In Eric Bechler's sermon on the second London Baptist Confession, chapter 9, paragraph 4, he examines the concept of free will in the context of God's grace. He explores the conditions of man's ability to sin, as outlined by Augustine Navippo: before the fall, after the fall, regenerate man, and glorified man. Bechler emphasizes that while free will does not conflict with God's sovereignty, it is influenced by our strongest motives. In the state of sin, man has no inclination to please God, but in the state of grace, he is freed from sin's bondage and can choose spiritual good. The role of Christ in redemption is central, as He provides a way for believers to be freed from sin. The sermon also discusses sanctification, encouraging believers to feed their positive desires for God and starve negative ones. This growth is facilitated through Scripture, prayer, and community within the church. Christ is highlighted as the sole source of hope and strength for believers.

Our reading today from the second London Baptist Confession comes again from chapter 9 of free will, paragraph 4. When God converts a sinner and translates him into the state of grace, He frees 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 is that by reason of his remaining corruptions, he doth not perfectly nor only will that which is good, but does also will that which is evil. We continue in our review of chapter 9 of free will. So far we've discussed man's free will in the state of innocency and the state of sin.

As presented in Augustine Navippo's table describing man's ability to sin or not in four different conditions, I forgot my whiteboard today, but we had four conditions, man before the fall, natural man after the fall, regenerate man, state of grace, and glorified man. In the man before the fall, we're able to sin and able not to sin. In the natural man, we're able to sin and not able to not sin. That's what we did last week. Today, we're looking at the regenerate man, able to sin and able to not sin.

And then next week, we'll look at glorified man, which is able to not sin and not able to sin. So once again we free will is the faculty or ability to choose one thing over another. Through freedom or natural ability our will is determined by the strongest motive of our heart at any particular moment. It can change with time, can change with circumstances. So we have the question, does our free will conflict with God's sovereignty?

We discussed before, no it doesn't. Rather, God and His sovereignty gives us choices and God does not coerce us or force us to act in any particular way. Again, two weeks ago we looked at man in the state of innocency before the fall. Adam had the freedom and the power to will and do that which was good and well pleasing to God. In fact Adam was sinless, he was righteous.

Yet because God furnished the will of man with that natural ability and power acting upon choice, Adam could choose to obey or to not obey without any coercion. And last week in man's state of sin, we see that 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, meaning every part of man is corrupted or tainted by sin, and meaning that he has no ability to choose Christ or to do what is pleasing to God, because there is no desire in him for Christ. Yet despite being in this condition, man is still free to choose what he desires.

Our topic today focuses on man in the state of grace, regenerate man, where man is able to sin and able to not sin. And If I had my chart here, you would notice in the state of innocency that you have the same description where man is able to sin and man is able to not sin. Although the phrases are the same, there is a difference between these two categories. We're not in the same situation. The difference here being that Adam was righteous up until the fall.

The regenerate, although having a new heart and having their sins forgiven and having been justified through faith in Christ still have a sin nature, a corruption. We left off last week with man in a sad and hopeless state and bondage to sin. And this week we have hope, hope in Christ who gives us a way to be freed from the bondage to sin. Christ in his great mercy and love, condescend in himself to take on flesh, to be born of a woman, to be born under the law and to live a perfect, sinless life. And then to suffer and die on the cross, paying the price due our sins.

And then rising on the third day victorious even over death. It is Christ who has accomplished this work of redemption for all those who for all those chosen by the Father before the foundations of the world were laid and it is the Holy Spirit who applies that redemption. Jesus told Nicodemus, verily, verily, I say unto thee, accept a man be born again. He cannot see the kingdom of God. John 3.3 and Ezekiel explains how this happens, and I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put within you and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh and I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules." Ezekiel 36 26 through 27.

Of course there is a controversy here. What comes first a new heart or faith in Christ? But if we can Remember that no one has the moral ability to come to Christ apart from the grace of God. The answer should be simple. God must do a work in our heart first, and then we can have faith in Christ.

When God regenerates you, you move from the state of sin into the state of grace. In the state of sin, we still have free will, but we have no inclination to please God. We only choose to sin. In fact, we're in bondage to sin, and there's nothing we can do that is not tainted to some degree by sin. Now in the state of grace, we have been freed from that bondage of sin.

We have been saved from the wrath to come. For by grace, you have been saved through faith. And this not your own doing, it is the gift of God, Ephesians 2, 8. It is by His grace alone. As Christians, we're now able to have some desire in our hearts to please God.

Although we still have a conflicting desire to please ourselves, whether in the state of sin or in the state of grace, we still have a 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. Paul tells us, for it is God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Philippians 2 13.

But there's a conflict, a battle within us between the flesh and the spirit. Paul describes this in Galatians 5 17. For the desires of the flesh are against the spirit and the desires of the spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things you want to do. We have the freedom, the ability to choose according to our own inclinations, our strongest inclinations or motives at a particular moment. Whenever our desires to please God is greater than our desire to sin, we will choose to obey.

However, if our desire to do what we want is greater than to do what Christ wants, we will sin. Dr. Sprola comments on this. What does this say for our sanctification? Is there any way that 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 starve the old man, to put the old man to death and 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 have 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 do we do this as Dr. Sproul says it, feed the new man and starve the old man.

Paul offers some suggestions to the Ephesians in chapter 4 in verses 1 & 2, walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love. In verse 28, Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. In verse 29, let no corrupting talk come out of your mouth but only such as is good for building up that it may give grace to those who hear. And in verse 31 through 32, let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another as God and Christ forgave you." This is a good start.

What else can we do? We spend more time in the Word of God. Reading our Bibles gives us an understanding that certain behaviors or choices are totally unacceptable to God, even if they are acceptable to our culture. Again, Dr. Sproul comments, the Word of God is what we call a means of grace.

We spend time in the Bible. When we spend time in the Bible, something happens to the inward man. Our minds get changed. We start to think differently, and we approach decisions in a different way, all because our minds are saturated with the truth of God. What else can we do?

You can be in church. In church, you will hear the word of God preached and explained. You'll 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, and who can help you in times of need. You can be in prayer, private prayer, prayer with your spouse, prayer with your family, and I hope that as you would do this more and more that you will be strengthened and that you would find it sweeter and more precious.

In corporate prayer like our Wednesday night prayer gatherings, we grow in our relationships with the body of Christ, lifting up each other's needs and requests, sharing praises and just drawing closer to one another. It's a big list. And sometimes it's just hard to do all of these things. We can't do it on our own. We can only do these things with the help of Christ.

It is in Him and in Him alone that our hope is found. Amen.