Responding to your questions pt 2: What is Man’s Will in Light of God's Sovereignty?

SERMON TITLE: Responding to your questions pt 2: What is Man’s Will in Light of God's Sovereignty?

‌‌SCRIPTURE: multiple (ESV)

‌SPEAKER: Josh Hanson

‌DATE: 11-10-24

TURN MIC ON / WELCOME

As always it’s a joy to be with all of you this weekend at Gateway Church. And there’s one thing I want you to know — and this is true if you’re worshiping with us for the first time — if you’re joining us at our North Main Campus or are with our friends in Bucyrus — I want you to know that God loves you and that I love you too.

SERIES INTRO

We’re doing something different for two weeks. We’re taking two weeks to do something that Paul did in his letter to the Corinthians. Apparently, the Corinthians had sent some questions to Paul. In fact, six times Paul appears to respond to questions they’ve asked him. And — over the past few weeks — I’ve been hearing questions that you’ve been asking and would like to take time to respond to them.

The two questions you’ve been asking are — one — what does it mean to hear from God and — two — what is man’s free will in light of God’s sovereignty? Last week — I answered your first question and — today — I’m answering your question about our — humanity’s — free will — which will set us up to return to Romans next week.

Usually I answer questions like these on our church podcast — in fact we’ve answered questions on God’s sovereignty and our free will previously on the podcast — but I know not everyone listens to the podcast. And the episodes — plural — on predestination were hour plus long episodes — and who’s got time for that? So I thought I’d take time to address your questions in a couple of sermons.

But — first — some reminders. When we returned to Romans — back in September — I said to you that “resting in and receiving great big promises and truths from God are going to be what we’re to do. I know we American Christians love stuff to do — but in Romans chapters nine through eleven — there aren’t many commands. In fact there are only three — which we won’t come to until chapter eleven.” Now — even with me saying this — it only took four sermons on God’s sovereignty for us to start asking, “But what about what we do?”

Now — without dismissing your question — I am taking a sermon to answer it after all — I do want us to consider something: If I preached four weeks on things that we’re to do — commands we’re to obey — after four weeks of that — how many of us would be raising our hand to ask, “But Josh. What about God’s sovereignty?” Very few — if any of us — would raise this concern. And that should tell us something about ourselves: How us-centric we — and that includes me — we all are.

Yet the central point of everything — according to the Bible — is God — not us. And I’m saying to myself as much as to any of you. Because it’s easy for me to read the Bible and be — I don’t know how else to say it — disappointed — bored even — if the passage I read is all about God and doesn’t have any perceived practicality to my life — like — what I’m supposed to do. May God — in his grace — forgive me — and us — for such thoughts.

The second reminder is that — if you weren’t here for Justin’s sermon last Sunday evening — I want to encourage you to go give it a listen as his sermon — based on the Westminster Shorter Catechism — covered the providence of God. A topic related to your question that we’re looking at today.

What Do We Mean By Free Will?

Now to begin answering your question — what is man’s free will in light of God’s sovereignty — we actually have to take a step back and ask, “What do we mean by free will?” If you do listen to our church podcast, you may remember that — around the time we returned to Romans — we also returned to our podcast series going through the Westminster Confession of Faith. One episode covered chapter nine of the confession — which covers the topic of free will. In the podcast series I’ve been quoting quite a bit from RC Sproul’s book Truths We Confess.

In his chapter covering the topic of free will, Sproul writes, “If there is any place where secular humanism has undermined a biblical view of human nature, it’s with respect to the idea of free will. The prevailing view of free will in the secular culture is that human beings are able to make choices without being encumbered by sin.” (Sproul 232)

So — one view of humanity’s freedom — is that human beings are able to make choices without being encumbered — or hindered or limited or constrained — by sin. That’s the secular humanist’s view of free will.

Now — if you’re not a Christian — I’m going to suppose that this is the definition of free will that you agree with. What I hope you’ll take away from the rest of this sermon — is an understanding as to why Christians believe differently about the nature of our free will.

So — two things — for those of us who believe in Jesus. First, though this isn’t a sermon specifically on predestination — it’s often brought up in this kind of discussion. And predestination is a word in the Bible. It occurs six times explicitly — not to mention related words like destined, election, and chosen — where God is doing these actions. On the other hand, the word free will — in relation to humanity’s will — is not found in the Bible. Now just because a word or phrase isn’t found in the Bible doesn’t necessarily mean it’s not something true — the word Trinity isn’t found in the Bible, for example — however — when forming our theology we should take what the Bible explicitly says and use that to interpret what it doesn’t explicitly say. So — in this case — predestination should interpret what we mean by our free will and not the other way around.

‌Now — Jonathan Edwards — who many believe to be America’s greatest theologian — said, “free will is freedom to choose what we want — the ability to choose according to our own inclinations. Not only are we able to choose according to our strongest inclinations, but, in a very real sense, we must choose according to our strongest inclination in order to be free.” (Sproul 233)

‌What Jonathan Edwards is distinguishing is the difference between our free will and our liberty — which many think of as synonymous. However theologians have distinguished free will and liberty as two separate ideas. For instance, Augustine — who lived in the fourth and fifth century — said that — after the fall due to Adam and Eve’s sin in the Garden — we maintained our free will but lost our liberty. What’s the difference between our free will and our liberty? Free will is about our ability to make choices. Liberty is about what options we have to choose from.

For example, if you go to dinner at Chick-Fil-A — you have the freedom to choose — so this is free will — anything on the menu. You can go with a spicy chicken sandwich or a 12 count nugget meal. But you don’t have the liberty to choose a hamburger. You have free will — but your choices — or liberty — are limited. Everyone following?

Our Nature

Now — we have to talk about our nature — meaning our condition due to sin entering the world. What happened to us — including our free will and our liberty — when Adam and Eve disobeyed God? We’ll mainly talk about our spiritual condition — but know that I’m going to bring up our physical nature — or condition — as well. So let’s begin with Adam and Eve. When God created Adam and Eve — he declared that they — along with all of creation — were very good. They were sinless, innocent, perfectly free, and had liberty.

Yet — as you may know — God put a tree in the Garden that they were not to eat from. And God gave them a warning — which hints at what will happen to their nature if they disobey him.

Genesis 2:17 (ESV)

17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.

Adam and Eve were given the choice — and they had the freedom to choose — whether or not to obey God’s command. Again — Adam and Eve were created with both the freedom and liberty to choose good or evil — they could obey God or disobey him. Their obedience would be a sign of their love for him — their trust in him — their belief that he knows best and only commands what is good — that — as Jonathan Edwards said — that God was their heart's inclination or desire. But — spoiler alert — if you’ve never read the Bible — in chapter three — they eat from the tree and rebel against God — showing that they gave themselves over to another — stronger — desire.

Now what happened to Adam and Eve — and to all of us — when they chose to rebel against God in the Garden? For starters, death became our enemy — just as God warned that it would. For Adam and Eve — and the rest of humanity — because we are their offspring — were kicked out of the Garden and unable to eat from the tree of life. So we age. We get sick. We get all wrinkly. We get cancer. We die.

Additionally, a war began between the Serpent — Satan — and humanity. Since humanity was deceived by the Serpent — a human would have to defeat him and set things right. That’s the hope found in God’s judgment on the snake when…

Genesis 3:14–15 (ESV)

14 The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. 15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

An offspring — a future descendant of the woman — will one day crush the head of the snake securing victory over our Enemy — which is fulfilled on the cross by Jesus Christ.

God speaks of other physical consequences due to Adam and Eve’s sin. Pain in childbirth. Relational conflict. Painful work and exhausting days. And — as we’ve already said — death.

Those are some of the physical consequences and changes to our nature or condition. But what about spiritual consequences — how did the fall of Adam and Eve change their — and our — spiritual condition? And — because this is spiritual — this is where disagreement lies. For it’s hard to debate the physical effects of the fall — at least among Christians — but we can’t see the spiritual effects of the fall. So we have to go to the Bible for our answers.

‌So spiritual consequences for Adam and Eve. For starters, they’re cast out of the Garden which also represents their relationship with God being broken. They lived in God’s dwelling place and now they’ll live in separation from him. Yes — God will visit with humanity — from time to time — but occasional visits from God and living continually in his presence are very different.

‌But something else happens to Adam and Eve and to their offspring. In the next chapter of Genesis — chapter four — one son murders his brother. And — before he murdered his brother…

‌Genesis 4:6–7 (ESV)

‌6 The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? 7 If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.”

‌A desire is stirring in Cain’s heart. Yet even with this gracious warning…

‌Genesis 4:8 (ESV)

‌8 Cain spoke to Abel his brother. And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him.

‌Sin didn’t just infect Adam and Eve — even their sons — who were conceived outside of the Garden — are born with sinful natures. Thus Cain gives into his strongest desire and murders his brother Abel. And not just Cain — fast forward a few centuries and the…

‌Genesis 6:5 (ESV)

‌5 The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

‌Do you see the desires of their heart? This isn’t liberty — this isn’t unhindered freedom — are they making choices — yes — but doesn’t this sound more like bondage than liberty? The only way to avoid this conclusion is to interpret the passage metaphorically or something. But the text doesn’t say that “some of their intentions were evil.” Or that “occasionally the people of the earth had evil thoughts.” It says that “every intention of their hearts were evil all the time.” To do evil was their heart’s strongest desire. And this sin infection also included Noah and his family — they were just as affected by sin as those who drowned in the flood — which is why the flood didn’t fix our sinful nature. It wasn’t meant to. It was meant to reveal to us our sinful nature.

‌If we fast forward a few more hundred years — we come to King David who — after committing sins of adultery and murder — said…

‌Psalm 51:4–5 (NLT)

‌4 Against you (God), and you alone, have I sinned; I have done what is evil in your sight. You will be proved right in what you say, and your judgment against me is just. 5 For I was born a sinner— yes, from the moment my mother conceived me.

‌Sin has so affected our nature that — according to God’s Word — we’re born as sinners. Yes — we do sin — we lie, we hate, and so on…but we do so not solely because of our environment — we do so because it’s our spiritual nature to sin — it’s what we desire to do. This is why no parent has ever had to teach their toddler to be selfish — because we’re all born with a sinful nature.

‌Turning to the New Testament — the apostle Paul describes our spiritual condition in this way.

‌Ephesians 2:1–10 (ESV)

‌1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 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— 3 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. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

‌Paul describes the spiritual condition that we’re born with. We’re spiritually dead in our sins. We follow the course of the world — meaning our heart’s desire is to follow all that opposes God. We follow Satan — the prince of the air. We were by nature — there’s our key word — children of wrath — like the rest of humanity. This is the spiritual condition that every single person is born into this world with — just like they’re born with the physical condition of mortality.

‌This is the hopeless condition that all people are born into. And — yet — God’s marvelous mercy is found in the words, “But God” in verse four. God — though not obligated to do so — but because he is rich in mercy and because of the great love with which he loved us — even while we were dead in our sin — even while we were his enemy — even when our heart’s desire was opposed to him — he made us spiritually alive — and not just spiritually alive in any old way — but alive with Christ. Not only because of Christ but united to Christ. There is no spiritual resurrection — no spiritual life, no end to being God’s enemy, no freedom from Satan, no being a child of God — unless you’re made alive to Christ by God. There’s no spiritual neutrality. It’s either spiritual death or spiritual life. Child of wrath of child of God. Enslaved or set free.

‌Or as Paul writes to Titus…

‌Titus 1:15 (ESV)

‌15 To the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their minds and their consciences are defiled.

‌This is another way to describe the spiritual nature we’re born with — defiled — impure — unholy. So clearly something has happened to our spiritual nature.

Now — if Adam and Eve had both the freedom and liberty to choose to obey or disobey God — and that was due to their sinlessness — do we not think that something happened to our freedom and liberty due to their rebellion? Surely there’s a difference between Adam and Eve’s freedom — in their sinless purity — and their and our freedom — in sinful impurity?

‌‌One last example from Scripture. In explaining why some people believe the gospel message and others don’t, Paul writes…

‌1 Corinthians 2:14 (NLT)

‌14 But people who aren’t spiritual can’t receive these truths from God’s Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them and they can’t understand it, for only those who are spiritual can understand what the Spirit means.

‌Notice that the word “can’t” — it’s used twice. Those who aren’t spiritual — meaning they’re spiritually dead — they can’t receive the truths of the gospel from the Holy Spirit. They can’t understand it — for only those who are spiritual — or spiritually alive — can.

‌So — it’s not that we don’t have a free will — we do — it’s that our spiritual liberty has been lost. For just like physical death entered the world — due to sin — so did spiritual death. And our desires were distorted by sin — from holy desires to unholy desires — pure desires to impure desire — godly desires — to demonic desires — according to Paul. We’re free to make choices — but our choices will always be — because they must be — according to what our heart desires most. And — for those who don’t believe in Jesus — their heart’s desire is not for him.

Maybe a light-hearted illustration will help us all catch our breath.

Where are all of my Ohio State fans? Let’s do a little test of your free will and liberty as a fun experiment. Michigan fans — you can play along too — or just sit back and enjoy the show.

Ohio State fans — I want you to choose right now — because you have a free will — choose to be a Michigan fan. I’m not asking you to sin — or anything — just make the choice to be a Michigan fan. Some of you are all like, “Forget free will — it ain’t worth it.”

Now for those of you still playing along — don’t just check the box — “I’m a Michigan fan — ha ha” — delight in Michigan football right now. I mean cause your heart to stir with joy and excitement as you think about Michigan upsetting — in a soul crushing way — all of those pathetic Ohio State fans in a couple of weeks. I mean — those Ohio State fans are just so pathetic aren’t they?

Alright. Illustrations over. What did you learn about your heart’s desire and your ability to make choices? Probably that pretending to be a Michigan fan and being an actual Michigan fan are two very different desires of the heart, right? Now — if we can’t change our heart’s desire — when it comes to something like what college team we find delight in — why would we think we can change our heart’s desire after how we’ve seen it described in the Bible?

Again — it’s not that we’re not free to make choices. It’s that we’re free to choose what our heart desires most. And the unbeliever’s heart does not — for it cannot — desire God. Not without God for pouring out his mercy on the individual — giving them a new heart — a spiritual resurrection — a desire for him.

The Mercy of Jesus

Now — this leads us to the tension that our time in Romans has created. If God makes some alive — why doesn’t he make everyone alive? If he sets some free — why doesn’t he set all free? If he’s merciful to some — why isn’t he merciful to all. We feel this tension when we talk about our spiritual condition — because of sin — but let’s step back and return to our physical nature — because of sin — and catch a glimpse of God’s mercy on display as recorded in John’s gospel.

John 5:2–17 (NLT)

2 Inside the city, near the Sheep Gate, was the pool of Bethesda, with five covered porches. 3 Crowds of sick people—blind, lame, or paralyzed—lay on the porches. 5 One of the men lying there had been sick for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him and knew he had been ill for a long time, he asked him, “Would you like to get well?” 7 “I can’t, sir,” the sick man said, “for I have no one to put me into the pool when the water bubbles up. Someone else always gets there ahead of me.” 8 Jesus told him, “Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk!” 9 Instantly, the man was healed! He rolled up his sleeping mat and began walking! But this miracle happened on the Sabbath, 10 so the Jewish leaders objected. They said to the man who was cured, “You can’t work on the Sabbath! The law doesn’t allow you to carry that sleeping mat!” 11 But he replied, “The man who healed me told me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ ” 12 “Who said such a thing as that?” they demanded. 13 The man didn’t know, for Jesus had disappeared into the crowd. 14 But afterward Jesus found him in the Temple and told him, “Now you are well; so stop sinning, or something even worse may happen to you.” 15 Then the man went and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had healed him. 16 So the Jewish leaders began harassing Jesus for breaking the Sabbath rules. 17 But Jesus replied, “My Father is always working, and so am I.”

Because of sin entering our world — physical conditions like blindness, deafness, paralyzation, and so on — are what some experience. People who’ve physically lost their liberty — to walk, or see, or hear, or speak — able to make free choices but are bound — limited — in what they can choose because of the physical affects of sin in our world. Not necessarily due to sin they’ve committed — but the physical consequences of living in a sin-stained world. Thus — what beauty and mercy and power when Jesus approaches this man who’d been paralyzed for thirty-eight years and say, “Would you like to get well? Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk!”

The man couldn’t approach Jesus — he was paralyzed. And the man didn’t even know who Jesus was — he makes this clear when questioned by the authorities. It was Jesus’ choice — to do the work of his Father — which in this case was to be merciful to this one man.

To this one man. But there were crowds — plural — of sick who Jesus did not heal that day. We know this — it’s right there in the text — and yet this doesn’t decrease the beauty of God’s mercy to this one man, does it? And if this is how we view Jesus’s mercy — even when it’s towards one and not all — when it comes to God reversing the physical affects of sin in our world — why would we view God’s mercy differently when it comes to him reversing the spiritual affects of sin in our world?

How do you respond to Jesus healing the one man? Was Jesus mean for not healing everyone? Unfair? Someone not to be trusted? Or merciful? Kind? Loving? How are you — right now — seeing Jesus?

Yet — even the paralysis of the man fails to equate to what we’ve read is the spiritual condition of everyone who doesn’t believe in Jesus Christ — though it does clue us in. For we all know — don’t we — that the paralyzed guy wasn’t going to make his way to Jesus. He couldn’t. He could see him — but his liberty was limited and it kept him from Jesus.

There’s another story in Jesus’s life that involves a paralyzed man.

Luke 5:17–26 (NLT)

17 One day while Jesus was teaching, some Pharisees and teachers of religious law were sitting nearby. (It seemed that these men showed up from every village in all Galilee and Judea, as well as from Jerusalem.) And the Lord’s healing power was strongly with Jesus. 18 Some men came carrying a paralyzed man on a sleeping mat. They tried to take him inside to Jesus, 19 but they couldn’t reach him because of the crowd. So they went up to the roof and took off some tiles. Then they lowered the sick man on his mat down into the crowd, right in front of Jesus. 20 Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the man, “Young man, your sins are forgiven.” 21 But the Pharisees and teachers of religious law said to themselves, “Who does he think he is? That’s blasphemy! Only God can forgive sins!” 22 Jesus knew what they were thinking, so he asked them, “Why do you question this in your hearts? 23 Is it easier to say ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or ‘Stand up and walk’? 24 So I will prove to you that the Son of Man has the authority on earth to forgive sins.” Then Jesus turned to the paralyzed man and said, “Stand up, pick up your mat, and go home!” 25 And immediately, as everyone watched, the man jumped up, picked up his mat, and went home praising God. 26 Everyone was gripped with great wonder and awe, and they praised God, exclaiming, “We have seen amazing things today!”

Another beautifully merciful story. A man paralyzed — his liberty is bound — and yet what faith we see in his friends. And — if you’re a Christian — I hope this will fuel your hope in God and your boldness in sharing your faith with those who don’t yet believe. For his friends — of their own free will — and with a physical liberty that wasn’t bound like their paralyzed friend — and — we can also infer — a spiritual liberty for Jesus saw their “faith” — they use their free will and liberty to bring their friend to Jesus. And their friend experiences the mercy of God. For he is healed physically — his liberty is restored — and spiritually — for he left praising God. All because his friends used their free will and liberty to bring someone they loved to Jesus.

CONCLUSION

Friends, this is why we share the gospel with confidence. For our God is merciful — even when one is healed. Our God is merciful — when we use our liberty to bring others to Jesus. Our God is merciful to us — even though it is our sin that got us into this mess. And we couldn’t get ourselves out of it — so Jesus got us out of it himself. So let’s find joy and satisfaction in Jesus — and his Father’s mercy towards us. For he’s set us free — restored our liberty — so our heart’s desire and satisfaction can be found in him. Let’s pray together.

PRAYER

Heavenly Father, we confess that the journey we’ve been on today has been challenging. Indeed your ways are not our ways — your thoughts are not our thoughts. So we submit our thoughts on our freedom and nature — both physically and spiritually — to you and your Word to us. May we not reject your Word — but respond to it with thanksgiving. For we were dead, but now are alive. We were lost and have been found. We were blind and you have caused our spiritually blind eyes to see. And this is not our doing — but is the work of you — our God.

Spirit — you are the One who calls us out of spiritual darkness and into your light. You replace our dead hearts with ones that are spiritually alive. You are who gives life to our spirits and set us free from our bondage to Satan and sin. For this we thank you and praise you and ask you to set free more who are in bondage.

And — Jesus — to you our Savior, Redeemer, Rescuer, and Friend — in love — you died for us while we were your enemies — while we hated you — while we yelled, “Crucify him. Crucify him. Crucify him” with our spiritually dead hearts. That was who we were when bound to our sinful nature. And now — because we’ve been given a new nature — the One we crucified is now who we believe in. And call our Lord. And who we find our joy and heart’s delight in. A radical change because our nature has been made new by your sacrifice on our behalf.

So — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — we praise you like the paralyzed man who’s friend brought to Jesus. We give thanks to you for your kindness and mercy towards us who believe as we anticipate seeing your kindness and mercy be experienced by those who’ve yet to believe. And we pray all of this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

BENEDICTION (Prayer teams available)

May you go knowing that God is good and trusting in his mercy towards you in Jesus Christ. Amen.

God loves you. I love you. You are sent.