I want you to turn in your Bibles
this morning to the book of James. To the book of James and the
first chapter. And I want to read a couple of
verses. Verses 23 and 24. And if any
man be a hearer of the Word and not a doer, He is like unto a
man beholding his natural face in a glass, in a mirror. For he beholds himself, sees
himself, and goes his way, and straightway forgets what manner
of man he was. I've entitled this message, The
Man in the Mirror. This past week, I heard a lady
news presenter use a word that we rarely hear anymore. She was talking about the death,
the murder of all those children in Connecticut. And she used
the word depravity, depravity. She spoke of the depravity of
the slayer. She spoke of the depravity of
this young man, the murderer. We don't hear very much about
depravity in our day. And it was very obvious that
she was disassociating herself and most people from such depravity. Surely a person who kills that
many or does some awful deed, some heinous crime such as that,
surely they're depraved. The first point in what some
people call the doctrines of grace is the point of total depravity. Total depravity, unconditional
election, limited atonement, irresistible grace, perseverance
of the saints. And I've heard oftentimes various
individuals who hate the gospel and deny the truth of God's Word. I've heard them say, well, I
just don't like the second point. I don't like the notion of unconditional
election. Or somebody else might say, I
don't really like the idea of a limited atonement or of particular
redemption. Or even some speak of not liking
or agreeing with irresistible grace. or even the perseverance
of all the saints of God. But I always tell those people,
whether they deny the last four or one of the last four, that's
not really the problem. The problem is you don't believe
and understand the first point. You do not believe and understand
what is meant by that phrase, total depravity. Because if we have understanding
of that first point, that first point of grace, that first gospel
issue, if we have understanding of total depravity, that makes
all the next four absolutely essential. absolutely essential. What do we mean when we speak
and speak of total depravity? We certainly do not mean, and
we do not believe, believing in total depravity, that all
people, without exception, are as bad as they could be, or that
they manifest their wickedness to the same degree as every other
sinner. But what this means is that since
the fall, since the fall of our race in Adam, there in the garden,
Sin has permeated every aspect of our being. Sin has permeated
every son and every daughter of Adam and Eve, and that means
every body. We come forth from the womb speaking
lies. Born in sin, the psalmist says,
and shapen in iniquity. In other words, a nature of sin,
a nature of depravity, if you will, is the nature that we are
born with when we come into this world. We are not born good and
go bad. We are born bad and therefore
it is impossible for us to do good. And we are totally deceived. We are absolutely deceived if
we simply believe that we are what we think we are. or if we believe what our mother
says that we are, or if we believe what our family and friends say
we are. We are, without a doubt, we are
just exactly what God says that we are. We are in every way what
He says that we are, and He sets before us a mirror of just exactly
what we are in His Word. You see, James here talks about
those who come before the Word of God. Now, there are many applications
of this principle throughout Scripture. But here, it seems,
is the first one, and that is that we come before the Word
of God, and God holds it up before us as a mirror, and in it He
tells us just exactly what we are, and when we turn away from
that Word, we forget We willingly and wantingly forget what God
says and shows us that we are according to His Word. And He says that we in ourselves,
Apart from divine grace, and most especially apart from the
Lord Jesus Christ, we are nothing in ourselves but sin. Now, you notice I didn't say
that we were just simply sinners. I said that this book says that
we are, in and of ourselves, nothing but sin. And we do what we do because
of what we are. We sin, and by sinning we do
not become sinners, but rather we sin, and being sinners we
sin because sin is what we are. It is exactly what we are. And God gives us oftentimes a
picture or an illustration over and again in His Word of just
what we are spiritually, just what we are in the sight of this
holy God. Turn over and listen in Isaiah
chapter 1. He uses an example in the nation
of Israel. And in that example of Israel,
He shows us what we each are individually. He gives us, as
we say, the whole picture. Here we are. Isaiah chapter 1
and verse 5. He says, Why should you be stricken
anymore? you will revolt more and more."
In other words, there's no need to chastise a dead man. There's no need to inflict more
pressure or more pain or whatever it is to a dead man. He says, the whole head is sick
and the whole heart faint. Not only in our mind, our thinking,
but also in our affections. Because when he speaks and he
uses this word whole, whole includes not only the entirety of something,
but it includes also the purposes and the desires. the whole head
and the whole heart. He describes it from the sole
of the foot even unto the head. There is no soundness in it,
but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. They have not been closed,
neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment. Do you know what
that 6th verse is a picture of? This is what God, who knows exactly
what we are and who we are in ourselves, who sees our thoughts,
knows our motives and our intentions, He likens us to one big leprous
sore. That's what a leper is here.
That's the sore. That incurable disease. He's nothing from His head to
His toes, anything but wounds and bruises and putrefying sore. That's exactly what we are spiritually. And we find that this book, beginning
after the fall, God makes no bones about it, does not pretty
up the picture at all, but He shows what Adam's race is in
its entirety in His sight. Turn over to Genesis. in the
6th chapter, and listen to what is said in Genesis chapter 6,
that opening book of the Bible. Genesis chapter 6, beginning,
he says in verse 5, where it tells us, "...and God saw that
the wickedness of man was great in the earth." Immediately. upon our fall in Adam, since
like must beget like, since Adam and Eve became sinners, and we
all in that race sinned in them, and their nature was then passed
upon each one as such beget such, and so forth down the line, so
that the wickedness of man immediately was great in the earth. We've been the way we are a long
time. Sin has been on this earth a
long time. Depravity, total depravity, has
been in all our family since we trace it back to our father
Adam. That's right. Now listen to this. God saw that the wickedness of
man was great in the earth, and that every imagination..." Now
here is the God who talks again and again, warns again and again
about idolatry, about worshiping graven images. We'll have a lot
of those graven images in this season we're in. But where do
these images begin? They begin in the imaginations
of fallen, depraved sinners. Listen, "...and that every imagination
of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." Every
imagination of the thoughts of the heart of every person on
this earth was only evil continually. Every time we have an event such
as has taken place in our nation or in the world, everybody immediately
begins to decry the evil of it and speak of these evil people,
which they are. But we're the same thing. You
say, you might be preacher, but I'm not. Here's the mirror, what
did he say? Do you think I'm delighting in
describing us this way? I'm in the same boat. I'm in
the same condition naturally. That's what the mirror reflects
when I look in Scripture concerning myself. And it's the same with
every one of us. Every imagination of the thoughts
of our heart, they're only evil continually. Why? Because we
as sinners think them. We think them. Turn over and
look in the book of Job. Look at Job chapter 15, and listen
to what Job is directed by the Spirit when we read here. Job chapter 15, and look down
in verse 14. What is man? Now listen to this. Man is that generic term. It means men and women. What is man that he should be
clean? And he which is born of a woman
that he should be righteous? Can anybody that is born of a
woman, can anybody in our race, in themselves, be clean or righteous? Behold, he that is God puts no
trust in his saints, yea, the heavens are not clean in his
sight. How much more abominable, how
much more abominable and filthy is man who drinks iniquity like
water. You could take the worst drunk,
that's ever lived on this earth, consumed the most alcoholic beverage,
stayed the drunkest on it the most of all in his life, he'd
be nothing compared to every sinner who drinks iniquity like
water. Iniquity is simply inequity. Inequity means simply that which
is not of God and that which cannot be sanctioned by God or
accepted by God. He said, we drink that like water.
Have you ever seen an alcoholic who can take some stuff that
probably maybe if you drank a sip of it, you'd be drunk for hours?
He just kind of, as we say, chug-a-lugs it down. That's the way we drink
iniquity. That's the way we accept error
and ignorance. That's the way that we look at
things. That's the way that we accept
what comes from the devil, the counterfeit teachings of men. We drink that like water. Turn over to Psalm 51. I quoted this to you, but look
over and listen to David. David proved this. He proved it. This is the man
after God's own heart. And I'm sure for our benefit,
to some extent, God released him and he proved exactly what
he was, But he says here in verse 5, Behold, I was shapen in iniquity,
and in sin did my mother conceive me. Somebody said, does that
mean sex is sin? That's not what he's talking
about here. He's talking about the fact that his father was
a sinner, and his mother was a sinner, and since like begets
like, he also was a sinner. Look over in Psalm 53. Verse 1, he says, "...the fool
hath said in his heart, there is no God." Actually, what that
says is, "...the fool hath said in his heart, no God. Corrupt are they, and have done
abominable iniquity. There is none that doeth good."
Now, when a man who would say, well, I believe there's a God,
but if we do not acknowledge God as He is in His Word. Now, we come to that mirror,
and here is God showing us who He is. We can turn away and we
say, well, our God is not like that. God is saying, this is
the way I am. We say, no God. No. No. as if we can make Him be
something that we want Him to be. The creature is going to
talk to the Creator in such foolish language or thought. God looked
down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any
that did understand, that did seek God. Every one of them is
gone back. They are all together become
filthy. There is none that doeth good,
no, not one." If I spent my time, maybe I ought to, correcting
people who daily tell me about how good they are, or how good
their children are, or how good so and so is, if I spent my time
correcting them, I wouldn't have anything else to do. I couldn't
squeeze anything else in. Oh, my boy, he's a good boy.
Or, I'm really a good person. That's not what the mirror reflects.
That's not what the Word of God says. That's not what the mirror
shows. Turn over in Ecclesiastes and
listen as the wise Solomon, made wise by God, what he's setting
forth for us. Just this very thing in the book
of Ecclesiastes in chapter 7. Ecclesiastes 7 and verse 29,
he says, "...Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man
upright, but they have sought out many inventions." Man in
the garden was upright, possessing immutable righteousness, if you
will. Here he is in the garden, and
after the fall, After having been told by God plainly not
to eat of the tree in the midst of the garden, after a plain
command, when by He's given everything else in the garden, but immediately
after the fall, He begins to seek out His own invention. That's
right. Fig leaf aprons are an invention
of fallen man. Just like every covering, every
imagined righteousness, every work, every deed, every attempt
to make ourselves acceptable to God, they're just man-made
inventions. They went and hid themselves
in the garden. They went and made themselves
aprons or coverings to hide their nakedness from the trees, the
leaves in the garden from a tree. Look over in Ecclesiastes 8. 8 and verse 11, he says, "...because
sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore
the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil."
Just because God doesn't strike you down dead or me down dead
for a wicked thought or a wicked act or a sin of any kind, immediately,
it says men set their hearts to do every evil. Ecclesiastes
9 and verse 3. This is an evil among all things
that are done under the sun, that there is one event unto
all. Yea, also the heart of the sons
of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they
live, and after that they go to the dead." That's not a very
pretty picture, is it? But it's the truth. It's the
truth. It's what God says. Turn over
to Matthew chapter 15 and listen to Christ Himself. Matthew chapter
15 and verse 19. Now the Pharisees, those He's
talking to here, they thought goodness and cleanliness and
such things as that righteousness, were based on the things that
they outwardly did or outwardly appeared to do. They didn't do
this, they didn't do that, they didn't do the other thing. Well,
that makes me righteous. That cleans me up in the sight
of God. He says, In verse 18 or verse
17, "...do not ye yet understand that whatsoever entereth in at
the mouth goeth into the belly, and is cast out into the drought? But those things which proceed
out of the mouth come forth from the heart, and they defile the
man, for out of the heart Oh, that's that one thing that moms
have been telling about their boys for years and years. He
drinks, he does drugs, he's been in trouble, he does this, that
and the other, but he's got a good heart. No, he's got a bad heart. And that's why he does these
things. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders. See that? adulteries, fornications,
thefts, false witness, blasphemies." He said, out of the heart. He's talking about that core
of our being, that lowest essence, if you will, of what we are in
ourselves. Why does a man murder somebody? Because he's a murderer at heart.
That's right. He's a murderer at heart. Christ
said this, He said, the law says, Moses in the law rightly said,
thou shalt not kill. But Christ said, I'm telling
you this, whenever you have rage and anger against somebody, you
commit murder in your heart. He said, when you look upon the
opposite sex to lust after them, you commit adultery in your heart. Man, we're in trouble. I've heard
these people say, well, I don't hate anybody. And sometimes within
a matter of a few minutes, after telling them a little bit about
the God of the Bible, it's obvious they pretty much hate me. But
I don't hate anybody. You hate that person you won't
say a word to. You've already killed them in
your heart. Well, I really, preacher, I don't hate anybody. That person
that you act like they don't even exist in this world, you've
already killed them in your heart. That person that if you could,
you'd just end their existence on the earth. You say, well,
I've never done that. I've done that in the last year,
I'm sorry to say. I said, what do you mean? I mean
with regard to your family, with regard to your daughter and your
granddaughter. You face some of the things we've
seen. Before I could even not think it, I'd already thought
it. It's what we are. That's exactly
what we are. And Paul in Romans 3, he takes
up the same banner. You can just turn over there
in Romans chapter 3 and listen to what he says. It doesn't get
any plainer than this, than what we read in Romans 3. Romans 3. He's saying here, whether you
are Jew or whether you are Gentile, everything proves that you're
all under sin. As it is written, verse 10, there
is none righteous, no, not one. There is none that understandeth,
there is none that seeketh after God, They are all gone out of
the way. They are all together become
unprofitable. There is none that doeth good,
no not one. Their throat is as an open sepulchre. With their tongues they have
used deceit. The poison of Asp is under their
lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their
feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in
their ways. And the way of peace have they
not known? There is no fear of God before
their eyes." That's a bad picture. And most people, if they come
under the sound of the truth, if a gospel preacher dares hole
up the mirror of God's Word to them, they're like that king
who hated the prophet. He said, don't call him, don't
ask him what God's got to say, because he doesn't ever have
anything good to say about me. You say, you don't ever have
anything good to say about me, preacher. That's exactly right. And I don't have anything good
to say about myself. Not a thing. In Romans 1, he
describes all of the race as having turned away, having rejected
the light in creation. and have Him replace the true
God with images of stone and wood and most often images of
the mind. See, I believe in God. I'm telling
you this, if He's not the God who describes Himself in this
book in the way He says that He is, then what you've got's
an idol. I don't care if you've got a
string of Sunday school pens a mile long. And it seems like,
if you turn over to Jeremiah chapter 17, it seems like this
just really kind of sums it up in the Word of God. Jeremiah
chapter 17, look down in verse 9. The heart, that's the mind,
the affections, that's who we are. The heart is deceitful above
all things, and desperately wicked. Who can know it? You say, well,
preacher, if I know my heart, I'm not like that. Well, you
don't. That's just what he says. You're deceived, and the deception
is an inside job. Desperately wicked. This is our condition. And this
is what the Word, the mirror of God's Word, reflects of us. Truth. But sometimes, and it
seems like more and more as we come down to the end of this
age, sometimes we have shown to us in a clear and horrifying
way Such as the event last week. Clear picture of what we are. Here's a murderer. The term now
is mass murderer. And the truth of the matter is,
he is us. Who was it that said, I found
the enemy and it is I? You say, no way could I ever
do that. But I'm telling you, apart from
God's power and God's restraining grace, that's exactly what we
would do. Scary, isn't it? I remember reading
a long time ago about a preacher who was standing or sitting by
a window talking to a friend of his or another man, and all
of a sudden, they led a man to the gallows down the street to
be hanged. The other man said, well, what
a bad man. What must he have done to be
taken out and hanged by the neck? This preacher told him very wisely. He says, there goes me but for
the grace of God. Is that right? That's exactly
right. Going into that school armed
That's me, but for the grace of God. Murderer, thief, rapist,
extortioner, there goes me, but for the grace of God. That man in the mirror, that's
us. That's us. That's all sinners.
You see, every openly wicked act of men is simply God holding
up a mirror. and showing us what we really
are. You say, that's not me. It is,
and I pray that God would be merciful and keep us from being,
keep you from being what you are. The person in the most dangerous
position in this world is that person who does not think themselves
to be the sinner that they are, weak one that they are. Not only
capable, we say, well, I know everybody's capable. They're
not just capable, they're prone to it. And this shows us the
blindness to what we are and to what God says that we are
when we look on those things and say, well, how evil is that?
How wicked is that person? How depraved is that person? Oh, man's inhumanity to man. You know what man's inhumanity
really is to man? Man being man to man. That's what it is. And I'll show
you how blind we are to stupid. Something like that happens on
the news, and immediately, some liberal individual, some capitalizing
politician says, oh, we've got to do something about these guns.
Is that the blind leading the blind? Absolutely. We've got
to do something about those guns. Every gun I've got is made out
of hard steel. It's cold, it's lifeless. And I've never had one of them.
I've had a lot of them. I've never had one to jump up
out of a holster or jump up out of a case or a safe or whatever
it is, jump out and shoot by itself. What's the problem then? Not the gun. It's that depraved
sinner who will use whatever means is necessary. Long before
there was ever a first gun, there was a murder. Long before there
was gunpowder, or some other explosive, or certain weapons,
long before that, there was murder. Cain rose up, the Bible says. Son of Adam and Eve, he rose
up. And it says he slew his brother.
How did he do it? Did he strangle him maybe? Did
he take a piece of an oak limb and beat him to death with it?
What does it matter? What about when a suicide bomber
straps explosives to himself, blows up a whole market full
of people? You see, it's just the reality
and the truth. Man does what he does because
he is what he is. What about a man who flies an
airplane into a building and blows up that building, burns
up Thousands of people. What about in the news? Just
yesterday, I think it was, a man in an Assyrian aircraft fires
on a bunch of people in a refugee camp, kills scores of people. Depravity leaves a dark footprint
everywhere. Everywhere on this earth. And the Bible not only says that
all have sinned, it says all are sinned. And the worst of
all, and you might find this hard to believe, the worst crime
of this world is self-righteousness. Because actually, that's the
murder of God. It says the carnal mind, the
natural mind is enmity against God. And the proof that deicide,
is in the heart of every person. When God Himself came to this
earth in human flesh, what happened? Men killed Him, crucified Him. Couldn't get their hands on God,
absolutely considered seated in the heavens. But when He came
to earth, they reached out their hands. and doing everything they
wanted to do out of a heart of malice, took him by wicked hands
and crucified him and killed him. And I can tell you this,
you better be like that artist that I read about years ago.
I can't remember who he was, but supposedly he painted a scene
of the crucifixion, painted all the people around the cross,
and painted as one of the faces in the crowd. His own face. I heard one of those TV preachers
say one time, he said, oh, he said, they crucified my Lord. If I'd have been there, I'd have
stopped them. No? You'd have been there, you'd
have been crying out, crucify Him, crucify Him, apart from
grace. Murderers. And I'll tell you,
maybe worst of all, is all these religious people, all these preachers,
who are mass murderers of men's souls. They speak the message
of death. They lead the souls of men down
to eternal death. When our Lord hears them say,
Lord, you're our Lord, and we've preached in your name, we've
cast out devils in your name, we've done many wonderful works."
He said, I'll say to them in that hour, depart from me, you
that work iniquity. You're preaching, you're casting
out devils, you're giving, you're benevolent so-called, Nothing
but iniquity. It's not equal to what God requires,
and it certainly is not equal to what He gives as a gift in
Christ. There's only one hope for the
man in the mirror, and that's the man on the cross. That's
the only hope. Even God, in order to save us,
in order to do what is right and just as a just God in saving
us. He could not even do that from
heaven. That's how bad we are. Because what we are requires
not just physical death, but eternal death. And therefore
He became flesh. God was manifest in the flesh. Surely, that's something to be
celebrated, not just once a year, but every day of the year. But
had He only come in human flesh, had He only been born, had He
only remained a man, and then ascended back into glory, the
man in the mirror would still perish. He had to die and suffer
what we are due for what we are. The only remedy for the man in
the mirror is the man who is the sinless man. The only remedy
for the man in the mirror is that one mediator man between
God and man, the man Christ Jesus. The only remedy, the only hope
for the man in the mirror is the righteous man, the one who
knew no sin, that God made to be sin for us, that we might
be made the righteousness of God in Him. Not one of our own,
such as we are a sinner, but one likened to our nature, in
our nature, who sins not, and can be the sacrificial man. Only God. can save the man in
the mirror. How in the world can He do it?
As Job said, how can man be just with God? How can such a creature
be right with his Creator? How can God, being holy and just,
glorify Himself in the salvation of such a sinner? Only through
Christ crucified. I'll tell you, we need a Savior.
And Christ is the Savior. He's the only one. We need a
righteousness. It must be charged in our account. We don't have one. But God makes
us righteous in Him. We're hopeless and helpless rebels. Totally depraved. God can only
accept holiness and perfection. That's what He is. We need to substitute man. And
the truth is, man's worst act, revealing who he is, at the same
time, is God's greatest act, revealing who He is. Man shows
what he is in the death of Christ. A murderer at heart. A God murderer. God shows who He is in heart. He's the Savior of His people.
Thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people
from their sins." This is a faithful saying worthy of all believing
that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. You'll never save yourself. You
and I have to be saved. Christ is going to save all His
people. And the best I could pray for
you, what I pray for myself, is for God's restraining grace
to be upon us and keep us from being what we are in ourselves.
That's right. Lord, don't let me be what I
am before me. And the thing that we pray is
that God would save you. You say, well, preacher, you'll
never get a big congregation preaching like this. You'll never
win friends and influence people. You'll never be a figure for
good to this nation. I know that. But I know the One
I'm talking about does, is, and shall be to His people. I'll tell you that's a black
background. The mirror shows what we are. This Word also shows what we
are in Christ if we be in Him. Like it was said of the bride
by the bridegroom, thou art all fair, my love. There is no spot
in thee. You and I need help. The only real remedy for total
depravity is total salvation. The only way that one being such
as we are in ourselves can be saved is by all our salvation
being in somebody other than ourselves. Christ Jesus the Lord. Are we going to turn away from
the mirror of God's Word which tells us what we are and our
need and our state and condition? Are we going to turn away from
such mirrors as we have reflecting what we are in ourselves last
week in that awful event? And as we turn away from them,
go on our daily journey, saying, forgetting what manner of person
we really are. Somebody says that we have three
images of ourselves. That is how we think we are,
how we see ourselves. And then secondly, how other
people see us. And there's that third one. That's
how God sees us. And the only way He can see us
in mercy and grace and see us holy and see us righteous is
to see us in His darling Son. Look to Christ. Father, this
day we give You thanks for Your Word. May Your Spirit be pleased
to take it and reveal to us who we are in our state and condition,
our need, our desperate state as sinners. May we, in all the
events of this life around us that show the depravity of man's
heart, may we, being able to see our need for your grace,
for your salvation, through the crucified Christ. We pray that
you would help us. Bless this word to your people. For we pray in Christ's name,
Amen.