If God is sovereign, do humans still have free will?
Yes, humans still have free will. Even though God is sovereign and in total control, the exercise of free will remains ours. People constantly face choices and decisions. The hardening of the heart is self-inflicted, occurring under God's sovereign volition, and God responds to human choosing.
Les teaches that Pharaoh's heart was hardened because he made a choice, lived with it, and then chose wrong again, becoming hardened. God put him on the spot with the demand to let Israel go, but Pharaoh hardened his own heart, though Scripture says God did it. Les says that's all God did. Similarly, when man's heart is hardened, it isn't that God fries it; man does it to himself, but it's under the sovereign volition of God. The darkening of the foolish heart is a response of God to their choosing of their will. Les emphasizes that everything mankind does under God is based on free will. We constantly face choices and decisions, and even though God is sovereign and in total control, the exercise of free will is still ours. As people choose to put God out of their thinking and think only in the human realm, which Les calls secular humanism, their foolish heart is darkened. Les then refers to Psalms 14.