The Doctrine of Absolute Inability

If sinners are left to themselves to believe, by what power do they do it? If God does not make them willing and God does not make them able, where does the power come and where does the will come from? Welcome to Grace to You with the Bible teaching of John MacArthur. I'm your host, Phil Johnson. What is already dead when its life begins?

The answer is your soul. Every person comes into this world, well, as a spiritual corpse.

So how does a lifeless soul, dead in trespasses and sins, suddenly come to life? Can a spiritual corpse bring itself to life? Is there something Christians can do for unbelievers to trigger their spiritual regeneration? Consider those questions to day as we continue John MacArthur's study called The Doctrines of Grace. But before the lesson I have a letter here from a listener who wanted to express his gratitude for the ministry of grace to you and his life.

Here is what Chuck told us. He says, With the help of Pastor John, I adopted an entirely new theological framework. It all started when I listened to Pastor John's series on the doctrines of grace during a 13-hour road trip from Colorado to Southern California. I was totally convinced that these doctrines are what the Bible teaches. I realized that my theology had been off course, and Pastor John helped set me in line with the Scriptures.

I have a special needs son, and through John's sermons, books, and radio series, I now have an accurate theological framework that helps me face the challenges of raising my son. I'm no longer worried that God doesn't hear my prayers, or worried when God doesn't heal my son. I have full confidence that nothing can separate me from the love of God, and that He is completely sovereign over every circumstance in my life and the life of my Son. I take great comfort in God's truth. I am thankful to John MacArthur for advancing the gospel and ministering to the least of these, including me, and he signs it Chuck.

Well, thank you, Chuck, for encouraging us with your story. Indeed, the sovereignty of God is such a comforting doctrine. And now, friend, with much more to encourage you about God's sovereignty, here is John MacArthur to continue his series, The Doctrines of Grace. We have uh embarked upon uh a wonderful study of some very important Doctrines. As you well know, through all these years we Predominantly, if not almost always, work through texts of scripture and.

That way we are Mm. obligated To affirm what the Word of God says because it's what it says. And there is always the, I suppose, potential accusation that when you. Leave the flow of expositional preaching and you embark upon a topical study or a doctrinal study. Um You may be caught up in something philosophical.

You may be caught up in something rational or something. logical and you may be drawing conclusions that Wouldn't stand the test of Scripture. And so, I want to affirm to you that everything that I say. I trust will be before your very eyes drawn out of Scripture. And I would encourage you, like the noble Bereans, to do a little work yourself and search the scripture and see if these things are so.

I certainly don't want to bring to you a rational theology, although it's not irrational. I don't want to bring to you a philosophical approach to theology. I don't want to follow the path of human reason to conclude the things we conclude. I want to bring you what the Word of God has to say. And the Word of God does speak to these very, very important doctrinal issues.

Just by way of brief review, we talked about this doctrine of security or preservation or perseverance. And in the end, we said... We are preserved to the end because we are chosen from the beginning for that purpose. And that took us into the doctrine of divine election, the doctrine of predestination, that God determined before the foundation of the world who He would save, who He would bring to glory. Therefore, whoever it is that He calls, He justifies, whoever He justifies, He glorifies.

And so. The great doctrine of preservation is connected to the doctrine of election or predestination.

Now Any discussion of the doctrine of predestination or the doctrine of divine sovereign election, or, if you will, sovereign salvation as a work of God. is based on another doctrine. on another doctrine. God must save us. He must choose us.

Call us. Regenerate us. Justify us. By his divine power, Because we Are neither willing Nor able. to do it for ourselves.

And this takes us to what I'm going to call The doctrine of absolute inability.

Now to start this discussion, I want you to open your New Testament to John 11. John 11. And this will provide for us, I think, a good analogy. to kind of launch us into our discussion. John 11 is a notable chapter to all who understand the Bible.

Because it records the resurrection of one of Jesus' most intimate friends. A man by the name of Lazarus. Who had a couple of sisters named Mary and Martha, and at whose home Jesus spent Time. They were believers in him. and friends.

As the 11th chapter of John opens, Lazarus. Who lived in Bethany, about two miles east of Jerusalem, just on the back side of the Mount of Olives. Lazarus became ill. In fact, verse 2 says he was sick. And his sisters, Mary and Martha, sent a message to the Lord saying, Lord.

Behold, he whom you love is sick. That indicates to us that Jesus had a very special affection. for his friend Lazarus. Jesus, hearing it, verse 4 said, This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified by it. God has a purpose in this sickness, and it is not ultimately.

to bring about the death of Lazarus. Jesus loved Martha, verse 5, loved her sister, loved Lazarus. But When he heard that he was sick, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was. He didn't respond. And finally, as you remember, he He went.

And Late by Mary and Martha's standards. Verse 17 says, He found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. And many of the Jews, verse 19, had come to Mary or to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. This was kind of a community deal that happened when there was a death. Everybody surrounded them and mourned.

tried to comfort them. In verse 21, Martha indicts Jesus and says to him, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. She had great confidence in his healing power, and apparently none in his resurrection power. He said to her, Your brother shall rise again. And she said, I know that he'll rise again in the resurrection on the last day.

And Jesus said, I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me shall live even if he dies. And everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this? She said, Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, even He who comes into the world.

So they had this little theological discussion and Uh she locked in on the Final resurrection as the only hope for her brother. But as the story goes on. And you come down to verse 32. Mary came where Jesus was, saw him, fell at his feet, saying to him, Lord, if you'd been here, my brother would not have died. This was the same comment that her sister had made.

And when Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her, this whole mourning crowd also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit, was troubled, and said, Where have you laid him? And they said to him, Lord, come and see. Jesus wept.

So the Jews were saying, Behold, how he loved him.

Some of them said, Could not this man who opened the eyes of him who was blind have kept this man also from dying?

So, you know, about everybody thought he could heal the sick. Jesus in verse 38, being deeply moved within, came to the tomb, which was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. Jesus said, remove the stone. Martha. The sister of the deceased said to him, Lord, by this time there will be a stench.

Oh, he's been dead for. days. And then Jesus said to her, Didn't I say to you, if you believe, you'll see the glory of God?

So they removed the stone. And then Jesus raised his eyes and prayed, Father, I thank thee that thou. heardest me, and I knew that thou Hearest me always, but because of the people standing around, I said it that they may believe that thou didst send me. And then verse 43, most interesting. And when he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice.

Lazarus Come forth.

Now, what interests me here is that Jesus gave a command. to a dead man. I've done a lot of funerals. I've seen a lot of dead people. I've never asked any of them to do anything.

Nor has Anybody else? Especially would I never say to a dead man, Bill? Come forth. I mean, you wouldn't waste words. You'd look foolish.

Dead men can't hear. Dead men can't think. Dead men can't respond. Because they're dead, and dead means The absolute inability to do anything. In response to any stimulus.

There's no will. There's no power to think or act. But Look at verse 44. He who had died came forth. Lazarus did exactly what Jesus asked him to do.

Amazing. He must have sort of stumbled out of there because he was bound hand and foot with wrappings. And his face was wrapped around with a cloth. And Jesus said to them, Unbind him and let him go. Dead men can't respond.

Dead men can't obey commands. He couldn't, but he did. He did what was impossible. How? How is it possible for a dead man to do what Jesus told him to do?

We all know the answer. Because Christ gave him the ability to do it. If Christ hadn't given him the life, he couldn't have... Obeyed. And that's what's bound up in the earlier words of Jesus in verses 25 and 26: I am the resurrection and the life.

And the amazing miracle. Of commanding a man who can't respond and then giving him the power to respond is analogous. to salvation. The gospel commands dead men to rise. Dead men to believe, dead men to understand, dead men to repent.

The gospel commands dead people. to do what frankly they can't do.

Now, from there, I want you to go to Ephesians chapter 2, and here we see the depth of this problem. Ephesians chapter 2. This is not a description of Lazarus. This is a description of everybody. Ephesians 2.1 and you Were You were dead.

Your trespasses and sins. In that condition. You formerly walked. According to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, Satan, the spirit now working in the sons of disobedience, you all, all of us, Paul included, we formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as everybody else. We are all dead.

Dead to what? Dead to God. Dead to spiritual reality. Dead to the truth. Man's basic problem is not A lack of self-esteem.

It's not that he's out of harmony with his environment. It's not that he's sort of out of sync with his creator. It's not that he needs to make a few adjustments to sort of get God on his wavelength. Man's problem is he's absolutely dead, and he is incapable of relating to God at all. God's person, God's truth, or God's commands.

Since Kills. The wages of sin is what? Death.

Now, this is reiterated in many places in the Bible. That we are Not only ignorant, that we are not only blind. that we are not only weak and impotent, we are just plain Dead. One of the would-be disciples in Matthew 8. Was approached by Jesus who asked him.

to follow him and He said in Matthew 8, 21, Lord, permit me first to go bury my father. You know what Jesus said? Follow me. And let the dead Very The dead. Let the spiritually dead bury the physically dead.

So there. Jesus calls those outside his kingdom. Dead. Paul in 1 Timothy 5, 6. Says the one who gives herself to want and pleasure is dead.

Even while she lives. The one who is dead has no capacity whatsoever to respond To God. He is a servant of Satan. Driven by the lust of his flesh? The things that come out of his heart.

Are evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witnesses, slanders? This is Matthew chapter 12. 15 indicates in other places in Scripture.

Now I'm not saying that um Sinners can't do some human good. They can be philanthropic. They can be charitable, they can help people, they can be kind, they can be merciful. But they cannot do any spiritual good. They cannot do anything that pleases God.

Because no one can do anything that pleases God unless it's done for His glory, and it can't be done for His glory unless it's done in the name of His Son.

So while there is human good, It is dead good. It has absolutely nothing to do. with God. In Luke 6:33, it says, If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do the same.

So even Jesus' words there admit that people do good. But it's human good, and in a sense it's bad good. good in the sense of human, bad in the sense that it has no pure motive and no bearing on one's relationship. To God. Nothing about it.

pleases him.

Now, back to Ephesians 2 again. The sinner. is so dead So All That he is involved in can be summed up as being of the world Of the devil and of the flesh. He can do absolutely nothing outside of that.

So, when you come to verse 4, if you're going to start to talk about salvation, It doesn't start out in verse 4 and say, however, One day you came to your senses. Yeah. But God being rich in mercy. Because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us what? Alive.

He did it. He made us alive. Together with Christ, by grace you've been saved. He raised us up with him. You say, yeah, but we had to believe.

Of course. Verse 8: For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that, that faith. Not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. You see.

Even faith. has to be given. to the dead Look at verse 16 of Acts 3. Here you have uh Peter and John healing. This Lame man.

And verse 16 says, And on the basis of faith in his name, Acts 3:16, on the basis of faith in his name, it is the name of Jesus. Which has strengthened this man whom you see and know, and the faith which comes through him. Has given him this perfect health in the presence of you all. The faith. To believe in Christ had to come through Christ.

Think of it in these words, Philippians 1:6. I am confident of this very thing. that he who began a good work in you That's very important. Who began the good work? Good.

Who initiated it? God. We'll perfect it till the day. of Christ Jesus. He began it.

He'll fulfill it. Back to Paul's letter to the Ephesians and chapter 4. Verse 18 describes this. With these words. The Gentiles, verse 17.

walk in the futility of their mind. Darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God. That's another way to say it. Physically alive. Spiritually Dead.

excluded from the life of God. Colossians 2.13. weighs in on this. And when you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he made you alive. Dead in transgressions, Greek students would call that a locative of sphere.

You live in the sphere of death. You live in the realm of death. void of all spiritual sense. dominated by your flesh. which is uncircumcised or uncleans.

And in that condition, he made you alive. That's exactly what Ephesians 2 says.

Now this condition Of being spiritually dead was not the way humans came from God. When God made Adam and made Eve, they were spiritually alive. They communed with God, they walked and talked with Him in the cool of the day. They naturally obeyed God, they naturally loved God. They naturally did God's will, but God gave them one prohibition not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and said, in the day you eat, you die.

And in the day they ate, they died spiritually. And all of a sudden, they were alienated from God. They were lost in the garden. They covered themselves. They hid from God.

Spiritually Dead. And of course, That caused the whole human race. to be born dead. That's Paul's point in Romans 5. Romans 5 verse 12 Paul says, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, so death spread to all men.

Later he says, as in Adam, all died. The whole human race. Is born dead. Because of the sin of Adam. Paul is trying to explain to his readers how the death of one man, Christ, could affect so many.

Savingly. And the way he explains how the death of one person could have such a great effect is to show how the sin of one person had such massive effect on the whole human race. And so Paul says, sin entered the world by one man. Death came by sin. Death spread to all men.

And history records The record. of that death. 1 Corinthians 15, 22, as in Adam. all died. God made man upright, but God made man alive.

But the whole of humanity is dead in trespasses And sinned. God comes along. And he commands sinners. To repent. He commands them.

To believe in his son, to love his son, to confess his son, to submit to his son. And you ask the question: can a whole race of Lazaruses respond? This is the compelling question that lies behind the doctrine of election. If sinners are left to themselves to believe, by what power do they do it? If you're going to say, I don't believe in divine election, I believe everybody's on his own out there.

Everybody makes their own choice. God just looks down the way and sees what you're going to do, but it's up to you to do it. Then the question is: by what power does the dead man rise? By what power? If God does not make them willing and God does not make them able, where does the power come and where does the will come from?

Those who deny the doctrine of divine election. Those who deny the doctrine of divine salvation as an act of God Have to believe that there's something in man. Left to himself, That enables him to become willing and to come to life. Is that what the Bible teaches? The Bible doesn't describe our condition as a disability.

It describes it as death. And everybody knows that death means an inability to respond. Maybe a little further review will help us to understand this point. Back to John 1 for a minute. John chapter one, just to clarify, this is everywhere in Scripture consistently.

But of course, verse 12 of John 1, wonderful verse. As many as received him, to them he gave the right to become the children of God, even to those who believe in his name. We love that verse. A lot of people memorize that verse. As many as received him, to them he gave the right to become the children of God, even to those who believe in his name.

Oh by the way. Verse 13. Who were not born of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God You can't be born from the dead by your own power. Whoever received him, whoever believed and became a child of God. Was enabled by God.

It wasn't their own will, the will of the flesh, the will of man. It was God. Wow. Profound truth today from John MacArthur as he continued his study here on Grace to You, titled The Doctrines of Grace.

Well, friend, there is something I want to say that we can't say often enough, and that's thank you for all your year-end support. Your generosity is going to help us take John's verse-by-verse Bible teaching to God's people all over the world in 2026. You are our partners in the truest sense. We're not able to do what we do without your support.

So, on behalf of the entire Grace to You staff, thank you for helping us connect God's people with biblical truth. And if you have a story of God's faithfulness to you through Grace to You, I encourage you to let us know. We love hearing from you. When you have time, jot a note and send it our way. Our email address is letters at gty.org.

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And just a reminder about all the free Bible study resources available at our website, gty.org. If someone asks you a theological question you don't know how to answer, maybe a question about the debate between creation and evolution, or God's sovereignty versus man's free will in salvation, or some supposed contradiction in the Bible, no matter what the question is, I encourage you to go to our website, gty.org. And there you are sure to find a sermon or an article that will give you the answer from God's Word that you're looking for. Our website one more time, G T Y.

Now for the entire Grace to U staff, I'm Phil Johnson. Join us again tomorrow for a look at what just might be the most hated doctrine in Christianity. Find out why it's so despised and why it deserves your attention when we're back with another 30 minutes of Unleashing God's Truth, one verse at a time from John MacArthur on Grace to You.