There is so much confusion about these topics and it is vital to the foundation of our faith to

have a proper understanding of who God is, else we are not believing in

the one true God - rather a figment of our imagination.

The following contains paraphrased quotes from  The Sovereignty of God, by A.W. Pink.

 

 

     The sovereignty of God means the supremacy of God, the kingship of God, the God-hood of God. He is the Most High, the Almighty, the Creator. The God of the popular mind is the creation of sick sentimentality. The God of many present-day pulpits is an object of pity rather than of awe-inspiring reverence. Some say that the One died with the express intention of saving the whole human race, and that God the Holy Spirit is now seeking to win the world to Christ; but, as a matter of common observation, it is apparent that the great majority of men are dying in sin.  This is to say that God the Father is disappointed, that God the Son is dissatisfied, and that God the Holy Spirit is defeated. To argue that God is  trying His best to save all mankind, but that the majority of men will not let Him save them, is to insist that the will of the Creator is impotent (powerless), and that the will of the creature is omnipotent (all-powerful). To throw the blame, as many do, upon the Devil, does not remove the difficulty, for if Satan is defeating the purpose of God, then, Satan is Almighty and God is no longer the Supreme Being. To argue that man is a free moral agent and the determiner of his own destiny, and that therefore he has the power to checkmate his Maker, is to strip God of His Omnipotence.

     The Sovereignty of the God of Scripture is absolute, irresistible, infinite. When we say that God is Sovereign, we affirm His right to govern the universe which He has made for His own glory, just as He pleases. We affirm that His right is the right of the Potter over the clay - that He may mold that clay into whatsoever form He chooses, fashioning out of the same lump one vessel unto honor and another into dishonor (Rom. 9:21-23). We affirm that He is under no rule or law outside of His own will and nature, that God is a law unto Himself, and that He is under no obligation to give an account of His matters to any.

     God is Sovereign in the use of His grace.  Grace has been defined as the  unmerited favor of God; and if unmerited, then none can claim it as their inalienable right. If grace is unearned and undeserved, then none are entitled to it. If grace is a gift, then none can demand it. Therefore, as salvation is by grace, the free gift of God, then He bestows it on whom He pleases. Because salvation is by grace, the very chief of sinners is not beyond the reach of Divine mercy. Because salvation is by grace, boasting is excluded and God gets all the glory (Rom. 3:27).  One has said that grace is something more than  unmerited favor. To feed a tramp who calls on me is  unmerited favor, but it is scarcely grace. But suppose that after robbing me I should feed this starving tramp - that would be  grace. Grace, then, is favor shown where there is positive demerit in the one receiving it.

     Was there not a time when you walked in the counsel of the ungodly, stood in the way of sinners, sat in the seat of the scorners, and with them said,  We will not have this Man to reign over us (Luke 19:14)? Was there not a time when you  would not come to Christ that you might have life (Jn. 5:40)? Was there not a time when you mingled your voice with those who said unto God,  Depart from us; for we desire not the knowledge of Thy ways. What is the Almighty, that we should serve Him? and what profit should we have, if we pray unto Him? (Job 21:14,15)? With shamed face you have to acknowledge there was. But how is it that all is now changed? What was it that brought you from haughty self-sufficiency to a humble petitioner; from one that was at enmity with God to one that is at peace with Him; from lawlessness to subjection; from hate to love? And as one  born of the Spirit you will readily reply,  By the grace of God I am what I am ( I Cor.15:10). Then do you not see that it is due to no lack of power in God, nor to His refusal to coerce man? If God was able to subdue your will and win your heart, and that without interfering with your moral responsibility, then is He not able to do the same for others? ( See I Cor. 4:7, I Jn. 5:20, 2 Thess. 3:2, Acts 13:48, Tit. 1:1, Matt. 20:15)

      Hath not the potter the power over the clay of the same lump, to make one vessel unto honor, and another unto dishonor? What if God, willing to show His wrath, and to make His power known, endured with much long suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had afore prepared unto glory?   (Rom. 9:21-23) These verses represent fallen mankind as inert and as impotent as a lump of lifeless clay. This passage evidences that there is  no difference, in themselves, between the elect and the non-elect; they are clay of the same lump, which agrees with Eph. 2:3. This teaches us that the ultimate destiny of every individual is decided by the will of God, and blessed it is that such be the case; if it were left to our wills, the ultimate destination of us all would be the Lake of Fire.

 

     A quote by Charles Spurgeon:  Attempts have been made to prove that these words do not teach predestination, but these attempts so clearly do violence to the language. I read:  As many as were ordained to eternal life believed, and I shall not twist the text but shall glorify the grace of God by ascribing to that grace the faith of every man. Is it not God who gives the inclination to believe? If men are inclined to have eternal life, does not He - in every case - incline them? Is it wrong for God to give grace? If it be right for Him to give it, is it wrong for Him to purpose to give it? Would you have Him to give it by accident? If it is right for Him to purpose to give grace today, it was right for Him to purpose it before today - and, since He changes not - from eternity.

 

Excerpts from “The Sovereignty of God”

By  A.W. Pink

     God’s ways as well as His thoughts are utterly at variance with man’s. The carnal mind would have supposed that a selection had been made from the ranks of the opulent and influential, the amiable and cultured, so that Christianity might have won the approval and applause of the world by its pageantry and fleshly glory. But that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God.

      But we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth (2 Thess. 2:13). There are three things here which deserve special attention. First, the fact that we are expressly told that God’s elect are  ‘chosen to salvation.’ The language could not be more explicit. This is not referring to external privileges or rank in service, as some would have us believe. It is to ‘salvation.’ Second, we are warned here that election unto salvation does not ignore the use of appropriate means: salvation is reached through ‘sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth.’ It is not true that because God has chosen a certain one to salvation that he will be saved hap-hazard. The same God who ‘chose unto salvation’ decreed that His purpose should be realized through the work of the Spirit and belief of the truth. Third, that God has chosen us unto salvation is a profound cause for fervent praise -  we are bound to give thanks always.

     What was there in the elect themselves which attracted God’s heart to them? Was it because of certain virtues, because they were good?  No; for our Lord said, ’There is none good but one, that is God’ (Matt. 19:17). Was it because of any good works performed? No; for it is written, ’There is none that doeth good, no, not one’ (Rom. 3:12). Was it because they evidenced an earnestness and zeal in inquiring after God? No; for it is written, ’There is none that seeketh after God’ (Rom. 3:11). Was it because God foresaw they would believe? No; for how can those who are ’dead in trespasses and sins’ believe in Christ? Scripture declares that we ‘believe through grace’ (Acts 18:27). Faith is God’s gift, and apart from this gift none would believe. The cause of His choice lies within Himself and not in those of His choice.

     For whom did Christ die? Surely the Lord Jesus had some absolute determination before Him when He went to the Cross. If He had, then it necessarily would mean that the extent of that purpose was limited, because an absolute determination of purpose must be in place. If the absolute determination of Christ included all mankind, then all mankind would be saved. To escape this conclusion, many have affirmed that there was no such absolute determination before Christ, that in His death a merely conditional provision of salvation has been made for all mankind.  The disproof of this assertion is found in the promises made by the Father to His Son before He went to the Cross. The Old Testament Scriptures represent the Father as promising the Son a certain reward for His sufferings on behalf of sinners. ’When Thou shalt make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed,’  ‘ He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied, and that God’s righteous Servant’ should justify many (Isa. 53:10,11). Now ask, How could it be certain that Christ should ’see His seed,’and ‘see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied,’unless the salvation of certain members of the human race had been Divinely decreed, and therefore was sure? How could it be certain that Christ should ’justify many,’if no provision was made that any should receive Him as their Lord and Savior? On the other hand, to insist that the Lord Jesus did purpose the salvation of all mankind is to charge Him with that which no intelligent being should be guilty of, namely, to design that which by virtue of His omniscience He knew would never come to pass. The only alternative left us is that, so far as the pre-determined purpose of His death is concerned, Christ died for the elect only. He died not merely to make possible the salvation of all mankind, but to make certain the salvation of all that the Father had given to Him.

     Christ did not bear the sins of all mankind, for some there are who ’die in their sins’(Jn. 8:21), and whose ’sin remaineth’(Jn. 9:41). To say that Christ died for all alike, to say that He became the Substitute and Surety of the whole human race, to say that He suffered on behalf of and in the stead of all mankind, is to say that He bore the curse for many who are now bearing the curse for themselves; that He suffered punishment for many who are now lifting up their own eyes in Hell, being in torments; that He paid the redemption price for many who shall yet pay in their own eternal anguish the wages of sin, which is death. But, on the other hand, to say as Scripture says, that Christ was stricken for the transgressions of God’s people, to say that He gave His life ‘for the sheep,’ to say He gave His life a ransom ‘for many,’ is to say that He made an atonement which fully atones, He paid a price which actually ransoms; He is a Savior who truly saves.

     The salvation of any sinner is a matter of Divine power. By nature the sinner is at enmity with God, and nothing but Divine power operating within him can overcome this enmity; hence it is written, ’No man can come unto Me, except the Father which hath sent Me draw him’ (Jn 6:44). It is the Divine power overcoming the sinner’s innate enmity which makes him willing to come to Christ that he might have life, for by nature all are unwilling. But Christ has put forth His power and made willing those who have come to Him, and if He did this without destroying their responsibility, why ’cannot’ He do so with others? If He is able to win the heart of one sinner to Himself why not that of another? To say, as is usually said, the other will not let Him is to impeach His sufficiency. It is a question of His will. If the Lord Jesus has decreed, desired, purposed the salvation of all mankind, then the entire human race will be saved, or He lacks the power to make good His intentions. ’He gave His life a ransom for many,’ but why say ’for many’ if all without exception were included? It was for ’the sheep,’ and not the ’goats,’ that the Good Shepherd gave His life (Jn 10:11). It was the ’church of God’ which He purchased with His own blood (Acts 20:28).

     Now we will look at some verses that seem to contradict.  II Cor. 5:15 ’And He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them and rose again.’ Those who belonged to this’all’ for whom Christ died, are here exhorted to manifest, by use, in their daily lives what is true of them judicially: they are to ‘live unto Christ who died for them.’  Thus the ‘One died for all’ (v.14) is defined for us. The ‘all’ for which Christ died are they which ‘live,’ and which are here told to live ‘unto Him.’   We will next comment on I Tim. 2:5,6 . . .’ who gave Himself a ransom for all.’   In Scripture the word  ‘all’ (as applied to humankind) is used in two senses. In some passages it means all without exception; in others it signifies all without distinction (no favoritism). The meaning must be determined by the context and by comparison of parallel passages, such as Mk. 1:5, Lk. 3:21,7:30, Jn. 8:2 and Acts 22:15.  These verses do not mean ALL the people without exception, but rather all without distinction - from every tongue, people or nation, from every class of people. And then there is everyone’s favorite verse, Jn 3:16. The word ‘believeth’ in this verse is key.  It is only those who believe that will be given eternal life. And it is the quickening Spirit who prepares the sin-blinded mind to believe.This verse does not imply that the whole world will be saved as can be seen if one reads further  into the chapter, vs.18-21.  ‘World’ here refers to the world of God’s people. The use of  ‘world’ is often used in a relative sense.

     Each of the three Persons in the Trinity is involved with our salvation: with the Father it is predestination; with the Son propitiation; with the Spirit regeneration. The Father chose us; the Son died for us; the Spirit quickens us. The new birth is the work of God the Spirit (Jn. 3:6) and man has no part in it. Birth altogether excludes the idea of any effort or work on the part of the one who is born. Of ourselves we have no more to do with our spiritual birth than we had with our natural birth. ‘ It is the Spirit that quickens,’ but the Spirit does not  ‘quicken’ everybody - why? The usual answer is because everybody does not trust in Christ. It is supposed that the Holy Spirit quickens only those who believe. But this is to put the cart before the horse. Faith is not the cause of the new birth, but the consequence of it. Faith in God is something that is not native to the human heart. If faith were a natural product of the heart, it would never have been written, ‘All men have not faith’ (II Thess. 3:2). The work of the Holy Spirit precedes our believing as seen in II Thess. 2:13 - ‘God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth.’ Sanctification of the Spirit comes before and makes possible belief of the truth. Sanctification of the Spirit is the new birth. In this verse we see first, God s eternal choice; second, the sanctification  of the Spirit; third, belief of the truth. This same order is seen in I Pet.1:2.

     There are three things the presence of the Holy Spirit on earth demonstrates to the world: first, its sin, because the world refused to believe on Christ; second, God’s righteousness in exalting to His own right hand the One cast out, and now no more seen by the world; third, judgment, because Satan, the world’s prince, is already judged, though execution of his judgment is yet future (Jn.16:8-11). So in order for any sinner to see his need of a Savior and be willing to receive the Savior he needs the work of the Holy Spirit upon and within him as required. Had God done nothing more than given Christ to die for sinners and then sent forth His servants to proclaim salvation through Jesus Christ, thus leaving sinners entirely to themselves to accept or reject as they pleased, then every sinner would have rejected, because at heart every man hates God and is at enmity with Him.

     God had a definite reason why He created men, and He purposed either that this one should spend eternity in Heaven or that this one should spend eternity in the Lake of Fire. If He foresaw that in creating a certain person that that person would despise and reject the Savior, He nevertheless brought that person into existence, then it is clear He designed and ordained that that person should be eternally lost. Faith is God’s gift, and the purpose to give it only to some, involves the purpose not to give it to others. There is no escape from these conclusions and history confirms them. For many long centuries Israel was the only nation to whom God had shown Himself. All other nations were deprived of the preaching of God’s Word. The Old Testament is full of examples of other peoples that were left to themselves and met with God’s judgment  Read Rom. 9:13-23.  In v.19, two questions are asked, ‘Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth He yet find fault? For who hath resisted His will?’ In v.20 the Apostle denies the creature the right to sit in judgment upon the ways of the Creator - whatever God does must be right. In v.21, he declares that the Creator has the right to dispose of His creatures as He sees fit. Two reasons are given why God makes some ‘ vessels unto dishonor’; first, to ‘shew His wrath,’and secondly ‘to make His power known.’ (Related passages: Josh.11:18-22, Rom.16:4, Matt. 7:23, Amos 3:2, Jn. 10:14, I Thess. 5:9, II Pet. 2:12, Jude 4).

     God does not compel the wicked to sin. He only says in effect that awful word, ‘Let them alone’ (Matt. 15:14). He needs only to slacken the reins of providential restraint, and withhold the influence of saving grace, and apostate man will only too soon and too surely, of his own accord, fall by his iniquities. So the decree of reprobation neither interferes with the bent of man’s own fallen nature, nor serves to render him the less inexcusable.

     It is utterly impossible for any of us, during this life to know who are among the reprobate. The vilest sinner may be included in the election of grace and be one day quickened by the Spirit of grace. Our marching orders are plain, and woe unto us if we disregard them - ‘Preach the Gospel to every creature.’ That is why we are to love our enemies and do good to those who persecute us. We do not know which of those ‘enemies’ will be saved. And it is the love of Christ shining out of us that God uses in part to draw a particular person to Himself.

     There are a few passages that some will use to argue against one being ordained to condemnation. Acts 17:30 says that God ‘now commandeth all men everywhere to repent.’ This is enforcing His righteous claim as the moral Governor of the world and shows the responsibility of the person, but it does not declare that it is God’s pleasure to ‘give repentance’ (Acts 5:31). It is clear from II Tim. 2:25 that God does not give repentance to everyone: ‘In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure (perhaps, possibly) will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth.’

     In I Tim. 2:4 it says, ‘will have all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.’ The words  ‘all’and ‘all men,’  like the term ‘ world,’ are often used in a general and relative sense. Examine the following passages: Mk. 1:5, Jn 6:45, 8:2, Acts 21:28, 22:15, II Cor. 3:2 and you will find full proof of this assertion. I Tim. 2:4 cannot teach that God wills the salvation of all mankind or otherwise all mankind would be saved - ‘ What His soul desireth even that He doeth’ (Job 23:13).

     In the new birth we are made partakers of the Divine nature: a principle, a seed, a life, is communicated to us which is born of the Holy Spirit and therefore is spirit and is holy. Apart from this Divine and holy nature which is imparted to us at the new birth, it is utterly impossible for any man to generate a spiritual impulse, or a spiritual concept, think a spiritual thought, understand spiritual things. ‘ Without holiness no man shall see the Lord,’ but the natural man has no desire for holiness, and the provision that God has made, he does not want. Will then a man pray for, seek for, strive after, that which he dislikes? If a man does follow after that which by nature he dislikes, it is because a miraculous change has taken place with him; a power outside of himself has operated upon him, a nature entirely different from his old one has been imparted to him - ‘ therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation: old things are passed away; behold all things are become new’ (II Cor. 5:17).

     The new birth is very much more than simply shedding a few tears due to a temporary remorse over sin. It is far more than changing our course of life, the leaving off of bad habits and the substituting of good ones. It is something different from the mere cherishing and practicing of noble ideals. It goes infinitely deeper than coming forward to take some popular evangelist by the hand, signing a pledge card or joining the church. The new birth is the inception and reception of a new life. It is not reformation, but a complete transformation.

     As we have seen Scripture clearly teaches God’s soveriegnty. It also teaches man’ s responsibility, which we will be looking at. Admittedly it is very difficult for the human mind to comprehend how these 2 truths work together, since they seem to contradict. But that does not mean we throw out the one we don’t like and believe the other. We don’ t have to completely understand these truths, but as believers, we do have to accept them, teach them both, and understand them with the light God has given us in these matters.

     The popular idea now prevailing, and which is taught from the great majority of pulpits, is that man has a  free will, and that salvation comes to the sinner through his will co-operating with the Holy Spirit. So what is the will? It is the faculty of choice, the immediate cause of action. Choice implies the refusal of a thing and the acceptance of another. In every act of the will there is a preference - the desiring one thing rather than another. But there is something  which influences the choice; something which determines the decision. The will cannot be the controlling factor because it is the servant of that something. The will cannot be both cause and effect. The will is not causative, because something causes it to choose, therefore that something must be the causative agent. Choice is determined by various influences brought to bear upon the person himself. So these influences are what controls the will - the will is servant to whatever influences it.

     The Word of God teaches that it is the heart which is the dominating center of our being. ‘ Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life’ (Prov. 4:23; see Mk. 7:21, Matt. 15:8). It is the heart, not the will which governs man. A person will choose that which is most agreeable to himself, i.e.. his ’heart’ - the innermost core of his being. Before the sinner is set a life of virtue and piety, and a life of sinful indulgence; which will he follow? The latter, because he prefers it, though he does not enjoy the effects of such a course. He prefers it because his heart is sinful. In like manner, the Christian will choose a life of piety and virtue because God has given him a new heart or nature. It is not the will which makes the sinner incapable of being influenced by all appeals to forsake his way, but his corrupt and evil heart. He will not come to Christ because he does not want to, because his heart hates Him and loves sin: see Jer.17:9.

     We will look at the wills of 3 different men: unfallen Adam, the sinner, and the Lord Jesus. In unfallen Adam the will was free, free in both directions - toward good and evil. Adam was created in a state of innocency but not in a state of holiness. In Adam there was no constraining bias toward good or evil. But with the sinner it is far different. The sinner is born with a will that is not in a condition of moral balance, because in him there is a heart that is ’deceitful above all things and desperately wicked,’ and this gives him a bias toward evil. The Lord Jesus could not sin because He was the ’Holy One of God.’ He was not born in a condition of moral balance like Adam. He was born with a will which was biased toward good only.

     When we say that man is totally depraved it means that the entrance of sin into the human constitution has affected every part and faculty of man’ s being. Total depravity means that man is in spirit and soul and body, the slave of sin. Man is unable to realize his own aspirations and materialize his own ideals. He cannot do the things that he would. There is a moral inability which paralyzes him. This is proof that he is no free man, but the slave of sin (Jn. 8:44). Sin has permeated the whole of man’s make-up. It has blinded the understanding, corrupted the heart, and alienated the mind from God. And the will is under the dominion of this sinful heart. Even the ’good’ things we see unbelievers do are not as they seem. They are tainted with a heart that seeks it’s own glory and not only the glory of God.

     So the will is not free because it is the servant of an evil heart. Our Lord implied this by these words: ‘If the Son shall therefore make you free, ye shall be free indeed’ (Jn. 8:36). Man is a rational being and as such responsible and accountable to God, but to affirm that he is a free moral agent is to deny that he is totally depraved. Because man’s will is governed by his mind and heart, and because these have been corrupted by sin, then it follows that if ever man is to turn or move in a Godward direction, God Himself must work in him  both ‘to will and to do of His good pleasure.’   Someone has said, ’Man’s boasted freedom is in truth  the bondage of corruption; ‘ he ’serves divers lusts and pleasures.’   Man has no will favorable to God. I believe in free will; but then it is a will only free to act according to nature. A dove has no will to eat carrion; a raven no will to eat the clean food of the dove. Put the nature of the dove into the raven and it will eat the food of the dove.

     The superficial work of many of the professional evangelists of the last fifty years (now 100 years) is largely responsible for the erroneous views now current upon the bondage of the natural man, encouraged by the laziness of those in the pew in their failure to ‘prove all thing.’   The average evangelical pulpit conveys the impression that it lies wholly in the power of the sinner whether or not he shall be saved. It is said that ‘God has done His part, now man must do his.’   Alas, what can a lifeless man do, a man who by nature is ’dead in trespasses and sins?’   If the fact that we are dead in sins, were really believed, there would be more dependence upon the Holy Spirit to come in with His miracle-working power and less confidence in our attempt to  ‘win men for Christ.’

     Christ came here not to help those who were willing to help themselves, but to do for His people what they were incapable of doing for themselves: ’To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house.’ (Is. 42:7). We do not preach the Gospel because we believe that men are free moral agents and therefore capable of receiving Christ, but we preach it because we are commanded to do so; and though to them that perish it is foolishness yet, ’unto us which are saved it is the power of God.’   It pleases God ’by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.’   We preach the Gospel, not because we believe that sinners have within themselves the power to receive the Savior it proclaims, but because the Gospel itself is the power of God unto salvation.

     A right conception of the sinner’s will - its servitude - is essential to a just estimate of his depravity and ruin. The utter corruption and degradation of human nature is something which man hates to acknowledge, and which he will hotly and insistently deny until he is ’taught of God.’   ‘ Free moral agency’ is an expression of human invention and to talk of the freedom of the natural man is flatly to repudiate his spiritual ruin.

      But how is it possible for God to ’withhold’ men from sinning and yet not to interfere with their liberty and responsibility? We ask in response, In what does real moral freedom consist? It is the being delivered from the BONDAGE of sin. The more a soul is emancipated from sin the more does he enter into a state of freedom. The nearer a soul approaches to sinlessness, the nearer does he approach to God’s holiness. Scripture says God cannot sin. Is He not free then because He cannot do evil? Surely not. By God’s example, the more one is withheld from sin, the greater is his real freedom. The world counts none miserable but the afflicted, and none happy but the prosperous, because they judge by the present ease of the flesh. The world counts liberty to live according to their heart’s desire. But this is bondage of the worst kind. True liberty is not the power to live as we please, but to live as we ought!

     The sinner does not realize the danger of his situation, and is not in real earnest for his escape (from eternal damnation); instead men are for the most part at ease, and apart from the work of the Holy Spirit, whenever they are disturbed by the alarm of conscience, they flee to any other refuge but Christ. They will not acknowledge that all their righteouness are as filthy rags but, like the Pharisee, will thank God they are not as the Publican. They are not willing to receive Christ as their Lord and Savior for they are unwilling to part with their idols; therefore the natural man is so depraved at heart that he cannot come to Christ.

     Some sinner may object, I cannot help being born into this world with a depraved heart and therefore I am not responsible for my spiritual inability which results from it. The answer? God does not force any to sin. If a man gives vent to a fiery temper and then tries to explain it away on the ground of having inherited that temper from his parents, common sense would say that he is responsible to restrain his temper. If a man says, I cannot help being a thief, that is my nature, then we would say that prison is the place for him. If a man owed me $100 and had plenty of money for his pleasures, yet pleaded that he was unable to pay me, I would say that the only ability that was lacking was an honest heart. What if someone then said, that an honest heart was the needed ability to pay the debt? I would reply: the ability of my debtor lies in the power of his hand to write me a check , and this he has. What is lacking is an honest principle. It is in his power to write me a check, which makes him responsible to do so. The fact that he lacks an honest heart does not destroy his accountability.

     Another example of man’s responsibility. Two men guilty of theft: the first is an idiot, the second perfectly sane but the offspring of criminal parents. No just judge would sentence the former; but every right-minded judge would sentence the latter. Even though the second thief had a corrupt moral nature, that would not excuse him, providing he was a normal rational being. This is the ground for human accountability - the possession of rationality plus the gift of conscience. It is because the sinner is endowed with these natural faculties that he is a responsible creature. Because he does not use his natural powers for God s glory, constitutes his guilt.

     It is a fact that of himself, a sinner cannot come to Christ. But we are dealing with the responsibility of the sinner. From the human side the inability of the sinner to come to Christ is his own moral inability. And this is a voluntary inability. The sinner must be regarded not only as impotent to do good, but as delighting in evil. From the human side, then, the ‘cannot’ is a will not; it is a voluntary impotence.

     Why has God demanded of man that which he is incapable of performing? Because God refuses to lower His standard to the level of our sinful infirmities. Being perfect, God must set a perfect standard before us. If man is incapable of measuring up to God’s standard, wherein lies his responsibility? Man is responsible to acknowledge before God his inability and to cry unto Him for enabling grace. Surely this will be admitted by every Christian reader. It is my duty to own before God my ignorance, my weakness, my sinfulness, my impotence to comply with His holy and just requirements. It is also my duty, as well as blessed privilege to earnestly beseech God to give me the wisdom, strength, grace, which will enable me to do that which is pleasing in His sight; to ask Him to work in me.

     The Sovereignty of God is designed as a motive for godly fear, it is made known to us for the promotion of righteous living, it is revealed in order to bring into subjection our rebellious hearts. A true recognition of God’s Sovereignty humbles as nothing else does or can humble, and brings the heart into lowly submission before God, causing us to relinquish our own self-will and making us delight in the Divine will. There is no real rest for your poor heart until you learn to see the hand of God in everything.

     Happy the soul that has been awed by a view of God’s majesty, that has had a vision of God’s awful greatness, His ineffable holiness, His perfect righteousness, His irresistible power, His sovereign grace. A sight of God leads to a realization of our littleness and nothingness and issues in a sense of dependency and of casting ourselves upon God. It promotes the spirit of godly fear and this in turn, begets an obedient walk.