We are ready to begin Sunday school. Glad to see each of you here. Traveler from Ecuador, Dr. Sam. Let's open in prayer, shall we? ability of the unconverted will we ask that as we do that we would have this go past our intellect and to our affections for the we ask that the way to questions and answers that are given to be profitable, and we pray that in all things you would be very pleased and honored this morning. We pray this in Christ. All right, we are on week two of a three-week series on chapter nine of the Confession entitled of Free Will. Where's my mouse? There it is. And so opening up this morning, I just want to review what the whole chapter says, since it's not a long chapter. We read the whole thing last week. Starting out, we want to read the whole thing again this week. And then we will focus in on paragraph three of this chapter. So hopefully, this will get your brain in motion again from last week. Chapter 9 of the Confession begins this way in paragraph 1. God hath endued the will of man with that natural liberty and power of acting upon choice, that it is neither forced nor by any necessity of nature determined to do good or evil. So this is speaking of how God created man in his nature. We have a sense of free agency. Then paragraph two speaks more specifically about creation before the fall. Man, in his state of innocency, had freedom and power to will and to do that which was good and well-pleasing to God, but yet was unstable, so that he might fall from it. So God made man upright, as we saw last week in the scriptures. but it was not the sort of righteousness from which man could never fall. Obviously, Adam and Eve did fall from that righteousness, from that state of innocency and positive righteousness. Now, this is the paragraph we'll focus in on this week. Man, by his fall into a state of sin, hath wholly lost all ability of will to any spiritual good accompanying salvation. Notice again the very careful wording there of the confession, 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. In other words, we're not able by our own will and our own natural state we're born into, we're not able to even bring ourselves partway to salvation. Now we get into the last two parables, which we will deal with in a moment. The first one 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 corruptions, he doth not perfectly nor only will that which is good, but doth also will that which is evil." So those who are converted truly by God's grace, enslaved in bondage in their wills to sin are still there. So they now have the ability to choose that which pleases God. They also have the ability still to choose evil. Then paragraph five, this will of man is made perfectly and immutably, unchangeably free to do good alone in the state of glory only. So in the vocation, in the resurrection, that is all as saints be perfectly free to good alone and we will have an absence of evil in our wills. And as I said last week, there's this pretty articulate theologian that I found named Daniel Waldron. He puts it this way as he's summarizing what's found here in the confession. He says, free will is therefore not a kind of immutable faculty for making random decisions. Being tied to human nature, it exists in different states because human nature exists in different states. The very structure of the Confession illustrates this truth. Paragraphs 2-5 deal with the different states in which it exists, working our way through the historical timeline. These move from the state of innocency, where it is marked by instability, to the state of glory, where it is marked by immutability, unchanging holiness. Now that's all review for us. And let me remind you of our three-week plan. Last week, of course, we talked about paragraphs one and two. First of all, the natural liberty of the human will that we have our own decision from our hearts. And it is not something that we are somehow forced into of our wills. God gave us natural free agency. And then we dealt with the state of the human will before the fall. a bit. This week we are dealing with paragraph three, total depravity. And next week we will deal with the converted will and the glorified will, paragraphs four and five. So again, oh, what did I do? Again, total inability. You know, I think that knowing our own doctrinal speak and where we're at as Calvinists and use sometimes, including this phrase, total inability, Maybe some of us have used that phrase a lot, thinking very deeply about what that's supposed to mean. What is the unconverted sinner unable to do specifically? So I hope what we'll talk about today will be enlightening, instructive about that. Again, I'm just going to read it again, the paragraph we're focusing on this morning. good accompanying salvation. So as a natural man being altogether averse and altogether dead in sin, he's not able by his own strength to convert himself or to prepare himself thereunto. And what we're going to do here is, first, we are going to just see some initial biblical texts, which, in fact, those are about the Confession of Jesus. And then we will come back around and look at more later on in the text. And after that, we will look at some common questions to the doctrine and answer those. All right? So let's look at some initial biblical text that would teach the total inability of the will. 5 verse 6, the ESV says, for while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. Now the New King James is just like the King James. And the NASB says, while we were still helpless at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. So you get the flavor of the word. When we could not do anything at all for the ungodly. The Confession also cites Romans 8 verse 7, which says, for the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law. Notice it does not say it hardly ever submits to God's law. or it submits to God's law when it wants to. It says it just does not submit to God's law. Indeed, it cannot. Hopefully this is prompting some questions in your mind, like we got last week about, well, my neighbor is a pretty good person in some ways, isn't he? We'll talk about that later. Here's the larger context of that. This is a section where the Apostle Paul is contrasting those who are simply in the flesh, who are in Adam, who are without Christ, with those who are in the Spirit, who have the Holy Spirit because they are in Christ. He says the mind set on the flesh is death. But the mind set on the spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God, for it does not submit itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so." This is the NASB. And those who are in the flesh, as if we didn't get it the first time around, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. Language of inability. It continues, however, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. So again, making it clear that Paul is distinguishing simply between those who are converted and unconverted. All those who belong to Christ have the Spirit of Christ, so they are in the Spirit in the sense in which he is talking here. So those who are in the flesh, of whom Paul speaks, they are the unsaved, the unconverted. The Confession also cites Ephesians 2, verses 1 through 5, actually verses 1 and 5, which I highlight here as we go. Paul speaks to the Ephesian Christians about their life and he says, and you were dead in the trespasses and sins 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, so this is not just the Ephesians, this is everyone before they're saved, 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 wrath like the rest of mankind. It's pretty comprehensive. 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 grace you have been saved. We'll come back to this idea of spiritual death, but the picture again is of total inability to remedy our condition in any way, right? We were corpses. And it was God who called us from death to life. And that's what grace means here. By grace you have been saved, not by your works, as he'll go on to say. Titus 3 verses 3-5 are also cited. For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray. Notice the language of slavery here, 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. echoing what the Confession says, that we can't do anything to convert ourselves or to prepare ourselves for conversion. So none of this was done by what happened because of what we did to help it along. God saved us not because of any of that, but according to His own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit. And I believe this is the last text it cites. John 6.44. Jesus says, no one can, no one is able to come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day. Again, we will circle back to this text in its larger context in a moment. But no one can come to me, and in the context, Jesus is speaking to those who do not believe in him, and he's saying the only way anyone can come to me in the sense of true belief is if the Father lays hold of him and pulls him, draws him. And whoever that person is that the Father draws, so that they can come to Christ, Jesus also says about that person, I will raise him up on the last day. There's no lost salvation somewhere in the process here. And here's where I just let you know that to a great degree, the outline I use from here on out is from Pastor Sam's book on the confession. Just to make sure it doesn't sound too familiar to anyone and they get suspicious. I did like this. this brief definition saying, okay, before we talk about this, what is total depravity? And what is total depravity? Total depravity is not that every unsaved person is as bad as they possibly could get and has done everything bad they possibly could do. Total depravity as Pastor Sam says here in the quote, is the corruption of every faculty or ability of man, every part and facet of who we are, the depravity of man in his totality. So everything about who we are as people is tainted and corrupted and stinks of sin. Then a little later, the quote says, total inability means that man is unable to will anything spiritually good, unable to will, to desire anything that's spiritually good, good as God would define it, as it would actually please God. We are totally unable to even get close to that, even touch that. in our wills. Why? Well, because as we just said, every part of us, including our will, because our will is part of who we are as humans, every part of us is corrupted by sin, is under the domination, the slavery of sin, is in bondage to sin. Sin won't let us go here to where we even want what really pleases God. Now let's look at some further scriptural evidence of total inability. By the way, let me pause. I've been kind of rigorously pulling you, drawing you through these texts and these definitions. I know it's early in the morning. I thank you for trying to hang with me. I will try to leave some time at the end for questions. If you have an urgent question, though, feel free to raise your hand. We'll get the mic to you. I just wanted to say that before we get any further. But I will try to leave more time at the end for interaction, OK? But let's look at some further scriptural evidence of total inability. First of all, let's think of the pictures the Bible gives us of this total inability. It gives us the pictures of slavery, of death, and of blindness to picture the lost, unsaved, regenerate person. We've already noted some texts which speak of spiritual death. Ephesians chapter 2, God calls the dead to spiritual life in Christ. He raises us up from death in Christ, with Christ. And yeah, I believe it was Romans chapter 8, the mindset of the flesh is death. But John 8.34 uses the language of slavery, and I had to be very selective again with my texts. We have many more than this. but for the sake of time we're being selective. Jesus answered them in John 8, 34, "'Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.'" And He's speaking to those who are saying, we have never been in bondage to anyone, we're sons of Abraham, but they are Jews who do not believe in Christ. So He is speaking parentage is, you practice sin. In this case, you practice unbelief as one of your sins, and so that proves you're a slave of sin. Notice, not just a friend of sin, a slave of sin, totally dominated. 2 Corinthians chapters 3 and 4 speak of blindness. In chapter 3 of 2 Corinthians, Paul is speaking of the Jews who still do not believe in their Messiah, in Jesus as the Messiah, who, week after week, hear the Word of God, the Law, the Old Testament, read in their synagogues. And yet, they don't see it. They don't see the connection between the Word of God there and Jesus who came. So he says, but their minds, 2 Corinthians 3.14, their minds were hardened. For to this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, a veil over their face, because only through Christ is it taken away. Yes, to this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their hearts. But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image, from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit." So what do we see when we have unveiled faces? We see the glory of God in the third chapter of Romans 8 and chapter 4. Unconverted people cannot see the glory of the Lord, even when they're reading the Scriptures. They're blind. And chapter 4, verse 3 says, even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case, the God of this world, Satan, has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. For God," now notice what Paul's alluding to here, for God who said, let light shine out of darkness or let there be light, Genesis 1. The same God who did that has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. So our blindness was such that God had to call light out of darkness for us so we could see the light of Christ. Otherwise we wouldn't see. That's what Paul is communicating here. Ephesians 4 speaks again of this blindness, the nature of it, the complex nature of it. Ephesians 4, 17, now this I say and testify in the Lord that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do. in the futility of their minds, they are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God," that's pretty strong language, "'because of the ignorance that is in them due to their hardness of heart.'" So this all speaks of moral inability. It speaks of darkness in the understanding, alienation from the life of God. Ignorance, but ignorance that's also due to hardness of heart. It's all bound up together. It's not an innocent ignorance. It's a willful ignorance. Now, secondly, we looked at those pictures that the Bible paints of the condition of someone without Christ. just to further prove this doctrine of total inability. Man cannot please God, he cannot do God's will, and he cannot perceive and receive the things of God according to the Scriptures. And again, maybe I'm beating a dead horse here, but at this point if someone wants to argue, they're not arguing with a confession, they're not arguing with a certain theological tradition, they're arguing with the Scripture. and that's what we're trying to prove here. Romans 7, 18, the first part of the verse. Paul says, for I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh, in who I am in Adam, apart from Christ and what He does in me. There's more to that text, but you get the basic idea there. If we're just considering humanity in terms of the flesh, from what the Spirit of God does in us when we're regenerated and so on. Nothing good dwells in that person. That's pretty strong. 1 Corinthians 2 verse 12, Paul says, now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom, but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. But then what does he say? The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are free to understand them because they are spiritually discerned, not able. to understand them because only with the Holy Spirit of God can He discern them. Now, pause for a minute. What does this say about those who preach the gospel just hoping that someone in their free will, as they put it, will say, yeah, that makes sense. Yeah, I think I want that. Paul says, unless the Spirit of God gets in there and supernaturally changes the heart, that never happens. Never does. Jesus says in Matthew 12, well, in Matthew 12, verses 33 through 35, he speaks of our works as fruit. bears a certain kind of fruit. Apple tree only bears apples, for instance. He says to unbelievers in this context, either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad, for the tree is known by its fruit. You brood of vipers, how can you speak good when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil. So again, this is another angle on why an unconverted person can never want or do anything that truly pleases God. It's because their hearts are evil fundamentally. They don't just have problems with evil, with good, really, at the heart of who they are. Jesus calls them evil. And so, you're gonna be evil fruit out of that kind of tree. Jeremiah 13, 23, can the Ethiopian skin or the leopard his spots? Of course not. Then also, you can do good who are accustomed to do evil. And John 3, of course, Jesus told Nicodemus, what needs to happen to see the kingdom of God or to enter it? You need to be born again. You can't be the same person you are right now. It has to be a supernatural birth from above. Jesus answered him, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus said to him, how can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born? Now Nicodemus' problem here was not that he was thinking too drastically. It's just that he was thinking in a mild way in your life. And truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, referencing, I believe, Ezekiel, the cleansing work of the Spirit, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Now another, unless God effectually draws someone, That is, unless God pulls someone to himself, that's what the language of drawing means. I'm tempted to rabbit trail, I can't do that right now. Unless God effectually draws someone to himself, people never come to God. Ever. And that's what these texts say. We're going back to John 6. I believe we already had a verse or two from here, but here's some more verses from the context. Jesus says in John 6.36, "'But I said to you that you have seen Me and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and whoever comes to Me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.'" And this is the will of Him who sent Me. that I should lose nothing of all that He has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in Him should have eternal life, and I will raise Him up on the last day." Notice, this is one of those unbreakable chains. Notice all these things Jesus is saying about His Son, of whom He speaks. I'll go back a slide. Everyone the Father gives Jesus, in a special way here, will come to Him in belief. And none of those people in that category will Jesus ever cast out, throw out. Jesus and the Father are one in their intention, their purpose here. He's come to do the will of Him who sent Him. And it's the will of God the Father that Jesus lose nothing or no one of everyone that's given to Him by the Father. They will all be raised up on the last day, final salvation. And what does it mean in this context to come to the Son, to come to Jesus? It means, verse 40, looking on the Son and believing in Him and thus having eternal life. Verse 44, Jesus says, "'No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day.'" You know, some people would be tempted to say, when we read verse 44 here, some would be tempted to say, well maybe what Jesus means is that, yeah, no one can come to the Father unless the Father woos them, unless He says, come here, please. Unless He draws them. But someone would be tempted to say, well, maybe the Father basically draws everyone who hears the gospel. And then it's only some of those who come to Jesus in the right way. Maybe that's what Jesus is saying. Well, no. There's several reasons why that's not the case. One reason is Jesus goes on to restate what He just said in verse 44. Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father, so whom the Father draws, which means they hear and learn from the Father, everyone in that category comes to Jesus. There's an equals sign there. So everyone whom the Father draws or who hears and learns from the Father comes to Jesus, but no one can come unless that happens. So what do you have then? The total inability of a sinner to come to Christ unless God does a special work individually for that person that He doesn't do for everyone. And to sum it up, Jesus repeats, because He knows this is a hard truth, I think, He repeats later in the chapter, this is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father, language of a gift, something the Father grants. Right along, for sake of time, Romans 3 verses 9 through 12 tells us what we will do just left to ourselves spiritually. What then, are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks," so everyone in humanity, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, as it is written, none is righteous, no, not one. Well, yeah, I know I'm a sinner. I know I'm not perfect. Well, that's not all it's saying. Read on. No one understands. So no one understands God's truth. No one seeks for God. No one tangled up in their sin just barely manages to rise above that and look for God. No one seeks for God. All have turned aside. Together they have become worthless, without profit. No one does good. Remember, we're speaking in absolute terms here, what God sees. No one does good, not even one. So again, let me remind you. for you, and it's hard for all of us at some level of our humanity, but it's God with whom we have to contend, with whom we have to wrestle about this sort of language, because He's the one who said it. Now, another piece of evidence. The human will, talking about the inability of the human will to do anything to contribute to coming to God, The human will is not the source or the determining factor in the application of salvation. Let me see if I can put that another way. Our wills are not the source or the determining factor as to whether or not we are saved. Remember paragraph 1 that we talked about last week of the confession. Our choice is very much a choice and that is very much involved in the big picture of conversion, of salvation. What we're saying is that's not the determining factor because we won't make the right choice, to put it simply, unless God does what only He can do in us. James 1, verse 17, every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. You may know that verse better than the verse that follows it. What is the example that James gives us? The Father's own will, He brought us forth, language of giving birth. Of God's, the Father brought us forth by the Word of truth. It emphasizes God, and that that is what makes this birth happen spiritually. I won't spend much time here. We covered this last week. But Romans 9, 16 through 18, bears reading again. So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who has mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, for this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may have power in you, and that my name may be glorified on earth. So then he has mercy on whoever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills." And if you doubt this is talking about salvation specifically, read a few verses down where Paul specifically says, I'm talking about how God calls Jews and Gentiles to salvation. but it's all about whom God wills to have mercy upon. And of course John 1 verses 12 through 13 says, but to all who did receive Him, who received the Word of God incarnate, Jesus Christ, to all who did receive Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right or the authority to become children of God. And then John clarifies who were born not of blood," it's not physically, "'nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.'" He's giving all the credit to God for this spiritual birth, which enables this belief. Another piece of evidence. Repentance and faith, though they are human duties, and though we must command all men everywhere to repent, for instance, in the Gospel. Though these things are human duties, repentance and faith are gifts of God, the Bible says. God has to give them to us and it's not something that we somehow work our way toward, or are somehow good enough for, or somehow make the good enough choice for. Acts 5.31, God exalted Him, Jesus, at His right hand as leader and Savior to give, to gift, repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. Acts 11.18, speaking of Gentiles, when they heard these things they fell silent and they glorified God saying then to the Gentiles also, God has granted repentance that leads to life. 2 Timothy 2, I won't read all this. Paul speaks of the fact that God may perhaps grant your opponents, Timothy, those who oppose the gospel, perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth. These are people who don't know the truth spiritually. God has to grant them repentance and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil. Philippians 1.29 says, it has been granted to you, Philippian believers. that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in Him, but also suffer for His sake. So this verse speaks of two gifts that are granted to those in Christ. The first gift is that we might believe in Christ. The second gift is that we may suffer for Christ. Of course, that would be a very tempting rabbit trail. And a sermon right there. And Ephesians 2, 8-10. by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing." So whether he's speaking here, there's a debate, whether he's speaking here of the faith specifically or of the whole picture of salvation by grace through faith, either way, it's not your own doing. This is the gift of God, at least including the faith. It's a gift, not a result of works that no one may boast. Why? Because we are His workmanship. He's the one doing the work, not us. We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. And notice the language of creation. Why think we should be created? That's not the picture. All right. Frequent objections, and there are several. Frequent objections to this doctrine. What can we expect to hear when we are honest about this doctrine, this truth to others? What are some objections we might hear ourselves saying at times? Well, the first objection is that God would not command that which is impossible to do. You're saying that someone is unable to please God, even to any degree, in any sense, unless God enables them supernaturally. They're unable. So it's not fair for God to tell them to do something they're unable to do. Before I actually give my response, let me show you this is not a new objection. Hercules Collins, one of the pastors who signs the Confession, one of the early Baptist pastors, he's writing his Orthodox Catechism. Actually, most of it is the Heidelberg Catechism. God doesn't do injury to man by that. God made man such a one as he might perform it. But man, by the impulsion of the devil and his own stubbornness, bereaved himself and all his posterity of those divine graces. That's going back to what we saw last week, right? The biblical timeline. So here's my response. We have to distinguish between natural inability and moral inability. And I know if you get really deep into this, there are places where you might say, now wait a minute, what's natural, what's moral? I understand that. But this is a distinction that's been made throughout history, particularly of Reformed theology. Jonathan Edwards is particularly famous for it, but he's not alone. But there's natural inability and moral inability. So God does not command man. to do things which are incompatible with man's created nature." We're not talking about God maliciously putting in His law that you have to be able to flap your arms and fly to please me. That's not what we're talking about. Adam and Eve, in fact, were created capable of love for God and for their neighbor. Remember? They were created upright. But by Adam's fall, he enslaved himself and his race to sin. You might have a problem with that, but we've already covered that doctrine in other places, and it too is biblical. And this slavery we're in now means we have a moral inability to truly fulfill God's law. That's what we're talking about. God's moral requirements are based on His own unchanging moral perfection. His moral law is the reflection of who He is, of His own holy virtues. So the fact that our race has rendered itself morally unable to keep such a law, cannot change the law itself. So the standard, of course the standard can't change just because we've changed. Because the standard is God's perfection, who He is. He's not going to change His glory for us because we have rendered ourselves morally unfit to keep His law. Because the law is not about what we can do, the law is about the glory of God. It doesn't change, it cannot change by definition. And I'm kind of, again, this is somewhat the illustration, at least, that Pastor Sam had in his book, but drunken drivers. They're still responsible to obey traffic laws, even if they've rendered themselves unable to do so. That kind of a person will still answer in court for causing a head-on collision. Sure, they were unable to keep the traffic laws in their condition. They're still culpable, right? So a second objection, well, my neighbor's a really good person. Or as we say here, unconverted people do relatively good things. Yes, they do. Yep. Again, we have to make the distinction between civil righteousness and common grace, which are common to, in some sense, to all mankind, irrespective of whether they're saved or not. So you have civil righteousness and common grace on the one side, and then you have spiritual grace and saving grace. That was truly pleases God. God works in, and by the way, grace. God works in common grace to restrain evil, keep the world from being as bad as it possibly could be, right? But he does that for his world in general, in common. But God only works for certain people. And they're the ones who can then learn what it means to truly please God. So the Scriptures acknowledge both kinds of righteousness and grace. The unconverted are capable of relative goodness, but not of absolute goodness. And whatever is not of faith is sin. These people are devoid of a living faith. There's so many things I could say about this. There's so many angles we could come at this from, really. But I'm just listing a few. Whatever is done not out of faith but out of something else is sin. I could add, whatever is not done out of an all-consuming love for God and for your neighbor is sin, right? The first and greatest commandments. In a category, all I am self, and then love for your neighbor as yourself. Anything that's not done according to those standards is sin. And in fact, it's not just that we fail to do certain things, but unconverted people are fundamentally hostile to the living God, as we read. John Samson puts it this way, because our nature as unregenerate human beings has no interest in seeking after God, as we read in Romans 3.11, our will chooses 100% of the time to turn from God rather than towards Him. So it's all about our orientation toward or away from God, not just about the individual acts themselves. Relatively good things still utterly fail to please God when they are infected by sin. Remember that the very corruption of our nature, not just what we do but who we are fundamentally, as well as our motives, our passions, our thoughts, our words, our actions that flow from that corruption, all of that is sin. And that's, of course, why we need someone's righteousness that's outside of us. We need Christ. We need the righteous life of Jesus Christ to be imputed to us and our sin imputed to Him on the cross. Another objection. Well, if you teach this, you'll discourage sinners from coming to Christ because they'll think they can't do it. Well, a true desire to come to Christ, if someone is saying, I want to be saved, and not just I want to get out of hell free, but I want to be made right with God. If someone really desires that, that's evidence that God has enabled that sinner to come. That's the whole point. Without God's effectual call and drawing, sinners would not possess that kind of a desire. It's a big problem if sinners think themselves capable of reaching God just by virtue of who they naturally are. If a sinner thinks himself inherently capable of coming to Christ, he will fail to perceive his desperate condition and he will despise the gospel call. He won't come. I'm trying to briefly summarize some very deep truths here. Remember John 6, 36 and 37, but I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me, but listen to what he says next, whoever comes to me I will never cast out. And you can bank on that. If you're coming in sincerity to Christ, that's God's own doing and Christ isn't going to say, oh, you slipped through the net, you weren't supposed to come, so back off. Jesus never says that. One last objection, God cannot sincerely invite sinners to come to Christ if they are unable to come. Well, this takes us back to the mystery of God and the will of His decree and the will of His precepts. This is a quote from Pastor Sam. In the case of sin, God decrees that sin will certainly happen. It's included in His plan for history that He decreed. and then tells us that we must not do it. That's God's law. Here we have exactly the reverse problem. God commands that men should believe, but God decrees that it will not be done, not in every case. There is a tension between God's secret decree and His perceptive will. And the presence of such a mystery does not disprove either side of the tension. We must be willing to submit our minds to the whole revelation of the incomprehensible God. This is Christian humility. We do believe, don't we, that God is incomprehensible? That we can't fully comprehend who He is, what He does? Well, here's a place to put that into practice if we really believe that. Here's one of those places. I am sorry, I said I would try to leave room, but we don't have room, to be honest. but can be dealt with much more quickly, all right? This was the hardest paragraph to deal with. But I want to close with a quote, and you can guess until we reach the end who it's a quote of, okay? It's a famous preacher of the past, a gospel preacher. And imagine as I read this, how many converts someone might guess such a preacher would get. if you preach such doctrine. bound, entombed, stinking carcass is but a faith representation of thy poor soul in its natural state. For whether thou believest or not, thy spirit which thou bearest about with thee, sepulchred in flesh and blood, is as literally dead to God and as truly dead in trespasses and sins as the body of Lazarus was in the cave. Was he bound hand and foot with grave clothes? So art thou bound hand and foot with thy corruptions. And as a stone was laid on the sepulchre, so is there a stone of unbelief upon thy stupid heart." The old meaning of stupid is dull in feeding their sensation. Perhaps thou hast lain in this state not only four days, like Lazarus, but many years, stinking in God's nostrils. And what is still more effecting, Thou art as unable to raise thyself out of this loathsome dead state to a life of righteousness and true holiness as ever Lazarus was to raise himself from the cave in which he lay so long. Thou mayest try the power of thy own boasted free will and the force and energy of moral persuasion and rational arguments which, without all doubt, have their proper place in religion. But all thy efforts, exerted with never so much vigor, will prove quite fruitless and abortive, till that same Jesus who said, take away the stone, and cried, Lazarus, come forth, also quicken you." End of quote. Who do you think that was? You guys are good. George Whitefield. Now, this is not him, this is me. This is the sort of gospel whose fruit we now know in American history as the Great Awakening. Let me just observe that gospel awakening is the conviction that God alone can truly awaken the sinner from his spiritual death and bless it. That's part of how the Spirit blesses it. He gives us that conviction. But is this your conviction? If not, that says a lot of things. But I hope it is your conviction, and increasingly so as we look at Scripture. Let's close in prayer. Father, we've hurried through a lot of material this morning. Please help it to stick, especially the main points. And if we don't get it yet, as much as we should get it, remind us to go back and revisit these truths in our Bibles and to talk with each other about it. We need this conviction, assuming we are believers here, we need this conviction for the sake of our gospel witness. And in order that you may be fully glorified when conversions do happen. And we don't give the credit where it does not belong. And if there are people here still in their sins, dead in their sins, we ask that you would show them their desperate condition and that they need you to do a supernatural work in them. May they plead with Christ for that to happen. May they believe on Christ and rejoice that He has opened their eyes. He has brought them out of death into life.