Thoughts on the Doctrines of Grace Pastor Rob Wilkerson

Human Inability: The Damaged or Missing Gear in the Gospel

October 31, 2002 Introduction: The Birth of the Reformation Pumpkins go away! Candy be gone! Children everywhere of all ages, listen up! Today is Reformation Day! I love this day with all my heart. The truths that were nailed to the bulletin board on the door of the Wittenberg church, this very morning way back in 1517, are truths whose echoes were the start of almost every single Protestant evangelical denomination in our free country of America. It was on this day 485 years ago that the Protestant Reformation was born. Martin Luther was the man, and the 95 Theses was the plan. To be precise in our terms today, these theses were actually gripes against the Roman Catholic Church - ninety-five gripes to be exact! Against what? Against the teachings of a man named John Tetzel. What was he doing that caused Luther to write down ninety-five gripes? He was conducting a traveling yard sale throughout Germany and other countries in order to raise money for the building of a new cathedral in Rome. Imagine it. Country-wide yard sales producing enough profit to build the Pope a new church! In those yard sales the main rummage consisted of an infinite amount of Get out of Hell Free tickets. Well, they werent exactly free. Well just put it this way. If you had been raking your leaves one blustery fall day, you might have faintly heard the following song on your ears. Every time a coin in the coffer rings A soul from purgatory springs! This was John Tetzels famous little song. It was a number one hit, on Romes Best Sellers list, going gold and then platinum within just a few months! At this point, you probably would have dropped your rake (or leaf blower if you were at my house) and come a runnin to the heels of Tetzel on his horse. Why? Because that little song would have taught you that you could purchase one of those Get out of Hell Free passes. If you decided to purchase the Friends and Family Package, you could rejoice in knowing that your friends and family members could get out of hell a little quicker or perhaps even instantaneously, depending of course on how much the package cost. There was probably even an Individual Plan whereby you could buy a pass for yourself today so that when you went to hell later, someone else could redeem the coupon on your behalf and get you out too. Now that was a deal that was sure to get the Pope his new cathedral. After all, it was his idea to begin with. The pass or coupon probably had his picture on it and his
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Thoughts on the Doctrines of Grace Pastor Rob Wilkerson

signature, along with the phrase, This note is legal tender for all spiritual debts. To be honest, as you well know, the whole thing was a sham, wasnt it. The Roman Catholic Church had devised a get-rich-quick scheme in which they could dig into the financial resources of the already poor people by tugging on their heart-strings. If they really cared about their burning family members they would pay whatever they could to get them out of hell. Thats pure abomination. I shared this little scheme the Pope had concocted along with the fiendish salesmanship of John Tetzel with my oldest son, Harrison, at breakfast this morning. His mouth dropped open, cinnamon roll falling out, and he declared, Thats not right! Even a little almost-seven year old got it! When I asked him why it wasnt right, he exclaimed, Because money doesnt work in hell, dad! This wasnt the first time the Roman Catholic Church had pulled the wool over everyones eyes. They had been doing it for hundreds of years. And this ploy of selling indulgences was just another kooky plan to keep the masses breastfeeding from the Church. As it was, the masses could not read the Bible in their own language, until a few years earlier thanks to the deaths of John Hus, John Wycliffe and William Tyndale. They could not get to heaven apart from the Church. And now, they could not get out of hell apart from the Church. The Church had continuously devised schemes whereby people would forever be forced to depend upon it for the hope of eternal salvation, all while it made itself filthy rich by tricking these poor people with false assurances. This is where Martin Luthers 95 Theses rocked the world. Having studied the Scriptures for himself, Luther published the false theology of the Roman Catholic Church for the world to read. A few years later, the Pope got so mad at him that he excommunicated Luther. Luthers theses wound up the clock of the doctrine of biblical salvation once more. By Gods sovereign providence Luther uncovered the truths of Scripture about salvation that had been covered by the Catholic Church for centuries untold. To be sure, there were pockets and remnants of true believers throughout the known world, and that throughout church history. But the majority of history saw the church wearing the Catholic Churchs theological sun block in what we know today as The Dark Ages. But through Luther, the eclipse was over and the true Light of Sola Christo, Christ alone, was beginning to dawn again. An Essential Gear of the Reformation Has Been Damaged As the clock of the Reformation began to tick, it ticked strongest over the next 200 years, being heard as far away as America through the work of the Pilgrims, the Great Awakening, and the Second Great Awakening. But since those days, the clock has seemingly been winding down again, each tick
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Thoughts on the Doctrines of Grace Pastor Rob Wilkerson

getting slower and slower. Why? My perception is that one of the gears was damaged. Someone threw a wrench in the works. And it happens to be the same wrench that Luther worked so diligently to remove at the birth of the Protestant Reformation.1 It is the wrench of human ability, commonly known today as free-will. Now my purpose in this article is not to survey the history of Protestant evangelicalism since Luther and find out who threw that wrench back into the gears. Nor is it my desire to pick any fights about the issue of free-will. Rather, my desire is simply to show you that the gear of human inability is as essential a gear in the clock-work of salvation as any other gear. Yet it is a gear that has been unwittingly sabotaged. It is a damaged gear today, and in some circles it is missing altogether. The Effects and Results in Modern Gospel Presentations Let me state the issue this way. The modern gospel seems weak doesnt it? Why do I say this? Well, how many people do you know who once made professions of faith and dont live like Jesus Christ today? How many people do you know who say they accepted the gospel and dont behave like it today? My contention is that if it were the real gospel which they heard and accepted, then they would in fact be living like it today. Does this downplay or supercede my responsibility in working out my salvation with fear and trembling (Phil. 2:12)? Not at all. But it does promote the true biblical gospel that it is God who works in us to do those things that are pleasing to Him (Phil. 2:13). In short, the question as I see it is, Why wont the watch work when everything else seems noticeably fine? In other words, why dont more people who say they have accepted the gospel, continue to live like they have accepted the gospel? Nothing seems to be missing. We go to church every Sunday. We have Sunday School. We have Wednesday night prayer meetings. We have our childrens ministries, youth ministries, and adult ministries going smoothly. (And I speaking of the Protestant evangelical church overall, mind you, and not specifically our local church! I am using we instead of they because then I would sound like I or we have it all together.) We support missionaries. We even have invitations and altar calls where many still come forward to make a profession of faith and be baptized. Why
1 Of all of Luthers works, consisting of 54 volumes presently, he himself said that the most important work he had ever produced was The Bondage of the Will. In this book, Luther rebutted Desiderius Erasmus, the most famous German humanist. We are indebted to Erasmus for compiling the Greek New Testament, a project that would become the foundation for almost every translation of the Bible for the next 350 years. Using human reason, Erasmus taught that the will was free from all restraints. Using the Scriptures, Luther taught that the will was in bondage to sin, and unable to obey God and come to Christ without the sheer mercy and grace of Christ.

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Thoughts on the Doctrines of Grace Pastor Rob Wilkerson

then are people not continuing to live in that faith and according to that baptism then? Human Inability is the Damaged Gear of the Gospel Just as one damaged gear with missing teeth can cause the entire operation of a clock or watch to slow up and stop working altogether, so also when the gear of human inability is damaged the message and work of the gospel slows up. And if it is missing completely from a gospel presentation or acceptation, including hymns, sermons, gospel tracts and literature, it ceases to work completely. All the other parts may be there. But I submit that the reason why modern gospel presentations dont produce as much long lasting fruit as we hope and expect is because the gear of human inability is removed, ignored or misunderstood. The ultimate end is that the entire gospel presentation is effectively sabotaged. Just briefly remind yourself of the ones you know who have fallen away, or those who have grown up in the church but were stunted in that growth, or those who have never fully matured in the faith, etc. What precisely do I mean by the gear of human inability? Simply put, God commands the sinner to believe and repent. But the sinner cannot feel the weight of this command of God unless he learns that he has no ability within himself to actually comply and thereby be saved. This is the doctrine taught by Jesus Christ as found in John 6:65. Eugene Peterson in his version of the Bible, called The Message, translates it this way:

This is why I told you earlier that no one is capable of coming to me on his own. You get to me only as a gift from the Father.
John 6:65, The Message

Human Inability Explained When rightly perceived, grasped and embraced by the sinner, the gear of human inability will result in one of two responses on the part of the sinner. The first is that of despair. Like Pilgrim in part one of The Pilgrims Progress, they may sink into the Slough of Despond when they learn of what the Almighty requires of them as well as the truth that they cannot comply with those demands. But PLEASE HEAR ME NOW! We must never let the lost person stay there too long! A good portion of this experience of despair is
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Thoughts on the Doctrines of Grace Pastor Rob Wilkerson

good, but only as long as the Holy Spirit puts it there. Rather we must immediately walk arm in arm with them, leading them to the second response a crying out for mercy from the Judge of all the earth to save them from their sins. Human Inability Applied When the lost person is taught regarding his natural inability to obey God and please Him,2 this will bring to bear on his mind and heart his doomed reality and destiny. But we must be quick to turn their eyes to the mercy seat and there beg them to beg God for His mercy. If they do not have a right sense of their condition, namely that they are stuck and can do nothing to better their condition, then they will have no right sense of the mercy and grace that God gives in saving them. The fact of the matter is that if the sinner knows he has no ability whatsoever to be saved from Gods condemnation, then he will figure there is only one option damnation. This is the only case, unless of course we introduce the good news. And thats just what the word gospel itself means. It is the good news that Jesus Christ has provided a way in which God can satisfy His just demands of the law against the sinner and yet have mercy on the sinner at the same time, saving him from that judgment. Now thats good news! However, the lost person must see both truths. Today, most modern gospel presentations only present the latter truth. And because they leave out the first truth, that the sinner is unable to do what God requires, the gospel has no teeth any longer. And as such, it cannot sink itself into the heart of the sinner so that his life can be metamorphosed. Today, gospel presentations only present the latter half, commanding sinners to believe in Jesus Christ. With these things in mind, let me explain two chief ways in which the doctrine of human inability should be applied. First I will seek to apply it to the issue of salvation, and more precisely to the issue of believing in Christ. Second, it will be applied to the issue of sanctification.

Human Inability and Belief in Jesus Christ Belief in Jesus Christ is essential to salvation, as almost all gospel tracts declare. But what is it about Jesus that these tracts teach sinners to believe? Is it His death on the cross? If so, for what? For eternal life? Theres simply got to be more to it than that, especially since there is more Bible on the issue than that. To believe in Jesus Christ is to experience our heart embracing the
Remember, the lost person is one without faith in Christ. And we know from Hebrews 11:6 that without faith it is impossible to please God. Therefore, the lost person cannot please God. Grace Community Church 2002-2003 Adult BSH
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Thoughts on the Doctrines of Grace Pastor Rob Wilkerson

promise of Jesus that all who come to Him for mercy and grace will never be kicked out of His presence (John 6:37). To believe with the heart that God raised Jesus from the dead (Romans 10:9-10) is to tearfully and passionately treasure the promise that I can get mercy from God through Jesus death on the cross. To believe in Christ is to confess with our mouths that HE is Lord, Master, and Boss, not we. To believe in Jesus is to understand that God did for me in Jesus what I could not do for myself. I could not obey Him and therefore I could not inherit eternal life. But because Jesus obeyed, I can run to Him and hide myself in Him. And in Jesus God will have mercy on my soul. But the sinner will know none of this if he does not hear of his inability to do what God requires.

Mercy is only truly sweet to those who experience the very real prospect of not getting any.
When the lost person knows he doesnt deserve mercy and that he cant do anything to make God happy enough to give it to him, he will begin to sense his desperate condition. And as the desperation grows, so grows with it the sense of treasuring that will come to him when his heart is opened by God to embrace the glorious mercy in Jesus that God could have rightly withheld. Human Inability and Sanctification A lack of presenting the gear of human inability in gospel presentations would explain why so many Christians live immature and defeated lives. What they need to know to live the Christian life was left out when they came to Christ at salvation. If they had heard of their own inability, they would have carried that solemn truth with them into their Christian lives and continue to rely upon the mercy of God in Christ to empower their daily living. They would pray more for a passion against sin, knowing that they themselves cannot hate it as God requires them to. They would read their Bibles more, and do it with a true sense that in reading God was really enabling and empowering them. They would know that within their own hearts and efforts dwelt nothing capable of defeating sin and pleasing God. And if they knew of the gear of inability they would run their weary and burdened selves over and again to the gentle and humble Savior who stands ready to give them their souls rest in the light yoke and easy burden of His mercy (Matthew 11:28-30). They would pray with David, Return, O Lord, deliver me! Oh, save me for Your mercies sake! (Psalm 6:4, NKJV). Again, they would cry out, Make Your face shine upon Your servant; save me for Your mercies sake! (Psalm
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Thoughts on the Doctrines of Grace Pastor Rob Wilkerson

31:16). Arise for our help, and redeem us for Your mercies sake (Psalm 44:26). The defeated believer would continue to beg of God, Let Your mercies come also to me, O Lord Your salvation according to Your Word (Psalm 119:41). Come and show me Your mercy, as you do for all those who love Your name (Psalm 119:132, NLT), would be their daily plea. Listen to Jeremiahs hope of relief in Gods mercy.

The thought of my suffering and homelessness is bitter beyond words. I will never forget this awful time, as I grieve over my loss. Yet I still dare to hope when I remember this: The unfailing love of the LORD never ends! By his mercies we have been kept from complete destruction. Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each day. I say to myself, The LORD is my inheritance; therefore, I will hope in him! The LORD is wonderfully good to those who wait for him and seek him.
Lamentations 3:19-25, NLT

Without Imprisonment in Inability There is no Mercy In Romans 11:32 Paul, in commenting on the issue of Gods forthcoming mercy to the nation of Israel, remarks that God has bound all men over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all (NIV). By all men Paul refers here to those of whom he was speaking in chapter 11, namely the hardened Israelites who were rejecting Gods plan of salvation by mercy instead of works. I refer you to this verse because unless the sinner has been boundover to disobedience, realizing his helpless estate, as Horatio Spafford called it in his hymn It is Well With My Soul, then the sinner cannot truly grasp and treasure the truth and reality that God gives mercy. And only then will it be well with his soul. To be bound in disobedience means to be shut up as the New American Standard translates it. This means that the sinner must hear that he has been locked up in the cell in disobedience. It is also the cell of inability, because to be confined to disobedience is to be unable to obey. The sinner must hear that he is unable to even reach out for the key. It is only when the lost person understands that he is locked away, in solitary confinement, for his sin, and unable to go or get free that he is ready to embrace the other truth of
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Thoughts on the Doctrines of Grace Pastor Rob Wilkerson

Romans 11:32 that God may show mercy to him. Listen once more to Eugene Petersons masterful translation.

In one way or another, God makes sure that we all experience what it means to be outside so that He can personally open the door and welcome us back in. Have you every come on anything quite like this extravagant generosity of God, this deep, deep wisdom? Its way over our heads. Well never figure it out.
Romans 11:32-33

I trust that from this article you will be more perceptive in presenting the gospel to sinners. I also trust that you will be more able to help others present the gospel better. If we want the sinner to taste the glory of the mercy of God in Christ, then we must know that this gear works properly only when the other gear of human inability is in full operation. Next week, I will attempt to help you more in this area of inability by unfolding for you the nature of mans heart as presented in Scripture. The Bible speaks of the heart as the seat of this inability, and by Gods grace I hope to present to you what the biblical teaching on the heart as it relates to man, sin and salvation.

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