The Impact of “Good Never To Be Born…”
Today’s sermon is one of those times when the nemeses of ability and understanding are the bane of a preacher’s diligent desire to exposit scripture. Take just a moment to digest that sentence before I continue. The scriptures tell us to be careful about what we say and to use wisdom when we say it. The warning is that the words we manage are words of life, the souls we affect are eternally destined, and the way we present the word will either commend or condemn us.
Before beginning our study of the Second London Baptist Confession of Faith, I was aware of its subject matter and that the first few chapters quickly expose the depth of understanding of God and His Holy Word. Our natural minds are unequipped to handle concepts that oppose our predispositions about God. Our natural opposition to truth never shines as brightly as when we begin discussion of God’s eternal decrees and we face the absolute sovereignty of God. The Confession does not obfuscate by mincing words. The third chapter, Of God’s Decrees, begins boldly with “God hath decreed in Himself, from all eternity, by the most wise and holy counsel of His own will, freely and unchangeably, all things whatsoever comes to pass…” This phrase sets the tone for acquiescence to God’s decision processes for every action He takes. It in fact states what the Bible so often affirms, namely nothing is done lately. God is eternal and thus every action in the present is an action determined in eternity. It also establishes the rhetorical answer to Paul’s question in Romans 9:20, “Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?”
If we say the salvation of any person rests only in a decision of man’s will, we reverse the doctrine of sovereignty. The will is then sovereign and leaves God’s means of bringing glory to himself to a decision of man. Imagine a world that turns on human decisions rather than “All things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” Will God leave the purpose of the creation in the hands of the created? Paul’s potter and clay example in Romans 9 exposes the absurdity of this conclusion. Paul’s “Nay but, O man,” serves as that doubly emphasized rhetorical question bolstered by an assertive rhetorical answer.
Our witnessing is weak and helpless and fails miserably if we believe we coldly and flatly present the gospel and there it lays before the open uninfluenced mind to accept or reject by free will. Be sure not to pray for that person, lest God violate him by influencing his corrupt mind, his blinded eyes, his dullness of hearing, his desperately wicked heart, and his death in trespasses and sin. Free will? In what corner does it hide waiting with a shocking, “Yes!” to God? There is not one scripture that remotely suggests the possibility.
Is this what the natural human heart routinely surrenders to God? No, the sin and corruption of our being do not like God’s sovereignty over all affairs. It resists that the counsel halls of eternity should be determinative. Thus, the person who cries “free will!” amid this breaks the first commandment as soon as he hears the good news. “No other gods before me,” says God. “Yes, except me.”
Pastor V. Mark Smith