 The title of our sermon this morning is free or not free. That is our question free or not free. That is our question Welcome back to our ongoing study of the essentials Our ongoing study of the essentials one sermon one hour one introduction to one foundational subject that we believe to be essential to the growth and maturity of the Christian Now we've been considering the doctrine of man together these last several weeks in the series and we come now this morning to the subject of free will Come to the subject of free will is the will of man free or not free. That is our question Now this is what they might call in the south a hot potato This is a hot button issue You want to trigger an evangelical snowflake bring up the topic of free will and they will be thus triggered It is generally confusion Regarding this subject that will lead many to an outright denial of other foundational biblical truths this issue Often becomes the stumbling block the third rail so to speak the hill to die on That prevents professing Christians on both sides of the debate from coming to a knowledge of the truth in Our humanistic in our man-centered age This is often the subject that must be understood before many will accept what the Bible says about many other subjects including the sovereignty of God or the depravity of man and many many many miss the gospel because of confusion around this subject an answer To Erasmus and his diatribe on free will written in 1524 the reformer Martin Luther wrote this Luther said it is not irreligious idol or superfluous But in the highest degree wholesome and necessary for a Christian to know Whether or not his will has anything to do in matters pertaining to salvation Indeed, let me tell you this is the hinge on which our discussion turns the crucial issue between us our aim is simply To investigate what ability free will has in what respect it is the subject of divine action And how it stands related to the grace of God if we know nothing of these things We shall know nothing whatsoever of Christianity and shall be in worse case than any people on earth The issue to Luther was the nature of our own ability The nature of free will or the extent and limit of what we must do Regarding our standing with God and equally important or more important You could say the nature of God's work in salvation the extent or the limit of what he does in us It's an extremely important. It's a critical issue, right? wrong unbiblical thoughts about free will pave the broad road to destruction is The will of man free or not free that is our question Now in our study of the essentials Through the doctrine of God through the doctrine of man. We've been confronted with two Inarguable unquestionable undeniable truths from the word of God one God works all things after the counsel of his own will All things that's inarguable unquestionable. The Bible clearly teaches that he decrees all things whatsoever that come to pass That which orders the cosmos is not the will of man, but in fact the will of God Entirely the will of God he decrees not only the ends But he decrees the means even the secondary causes by which his decrees are executed in history according to his providence Now people often don't have a problem with that As long as we think of it in terms of the big picture God in terms of the big picture is sovereign over all things But when it comes to the individual choices of men, that's where we have difficulty, right? They get very uncomfortable when we see the sovereignty of God extending to the actions and decisions and even choices of his creatures That's the first truth. The second truth. We've been confronted with is this man Made in the image of God is a morally Responsible free agent Well, that's true. It's what the Bible teaches free and able to make choices and listen free and able to make choices that have eternal and lasting significance, right Choices for which man will be judged choices for which man will be held responsible Choices for which man will be held accountable before his Creator Now these two very important truths concerning God sovereignty and man's freedom God sovereignty man's Consonability are not in any way contradictory. They don't contradict one another. They're not at odds These two Biblical truths are happily married right an Armchair hack theologians are always trying to break up the relationship These two truths are not incompatible failing to understand what the Bible teaches will lead to a parent conflict in the marriage When there isn't any conflict in the marriage those two things those two truths are happily married and many Through their ignorance of the word of God through their misunderstanding their lack of understanding with what the word of God clearly teaches Create strife create contention in that happy marriage when there isn't any strife in contention. There shouldn't be any Now one group of professing Christians Would ignore neglect or reject what the Bible clearly says about God's sovereignty in order to hold to their definition of free will for them Man is entirely autonomous Self-governing man is independent and self-directed man is endowed by God with the freedom to do anything and everything That man wants to do whether good evil or indifferent We live in a cause-and-effect world and our free choices aren't Effects because our free choices have no cause They may agree that God is sovereign But God must limit his sovereignty or the exercise of his sovereignty in order to uphold man's free will as such Man's free choices are spontaneous. They're not conditioned or conditional on anything or anyone He can make choices free of bias free of influence free of external conditions free of dispositions free of inclinations free of any inducements free will means I Choose It means that my choices are not in any way determined There may be nothing and no one that leads to or influences my choice They don't deny the fact of influence or inducements But that we can choose despite those influences or inducements if there's any influence or any conditions involved Then I have the power to reject those and particularly now with respect to salvation. I Choose to be saved I Choose to reject salvation. It is my choice. This view is called libertarianism It's not the political view not the same thing this view is libertarianism by far the most popular view the most popular Theological view and most often even in the professing church most often assumed to be true libertarianism Now of course they would look to the Bible and Say that scripture supports this view Deuteronomy chapter 30 verse 19 I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you today that I have set before you life and death blessing and cursing therefore Moses says choose life that both you and your descendants may live Joshua chapter 24 verse 15 if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve whether the gods with your fathers serve that were on the other side of the river Or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell, but as for me in my house We will serve the Lord right sounds like choice doesn't it? Or all the whosoever Free offers of the gospel John chapter 3 verse 16 for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son That whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life in particular John chapter 3 verse 16 Seems to speak of Potentiality doesn't doesn't it potential salvation based upon a person's free choice Anyone has the power to believe if they choose to believe Anybody anywhere anytime can choose to believe the libertarian would say that notions of God Decreasing all things whatsoever that come to pass is incompatible with this freedom incompatible with free will that it undermines human's responsibility for sin does Violence to human free will therefore God exercises his sovereignty, but not in any way that undermines our freedom God has to restrain or Constrict his sovereignty. He must limit himself to uphold human free will Now other professing Christians on the other side Of the road that drives a straight line through the middle between these two positions other professing Christians find themselves in the ditch on the other side of the road ignoring Neglecting or rejecting What the Bible clearly says about man's free moral agency in order to hold to their division their definition of free will One side neglects God's sovereignty the other side neglects human free will For them all human actions are predetermined They're not really choices at all in fact We only think that we're free Human freedom human choice is an illusion ultimately. There's no such thing as human freedom We live in a cause-and-effect world and God controls all the causes and Predetermines or controls all of the effects and what we choose We do not really choose ourselves. It's really not up to us It's already baked into the cake so to speak choice and free will then is an illusion this is the error of fatalism of hyper Determinism or hyper Calvinism if God wants me saved He's going to save me and there's nothing that I or anybody else can do anything about it God asked me to do things. I can't do and so he has to make me do them and frankly He can't hold me accountable if I don't remember I was witnessing Door-to-door in a neighborhood just down the street from the church here and someone said that exact thing to me Presented the gospel to him and he said listen if God wants me saved. He's going to save me This is the error that he had fallen into He wants me to turn for my sin then he's going to turn me from my sin. Do you see let us eat drink and be merry therefore for tomorrow We die a More modern Take on this old heresy We could call flip Wilsonism Flip will you know who flip Wilson is that the old comedian flip Wilson used to run around saying the devil made me do it Right the devil made me do it Just as heretical Just as wrong-headed There's a lot more involved in it than this isn't there we don't want to be overly simplistic But you get the idea these two ditches on either side of the road the problem for libertarianism is the Bible Scripture clearly teaches that God actively works all things after the counsel of his own will Including the salvation of his elect whom he has chosen to give to the Sun Before time began having written their names in the Lamb's book of life from before the foundation of the world Those whom he must efficaciously call to himself if they are to be saved And the problem for the fatalistic Hyper Calvinist is also the Bible Scripture clearly teaches that man is fully Responsible for his free actions fully responsible for his free choices that man must choose To turn from sin and man must choose to turn to Christ to be saved And that those who turn to him in faith will in no wise be cast out So here's what the Bible does teach here's what the Bible does teach every choice that we make is free and Every choice that we make is determined This view is called Compatibilism not Compatibilism like we're going to battle these things aren't these things are married. They're not at war with each other Compatibilism they're compatible every choice that we make is free and every choice that we make is determined determinism Doesn't make God a cosmic puppet master and we his puppet slaves. Do you see? Free will doesn't mean that we are entirely free either does it? Our question free or not free just became a little more complex, but it's no more illusive the answers are in the Bible We find the answers in the Bible It's not as simple as one shouting Whosoever will and then stomping back to his corner right in the other one Shouting no free will and then stomping back to his corner each one quoting their pet verses or their pet theology It's not that simple you have to do the hard work in the Bible Comes through good exegesis taking into consideration many texts The answers are certainly there for the one who will do the hard work So we want to begin this morning with an introduction to this subject of free will The view that properly balances God's sovereignty or God's sovereign will with human freedom is called Compatibilism our confession of faith The second London Baptist confession of faith of 1689 Clearly asserts this regarding God's decree listen God has decreed in himself from all eternity by the most wise and holy counsel of his own will freely and Unchangibly all things whatsoever that come to pass how many things All things right yet. So as thereby is God neither the author of sin Nor hath fellowship with any therein nor is violence offered to the will of the creature and then The 1689 defines free will or the free moral agency of man in this way in chapter 9 article 1 God hath endued the will of man with that natural liberty and power of acting upon choice Choice that is neither forced nor by any necessity of nature Determined to do good or evil. We have choice right Every choice that we make is free And every choice that we make is determined That's what you get when you put both of those truths those biblical truths together These truths are not incompatible. These truths are compatible The bible clearly Teaches both. This is called Compatibilism and we've spent some time in prior sermons considering God's sovereignty And the concept of determinism. So we want to spend the remainder of our time together this morning Discussing the nature of free will Now in order to understand what the bible clearly teaches regarding the will of man We'll need to think through three primary subjects three subjects. Okay one man's will after the fall Or the effects of the fall two man's will after conversion the effects of conversion And three man's will after glorification the effects Of glorification on the will of man man's will after the fall man's will after conversion Man's will after glorification to do that turn to the text right in your hearing earlier Ephesians chapter 2 and look there beginning with me at uh verse 1 Ephesians chapter 2 verse 1 something dramatic Something profound happened to man as a result of his fall into sin. We can see it all around us, right? I think the psychoanalytic term for it is we're a mess Right, we're a mess something is profoundly wrong with man man was created upright man was created innocent He had the power to do that which was pleasing to god and the lord said to adam Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat for in the day that you eat of it You shall surely die We know from scripture that adam and eve when they took the fruit of that tree died that day in the garden Spiritually they died spiritually they would later die Physically and now all those born in adam all of us here are born in adam We have adam as our first father so to speak. We are born spiritually dead That's how paul describes us here in Ephesians chapter 2 beginning in verse 1 And you he made alive Who were dead in trespasses and sins? Right in which you once walked according to the course of this world According to the prince of the power of the air the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience Among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh Fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind and were by nature Children of wrath just as the others now Prior to the lord verse 1 Giving sinners new life in christ prior to being born again prior to regeneration sinners Outside of jesus christ are described as dead in their sin. Do you see dead? Not sick Not feeling ill Not a tickly throat dead. Do you see dead dead in their sin? This is not hyperbole This is not Flowery language. This is paul making a specific point about the condition of fallen man They are dead In their sin a dead man can't do much can he right? He's dead This is the bible's diagnosis of fallen man. We didn't sneak in the bible last night and write that there for you This is paul's diagnosis the lord's diagnosis of fallen man in sin Our mother's conceived us. We are brought forth in iniquity. We are dead on arrival Dead in trespasses and sins Now notice paul isn't speaking here of physically dead. He's writing to people who are breathing Right paul is speaking here of spiritual death. You are you were prior to christ spiritually dead in sin Now what does Being spiritually dead in sin look like what does it look like? How does he describe their wretched condition? Well dead in sin verse 2 looks like walking according to the course of this world Walking according to the course of this world dead in sin verse 2 Looks like walking according to satan The spirit who works in those born to sin Right dead in sin verse 3 looks like walking according to the flesh. What is paul describing here? He's describing our outward conduct. This is how those who are dead in sin Live, this is how we conduct ourselves. This is how we act If you're dead in sin, this is the bible's diagnosis of your condition Now did you notice there verses 2 and 3? Our three enemies What are the three enemies of the christian? The world the flesh and the devil We have in verses 2 and 3 our three enemies the world the flesh and the devil The world the flesh and the devil are three very powerful Influences on our choices Very powerful influences on our choices. Listen. We don't choose anything in a vacuum You don't make choices free of influence free of Prejudice free of bias free of conditions free of inducements. We don't make choices that way Our choices are made based upon conditions. Our choices are not free Of influences in that sense We do make choices But our choices have Causes I think with me for a moment about that fact you woke up. You came to church this morning You got up. You got dressed and you chose something to wear Some of you i'm not sure why you made that choice, but you made it nonetheless. I'm joking You made it nonetheless You made the choice to wear what you wear and get in your car and come to church this morning That wasn't made in a vacuum. You're making that choice And maybe the temperature outside that had something to do with that And maybe the fact that nothing else was ironed it may have it right Any number of reasons why you would make that choice when you came into the church today You came through the back doors. You walked into the auditorium and you chose somewhere to sit That choice where you're sitting right now is not made in a vacuum There are reasons There are influences inducements for why you chose to sit where yours Probably because papa lewis took you by the hand and put you in that seat and your lack of choice Was his choice of where you're going to sit today, right? So in other words, we don't make choices free of influence We don't make choices free of determinations or conditions Now notice in verse two Two of those are external influences on us. What are those the world and the devil External influences on our choices and listen. Those are powerful external influences But notice the third is internal one of those is an extraordinarily You could say the most powerful Influence on our choices. It's an internal influence Notice how paul speaks of the flesh now in verse three Look at verse three among whom also We all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh Fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind and we're by nature children of wrath just as the others I think with me for a moment about these two verses, okay conduct Refers to the free choices that we make paul begins by speaking of our conduct in this case We choose to conduct ourselves in sin. The one who is dead in trespasses in sins Is the one who is conducting himself in sin, right choosing making choices about living in sin We are dead in sin. And so we choose to sin. Do you see? But notice how paul then begins to peel back the layers of the onion Our conduct Are the free choices that we make but what are those free choices doing? Verse two, they are fulfilling what the lusts of the flesh The desires of the flesh the desires of the mind those choices are fulfilling our desires Do you see? We make choices according to our desires the desires of the flesh the desires of the mind Man desires to fulfill the lusts of the flesh. And so man freely chooses sexual morality Right man freely chooses those sins Which fulfill the lusts of the flesh Man desires to fulfill the desires to fulfill the desires of his mind And so he freely chooses to carry out sinful schemes sinful plots The will does not act independent of desire The will does not act independent of the mind in that sense our will isn't free. Is it? Our will is not free in that sense. Is it? We make choices based upon our desires We make choices based upon the mind our decisions We're influenced driven motivated compelled constrained induced to make choices James Describes it this way in chapter 1 verse 14 Each one is tempted When he is drawn away by his own what? desires Each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed And what does he do with that desire that temptation that enticement? The sinner the one who is dead in trespasses and sins chooses to sin Not all the time occasionally a sinner may that's wrong. I can't do that But the sinner Sins because he is by nature a sinner Each one is tempted when he's drawn away and enticed by his own desires Then when desire has conceived it gives birth to sin Sin when it is fully grown brings forth death Remember eve in the garden right eve Saw that the tree was good for fruit food. She saw that it was pleasant to the eyes and what? Desirable to make one wise And so she took of the fruit of it took of the fruit and ate and she gave to her husband and he ate Jonathan edwards in his treatise on the freedom of the will He said this Free moral agents always act according to the strongest inclination they have at the moment of choice That's a powerful statement, but a true statement. Let that sink in for a moment Free moral agents always Act according to the strongest inclination they have at the moment of choice For the example before of uh walking down the Road Got your wallet in your back pocket and somebody comes up to you Pulls his gun out points his gun at you and your wallet of your life Your wallet of your life. Well, you don't desire To lose your wallet But you desire less to lose your life He could just shoot you take your life and your wallet So what do you do you give him your wallet? You're being coerced to make a choice you're being coerced to do something that you don't want to do But that's a choice you're making because the strongest Inclination at that moment the strongest desire that you have is to save your own life, right? Save your own skin So you give him your wallet We don't make choices in a vacuum We make choices based upon influences conditions inducements Our will in that sense is not free When you sin when you sin against god Your strongest inclination at that moment Your strongest desire is to sin now that is shameful is it not? Anyone who's in christ that greaves your heart Breaks your heart When we sin we don't sin in a vacuum When we sin it's because that's the strongest inclination of our heart in that moment is to desire that sin more than jesus christ Desire that sin more than him more than pleasing him If your strongest inclination at that moment was to honor the lord jesus christ If your strongest inclination at that moment was to love him Then you would not sin against him you would not obey that lust you would obey the lord jesus christ In that sense our will is not free It is constrained restrained compelled coerced motivated driven induced by Desire that's what paul is essentially saying there in verse two verse three. Do you see? Notice in Ephesians chapter two That paul doesn't stop there paul doesn't stop there being dead in sin Means that our outward external conduct is sinful the free choices that we make are sinful But then paul makes an incision He cuts Beneath the surface with his scalpel here the scalpel of god's word And he finds that we desire sin Outward conduct then we cut a little deeper. We realize that that conduct is based upon desire Being dead in sin means that the desires of my flesh and the desires of my mind are sinful not just my conduct But then notice that paul cuts even deeper in verse three He cuts even deeper in verse three and we were by nature Children of wrath just as the others Again think with me our sinful conduct is the fruit of our sinful desire Our sinful desire is the fruit of our sinful nature We just keep going deeper. Don't we peeling back the layers of the onion? I make free choices I am a free moral agent. I am morally responsible for the choices that I make But is my will really free? Is my will really free? No No It's not That at the fall we lost the ability to choose. That's how some people caricature The biblical view We don't make any choices at all. We're just robots. We're mindless heartless slaves of god Everything's determined and we're just puppets on a string. No, that's ignorant and foolish stop saying that let's have a intelligent biblically informed conversation here It's not that at the fall we lost the ability to choose The problem arising from the fall is that the basis from which we choose is entirely corrupt We didn't lose the ability to choose But the basis on which we choose the foundation on which we choose is entirely corrupt a corrupt nature producing corrupt desires Leading to corrupt choices Eventuating in corrupt conduct. Do you see? We are free to make choices, but our will is not free because sin Is the very excrement of our nature And because we can do nothing to change our own nature And because death is the recompense do the sinner Living even now with a stench of death clinging to them Paul describes fallen man as dead in trespasses and sins That's why we're called dead That's why the scripture describes man As unable to do god you see not just our conduct not just our free choices It dives deeper into our desires and even yet deeper into our very nature Sin has permeated the entirety of our being its corruption Has influenced all of our faculties man in that sense is totally depraved That's what total depravity the doctrine of total depravity teaches We are dead in trespasses and sins The bible describes man as unable to do good And as good The bible means good as the bible itself describes and understands or reveals good It is righteous holy those actions that are holy done in faith when the rich young ruler Approach the lord jesus christ He called him good didn't he and luke 18 Good teacher what must I do to inherit eternal life? The lord jesus christ understanding that the rich young ruler was coming to him seeing him as just a man Just a rabbi just a teacher. He says to him. Why do you call me good? There is One good your father in heaven in other words There are no men On earth who are good as the bible would describe it right except the bible's diagnosis of our condition There are none who are good We are all corrupt By sin it permeates every part of you We are dead in trespasses and sins romans chapter 3 verse 10 There is none righteous no not one there is none who understands there is none who seeks after god They have all turned aside. They have together become unprofitable. There is none who does good No, not one the fallen men Often do Things good works that are good in the worldly definition of what is good good by worldly standards But those works that may be good by worldly standards are corrupt and polluted in god's sight He doesn't see those works is done as good because they're not done by faith in his son They're not done through the power of the spirit. They're not done for his glory They're not good in that sense How does the bible describe men every intent of the thoughts of his heart are only evil continually the 1689 Again chapter 9 article 3 man By his fall into a state of sin Hath holy lost all ability of will to any spiritual good Accompanying salvation. He's here. They're saying Because of his fall into a state of sin. He's lost the ability To do any spiritual good accompanying salvation So as a natural man being altogether averse from that good and dead in sin He is not able by his own strength to convert himself or to prepare himself there unto In other words, his will is not free His will is not free Romans chapter 8 verse 7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against god It is not subject to the law of god nor indeed can be it speaks of inability man is unable To subject himself to the law of god john chapter 6 verse 44 No one Can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him and I will raise him up at the last day Speaks of inability No one can Whosoever comes no one can No one can come to me unless it has been granted to him by my father john chapter 6 verse 65 John chapter 8 verse 43 The lord in an encounter with the Pharisees Why do you not understand my speech? Because he says to them you are not able to listen to my word You don't have the ability you can't do it. It's not been granted to you. It's not been given You are of your father the devil And the desires of your father you want to do why because they have the same nature as their father They have the same nature as their father You're of your father the devil the desires of your father you want to do He was a murderer from the beginning does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him When he speaks a lie he speaks from his own resources right speaks from his own nature because he is A liar and the father of it But because the lord says I tell you the truth because I tell you the truth you do not believe me. It's not that You do not believe me when I tell you the truth No Because I tell you the truth you don't believe me the lord says which of you convicts me of sin And if I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? He who is of god hears god's words. Therefore you do not hear because you are not of god We need Desperately need a radical transformation of our very nature of who we are we need to be transformed John calvin said this If we mean by free Or if we mean by free will That fallen man has the ability to choose what he wants Well, then of course fallen man has free will If we mean by that term that man in his fallen state has the moral power and ability to choose righteousness Then free will is far too grandiose a term to apply to fallen man These are the effects of the fall on the will of man Man is a free moral and responsible agent, but man's will is anything anything but free He's lost the freedom To be Good. He's lost the freedom to do good. He's now in bondage to sin enslaved to sin Because he is a sinner by nature by Nature a child of wrath just as the others that nature producing sinful desires those sinful desires eventuating in sinful conduct Our will Is shackled By our influences our will is shackled by our desires Our will is shackled by our very nature. Our will is not free. Do you see Lord himself states this principle Matthew chapter 7 verse 18 listen A good tree Cannot bear bad fruit Nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. What is he talking about? He's getting down to the very nature of the tree A good tree can't produce bad fruit and a bad tree can't produce good fruit and listen every tree That does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire What is the characteristic fruit of your heart? What is the characteristic fruit of your mind? What are you marked by? if we Made an incision We uncovered The desires of your heart the desires of your mind the lusts of your flesh What characterizes you? Is it A lust For those things that gratified gratify the flesh Is it a lust to walk after the course of this world the things of the world the things in the world the people of the world? Is your heart is your mind given over to Sinful passions sinful desires Other than showing up here on a sunny morning What is it about your quote-unquote christian life? That makes you look any different than the world Are you given to anger? This doesn't mean that the christian doesn't get angry. Are you given to it? Is that just natural to you to be angry to get angry to To to live in anger Are you bitter? Are you given over to resentment? Do you fail to forgive you just hold a grudge? It's part of your nature to hold on to that thing Are you given over to uncleanness? Sexual immorality you may come here and play the part But you go home and in the privacy your own thoughts and the privacy of your own room you live like a devil You need a fundamental change in nature You need a fundamental change in who you are how you think you need to change in the things that you desire You need a new heart That comes through the gospel That comes through the person and work of the lord jesus christ Applied by the spirit to your heart your mind You need a fundamental change in nature in order for a sinner To make a free choice To turn from sin and put his faith and trust in the lord jesus christ. He must have an earnest desire to do so It's not just he has to have his intellect Persuaded to come down an aisle and say a prayer Asking jesus into his heart Doesn't mean that we just merely need to change his mind I think that these things are right. And so that's what i'll decide to do. No, no No, no, he needs a change of his nature He needs a change of his heart. He must have an earnest Desire to follow christ and earnest Disgust with himself An earnest love and affection for who christ is and what jesus christ has done for sinners In order for there to be an earnest desire The lord must must make us alive in christ in order for that desire to be there The lord must make us alive In christ look at ephesians chapter 2 down in verse 4 This view of free will is compatible with god sovereignty. Do you see God in grace Determines our salvation and carries it out. He must do that. Otherwise, no one would be saved. Do you see We need the desire who gives us those good desires god does by transforming us, right? Look at verse 4 But god, I love the butts in the bible But god who is rich in mercy Because of his great love with which he loved us notice who is working here. It's god God is working. It's not man making a choice. Who's making the choice god is god is the one who's determined Right god who is rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us Even when we were dead in trespasses made us alive together with christ for by grace you have been saved now there's a before That paul just got done teaching us about in verses 1 through 3 when we were dead in our sin That's the before now. There's an after isn't there when we were given new life in christ. We were that Now in christ. We are this He's saying something fundamental isn't he about our very nature about who we are He's saying something fundamental foundational about our nature. We were dead Now we're alive If mrs. Potts were a theologian She'd be singing there's something there that wasn't there before right? i've got kids I'm terrible illustrations and those are the illustrations that come to mind so But what is it that wasn't there before it's regeneration. It's new life It's new life a new nature. It's a new heart We have been transformed Radical transformation not just in our conduct That's moralism formalism Legalism Anybody can just clean up the outside of the cup. We need cleansing on the inside We need our hearts transformed. What is this talking about? It's talking about that Not just a cleansing up a cleaning up of our conduct It's not just as simple as saying we'll just desire that listen. I love lasagna. I hate cabbage Like boiled cabbage is the worst. I can't just go from To loving it would take a radical transformation something miraculous for me to love boiled cabbage the way that I love lasagna We need a radical transformation to change the world. It's not just a matter of changing desire We need a change of who we are. That's what happens in the gospel The lord changes who we are fundamentally foundationally. It's a new heart a new nature new will new desires These are the effects of conversion On fallen man. You see these are the effects of conversion of regeneration of the new birth think with me The lord said That as a part of the new covenant the covenant of grace So we're talking about the covenant of grace is the new covenant In ezekiel 36 the lord said I will cleanse you. Listen to what the lord said. This is salvation I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols I will deliver you from all your uncleanness. He later says right. I'll deliver you from all your filth I will give you a new heart I will put a new spirit within you I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and I will give you a heart of flesh That's what the lord says he will do when he causes someone to be born again when he saves them Instead of a heart of stone Hard insensitive right you stiff-necked people all day long I've held out my arm to an a stiff-necked people the lord says because they're hard-hearted. They're hard-hearted insensitive Past any spiritual feeling And he takes that heart of stone out of the person so to speak figuratively here And gives them a heart of flesh a heart of flesh soft tender able willing To overflow with affection for the one who is most worthy of our affections One who sees the lord jesus christ as supremely precious right He who was ordered wrong Becomes ordered or right. This is the new creation. Behold. We are made a new creation There's nothing less here than a renovation of man's very nature Peter says we become partakers of the divine nature. We become partakers of the divine nature That renovation of our nature leads to do desires If you say to me listen, i'm a christian, but my desires have never been changed. You're not a christian You're not a christian if you don't have a new relationship with your sin Where you learn to despise you hate that sin That you once enjoyed When you love the one who you once hated The renovation of our nature leads to new desires new affections new motivations new inducements new convictions and those new desires inexorably inevitably lead to new Conduct to turning from sin in other words. It's back up the ladder so to speak right we're going back up from nature to desires and then to conduct And that that renovated heart that nature that the spirit of god works in Remember past that In ezekiel 36 the determinism that the lord then speaks with he says in ezekiel 36 then what does he say? I will cause you to walk in my statutes and you will keep my judgments and do them Sounds very deterministic doesn't it the lord is at work in us The lord is at work in that new heart with those new desires by his spirit to cause us to treasure him to obey his word in other words in conversion Our will is gloriously set free then from its bondage to sin Our will is liberated And now we can choose Righteousness we can choose that which is pleasing to him where we could not before right our nature has been changed We've been transformed So our will is free then It's free no And I for one am exceedingly grateful to god that it is not Why is it not free because now I hunger and thirst for righteousness I Want to be pleasing to him. I want to serve him heart soul mind and strength I desire to follow hard after him I desire to worship him in the way that he is worthy to be worshiped I want to live with him right it's paul roman 7 the very things that I want to do These are the things that I don't do as I should The things that I don't want to do I agree with the law that it's holy just and good I agree in my mind But then I find this other principle in my members and I end up doing the very things that I don't want to do paul says in romans chapter 6 verse 22 Now having been set free from sin And having become slaves of god But praise god right praise god praise god Having been set free from sin and having become slaves of god You have your fruit to holiness and the end what? everlasting life everlasting life For the wages of sin is death But the gift of god is eternal life in christ jesus our lord If we continue in Ephesians chapter 2 look at verse 6 He raised us up together Made us sit together in the heavenly places in christ jesus That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness toward us in christ jesus For by grace you have been saved through faith And that not of yourselves it is a gift of god not of a works lest anyone should boast We just think for a moment how the bible talks about these things and describes these things can you see how Utterly ridiculously how deplorably foolish it is to think that we could ever earn salvation by our works What a stupid Thought that is Right how who we are by nature and what we do by nature that we could ever Merit salvation listen that we could just Saunter down an aisle and make a choice whenever we want to you know those it'll say listen I'm just gonna send it up Until i'm on my deathbed and when i'm on my deathbed i'm gonna you fool you fool you fool By grace you have been saved Through faith that Not of yourselves it is the gift of god not of works lest anyone should boast for we are his Workmanship do you see created in christ jesus for good works which god prepared beforehand that we should walk in them Man wants to take all of that And make it the fruit of his own free will Wants to take all of that and make it the fruit of a decision Listen our decision Is the fruit of all that do you see the difference Luther said Man's hope Is not in the freedom of man's choice But in the freedom of god's grace Praise god Now let me ask you the question If you're in christ today, did you choose to follow christ? Of course you did Of course you did Why? Because the lord caused you to be born again He gave you a new heart and you believed He does this by the way through the preaching of the gospel god does that through the preaching of the gospel Then Then you made a decision To listen and consider And you made a decision to turn from your sin and to believe upon the lord jesus christ You decided Romans chapter 10 verse 13 Everyone who calls on the name of the lord will be saved But how will they call upon him of whom they have not believed in whom they've not believed How they call on him in whom they've not believed how will they believe in him of whom they've not heard We hear we believe we call But you see the sovereignty of god behind it all right The lord's sovereignly working behind it all think about lydia In ax chapter 16 verse 14 Listen to this in verse 14 about lydia a certain woman named lydia heard us heard the preaching of all She was a seller of purple from the city of thayatira who worshiped god The lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by paul You notice the flow of the events there right paul preached She listened the lord opened her heart And she believed do you see So many examples of this in the bible so many examples in the bible in the 1689 again chapter 9 article 4 Speaking here of the effects of conversion Listen when god converts a sinner and translates him into the state of grace He free of him from his natural bondage under sin And by his grace alone enables him freely to will and to do that which is spiritually good Yet so as that by reason of his remaining corruptions he doth not perfectly nor only will that which is good But doth also that which is evil Brings up an important point in article 4 there On this side of eternity, we're being sanctified. We need sanctification A sanctification is monogistic. It's a work of god, but we work in it. Don't we We work in it god determines every step and again, we're back to that elemental truth from the bible Every choice that we make is free And every choice that we make is determined Listen to this from Philippians chapter 2 Therefore my beloved As you have always obeyed not as in my presence only but now much more in my absence Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Why? Because it is god who works in you both to will and to do for his good pleasure Biblical Explains that every action that we take has a two-part explanation. There's a concurrence. There's a confluence of a work one divine and one human Proverbs chapter 16 verse 9 a man's heart plans his way, but the lord directs his steps Man desires man thinks man plans man acts And yet the lord is above all of that Directing each step along the path of a perfect plan that he has decreed from before the foundation of the world And he does so without violence to our will he does so without undermining our free choices And he does so in a way that upholds our moral responsibility for the choices that we make We study that with the sermon on providence several weeks ago. I refer those sermons to you So he's considered the effects of the fall the effects of conversion. What about the effects of glorification? What do we have to look forward to? Article five in our statement of faith says it this way This will of man is made perfectly And immutably free to good alone in the state of glory only You don't want to you want to know when free will really takes place That's it glorification Our will is free In a state of glory. We will be immutably free to do all good If you're lost here this morning if you Have not Experienced the work of grace in your heart if you can sit here this morning and you know you know That god has not wrought a change within you That he's not changed your nature that you still are enslaved to the desires of your flesh Walking after the course of this world by nature a child of wrath A spirit that works in the sons of disobedience working yet in you But what about responding to the gospel? The lord works through means as he has appointed the ends so he has appointed the means And lord works through the preaching of the gospel. You're here today You've had opportunity to hear How will you respond? You can pray You can read You can attend You can cry out to god for mercy You can cry out to the lord that he would do a work in you to transform your heart To take out that heart of stone and to give you a heart of flesh And he calls you to repent he calls you to turn from your sin He calls you to believe upon the lord jesus christ alone for salvation pray that the lord would change you Turn from your sin and trust in him. It's a matter of faith, isn't it? Turn from your sin and trust in him Brothers and sisters, we've been given great blessings in christ Great blessings Let us live for the lord jesus christ in light of those blessings It is god who works in you to will and to do according to his good pleasure Let's worship. Let's pray. Let's serve. Let's obey. Let's love Right as god would call us to for his everlasting praise and glory amen All praise honor and glory to the one who has saved us Let's take a few moments now and pray I want you to pray silently and do business before god consider what god has done in the gospel Consider what you would ask him to do now during this time If you're lost For salvation if you're saved to preserve you to sanctify you to prepare you for glory When we're done praying we'll pray together and then you'll be dismissed. Let's pray Father I pray now for our sinners to be converted to christ I pray lord for Your people to be built up in their faith that we would In the strength that you supply by your spirit Serve you acceptably with fear while we sojourn here on this side of eternity That we would rely on you and Labor and strive working out our own salvation knowing that it is you Who works in us to willing to do according to your good pleasure Help us lord to persevere and faith and holiness growing in our knowledge of you and wisdom and immaturity and faith and help us lord to Fervently serve you Fervently earnestly obey you to live for you or to be worthy to walk worthy of the calling with which we are called For your everlasting praise and glory May you be magnified in these things and thank you for this blessed privilege lord of studying your word together And what it says on subjects like this help us to think rightly knowing lord that the way that we think influences the way that we live And conform us into the image of your son renew our minds after your holy word And help us lord to live more fervently for you Devotedly for you affectionately for you. We pray all these things in the blessed name of our great god and savior the lord Jesus christ. Amen