Church: Reformed Baptist Church of Franconia | Text: Mark 10:17-27 | Date: April 7, 2013 | Speaker: Fred Zaspel

He will turn with me in God’s Word to John chapter 5, the Gospel of John chapter 5. Some of you who have read older books might recall seeing in the beginning of the book—for example, at the beginning of, I think Bunyan has it at the beginning of Pilgrim’s Progress—a page titled “An Apology.” He’s going to apologize for his work. Now, we hear that with our understanding of what apology is. It sounds like he’s going to say he’s sorry for doing this, which of course is not what he means. An apology in the older understanding of the word meaning a defense or an explanation why this book, and so they give their defense or explanation of why the book.

And I want to do something like that this morning before we begin, beginning a series of messages this morning on the doctrines of grace, or as they are popularly known, the five points of Calvinism. A few things I think need to be said in that regard first before we begin.

Number one, it was suggested to us that we do this series here at the church. Some of the congregation came to us with a concern about this, that we, although collectively agreed to these doctrines already—this is not something I need to demonstrate to you in order for you to believe it. We already acknowledge these truths. It’s one of the distinctives of our church. At the same time, it would be wrong, and I think it’d be very unhealthy for the congregation, just to assume these truths and not have them articulated from time to time and to firm up our understanding of them. They are, after all, very important truths.

Now, one thing I want to say in that regard is that it’s been very commonly the case that when these doctrines are preached, part of what is heard is that if you don’t agree with these doctrines, you are not a Christian. I think probably some of the blame for that lies on us preachers and the way that we say it. We may get carried away with some of our rhetoric at times. I don’t know. I think there are other explanations for it as well. And we don’t want to say that. We gladly acknowledge that there are Christian brothers and sisters who disagree with us on these doctrines, and we intend very gladly to spend eternity in heaven with them.

Having said that, however, I don’t want to relegate these doctrines to some realm of unimportance, because that is not the case either. And I don’t want us to think that we are going to spend time on these doctrines just because they happen to be distinctives of our church. The thinking goes much deeper than that. And our conviction is that these doctrines—and I hope this will be plain to you through the series—that these doctrines are very important, not just to our church because we happen to have adopted them, but these are important to the very storyline of the Bible, the very message of the Bible, and the very meaning of the gospel itself.

Now when I say that, people are going to think, “Yes, see there, you think the people disagreeing are unsaved.” That’s not what I said. But they are very important to a right understanding of the gospel. And I’m not sure how to put that into a perspective for us. Maybe some other examples may help. For example, we rather freely acknowledge, around here at least, that we can have differences of understanding regarding the details of the end times. We call it eschatology. What’s going to happen in the end? And we agree on the big things. We agree that Jesus is coming, and we agree that sin is going to be put down, and we believe that the saints will reign with Him forever, and so on. But there are some details regarding the times and the timing of the second coming of Christ and whatnot, in which Christians have disagreed for years. And we gladly recognize that there are these differences. And of course, if you disagree with me on those details, you’re just mistaken. But you’re not a heretic.

There are other doctrines in the Bible that we, by the nature of the case, recognize—I don’t want to say that no doctrine is important. All doctrines are important. But we somehow intuitively recognize that other doctrines have more importance than just that. So for example, on one level, we gladly acknowledge that our Presbyterian brothers and sisters are, in fact, brothers and sisters in Christ. But our difference over the subjects of baptism is such that by the nature of the case now, it impinges on our understanding of the nature of the church itself. And so denominational differences become important. We recognize that they’re brothers and sisters, denominated one way or the other, but the doctrine is such that it necessarily leaves us with a separate understanding of the church. So it’s of a higher order, a different kind.

When it comes to these doctrines, we don’t want to say that these five points of Calvinism are the gospel. You will hear Calvinists saying that. I think it’s a bit of an overstatement. But I do think it is right to say what Charles Spurgeon said about it a century or more ago, that these five points are not the gospel, but they are the five bright lights that illumine the gospel for us. And I hope that you will see that that’s the case as we go along. And because of that, they are of immense importance. And I hope, as we’ll see as we go along, that they inform the very storyline of the Bible and provide for us some of the essential structure of the meaning of the message of Scripture itself. And so the gospel. Can we disagree and call another man a brother? Boy, I hope so. Shame on us if we can’t. But does that mean we relegate these to non-importance? No, it does not. And I hope that by the end of this series, you’ll be able to see how that is so and come to a closer appreciation of it.

Now, having said that, we have these five points. There is so much history behind this and the understanding. I’d love to take time for that. I’ve decided not to do it. Probably what I will do is in a future Sunday evening service or two or three or four, fill in some of the related discussion that goes into it to help our understanding of it. But what I want to do in this Sunday morning series is give one message to each of these five heads of doctrine: total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement or particular redemption, irresistible grace, and the perseverance of the saints. These are these five points that distinguish us. And as I keep saying, I hope you will see why they are so important.

How Can You Believe? Or The Doctrine Of Total Depravity

So this morning’s message: How can you believe? How can you believe? Or the doctrine of total depravity. And I take the title from verse 44. These are Jesus’ words: “How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another…” All right, let’s back up and we’ll begin our reading with verse 30.

In this chapter, beginning at verse 1, Jesus has healed a man who was paralyzed, probably a paraplegic, quadriplegic perhaps. He’s unable to help himself when there’s the stirring of the waters as he understands it—they will have healing properties. He’s not able to do it. No one helps him. And there he’s been for years, and he’s unable to heal himself or do anything to find healing. And Jesus, of course, singles him out and He heals him. He does this on the Sabbath. It creates quite a controversy whether or not it is right to do this kind of work on the Sabbath. And so the Jews are upset with Jesus.

And beginning in verse 19 then, Jesus begins to give an explanation or an exposition of His prerogatives as the Son of God. And this is the great passage in the whole of the Bible as to what it means when we say Jesus is the Son of God. What does that mean? Does God have a son? What’s the significance of that? That’s verses 19 through 29. And now, beginning in verse 30, we have Jesus listing for us His credentials for those who bear witness to Him as the Son of God and testifying to His unique authority. So that in the background, verse 30, Jesus says:

“I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will, but the will of Him who sent me. If I alone bear witness about myself, my testimony is not deemed true. There is another who bears witness about me, and I know that the testimony that he bears about me is true. You sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth. Not that the testimony that I receive is from man, but I say these things so that you may be saved. He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light. But the testimony that I have is greater than that of John. For the works that the Father has given me to accomplish, the very works that I am doing, bear witness about me that the Father has sent me. And the Father who sent me has himself borne witness about me. His voice you have never heard, His form you have never seen, and you do not have His Word abiding in you, for you do not believe the One whom He has sent. You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life, and it is they that bear witness about me. Yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life. I do not receive glory from people. But I know that you do not have the love of God within you. I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him. How can you believe when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God? Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you, Moses, on whom you have set your hope. If you believed Moses, you would believe me, what he wrote of me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?”

Let’s bow for prayer. Our Father, this is a very serious, sobering subject that we approach this morning, this doctrine that exposes for us the sinfulness of our own hearts. We ask that You would give us a closer, deeper understanding of it, certainly not so that we will feel so awful about ourselves, but so that by this understanding, we will come to rejoice in our Savior, in whose name we pray.

The Storyline Of The Bible

Well, I said that these doctrines necessarily involve the very storyline of the Bible, and so let’s back up before we get to this passage again, and let’s go to the beginning: Genesis chapter 1. God, the God who is, the God who is all alone and very content in all that He is in the three persons of His being, determines for whatever reasons—not told to us, for His own glory, of course; beyond that, we’re not told—He determines to create. Not out of need, but He creates. In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. And we are told immediately that there is God on the one hand, and everything else. And everything else is not God. God is God over all else that is. He made it. There’s God, and there’s all other created things. God is God over the created order. He made it. And because He made it, He owns it. Because He owns it, He has rights and authority over it. And then right at the outset of the Bible story, this worldview is set up for us. God is God over all. Everything else is not God. But it is His creation.

As we read through the following narrative in Genesis 1 and Genesis 2, we find that man is the crown of creation. That God creates all that is. He creates this globe. He creates the universe. And then for this globe, He begins to populate it with both the animal kingdom, the plant life, and at the top of it all, humanity, the crown of creation. Well, I say that not because I’m proud of myself as part of humanity or something like that, but we’re informed of that in the narrative of Genesis itself. The creation of man is noted last. Everything else is building toward that, providing an environment for humanity. And we find that man himself is created by a special act of God. In the preceding account of all that is created, God speaks, and it happens. Or He says, “Let the earth bring forth,” and it does. But in the creation of man, God takes the attention Himself and takes the dust of the ground and creates man.

Chapter 2 of Genesis zooms in again and backs up and gives us the details regarding the creation of man, who is presented for us as the crown of creation. As if that were not enough, man is then given by God a degree of real authority. “Let’s create him in our image, and let him have rule and dominion over all the earth.” And humanity is entrusted with the garden. The first man is given the responsibility of caring for it, tending it, guarding it, protecting it. And he’s given authority over all the earth, over all the animals, over the birds, over all the fish in the sea. He’s created with this dominion over all the earth. The animals are brought to Adam, and he names them, an expression of his authority. And humanity is given this command: “Let’s create man in our image.” And God creates man in His image, He says. And it says, “Let him have dominion. Let him rule over the earth and have dominion over the fish of the sea and the fowls of the air and over everything that creeps on the earth.”

The crown of creation. Not just in the creation narrative itself, but if we look at it in terms of the entire Bible, we have man presented here at the outset, introducing a story for us that culminates in man’s final glory and triumph in Christ at the end of the Bible. And of course, if that is not enough, there’s the point that is made—I’ve already mentioned it a couple of times—in the creation narrative, and is mentioned several times throughout the Scriptures, that man is created uniquely in God’s image. We have the animals created each after its kind and all of the plant life created after its kind, but we come to the creation of man and he’s created in God’s image.

And as you can imagine, tons of ink has been spilled over that discussion. What does it mean to be created in God’s image? And I think it is a rather complex question. But I think we can reduce it to some things that are at least these that are very obvious: that constitutionally man is created in a way that reflects God, a way that he is like God. Now be careful with that. It doesn’t mean we should look at man and then try to image what God is like. That would be creating God after our image. What we should do is look at God’s self-revelation as He has revealed Himself and say, “In what ways are we like Him?” Or, even better, “In what ways in His Word has He said we are like Him?”

In what does this image consist? And we find some statements in the Scriptures that refer to man’s rational capacity, his moral capacity, that man is given this capacity to talk to God, to relate to God, to talk to one another and relate to one another. And so in the New Testament we find some statements like those of us in Christ have been renewed after the image of Him who created us. Renewed in knowledge after the image of Him who created us. It speaks in terms of morality: created after His image in righteousness and true holiness. Humanity, unlike all the rest of the created order, has this rational capacity, has this capacity for understanding right and wrong, good and bad. There’s this awareness of God. There’s this conscious sense of dependence upon God. Now, the created order as a whole is no less dependent upon God. What is unique about humanity is we have this conscious awareness of our dependence upon God as creatures. But not just a conscious dependence upon God, an awareness of Him, but an awareness of our obligation to God, each of us. Not just in a Western society, but in every part of the globe, wherever humanity is, there is this intuitive sense of right and wrong. This intuitive sense of justice. And because of that, there’s this thing that we call conscience. Created in God’s image, we know right from wrong. We know good and better.

And through all of this that God has given us in His image—rational understanding, a sense of right and wrong, conscience—He has said now, “Rule over the earth.” Humanity is called to be something of God’s vice-regent, ruling with God over His created order. You might remember in Psalm 8, David, the psalmist, celebrates this very point. I look, he says, at the grandeur of creation, the sun, the moon, the stars which You have ordained, and the grandeur of this created order, and I think, little old man, what is man that You are mindful of him, that You have made him just a little lower than the angels? You’ve given us such a great dignity being created in the very image of God.

And with that, of course, comes a responsibility. Man, created by God in God’s image, given dominion over the earth, is not a law unto himself. He is to rule under God. He is to reflect God in the way that he behaves and in the way that he rules. He is to image God’s dominion over the earth. And he’s given, then, responsibilities. Take care of the garden. Guard and protect it. And he’s given one prohibition: “Don’t eat of that tree.” Help yourself to the rest of it. God has been abundantly generous. It’s all for you. Don’t eat of that tree. I don’t know what the tree was. Of course, we all think it was an apple tree. That’s what has come to us. It might have been a kumquat. I don’t know. Don’t eat that tree. The one prohibition.

And of course, that becomes then precisely the point of temptation. Man is created in God’s image. He is to rule under God. He is then responsible to exercise God’s rule. He is not a law unto himself. He is to rule under God. And the temptation comes. “Why can’t I have that? Why should all of my life revolve around Him? Look what it offers me.” The temptation is to what I think has been very aptly called a moral autonomy, intellectual autonomy. Think for yourself. What right does He have to tell you what should make you happy and what shouldn’t? Of course, the answer to that is He’s God. He’s your Creator.

The Fall And Its Consequences

And of course, we read in the narrative in Genesis chapter 3 that there’s this great defection, a rebellion against God. And this is what we call the fall. Psalm 8 celebrates the dignity of man ruling under God, the dignity that God has given humanity. Hebrews chapter 2 picks that up and says, we do not yet see all things brought under subjection to him, to man. Especially in this fall, humanity has failed. It has defected from its Creator, and we have rebelled against Him.

We read on in Genesis, and we have the consequences of the fall laid out for us in some kinds of detail as well. Adam and Eve, they’ve no sooner sinned in disobeying God’s law, but we find them fearful, hiding from God. They now know good and evil in a devastatingly personal way. And they’re hiding from God. God comes, you remember, and speaks in judgment and in curse. And in this judgment and in curse, all of the created order is thrown into disarray. Again, filling in for us a right worldview, there is Satan against humanity and the struggle that goes on in that moral realm. There is humanity against the created order, the created order against humanity, with thorns and thistles growing against it and earning your living by the sweat of your brow. There’s humanity against humanity. There’s the battle of the sexes. All of this brought into Genesis chapter 3 and the consequences of the fall. And every struggle we have, whether it is with suffering, with our colds and our arthritis, or our cancers, or death, or whether it’s bad guys flying airplanes into big buildings—every scrap of suffering that we endure traces back to a defection in the Garden of Eden and a consequent judgment and curse.

Well, God speaks in judgment and in curse, but God is also merciful, and He gives a reprieve. He had said, “You will die.” And in a very real sense, Adam did die. But physical death is put off. The sentence is put off for a while. God graciously provides clothing for them, I think, introducing for us a theme that runs all the way through Scripture of God providing sacrifice for sinful humanity. That seems to be the case in the next page of Scripture as well, where Abel is offering his sacrifice. And yet, although God is merciful and granting something of a reprieve, yet at the same time, Adam and Eve are sent out of Eden, away from the presence of God, and there’s alienation. There’s a distance, a new distance from God, alienated from fellowship with Him, finding themselves in hiding and fearful of Him—Him who was, again, by the narrative in Genesis, something of their social environment. God in fellowship with God. And now they’re sent away from Eden, away from the presence of God and under a curse.

And then we read something fascinating. Genesis 5: Adam begets a son in his own image and after his likeness. What’s happening here? Humanity is created in God’s image. And certainly, that image remains. We find that in Genesis 9. We find it through the rest of the Scripture. We are still in God’s image in some sense. It’s not been completely erased. But evidently, it has been effaced in some kind of way. And there’s something significant. When we turn the page to chapter 5 of Genesis, and we read, “Adam begets a son in his own image, after his likeness.” And we might wonder, what does that entail? Adam made after God’s image. Adam begetting children after his image? Is there something to this? Is there a turn?

And again, we read the narrative and we find out in Genesis chapter 4—we’ve already seen some of it. We have the first murder in human history, fratricide. Cain kills Abel. We turn the page, we come to Genesis chapter 5, and we find this amazingly able humanity living hundreds of years, and yet we read the same refrain with each one. Adam lived so many years, he begat sons, and he died. And Seth lived so many years, he begat sons, and he died. And his son, and he lived, and he died, and his son, and he lived, and he died, and he died, and he died, and he died. And you don’t have to have five theological degrees to get the point that something has infected humanity. Something alien has come in. And Adam’s sin has had disastrous effects on the human race.

And not just in Genesis 4 and Genesis 5. We turn to Genesis 6 through 9, and we have the account of the flood. Humanity has become so corrupt and proven itself so corrupt that God says, “I’m done with it.” It is as though—it is not this, but it is as though God must go to plan B. Now, we know that’s not the case. God is staying with plan A. But the narrative reads in this kind of way that God says, “That’s it, I’m done with humanity.” And He wipes it all out with a flood and starts over with Noah. And after the flood, the affirmation is given again: the thoughts and imaginations of men’s hearts are only evil all the time. Something has happened. Man created in God’s image with great dignity has fallen considerably. We read through the rest of Genesis, we find the same thing, even the good guys. Abraham—how many of you ladies would like to have been Abraham’s wife on a trip to Egypt? Even good guys failing in such miserable ways. Something’s happened.

And in brief, what it is, is that humanity has become what Adam chose. We have become defective. Paul picks this up in Romans chapter 5, and it seems that he gets his theology there just from a close reading of the Genesis narrative. By one man, sin entered into the world, and death through sin. And all of humanity now is under this sentence of sin and death. And all of humanity dies, and all of humanity is sinful, because here it came through Adam, and through Adam to all of humanity. Adam is something of a representative head for all of humanity, and what he did had consequences for all the human race. And so Paul says, through one man, Adam, sin came in the world, and death through sin, and now sin and death, sin and death, sin and death is pervasive throughout humanity. And this is the Bible’s explanation for the universality of sin.

Jumping ahead of myself just a little bit, you cannot explain the universality of sin in terms of free will. Something deeper is going on. If we all had simply our choice, somewhere, somewhere in the history of humanity would have been someone who would do it right. The universality of sin is explained in terms of a universality of sinfulness of the human heart. That humanity has become defective, twisted. Humanity itself, the human heart itself now is wrong. It has been corrupt. We are born, in other words, with a disposition to rebel.

Total Depravity And Total Inability

If we can summarize all of this, Adam’s sin has brought universal three things: universal guilt and condemnation (and so death comes to all of humanity); universal alienation from God (whereas before, at the beginning, humanity was in fellowship with God, now there’s alienation—hiding, running, fearing); and universal corruption or universal depravity (the human heart itself now has become defective, twisted, and wrong). And this is the Bible’s explanation of humanity as it is.

Now this is what we call total depravity. Let’s take just a second to understand the term. When we say total depravity, we do not mean that every person is as bad as he could possibly be. Everyone, everyone could be at least a little worse. I mean, Hitler could have kicked his dog more or something, I don’t know. Everyone could be worse. When we say total depravity, we do not mean that every person is as bad as he or she can possibly be. But what we mean is that every man and woman born is as bad off as we can possibly be: guilty before God, our Creator; alienated from fellowship with Him; and twisted in our very heart so that even if we could fix the problem ourselves, we have no desire to. Bad off as we can possibly be. Sin has infiltrated humanity itself and now born in Adam, in his image, after his likeness, humanity has become corrupt. This is what informs the very storyline of the Bible. Humanity has rebelled against its Creator. It has had devastating effects on what we are. And it has had devastating effects upon us in terms of our relationship with God. And now the rest of history, the rest of Scripture, the whole flow of history from God’s viewpoint is God working out this means whereby He will fix this problem of humanity. He has determined to bless. Humanity has defected and fallen, has become helpless. And God has said He will send a Redeemer and fix the problem. And at the other end, we find that this problem of our guilt, our alienation, and our corruption is all fixed by our Redeemer. Instead of guilt and condemnation, we have justification. Instead of alienation, we have adoption and fellowship with God. And instead of corruption, we have regeneration and transformation and eventually glorification. As you can see, then, this is basic to the story of the Bible and the message of the gospel. And this is what we mean by total depravity.

Now, there’s one very important entailment of total depravity that becomes the point of dispute with many people because it just rubs us wrong. But it’s very important, I think, to come to an understanding of it. And that’s what we sometimes refer to as not just total depravity, but total inability. Total inability is simply an entailment of depravity. Human nature now has become wrong. And because of our twisted disposition in Adam, because our disposition born this way is sinful, we’re unable to find our way back to God. We’re unable to do it simply because our disposition is the other direction.

We see this in our children. We see this in ourselves. You never have to teach your children, “OK, here’s how you tell a lie.” They somehow know that—even my kids. If it’s happened to my kids, well then. We never have to sit down with our sons and say, “Look, here’s how you lust.” We never have to sit down with our daughters and say, “Here’s how to be jealous.” These things come naturally because the heart is twisted. Jesus picks this up in Matthew 12 and Matthew 15. How do you explain the sinful things that we do, Jesus says? When you go to a tree and you examine the apples, and the first one you meet is rotten, and the next one, rotten, the next one, rotten, the next one, rotten, the next one, rotten, the next one, rotten. And you go around and every apple is rotten. You pretty soon conclude that it’s not just the apples. The tree itself is sick. And Jesus says, this is how we explain the evil things that we do. They don’t arise out of a vacuum. They rise out of an evil heart. The humanity itself is twisted. And because of the twistedness of the human heart, there is this doctrine that we call total inability.

All of that is why I chose this passage to read through. We don’t have the time to work through it in detail, obviously, but I want you to notice just quickly again what we’ve seen in John chapter 5. Jesus has healed this man who was incapable of helping himself. They challenged Jesus for doing this on the Sabbath. He gives, in verses 19 and following, an exposition of His sonship, His unique prerogatives as the Son of God. And now in verses 30 and following, He begins to explain for us some of His credentials. Who are those who can bear witness to Jesus and tell us who He is and how He has these great prerogatives?

And so notice verse 30 and following. It’s not just what I’m saying. Listen to these witnesses. Verse 32: “There is another who bears witness about me, and I know that the testimony that he bears about me is true.” Who’s He speaking of? Of course, He’s speaking of God the Father. He may be referring to the event of the baptism, at the transfiguration. He may be revealing other things. I think He is, as we’ll see here as we go along. Another witness: verse 33, John the Baptist has borne witness of Me. You rejoiced in his light for a while, but no, no, no, no, no—we won’t have this man. John must have been wrong too. Verse 36: That’s not enough. What about the works that I do? And here Jesus obviously is talking about His miracles. How do you explain them? Now they tried to say, well, He does this by the power of Satan. And of course, that didn’t work. Jesus is simply saying you’ve seen these miracles that I have done. You’ve heard the claims that I’ve made associated with these miracles. How do you explain it? Am I a fraud? Am I crazy? What are the alternatives? No, He can’t be from God. No, no, it can’t be that. Well, Jesus says, again, verse 37, the Father Himself has borne witness about Me. Verse 39, the Scriptures bear witness about Me. You think you have eternal life in the Scriptures. Well, you’re close. You’re very, very close. Because the Scriptures bear witness of Me. But you won’t believe them either. We find that in verse 45. Moses wrote of Me. You won’t have it.

But notice now verse 44. In the midst of all of that, Jesus says, “How can you believe when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?” That is, it’s impossible. How can you believe because your heart itself is wrong? You are seeking glory from one another. You are not seeking from God. That is to say simply, your heart is not toward God. It is toward other things. And given the disposition of your heart, how can you believe?

Three Observations On Inability

Now, a few observations here quickly on all of this.

Number one, Jesus affirms they are unable to believe. They’re unable to believe. This is as clear as it can be that Jesus is affirming their inability to believe. And this is what we mean by total depravity. We found that also in the passage we read earlier. Pastor Greg read for us Mark 10, verse 27. The disciples in just amazement say, “Well, then, Lord, who can be saved?” And you remember how our Lord answers? He says, “Oh, wait a minute. Don’t misunderstand me. Anybody can be saved if they want to.” That’s not what He says at all. “Lord, who can be saved?” And Jesus says, “Man, it’s impossible.” It’s impossible. A direct affirmation of inability. He says it’s easier to push a camel through the eye of a needle. All right, Jesus affirms they are unable to believe.

Number two, He explains that the reason they are unable to believe, He explains this in terms of total depravity. He explains their inability in terms of total depravity. That is, He says they’re unable to believe because of a sinful and misguided heart, a sinful and misguided motive, a sinful and misguided disposition. They don’t have a heart that is inclined to God. They have a heart that’s inclined to other things, and that renders them unable to believe. Again, the rich young ruler in Mark chapter 10 that we read earlier, his inability to do what was necessary to be saved did not lie in any lack of human faculties. He doesn’t have the brains. He doesn’t have the intelligence or something, whatever. He doesn’t have the motor skill. It’s none of that. His inability lay in his disposition. He had great possessions. You’re not going to give all that to Christ. Misguided motives and a corrupt heart. The inability lies simply in an ingrained disposition that is opposed to God. We cannot believe because our heart itself is twisted. And that is what Jesus is affirming here in verse 44. He says it again, it kind of echoes it in verse 47: “If you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?” It’s beyond you.

Now, at this point, I think it’d be helpful if we clarify quickly what we mean by the term free will. What then has happened to the truth that we all embrace, and that is free will? And I think the best answer to that is to say that the Bible does affirm that, of course, every man and woman is free to do what they want to do. Nobody’s forcing you to do it. Every decision you make is because you chose to do it freely. We all do what we want to do. Here’s the kicker: What does it say of us? We can do what we want to do, but our “want to” is corrupt. All this of man’s free will as though that were his savior—the whole storyline of the Bible is to tell us you need much more than your will will ever get you. Your heart is twisted and wrong at its very core. Our hearts are sinful and inclined to sin. The will does not act on its own. The will is just part of the function of the entire man. The man himself is corrupt.

There are so many passages I’d love to look through at this point in this regard. Let me do just a couple of them. Turn back a couple of pages to John chapter 3. John chapter 3, verse 19: “This is the judgment. The light has come into the world and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil.” Notice, it is a statement of the affections, the heart itself. There’s a predisposition to evil. We love darkness rather than light. “For everyone who does wicked things, hates the light, does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light.” Notice the statement here. It has not to do simply with the actions and the behavior of humanity, but humanity’s heart itself. Its affections are toward darkness. That’s our disposition.

One of the most devastating statements of this, I think, is in John chapter 8. You’ll turn forward a few pages. John chapter 8. Well, let’s stop at chapter 6 on the way. John chapter 6, verse 44, quickly: “No one can come to Me except the Father draw him.” There’s this plain statement of inability. No one is able to come to Me except the Father draw him. Now John chapter 8. Jesus says this in just a fascinating way. John 8, verse 45: “Because I tell you the truth, you do not believe it.” Now notice the way He says this. He does not say this in a concessive way. “Although I tell you the truth”—that would be bad enough. “Although I tell you the truth, you don’t believe me.” But notice what He says. It’s causative. “Because I tell you the truth, you don’t believe me.” Isn’t that fascinating? Jesus deals with this in John chapter 5. We read those verses. You’ll believe another witness, but you won’t believe Me. Because I tell you the truth, you won’t believe Me.

You know this in your own witnessing with people, don’t you? You can go to them and you can tell them, “Look, if you keep the Ten Commandments, you go to heaven.” And there’s not a person out there who thinks he keeps the Ten Commandments. But if you tell him that, he’ll believe it and say, “Oh, OK. If you try to keep the Ten Commandments, you can be saved. OK. Yeah, I believe that. If you’re sincere at trying to keep the Ten Commandments, you can go to heaven. OK. I’ll believe that. Keep the Sermon on the Mount. You can go to heaven.” There’s a step up. “Okay, I believe that.” You tell them anything like that and you’ll find believers. But if you tell them, “Look, you are helpless. You can’t do anything. But there’s a Savior who’s done it all. And you may have it freely by trusting in Him alone.” “I don’t know about that.” Because I tell you the truth, you will not believe Me. There’s something in the heart itself that’s twisted and wrong. We love darkness rather than light. And because of this, there is what we call total inability.

The Bible has a long list of vocabulary that brings this out. It speaks of man’s stony heart, hard heart, uncircumcised heart. It speaks of our conscience being defiled. It speaks of us as dead in sin. Jeremiah brings it out in a graphic way: “Can the Ethiopian change his skin? Can the leopard change his spots? Neither can you who are accustomed to doing evil do what is good.” For centuries, we have learned to speak of faith in terms of—I can give the philosophical phrase that’s given often since Augustine—”forced consent.” Faith is forced consent. You look at the evidence, you measure it out, you come to your conclusion, and you’re just driven to say, “Yes, that’s true. I believe that.” That works in first grade when you’re taught two plus two equals four, and it does every time, and every time, and every time. “Yeah, that’s right.” You’re forced to believe that. Faith is forced consent. But what if the faculties are such, and the disposition is such, that you just won’t perceive it rightly? And what if, what if you can look the glorious Jesus Christ in the face and see Him and go away thinking, “No”? And not until the heart itself is repaired can there be a right appreciation of Jesus. It’s not that Jesus is not glorious. He is all glorious. It’s not that there’s no evidence. There’s plenty of evidence. It’s that the disposition of the heart is such that we don’t perceive Him in the way that we should, and so we turn away. And that is why evidence alone will never produce faith. You can spend all the time in the world in apologetics, demonstrating the truthfulness of Christianity, its fulfilled prophecies, and the historicity of the resurrection, and all of that. And there’s a place for all of that, and I’m all for it. But you can do that all day long, and it will never produce faith. Because what’s involved is more than just simply a rational understanding. There’s a perceiving problem. There’s a problem of the heart and how it perceives the glory of Christ in the gospel. And so because of that, there’s a turning away.

Well, I’ve got to go on. Our time is running. I said three observations from this passage in John 5. Number one, they’re unable to believe. Jesus says that exactly. They are unable to believe. Number two, the reason they are unable to believe is because of their sinful and misguided motives, their heart itself.

And then number three, their inability is their own fault. Their inability is their own fault. Jesus accuses them. He says that they are unable to believe, but He faults them for it. They’re entirely responsible to believe, but they don’t. And the reason they don’t believe is because of them, because they’re so wicked. In verses 36 and following, Jesus says you are guilty, and Moses himself will accuse you because of all of the evidence that you have seen. You should have believed. You should have believed. It’s all there. Because you refused it, you will be held the more guilty.

Oh, there’s so much there more that we need to discuss, I guess, another time. The bottom line of all of this is that simply, you need more. You and I need more than our will will ever produce. What we need, frankly, is rescue. And that’s why it’s called salvation.

Now just very quickly, a little bit more on this matter of inability and responsibility. Perhaps you are an unbeliever. Perhaps you’re an unbeliever genuinely seeking salvation. You might despair because you think, “I’m not able to come.” What do we say to that? Two things quickly, then I’ll close.

Number one, don’t allow this theological puzzle to blind you from the clarity of Christ’s invitation to come, or to blind you from what is obviously your need and your responsibility. Don’t allow this theological puzzle to blind you to the obvious clarity of Jesus’ invitation to come and your obvious need to come. Let me put it this way: You cannot know that you are unable to come except after having tried to come. And Jesus says, if you come, He will have you. And any lack of sincere trying to come will only increase your guilt. Let me put it this way: This doctrine of total depravity does not say simply, you cannot come. This doctrine of total depravity says you cannot come apart from divine enablement. And what we find all through the Scriptures is that what God commands, in grace He gives. We find this illustrated at the beginning of John 5 with Jesus’ healing of this paraplegic. We find it in Mark chapter 10, emphasized that we read earlier this morning: “Lord, who then can be saved?” Answer: “With man it’s impossible, but not with God. With God all things are possible.” And all through the Bible there’s that emphasis. You can’t, you can’t, but God can and God does. And what God commands, in grace He gives. This is illustrated elsewhere in the Gospels. With a man with a withered hand, Jesus is going to heal him. And you remember what He says to him? “Stretch out your hand.” It’s just what he can’t do! “Stretch out your hand!” And what God commands in grace He gives. You may be saved if only you will come to Christ for it. He invites. He commands you to come. And He promises that if you come, you will be saved. Helpless people are exactly the people Jesus has come to save.

Number one, don’t allow this theological puzzle to blind you from the clarity of Jesus’ invitation to come. Number two, closely related to it, don’t allow this recognition of your helplessness to become an excuse for your continued unbelief. Again, you cannot know that you are unable except as you try to come. If you have any concern for your soul at all, the Bible does not tell you—the Bible nowhere tells you—if you have any concern at all for your soul, God never says to you, “Just wait. When I get to it, I’ll do it. You just wait.” The Bible never tells you that. If you have any concern for your soul at all, God says, “Come to Me and I’ll have you.” Jesus says, “Come to Me and I will have you. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved.” That is the responsibility.

And if you are one who is not saved and not believing and is sincerely looking and in earnest about your soul, the Bible does not say wait. It says come and recognize that there are people all around you who are just as helpless as you are. And yet we’ve come to Christ and found Him willing to have us and give us all that He requires of us. What God commands, He gives. And if you say, “I’m just waiting for the grace to come,” all you are doing is persisting in your unbelief and your rejection of Christ. And that, in turn, will only increase your own guilt. Jesus accuses these men here for having seen Him and seen the works that He has done and read the Scriptures. And because of their great light, they are all the more guilty of their rejecting Him. You on this side of the cross and this side of the tomb and this side of the finished Scriptures stand in much greater light and therefore have much greater responsibility than they. Jesus says to them in that day of judgment, Moses himself in whom you’ve trusted, Moses himself will come and accuse you. And if you persist in your rejection of Christ, all of this light that you have in that day of judgment will rise and accuse you and only increase your condemnation. If you say, “I cannot come,” we want to say to you that Jesus has come for just that kind of helpless sinner. And He says, “Come to me, and I’ll give you rest. And him that comes to me, I will in no wise cast out.” Amen.

Let’s pray. Our Father, what a sobering truth this is to find out the twistedness of our own heart. But what a glorious thing to learn the great work of grace You have done for us in raising us from our spiritual death, in grace giving us all that You command and require of us. Make us, Lord, better worshipers because of this great truth. We pray in Jesus’ name.

Take your Trinity hymnals. Once again, turn to number 392. 392, “Blow Ye the Trumpet Blow.” Let’s stand and sing. A gladly solemn sound that all men can hear.