of a specific text, but rather focusing on the topic of the bondage of the human will. This is Reformation Sunday, October 31st, 2010. 493 years ago, if I've got my time right, Martin Luther posted the 95 Theses on the chapel door at Wittenberg, Germany. And kicking off in that posting of the 95 Theses, the Protestant Reformation. It actually had been developing for many years before then, but that is currently celebrated as the date that it began. The year in our sermon today is 1525, some eight years after Martin Luther posted those 95 theses on the chapel door at Wittenberg. Luther, who was a Catholic monk turned university professor, had been excommunicated from the church. just four years earlier in 1521 for refusing to recant all of his writings at the Diet of Worms, where he was on trial both before the church and before the Holy Roman Empire. It's truly a miracle that he was not martyred there at that time or in the days that followed it. He was taken into hiding, as you all know the story, at the castle at Wartburg, and there stayed in hiding for long enough to produce a German New Testament and did writing there, and the Lord preserved his life for many great things to do. But now in 1525, the year we're at today, he's facing a new enemy. This enemy is a fellow churchman, a Dutchman, a man who many had hoped would be a colleague of Luther's in the Reformation. Desiderius Erasmus is this gentleman's name. He was a brilliant Renaissance humanist, a priest and a scholar who was possibly the most significantly respected authority in classical literature in Europe at the time. He'd written several books, but most notably in 1516, he had published one of the earliest Greek New Testaments. As most preachers will tell you today, the Greek New Testament is an incredible tool for accurate, incisive Bible study. If you come in the middle of the day and you see Jack hovered over the desk with a little red book, you know, that's what he's doing. His mumbling to himself is not speaking in tongues, he's looking at the Greek language. This Greek New Testament is wonderful. And what we have today is a many generational hand-me-down of that original one that Erasmus produced. His was not the first, but his first one had a significant impact. The third edition of his Greek New Testament, it was so good that it was used as the background for what was to become the King James Version of the Bible, what they called the Textus Receptus, a very important translation of the Bible based upon Erasmus' work in collecting the Greek manuscripts and putting together a good Greek New Testament. Before that time, people had to rely upon Latin and the Latin version, as you all know, the Latin Vulgate was somewhat corrupt in its translation. Being able to go back to the original text, so as close to them as we could get, they were able to produce Bibles in the language of the common man. Luther produced the German New Testament as an example, and later the German Old Testament from the Hebrew, and others, of course, translated into their various languages. We are the beneficiaries of that today, as we're all able to hold in our hands a copy of the Bible with the most ancient manuscripts being used. But Erasmus was a scholar, not a theologian. Although he and Luther both had strong interests in seeing the church reformed, because it was corrupt morally, the priesthood was even in worse shape then than it is now, they both wanted to stay within the church to do it. They agreed on that. They had vastly different conceptions of what was wrong. Erasmus saw the problem as primarily ethical. to promote preaching and teaching in the church so that people might live holier lives. They might get along with their neighbors and there would be peace and harmony within the church of the day. He wanted to maintain peace among the leadership at all costs. He did not want to see a division between the Pope, for example, and the bishops and have a big controversy going on in the Catholic Church. not creating any big disturbances with church doctrine. And so he didn't get into arguing church doctrine. He simply approached things more along the lines that I just described. Luther, on the other hand, was indeed a theologian, and a very aggressive one. He did not mind going for the root problem of the church, which he rightly saw as theological. What you believe drives how you live. And if you haven't ever heard this before, this is important stuff. What you believe about the Bible drives how you actually live your life. There's a strong correlation between doctrine and duty, between precept and performance. If you don't glue the two halves of the book of Ephesians together, the first three with the last four, if you don't put that doctrine into practice, there's going to be a calamity within the church. And so it was in the church of the 16th century. There were great moral problems that were based upon the theological problems that existed in the hierarchy itself. Erasmus, some 14 years older than Luther, tried to stay as conciliatory as he could with Luther. He wanted to keep peace. By the way, the Pope was a friend of his at the time, and he had a friend in court to do what he wanted to do. Because he was so well respected, he was in a position where he had to take a position on Martin Luther. Martin Luther, with his publication of the 95 Theses and his subsequent writings about justification by faith, was really standing up against the entire Catholic Church. And so Erasmus was put into position of what he was going to do to stand up to Luther. He felt the pressure enormously. He was popular with the Pope, he was not so popular with the priests because of the reforms he wanted to bring, but nonetheless he wrote a treatise which he called Discussion or Coalition Concerning Free Will. This book was identified by Luther as the diatribe, and so I'll be using that terminology. Both the Pope, who was a good friend of Erasmus, and Charles V, who was the Holy Roman Empire emperor at the time from Spain, warmly received this work from Erasmus because they saw it as an opportunity to put down Martin Luther, who they saw as a troublemaker, in the Catholic Church of the day. Luther, on his part, saw the need then to respond, and so he wrote a book. I brought a copy and I forgot to bring it up with me, called Bondage of the Will. You can buy it today. It's an excellent book, written in 1525. It is really one of the seminal, pivotal books of the entire Protestant Reformation. It's an incredibly focused book on one issue, and one issue only, And that issue is, is man, in his will, is man's will free to do what he wants to do with respect to its relationship with God? Do we have freedom of choice? I just laughed when Ed started off this morning. We appreciate you choosing Colleen Bible Church. That's the last time you'll hear freedom of choice today. But you did have a choice to come. We're not talking about that kind of choice. We're talking about the choice of your relationship with God. We're talking about you being able to come to God on the basis of your own merits and be able to cause God to swing your way, to decide in your favor because of the fact that you have a will and you have desired it. You would think that Luther would start off very angry at Erasmus, and he did have some rather rather hot things to say in his book, but he does have this wonderful comment toward the beginning. He says, and I quote, you alone, he tells Erasmus, have attacked the real thing. This is the essential issue. You have not worried me with those extraneous issues about the papacy, purgatory, indulgences, and such like. Trifles rather than issues, in respect of which almost all to date have sought my blood. He was constantly being because of the positions he took on those issues. And I continue the quote, you Erasmus and you alone have seen the hinge on which all turns and aimed for the vital spot. For that I heartily thank you, for it is more gratifying to me to deal with this issue. That's from Bondage of the Will on page 42. I urge you if you don't have a copy of this in your library to get a copy. you'll not be able to sit down and read it in a single setting. I'm sorry to say it's a little dense, but it is a wonderful, wonderful book. For Luther, the issue of freedom of the will was the core issue. Now, this is astounding because we know that Luther is famous for things like justification by faith. I mean, that is the big difference with the Catholic Church that he has. We know that he's extremely strong on other topics as well. He chose rather to focus upon the freedom of the will as the pivotal issue to deal with. Now this is interesting how he matures in his theology because he had dealt with the indulgences back in 1517. You know what those were? People would buy the privilege of getting out of purgatory early. by paying money for the construction of St. Peter's Basilica. By the way, the church is still enjoying the results of those indulgences because that basilica still stands today in Rome. It's the home of the Vatican. People paid good money for that with the understanding that they would spend less time in purgatory as a result. Luther focused on that in his 95 Theses in 1517. He focused on justification by faith. By the time 1525 comes around, he matures to the point where he sees that the primary issue is not those issues, but rather, what do I think about my will with God? Is my will supreme over God's will? Can I tweak? Can I twerk God? Now, you may think this sounds a little strange. I'm putting it in very blunt terms, but believe it or not, this is the doctrine that most Protestant churches today believe. Most Protestant churches believe in some kind of decision theology, where my decision drives God to save me. And so we have practices like the coming forward at the end of the service to receive Christ. And if I walk forward, that act will somehow cause God to respond to me, or if I sign the decision card, or you know the number of practices that are out there. Now, most people don't think anything about it. They just accept it as a presupposition in their theology that I have a choice. It goes right along with our American way of thinking, doesn't it? I am master of my ship. I'm the captain who drives my ship, who drives my destiny. It's my decision. We have this free moral agency mentality that's just in the warp and woof of our very being. Everything is centered around that. You have the right. We hear it given to us every day. What we end up with in the church as a result is what I would call a man-centered gospel versus a God-centered gospel. And folks, this is what the Reformation was all about. We sit here today and are able to worship in this building today. largely as a result of what happened in this Reformation, in the Protestant Reformation. And much of that has been lost. And my goal today is for us to pull back into the forefront what this bondage of the will is all about, this Luther-Erasmus debate that happened back in 1525 is relevant today. That's where we are. Our view here at Killeen Bible Church is that this is not the biblical understanding, by the way, in case there was any doubt in your mind, of how God works his salvation. Dr. Johnson put it this way, and I think it's very, very helpful. There are really only two religions in the world. The kind which teach that salvation is based upon one's self-movement toward God. That is, salvation is of free will. If you will, you will inherit eternal life. Or those which believe that salvation is of the Lord. That is, that salvation is of divine election. It is God who makes us willing. Who changes our wills and causes the whosoever will to take place. I think that's the right way to approach it. This is the key issue for Luther. Now please listen carefully, in case you've already tuned me out and said, I don't believe that. And hear the scripture out. Because what I'm going to do today is not focus so much upon the the philosophy involved in this, and there is a lot of philosophy. R.C. Sproul has written some wonderful works on this, and you can get into the philosophical angle of this particular subject. What I'm going to do today is try to stick to the scripture that Luther uses, particularly in his last chapter of the book, where he gives scriptural support for the bondage of the human will, that we are in fact slaves to sin who need to be free. We don't have the ability to break out of that bondage on our own. It takes God coming to us to do that. To kick off this today, let's just read a passage that's very helpful in John chapter 8, verses 31 through 36. This is Jesus speaking with some of the leading Jews, some who had believed in him. So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, if you abide in my word, You are truly my disciples and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. They answered him, We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say you will become free? And note these words. Jesus answered them, Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever, the son remains forever. So, if the son sets you free, you will be free indeed. And we'll end the reading right there. This is Jesus' very powerful statement. That as free as you think you are today to do what you want to do, you are in fact enslaved to sin. All of us in our natural state are enslaved to sin. That is God's perspective on us. And it behooves us to listen. Let us pray as we consider this. Father, we thank you this morning for the grace that you have shown to us, the amazing grace in sending the Lord Jesus down to save a helpless people who are in bondage to sin. Father, we know that these words are very harsh to the average human ear. No one wants to be told that they're enslaved to anything. But Lord, we want to take your perspective and put our own aside and understand that this is the message you are communicating to us in your word, not just the message of the reformers. But Father Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, Busser, Knox, all of these famous reformers were not just saying something that they believed to be true. They were saying it to be true because they read it in your word. Father, we come back to your Word today and we would humble ourselves before it and we pray that you will cause us to not only see the fact that we're enslaved to sin, but by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we can be free from sin. And Lord, that's where we want to end up today. We thank you. We ask your blessing in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, there's several terms we have to understand. I know this is going to sound a little bit like a lecture. It's really not. But the terms have to be defined so we know where we are. You've got a handout in your bulletin. You'll see these, so you'll be able to understand more clearly. Free will needs to be identified, first of all. I'm going to use Erasmus' definition for the sake of argument today. There are a lot of definitions about free will, what it is. But I'm going to use Erasmus' definition because that is what Luther counterattacks as he writes his book. A power of the human will by which A man may apply himself to those things that lead to eternal salvation or turn away from the same." In other words, what he's saying is free will is about my making the moral, spiritual decisions that are necessary for my relationship with God. Choosing for Christ or against him and so forth. These comments are not aimed at your decision to buy chocolate or vanilla ice cream, okay, when you go to the ice cream store later today. That's not worth talking about. Or choosing a Buick over a Pontiac or a Volvo or whatever the car you may buy. That's not the kind of free will we're talking about. Of course, everyone has the ability to choose those kinds of things. God has so wired us. What Luther is going to say is that this free will, and he agrees with Erasmus on this, is about my making moral decisions, about my making spiritual decisions, about my response to him. address it in that context. Thankfully, they agreed on that definition and he was able to address that. The second key term here is foreknowledge. You may have heard this term before. It sounds very simple, knowing what happens beforehand. This is an attribute of God. He has the ability to foreknow. That's one of the things he does to his elect people. Romans chapter 8, verses 29 and 30 tell us the golden chain of redemption. Foreknowledge is one of those things. When God foreknows something, it's not just that he looks down the corridor of history and he sees that Johnny is going to do a good thing and therefore I'll choose him. That's a common misconception about the doctrine of unconditional election. No, rather what it is, he chooses to know that person in advance. In the Old Testament sense, we see it used, the word to know is a very intimate word. And what God knows in advance, and this is the way it's used several times in Scripture, is to know his people in advance. He doesn't know the nations of the world like he knows his people. I've known all the nations. I know Israel in a way that I've not known the other nations, and so it is with his elect people. Now, this word contingencies that we see may throw you off here. If you're in the military, this is a very familiar term. You plan for various contingencies. You go up to this particular point in the road and you've got a decision to make. Do I go route A or do I go route B? And so you analyze that and you make a decision. If this happens, the contingency is we go A. If this happens, we go B. That's very simple to understand. Some people think of God in those terms, like a chess match. If he does this, God speaking of one of his human beings, If he goes this way, then I will do that. And if he goes this way, then I will do something different. In other words, he's waiting upon us to make a decision about what he will do. Sproul puts it this way. He is not a great chess player who waits to see what we will do, but he knows absolutely what we will do before we do it. Before a word is even formed on our lips, he knows it all together. And I think we can demonstrate this today as we go through. So the key issue then in this particular subject of foreknowledge and contingencies is, is our sovereign God at all dependent upon us for information that he might foreknow us or to bring about his purposes? Is he waiting for us to make that choice before he decides to save us as an example? And I think you're going to see that the scripture teaches that that is not the case. Pelagianism is a major movement. There's a big argument in the fourth century between Pelagius, a British monk, and Augustine, who was converted out of a life of wickedness. And they had this big argument, theological argument, that took place that had to do with what abilities we have. It's really around this very issue we're talking about today. The Pelagians believe that man has full ability to do what God requires. Whatever God demands in his law, I have the ability to do so. We can fully keep the Ten Commandments, would be an assertion that they would make. I can do whatever God says to do. I have the full ability within me, because he has created me this way, to be able to do that which he has commanded to do. Well, anybody who's lived a couple of years on this earth knows that that is That is not true. We fall flat on our faces all the time in sin. We may say that we have the ability to choose right, but there's something within us that is constantly pulling us the wrong direction. And so we elect willingly to sin. So the semi-Pelagians come along and their belief is that man's ability was weakened by the fall, but not entirely. And some of these would believe in this concept of a prevenient grace where God just gives me a little grace and then I believe, or I show some movement, God gives me his grace and then we move further, this kind of growing relationship with God. This is probably the most popular view in Protestantism today. You'll find it in just about all the major denominations. They believe that man has some ability to please God, some ability to choose God in his natural state I'm referring to. And then finally, the Augustinian view, going in opposite directions here, is the belief that man has no ability to do what God requires. Now, Augustine said far more than this. I'm just addressing what he says about freedom of choice. That man has no ability to do what God says to do, because he understands that man in his natural state is a sinful being. He believed very strongly in what we call the doctrine of original sin. That's an onerous term. very accurately describes that all of us are born with a natural inclination to sin. And we need to be saved out of that. We need to be transformed. We need to be brought to life. And we'll talk more about this. Now, as I spoke with each other, Erasmus, by correspondence now, Erasmus and Luther, what becomes very clear, and Luther caught onto this right away, is that Erasmus kind of lived in a, I'm going to say, a fuzzy world of of general theological principles. He was not a theologian. He wanted peace and harmony in the church. Let's all cooperate and graduate was kind of the idea. And Luther was a very objective kind of guy. A very precise guy who believed in the concept of absolute truth. There is a difference between right and wrong. There is a difference in obeying scripture exactly and precisely and not doing so. And so what he believes in is something that I have held to for some time and convinced, I think, probably without knowing it through the Reformation, is that we must look at Christianity in terms of assertions, is the term that he uses. I use the term proposition or propositional truth. That is, what we believe has to be able to be codified into understandable terms that everyone can read and take into their brains and assimilate. One of the ways to look at this is on the back of your book, and we have a doctrinal statement. If we didn't believe in propositional truth, there would be no need for a doctrinal statement. In fact, if you go upon the web today and look at a lot of churches, they don't even have doctrinal statements because they don't believe in living by assertions. When a preacher stands up to preach or a teacher stands up to teach, what we claim they must be doing is taking the propositional truth that is in the Word of God, the objective facts, Jesus Christ, did come down to the earth and take on human flesh, the incarnation. That's a fact. We can place it in space-time history. We can talk to the witnesses or we can read the witnesses of his life here on earth as they wrote. The apostles were very careful to write down what their experiences were with Jesus as he was here on this earth. We communicate that truth that he came down to this earth, that he lived a life, that he died on a cross, that he was buried and he was raised again the third day. The Apostle Paul is so bold as to say, if there was no resurrection, there is no Christian faith. I am of all men most miserable. The truth of the resurrection is a core, objective, propositional truth that we have to proclaim. I hope you all understand this. I think I beat that one half to death. It's very important for us to be able to understand that. Luther believed that assertions were important. And so Erasmus would talk in generic, maybe sort of philosophical terms. Luther would respond with objective truth. And he would take the scripture. And it's really interesting to see the dichotomy because Erasmus had the technical ability to understand the scripture. He was a great scholar. He knew the languages. He broke down the languages so that we would be able to have manuscripts that would be useful. in studying the Bible. He paved the way for doing that, and Luther took advantage of it as he translated the German New Testament in 1522 there at the castle of Wartburg. Very interesting. Erasmus had the ability, but he did not apply this principle of going by propositions or by assertions. Folks, if you get into the Never-Never Land discussing with non-Christians, atheists for example today, truth about the Bible, and you deviate from the objective truth that is in the Scripture, you will not get anywhere. You've got to deal with the facts that are there. That is an underlying principle by which Luther lived his life. And the biblical basis for it is that Jesus gave us his word in propositional language. He made assertions. I am the Son of God. I am the Messiah. And we have to deal with those things. It's either true Or it's not true, but we've got to deal with it. That's the way we have to face our lives today, and that's the way he faces this issue of freedom of the will. It's not how I feel about a truth. It's what the truth is that counts. Does that track? It's what the truth is that counts. When you show up late for work in the morning, you soldiers, and you tell your first sergeant, well, I just didn't feel like it was 6.30 yet. Well, he would bring you back into the world of objective truth immediately. It's now 635, soldier, and he would deal with you. Objective truth. It makes a difference which way an airplane lands on a runway. He's cleared to land on runway 11, not runway 27. And if we deny objective truth, dealing with assertions and propositions, that's where we end up with Christianity. response to Erasmus, the first three-fourths of the book all have to do with more of the philosophical angle of arguing the doctrine of free will. He uses a lot of scripture, clearly, but he gives his own proofs at the very end. And I've chosen 13 out of these arguments. We'll go through them very rapidly. I don't expect you to memorize these, but I want you to understand how important these truths are that we see in scripture. The first one is the universal guilt of man disproves free will, Romans 118. The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth." Now, the all men he's talking about here are likely Jew and Gentile. The unbelieving world of his day, Paul's day, which is ungodly. God's wrath comes upon them. And you know what's not there? There's no mention of their choice. God's wrath comes upon these wicked people. It says nothing about choice. In Romans 1.16, a few verses before, Paul says that the gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. And here in verse 18, we see that the wrath comes down. There is no middle ground. You're either under the wrath or you're under the righteousness. It has to go one way or the other. And what he's going to discuss here is how does that happen? How do you get on one side or the other? The element here that he mentions is faith, and we're going to see that that faith itself is a gift of God, for by grace are you saved through faith and not of yourselves. It's a gift of God. The whole thing, salvation by grace through faith, that whole package is a gift of God. It is nothing that we do. God doesn't believe for us, that's clear, but it is something that God gives to us. Secondly, universal dominion of sin disproves free will. The fact that there is no fear of God before their eyes. I wish we had time to go through Romans 3 verses 1 through 19. It's an amazing description that Paul pulls in from the book of Psalms describing the wickedness of humankind. Let me read a couple of these verses. None is righteous. This is verse 10 of Romans 3. No, not one. No one understands. No one seeks for God. All have turned aside. Together they have become worthless. No one does good. Not even one. Did you hear that? No one does good, not even one. Our philosophy is in America today is that there's something good in everybody. If you just take the time to deal with it and feel back all the layers of sin and all the problems, you'll find that good. And ultimately, man is good. And ultimately, man has the ability to present that good to God and be acceptable to him. Scripture tells us just the opposite. We're born in sin and we have no ability to present any good to God. And what Paul does at the end of this passage is he pronounces the entire world, Jew and Gentile, guilty before God for this very reason. We know that whatever the law says, speaking of the Ten Commandments primarily, it speaks to those who are under the law so that every mouth may be stopped and that the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law, no human being will be justified in his sight. For through the law comes the knowledge of sin. Everyone is guilty before God. Everyone is pronounced guilty before God. There is no middle ground. You're either innocent or you're guilty. We fall in the guilty category because of God's law. It shows us that. The works which justify, number three, are not merely ceremonial works. There are works in two classes, Luther says, as he describes us. There are those who work after the spirit and those who work after the flesh. Let me ask you this, Paul says in Galatians 3, did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing of faith? Those who work after the flesh, the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law so that although the law and the prophets bear witness to it, we're justified apart from the works of the law. If you are of the Spirit, you do things that are pleasing to God. If you are of the flesh, then you do the things that are appealing, pleasing to Satan. That is the way it is. It's that simple. There are two categories of people, as we started off with this morning. And so this is the solution, Luther says, of the question to which the diatribe repeats so often through all the book. If we can do nothing, what is the purpose then of all these laws, precepts, threats, and promises? And Paul gives the answer to this. Have you ever thought about that? If I cannot keep the Ten Commandments fully, if it's impossible, and I think every one of us, has proven in our own lives that we've broken at least one of those Ten Commandments. Rusty keeps reminding me of that every time we do the gospel presentation. The law shows us that we're all sinners. Then what's the use of this law if we can never keep it? It doesn't make any sense. Why would God give us that if we can't keep it? He's telling us to do something that we cannot do. And folks, it isn't just the Ten Commandments, it's throughout the Bible. Constantly, you see God's commands telling us to do things that are impossible for us to do. How many of you can love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind? How many can do it? And if you look back over your life, you probably have violated that one general commandment every day of your life. I know that I have. I have not loved God as I ought every day of my life. What we find is the conclusion that Paul comes to is that the law has a different purpose. It doesn't make us righteous. It shows that we are unrighteous. It shows that we cannot meet the demands of the law and shows us our condition before God so that we might understand our need for grace. And that's where Paul is going to drive us in this. This is an incredible thing for us to learn as we go through. Well, number four, the law is designed to lead to Christ by giving knowledge of sin. We just discussed that. constantly talks about this question throughout the book, it just doesn't make sense that God would do this. But when we understand that what God is doing is showing us our need for forgiveness of sin, we can understand it. The law which God has commanded for his people to obey is not given for people to obey, but so that they can be found guilty before God. That's why we have the Ten Commandments. We'll try to come to a solution on this in just a moment. Number five, the doctrine of salvation by faith in Christ disproves free will. We see that God's plan is to bring this salvation for us in Jesus Christ by means of faith. We obtain God's righteousness apart from the law. This is going back to Romans 3 now, verse 21. The righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, and it is by faith that we come to know that righteousness. the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. We can know God's righteousness, we can know what it means to keep the law, if you will, the law of Christ as we see it revealed in the New Testament, because of the righteousness that God imputes to us in Jesus Christ. He sent his Son to come down to this earth to die on the cross, to take people who were desperately in need of forgiveness of sin for dealing with sin because he knew they could not keep the law. They could not be obedient to him. And number six says the total irrelevance of works to man's righteousness before God as demonstrated in Romans 4 verses 2 and 3 comes into play. The theme just goes on and on. We need something other than our good works to cause us to come before God. You have to think in the context of the writer. Luther is living in a day where or everyone is being taught that you've got to keep all these elements, these sacraments in the Catholic Church in order to merit God's righteousness. Original sin was supposedly taken care of in the baptism as an infant and then you go back through penance and you deal with the sins as you commit them. The church generally still teaches that as I understand. And so what we have is this understanding that my work will somehow satisfy God and enable me to have eternal life, to accelerate my time through purgatory, as they would probably think, and to get to glory that much faster. Well, this is not at all what Jesus came to do. This is not at all what Paul describes either, because we unrighteous people can never get into that situation where we can do anything on our own that pleases God. Something has to happen to transform us. And that's where we're driving. That's where Luther is driving us today. The state of man without the Holy Spirit, number seven, is the state of the unbeliever. Without the Holy Spirit, there is no salvation. There is no life. There are two categories of people. Let's go to Romans, chapter five. Very quick, if you would turn there. Romans, chapter five. I haven't been having you turn to these texts because there's so many, but this is a good one for us to look at together. I'm sorry, Romans chapter 8 and verse 5. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the Spirit. Without the Spirit, we cannot do anything that is pleasing to God. And this is what What Luther is driving at, he's saying that in order for us to be pleasing to God, to have works that are meritorious in the sight of God, the Spirit has to do them. The Spirit has to come in and energize them. The Spirit is the one who has to come in and transform our lives. What you see in Romans chapter 8 and verse 5 is the difference between an unbeliever and a believer. For many years, I read this passage and I thought he was talking about believers who were struggling, who were living in sin and who needed to acquiesce to the Spirit. That's not what he's talking about. When you read the entire context, it flows together very, very well. Those who live according to the flesh are those who are still in the flesh, who have never been transformed by the regenerating work of the spirit and cannot do anything to please God. But those who set their minds on the things of the spirit, those are people who have been regenerated by the spirit. Their minds are set upon him. And this results in life and peace. There is no middle category of people making decisions about this. Folks, it couldn't be clearer here. The coming of the Spirit is not based upon my effort. The coming of the Spirit, which brings about this transformation, is based upon God's initiative. He sends his Spirit. There's nothing in here about free will. There is nothing in this passage about free will. It is just not there. Number eight, salvation by grace has no reference to previous endeavor. The irony of salvation, this is in Romans chapter 10, we don't have time to turn and go through this wonderful passage. It talks about how the word of God comes and people believe through the word of messengers who are delivering the word. You at work, Sunday school teacher, parent at home, communicating the word. God causes that word, that seed to be planted and to blossom into life. That's how people are regenerated. It's through the word that he brings. The irony of salvation is that there is no correlation of it to seekers. We've been building services in our country and churches in our country for the last 20 years, maybe more, around the concept of being seeker sensitive. That if we just create the right environment, those who are really seeking God will come in and they'll find life and it'll just be great. How much of a seeker was the Apostle Paul as he was on his way to destroy Christians in Damascus? Was he seeking Jesus? The seeker concept is not a good one, folks. Now, when God starts working on a person's heart and there's conviction of sin and they see their need of a savior, they understand the laws, condemn them, and they respond by coming and seeking God, that's not what I'm talking about. What I'm talking about is creating an environment where we have the lights just right, the music just right, to create an environment where people will make a decision for Jesus. And that is exactly opposite of what the Bible teaches. Salvation for a simple world is by the grace of Christ through faith alone He was in the world and the world Was made through him yet the world did not know him it came to his own people in this His own his own people did not receive him, but those who did receive him who believed in his name He gave the right to become children of God who were born not of blood nor the will the flesh nor the will of man But of God we've been talking about this in the gospel of John The fact is that even our believing and receiving is not our initiative because John immediately qualifies it with the words, who were born, not of the will of the flesh, not of blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God. A person believes and receives Jesus because he's been regenerated because God gives him the ability to believe. What free will choice did you make to be born? the first time, physically born. What choice did you make to be born? Did you decide where it was that you would be born? Did you decide who your parents would be? I don't think so. The verb to bear is in the passive tense here, to be born. You were born by someone else. That's what a passive verb talks about. And that's the way it is with God. We don't choose to be born. God chooses us and he bears us. as His children were born of Him. And when we're born, when we have the ability of the new life, then we believe and we receive Christ. This is such a wonderful truth. Nicodemus, we're going to talk about him in a few weeks here, this is number 10, didn't understand this. Jesus says you must be born again. It's something that's done to you. If you want to become a child of God, if you want to inherit the kingdom of God, if you want to be sitting with him for eternity, you've got to be reborn. And it is not something you can do. Jesus commands something that Nicodemus cannot do. And that's what God is doing to us today. He's commanding you to do something, if you're not a believer this morning, to do something you cannot do. You cannot, out of the goodness of your heart, out of the generosity of your heart, you may be the world's best philanthropic giver. You may have volunteered to help out in all kinds of campaigns in the community to help the indigent, to do a number of things that are wonderful, to help with the schools and serving teachers. those who need help in the public schools. You may have done all kinds of wonderful things. You may even give money to the church, but you've got to be born again. You've got to be born again. The Bible says we need to repent and believe. And so we come before the Lord empty, unable, totally unable to meet his demands. And yet he demands it. You must be born again. So what's the solution to this dilemma? Man is totally unable to believe the gospel. Salvation is by Christ alone. We've got that clear, John 14, 6. I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me. Jesus says we must repent and believe, even though we don't have the ability to do it. Now, if this doesn't put you in a box canyon, I don't know what will. Because this is a gospel that was preached quite frequently 400 or 500 years ago in the middle of the Reformation. I'm not so sure it's proclaimed very loudly today. Because we try to make believing as easy as we possibly can today. We try to make it an intellectual choice. And Luther would tell us what Paul tells us, what God is telling Paul and Luther, and that is you must be born again. You must have this outside action come in. and save you. If you will believe, you will be saved. Now, if God is pulling on your heart this morning, if He's tugging at your heartstrings, and as Dr. Barnhouse put it, Johnson had it in one of his tapes, if He's jiggled your willer, if He's caused your willer to change, then respond to that and say, Lord, I believe. This may be the day of salvation for you. Today is the day of salvation. And what a comfort it is if you do believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you are transformed to realize that it wasn't you that did it, but it was God. Because if it rested upon us, where we would find ourselves being is in a total life of turmoil. Thank the Lord for John 10, 28 and 29, which says, I gave them eternal life. I give them eternal life. And they, that is his sheep, will never perish and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My father who has given them to me is greater than all and no one is able to snatch them out of my father's hand. What a blessing it is to know that he does this. This is a monergistic work, not synergistic. It's God's work coming down to save us. It is not our combined work of coming together. It's all dependent upon him. Now, folks, if the start of it is all dependent upon him, the continuance of it is all dependent upon him. And you don't have to work. to maintain your status as a Christian. You don't have to get so many brownie points for bringing so many people to church or leading so many people to Christ every week. We want you to do those things. We want you to be involved in those activities, but your salvation does not depend upon it because you're not the one who secured it in the first place. It is God who did that. And we stand back and we rejoice in worship. Well, where do you stand in this 500 year debate? Has God changed your will? Could you put up a slide for us there? I want to show you a slide. Joe did a slide. It's a wonderful slide. We're going to show it tonight, by the way. We're going to be talking about the Doctrine of Man at the Basic Bible Doctrines class. This is a great little summary of our ability. Augustine was helpful to us in getting this idea. Before the fall, that is before Adam and Eve sinned, we were able not to sin. That is, Adam had the ability, we're talking about free will now, Adam had the ability not to sin. You understand what I'm saying? He could avoid sin. And evidently he did for a while before the fall. Then, when he fell, he was not able not to sin. That's a little tricky, isn't it? Not able not to sin. Because, according to Romans 5, we find that for as by one man sinned into the world and death by sin, so all have sinned because of what Adam had done. They're in a condition of not being able not to sin. By the way, we're in that category. We are not able not to sin. If you've been involved with pornography and you say, okay, from tomorrow on, I am not going to do it ever again. Okay? Just by the sheer discipline and willpower, I will not do it. I'll even get an accountability partner to help me. Make sure it doesn't happen. It won't work. Because we, in our fallen state, are not able to stay out of that sin. We will go back to that sin eventually. The same thing is true. That's why I get so upset with these 12-step programs and so forth that talk about alcoholism and all these other addictions as something that is a A physical problem. It does have physical ramifications, but it is primarily a spiritual problem. We are not able not to sin. We're going to fall back into it. It will happen again. But then you're redeemed. Jesus comes into your life. The Holy Spirit comes in and regenerates you and gives you the ability not to sin. You're able not to sin. You still sin. But you're able not to. You have the ability. Why are you able not to? Because the Spirit is now living within you. and giving you that power. The fruit of the Spirit is manifest in your life. He gives you the ability to say no. Just say no only works in that situation with redeemed people. And then finally, in glory, when we're taken out of this body, we will be able, not able to sin. Our bodies will be transformed. We will not have the ability to think a negative thought, to be hateful, to be unloving. In glory. God's going to remove that. This is a wonderful little summary. So the question, you can take the slide down. The question is today, where do we stand in this debate? Have you bowed the knee before God? If you're an unbeliever today and said, I cannot believe, I need your faith. Lord, help my unbelief. He will give you that faith. If you will pray that prayer, God is calling you to pray that prayer. He will give you that faith. Christians, as you live your lives and you find yourself caught up in sin, As we all are, every day, every one of us sins. The joy, the beauty of the situation is that we have the ability not to sin today, not by our own virtue, but by virtue of the cross of Christ. May God give us that grace today. Come to Jesus. Repent of your sin. Ask him to rule and reign in your heart. If God is calling you to pray that prayer, he will give you the grace to receive. his salvation. Believers, if you're caught in sin today, rejoice in the fact that the Spirit is there to give you the ability not to sin and go to him for the remedy for that sin that so frequently besets. Let us pray. Father, we thank you for the Lord Jesus today. We thank you for how you use the Reformers to cause us to take a look again at these scriptures and understand what it is that you have done. Lord, we thank you for the gospel of Jesus Christ, which is entirely God centered and Lord does not depend upon our will to survive. In fact, the only way the church will survive is by coming back to the gospel. That God has initiated this salvation, that in fact, salvation is of the Lord, as Jonah so clearly told us. And we come back to that point today. Lord, save us. For unbelievers, Lord, I pray that you'll work the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit in their hearts today. For believers, I pray that you will save us from our sin into which we so often find ourselves. That Paul, in such a frustrating way, said he wanted to do things that he knew he ought not to do. And he did not do the things which he knew that he ought to do. And he came to the conclusion that this grace comes through the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we come back to you today, dear Lord Jesus. We ask you for your grace. As we approach the Lord's table, Lord, cleanse our hearts, cause us to know our relationship with you very clearly. In Jesus' name we pray.