Morning. Let's start with a word of prayer. Father, we thank you for another beautiful day in the mountains. And we ask that you would help us to remember how we're blessed to live in a place like this, where we're surrounded by the beauty of your creation. And I ask that you would be with us this morning in spirit and truth as we open your word again and look at what learned men have have recorded about the nature of man, and ask that you would illuminate us through those words, though not inspired, and the inspired word of scripture, and that you would help us to come to a greater understanding of what we are both apart from Christ and in Christ. And we pray these things in his name, amen. So this morning And looking back at what we've covered so far in the Confession, instead of diving into Chapter 3, which looks like it's probably going to take a few weeks for us to get through once we step into that, I want to go ahead and take another detour and go to Chapter 9. Chapter 9's got five paragraphs, but it's fairly short. I'm just optimistic enough to think that I can do it in one lesson. So we'll see how that goes. And it's also an opportunity for me to use a whiteboard and draw some pictures, which I like to do. So let's look at chapter 9. The title of it is Of Free Will. And let's start. Let me read the paragraphs. They're fairly short. So let me read those for us to get us started today. First paragraph, God hath endued the will of man with that natural liberty that is neither forced nor by any absolute necessity of nature determined to be good or evil. Man in his state of innocency had freedom and power to will and to do that which is good and well-pleasing to God, but yet mutably so that he might fall from it. Man, by his fall into a state of sin, hath wholly lost all ability of will to any spiritual good accompanying salvation. So as a natural man, being altogether averse from that good and dead in sin, is not able, by his own strength, to convert himself or to prepare himself thereunto. When God converts a sinner and translates him into the state of grace, he freeth 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 corruption, he doth not perfectly nor only will that which is good, but doth also will that which is evil. The will of man is made perfectly and immutably free to good alone, in the state of glory only. Short paragraphs, but a lot to think about today. And here's where a picture is gonna be very helpful. So I'm gonna refer to the board and commend you to draw along with me so that you can refer back to this. The hope being that it helps clarify what we're talking about, what the divines are laying out for us. So what I've done here already, to start out, and this will pertain to Adam. So in creation, this is paragraph one, Adam has what in terms of his will? Adam is actually the one who had free will either to do good or evil. And then paragraph two refers to his state of innocency. So there's some period of time between his creation and the fall, where in his state of innocency, he can either obey God, and what was the commandment that God originally gave him? That one. What else? The prohibition of every tree of the garden he may freely eat, but of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, you may not eat of it, for in the day you eat of it, you shall surely die. Okay, so some period of time. I think theologians for thousands of years have argued about how long this was. I think it was probably about five minutes. That's just my theology. So we had the fall, the disobedience of Adam and Eve. And now there's a new condition that man is under called spiritual death. And then we have redemption, which is the rebirth or the renewal of the spirit. And in some other period of time here, between redemption and physical death, where we're engaged in the spiritual struggle, the flesh against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh, then physical death does what to body and soul? In fact, I think this is how scripture defines both the beginning and the end of life. The beginning of life is the union of body and soul at conception, and the end of life is the separation of body and soul. And that's something, by the way, that medical science can't tell us exactly when that happens. So physical death separates the body and the spirit. The spirit goes to heaven, and then the body goes into the ground, And then there's another period of time which we currently live in until that resurrection when the body is brought out of the ground and the spirit, which has already been perfected now, is joined to a new body that is also perfected. So that gives us a timeline of what's happening in this. Now, parenthetically, this is often referred to as the fourfold state of man. The fourfold state of man, as described by Augustine. Now, I mentioned that this pertains to Adam, because Adam was created perfect. So Adam had this state of innocency, and before he sinned, the rest of us are starting afterwards. In other words, we're conceived in that state that Adam fell into and then subsequently passed to the rest of mankind. Now, one of the controversies, and it's called Pelagianism. Pelagianism is a heresy that was confronted and condemned way back in the 5th century, 1500 years ago. And it's that heresy that says, we're actually all like Adam, We don't have any lingering effects of the Fall. Just like Adam, we can either be good or we can be bad. And that has long been condemned as a heresy in the Church. Then, the second controversy is... Well, what followed after that, I should say, quickly afterward, is something called semi-Pelagianism. The idea that, well, the Fall did some damage, but man is still able, by some effort, to save himself. A thousand years later, that controversy came up again, and it ended up being labeled Arminianism, and that's what we typically call it today, the contrast between Calvinism, on the one hand, where God does everything that's necessary for salvation, and Arminianism, on the other hand, where we still have the ability to contribute something to our salvation, even if it's just making the choice. And then we end up with something called decisionalism, which arguably was kind of started and has been promoted by Charles Finney and those who followed after him. That idea that if we push people hard enough, we can get them saved by getting them to make a decision. So that's part of what's at stake here as we consider what's being stated here in these short paragraphs. So let's now turn to the scriptures, and I will enlist your assistance, as we have done in recent weeks, to look up and to read some scripture. I made life a little easier for myself this week by simply copying the text with the embedded footnotes in them. If you have an electronic copy of this file, you'll find that the hyperlinks are included in that PDF file. So now I can assign these by letter. So under paragraph one, we just have one footnote, A, which has three scripture verses, Let me go ahead and divide these up just for fun. And I'll start over here on my left with Lori and Bill, and then we'll move across the room. So when it's your turn, be ready to take the baton. Go ahead. Is that Deuteronomy 30? Yeah, Deuteronomy 30, verse 19. I got it. I'll go ahead and do that. OK. 30, 19. I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live and you and your descendants. Matthew 17, 12. But I say to you that Elijah already came and they did not recognize him. But to him, whatever they wished, so also the Son of Man is going to suffer at their hands. Okay, thank you. And Terry, you have James 1.14? Well, I'm trying. I'll go ahead and read that. Go ahead, Jack. Each person is tempted when he's drawn away in the tides where his own evil desires. Okay, so let's think about why those three particular verses are being footnoted. What is the idea behind the verse in Deuteronomy? God is placing before his people what? A choice and exhorting them to choose the better of the two. Okay, the idea that man has the ability or has the choice you may not have the ability. And that was the problem with the Mosaic law. God placed the law in front of them and said, here's the law. And Israel said, we'll do it. And what happened? How did that go? They didn't do it. And not only they didn't do it, but we would also say that they couldn't do it in the fall. And then the verse from Matthew. where it says that they did to Elijah whatever they wanted to do. And what was it that they wanted to do? Kill him? And then the verse from James, of course, every man is tempted when he is drawn away by his own what? Lust or desires. Right? The inclinations. And that's what we're wanting to get at with this idea of free will. We say that we're free. We say that because we observe that we make choices, which we do all the time. But the question is, what is it that prompts us to make the choices that we make? So if we want to understand what is meant by free will, first of all, recognize that Adam had free will, which is to say, He was inclined neither particular to good or to evil. But what's the problem after the fall? Our inclinations are now toward what is evil. So are we free to choose? Yes, in the sense that we make choices. But if our will is corrected by sin, then we find ourselves choosing what is evil. and being against God's law. In other words, and we see that, if we try to keep God's law, we can't. Even as Christians, we can't, which is what we'll get to here. There's still, even for the Christian, a battle between the renewed spirit, which wants to do what is right, and the old body, the body of death that we're still attached to, that is still drawn into those bodily, fleshly desires. So we might often find that when we do something that our will is not monolithic, meaning that all of our desires to do good We may have a desire to do good, but as Paul says, I also find another law, which is that I still want to do what is evil. And so there's this pull between the desire to do good from the renewed spirit and the desire to continue to do sin because of the corrupt body. This is actually good news. Why is death? Good news for the Christian. The struggle is over. Yes. We're freed from the body which is dying. That body goes into the ground and continues to decay. Death is part of the proof of the fall. All ascend and all die. So, death is still the consequence of sin, but for the Christian, instead of it being the end of the story, it's actually... You want to talk about your best life? Your best life is when you die. Not now. Because of the constant pull between the renewed spirit and the body of death. So, physical death. And this is the way to think about it. And since I've got markers in front of me and a whiteboard, I'll draw a picture. Our spirit has been renewed on the one hand, which is still united to a body that is under the power of sin. So the body continues to decay, but the spirit is being renewed. And this also helps us understand why it is that as Paul grows in his maturity, he becomes more and more sensitive to his sin. His spirit is becoming more knowledgeable of the righteousness of the law. And yet, as time goes by, the body gets weaker and weaker. So death becomes this separation. And I've got a verse that I'll share with you that helps illustrate that. In fact, let me go ahead and give it to you before I forget, because I might get sidetracked at 2 Corinthians 4.16. Paul says this, though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. the comparison between the spirit which is growing in sanctification, growing in knowledge of Christ and Christ-likeness, and the body which continues to get old and weak and sick until finally death brings us to the grave. And this is one of the ways, and I could spend an hour talking about this probably. You know that by now, right? This is one of the reasons why you should never believe the faith healers who say you can be healed in your body. You can't. This body has to die. It's going to die. You get a new body here at the resurrection, that body is incorruptible. This one is corruptible and will continue to decay. Alright, let's look at some more verses. So, we looked at paragraph 1, this is created. man created in a state where he is neither inclined to good or evil. Next, let me have someone take Genesis 1.26 and Ecclesiastes 7.29. Terry, it's your turn. Then God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over the livestock, and over all the earth. and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. And Ecclesiastes 7.29. See this alone I found, that God has made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes. So, there's this period of what the divines are referring to as Innocency. from the moment of creation until the disobedience that comes in the Garden. And the key idea there is what? That God made man in such a way that he could fall. Made him upright, as Solomon says in Ecclesiastes, but in such a way that he could fall, he had the potential to fall, which is what brings us now to paragraph... Sorry, before we go on, we've got another couple of references, Genesis 2, 16, and 17, and 3, 6, and it looks like Denise is on deck. Okay, 2, 16, 17. Okay. And the Lord God commanded man, saying, from any tree of the garden you may eat freely. But from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat. For in the day that you eat from it, you shall surely die. Okay, so there's the commandment. And Adam was made in such a way that he could either keep it or break it. And then the next verse, please. Okay, it's 3, what? 6, 3, 6. Verse 3, 6, yes. Okay. When the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise. She took from its fruit and ate, and she gave also to her husband with her, with her and he ate. Okay, so that brings us here to the fall. So now, what is this next condition of man after the fall? And again, this applied to Adam and Eve, they were created perfect, but then fell, and then in their fall, we all fell. So this next part, this paragraph three, pertains to the state that all mankind, since Adam and Eve, with the exception of Christ, of course, is conceived or born into. So a few more references here. George, are you following along with us? Yes. Which one are you in? John 15.5? Okay. And Martin Luther had a funny way of saying a lot of things and one of the things he said about that verse is that nothing is not a little something. And Romans 5, 6 and 8, 7. For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. And then 8, 7. 8, 7. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law. And that's pointing, both of those verses, or those combination of verses are pointing to what? What the divines are calling our inability. That's this fallen condition where we cannot save ourselves and we cannot even prepare ourselves for salvation, okay? Romans 3, 10 and 12. Where are we? Go ahead, Margie. That's fine. I think it's NASB. As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one. They are all gone out of the way. They are together become unprofitable. There's none to do with good, no, not one. And really that whole, there are a number of verses that Paul's quoting from, from the Old Testament in those opening verses of chapter three of Romans to establish the fact that there is none righteous Jew, Gentile, it doesn't matter, all have come short of the glory of God, okay? Ephesians 2, 1 and 5. So the promise when the law was given to Adam was that on the day you eat of it you shall surely die. And that death has to include two parts. Here's the physical death. That part has been delayed. We've got the state of execution, so to speak. But in the meantime we have, what's the other kind of death? Spiritual death, which is what scripture calls that natural condition of man. The natural man is spiritually dead. Where were we? Colossians 2.13, and you being dead in your trespasses and the incircumcision of your flesh, he has made alive. Together with him have forgiven you all trespasses. Okay, very good. So again, in order to get from this state of spiritual death to spiritual life, it is God's working that accomplishes that. I like to use the example of Jesus standing at the tomb of Lazarus. Lazarus was not just dead, but as the coroner in The Wizard of Oz would say, really, really dead. Four days dead, right? How much power did Lazarus have to bring himself out of the grave? That would be zero. And it was the power of the Word of Christ calling him out of the grave that brought him to life. It's a fitting example of what is necessary for us to be renewed. We are like that. Even though we're walking and talking, that spiritual death can't be fixed except by the power of Christ in the Gospel through the Spirit. A couple of verses from John 6, 44 and 65. Are we back around? Okay, Lori. So there's a comparison between the spiritual renewal of redemption and the resurrection of the body later on. Okay? 1 Corinthians 2.14. But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them because they are spiritually appraised. So we looked at that, I think, last week. talking about the work of the Holy Spirit, what's one of the things that the Holy Spirit does in the life of the Christian, and that is to reveal truth to us. Arguably one of the most important things that he does in the life of the Christian, because that is the means by which God is sanctifying us, bringing us more and more into the likeness of Christ. Ephesians 2, 2 through 5, in which you once walked following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of breath like the rest of mankind. but God, being rich in mercy because of the great love with which He loved us even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By the grace, you have been saved. Amen. About the only thing you can say to that. It's a reminder of what we were originally in this state. Sons of disobedience, children of the devil, spiritually dead. And all of those things that Paul is saying in Romans three, once applied to all of those who were born that natural man, so to speak. Titus three, three through five. slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving-kindness of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit. Thank you. So in that passage, again, we're being reminded of what we were or what we would be if left in our natural condition. Foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving diverse lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. Okay. Let's look at a couple of additional verses on this. This is a verse we've looked at previously, but it's worth coming back to again. Genesis 6.5 and 8.21. Can you find that for us, Denise? Two verses that are saying very similar things. One right before the flood and one right afterward. Genesis 6.5. Okay. Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of the man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And A21. And the Lord smelled the soothing aroma, and the Lord said to himself, I will not again curse the ground on account of man, for the intent of man's heart is evil, but his youth and No, evil from his youth. And I will never again destroy every living thing as I have done. So another two concise statements going all the way back to the very early days. But still, after the fall, in the historical timeline, we could put the flood in here somewhere if we wanted to. After the fall, the condition of man is not just damaged, but wrecked. spiritually. Jeremiah 17.9, do you have that, George? Yes. The heart is deceitful of the wrong things and desperately sick. Who can understand it? And what's the answer? One of the greatest deceptions of the heart is the idea that the heart is actually pretty good. That's one of the devil's favorite lines. And one of the most common, if you ask somebody on the street, how's your condition? Oh yeah, that's a good one, right? Just follow your heart, whatever your, that's disastrous advice. But the average man on the street will say, yeah, I look at my heart and I'm pretty good. And God ought to think so as well. So obviously, I'm on my way to heaven. And think about what that means in terms of our witnessing, you have to get past that deception of the heart to recognize what it really is in this fallen condition in order to get to a point where it can be redeemed, where it's ready to hear the gospel. So next we have redemption. Let's look at some of the verses we have for us here, starting with John 8, 34 and 36. Jesus answered them, truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. Verse 36. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. OK. Colossians 1.13 please. And this is describing our natural bondage under sin as the divines put it. How do we get out of this wrecked condition and into the state of regression, and it requires God's work in, as Paul says there in Colossians, translating us into a new condition, or how does Jesus put it? What's the terminology that he was using? Setting us free. The idea that the natural man is in bondage or slavery to sin, and that it's the work of Christ to set to set her free from that bondage. Very strong language. We're back in Romans, Romans 6, 18 and 22. And having been set free from sin, you become slaves of righteousness. But now, having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness and the end everlasting life. Okay, so there's that idea. And then also Philippians 2.13, please. For it is God who works in you both to will and to do for his good pleasure. Okay. So now we come back to Romans 7. We could look in an extended passage there at the end of Romans 7. Let's just look at a couple of these verses. Because it's a little broken up, let me read what I have here in my confession footnotes. And this is the King James. For that which I do, I allow not. For what I would, that I do not. That do I not. But what I hate, that do I. For I know that in me, that is my flesh, dwelleth no good thing, for to will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would, I do not, but the evil which I would not, that I do. I find in a law that when I would do good, evil is present with me, but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members. And then Galatians 5.17. So that's describing that struggle that takes place here in this state of redemption between redemption justification and physical death, where we have a renewed spirit, but it's still joined to a dead body. And so that struggle is being described in those passages. Let's look at another one. 1 John 1, 8-10. If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us. So again, the idea that even the Christian is going to continue to sin, The gospel of salvation is what translates us from this state of the natural spiritually dead man into new spiritual life. And it's also the gospel that comes alongside the Christian to say, God is faithful and just to forgive your sins. So even in this state, we need the comfort of the gospel to remind us what Christ has accomplished for us. It's not just that He's forgiven the sin that we committed up to that point, but when we are truly saved, all sin, past, present, and future, is forgiven. Number five, the will of man is made perfectly and immutably free to good alone in the state of glory only. Let's look at a couple of short verses there. Bill, while you're still open to 1 John, go ahead and give us verse 3-2 from 1 John. Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. And that's the promise of what's called the beatific vision, seeing Christ face to face. And the only way it's possible for us to see Christ face to face is what? Not as sinners, right? No one can see God and live because of what? It's sin that separates us from the presence of God going all the way back to the garden of Eden. So that tells us something about what we will become in this Next state, where body and soul are separated, the soul returns to the one who made it. Okay, let's look at Ephesians 4.13, please. Terry? Until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. We've talked in the past when we talked about man created in the image of God, and then the fall of man, and what he's going to become, he's going to become like this original created image. So the idea is that redemption will get us back to where we were before the fall, after the image of God. Hebrews 12.23. and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous make perfect. So those who have died and gone to heaven have gone through this transition here, and we call this glorification. This period of time between when we're saved and when we die is Sanctification, we are growing in our knowledge of Christ, growing in our obedience, but that only partially happens during this life. It's not until physical death where body and soul are separated, the spirit is liberated from that body of death, that we attain that perfection of spirit. And that's what the writer of Hebrews is alluding to in that passage. And Jude 1.24, You are, Denise? Yes. Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of His glory, blameless with great joy. And what a day that will be when we're not only in the presence of Christ, but we are blameless, faultless, sinless. That is the promise of our salvation. It's not just that we're saved in the present moment, but it's what we're saved to in the end. Salvation encompasses all of these things, including resurrection and that eternal state where body and soul are rejoined forever in heaven. Let me look at the end of Romans 8. starting in verse 31. What shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring the charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died. More than that, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, for your sake, we are being killed all day long, we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. And then also, from the words of Jesus himself, John 10, verses 25 to 30. Does anyone have that handy? I do. Go ahead, Denise. 25 to 30. Jesus answered them, I told you and you do not believe the works that I do in my father's name. These bear witness of me, but you do not believe because you are not of my sheep. My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me and I give eternal life to them and they shall never perish. and no one shall snatch them out of my hand. How far do I go? 30. 30, okay. A few more. My Father who has given them to me is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are one. And what these verses are reminding us is that having been saved, we're secured in that salvation. If salvation is something that we do as a choice, then sure, I suppose the argument is that we might wake up one day and decide we don't want it anymore. But if salvation is something that God does for us and to us by His power and for His purposes, then we should expect Him to keep the work going. Jesus is called the Author and the Finisher. of our faith and he says, he who began a good work in you will complete it. So we have that assurance that what has been started will be finished. We've come to the end of our time this morning. I have discussed a little bit about the controversies that I have listed there on the right hand column. The big distinction is between what's called monergism, which is God working alone in salvation, or synergism, which is man and God cooperating for salvation. And the Bible very clearly teaches a monergistic understanding of salvation. Another error that I will mention I won't call it a heresy, I'll call it an error, is the idea of perfectionism. There are some who teach that once you are saved, that you can be perfected in this life. And that just ain't so. We struggle against sin for the time that life remains. The only way that we might think that we're perfected in this life is what? There's a way to get there if you work at it. You know, if we take the law and we make the law very easy, right? Like the rich young ruler who said, hey, I've kept the law. Ever since my youth, I've kept the law. And Jesus says, hmm, there's just one more thing. So anybody who thinks they have reached the state of perfection in this life doesn't know themselves very well or doesn't know the law very well. because we continue to struggle with sin. What was the term that referred to that? Perfectionism. I have it in your notes there. It's also called entire sanctification. And then lastly, what about fallen angels and what about unsaved men? First of all, for angels, There's nothing in scripture that provides redemption for angels. Christ did not die to save the fallen angels. So at the end of the age, the fallen angels are cast into hell. And that includes Satan, who is the head of them. And then what about those who are unsaved at the time of death? Because another error we can easily fall into is the idea that even if you're not saved in this life, maybe there's still a chance for you to be saved in the next. And that's also very easily refuted. Those unregenerate at the moment of death remain in a permanent condition of sin and pass into eternal punishment. And Jesus told the parable of the rich man Lazarus that illustrates that very well, that there is a separation between heaven and hell, that none can go from there to here or from here to there. So a reminder that this life is the life in which we must believe the gospel for salvation. Let me finish with a quote from R.C. Sproul, and then I'll pray. Salvation is of the Lord from beginning to end. Yes, I must believe. Yes, I must respond. Yes, I must receive Christ. But for me to say yes to any of those things, my heart must first be changed by the sovereign, effectual power of the Holy Spirit. Sola Deo Gloria. To God alone, Gloria. Father, we do thank you for the instruction that you give us through your word. I pray that you would help us to know you and love you and glorify you better in this life, in preparation for the life to come. Help us to look forward to that day when our struggle in this life is over and we can stand before you perfect in Christ. And it's in his name we pray, amen.