1689 London Baptist Confession (part 19)

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Father, we praise you this morning that we're able to get here, that we're able to worship you and to be here in this place to have fellowship with one another, to worship the
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Lord Jesus Christ and to be reminded of his work on our behalf. Lord, I pray that you would bless our time as we look to your word and what you have taught us about yourself, ourselves, and the salvation that you have granted to us, full and free.
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In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Well, we've been talking about free will and then we began talking about total inability.
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We just, I think, just basically touched on that. To just remind us, our wills are free, you know, people are like, well, if we don't have free will, what's the most common argument,
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I almost said most communist argument, what's the most common argument against free will?
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Let me put it another way. In fact, I'll reverse that. What's the most common argument in favor of free will?
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If we don't have free wills, we are robots, right? And I've even heard it put, you know, that God gets more glory if we choose to love him freely, right?
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And even crasser things, which I don't want to muddle your minds with, but let's just think about that for a moment.
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Does God get more glory if we freely choose to love him as opposed to God needing to do a work in us first?
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Is that true? Yes, Frank. Okay, so if we play a part in our salvation, then, you know, is
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God do the full glory or do we get a little bit of the glory? You know, it's arguable, right?
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I mean, I would say if I freely choose of my own will to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, then
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I have done something meritorious. I have chosen to follow
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Christ. I've chosen to believe in him. I've chosen to accept his work on my behalf.
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If on the other hand, and we do choose, by the way, right? We've talked about that. We choose, but we choose in a way that is consistent with our nature.
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You know, can a baby choose to play Major League Baseball? And you laugh at it.
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Why? Because, you know, Corey would like to play Major League Baseball. Why doesn't
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Corey play Major League Baseball? Why is that, Corey? I mean, it's not as easy as, you know,
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I would have loved to have played NBA basketball. Unfortunately, you know, it's funny because my mom says, and I don't know if this is true, she says a lot of things about me, like, you know,
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I wrote the Magna Carta when I was four. But she says that, you know, they did this test, which shows how far tests have come, you know, like when
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I was like three or something about how tall I was supposed to be, and I was supposed to be 6 '10".
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So I was always like, dude, I'm going to the NBA, right? You know, but that didn't happen.
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But beyond physics, we choose according to, we choose spiritual things. We wouldn't let, you know, we wouldn't think it's crazy to think that somebody chooses something physically based on their physical nature.
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You know, if I'm seven feet tall and 300 pounds like Shaquille O 'Neal, 300 being generous,
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I'm probably not going to choose to play soccer. But when it comes to spiritual things, we somehow think that everybody should be able to freely choose whatever they want.
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And there's some truth to that, right? Don't we choose what we want? Do we choose what we want?
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The answer is yes. The question is, what do we want? What does an unregenerate person want?
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What they want. Right? I mean, that's pretty basic. I want what I want.
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Why? Because I want it. Because it, you know,
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I mean, this is, we'll get biblical here for a moment. You know, why did
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Samson want a woman who was not an
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Israelite to be his wife? Because he was selfish.
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But if you recall what he said, he said, because she looks good to me, right?
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This is, you know, the heart of man, not just Samson, but basically men.
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You know, what makes a man initially attracted to a woman?
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Well, you know, is it her personality? Well, it could be. Is it, you know, her cookies?
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Well, it could be. But most likely, he finds her attractive because men are shallow like that.
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And, you know, over time, they gradually, you know, come to appreciate other things about their spouses, but there's an attraction there.
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But here's the point. If men and women, children choose according to their nature, then why would we expect an unregenerate, unsaved person to choose the things that are godly, that are good, that are righteous, that are holy?
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And we wouldn't expect that because the Bible says that they can't. In fact, the
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Bible teaches in Ephesians 2 that they are dead in their sins and trespasses, not mostly dead.
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This isn't, you know, Princess Bride theology. They're not mostly dead. They are all the way dead.
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And it is God who makes them come alive, it also says in Ephesians 2. In fact, let's just go there. It's a good passage to just start with and then we'll go into some other things.
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We talk about, well, in fact, this is a perfect place to start because when we're talking about inability, mankind and their natural condition are enslaved, dead, and blind.
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So let's look at Ephesians 2 and let's read a little bit more than just verse 1.
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If somebody would read through verse 5, please. Ephesians 2, verses 1 to 5.
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I mean, this is like my emergency have to preach passage. What is it?
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Let me frame it a different way. What is Paul doing here when he says, you were dead in your sins and trespasses?
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What's he telling the church at Ephesus, Anthony, that they were totally lost?
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And I want to emphasize a word here, and that word is were. Okay, this is how you used to be.
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Before God saved you, you were dead in your trespasses and sins. There was no hope for you.
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You had no ability to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. You were a carcass.
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You were in the morgue. There was no life in you. There was no spiritual life. There was no will to believe.
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And how do we know that? Because when we kept reading in verse 4, it says these two precious words, but God.
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This was your condition, but God did not leave you like that.
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What does it say? It says being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us.
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Loved whom? Those who believe. Even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.
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Notice it doesn't say gave us the ability to choose ourselves.
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Gave us free will. It says made us alive together with Christ.
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With Christ. In Christ. These are the kind of words that you will see over and over again in Ephesians 1 and 2.
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Why? Because apart from Christ, we can do nothing. In him, with him, we can do all things.
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Mankind in their natural condition are enslaved, dead, and blind. Let's look at, have a list of scriptures here.
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Let's go ahead and look at John 8, 31 to 34. John 8, 31 to 34.
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Would somebody read those four verses, please? John 8, 31 to 34. They had some, the
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Jews who were interacting with Jesus here had a high view of themselves. Never been a slave to anyone.
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Well, that wasn't really true if you look at history. The Jews have certainly been enslaved to Egypt and to the
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Assyrians, to other nations. They'd had their, they've been captured and dragged off into captivity, the
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Babylonians. But what does Jesus say?
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That they were enslaved to sin? Not to anyone, but to anything.
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We could also look at 2 Timothy, chapter 2, when it talks about, you know, praying for somebody to be granted repentance by God.
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Why? Because they've been ensnared by Satan to do his will. They've been bound by him to do his will.
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Jesus says, you know, when you've been made free by him, you are free indeed. But until then, you are enslaved.
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You are dead in your sins and trespasses. You are spiritually blind, the
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Bible would say. So he gives five categories.
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That's the first one. That's pretty bad. That's like three subcategories. You're enslaved, dead, and blind before you're born again.
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Secondly, he says, mankind has lost the ability to please God, to do God's will, or to perceive and receive the things of God.
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Again, a multitude of issues there. Let's look at 1
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Corinthians 2 .14. Should be a familiar verse, and one that I think has a multitude of applications.
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1 Corinthians 2 .14, and would somebody read that? Go ahead, Pauline. The natural man, who would that be?
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Okay, the unsaved person. And, you know, which should make you think, okay, as a saved person, then what does that make me?
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Well, I'm not natural. And really, because you are indwelt by the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, you are supernatural.
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And I don't mean to say that you are, you know, superman, but you are not natural because God is at work in you and through you.
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But the unsaved person is unable to... What were all the things that were said there?
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Pauline? Help me out. What is the unsaved person not able to do?
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They can't understand. Okay, what else?
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They can't understand the things of God. Okay, they don't understand spiritual things.
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They're not able to discern them. What's that? They don't accept them.
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I mean, you ever have a discussion with somebody and you start mentioning Bible verses and what do you frequently hear?
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I don't believe that. I don't believe the Bible. Well, that's okay for you, but I don't accept that. They don't accept, they don't receive the things of God.
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How do we know that they don't want to do the will of God? Otherwise, they'd be saved, right?
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Okay, you can see it in the way they go around about their life. I mean, we can also point to Scripture, but I don't want to...
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Well, yeah, I do want to go there. What does Jesus say about the ability to seek after God, to seek after Him even?
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Let's look at John 6, 44. John 6, 44. No one can do to mine.
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Nobody has the power. No one is able. I mean, it's like saying to me,
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Steve, I want to see you dunk, right? I'd like to see me dunk too, but I'm going to need a trampoline and probably some padding to land on.
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There are things in life that we just cannot do. And what Jesus is saying here is no one can.
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I can stand up here. Jesus can. He can stand up there all day long and preach and tell people the truth, but they don't receive it.
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They don't come. Why? Because they're not able to come unless the condition being what?
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Unless God draws them. And then if He draws them, then what happens?
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Jesus says, I will raise him up on the last day. No one can unless God works on them.
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And if God works on them, He will draw them. And they will be raised on the last day.
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Questions, thoughts about that. Again, it's interesting in John 3, when
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Nicodemus, the teacher of Israel, comes to Jesus at night, Jesus says to him,
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Nicodemus, here's what you need to do. You know, no one can do these things that you do, teacher, except he is sent from God, right?
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And Jesus looks at him and says, Nicodemus, study more scripture.
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Nicodemus, stop sinning. Nicodemus, pray more.
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Go to church more. Do something more. He says, you must be born again.
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There has to be something done to you. It's not what you do, it's what must be done to you.
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There must be a work of the Holy Spirit in you before you come to faith. Let's move on.
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Number three of our five categories of total inability mankind. Number one was they're enslaved, dead, and blind.
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Number two was they've lost the ability to please God, to do God's will, or to perceive and receive the things of God.
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Number three is mankind cannot will to receive Christ or come to God apart from God's drawing.
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We already did John 6, 44, which indicates that. We could also go to 37, 39, 45, and 65 in John 6.
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I mean, if you want to talk about the sovereignty of God and salvation, take somebody to John chapter 6. These are
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Jesus' own words, starting in verse 37, and read to the end of the chapter. And what do you find at the end of John chapter 6?
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What happens? There's this massive crowd that's been following Jesus. And he starts on this discourse where, well, really this sermon where he talks about the sovereignty of God and salvation.
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And what happens at the end of John chapter 6? There's a rush of people coming forward wanting to get baptized.
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Oh, wait, that's not what happens. What happens at the end of John chapter 6? They reject him.
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This is too hard. We can't handle this. We're leaving. Everybody but the disciples checks out.
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In fact, let's just turn there to the end. I won't...we won't go through the whole thing.
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But if we just look at John chapter 6, and again, it all starts with verse 37.
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I'll read that, and then I'll just go to the end. Jesus says, all that the
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Father gives me will come to me. And whoever comes to me,
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I will never cast out. And then if we look at the end, verse 65, and he said, this is why
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I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father. And then look at verse 66.
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After this, many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.
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So Jesus said to the 12, now keep in mind, there were probably thousands at this point following him because this is after he's fed the thousands and they followed him to kind of track him down.
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They want to make him king. After this, many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.
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So Jesus said to the 12, do you want to go away as well? Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go?
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You have the words of eternal life. And we have believed and have come to know that you are the
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Holy One of God. Jesus answered them, did I not choose you, the 12, and yet one of you is a devil?
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He spoke of Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the 12, was going to betray him.
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But there he has probably thousands listening to him and he chases them all away by preaching the sovereignty of God.
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Mankind cannot will, cannot choose of their own free will to believe.
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Let's look at Acts 751. Acts 751, okay, they're unable to do that.
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They're unable to believe. They resist the Holy Spirit. They don't want to believe. Romans 3, let's look at that one.
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Again, this is just something that the natural person does not do. We are born in our sins, dead in our sins and trespasses.
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We don't naturally choose God. There has to be a work of God. And here we're looking at no one can will.
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No one has the ability to just choose to believe and follow God. Romans 3, verses 10 to 12, familiar verses.
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When we take people to the Romans road, go ahead, Larry. So, you know, when somebody has the seeker -sensitive model,
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I always like, I'm going, you know, we're looking for seekers. I just read the Bible and I go, no one seeks for God.
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What does that mean? If you're looking for seekers, and by the way, I would say that we have a very seeker -sensitive service here at Bethlehem Bible Church, very seeker -sensitive.
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And why is that? Why would I say that? Because God is the only seeker and we want to be sensitive to him, right? Jesus said he came to seek and save that which was lost.
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The Bible says that no one seeks after God. So there is a seeker that we want to please, but he, the three persons of the
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Trinity, he sovereignly chooses whom he will.
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No one comes, you know, in our minds, now true or false. When you came to faith in Christ, you had to believe.
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True or false? I mean, this is not hard. True or false? Okay, true.
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You had to believe. Nobody could believe for you, not even God could believe for you. True or false?
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It seemed that you chose to believe. Okay, for most of us,
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I think that's true. For some of us, you know, I mean, there's more of a sense of,
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I don't know what I, I don't know how to describe what
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I just had this overwhelming, you know, sense of, well, duh, you know what
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I mean? But mankind cannot choose
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Christ or to come to God apart from God's drawing. He must go first. We see this over and over again.
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Whether it's in 1 Peter 1, whether it's John 3, John 6, any place you go, it is
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God who does the drawing. People respond, but that's because God supernaturally works in them to regenerate them.
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Okay. Number four, the will of man is not the source or determining factor in the application of salvation.
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The will of man is not the source or determining factor in the application of salvation.
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Let's look at Romans chapter 9. And, you know, indeed, anytime that you're talking about the difficult aspects of salvation,
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Romans 9 is very instructive. I told you that's kind of, you know,
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I mean, I think the two passages probably my kids heard the most growing up, Romans 9 and then
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Deuteronomy 29, 29. You know, why, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, and I just go Deuteronomy 29, 29.
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And they go, the secret things belong to the Lord. And I'm going, well, I'm using my own paraphrase of that, the secret things belong to dad.
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It's a little variation of the text. Romans 9 verses 16, 18, and who would read those, please?
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16 to 18. And this is in, you know, this leads right up to where Paul says, you know, gee, that's not fair.
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You know, you will say to me then, why does he still find fault?
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Look what he says here. It doesn't depend on human will. In other words, it doesn't depend on your decision.
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Then he says, or exertion, your work, but on God.
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And then in verse 18, so then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.
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Mercy is not God seeing who tries the hardest and then giving him a little push.
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God sees our need, that's his mercy, and then he takes action, right? But his grace is what actually, this is someone in need who has no ability to help himself, and by grace you've been saved.
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He causes us to be born again. John 1, 12, 13. John 1, 12, 13.
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Again, these are the words, well, these aren't the words of Jesus, these are the words of John, the beloved apostle. But John being very theologically adept says, who wants to read verses 12 and 13?
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Now, some people will read verse 12 and they'll say, well, wait a second, it says right there that you have to receive him. You have to believe in his name, right?
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Isn't that free will? What in this context would make us say, well, wait a minute, that's will, but it's not free will.
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Somebody asked if it was okay to make coffee this morning, and I think we should serve some. Can I get an amen? All right.
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What about this context would make us say, well, this is not free will. Okay, nor the will of man, right, but of God.
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This is all of God. This is his doing. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become the children of God.
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He gives them the right based on the fact that they believe that they receive him, but they were born, they were born again, not of blood, not of birthright, nor of the will of flesh, not of a choice that they made, nor of any kind of exercise of their own dominion, but of God.
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They're born of God's will. Okay.
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Number five, three again was mankind cannot receive
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Christ or come to him apart from God's drawing. Number four, the will of man is not the source or determining factor in the application of salvation.
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Number five, repentance and faith are required, but are available only as gifts of God.
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In other words, when God saves you, you will repent, you will believe, but these are gifts of God.
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Let's look at, I mentioned it earlier, let's look at 2 Timothy 2 verses 25 and 26.
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2 Timothy 2 verses 25 and 26, and would somebody read those, please? My eyes are moving to and fro.
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Oh, yes, go ahead, Cory. Yeah, you can back up to...yeah. Okay, so it has to be an act of God.
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Acts 5 .31 says this, God exalted him at his right hand as leader and savior to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.
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In other words, this only comes through Christ as a gift.
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Ephesians 2 .8 and 9, might as well go back to Ephesians. I mean, if you really want a great study of the sovereignty of God and salvation, you really can't do much better than just looking at Ephesians 1 and 2.
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One, I mean, it's almost like I would almost like to reverse the order. Of course, the Holy Spirit knew better than I did. But in Ephesians 2, we find out why
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Ephesians 1 is possible because of Ephesians 2.
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Ephesians 2 verses 8 and 9. Somebody ought to be able to cite these from memory, but I won't challenge you on that.
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Just put your hand over your Bible and just bring it up by memory. Ephesians 2 .8 and 9. Go ahead,
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Charlie. Okay, so even your faith, even that is not something that you did yourself, but it is entirely of God as a gift of God.
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In fact, even if you just look at the beginning of verse 10, for we are his workmanship. I mean, this is kind of like Potter and clay language, like Romans 9.
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You know, we wouldn't think of, you know, fashioning something. When you make something at home, some of you who are crafty or creative or even have any talent whatsoever, which
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I have none. If you went home and you created, you know, something out of wood, I don't even know, you know, what's something really cool you can make out of wood?
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A birdhouse. Survey said. But anyway, whatever it is, you know, you wouldn't expect then,
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Pauline is very crafty and I'm sure she'd make a great birdhouse. One that would be multi -level and, you know, multi -roomed and, you know, many mansions she has built for birds.
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She wouldn't expect the birdhouse then to look at her and say, why did you make me like this?
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Because if that happened, what would she say? I need to cut back on my medication.
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There's no doubt about it. A little less coffee in the morning, you know. Our creations don't talk back to us, right?
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And that's kind of an absurd illustration. But we would not, we don't, as his workmanship, we don't look at God and say,
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God, this isn't fair. I want to choose of my own free will. It's not right.
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You need to back off. Let me make my own choices. Boy, I sound like a teenager. Not that I have any, you know, experience with that.
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But we respond in faith. We respond to repentance and we respond in gratitude.
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Because we understand what's been done for us. We understand what we've been granted, what we've been given. We don't think, oh,
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I can't believe God made me believe. I can't believe
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God forced me to come to spiritual life. I don't know anybody who thinks like that.
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Now, there are some people who deny total inability. In fact, I would say, if you look at, you know, the five points of Calvinism, as they're commonly referred to, the one that people like the least is total depravity, which is akin to total inability.
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Why don't people like that? I mean, you could say, well, it's, you know,
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I have a problem with this part of it, or I have a part of that part. You know, it's, I have a problem with limited atonement, or I have a problem with unconditional election, or I have a problem with irresistible grace.
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Nobody has a problem with preservation or perseverance of the saints, which I don't understand. You know, it seems like if you want to believe in free will, you should have a problem with that.
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But few people have a problem with that. Why do people have a problem with total inability? Takes it out of our hands, right?
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If somebody is incapable of believing, well, that's, we don't like that very much.
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Charlie. Okay, it makes
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God the active condemner in the same way that he's the active savior. I think there's a lot of reasons that people are always trying to protect
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God. And I'm like, well, okay, I don't think God needs our protection. In fact, again,
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I think if you look at Romans 9, God's very plain about the fact that he doesn't need our protection.
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You know, he will have mercy on whom he has mercy. He will harden whom he wants to harden.
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That doesn't sound like God's like, hey, protect my reputation. Okay, yeah,
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I mean, is it okay to present the gospel of somebody and then to have them say, you know, what must
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I do? Well, it's actually perfect. You know, just thinking about Peter's sermon, you know, what happens after he preaches on Pentecost?
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How do the people respond to him? They say, what my brothers, what must we do, right?
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What does the Ethiopian eunuch after he has the gospel explained to him based on Isaiah 53, meaning you can even preach the gospel from the
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Old Testament. What does he say? He says, there's water, what prevents me from being baptized? In other words,
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I believe what prevents me from being baptized. There's nothing wrong with having somebody in fact, what you want ideally is what?
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Somebody to say, hear the gospel and say, what must I do to be saved, right? Or even to walk up to you and say, how do
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I become a Christian? These are what you want. But that's, you know, that's not the common occurrence.
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Yes, all those things are true. In fact, why don't I just give you the microphone? No, it's true. It's true, right?
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We, you must believe, but your ability, you know, your receiver, your antenna, as it were, as Charlie was describing, is broken.
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In other words, here comes the gospel, but it just kind of deflects off of you. Why? Because your receiver is broken.
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Your cable is out. For those of you who don't know what a receiver is. Your internet is on the fritz.
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The truck is out in front of your house, you know. It has to be restored.
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And that's what God does when it says he causes you to be born again. What does he do? He's, you know, I mean, to fix that picture, he adjusts your antenna so that you receive it.
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It's like he's broadcasting on FM and you have AM antenna. It doesn't do any good.
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You can listen for that FM broadcast. For those of you who don't know what FM is, it's like you have
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Sirius XM in your car and it's disabled. Until God gives you the ability to hear him, you cannot hear him.
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Now, people will say this. If God commands something, we must be able to do it, right?
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If God says to do something, that means that we have an ability to do it.
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Is that true? Let me put it another way. Is there any, can you think of an example in scripture of something that's commanded that you can't do?
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Okay. You had to go right for the jugular. Yes. Jesus says what?
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Be perfect even as your father in heaven is perfect. Well, that must mean we have the ability to do it.
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Love your wife like Christ loved the church. Well, then I must be able to do it perfectly. Just exactly like Jesus did.
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Did Paul ever say, imitate Christ? Here's a hint.
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Yes, he did. I think that's in Ephesians five, as a matter of fact, or be imitators of God.
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Listen, you know, are there commandments to control your tongue?
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Yes. Do you always control your tongue? Yes. No. I mean, there are a multitude of commands.
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And can anybody say that there is any command of scripture that they perfectly obey all the time?
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And if you say, yes, I perfectly obey this all the time. Yeah, you stand condemned, right?
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I mean, that's not true. But I think this is my summary of what
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Dr. Waldron says here. You know, when he says, well, if God commands something, we must be able to do it.
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And here's what I suggest to you. Logic is a poor substitute for scripture.
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And what do I mean by that? That we should be illogical? No, but instead of our own faulty reasoning, we should believe what
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God says. God commands men to believe, but do they?
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No. In fact, it tells us that they cannot believe, right? We've already read. No one is able to come to me unless the father draws him.
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And yet we have a multitude of passages that would tell us that we must come to Christ, that we must believe in Christ.
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So are those things contradictory? The answer is no.
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The Bible can command something that we are incapable of doing. God commands men to repent, but the
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Bible teaches that they cannot. God commands men to make a new heart, but the
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Bible teaches they cannot. I don't think we should have a whole lot of trouble with this idea that there are things in scripture that we're commanded to do that we cannot do.
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Now, are believers capable of believing?
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Obeying some parts of the law for a time, let's say.
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Can you, what's that? Okay, so once God changed your heart, yes, you can obey some of the commandments some of the time.
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Can an unbeliever ever obey any of the commands ever? Not with the right motives, but outwardly or even, okay, here's an example.
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You're selling something to an unbeliever, right? And you say to him, you know,
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I don't even remember what price I listed it at, right? Was it 40 or was it 30? And he says,
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I'm sure it was 40. And you go, really? I think it was 30.
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And he says, no, it was 40, okay? And you go home and you find out he was right, right?
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It was 40. Now he could have lied and told you it was 30 and given you less money. Well, why did he do that? Why did he give you the 40 instead of the 30?
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He still has a conscience, right? So if his conscience isn't entirely eradicated, he can obey the law of God at times, but he'll never do it from the heart.
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So talking about total inability again, it is not a matter of people being as bad as they can be or always doing everything sinfully.
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They may have sinful motives, but they won't always sin in every situation. They're not as bad as they possibly can be.
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It just means that they don't have the ability to choose God. They don't have the ability to believe.
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It is a moral problem that they have because they're dead in their sins and trespasses.
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They're spiritually dead. And Waldron gives the example.
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I think it's a good one. And this gets to the heart of, can
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God command us to do something we're incapable of doing? When you get into your car, are you responsible to obey the rules of the road?
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Yes. Now, if you get into your car and you are inebriated, AKA drunk, are you capable of obeying the rules of the road?
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No. Are you responsible to obey the rules of the road?
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Yes. And it's the same thing. I mean, if we were looking at it this way, they're spiritually, they've got the wobbles, they've got the shakes, they've got the, you know, they're impaired.
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They don't have the ability to keep their car straight. And that's what total inability is. They don't have the capability of being morally straight, of choosing
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God. Well, we'll go ahead and close there.
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We need to close. Any thoughts or questions before I do that?
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Okay. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for what it teaches us about who we were, the people that surround us.
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Lord, give us compassion for them. It's not that we are better, that we are smarter, that we are in any way more capable, but is entirely upon your mercy, your grace, your love, which you set upon us before the foundations of the world.
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Father, keep us humble. Keep us mindful of all that you have done.
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It's not anything that we have done. And if we have that mindset, Lord, how much more eager should we be to preach
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Christ and him crucified, knowing that it is through the gospel that you will draw people, that you will convict people, that you will even give them new hearts, new desires.
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Father, make us willing messengers, willing ambassadors to plead with people to be reconciled to you through Christ Jesus.