Latest / Voddie Baucham Sermons / Voddie Baucham - Doctrine of Total Depravity

Transcript

Voddie Baucham - Doctrine of Total Depravity · Voddie Baucham Sermons

0:00
Speaker 1: As we come to Romans chapter 3, verses 9 through 18,
0:07
Speaker 1: we come to a part of Paul's argument that basically
0:12
Speaker 1: is a culmination of his case against all mankind and
0:18
Speaker 1: his case against anyone or anything that would boast in
0:26
Speaker 1: being worthy of God's favor. or standing and being declared
0:33
Speaker 1: righteous before God. We have already seen, beginning in chapter
0:38
Speaker 1: 3 and verse 18, that he builds his case carefully
0:43
Speaker 1: in that chapter against the Gentile world. And beginning in
0:46
Speaker 1: chapter 2, he builds his case carefully against the Jewish world.
0:52
Speaker 1: And we come to chapter 3, and we are beginning
0:55
Speaker 1: to reach this crescendo. But as we reach this crescendo
0:59
Speaker 1: in chapter 3, it's important to understand that we are
1:02
Speaker 1: now at a moment of great tension. That tension, however,
1:06
Speaker 1: is not relieved until next week. But remember, the letter
1:13
Speaker 1: was meant to be read at a single sitting. But
1:17
Speaker 1: we come to the place of being laid low today.
1:22
Speaker 1: We come to the place of recognizing... What it is
1:26
Speaker 1: that we actually deserve from God. And what it is
1:31
Speaker 1: that we've been saved from. If we don't get the
1:36
Speaker 1: doctrine of total depravity, total inability. If we don't get
1:41
Speaker 1: the doctrine of man's sin. By the way, not the
1:46
Speaker 1: doctrine of original sin. We'll get to that later on
1:48
Speaker 1: in chapter 5 when we talk about Adam and original sin.
1:51
Speaker 1: Now we're talking about total depravity. And what that means is.
1:56
Speaker 1: or radical depravity, as it is sometimes referred to. Here
2:01
Speaker 1: are just a few implications of this doctrine, why it's
2:05
Speaker 1: important that we understand this doctrine rightly. One implication, for example,
2:11
Speaker 1: is the way we disciple our children or discipline our children.
2:17
Speaker 1: If you disciple a child or discipline a child and
2:21
Speaker 1: don't believe in the doctrine of total depravity, it will
2:25
Speaker 1: change the way you approach the discipline of that child. Secondly,
2:31
Speaker 1: the establishment even of civil government. There is a difference
2:37
Speaker 1: between the establishment of government among people who believe that
2:41
Speaker 1: man is basically good and the establishment of people who
2:44
Speaker 1: believe that man is a sinful creature and we must
2:49
Speaker 1: keep an eye on him through checks and balances. Determining
2:55
Speaker 1: guilt and or punishment of criminals. If you don't believe
3:01
Speaker 1: in total depravity, it will change the way you view
3:04
Speaker 1: guilt or innocence. It will change the way you view
3:08
Speaker 1: punishment for those who have sinned. Was it this person's
3:13
Speaker 1: sin or was it the way they were raised? This
3:18
Speaker 1: doctrine also... has a great deal to do with the
3:23
Speaker 1: way we treat so-called mental illness. There is a great
3:29
Speaker 1: debate in the land as to what constitutes mental illness.
3:36
Speaker 1: And when we're actually dealing with sin, your understanding of
3:41
Speaker 1: this doctrine and the doctrine of total depravity can be
3:46
Speaker 1: the difference between believing that a person in a particular instance,
3:51
Speaker 1: not every instance, but believing that a person in a
3:53
Speaker 1: particular instance perhaps just needs a pill to feel better
3:59
Speaker 1: or they should feel horrible about what's going on and
4:04
Speaker 1: need to come to repentance. Again, every time we talk
4:08
Speaker 1: about this, I make the same disclaimer because of the
4:11
Speaker 1: accusations that are always hurled. We do not teach, nor
4:14
Speaker 1: do we believe, that there are No persons in this
4:18
Speaker 1: world who have actual organic problems that need to be
4:23
Speaker 1: dealt with medically. That's not our argument. That's not what
4:26
Speaker 1: we're saying. But we do have a culture that because
4:31
Speaker 1: of the denial of this doctrine, Because of a failure
4:37
Speaker 1: to acknowledge the depravity of man automatically and in every
4:42
Speaker 1: instance goes straight to let's make a person feel better
4:47
Speaker 1: because nobody ought to feel bad. This doctrine affects the
4:55
Speaker 1: way we share the gospel. There's a difference between the
5:01
Speaker 1: way you share the gospel with a person that you
5:03
Speaker 1: believe is good kinda bad and one that you believe
5:11
Speaker 1: is radically depraved this doctrine also affects the way that
5:17
Speaker 1: we hear and receive the gospel if I feel like
5:22
Speaker 1: I'm a pretty good person I will never comprehend the
5:28
Speaker 1: depths of my own sin and the depths of my
5:31
Speaker 1: need of Jesus Christ If I feel that I'm a
5:34
Speaker 1: pretty good person, I will never ever come to the
5:38
Speaker 1: place where I magnify Christ rightly and worship and adore
5:43
Speaker 1: Him in the way that He is to be worshipped
5:45
Speaker 1: and adored because I do not comprehend the vast magnitude
5:50
Speaker 1: of difference between Him and me. It is only when
5:59
Speaker 1: I understand sin rightly that I magnify and worship Christ appropriately.
6:10
Speaker 1: So this is bad news today. It's very bad news today.
6:16
Speaker 1: But without the bad news, you don't understand the goodness
6:20
Speaker 1: of the good news. Amen? With that in mind, let's look.
6:24
Speaker 1: Beginning in verse 9 of Romans chapter 3. It begins
6:31
Speaker 1: with these rhetorical questions again. What then? Are we Jews
6:35
Speaker 1: any better off? Not at all. For we have already
6:39
Speaker 1: charged that both Jews and Greeks are under sin. By
6:44
Speaker 1: the way, when did he already charge that? He already
6:46
Speaker 1: charged that in chapter 1 verse 18 through this point.
6:51
Speaker 1: As it is written, none is righteous. No, not one.
6:56
Speaker 1: No one understands. No one seeks for God. All have
7:00
Speaker 1: turned aside. Together they have become worthless. No one does good,
7:05
Speaker 1: not even one. Their throat is an open grave. They
7:09
Speaker 1: use their tongues to deceive. The venom of asps is
7:12
Speaker 1: under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.
7:16
Speaker 1: Their feet are swift to shed blood. In their paths
7:20
Speaker 1: are ruin and misery. And the way of peace they
7:24
Speaker 1: have not known. There is no fear of God before
7:28
Speaker 1: their eyes. That's the picture of man in his sin.
7:39
Speaker 1: That's the picture that God has painted. Several things that
7:45
Speaker 1: we need to understand. First, I want you to grasp
7:49
Speaker 1: this doctrine. Listen to this from Lorraine Bettner in his
7:56
Speaker 1: classic work, The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination. This doctrine of
8:00
Speaker 1: total inability, which declares that men are dead in sin,
8:04
Speaker 1: does not mean that all men are equally bad, nor
8:07
Speaker 1: that any man is as bad as he could be,
8:09
Speaker 1: nor that anyone is entirely destitute of virtue, nor that
8:13
Speaker 1: human nature is evil in itself, nor that man's spirit
8:17
Speaker 1: is inactive, and much less does it mean that the
8:20
Speaker 1: body is dead. What it does mean is that since
8:24
Speaker 1: the fall, man rests under the curse of sin, that
8:28
Speaker 1: he is actuated by wrong principles, and that he is
8:32
Speaker 1: wholly unable to love God or to do anything meriting salvation.
8:38
Speaker 1: His corruption is extensive, but not necessarily intensive. It is
8:43
Speaker 1: in this sense that man, since the fall, is utterly indisposed, disabled,
8:49
Speaker 1: and made opposite to all good, wholly inclined to all evil.
8:54
Speaker 1: He possesses a fixed bias of the will against God
8:58
Speaker 1: and instinctively and willingly turns to evil. He is an
9:03
Speaker 1: alien by birth and a sinner by choice. The inability
9:07
Speaker 1: under which he labors is not an inability to exercise volition,
9:11
Speaker 1: but an inability to be willing to exercise holy volitions.
9:16
Speaker 1: And it is this phase of it. which led Luther
9:20
Speaker 1: to declare that free will is an empty term whose
9:23
Speaker 1: reality is lost, and a lost liberty, according to my grammar,
9:27
Speaker 1: is no liberty at all. By the way, this is
9:32
Speaker 1: not a new idea that Paul comes up with. He
9:36
Speaker 1: quotes from several places. Most of these quotes come from
9:40
Speaker 1: the Psalms. For example, listen to Psalm 14, 1 through 3.
9:47
Speaker 1: The fool says in his heart, there is no God.
9:49
Speaker 1: They are corrupt. They do abominable deeds. There is none
9:53
Speaker 1: who does good. Does that sound familiar? The Lord looks
9:56
Speaker 1: down from heaven on the children of man to see
9:59
Speaker 1: if there are That's what's being quoted in Romans chapter 3.
10:13
Speaker 1: Listen to Psalm 53, 1 through 3. The fool says
10:16
Speaker 1: in his heart, there is no God. They are corrupt,
10:18
Speaker 1: doing abominable iniquity. There is none who does good. God
10:22
Speaker 1: looks down from heaven on the children of man to
10:25
Speaker 1: see if there is any who understand, who seek after God.
10:29
Speaker 1: They have all fallen away. Together they have become corrupt.
10:33
Speaker 1: There is none who does good, not even one. That's
10:39
Speaker 1: what Paul is quoting here. Not a new concept. Not
10:45
Speaker 1: a new doctrine. This is something that has been since
10:51
Speaker 1: the fall. But what do we understand from the way
10:56
Speaker 1: that Paul lays out this argument? One thing we understand
10:59
Speaker 1: is this. The universal nature of sin. Verses 9 through 12.
11:04
Speaker 1: Look at verse 9. What then, are Jews any better off? No,
11:09
Speaker 1: not at all. For we have already charged that both
11:11
Speaker 1: Jews and Greeks are under sin. By the way, when
11:15
Speaker 1: he says Jews and Greeks, he means the whole world.
11:19
Speaker 1: His argument in chapter 1, verse 18 through the end
11:22
Speaker 1: of the chapter is against the Greek world or the
11:24
Speaker 1: non-Jewish world. His argument in chapter 2 is against the
11:28
Speaker 1: Jewish world. In other words, whether you're inside the Jewish
11:31
Speaker 1: world or outside the Jewish world, Paul has stated clearly
11:35
Speaker 1: up to this point that you are not righteous before God.
11:40
Speaker 1: You are a sinner. As it is written, none... No,
11:51
Speaker 1: not one. No one understands. No one seeks for God.
11:58
Speaker 1: All have turned aside. Together they have become worthless. No
12:02
Speaker 1: one does good, not even one. There is a Greek
12:09
Speaker 1: phrase that is used there five times between verses 10
12:14
Speaker 1: and 12. And in the English, it comes across as
12:20
Speaker 1: no one or not even one. Over and over and
12:24
Speaker 1: over again, he makes this statement in order to be clear.
12:27
Speaker 1: I've made an argument. Now I'm going to summarize my argument.
12:30
Speaker 1: And as I summarize my argument, I want you to
12:33
Speaker 1: understand that every human being on the face of earth,
12:39
Speaker 1: from Adam to the end of time, finds himself in
12:43
Speaker 1: the same condition. and that condition is completely and utterly
12:49
Speaker 1: ruined before a holy God. There is no one who
12:58
Speaker 1: is righteous. There is no one who understands. There is
13:05
Speaker 1: no one who seeks after God. No one. And this
13:09
Speaker 1: is difficult for us. Because deep down inside of us,
13:14
Speaker 1: here's what we want to believe. We want to believe
13:17
Speaker 1: that God looks at the little old lady down the
13:20
Speaker 1: street who doesn't know Christ and somehow graves on the curve. Amen.
13:30
Speaker 1: Somehow we want to hold on to that. Somehow we
13:33
Speaker 1: want to believe that because there are men who have
13:36
Speaker 1: been so much more evil outwardly than other men, that
13:42
Speaker 1: somehow God has to agree on the curve. Somehow there
13:48
Speaker 1: have to be some people who are good, some people
13:52
Speaker 1: who are decent. Folks, no one is as bad as
13:55
Speaker 1: they could be, but everyone, everyone is condemned and no
14:01
Speaker 1: one is righteous. But there's one thing to say that
14:08
Speaker 1: sin is universal, that sin touches all of us. But
14:12
Speaker 1: Paul goes beyond that point. His point is not just
14:15
Speaker 1: that sin touches all of us, but his point is
14:18
Speaker 1: also that sin touches every aspect of us. If you remember,
14:22
Speaker 1: we talked about the Pelagian heresy on last week. The
14:25
Speaker 1: Pelagian heresy is not that, you know, there's no fall
14:30
Speaker 1: and nothing wrong with man at all. The Pelagian heresy
14:33
Speaker 1: doesn't just go that far and state it outright. People
14:36
Speaker 1: today who hold to that idea aren't saying that there
14:40
Speaker 1: is no effect of sin, that there is no effect
14:42
Speaker 1: of the fall. But what they are arguing is, though
14:46
Speaker 1: man is affected by the fall, there are aspects of
14:50
Speaker 1: man's character, man's nature, man's soul, man's spirit, that somehow
14:55
Speaker 1: are still able to respond to God. So they believe
15:04
Speaker 1: in partial Not total or radical depravity. Man is only
15:13
Speaker 1: partially depraved. And there is something in man that somehow
15:21
Speaker 1: is able to cooperate with God. in this synergistic process
15:25
Speaker 1: of salvation? Well, two things. First of all, here's the
15:29
Speaker 1: problem with that idea. It's going to be addressed particularly,
15:33
Speaker 1: but even when speaking of sin as being universal, notice
15:36
Speaker 1: what Paul says. No one is righteous. So again, there's
15:42
Speaker 1: nobody who's righteous at all who can stand before God.
15:45
Speaker 1: No one understands. So there's no one who can reason
15:50
Speaker 1: themselves to God if there's no one who understands. No
15:54
Speaker 1: one seeks for God. Again, remember the Pelagian argument. There
15:59
Speaker 1: is part of us. There is something in us that
16:03
Speaker 1: is still untainted enough to seek after God. Really? That
16:09
Speaker 1: sounds good in theory, but Paul just said there's no
16:12
Speaker 1: one who does that. No one does good. Not even one.
16:25
Speaker 1: So again, Pelagianism has a problem. Because what are we
16:29
Speaker 1: arguing in Pelagianism or semi-Pelagianism? That somehow there is part
16:34
Speaker 1: of man that is able, number one, to do some good.
16:39
Speaker 1: Because you have to do some good in order to
16:44
Speaker 1: come to God. Number two, seeks after God. Number three,
16:51
Speaker 1: understands enough. To number four... Be declared righteous. In other words,
17:01
Speaker 1: the Pelagian heresy denies every principle that the apostle just
17:09
Speaker 1: put forth in explaining the nature of sin. It's universal.
17:18
Speaker 1: And it's complete. How do we see it? First, look
17:23
Speaker 1: at the sin we speak. Look beginning in verse 13.
17:28
Speaker 1: Their throat is an open grave. They use their tongues
17:33
Speaker 1: to deceive. The venom of asps is under their lips.
17:37
Speaker 1: Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. I want
17:40
Speaker 1: you to notice what is spoken of here. The organs, throat, tongue, lips, mouth.
17:50
Speaker 1: In other words, complete corruption. Total corruption. Everything that comes
17:57
Speaker 1: out of your mouth. is utterly corrupt. Throat, tongues, lips, mouth.
18:06
Speaker 1: Is this something new, by the way? Turn with me,
18:09
Speaker 1: if you will, to the right. Look at the book
18:11
Speaker 1: of James. James chapter 3. Begin there, verse 1. Not
18:21
Speaker 1: many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you
18:24
Speaker 1: know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.
18:27
Speaker 1: For we all stumble in many ways, and if anyone
18:31
Speaker 1: does not stumble in what he says, he is a
18:33
Speaker 1: perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body. If
18:37
Speaker 1: we put bits into the mouths of horses so that
18:40
Speaker 1: they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well.
18:44
Speaker 1: Look at the ships also. Though they are so large
18:48
Speaker 1: and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by
18:52
Speaker 1: a very small rudder. wherever the will of the pilot directs.
18:57
Speaker 1: So also the tongue is a small member, yet it
19:00
Speaker 1: boasts of great things. How great a forest is set
19:04
Speaker 1: ablaze by such a small fire. And the tongue is
19:08
Speaker 1: a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set
19:12
Speaker 1: among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire
19:16
Speaker 1: the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell.
19:23
Speaker 1: Jesus said it is not what goes into a man
19:26
Speaker 1: that defiles him, but what comes out. We read in
19:32
Speaker 1: Ephesians chapter 4 that we are to let no corrupting
19:36
Speaker 1: talk come out of our mouths, but instead that which
19:40
Speaker 1: is fit for building up. Why is there such an emphasis?
19:47
Speaker 1: Here's why there's such an emphasis. Because one of the
19:50
Speaker 1: evidences of man's fallen nature is what comes out of
19:55
Speaker 1: man's mouth. One of the evidences of the fact that
19:59
Speaker 1: we do not belong to God, that we are not
20:01
Speaker 1: right with God, and that the lost, hurting, and dying
20:05
Speaker 1: world desperately needs to be saved. It's what is spoken. Yes,
20:17
Speaker 1: sin is universal. But what we see of it is
20:23
Speaker 1: first that which comes out of the mouth. Not just
20:26
Speaker 1: what we say, but also look at how we live
20:30
Speaker 1: among one another. Look at the next verse. Verse 15.
20:34
Speaker 1: Verse 15. Their feet are swift to shed blood. In
20:38
Speaker 1: their paths are ruin and misery. And the way of
20:41
Speaker 1: peace they have not known. This is the way they walk.
20:46
Speaker 1: And when he says the way of peace they have
20:48
Speaker 1: not known, he's not saying that these individuals have no
20:51
Speaker 1: inner peace. What he's saying is that fallen man has
20:55
Speaker 1: not known, cannot know peace with one another. Because fallen
20:59
Speaker 1: man has fallen desires and his feet are swift to
21:03
Speaker 1: shed blood. Why? Because he wants what he wants and
21:07
Speaker 1: everyone else is an obstacle to his own satisfaction. So
21:17
Speaker 1: fallen man apart from God is swift to shed blood.
21:24
Speaker 1: Fallen man apart from God wreaks havoc on his fellow man.
21:31
Speaker 1: Fallen man apart from God wars with his fellow man.
21:39
Speaker 1: Interestingly enough, if you look at Psalm 1, verses 1
21:44
Speaker 1: and 2, and compare it, To this text, you see
21:49
Speaker 1: that there's perhaps another psalm that informed what Paul is
21:52
Speaker 1: saying here. Psalm 1, verses 1 and 2. Blessed is
21:56
Speaker 1: the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
21:59
Speaker 1: nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in
22:02
Speaker 1: the seat of scoffers, but his delight is in the
22:04
Speaker 1: law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates
22:06
Speaker 1: day and night. Walk, stand, sit. Blessed is the man
22:13
Speaker 1: who does not walk, does not stand, does not sit
22:16
Speaker 1: in these places. And here in Romans chapter 3, we
22:19
Speaker 1: see their feet are swift to shed blood. They're walking.
22:23
Speaker 1: And their paths are ruin and misery. And the way
22:26
Speaker 1: of peace they have not known. This is a man
22:29
Speaker 1: who's walking on his way. And as he walks on
22:32
Speaker 1: his way, the only thing he leaves in his wake
22:35
Speaker 1: is destruction. That is the state. of fallen man. That
22:44
Speaker 1: is the state of every fallen man. It is the
22:49
Speaker 1: state of every culture because of fallen men. It is
23:00
Speaker 1: your state and my state apart from the person and
23:04
Speaker 1: work of Jesus Christ. And we must understand this. If
23:10
Speaker 1: we don't, We cannot comprehend His greatness and His majesty.
23:15
Speaker 1: There's a final piece. The sin we can't see. Verse 18.
23:21
Speaker 1: There is no fear of God before their eyes. So now,
23:28
Speaker 1: we have it. All men are shut up in sin.
23:34
Speaker 1: Every man who has ever lived in every place around
23:39
Speaker 1: the globe Not only that, but we see the evidence
23:44
Speaker 1: of it. As man opens his mouth and has opened
23:47
Speaker 1: his mouth throughout the course of history, we've seen evidence
23:51
Speaker 1: of it in what man speaks. As man walks forth
23:57
Speaker 1: along his way, we've seen evidence of it in what
24:01
Speaker 1: he pursues and what he leaves in his wake. And
24:05
Speaker 1: by the way, there is no hope for this man
24:09
Speaker 1: in and of himself. Why? Because there is no fear
24:13
Speaker 1: of God before his eyes. So here's the picture. Lost
24:24
Speaker 1: man is walking under a curse. And as lost man
24:29
Speaker 1: walks under a curse, he opens his mouth and skews
24:32
Speaker 1: forth things that are in keeping with the curse under
24:36
Speaker 1: which he lives. His feet take him to places and
24:40
Speaker 1: bring about destruction that is in direct relation to the
24:43
Speaker 1: curse under which he lives. And as man goes forth
24:48
Speaker 1: and brings agony on himself and his fellow man, he
24:52
Speaker 1: knows that something is wrong. But because there's no fear
24:55
Speaker 1: of God before his eyes, he doesn't know what it
24:58
Speaker 1: is and he doesn't know what to do about it.
25:04
Speaker 1: He's lost. He's lost. This is what it means to
25:09
Speaker 1: be lost. You can't educate a man away from this.
25:19
Speaker 1: You can't argue a man out of this. You can't
25:24
Speaker 1: discipline a man into this. You can't coax him. There
25:31
Speaker 1: is nothing that you or I can do about this.
25:35
Speaker 1: Because the blinders on his eyes are there supernaturally and
25:40
Speaker 1: must be removed supernaturally. Otherwise there will never ever be
25:44
Speaker 1: a fear of God before his eyes. But here's what
25:49
Speaker 1: we often do. We find men in this condition and
25:54
Speaker 1: we try to compromise with this man. We find a
25:58
Speaker 1: man in this condition and we try to clean him
26:00
Speaker 1: up on the outside. Right? We find a man in
26:03
Speaker 1: this condition and we begin to work with him and
26:06
Speaker 1: we say, don't talk like that, talk like this. And
26:10
Speaker 1: if you get a man who is in this condition
26:12
Speaker 1: to talk differently because of behavioral modification, what you have
26:17
Speaker 1: is a man who inwardly is still corrupt, but outwardly
26:20
Speaker 1: has learned how to use his tongue, his throat, his lips,
26:25
Speaker 1: and his mouth in order to get what he wants
26:29
Speaker 1: by being deceptive about it. if you can somehow guide
26:35
Speaker 1: his feet so that he is no longer as quick
26:38
Speaker 1: to shed blood, if perhaps you can incarcerate him so
26:43
Speaker 1: that he no longer has the opportunity to shed blood,
26:46
Speaker 1: what have you really done? You have merely put a
26:49
Speaker 1: man in a position where what he is on the
26:52
Speaker 1: inside cannot be expressed on the outside. I've told you
27:00
Speaker 1: before about my opportunity to preach in Angola. The largest
27:06
Speaker 1: maximum security prison in the world. And that eerie moment
27:12
Speaker 1: where at an opportunity that few human beings ever do
27:18
Speaker 1: and none should ever want to stand face to face
27:24
Speaker 1: and eye to eye with a serial killer. There on
27:30
Speaker 1: death row. 23 hours a day He is in this
27:37
Speaker 1: cell by himself 23 hours a day. One hour a
27:44
Speaker 1: day he gets to go outside in a caged enclosure
27:51
Speaker 1: so that he can walk around. No more than you
27:55
Speaker 1: would have for a doggy run. And after that one
27:59
Speaker 1: hour he goes back for the remainder of his 23
28:02
Speaker 1: hours a day. I stood there face to face and
28:13
Speaker 1: eye to eye. Had a conversation. Knew the history of
28:22
Speaker 1: these feet that were quick to shed blood. Heard the
28:27
Speaker 1: words that came forth from this throat, this tongue. These
28:36
Speaker 1: lips and this mouth. And have never been more disturbed
28:45
Speaker 1: by another human being in my life. And I realized,
28:52
Speaker 1: you can cage evil. But there's nothing you or I
28:58
Speaker 1: can do to eradicate it. There was no fear of
29:07
Speaker 1: God before his eyes. Radically depraved. But here's the newsflash.
29:23
Speaker 1: Apart from Christ, neither you nor I would be any
29:31
Speaker 1: better off Why? Well, he doesn't seek after God. Yeah,
29:44
Speaker 1: I didn't either. Clearly, he doesn't understand. Yeah, I didn't either. Clearly,
29:51
Speaker 1: he doesn't do good. Yeah, I didn't either. Clearly, he's
29:55
Speaker 1: not righteous. Yeah, I wasn't either. Clearly, his feet are
30:00
Speaker 1: swift to go and shed blood. Yes, mine were as well.
30:06
Speaker 1: Or do you not remember the teaching of Christ in
30:09
Speaker 1: the Sermon on the Mount? You've heard it said that
30:11
Speaker 1: you shall not murder. But I say to you, if
30:14
Speaker 1: you hate your brother, you're guilty enough to face the
30:22
Speaker 1: fires of hell yourself. But for the grace of God,
30:34
Speaker 1: there go you. There go I. But for the grace
30:39
Speaker 1: of God, this is who we were apart from Christ.
30:44
Speaker 1: And unless and until we grasp this, we will never, ever,
30:49
Speaker 1: ever properly understand or appreciate our debt to Christ. Unless
30:58
Speaker 1: and until we understand this, We will never grasp and
31:02
Speaker 1: we will never understand how worthy He is of our worship.
31:06
Speaker 1: But your problem and my problem is this. We believe
31:10
Speaker 1: this about everybody else, but not about us. We believe
31:16
Speaker 1: this about the serial killer, but we don't believe it
31:20
Speaker 1: about me. We look back on our lives as we
31:24
Speaker 1: were before Christ, and if the truth were told, we
31:27
Speaker 1: actually believe that in us there was some inkling of
31:30
Speaker 1: something that Christ must have seen and must have appreciated
31:34
Speaker 1: and that must have made us catch his eye. But instead,
31:42
Speaker 1: we ought to say with the apostles, I was chief
31:47
Speaker 1: among sinners. But we do not. We do not. If
31:57
Speaker 1: we don't understand this, I'll say again, we don't understand
32:00
Speaker 1: our children and their greatest need. And we look at
32:03
Speaker 1: these behaviors of our children, and yes, we want to
32:08
Speaker 1: correct those behaviors, but we do not understand that the
32:12
Speaker 1: reason our children, these small little cherubs, these so-called innocent ones,
32:19
Speaker 1: The reason that they do what they do is because
32:23
Speaker 1: they are every bit of Romans chapter 3 verses 9
32:27
Speaker 1: through 18. They come into the world like this. One
32:37
Speaker 1: of the reasons that God makes human babies small is
32:40
Speaker 1: so they won't kill their parents in their sleep. they're
32:50
Speaker 1: evil yes this is true children not as righteous no
33:00
Speaker 1: not one none understand no one six got no one
33:09
Speaker 1: does good yes that little pressures one you better believe
33:15
Speaker 1: it if you don't you miss the big picture And
33:19
Speaker 1: you don't realize your desperate need to get the gospel
33:22
Speaker 1: to your child again and again and again and again.
33:26
Speaker 1: Here's the other thing you need to understand. It takes
33:34
Speaker 1: your whole life to wash this off. Amen, somebody. The
33:42
Speaker 1: sanctification process. Again, We are declared righteous before God. There
33:51
Speaker 1: is that legal declaration. And praise God for that legal declaration.
33:56
Speaker 1: But here's what that legal declaration doesn't mean. You are
33:59
Speaker 1: declared righteous. And from this day on, you will forget
34:03
Speaker 1: the things you used to know. Your feet will no
34:07
Speaker 1: longer remember those well-worn paths to shed blood. Your tongue
34:12
Speaker 1: will no longer remember how to shape those words that
34:15
Speaker 1: destroy you. No. You and I know better than that.
34:23
Speaker 1: And every once in a while, we're reminded that we're saved,
34:26
Speaker 1: but we remember some stuff. And it causes us to
34:35
Speaker 1: remember once again our great need and dependence every moment
34:42
Speaker 1: of every day on the saving and sanctifying work of
34:48
Speaker 1: Jesus Christ. Of our great need, week in and week out,
34:54
Speaker 1: to have the gospel preached to us. Of our great
35:00
Speaker 1: need to actively refuse to be conformed to this world
35:07
Speaker 1: and to actively be transformed by the ongoing renewing of
35:12
Speaker 1: our minds. Here's the other thing. I pray that this
35:23
Speaker 1: truth causes us to realize the great need of our
35:27
Speaker 1: family and our friends and our neighbors. What they need
35:34
Speaker 1: is the gospel. You know, one of the reasons that
35:40
Speaker 1: we don't preach the gospel to people around us, aside
35:45
Speaker 1: from just outright fear and trepidation, One of the reasons
35:49
Speaker 1: we don't is because we don't believe they need it.
35:56
Speaker 1: We're not desperate over the souls of our lost loved
36:00
Speaker 1: ones because we don't believe this paragraph. We look at
36:06
Speaker 1: our lost loved ones and all we see is the
36:08
Speaker 1: inconvenience that they bring when they come over our house
36:12
Speaker 1: with their stuff. And I don't mean their suitcases. Amen?
36:19
Speaker 1: That's all we see. And as a result of seeing
36:23
Speaker 1: just that, here's what we pray. Lord, when they come,
36:26
Speaker 1: would you please help them to just not be as
36:29
Speaker 1: horrible as they were last time. Instead of praying, God,
36:33
Speaker 1: this is who they are. They're not righteous. They don't
36:37
Speaker 1: seek after you. They don't understand. They do not do good,
36:41
Speaker 1: and nor did I. They haven't known the way of peace.
36:48
Speaker 1: Their feet are swift to shed blood. There is no
36:53
Speaker 1: fear of God before their eyes. And they need the gospel.
36:58
Speaker 1: Grant me wisdom to share what they need. And would
37:03
Speaker 1: you continue to break my heart so that I share
37:07
Speaker 1: it again and again and again. And instead of praying
37:10
Speaker 1: that they don't inconvenience me so much, help me to pray.
37:17
Speaker 1: that they would not offend you with their sin. Because
37:21
Speaker 1: the fact of the matter is, God, I am much
37:24
Speaker 1: more concerned about my lost friends, neighbors, and relatives inconveniencing
37:29
Speaker 1: me than I am jealous for the glory of your name.
37:37
Speaker 1: That's why we don't share the gospel. Because we don't
37:45
Speaker 1: believe this. That's why we're not on our faces before God,
37:53
Speaker 1: weeping over people who've never heard God's truth. Weeping over
38:05
Speaker 1: places where there are no churches. Because we don't believe this.
38:14
Speaker 1: But we believe that somehow there are pockets of people
38:17
Speaker 1: in the world who are ignorant but not evil. Somehow. Somehow.
38:26
Speaker 1: There are evil people all over the place, but somehow
38:29
Speaker 1: there are people in the world who haven't had an
38:32
Speaker 1: opportunity to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. And those
38:35
Speaker 1: people aren't evil, they're just ignorant. That's why we sit
38:38
Speaker 1: down and we ask questions like, well, what about those people? Surely,
38:44
Speaker 1: surely God wouldn't condemn those people. Do we need to
38:47
Speaker 1: go back to Romans chapter 1? They are without excuses.
38:57
Speaker 1: They too are not righteous. They too do not seek
39:01
Speaker 1: after God. They too do not understand. And they too
39:06
Speaker 1: are absolutely no good. That's why we must preach to them. Folks,
39:20
Speaker 1: this is why the gospel is good news. Because the
39:25
Speaker 1: fact of the matter is, Neither you nor I I
39:35
Speaker 1: would have seen fit to go and redeem this. And yet, God,
39:45
Speaker 1: being great in mercy, Because of the great love with
39:51
Speaker 1: which He loved us. He did just that. While we
39:59
Speaker 1: were yet sinners, He did just that. Christ did not
40:07
Speaker 1: die for those who had a little spark and a
40:11
Speaker 1: little inkling that did something with it that made it
40:15
Speaker 1: worthwhile for Him. Christ died for the ungodly. And it
40:26
Speaker 1: is because of His finished work and His shed blood
40:30
Speaker 1: that we are able to be saved. We get that.
40:40
Speaker 1: We get the greatness of the Gospel. We get that.
40:45
Speaker 1: We get the majesty of our Saviour. We get that.
40:52
Speaker 1: And we get some of these proclamations that we make
40:57
Speaker 1: week in and week out. Do you view your sin
41:06
Speaker 1: this way? Because only when you do will you view
41:16
Speaker 1: Christ rightly.
41:18
Speaker 2: Would you bow with me? so so.
42:24
Speaker 1: So so.
42:56
Speaker 2: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
44:57
Speaker 1: So so.
45:30
Speaker 2: Thank you. so so Thank you. Thank you.