 question are unbelievers free from God's sovereign regeneration are men and women who are unbelievers free from God influencing them changing them saving them in other words can

God intervene in the human will or is it the holy of holies where God can't even go put another way must

God work alone to regenerate the people that he has chosen turn to first Peter chapter 1 please and let's just find out what's going on here since man prior to salvation is bound by sin enslaved to sin following his father

Satan God has to come to the rescue he can't save himself this unbeliever he can't will himself to be saved apart from God he has to trust in what

God has done and look at what it says here in first Peter chapter 1 could be one of the greatest intros of any book ever written in the

New Testament nothing from ourselves do we contribute to salvation all from God can man will himself to be saved if he slaved to sin no so this has to happen and Peter praises

God for it first Peter 1 3 blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ according to his great mercy he has caused us to be born again anything about that he's caused us to be born again he did it to us we are passive he is active this is the language of passivity on our part

God is the actor we are the recipients this is God alone working why because we're dead and he caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus from the dead can man will himself to be saved apart from God no

I turn if you would with me please to Acts chapter 16 Acts chapter 16 and here's the great thing about Acts 16 is you see what's going on in this little place called

Philippi Acts 16 we went to Greece a few years ago and went to Philippi and went to this little spot was anybody here anybody here go with me on that trip grace raise your hand at least grace went now let's just back up a little bit because this is this is this is brilliant Acts 16 verse 6 and they went to the region of Phygeia Galatia having been forbidden by the

Holy Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia that's interesting how did

God forbid Paul from going to Asia I don't know but he was forbidden I mean think about all the people in Asia and the thousands of people the hundreds of thousands of people

I think that was good Paul wanted to go to talk to them to the masses the Holy Spirit said no and when they come up from I see it they attempted to go into Bithynia but the spirit of Jesus did not allow them so passing by my see it they went down to Troas and a vision appeared to Paul in the night here's this

Macedonian call concluding at the end of verse 10 God wanted Paul to go preach to them so what do they do verse 11 they set sail to Troas and they go to Philippi verse 12 a leading city of the district of Macedonia and a

Roman colony so when you go to Philippi it seems like you're in Rome because this is where all the soldiers would go to retire

I don't know where do people go to retire now Florida alright this is like Florida except it looks like Roman places 2000 years ago verse 14 now they'll go to verse 13 and on the

Sabbath day we went outside the gate to the riverside where we suppose there was a place of prayer and we sat down and spoke to the women who'd come together okay now get this because you'll never read this passage again the same

Paul wanted to go to Asia there's thousands of people hundreds of thousands of people maybe millions of people and the spirit of God how he did it

I don't know said no you can't go there so I want you to go to Philippi Philippi isn't that big it's not that many people matter of fact there's so few

Jews there they can't even have a synagogue so there's just some people down by the river and they're praying some ladies you don't have 10 men to have a synagogue so what do you do you just go down to the river and you pray you go to that river even today there's some women there one verse 14 who had heard us was a woman named

Lydia from the city of Thyatira a seller of purple goods who was a worshipper of God in other words she was a monotheist and the

Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul after she was baptized and her household as well she urged us saying if you have judged me to be faithful to the

Lord come to my house and stay and she prevailed upon us now friends listen open hearts open hearts she was slaved to sin

God opened her heart so then she could respond but I also want to just bring into the point because I think it's such a fascinating story there is a desire in evangelicalism this has nothing to do with the bondage of the will but this is just it's just on my heart numbers buildings thousands of people multi campuses and God says you know what

I don't want you to go I'll send other people to Asia later Paul the Apostle here's what I want you to do

I want you to go to that one woman over there in Greece down by the river because I've chosen her in eternity past Acts 1348 as many as were appointed to eternal life believe and God takes

Paul of all people to not go to the thousands and millions in Asia he says you know what

I want you to go down by the river and find that one because the only way her heart will be open is to hear the message and then

God sovereignly opens her heart to hear the message and God saves the one Lydia that's why

I've told you many times when I meet other pastors I restrain myself from ever saying how many people are at your church does it really matter how many people are at your church it's all

God's doing now think about this when it comes to evangelism you got a friend you've got a relative you've got a son or daughter or mom or dad or somebody that you love and you think you know what

I know they're sinful because the Bible tells me that and I know they're gonna go to hell when they die if they don't believe and I've tried to coax them

I've tried to I've tried to to to pray for them I've tried to bother them I've tried to remember

MacArthur always used to say there was a lady that would put tracks in her husband's lunchbox every day and sometimes she'd put tracks in the husband's sandwich instead of the lettuce that would be like a track gotta open up and take it out but what if you had to have your own power and strength and intellect to try to convince people to believe versus I'm gonna just tell them the good news about how

God saves sinners it's a great announcement and I'm not dependent on their free will to come to Christ Spurgeon said

I do not come into this pulpit hoping that perhaps somebody will of his own free will return to Christ my hope lies in another quarter

I hope that my master will lay hold of some of them and say you're mine and you shall be mine and I claim you for myself my hope arises from the freeness of grace and not from the freedom of the will did

I say I don't believe in free will free will means you're able to choose God on your own the answer is yes but I think there is somebody who ultimately had the best free will and that was the

Lord Jesus Christ did he die of his own free will? I think he did

I lay down my life that I might take it up again no man takes it from me but I lay it down of myself

I have the power to lay it down and I have the power to take it up again

Jesus submitted to his own death of his own free will because he knew that was the only way we could be right in the father's eyes by he going to the cross for us now we just end with the final reading

Romans chapter 9 and we will be done Romans 9 do we believe in free will? this is the chapter

I have a friend I talked to not recent not that long ago I talked with him recently and he said when he read this chapter he wanted to rip it out of the

Bible because it so extols God freely choosing versus our free will if you mean free will

I can choose between my own sins fine but this is the issue when people say well that makes me a robot that makes me a

God forcing his will on me friends he he forces his will on you to give you new life so that you freely choose to worship him with your new nature and so what does

Paul say Paul says in Romans 9 the chapter that some people would wish to be ripped out it says in chapter 9 verse 12 the older will serve the younger as it is written

Jacob I love but Esau I hated I mean they were twins what should we say then he knows people are going to talk back is there injustice on God's part by no means for he says to Moses I will have mercy on whom

I have mercy and have compassion on whom I have compassion nobody deserves compassion so God can freely choose to give it it does not depend on human what the text say will does it depend on human will to get to heaven no because human will is enslaved to sin it does not depend on human will but on God who has mercy for the scripture says the

Pharaoh for this purpose I've raised you up verse 18 so then he has mercy on whomever he wills whose wills are talking about their

God's will and he hardens whomever he wills whose will is that God's will yeah but if God hardens people and God chooses people how can

I be responsible verse 19 you will say to me then why does he still find fault for who can resist his will and of course if you'd like to answer that question with reverence and figure it out theologically

I don't mind but if you say to yourself you know what God how dare you give grace to some and not grace to everybody there's a response for you and here's a response you ought to just bite your lip and hold your tongue but who are you old man to answer back to God we're not talking about robots here we're talking about potters and and molders and clay well what does molded say to the molder why have you made me like this has the potter no right over the clay to make out of the same lump hear that well out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use

China and another for dishonorable use a trash can what if God designed to show his wrath and to make known his power has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction why did you that to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy which he has prepared beforehand for glory so when someone says

Mike do you believe in free will if you mean by that can I choose coca -pepsi then of course

I can choose coca -pepsi but if someone says do men and women have free will that is the the will and the freedom to choose

God without God's intervention the answer is absolutely not because God has told us in his word that were slaves to sin before we believe were slaves to the world system were slaves to Satan and we need

God to rescue us why don't we pray thank you father for our time we get together

I just so glad you decided to save you have to save any the angels fell many of them fell and you didn't save a one of them and you're still good and so now we look forward to the time where we'll get to heaven and there's going to be a throng of people there from every tribe and tongue and nation from Greece from Rome from Asia and from West Boylston to singing your praises in Jesus name