In Eric Bechler's sermon on 'Of Free Will, 1689 SLBC, Chap. 9, Par. 2', he explores the intricate relationship between free will and God's sovereignty as presented in the Second London Baptist Confession of 1689. Bechler discusses the concept of free will in the state of man's innocency, emphasizing that while man had the freedom and power to choose what was good and pleasing to God, he was unstable and capable of falling from grace. The sermon elaborates on the distinction between natural liberty, or free agency, and free will, highlighting that free will is influenced by the strongest desire or motive at any given time. Bechler asserts that although humans are moral agents responsible for their choices, they are not coerced by God, who is sovereign over all. The sermon also touches on the theological perspective of Augustine of Hippo, who noted that after the fall, humans lost the ability not to sin. Bechler concludes that before the fall, man had the capacity to choose to do good or evil, but sin had not yet entered the world.

So our reading this morning from the second London Baptist Confession of 1689 comes again from chapter 9 of free will paragraph 2 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. Again last week we began chapter 9 of free will. There is quite a bit of confusion and disagreement associated with the idea of free will. How does it fit in with God's sovereignty? Is it coerced or forced by someone or something?

Are we actually robots controlled by God? How is our will affected by our spiritual state? As with almost any misunderstanding, you must start with understanding the definitions of the words and terms being used. I would like to repeat some of what we covered last week regarding this and maybe add a little bit. And I hope that it will help you understand a little bit more of what we're confessing here.

But before doing that, I'd like to also make an observation from the confession. Chapter 8 was about Christ the mediator. For 10 weeks, we focused on the accomplishment of our redemption by Christ. Before us, in chapters 10 through 18, these chapters cover the application of that redemption, from the effectual call to the assurance of grace and salvation. So as we look at this, we would wonder why, why would they place a chapter on free will in between Christ's accomplishment of our redemption and the application of that redemption.

It seems that the natural flow would be to go directly from that accomplishment to the application of it. Perhaps the discussion of free will just at this point is to emphasize that even free will, even with that natural liberty that God grants us in that, is not sufficient for us to take advantage of the redemption Christ accomplished. Our free will is not a substitute, it's not a replacement for the Holy Spirit's work in us. When God created man, he gave man a will. What is our will?

Noah Webster defines will as that faculty of the mind by which we determine either to do or forbear an action. In other words, we reason with respect to the value or importance of things. We then judge which is to be preferred, and we will to take the most valuable or most preferred. These are but different operations of the mind, soul, or intellectual part of man. From our paragraph last week, we confess that God supplied that will of man with natural liberty and the power to act upon choice.

Let's make sure we understand again what is natural liberty. Some describe this as freedom. Some as free agency that we spoke about last week. J.I. Packard again told us that the natural liberty or freedom allows a man to make their own decisions as to what they will do, choosing as they please in the light of their sense of right and wrong and the inclination they feel.

Thus they are moral agents answerable to God and to each other for their voluntary choices." In contrast, he states that free will is the ability to choose all the moral options that a situation offers. There's a little bit of a distinction there. In the freedom of will, Jonathan Edwards tells us that man is free to choose according to his disposition. Human beings always choose according to their strongest desire and so we make free choices we do what we want to do free will is the faculty or the ability to choose one thing over another through freedom natural liberty or free agency our will is determined by the strongest motive of our heart. The will is not determined to necessarily do good or evil.

It is only a faculty or an ability. The will is determined by the condition of your heart. Whatever is the strongest motive at that moment, that is your will. It can change with time and circumstances. If at a particular moment we prefer to sin, we sin.

Let's look at an example. If we take it as an example, family worship or prayer, it's pleasant to spend time with God in prayer and in worship. It's beneficial to create such a habit for ourselves, for wife, for children. What a blessing that our children would grow up knowing nothing different. The more we do this, the sweeter is that time.

The more we want to do this, it builds with consistent disciplined action. On the other hand, family worship and prayer takes effort. They take time. Sometimes we're tired. Sometimes we're discouraged.

Sometimes we just would rather do something else. Recreational activities, they give us instant enjoyment. It's the easy choice, sometimes necessary. Family worship and prayer take time. With that in mind, you will, it is your will, to have family worship or prayer if that is the strongest motive or desire in your heart at that moment.

If it's not, you won't. So does our free will conflict with God's sovereignty? There are volumes of books written on this, but I'll comment on it in an overly simplified manner that I hope helps. With regards to God's sovereignty, R.C. Sproul commented, if there's one single molecule in this universe running around loose, totally free of God's sovereignty, then we have no guarantee that a single promise of God will ever be fulfilled.

God is sovereign over everything, period. With this statement, we might conclude that we could be robots. We are not. If we are robots, how can we be held responsible for our actions? Because they're not our actions.

God does not coerce us. He does not force us to act. He gave His people a choice of life and death in speaking through Moses in Deuteronomy 30, 15. See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil. In verse 19, I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I've set before you life and death, blessing and curse.

Therefore, choose life that you and your offspring may live. Furthermore, we all remember Joshua was charged to the people of Israel as they were renewing their covenant with God at Shechem in 2415. And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord choose this day whom you will serve whether the gods your father serves in the region beyond the river or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell but as for me in my house we will serve the Lord and finally from Paul's letter to the Galatians, he's offering some warnings in 6 verses 7 and 8. Do not be deceived. God is not mocked.

For whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption. But the one who sows to the spirit will from the spirit reap eternal life. God allows us to choose And God allows us to be held responsible for that choice. We will reap what we sow.

Finally, let us address the last question I raised. How is it affected by our spiritual state? How is our will affected? This takes us into paragraphs two through five where we will look at man's will in the state of innocency, in the state of sin, in the state of grace, and in the state of glory. Our paragraph for today deals with man in his state of innocency.

And we read, man in his state of innocence had freedom and power to will and to do that which was good and well pleasing to God. What is meant by state of innocence? This state is from when Adam was created until the fall. We read from Genesis that God created everything, which includes Adam, and it was very good in 1.31, and God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. God made man very good.

The author of Ecclesiastes states that God made man upright in 729, lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright. We also read that man was made in God's image after the image of him that created him. We see that in Genesis and in Paul's letter to the Colossians. Genesis 1, 26, and God said, Let us make man in our image after our likeness. Colossians 3, 10, and have put on the new man which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him God is good and God is righteous Adam was good and Adam was righteous.

He could do what was pleasing to God. Adam had the freedom and the power to will and to do that which was good and well pleasing to God. Yet because God furnished the will of man with that natural liberty and power of acting upon choice, man could choose to obey or not to obey. Man had the moral ability to choose righteousness or not. As we read the last part of our paragraph this morning, but yet was unstable so that he might fall from it.

Man was yet unstable. The Westminster Confession states that man was mutable, changeable. Because we see that Adam was very good, He had the freedom and power to will and to do that which was good and well pleasing to God. He had that natural liberty to obey and please God or not. He had the ability to choose either way.

Perhaps as a test, God gave Adam a command and we read this from Genesis 2, 16 and 17. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayst freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it, for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." And we all know what happened. As any parent has experienced, the one thing you place off limits to your child is the one thing they want over everything else. It was no different with Adam and Eve in Genesis 3, 6. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was pleasant to the eyes and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof and did eat and gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat.

Yet man was unstable, so that he might fall from it, and he did. From this sin entered into the world and death." And we read from Paul's letter to the Romans in 512, wherefore as one man sin entered into the world and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. And in the second half of second Peter 2 19, for whatever overcomes a person to that he is enslaved. Augustine of Hippo stated that in creation, we were both posse picare, which is able to sin, and posse non picare, which is able not to sin. After the fall, we continued to be able to sin, posse pacare, but we lost the power, the ability not to sin, posse non pacare.

We were left in what Augustine called a state of moral inability. So to summarize, God created man with a will, and that will was supplied with natural liberty or freedom so that man could choose without being forced to do good or evil, to obey or not. In the state before the fall, the state of innocency, man had the ability to choose to do that which was good and well pleasing to God or not. Sin had not yet come into the world at this point. Next week we'll look at the will as affected by the state of man under sin and how that affects man's ability to please God.

Amen.