In Eric Bechler's sermon on 'Of Free Will, 1689 SLBC, Chap. 9, Par. 4,' he explores the complexities of free will within the framework of God's sovereignty, drawing from the Second London Baptist Confession of 1689. He explains that while humans possess the faculty of free will, their choices are determined by the strongest motives of their hearts, which are influenced by their spiritual state. Bechler discusses four states of man as illustrated by Augustine of Hippo: before the fall (state of innocency), after the fall (state of sin), regenerate man (state of grace), and glorified man. He emphasizes that in the state of sin, humanity is in total depravity and unable to choose God without divine intervention. The sermon underscores the transformative power of God's grace, which frees individuals from the bondage of sin and enables them to choose spiritual good, albeit imperfectly due to remaining corruptions. Bechler calls for practical steps to strengthen one's spiritual life, such as engaging with Scripture, prayer, and the church community, while emphasizing the ongoing internal conflict between the flesh and the Spirit.

Our reading this morning from the Second London Baptist Confession of 1689 comes again from Chapter 9 of Free Will, paragraph 4. When God converts a sinner and translates him into the state of grace, he freeth him from his natural bondage under sin, and by his grace alone enables him freely to will and to do that which is spiritually good. Yet so as that by reason of his remaining corruptions he doth not perfectly, nor only will that which is good, but doth also will that which is evil. We continue our discussion this week on free will and how our spiritual state affects that. We will start with a short review over what we've covered thus far.

Once again, free will is the faculty or ability to choose one thing over another. Through freedom or natural liberty, 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 ability. The will is determined by the condition of your heart.

Whatever is the strongest motive at that moment is your will. It can change with time and circumstances. So does our free will conflict with God's sovereignty? No, it doesn't. Rather, God in His sovereignty gives us choices.

God does not coerce nor force us to act. How can we be held responsible for our actions by a just God if they are not our actions? Last week I laid out a table showing man's ability to sin or to not sin based on his spiritual condition, as described by Augustine of Hippo. For those with sharp eyes, I've put up here on the whiteboard. We're going to be in the third column today.

We'll go through them real quick here. In the first category, Man Before the Fall, Man's State of Innocency, he's both able to sin and able to not sin. 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, Adam could choose to obey or to not obey. In no way was he coerced or forced to act. The second column we have man after the fall, man's state of sin.

Here man is able to sin and not able to not sin. Basically, he's only able to sin. In this condition, we find man in total depravity and total inability, which we spoke about last week. Yet despite being in this condition, man still is able to choose. In the third column, we have regenerate man in man's state of grace.

Man is able to sin and able to not sin. This places us back almost to the state of man before the fall, the difference being that Adam was righteous up until the fall. The regenerate man, although having the ability to not sin, still has a sin nature and a corruption. Man has been freed from the bondage of sin, and this is what we'll be discussing today. In the final column there, we have glorified man.

In this condition, man is able to not sin and not able to sin. R.C. Sproul noted, In heaven, when we are in glory, we will be free only to obey. That is what we call royal freedom, the most wonderful freedom where our choices will only be good. We will have no inclination whatsoever to do anything wicked or evil.

Again, last week we focused on the second column there on man's free will in the state of sin. In this condition, we find man in total depravity, total meaning wholeness, not degree, and total inability. Yet it does not say man has lost his free will. Man still has a free will and at some level can discern the difference between good and evil, yet lacks the ability to choose rightly. He will freely choose what is contrary to God.

R.C. Sproul concluded that fallen man is still free to choose what he desires, but because his desires are only wicked, he lacks the moral ability to come to Christ. As long as he remains in the flesh, unregenerate, he will never choose Christ. He cannot choose Christ precisely because he cannot act against his own will. He has no desire for Christ.

He cannot choose what he does not desire. So we left off last week with man in a sad and hopeless state, in bondage to sin. In God's perfect wisdom, though, He established the covenant of grace wherein Christ was sent to take on human nature, to be born of a woman, to be born under the law, and to live a perfect life. We covered this in our previous chapter of Christ the Mediator where we confessed that Christ accomplished the redemption of all those chosen by the Father. Through Christ living a perfect life, being the propitiation for our sins, dying on the cross, rising on the third day, Christ is our mediator and surety.

Christ gives us a way to be freed from the bondage of sin. This leads us to our paragraph today. When God converts the sinner and translates him into the state of grace, he freeth him from his natural bondage under sin, and by his grace alone enables him freely to will and to do that which is spiritually good, yet so as that by reason of his remaining corruptions he does not perfectly nor only will that which is good but also doth will that which is evil. Our paragraph opens with three actions taken by God on our behalf. He does them because we can't.

We are in a state of sin. We are in bondage to sin. We will only choose those things contrary to God. I think all three of these actions are familiar to us, but I will go through them one by one just to be clear. God converts a sinner.

We should all know what it means here to convert a sinner. First of all, it's not what you do. You are completely unable to come to God. We read in Jesus' words from the Gospel of John, in John 6 65. And he said, therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me except it were given unto him of my father.

You must be born again. As Jesus told Nicodemus in John 3, 3, Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, accept a man be born again. He cannot see the kingdom of God." We hear also God's words through the prophet Ezekiel in 36 verses 26 and 27. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give you a heart of flesh and I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and ye shall keep my judgments and do them. God will regenerate you.

He will give you a new heart. But what comes first, faith or a new heart? R. C. Sproul comments on this.

Most professing evangelical Christians today believe that faith comes first and then rebirth. This presupposes that the unconverted person has the ability to incline himself or to choose to come to Jesus Christ. Augustine, Luther, Calvin, and Edward said that no one is able to do that. If we continue to think that in our fallen state we have the moral ability to come to Christ apart from the grace of God, we do so at our own peril. In John 665 that we just read, our Lord clearly says that no one is able to come to Him unless the ability to do so is given to him by the Father.

Secondly, God translates him into the state of grace. When God regenerates you, you move from the state of sin there in column two into the state of grace in the third column. You move from the condition where you are able to sin and not able to not sin, i.e. Only to sin, to the condition where you're able to sin and able to not sin. We read from Paul's letter to the Colossians where he's expressing thanks to God for all that he has done for his people in the Church of Colossae.

In chapter 1 verse 13, who hath delivered us from the power of darkness and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear son? As mentioned previously, Jonathan Edwards defines free will as the freedom to choose what we want, the ability to choose according to our own inclinations, our strongest inclinations or motives at any moment. In the state of sin, we still have free will, but we have no inclination to please God. We only choose to sin. Now in the state of grace as Christians, we're able to have some desire in our hearts to please God, yet still have a conflicting desire to please ourselves.

Whenever our desire to please God is greater than our desire to sin, we will choose to obey. However, if at any moment our desire to do what we want is greater than to do what Christ wants, we will sin. Finally, God frees him from his natural bondage under sin. Adam, as the representative head of mankind, disobeyed God's command, and thus sin entered the world and by sin death. All of us have been corrupted by the fall.

We are in bondage to sin. There's nothing we can do that is not tainted to some degree by sin. We read in Romans 5-12, wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. But God through his love frees us from that bondage of sin. And we read this in Romans 5, 8 through 11.

But God commendeth his love towards us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more than being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement. We read also in John 8.36, If the Son therefore shall make you free, you shall be free indeed." We're free from the bondage of sin.

And how does he do this? By his grace alone, by one of the key doctrinal pillars of the Reformation, solo grazia. We read in Ephesians 2.8, for by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God. What is the consequence of this transformation?

We read from the next part of our paragraph, and by His grace alone enables Him freely to will and to do that which is spiritually good. This comes straight from Paul's letter to the Philippians in 2.13, for it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do his good pleasure. Whether in the state of sin or in the state of grace, we have free will. We have the freedom to choose according to our strongest motive or inclination. However, by His grace, the regenerate are able to choose that which is spiritually good and well pleasing to God.

Looking back at Augustine's table, man in the state of grace is able to sin and able to not sin. He is able to sin. He's able to obey God and do that which is well pleasing to him. He's also able to do both, which leads us to the next part of our paragraph. It's so that as 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.

We have here a conflict, a battle within us between the flesh and the Spirit. Paul describes this in his letter to the Galatians in 517, for the flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh and these are contrary to the one to the other so that you cannot do things that you would. And Paul describes in more detail the laments he experiences because of this conflict of natures in Romans 7 verses 14 through 25. For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. For that which I do, I allow not.

For what I would, that do I not. But what I hate, that do I. If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing.

For to will is present with me. But how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not, but the evil which I would not that I do. Now if I do that I would not, It is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find in a law that when I would do good, evil is present with me.

For I delight in the law of God after the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord so then with the mind I myself serve the law of God but with the flesh the law of sin." So we have the freedom, the ability to choose according to our own inclinations. Our strongest inclinations are motives at a particular moment.

Whenever our desire to please God is greater than our desire to sin, we choose to obey. However, if our desire to do what we want is greater than to do what Christ wants. We will sin. I'd like to share an excerpt from R.C. Sproul's commentary on this.

What does that say for our sanctification? Is there any way we can fool ourselves? This is important for our realization of how we function as sinners, having conflicting desires in our soul. We want to grow in grace. We want to please God.

We want to obey Christ. And yet we still have desires for self-fulfillment that are sinful. We are told in the New Testament to feed the new man and to starve the old man, to put the old man to death, to seek the renewal of the new man, the strengthening of the inward man. What can we do to strengthen our sanctification? The level of our desire to obey Christ has to increase, and the level of our desire for the things of this world has to diminish.

Because we are always going to follow our strongest inclinations or desires, the only way to grow in grace is to feed and strengthen our positive desires for God and to starve our negative desires. So how does a new man live? How should we live? Paul tells the saints at Ephesus how to live as the children of light in Ephesians 4, 1-2. I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you That ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you are called with all lowliness and meekness with long suffering forbearing one another in love There are some qualities we can review and look at for ourselves He continues in verses 26 through 32.

Be angry and sin not, let not the sun go down upon your wrath. Neither give place to the devil. Let him that stole, steal no more, but rather let him labor, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. And grieve not the Holy Spirit, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.

Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice, and be kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you." That's a long list of things we can be doing. What else can we do to feed the inner man, to starve the sin nature in our bodies, the old man? We can start by reading, spending more time in the Word of God, reading your Bibles. Reading our Bibles gives us a better understanding of righteousness and of evil. It gives us an understanding that certain behaviors or choices are perfectly acceptable in our culture, but are totally unacceptable to God.

R. C. Sproul comments, the Word of God is what we call a means of grace. When we spend time in the Bible, something happens to the inward man. Our mind gets changed.

We start to think differently. We approach decisions in a different way, all because our minds are saturated with the truth of God. What other ideas? You can be in church. You're here today.

In church you will hear the word of God preached and explained. You will grow in your relationship with God through worshiping Him regularly. You will develop relationships with other believers who can encourage you, who can hold you accountable, who can help you in times of need. You can be in prayer. You'll find that regular private prayer, the more you do, the sweeter and more precious it becomes.

In corporate prayer, like our Wednesday night's prayer gatherings, we grow in our relationship with the body of Christ, lifting up each other's needs and requests, sharing praises, and just drawing closer to one another. As R.C. Sproul puts it, the whole Christian battle is a battle of the will. It is a battle to overcome a will that by nature is bent in the wrong direction. Remember that we are not alone in this battle.

Remember God calls us to be strong and courageous, just as he commanded Joshua after Moses' death. Remember that God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline. Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Amen.