Free Will? The Will to Win in the Fight of Faith. We can't choose? Mike Black

I don't think you can choose to believe. I think it's even a little bit dangerous to try to choose to believe something. I don't know why you're trying to persuade me. Because your own Bible says... Because your own Bible says... It's a gift. That it's a gift, it's the work of the Spirit, start to finish. It's a removing of a heart of stone and replacing with a heart of flesh. That is not something you can do for me. Yeah. So if it's true, we're both depending on the Spirit to show up. I'm literally in the grave next to Lazarus. Yeah. Waiting for the hearing. Waiting to hear my name. Yeah. And I'm going to lay in there dead till he shows up.

Yeah. Somebody asked me near the beginning of this year of Living Christianly, "Well, what would it take for you to believe? What would it take for you to believe in God?" That's easy. God would have to give me faith. Yeah. Because I can't reach out and grab it. What it would take is a miracle. It would take a miracle. Yeah. It would end... Like, what does it take for a dead man to come out of, to come six feet out of the ground? It takes someone to dig him out, to open the box and revive him. Breathe into his nostrils. And the Bible makes it very clear that there is nothing less spiritually than that going on.

Yeah. In salvation. Absolute new life. New life from death to life. Yeah. And that's what would be required. Yeah. And I... And I'm open to it. I mean, I'm literally, I'm literally in the grave waiting to hear my name. Yeah. Anytime. Anytime. If that's the thing. Because if there is going to be a work of the Spirit going on, I want in. And I won't be able to resist it. And I can't call out for it. I cannot coax him over. Yeah. Either my name is written in the book of life or it's not. Yeah. And I mean, so if we're going to really get into the language, the hard language of the Bible, provocative as it may be, like, I'm had, I got to a point, I don't like binary ideas or statements, but there's a few that feel emotionally like they are.

Yeah. Although maybe they're not. But there's a point where I said, you know what, maybe, maybe God made me and fashioned me for destruction. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Vessel for... Because he says he does that. Jacob, I have loved, Esau, I've hated for the good pleasure of his own will. That's right. And he receives no counsel but his own about that. Yeah. And so there's nothing I'm going to be able to do to change his mind about it. So maybe it's all real and I'm just not chosen.

And that's a thing I'm going to have to just, that's just a thing I'm going to have to reckon with. Yeah. And that's not a thing I can really do anything about. Right. And it would seem unnatural and almost, it would seem shady to try to do something about it in a way, to try to strong-arm a faith into... So I'm just going to try to make the best of this.

So those were excerpts from an interview between Matthew Cook and Derek Webb. And Derek Webb, some of you might know, was the former lead singer of the contemporary Christian band Cadman's Call. And the two of them were talking about their life post-Christianity and deconstructing from their reformed Christian faith.

And it was really sad. My heart just ached for them as I watched this hour-plus interview and seeing two people who had left the faith and comforting one another in that mutual decision that they had made. So although it was very sad to hear them talking this way and just to kind of see them in that situation, I could somewhat relate. Not that I had ever lost my faith. It's just that I had believed some of the same theology that they did, and namely the idea that we don't have free will. And this belief led me personally into apathy towards certain sins that I was enslaved to, believing that I just couldn't change. Believing that God would understand after all he made me and I'm a man and I have certain urges and, you know, certain things happen.

And so he made me like I am so he'll understand. And now I know you can kind of get what I'm hinting at here with this theology, which strain that might be, but as it was said earlier with the discussions in Sunday school and afterward, a lot of them, to be fair, they do teach holiness. It's just that the outworking for me, my personal choice in believing some of these things led me down a different path. So I do take responsibility for it, but I hated myself for some of the things that I did in the past. I even sometimes thought maybe I might be possessed by some sort of evil spirit because I couldn't stop doing the things I hated.

So I hated myself for it, but I seemed to just be enslaved, like I'm never going to overcome these things. So I would just tell myself that it would be okay after all. You know, I prayed the sinner's prayer and once saved, always saved. So I did kind of take some comfort from that. But it wasn't until, so that's just my personal experience, but it wasn't until I came to believe that Jesus meant every word that he said that I realized I had to change and that I desperately needed his help to do it.

So I realized that we've been given free will and we need to choose the way of life. That's what we've been talking all about in Sunday school, that there is a way of life that has been presented. It's not just this get out of hell free card and that we do have a choice in that and that we need to strive to enter the kingdom at all costs.

So today I'm going to be talking about that we need to fight the good fight of faith and lay hold on eternal life. Like we saw in Ezekiel, there really is a need to fight the good fight. If you'd believe that you can't lose your salvation, even though you might try to live a holy life like we talked about earlier, what it came down to to me is that, hey, I'm enslaved, I seem to be enslaved to certain things that I'm never going to have victory over, so it'll all be okay. But then when I came to realize that there really is a fight of faith that we need to be engaged in, and as we saw in Ezekiel, the whole point of this new covenant, this new way that was going to be coming was to cleanse us from all of our uncleanness, to give us a new heart like we talked about, and to put his spirit within us so that we could walk in his requirements and keep his judgment.

So it's for obedience. We've talked about that. So I realized, okay, there is a necessity for obedience, so it must be possible to overcome somehow. You know, I must have a choice. This way that I thought I'm never going to be able to overcome, it can't be true. I must be able to do something about it. So today's message I've titled, The Will to Win in the Fight of Faith. And so I want to look at free will and how it works in the fight against sin. And I believe that there is great power in realizing that we have been given a choice in how we live our lives and how our lives end up, and that we are not slaves of fate or from just some predestined determination by God arbitrarily.

Of course, he foreknows all things, but it's not like I'm definitely going to end up this or that. So we have a choice. And we've heard sayings about the ideas of fate and that we can't change our destiny out there. Like I was just born this way.

Or some people even joke about saying, "Oh, the devil made me do it." You can't teach an old dog new tricks. It seems impossible to ever gain victory over X, Y, or Z. And there's even quotes like this one from Charles W. Chestnut. He said, "We are all puppets in the hands of fate and seldom see the strings." So the idea that we're just, you know, puppets on a string, you know, Pinocchio, just, but we want to become real.

And also from Eleanor Roosevelt. So after all, we are but puppets, creatures of our fate, not commanding it, but being molded by it. So I would like to push back against these ideas and keep them from gaining tractions in our lives as we strive against sin.

And so the first thing I want to look at is the fact that we do have a choice. And I think we all of us in here do believe that. And of course, if you want a really good discussion on free will and predestination, David's already done that, so I'm not going to redo that all over again today.

And I do, however, want this to be grounded in scripture. So I'm going to look at some key passages on choice.

The first one comes from Deuteronomy 11:26-28. And I did already print it out here on my paper, but it's from Brenton's, and I know everybody else here has the orthodox, so I'm just going to turn to it real quick.

So 26-28, it says, "Behold, I set before you today a blessing and a curse. The blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, I command you today. And the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but go astray from the way I command you today, to go after different gods you have not known."

So the idea there, it's like two things. A choice has been set before you, two ways. And it gives you an if then. If obedience, then a blessing, and if not, then a curse. And so the words from the Brenton's that I had was the idea that we need to hearken to the commands of the Lord our God, which just simply means to attend to, to regard, to give heed to what is uttered, or it could mean to observe or obey. So it's not just hearing what God's saying, but actually putting it into practice. So the next one would come from Deuteronomy 15 or 30:15-20. I think most of us are very familiar with that one, but Moses is putting it before them again.

He says, "See, I set before you today life and death, good and evil. If you hear the commandments of the Lord your God, I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his ordinances and judgments, then you shall live and multiply. And the Lord your God will bless you in the land you go to inherit. But if your heart turns away and you do not hear, but go astray and worship different gods and serve them, I announce to you today, you shall surely perish. You shall not prolong your days in the land the Lord your God is giving you, into which you are crossing over the Jordan to inherit."

And here's the part we're most familiar with. "I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you. I set before you life and death, blessing and a curse. Therefore, choose life that both you and your seed may live and love the Lord your God, obey his voice and cling to him. For this is your life and the length of your days, that you may dwell in the land the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them." So the idea, again, of there are two things set before us, life and death, blessing and a curse, and there was a choice there.

So that's what Moses was putting before the people of God, Israelites. You have a choice. Joshua continued in that, and Joshua 24:14-15, and then I'll skip down to 21-22. I'm just going to read it from what I already printed out. It says, "And now fear the Lord and serve him in righteousness and justice, and remove the strange gods which our father served beyond the river in Egypt, and serve the Lord. But if it seem not good to you to serve the Lord, choose to yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods of your fathers that were on the other side of the river or the gods of the Amorites among whom you dwell in their land.

But I and my house will serve the Lord, for he is holy." And then down to 21, "And the people said to Joshua, 'Nay, but we will serve the Lord.' And Joshua said to the people, 'You are witnesses against yourself that you have chosen the Lord to serve him.'" And again in Isaiah, so this is a steady string throughout the Old Testament that there was a choice that could be made. It says Isaiah 1:18-20, "And come, let us reason together, says the Lord. And though your sins be as crimson, I will make them white as snow, and though they be as scarlet, I will make them white as wool." We all know that one and being tied to the blood of Christ.

But in verse 19, it goes on to say, "And if you be willing and hearken to me, you shall eat the good of the land. But if you be not willing nor hearken to me, a sword shall devour you, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken this." So this if then, based on a choice, is all throughout the Old Testament. There's whole chapters dedicated to it. If you read Deuteronomy 28, that's another if then, blessing for obedience, a curse for disobedience. Leviticus chapter 26, the same type of thing.

So it's definitely there in the Old Testament. So if the theologians are right, something might have changed in the New Testament. But I just want to give some quotes from the early Christians as well, and to show that this is certainly in line with the historic faith that was once for all delivered to and guarded by the saints of old.

And what I had originally thought about doing was I'll just pick out one quote from each of them, just a real short quote, and just give one short quote from each of them. And I realized, man, we'd be here forever. So I, but I did compile a few of them. So Justin Martyr said, "In the beginning, he made the human race with the power of thought and of choosing the truth and doing right, so that all men are without excuse before God." So the idea that we're given free will is so that we'll be without excuse before God, because without free will, then technically it's all coming from him. So it's like, look, it's not me.

Melito said, "There is therefore nothing to hinder you from changing your evil manner of life because you are a free man." Theopolis, "If on the other hand, he would turn to the things of death, disobeying God, he would himself be the cause of death to himself, for God made man free and with power of himself."

So before, I might have believed that, you know, there's things that I might never overcome in my life, but that's, and to think that I have any power of my own, like we talked about earlier, that's denying the power of the cross or that Jesus' blood covered all that, the idea that I can actually do something towards that. So Irenaeus, who's only one human link removed from the apostle John, said, "Those who believe, do his will agreeably to their own choice.

Likewise, agreeably to their own choice, the disobedient do not consent to his doctrine. It is clear that his father," referring to the father of Christ, "has made everyone in a like condition, each person having a choice of his own and a free understanding," because he's fighting back against the heretics that would believe otherwise.

Clement of Alexandria, "Each one of us who sins with his own free will chooses punishment, so the blame lies with him who chooses. God is without blame." So you'll see through these quotes certain teachings that it goes back to this idea that we can't blame God for how we live and how we end up. So that's one thing.

Tertullian, "I find then that man was constituted free by God. He was master of his own will and power, for a law would not be imposed upon one who did not have it in his power to render that obedience which is due to law.

Nor again would the penalty of death be threatened against sin if a contempt of the law were impossible to man in the liberty of his will. Man is free with a will either for obedience or resistance." So in other words, these laws that exist not just in the Old Testament, but in the New Testament, they wouldn't be there if we didn't have that power.

Bartosains, "On the contrary, men are not governed like plants and animals. In matters pertaining to their minds, they do whatever they choose, as those who are free endowed with power and in the likeness of God." So part of being in the likeness of God, they're saying, is we have free will. God has a will, and we also have a will of our own.

Now, I had a lot more written down here, but in the interest of time, I'm just going to go on. So it's the idea that God is without blame because we have our own free will. Another thing is that we're created in the likeness of God. He has a will, and so do we.

And one that Origen points to is about the church has a teaching concerning the just judgment of God. So his judgment on us, him judging us, couldn't be just if he made us that way or he caused us to live a certain way or made us a vessel of destruction regardless of our own choices.

His judgment wouldn't be just. So those are a few things that they brought out there. So the idea that I just want to stress is that we definitely have free will. And so we talked about God has a will. Well, what is his will concerning our outcome? In 2 Peter 3:9, it says, "The Lord is not slack concerning his promise as some would count slackness, but is long-suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." So the idea of like, well, why is it still here we are 2,000 years later and Jesus hasn't returned yet? What's with the delay? Well, his desire is that not any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

So he's giving people opportunity to come to repentance, but he does ultimately know the number of those who will be saved. In 1 Timothy 2:3-4, Paul confirms this by saying, "For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God, our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth."

So we talked about Chuck Pike earlier in Sunday school and some of his lessons and things he's brought out from the Old Testament. One thing that I got from him was he did a message on the character of God and how it's revealed in a really good chapter that he spoke on was Ezekiel chapter 18. It really just reveals the character of God towards us as it concerns predestination and do we have a free will and all that. And so I'm just going to highlight a few things from there. It says, and this is the Lord speaking, so we need to think about this. "The righteousness of a righteous man shall be upon himself, and the lawlessness of a lawless man shall be upon himself."

And on down he says, "Do I ever will the death of a lawless man, says the Lord, since my will is for him to turn from the evil way and live?" He also goes on to say, "I shall judge you, O house of Israel, each one according to his way, says the Lord. Return and turn away from all your ungodliness, and it shall not be to you as a punishment for wrongdoing. Cast away from yourself all your ungodliness you commit against me and make a new heart and a new spirit for yourselves. Make it for yourselves. For why should you die, O house of Israel? For I do not will the death of the one who dies, says the Lord."

So I had to realize that these things that I'm struggling with and seem to always be battling against losing, that no, there is a way for victory. This isn't just something like, "Oh yeah, God knows I'm always going to struggle with it. It's going to be okay." No, that's not his desires for me to remain in that, because if I do, I will perish in that. And so one thing I found that really helps me as this ties into the idea of a battle against sin is that in the heat of the moment, whether it's somebody walking with really revealing clothes or whatever that happens to be in your life, to just remind yourself in the heat of the moment, "I have a choice."

Just like you said earlier in Sunday school, we do have a choice, and we need to remind ourselves of that, that we don't have to just be carried away by our bad habits. And one thing, another thing that I realized, not only that we have a choice, but it requires faith to be healed. I remember reading that the story about the, in David's commentary on Matthew, about the woman who with a flow of blood 12 years.

And when that flow started, also there was evidently this girl around the same time who was born who lay a dying and that they were going to be receiving a miracle on the same day that their lives were connected. But the idea that she had spent all of her living on physicians and was none the better, but even worse. And yet, despite that, dealing with this for 12 years, not better, but actually suffering many things from physicians, she had the faith that all she had to do is reach out there and touch the robe of Christ and that she would be healed. Just a, I guess it never hit me before that, these little short stories in the Bible that you just gloss over, that just a staggering faith that she had to have to be healed.

And I thought, well, how does that relate to the struggles that I've experienced in my life? Do I really have faith that I can be healed from this or that? You know, I've had issues with anger in the past. Do I really have faith that I can overcome those urges to have outbursts of anger or something like that? Do I really have faith in the converting power of Christ? So the faith aspect comes in. And then the third idea I would say is that we need to use our resources in this fight against sin. We have prayer and fasting, fasting being something that would give strength, add strength to our prayers, but just to be constantly asking for God's strength.

It's not just because I have a free will doesn't mean I'm in this alone or that I can do it all by myself. It's this synergy, this working together with God. So I realize I need grace. I need strength. As long as, like we said, as long as we're in the flesh, we're not going to be able to be 100% obedient, but we need strength from him.

And not only that, but scripture to remember the truth, remind ourselves that where it says we're not going to be tempted beyond what we're able, that doesn't mean we're automatically going to have victory, which is what I've heard taught before, that basically that means, see, you will gain the victory, but that we are able, we do have a choice, and that we are not tested by God.

That comes out very clearly in James, that we're drawn away by our own desires. Maybe there are thoughts implanted in us by evil spiritual forces that are out there, but it's not God allows us to be tested, but he's not going to tempt us to do evil.

And that there really is a fight that we must endure to the end with. That is a reality. It's not just we can, oh, I've said the sinner's prayer, so I'm on the other side of the river, but I don't need to take another step towards the promised land. No, there is a journey and a fight to be endured. And then another thing, another resource we have is discipleship and accountability. I know like on the men's side, we have that and we take advantage of sharpening each other and being honest with each other in our struggles so that we can gain victory in that. And that is very helpful and maybe something that somehow the ladies could be doing too if they're not already.

And so that has proved very useful. And that goes right along with the idea of what we're talking about in communion, that we are a body. We don't go it alone. We're traveling through this wilderness together. And the idea that we do need that blood of Christ that we receive in communion that nourishes all the parts of the body. We do need power from above, but that we operate in this fight together. We're not going it alone.

So one of the four things is, because what I started to think when I first gave my heart totally to Christ about almost four years ago and realized that obedience was necessary, I would sometimes get scared if I would slip and fall, like, well, then now am I in jeopardy or what? So what happens? What if we do fall?

Well, we definitely are. No one's going to be 100% free from it. We've established that. But one thing that I've found is just to be honest with myself that it is my fault. And so I'm going to read from the wisdom of Sirach because there's so many good nuggets of wisdom in that, whether somebody would want to believe that it's inspired or not. There's a lot of good wisdom in there. And so wisdom of Sirach, chapter 15, I'm going to read 11 through 20, which gives the idea of us just taking ownership for our sin and not blaming it on some external force, especially the Lord. It says, "Do not say, 'I fell away because of the Lord,' for he will not do what he hates.

Do not say, 'It was he who led me astray,' for he has no need of a sinful man. The Lord hates all abominations, and they are not loved by those who fear him. He himself created man in the beginning and left him in the counsel of his will.

If you will, you will keep the commandments and faithfully do his good pleasure. He has set before you fire and water." Now, what's that make you think of? Hell versus baptism, which is the way out to life. So if you will stretch forth your hand, you can reach out for one of those. And it goes on to say, "Life and death are before mankind," which is exactly what we saw in Deuteronomy and elsewhere. "And whichever he chooses, it will be given to him. For great is the wisdom of the Lord, and he is mighty in power and sees all things.

His eyes are upon those who fear him, and he himself knows every deed of man. He has commanded no one to be ungodly, and he has given no one license to sin."

So just being real with ourselves about where our sin comes from and its source, our sin is our own fault. Another thing is just to pray if we do slip, when we do fall, is to immediately pray for forgiveness and confess our faults.

In 1 John 1, verses 8 through 10, it says, "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. But here it is, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us." So we will slip and fall here and there as we do strive towards perfection, but we need to be diligent to confess our sins. Now, is that just something between me and God? I mean, yes, there is that part, but also in James, it says to confess our faults one to another.

And so just about living as a body with no secrets.

And then to immediately repent because we don't want to stay down if when we fall, we got to do something to immediately turn it around. But just because the repentance is there, I wanted to read another thing from Sirach, chapter 21, which is the idea not to get comfortable with repentance. So just because it is there when we fall, we don't want to get comfortable in that. And it says, "My son, have you sinned? No longer add to them, but pray about your former sins.

Flee from sin as you would from the presence of a snake, for if you approach it, it will bite you. Its teeth are like lion's teeth, destroying the souls of men. All lawlessness is like a two-edged sword, for there is no healing from its wounds."

So just this idea that sin is out to get you. We shouldn't become complacent at all or get comfortable with repentance because it's there just waiting. The devil's prowling like a roaring lion, just looking for someone to devour.

So I like what Patrick has often said, that the idea that Satan is outside your door and he's doing push-ups. So don't get complacent and just always be ready and to never stay down. The devil wants you to believe that you'll never overcome in certain areas.

But what does Jesus say? He gives all these promises and revelation about to him who overcomes, there will be many blessings. So just to never stay down. And no matter what, as long as it is called today and you still have life, just get back up.

And so we have, I just want to stress that we have been given the powerful gift of free will, and let's use it as it was intended to lay hold of eternal life and to realize in the heat of whatever situation we're in, we do have a choice. And if we are struggling in an area that is hard to overcome, we need to have the faith to be healed and don't doubt the power of Christ. Now, I'm aware that there might be certain situations where somebody deals with a chemical imbalance or something like that, but just have faith that you'll be healed, faith that you'll be able to find a solution if it's something like that.

But I'm just talking in general about sins that we normally were dragged away with. And also, although there is a personal aspect of salvation and each will stand before Christ to give account for his own actions and will be judged by his own works, so even though we do believe that, we are a body intended to live out the faith together and we're traveling through this wilderness together. So we need to strengthen one another and be edifying each other.

And lastly, that we do reap what we sow. God is not mocked. What a man sows, so shall he reap. And so we need to be flooding ourselves and inundating ourselves always with the truth from God's word. Just be filling our minds with what is holy and righteous and just pray without ceasing. We need to be, if we really are men and women of faith, we will believe in the power of prayer, that if we're praying for strength and if we're praying for more of the Holy Spirit, that he will give that to us to enable us to live a victorious life.

And of course, if I could leave you with one thing, this quote's attributed to Winston Churchill. I mean, I've read the actual speech, and so I know it's just attributed to him, but I still like it anyway. He said, "Never, never, never give up."

And so just remember that it ain't over until the trumpet sounds.