Bondage of the Will

Sovereign Grace Family Church

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February 26, 2020

00:00: Want to invite you again to take out your Bibles and turn with me to the sixth chapter of the gospel of John We discussed this passage last week, but as a Precursor to tonight's lesson.
00:15: I want to begin by reading God's Word If you were not here last week, I have a handout that I would like for everyone to have so I will Yours There are actually three Passages in John 6 which are which are particularly relevant to the subject that we are discussing and Even though they are not Successive one after the other they they do all fit within the same context Jesus is preaching Ancestry of Philippi he had just fed the he had fed the 5,000 and now people are following after him because he fed them and he looks on them and he says You don't really believe in me and the people and people are surprised we mean we were following you I mean, we don't believe and Jesus essentially says well, you're following me because I gave you food not because you really believe but verse The three verses I think are most relevant to our subject which is the subject of the bondage of the will is verse 37 Verse 44 and verse 65 so I want to read those three verses in succession, even though I realize there's a greater context and Where I had to have the time I could go through and teach on the context But just listening to what these three passages teach it says in verse 37 all that the father gives me will come to me and Whoever comes to me I will never cast out This passage reminds us that it is the giving of the father that results in the coming to the Son verse 44 says No one can come to me Unless the father who sent me draws him and I will raise him up on the last Day, this tells us not only is it the ones who the father gives who will come to the Son this verse tells us the opposite And that is no one can come Unless the father draws him and then this is reiterated in verse 65 And he said this is why I told you no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the father and so Jesus reiterates in verse 65 what he said in verse 44 and the reason why he doesn't verse 65 is because everyone left except for the disciples and Even that Jesus says do you want to leave too and they said to whom shall we go? You know, it is you who have the words of life and and Jesus said this is why I told you no one can come Unless it's given to him by the father and what we began last week was our discussion on the subject of the freedom of The will and rather your lesson the title is on the bondage of the will oftentimes People will use the word free will in a way that is foreign to the Bible People will talk about man's free will as if it is simply a Fact that the Bible teaches that all men have a free will and yet what we saw last week in the first part of this Lesson is that man is sinful by nature Because of our relationship to Adam we are born as Sinners the Bible says that we are sinners from the very moment of conception it says in sin did my mother conceived me and So when we consider the fact that we are sinners Jesus makes it very clear in John 8 34.
04:49: I say to you everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin Therefore when we begin to talk about freedom and people talk about the free will I Want to make my initial argument as I did last week to remind you that the problem with this is the word free because what is at Issue if you look in the scriptures is that we are bound and in bondage to sin until we are set free By God and so we are in bondage not in freedom and That is a very important distinction that we must come to realize Because of the sin nature which has been given to us as a result of our relationship to Adam We are bound in sin until the Sun would make us free now Last week I used the term and I'm gonna change colors.
05:49: I mean, I'm not gonna change my breath maybe I'll turn blue, but now I'm gonna I'm going to change marker colors because I want to I want to Remind you of a of a language I used last week, but I don't want to get it confused with this I use the phrase free Moral Agency now I said as a reformed theologian I Use language that Sometimes is steeped in some of the historical debate that surrounds subjects such as this in the historical debate the reformed side of this debate has always repudiated the idea of free will and said no we do not believe the will is free because of what I just said because it's In bondage to sin and if you were to say something is free It must be without any kind of necessary Restrictions if something's free it's not bound and the Bible clearly says we're bound in sin and and so we're not free But that doesn't mean that We are Robots, and it doesn't mean that we're where we are somehow Pre-programmed We do make choices and so we talk about Moral agency now.
07:12: What is moral moral simply means right and wrong in this sense right and wrong an Agency is the sense of a being an agent Who is capable of knowing right from wrong, right? So we have the knowledge Of right from wrong and the Bible tells us we have this knowledge in Romans chapter 1 It says that we know God exists And we know that because of everything that he has shown us and if we say God doesn't exist We are denying something that we know is true in our very heart if we say there's no God That is utter foolishness isn't that what the psalmist said he says to the one who says there is no God is such a person is a fool is the fool who says in his heart There is no God so There is there is a sense in which we are agents Who understand right from wrong and we make choices? That are sometimes right and sometimes wrong Do not everything that you ever do is right and not everything that you do is necessarily wrong in the sense that it's a violation of the the command of God Right, and so we have this ability to choose right from wrong And so people say well, how didn't you just say we don't have free will didn't you just say no No, just stay with me because when I say we're a free moral agent What I am saying is we have the ability to choose But what I am NOT saying is that we have the ability to choose Uncoerced perfectly uncoerced Because your ability to choose is affected by your sin nature For instance if I were to say Paul, I want you to choose to stop sinning completely go ahead Now I only chose Paul because I knew he'd laugh and that'd be okay I don't pick anybody up pick on anybody else Paul's my friend and you're all my friends, but that's okay But the point is you understand what I mean if I say you you don't have the absolute freedom Because you still have the flesh that you battle with even as a believer even as a long time Christian You still battle with the flesh and so but you're a moral agent.
09:41: You do make choices and Those choices are your responsibility, right? If you make a choice to go out and kill someone You will be Punished not only in the court of man, but you will also receive the condemnation of God for having done that Right because you are Violating God's law and you're violating man's law.
10:05: So even though you're free to make choices And you do make choices.
10:09: You're a moral agent.
10:10: Your choices are not Uncoerced and this is where I want to clarify the word free here Free does not mean uncoerced in the sense that they're not coerced.
10:23: It's simply free and that it's not being Necessarily coerced by God God is not forcing you to sin Doesn't the Bible say this doesn't James tell us that we shouldn't when we sin say that God is tempting me to sin because God doesn't tempt us to sin and See a lot of people think that because we believe God is sovereign that we believe that God forces people to sin No, we don't believe God forces people to sin but what we do believe is that God is sovereign over all things and there are times when God is restraining us from sin Because we would sin more if he were not restraining us That's the second thing.
11:10: If you look at your notes, you'll notice next last week It said what was the first thing we looked at mankind is sinful by nature Therefore he's not free because he's by nature a sinner.
11:19: But the second thing is that God restrains that sin nature Even in unbelievers.
11:26: Did you know that God restrains the sin of unbelievers if he didn't this world will be unlivable think about the times when man was allowed to be as sinful as he chose and Even then you'd have to say God was still restraining it but think about the time leading up to the art What does the Bible say it says they only did evil continually All right, and this is what the word says it says they just did evil continually and that's why God sent the flood and think about cities there were whole cities given over to evil like Sodom which was a city that God decided to destroy because the whole city was given over to its sin and You can imagine God had been restraining and if God lifted the hand of restraint Don't you see in a sense God lifting the hand of restraint on the United States? think about the the restraint that is being lifted when when we can see a presidential candidate bring a nine-year-old boy up onto the panel and Endorse the nine-year-old boy's sexual perversion This happened just this week endorsing him as a homosexual nine years old Because The man running for president is a homosexual and so he's going to endorse the homosexuality of a boy who shouldn't even know What sex is? Or at least should not be able to have the type of freedom Creaturely freedom that he can announce himself to be gay You see the hand of restraint and so that's a word I just use I want to bring up the word sometimes used by Reformed or Calvinistic is what we call creaturely Freedom we have the freedom to do as we choose in accord with the fact that we are creatures made by God we cannot override the sovereignty of God as RC Sproul has eloquently said God is sovereign and God has free will and If my will that is not completely free runs into he who is completely free I lose every time God's freedom He is going to win every time but that doesn't mean that I don't make choices and that I'm not responsible for my choices I am responsible for my choices and I will be responsible for my choices and So God intervenes in history and he restrains men from being as evil as they could be I'm going to give you two important verses on this these I think are just Absolute Can't be debated as to how important they are on the subject of God restraining sin And they're both in the Old Covenant.
14:15: In fact, they're both in the writings of Moses So if you want to open and turn your Bible back to Genesis chapter 20 we'll probably be here preaching sometime in the 2030s haha No, we'll probably start ramping up to a lot more speed once we get out of chapter 3 but But yes in Genesis chapter 20 this is the situation with Abraham and Abimelech and if you remember this situation You have Abraham lying to the king because he does not want the king to have him killed so that he can have Sarah his wife to be the king's concubine and So he says she's my sister, which which accelerates a process meaning Abimelech Well, if she's just your sister, then she can be my concubine either way it didn't it didn't really save her from the Situation, but let's read verses 1 to 7 it says from there Abraham journeyed toward the territory of the Nagab and lived between Kadesh and Shur and he sojourned and Gerar and Abraham said to of Sarah his wife.
15:24: She is my sister and Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah and God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said to him behold You are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken for she is a man's wife Not just real right away.
15:41: Isn't it amazing how God worked? in this time in history That he could speak in in in this in the dream and the person knew for sure This was not just some he didn't just eat bad porridge before he went to bed He this was God speaking to him in this this situation So clearly and so adamantly that it shakes him to his very core and he knows that this is not some false God But this is the God who created heaven and earth This is the God of Abraham and he says in verse 4 now Abimelech had not approached her That means they had not been intimate So he said Lord will you kill an innocent people good question Abimelech stating his case.
16:31: Are you going to kill me? Did he not that's Abraham did Abraham not say to me? She is my sister and she herself said he is my brother in the integrity of my heart and the innocence of my hands I have done this Then God said to him in the dream.
16:45: Yes.
16:45: I know that you have done this in the integrity of your heart there's a good important point see even an evil King a ungodly unrighteous King Did something right? But why did he do what was right? It was I who kept you from sinning against me Therefore I did not let you touch her Did Abimelech make a choice? Yes, he made a choice Was he free in that choice? Well, we can discuss the the qualms of creaturely freedom another time But the point I'm making is he could he he he desired her which is why he brought her into his house He wanted her but he did not choose to lay with her and why God says because I kept you from doing that.
17:42: I Kept you from going into that room Have you ever in your life had a situation where God kept you from something that could have been absolutely destructive Every one of you that was a teenage boy better answer.
17:55: Yes because at some time in our teenage foolishness and Boys are not Necessarily no better than girls.
18:04: So all of us would have to say in our foolishness There have been times where God has kept us from sin.
18:10: And this is a time when Abimelech was told very clearly I did this I kept you from this Therefore was Abimelech completely free Not completely because God's freedom when it ran into Abimelech's freedom God won God's sovereignty overruled and He kept Abimelech from sinning against him now If you would turn and we'll stop there the story goes on but we'll stop there go to Exodus 34 This passage is so easy to read past Many people never even see it But this passage Exodus 34 God is giving the Reiteration of the Sabbath command that the people of God are supposed to keep the the Sabbath and He's talking about the feasts that they are supposed to keep One of the feasts that they are supposed to keep would take the males Away from their families to go and celebrate this feast as the only the males would go and they would leave behind Their women and their children which at that point they would become Susceptible to the dangers of the people that were always around who would want to fall upon them pray upon them and take what is theirs Right.
19:40: It's sort of like me, you know, and again, I don't mean to make it too personal.
19:43: But you know when I go out of town, I Call my father And I say dad, you know, I'm gonna be gone for a couple of days check in on Jennifer, you know, because she's there She's got the kids Cody's way in the Air Force now And so just check in a caller make sure she's okay if she has a need and of course Chris Belcher lives right around the block From us I say Chris, you know come by and check on her because she's my wife.
20:07: They're my children I love them and I'm not there to provide the normal protection and security that I would normally provide And so that's sort of a simple example of what's happening here on the large scale imagine all the men of the church went to a conference all the men of the church are going away and We didn't all live in houses 40 miles from each other but we all lived in a little commune and that little commune was always susceptible to people breaking in and trying to steal take destroy it destroy rape and all kinds of things and You might say well, that's foolish that the guys would go away Let me read to you what God says here.
20:43: It was started verse 21 six days You shall work but on the seventh day you shall rest in flying time and harvest you shall rest You shall observe the Feast of Weeks the first fruits of the wheat harvest in the first or excuse me Feast of ingathering at the year's end three times in the year shall all your males appear before the Lord the God of Israel for I will cast out nations before you And enlarge your borders No one shall covet your land When you go up to appear before the Lord your God three times in the year notice what it says While you're gone They're not going to covet your land While you go and your women and children are at their most vulnerable as you go and when your families are left without their natural protection of the father and the husband in the home when you go I Got it They're not even going to covet your land at that time You know what that tells you about God's ability To adjust in effect the will of man that not only would they not do it not that God's gonna put like a wall up Or some kind of a hedge.
21:59: They're not even going to want to do it during those times What an amazing God we serve that he can even adjust The will of man if it if it's if it's for his purpose he can cause him not to even covet I Don't know why that's not so amazing to everyone who reads it people read right passage don't even see it No one will covet your land When you go up to appear before the Lord Three times in a year now do they want to covet the land they always wanted to covet the land they still cover the land Today they still fight today.
22:32: Yes, sir Covet means to want something to desire it And it really means to want something in an ungodly way Like if you see something someone else has and you say boy, I really wish I had that instead of them That's coveting and that's the way the people around Israel wanted their land.
22:49: They wanted to steal it They wanted to take it but not three times a year three times a year.
22:55: It was like God said no Now somebody might ask this question and maybe this question pops up in your mind Why doesn't God just do that all the time? This is not as we'll to do so Candy does he have the power to do that? Yes, absolutely But this is a promise to the men of Israel Don't fear going to present yourself before me because if you fear You're showing you don't believe that I have the power to make these men not even covet your land Again, were the people around Israel free? Well, they had the ability to make choices, but God's freedom is stronger than their freedom and God said they will not covet the land if God restrains the sinful nature of man Then that means he is not completely free.
23:46: Remember that's the whole subject right is man completely free I say no one because he's got a sin nature two because God restrains the sin of Men the sinful nature God restrains the sinful nature of men number three on your sheet Is the one that's a little hard for some to take? Because not only does God restrain the sinful nature of some men But God also hardens some men in their hearts Now I Want to be very careful? because treading on this subject can cause not only a lot of consternation, but it can cause a lot of confusion and Can even lead to arguments But let us be very clear that the Bible is without a doubt absolutely and in on Unflinchingly Unembarrassingly willing to say God has hardened the hearts of some men and I've heard people say in this very church.
24:53: I've had people tell me God doesn't hard harden people's hearts I Think I'm gonna go with the Bible on this one Because there are just too many passages For that to even really be a debate.
25:09: It's like the word predestination.
25:10: I don't believe in predestination Bible says predestination.
25:12: I don't believe it.
25:13: Okay Now we may disagree as of what it means, but you just can't tell me you don't believe in predestination It's in the Bible.
25:19: Yes, we can debate how it works and the functionality of it, but just don't tell me you don't believe it Is it's like saying, you know, this is ridiculous and the same thing with the idea of God hardening the heart It's just there and if you want a few verses Here's some verses to write down and we can look at them if you'd like.
25:35: The first one is in Joshua 11 20 Now this isn't the first one.
25:39: This is just the first one I'm mentioning there are ones that come before this especially in the book of Exodus when it comes to Pharaoh But we're going to talk about him in a moment.
25:47: But for now looking at Israel's enemies Joshua 11 verse 20 Listen to what it says speaking of Israel's enemies For I'll let you get there.
26:00: I'll get a sip of my drink and see some of you turn your Bible Joshua 11 verse 20 Now you guys have been studying Joshua, haven't you? Those of you come Sunday school Andy's class Maybe only a few of you Yeah, you have huh Oh Judges oh, you're you're you you were you finish Joshua.
26:34: Okay, so this is a little further back But notice what it says in verse 20 It says for it was the Lord's doing to harden their hearts That they should come against Israel in battle in order That they should be devoted to destruction and should receive no mercy but be destroyed just as the Lord commanded Moses Who are we talking about? Well tells us in a few verses higher It says in verse 18 Joshua made a war made war a long time with all those Kings there was not a city that made peace with the people of Israel except the Hivites and the inhabitants of Gibeon and He took them all in battle for it was the Lord's doing to harden their hearts Again, these are the animal enemies of Israel God hardened their hearts for what reason in order that they should be devoted to destruction and you say well, that's unfair That God would harden their hearts So that they would be devoted to destruction.
27:42: Is it unfair? Is it unfair for God to harden a heart and some people get out of that by simply saying? Well, their hearts were already hardened and that is true in one sense Because we have a natural tendency in proclivity against God.
28:06: We are naturally opposed in his enemies so in a sense there is There is a sense where there's already opposition.
28:13: God is not increasing what's already there in the sense of increasing the opposition and Someone says well if God's not increasing it, how is he hardening it? What does it mean to harden the heart? the best way I can describe the way God hardens the heart is if you think about a ball of clay that is Malleable because of the water that is within it if you think about clay on a spinning Pot maker, I don't know what they're called what they call this spinning pot maker.
28:52: Okay, we'll go with that What's it? What's it called? Well, the kiln is the heater this this somebody on Facebook's gonna laugh at me because I can't yes, it's it's a potter's wheel Thank you.
29:02: Yeah, the the the lump of clay is Malleable only because it has moisture within it as The moisture is removed the clay hardens and when we when we've shaped the vessel into whatever form It's going to be in we put it in the kiln because the kiln Completely removes all of the moisture that was there and when it comes out of the kiln the moisture is gone and all that's left Is a perfectly shaped pot or vase or whatever it is that we have created.
29:35: So this this wet ball of clay Was malleable until such time as the moisture was removed Somebody says well, what in the world are you talking about? Well when the Bible talks about God hardening the heart I Believe what that means is that he is removing his restraint on their sinful nature Remember what we said in the last point God Restrains the sinful nature and we see that in a bimal act we see that in Exodus 34 in the in the cover those who would covet it the Pete cover the people and we see this all over God restraining the evil hearts of men, but how does someone like Hitler rise and kill so many People and and have that in his heart to do How does someone like Ted Bundy Go in the direction that he is going even though in all sense was raised a normal life By normal parents and whatever that means We have the lifting of the restraint It is not as if God had to make the evil worse The evil was present and what was keeping it from having its full Expression was God's restraint And when we get to salvation and we study the doctrine of salvation, we're going to talk about something called common grace The Bible says God causes the rain to fall on the the just and the unjust that's what we call common grace all people experience the goodness of God and the fact that he Causes the the Sun to rise and fall on the good and the bad he causes the rain to fall on the just and the unjust and so we know common grace and one of the actions of common grace is the restraining of the natural desire for sin and When God chooses to harden a heart, he doesn't have to make it harder all he has to do is remove his hand of restraint and that which was already desiring to be hard is hardened and So it is not an active thing Whereas if God is taking like I used to do some work with epoxy Epoxy is a two-part mixture where you have to add in a second part to make it hard Because if you don't it's just going to be like a gel and you have to add that second part to make it hard That's not the God is not adding something to the heart to make it hard he's not adding a hardener, but he is restraining or excuse me removing the restraint and That natural hardness is what is setting in and we see that in Israel's enemies and here's the here's the thing.
32:31: That's really not funny But very important about that is they're doing what they want to do Amen Absolutely.
32:50: I know where I would be and I know where I could be if God had not protected me and If God had not kept me from so many things and so yes the restraint and and so Can we say that God hardened the heart of a person? Yes, because it is still his his choice to remove the restraint.
33:14: It's still his choice to do so But he's not he's not forcing them to do evil He's simply removing the hand of restraint that would keep them from doing evil and he's letting them have exactly what they want They have that moral agency.
33:29: God was holding them back.
33:31: And now he says you're free to do what you want And when man is free to do what he wants he does evil continually All of the sin that we do is on us all of the good that we do is on God That's the amazing thing if we do good it is because God has Moved us to do good But if we do evil it is because that is the natural state and desire of our heart This is why we don't lay sin at the feet of God because he is the restrainer of the hearts of men now with that I want you to turn to Romans 9 because This is a very important passage and it deals with the hardening of the heart and I feel like if we don't mention it I'll lose all my reformed credibility because if you're going to talk about the hardened heart and you don't go to Romans 9 Then you just lose it all That's right, that's right.
34:33: So this is Paul's answer to that and I've been listening to some debates on This very subject on the subject of the bondage of the will when I when I was studying for this Preparation or for this preparing for this lesson making my preparations I came across a couple debates on that will and and and I tell you Romans 9 is just the killer It's the area that they all stumble over Romans 9 even even Dr.
35:05: Brown who is not a reformed theologian.
35:08: Dr.
35:09: Michael Brown he was asked during a debate What what do you think is the strongest passage to even though you're not a reformed person? What do you think is the strongest passage to support reformed theology? And he said Romans 9 absolutely So Romans 9 we don't have time to read the whole chapter and But I want to I want to begin right at verse 14 now this is right after the Jacob I loved he saw I hated Don't want to get into that right now because that's a take us on a different on a different track.
35:42: But what he said What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God's part by no means? For he says to Moses.
35:53: I Will have mercy on whom I have mercy and I will have compassion on Whom I have compassion So then it depends not on human will or exertion but on God Who has mercy? For the scripture says to Pharaoh for this very purpose I've raised you up that I might show my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth So then he has mercy on Whomever he wills and he hardens Whomever he wills Now That's a tough passage But notice what he is saying He is saying that God's choice to be compassionate and merciful or God's choice to harden is His choice to make it is his will to do it And you say wait a minute That makes God unjust Look at verse 19 You will say to me then why does he still find fault for who can resist his will but who are you? Oh man to answer back to God Well, what is molded say to its molder? Why have you made me like this has the potter no right over the clay to make out of the same lump one vessel for? Honorable use and another for dishonorable use what if God? Desiring to show his wrath and to make his power known has endured with much patience vessels of wrath Prepared for destruction in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy which he prepared beforehand For glory is it not the prerogative of the potter? To do what he will with the clay Yes Now that doesn't satisfy a lot of people Because people want to have power over the potter They want to demand that the potter do it their way And here's the thing I always remind people if they say I think it ought to be this way I say then what you're really saying is you think you would be better at being God than God This portion of Scripture is no easy portion But it says certainly one thing without dispute and that it is God's prerogative to harden Whomever he wills But remind remember though what I explained about hardening if God hardens a person All he's really doing is Giving him what he wants because if hardening is simply the removal of restraint and That's what all men want is to be free and really all it is is God turning a man over to the desires of his heart Last and we will get through this tonight God opens the heart of some people to hear the gospel.
39:22: Hallelujah.
39:23: This is the good news because as we have seen God certainly restrains the sin of all men and He does harden the hearts of some men which means he lifts the restraint on The hearts of some men for what purpose to increase their judgment to demonstrate his power How did he how did he demonstrate his power in Moses by showing him mercy? How did he demonstrate his power in Pharaoh? By hardening his heart and he demonstrated his power by ten plagues followed up by a split sea He demonstrated his power in a man who who could not give up his own desires to hate God and God's people After God lifted the restraint of his heart all he wanted to do was hate God's people And God said here you go, but the story doesn't end there God opens the hearts of some people to hear the gospel and I'll give you three passages You can take these and I'll read them to you, but but as far as you don't have to turn there for sake of time just write these down acts 16 14 Paul is preaching and it says one who heard was a woman named Lydia from the city of Thyatira a Seller of purple goods, which means she was a woman of wealth and probably a businesswoman Who was a worshipper of God which probably meant that she was a God-fearing person not a Jewish person, but a God fear The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul The Lord opened her heart to hear what Paul had to say Beloved if you are a believer today Even though I don't have the scripture to say God opened Ann's heart I can look at Ann and I can say and loves the Lord God opened your heart and Every one of you and Me who loves the Lord.
41:24: It is the God who made you who opened your heart to believe In fact, the Bible says it like this in the Old Testament It says God took the heart of stone and he replaced it with the heart of flesh He took out the heart that was dead and he put in a living heart a real beating heart One of the most important New Testament passages on this subject is Acts 13 48 Speaking of the Gentiles it says when the Gentiles heard the gospel They began rejoicing and glorifying the Word of the Lord listen to this and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed hear that again as Many as were appointed to eternal life believed now I have heard I have heard some Arminians try and do some gymnastics on this passage and they have bent over Backwards because what they wanted to say is this they want it to say as many as believed were appointed to eternal life But that is not what it says It says as many was appointed to eternal life No, it does not allow that at all.
42:40: In fact, Dave Hunt who debated dr James White many many years ago before he passed away He argued that there was a Hebrew original of Acts that would have cleared this up even though there is no Evidence that there was ever a Hebrew original that all of the New Testament was written in Greek.
42:57: There is no Hebrew Matthew There's no Hebrew mark that those are myths There's no evidence of that at all.
43:03: The Bible was written in Greek because that was the common language of the day it was the language that both Greeks and Hebrew people could both speak because it was the language of business and it was the language of the common person and So, but but yeah, I've heard them they try to get around it, but it's just so clear They were appointed to eternal life and therefore they believed Their belief was a product of God's having appointed them to eternal life but here's another passage and you can write this down to 2nd Timothy 2 24 and 25 This is actually speaking to pastors, but I think it's true for anyone but particularly for pastors elders The Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone able to teach patiently enduring evil correcting his opponents with gentleness Because God may perhaps grant them repentance Leading to the knowledge of the truth When a pastor is teaching and preaching or when he's ministering or when he's counseling He is supposed to do so with gentleness Because he does not want to be the stumbling block over which a person is unable to step Because God may grant that person repentance Now here's the thing This tells us that repentance itself Is a gift from God the whole reason why we are to be careful when we are sharing the gospel We're to be careful when we're teaching the person who is in rebellion that we're we're to be careful with their soul because God may Grant them repentance.
44:59: I want to tell you this unless God grants repentance No one would come Because repentance like faith is a gift from God And I go back again to John 6 44 the one that we started with no one can come Unless the father draws him no one can come Unless it is granted him by the father So in the final analysis here is my conclusion if the Bible says that man is a sinner by nature Then he's not uncoerced he's coerced by sin therefore he's not free if the Bible says God restrains the sin of Men in this world men and women Then that means they're not completely free Because God is in control If the Bible says that God hardens the hearts of some people and opens the hearts of others Then that means even our response to him is not completely under our control But is under his sovereign hand Those who would argue for a completely free will a completely autonomous self-governing uncoerced will Are not arguing from the Bible But they are arguing from their own Creaturely desires Proverbs 16 9 The heart of the man plans his way But the Lord directs his steps Often it's accused of people who teach reformed theology that we have an unbalanced fascination with the sovereignty of God I will tell you this what I have found while that can be true I have found that the reality is that many people who are opposed to reformed theology have an unbalanced fascination with the freedom of the will Because all they want to argue is free will free will free will Dr.
47:02: R.
47:02: C.
47:02: Sproul says this and I'll end with this.
47:04: He says we have yet to break free of the Pelagian captivity of the church Remember Pelagius he was the one who argued for the absolute freedom of man He was denounced by Augustine in the fourth century The church sided with Augustine because Augustine was right We should still continue to side with him today As long as men want to believe that they in some way contribute to their salvation there will remain in the captivity of The Pelagian captivity and until we realize that even our desire to trust in God comes from God himself We will never understand what is so amazing about grace Let's pray Father I thank you for your word Pray that this has been helpful tonight and us understanding the will of man and the nature of being bound in the the sin of Our nature but Lord the the fact that you restrain sin the fact that you open hearts and you harden hearts Lord that you're sovereign and you're actually working in our lives.