In Eric Bechler's sermon on 'Of Free Will' from the second London Baptist confession, the focus is on the state of free will as described in chapter 9, paragraph 3. The sermon discusses Augustine's categorization of man's ability to sin in various states: innocency, sin, grace, and glory. After the fall, man is in a state where he can sin but cannot refrain from sinning. Questions arise about why the world isn't worse despite human sinfulness and the connection to doctrines like total depravity and inability. It's explained that God's common grace restrains evil, allowing societal structures to function. Common grace differs from saving grace, which is necessary for salvation. Total depravity means all parts of man are corrupted, affecting his ability to will spiritual good. Despite this, man's will is not coerced and aligns with God's sovereignty. Salvation requires divine intervention because man's desires are inherently wicked, and he cannot choose Christ without God's grace. The sermon emphasizes humility, reliance on Christ's work, and the transformative power of God's love and mercy.

A reading today from the second London Baptist confession comes from chapter 9 of free will. Today is paragraph 3. Man by his fall into a state of sin hath wholly lost all ability of will to any spiritual good accompanying salvation. So as a natural man being altogether averse from that good and dead in sin is not able by his own strength to convert himself or to prepare himself thereunto. I don't get to use a whiteboard much and my writing is not great and it still may be too small for you to read but we'll see how it goes.

We continue in our review of chapter 9 of free will. Last week we discussed man's free will in the state of innocency. This was the first of four categories laid out by Augustine of Hippo. He describes man's ability to sin or not in the following states. And you can see in the table here, man before the fall, the state of innocency, able to sin, able to not sin.

Natural man after the fall, state of sin, we're able to sin, you're not able to not sin. Regenerate man, state of grace, able to sin, able to not sin, and in glorified man, state of glory, able to not sin and not able to sin. Today we're going to focus on that second column, natural man after the fall, state of sin. Augustine argued that man in the state is both able to sin and not able to not sin. Basically all he can do is sin.

And this raises a couple of questions. First, if all we can do is sin, how come the world isn't way worse than it is? We have groups of people all over the world gathered into countries, having borders, governments, rules, punishments, hospitals, some level of welfare and education, et cetera. If we're so bad, why are we not in anarchy or already dead? Second, how is this connected to the doctrines of total depravity and total inability?

And third, why can't we just decide to be Christians just through our will have faith in Christ? We just need to confess with our mouths and believe in our hearts, right? No problem there. It seems very straightforward. Let's remember what I said last week about man's free will.

The will is determined by the condition of the heart. Whatever is the strongest motive at that moment is your will. It can change with time and with circumstances, but it is not coerced. If at any particular moment we prefer to sin, we sin. Our will is determined again by the strongest motive of our heart at that moment.

And importantly, it does not conflict or override God's sovereignty it is within his sovereignty. So let's look at the first question if we're so bad we can only sin Why aren't we in total anarchy? Looking online, gotquestions.com explains if God did not restrain the evil that resides in the hearts of all men, hearts which are deceitful and desperately wicked from Jeremiah 17, humanity would have destroyed itself centuries ago. But because he works through common grace given to all men, God's sovereign plan for history is not thwarted by their evil hearts. In the doctrine of common grace we see God's purposes stand.

We see his people blessed and his glory manifest, magnified. The necessity of God's restraining the hearts of the unredeemed becomes clear when we understand the biblical doctrine of total depravity. Simply put, God gives common grace to people. There is common grace and there is special or saving grace. Saving grace is what we normally think of when we talk about God's grace.

When God pours out His grace on us, He regenerates our hearts. He gives us faith in Christ. He justifies us. He forgives our sins. He saves us and he gives us eternal life.

But common grace is different. It is by itself insufficient to bring men and women to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. Using the formula adopted by the Christian Reformed churches in 1924, common grace means three things. First, God has a sort of general benevolence toward humanity that is not saving. From Psalm 145, 9, the Lord is good to all.

He has compassion on all he has made. We see that Jesus even said God causes his son to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. Matthew 5 45. Second, God providentially restrains evil. This includes intervening so that evil is restrained such as in the case of David and Nabal in Samuel, 1st Samuel 25.

Abigail, Nabal's wife, pleaded with David to not seek vengeance for the mistreatment of his messengers. And David acknowledged, as surely as the Lord, the God of Israel lives, who has kept me from harming you. 1st Samuel 25 34. This also includes the removal of his restraint giving them over to the sinful desires of their hearts. Romans 1 28.

He furthermore can harden the hearts of people and nations. We find examples with Pharaoh in Exodus 4, the inhabitants of Canaan in Joshua 11, and Israel itself in Isaiah 63. And third, God, without renewing the heart, exercises such influence that both the saved and the unsaved man are enabled to do civic good, to perform good deeds towards each other. This brings us to the second question of how is this tied to total depravity and inability? First, what is total depravity?

Total depravity means, it doesn't mean that we are all as depraved and wicked as theoretically possible. Rather, it teaches that as the result of the fall, every part of man, his body, his mind, his will, his emotions, every part of him has been corrupted. It's like smoke permeating through a room. There is no part of us that has not been corrupted such that all our righteous acts are like filthy rags before a holy God. Isaiah 64 6.

And this offends our current culture. We live in a society that promotes self-esteem, self-worth, self-importance and an idea that there is good in all of us. You might be a nice person and be doing great things for your community or even your nation, but the reality is fallen humanity is spiritually dead and not capable of performing any works that have merit in the eyes of God. And this brings us to the doctrine of total inability. Sam Waldron describes this as man's inability to will anything spiritually good.

Paul reminds us in Romans 8, 7, and 8, The mind set on the flesh is hostile to God and that those in the flesh cannot please God. And this offers the answer to my third question, why can't we just decide to be Christians, just through our own will to have faith in Christ. Dr. Sproul explains 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, and he cannot choose what he does not desire. His fall is great. It is so great that the only effectual, that only the effectual grace of God working in his heart can bring him to faith. Paul tells us, for I know that in me, that is in my flesh, nothing good dwells, for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find.

Romans 7, 18. And Jesus himself tells us, you search the scriptures yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life. In John 5, 39 and 40. And he also tells us that no one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him. John 6 44.

Because of man's fallen state, tainted by sin in all parts of his being and an inability to come to God of his own free will, there must be an action outside of man necessary to bring him to God. And less than until we are born of the Spirit, we continue to be of the world. God himself must act in order for anyone to be saved. It is only through his grace and mercy that he grants us a new heart through the power of his Holy Spirit and grants us faith in his son, Jesus Christ. The reality of our depravity, the depth of our sin, and inability to do anything about it should not lead us to despair, but rather humble us.

We should stop trying to earn our way to God, lay down our burdens, confess our weaknesses, and seek the throne of grace with confidence, not because of any strength we might possess, but because God is good. Our hope is not in our own strength, It is not in our own abilities but in the furnished work of Christ and Christ alone. Let Paul's words to the church in Ephesus encourage us in Ephesians 2, 4, and 5. God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which He loved us even when we were dead in our trespasses made us alive together with Christ. It is God who loves us, loves us more than we'll ever know or understand that this makes us alive in Christ.

And I pray that we would never forget this and never forget what He has done. Amen. You you You Thank you.