WARNING MESSAGE

 The Delusion of the Free Will Doctrine

John 6:44, "No man can come to Me, except the Father which hath sent Me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day."

“No Man can come to me” This verse of Holy Scripture destroys the false doctrine of free will, and free moral agency which masquerade as truth; but behind the false face of those doctrines are the gates of hell. Our Lord Jesus Christ said “no men can come to me”. This is a direct statement of fact from the mouth of the God-Man. Gainsayers may seek to alter the meaning of these six words; they may wrest the scriptures to their own destruction (II Peter 3:16); but the doctrine of Christ stands fast. There is not one individual of all mankind that has the ability to come to Christ Jesus believing the doctrine of Christ by an act of his will, choice, or decision. No man can come to Christ Jesus because of the adversary who holds him captive, as it is written: “When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace” (Luke 11:21). The strong man armed is Satan and his palace is the soul of a man. The soul of man includes the man’s heart, his affections, and his will. The armaments of Satan are the many faceted evils of man’s corrupt heart. Satan guards against all who would overcome him and take his palace. And he holds his palace without opposition from the man. But if the man is one of God’s elect, a Stronger than the strong man will invade the palace and take possession. In other words Christ Jesus, will cast Satan out of his abode and claim His possession, as it is written: “When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace: but when a stronger than he shall come upon him, and overcome him, he taketh from him all his armour wherein he trusted, and divideth his spoils. He that is not with me is against me: and he that gathereth not with me scattereth” (Luke 11:21-23).

There is no opposition to such bondage from the man because all the sons and daughters of Adam were morally ruined in the fall and their moral agency became a slave of sin. Men are born conformed to the image of a fallen and ruined man, as it is written: “And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth” (Genesis 5:3). Sin has invaded the nature of man through the fall and prevails in his nature so that David lamented his condition by natural birth, saying: “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me: “(Psalm 51:5). On another occasion when His disciples asked “who then can be saved” our Lord Jesus said “with men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:25-26). It is impossible that natural man should break the hold of his own evil nature as well as the hold of the devil and come to Jesus Christ for salvation by an act of his own choice, decision, or will.

Our Lord Jesus came to free the captives of Satan and of fallen nature, as it is written: “To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house” (Isaiah 42: 7). And again “That thou mayest say to the prisoners, Go forth; to them that are in darkness, Shew yourselves. They shall feed in the ways, and their pastures shall be in all high places” (Isaiah 49: 9). The prisoners that our Lord Jesus came to free are law breakers, and thus sentenced to death according to the law. But through sovereign grace alone Christ Jesus has come that they might be freed, as it is written: “Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captive delivered? But thus saith the LORD, Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered: for I will contend with him that contendeth with thee, and I will save thy children” (Isaiah 49:24-25). Christ Jesus came: “To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me” (Acts 26:18).

“Except the Father which hath sent me draw him” God the Father draws all those He has chosen to eternal life in Jesus Christ by the efficacious call of the Holy Spirit. The effectual call of the Holy Spirit is the birth from above, as it is written: “that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3:6). God’s everlasting love is put into action at the time of love, speaking typically of the people of God it is written: “ And as for thy nativity, in the day thou wast born thy navel was not cut, neither wast thou washed in water to supple thee; thou wast not salted at all, nor swaddled at all. None eye pitied thee, to do any of these unto thee, to have compassion upon thee; but thou wast cast out in the open field, to the lothing of thy person, in the day that thou wast born. And when I passed by thee, and saw thee polluted in thine own blood, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live; yea, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live. I have caused thee to multiply as the bud of the field, and thou hast increased and waxen great, and thou art come to excellent ornaments: thy breasts are fashioned, and thine hair is grown, whereas thou wast naked and bare. Now when I passed by thee, and looked upon thee, behold, thy time was the time of love; and I spread my skirt over thee, and covered thy nakedness: yea, I sware unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord GOD, and thou becamest mine” (Ezekiel 16:4-8). The sanctification of the Spirit is the work of God in the birth from above and it is unto the belief of the truth, as it is written: “But we are bound to give thanks alway 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” (II Thessalonians 2:13).

According to Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance and Dictionary, the word draw as used in our subject verse means to drag. The Father effectually drags His elect to Jesus Christ by the Holy Ghost. It is the Holy Spirit who gives the child of God a new heart and makes him willing in the day of His power, as it is written: “Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power” (Psalm 110: 3). According to Titus, the children of God when left to themselves,

are as unheeding and contrary to God as any of the sons of destruction, as it is written: “we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another” (Titus 3: 3). It is God the Holy Spirit who breaks up the hard and stony heart and gives a heart of flesh, that is, a heart that is capable of receiving the image of Christ. In believers the new heart is real and the new principles of spiritual life are real including faith, hope and love. But the corruptions of the flesh are still with us and will be with us as long as we inhabit tabernacles of dust, as it is written: “For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another. This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would” (Galatians 5:13-17).

“And I will raise him up at the last day” All who are drawn by God the Father come to Jesus Christ and they shall be raised in glory at the resurrection of the just, as it is written: “And thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot recompense thee: for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just” (Luke 14:14). Our Lord Jesus Christ redeemed all the elect of God with His precious blood by His cross death on Mount Calvary. The sufferings, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ is of greater importance than the creation of the universe from nothing. The creation of the universe was a necessary step whereby the stage was constructed for the manifestation of the glory of the grace of God through the sufferings, death, and resurrection of the Son of God, who is Surety, Substitute, and Mediator for the children of God. The final glorification of the children of God is the direct and immediate fruit and effect of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ according to the will of God the Father, as it written: “For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did; by the which we draw nigh unto God” (Hebrews 7:19). The better hope is the blessed and assured hope believers have of being resurrected in glory, as it is written: “Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13) In the sufferings and death of the God-Man Jesus Christ, the elect of God were perfected forever, as it is written: “For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified” (Hebrews 10: 14).

This is a cause and effect relationship: the cause is the drawing of the Father by the Holy Ghost. The inevitable effect is that the children of the covenant come to Jesus Christ in faith and love. The elect do not come because of their choice, decision, or will. They come because they are drawn by God the Father who sends His Holy Spirit into the hearts of His elect crying Abba Father, as it is written: “And because ye are sons, (by the eternal decree of the Father’s election: writer) God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying,

Abba, Father” (Galatians 4: 6). What horrible blasphemy it is when men claim that their own choice, their own decision, or their own will is the cause of their coming to Christ. The fact is that they have never come to the Christ of the scriptures at all; but instead they have come to their imaginary god who is the product of their own deluded heart.

-preacher AJ Ison

See the writer’s blog at www.hebrews915.blogspot.com hear the true gospel preached at www.13thstbaptist.org webcasting live at listed service times.