Free Will
Man is perfectly free to sin.
This statement is undeniable.
Man is perfectly free to reject salvation.
When he becomes a drunkard it is to please himself;
and when he is covetous to meanness, or dishonesty,
when he is guilty of licentious acts,
when he provokes God by his blasphemies,
and when with wicked hands he slays his neighbor,
he commits these crimes to gratify himself.
And the same doctrine is true with reference to all his transgressions.
No man on trial in court would venture to urge,
as an excuse for his criminal acts,
that he was compelled to commit them,
unless indeed physical force was used ;
and if he offered such a plea every judge and jury in the world
would regard this false pretense as an aggravation of his guilt.
Satan can only tempt men to sin;
he cannot coerce them to commit it.
He possesses a great intellect, vast experience, unwearied perseverance,
and hosts of agents;
nevertheless, if a man resists the devil
he will flee from him.
Every man's consciousness tells him
that he sins because of his own personal wishes,
and not because of outside force.
Haman planned to murder Mordecai,
not for Satan's pleasure but his own.
Ananias and his wife kept back part of the price,
not to gratify the prince of darkness,
but to satisfy their own covetous hearts.
The testimony of human consciousness proves
that men sin because they themselves resolve upon it.
And if we cannot believe our consciousness upon this question
we cannot believe it about anything.
We must reject its utterances when it tells us that we are living, or walking,
or speaking, or working.
To reject the evidence of our consciousness about our sins
coming solely from ourselves
would compel us to discard belief in all our experiences.
Either then our sins are our own,
or we can believe nothing,
and our consciousness is but a constant instrument of deception.
From the fall of our first parents in Eden
down to the last record of guilt in the Scriptures,
God invariably assumes the responsibility of men for their sins;
and in a great many instances he asserts it;
and this responsibility rests upon their freedom to sin.
Man has lost his liberty to serve God.
Paul says in Eph. 2:1,
- "You hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins."
A man left to himself,
would never seek or find salvation.
The Saviour says, John 6:44,
- "No man can come to me,
- except the Father who hath sent me draw him."
There is a lack of moral ability in every human heart
to come to Jesus till the drawings of grace.
a natural man,
is not able by his own strength
to convert himself
When the Comforter smote the heart of persecuting Saul
and his earnest cry was,
- "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?
The Holy Spirit came to reside
never to depart.
The Holy Spirit can only convict man of sin;
he cannot coerce him to be saved.
if a man resists the Holy Spirit
he may leave him.
- My spirit shall not always strive with man,
