Romans chapter 3. Remember it
was last week. The week before last. Sometime
in the recent past. Everything kind of blurted over
again. Time and state going away quick. We were, me and Larry was talking
before one of the live streams and talking about the doctrines
of grace and we were talking about how so often people believe,
oh yeah, well I believe the doctrines of grace, I just don't believe
in limited atonement, I don't believe in irresistible grace. I don't believe
in unconditional election. They have their two, three, four
point, whatever they call them, corners. However, in my opinion, those
five points of the doctrines of grace, they rise and fall
together. They really can't be inseparable.
If you don't believe one of them, you don't believe all of them.
Biblically speaking, that is. You can theoretically, and you
can maybe academically squirrel your way around to putting something
together, but they kind of rise and fall together. But one of
the comments we were talking about, me and Brother Larry,
was that people may reject irresistible grace, or they may reject unconditional
election or limited atonement, and of course many, many people
out there, they reject perseverance or preservation of the saints
because they believe you can lose your salvation, but what
me and Larry was talking about was that really, whenever it
all comes down to it, what people really hasn't embraced or been
revealed in scripture by the spirit is the doctrine of depravity,
the doctrine of inability. That really is the battleground
where the doctrines of grace rise and fall. If you don't believe
what the Bible teaches about our depravity, our sinfulness,
our inability before God, then all the rest of those things
you can reason away. You can reason away election.
If you don't believe that man is completely enabled to provide
a righteousness that pleases God or to do anything spiritual,
then you can have reason away with free will and with all your
works and all your things that you do that are kind and good
and compassionate or religious, whatever is gonna be that thing
that fills that inability. Election goes away, you know,
because you can fill that with, you know, I made a choice. Atonement
is a universal thing, because God is love and God loves everybody
and Christ died for everybody because he wants everybody to
be saved, but people aren't choosing that with their free will. So,
you see how I'm talking about, if you don't believe in the inability
of man, the way the Bible teaches it, and you just say, oh yeah,
I believe I'm a sinner, you know, you go out here to all the little
religious groups around, even the ones outside of the umbrella
of Christianity, you're gonna find people that are gonna say,
oh yeah, we believe that we're sinners. We believe that we sin
or we do bad things. Everybody is going to say that.
But not everybody has been given to know their sinful state before
God as far as it reaches in the fact that they have a complete
and total 100% inability to please God to do anything righteous. They don't believe that. They
believe they can do some righteousness, and that if they just put themselves
to it, they can do enough righteousness that it will be better than what
they've been doing bad, and then God will accept that. That's
the general norm. Even among Christian umbrellas
that are out there that call themselves Christians, they believe
that God is going to accept them on their efforts, on what they're
trying to do, what they're hoping to, you know, I'm doing my best,
you know, I'm doing this, I'm, you know, whatever. So like we were talking about,
the battleground really, to know and to appreciate, really to
appreciate the gospel, we truly need to be given to know our
inability before God. And brethren, listen, I'll just
be honest with you. To be shown your sinfulness and
your inability before God is actually a blessing from God.
Because if you're not given that, understanding of yourself that
felt lack, that felt inability within yourself to provide righteousness
before God. If you don't feel that within
your own soul, then the gospel isn't good news to you. The gospel
isn't good news at all. Now, the fake gospel that's out
there, that Jesus loves everybody, died for everybody, and if you'll
just walk down an aisle, go through a baptistry, sign your name to
a paper, and become a member of a church and then try to live
a good life, that gospel, yeah, that's good news to you because
that's something that you can try to keep and try to do and
most often people achieve. But the very fact that you can't
do anything before God and your total dependence is upon him
and that your trust and faith is in him alone and what he did
for you alone, men can't do that by nature because by nature,
by nature, we are prideful people We are boastful people. We think that we have our own
righteousness. We're self-righteous people.
And that is what is ingrained within us in the nature of Adam. We have a prideful nature that
thinks that we are self-righteous, have a self-righteousness before
God. So depravity, brethren, is the true battleground of the
doctrines of grace. You can't really believe the
doctrines of grace if you don't believe in total depravity, or
what I like to say, total inability. Now, with that being said, this
term depravity, a lot of times I take issue with that because
oftentimes whenever you say someone is totally depraved, someone
will come up and say, well, I'm not as depraved as Jeffrey Dahmer
who killed people and ate their bodies. I'm not that depraved,
I've never done that before. So I'm not totally depraved and
everything. I'm not totally depraved as,
you know, someone out there who's a pedophile. You know, I've never
done that, so. See, that's why I don't like
that term, because you can reason away your depravity based upon
someone else being more depraved than you. The Bible doesn't speak
to us in terms of depravity, necessarily, as it does in inability. We have an inability before God,
a spiritual inability before God, a righteous inability before
God, a repentant inability before God. These are all things that
we cannot do. We need someone outside of ourselves
to do that for us. We need someone to be our righteousness.
We need someone to be our surety or our our wage bearer,
the one who is bearing or paying our wages that we owe for sin. We need somebody who is giving
us the gift of repenting to see our inability and to give us
faith in Christ Jesus. Them are all gifts. We can't
do that by nature. And that's what inability is
all about. There is no one in this world that has ever been
born into this world from the creation of Adam forward. There is nobody that has ever
had the ability before God. Everybody has needed it, including
Adam. Including Adam before the fall. Everybody has been without
the ability to please God. We were all made of one lump,
and out of that one lump, God has made those for glory and
those for destruction. He has made those who have been
elected of God, those who will be the reprobates of God, for
the glory of His justice, the glory of His righteousness. be those who are loved of God,
who are saved, who are glorified to the glory of God's love and
grace and mercy, compassion, and those things. But out of
that one lump of enabled people, God has made a people for himself.
And that's where the doctrines of grace begins, is in the fact
that God is sovereign over all things and can do with the pot
whatever he wants to do with the pot. to mold that clay into
whatever he wants to mold it into, to be of use any way he
desires to use that pot. See, even among the pots that
are within the house, okay, the Lord has designed each one differently.
You know, I have a cup that's been molded to hold coffee. We
have plates that are designed to hold food. We have podiums
designed to hold books and Bibles. We have things that are fashioned
for different uses. And God has the sovereign right
to make one for this use, one for this use, one for glory,
one for destruction, but also among those who are for glory,
within that glory, to make them maybe one to preach, one to help,
one to show compassion, one to be of this, One to be of that
gift, all of them collectively to be for the better of all.
The Lord has given that. And on those who are reprobate,
the Lord has also made them for specific uses. To do this, to
do that, to do this, to bring forth His purposes. He has made
the wicked, yea, for the day of destruction. But the Bible
also says that they are also His. And that He uses those for
His purpose. And so he's created all things
for himself. But back to this thought about
depravity, brethren, look with me, if you would, in Romans chapter
three, I wanted to read a few things, maybe let's talk about
depravity, since that is kind of the cornerstone to understand
the doctrines of grace. And really, to be honest with
you, you know, we often are, I'll say I'll stick with myself,
because I'm I don't know about everybody else. But one of the
questions that's most often asked is, you know, why do you love
the doctrines of grace so much? Why is that such a big thing
to you? I mean, there's so much other stuff in the Bible. Why
is it always about the doctrine of grace? Why is it about that
with you all the time? You and the five points, you
know, what is it about that, you know? Well, the thing is,
brethren, is because the gospel is encapsulated in all that.
The gospel is found in all the five points of the doctrines
of grace. The doctrines of grace, all that is is just a little
systematic thing that's been made out to help us better remember
or to articulate the work that God has done on our behalf. But mainly, the thing is, is
the reason I like to preach on the doctrine of grace is because
God has given me to know my inability. See, that's why we say that whenever
you see what the Bible says about your state, your standing before
God and your state of nature before God outside of Christ, then the doctrines of grace and
what Christ has done by this sovereign God become so beautiful. Listen, the doctrine of grace
is a beautiful thing. So many people, and it's those
who have not been given understanding of their inability that are out
there, that they look on the inside and they see us worshiping
over the fact that God has chosen some to salvation, who are out
there saying, that's an ogre, this God that just only selects
some and sends others to hell with no choice and all like that.
They're on the outside looking at that, but that's because they
think that there's something inherently good within them,
that God shouldn't do that. But the fact remains is that
all men are wickedly evil and that God has no right to save
or has no coercion or has nothing pressing
Him that He has to save anybody. By His righteous holiness and
justice, God should damn everybody. the very fact that He chooses
and saves some, that He who is a holy God, condescended to earth
in the form of a man, and then in that form of a man, actually
brought Himself to die, and in bringing Himself to die, raised
Himself from the grave, that He might receive glory and honor
from all things. Listen, who would have ever thought
that? Nobody would have. But God did. God chose to show
His love to us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us. Christ died. That's just not
something that we say. Christ actually died. He came
and He died on a cross, nailed to a cross, and died for us.
That's God dying for us. But see, that doesn't have any
meaning if we think that we can obtain His favor It doesn't have
any meaning if we didn't know that we were shipwrecked and
without hope. See, most people out there think
we have a little bit of hope. Well, what's that little bit
of hope? Well, that little bit of hope is, you know, that God
loves everybody and there's always that chance that I can be saved.
So I'm just going to go out here and live my life. I'm still young.
I'm going to do whatever I want to do, live the way I want to
live. And then one of these days, I'll just make a decision for
Jesus. Go down and tell the preacher I want to be saved and get baptized
and join the church and I'll turn my life around, but first
of all, let me live my life and do what I want to do, blah, blah,
blah, blah, blah. And you see it all the time. I grew up in
a system of churches that that's basically what happened. Good
example, youth camp every year. Thousands of kids would get saved. We would go home, wouldn't see
them. Until next year, youth camp comes
and all of them come back again. And then here we go. Then they
get saved again. And then we go home. Then we
take them to youth camp again. They get saved or rededicated
and come back. And it's just over and over and
over. Why? Because they get under the preaching and the law-mongering
of the preacher who's telling them that they're going to hell
at any second. Or Christ is coming back at any second. And they're
going to be caught in whatever it is that they're doing. scared
and then they go to make this profession of faith and then
they leave, but there's nothing genuinely there. Not that they
weren't sincere. Listen, I don't know how many
times I went down to the altar to a preacher and pray a prayer
and was sincere because my heart truly was scared that if I die,
I was going to hell. And that preacher was telling
me that Jesus is coming again, which I truly believe and that
hell is hot, which I truly believe. But yet, whenever I got up and
walked away, I still was the same person that I was when I
went down there. Now, I wasn't for a few days. I was a very
religious person for a few days after that. But as time went
on, I proved to be the same sinner who keeps going down to the altar
saying, I need to do something, otherwise I'm going to go to
hell. It's a vicious, religious, evangelical circle, not the gospel. Not true salvation. See, true
salvation is the child of grace is given to know their sinfulness
and that from that point on, they know there's never anything
that I will ever do to please God. And so that leaves me at
the foot of the cross looking up to Christ saying, you're my
only hope. If I am yours, my salvation is
in what you did, not what I have done, will do, or continue to
do. It's not in that. So depravity,
brother, whenever we see our inability before God, that is
why we run, we love, we embrace, we cheer, we worship the God
of grace. Sovereign grace. So let's look
at a few things here. Romans chapter 3. Look with me,
if you would, at verse 10. Romans chapter three, and I encourage
you to read along the verses as I read them, because I want
you to see this is not Mike, not Larry, you know, it's not
the preacher down the street that you might know. It's not
a theological system that we're preaching. It's not a systematic
theology. It's not some seminary course.
It's not, this is what the scripture says. This is what God, these
are the words of God. You, okay? As it is written,
there is none righteous, no, not one. Now before we go on to verse
11, let's look at that. What's the implications of that?
What does that say? There is none righteous, no, not one. So how many are righteous? None,
right? So that includes who? Nobody. Everybody. That includes everybody. Everybody is unrighteous. And
nobody is righteous. From Adam until everybody that's
alive breathing right now. No matter where they're at, Joplin,
Newton County, Missouri, the United States, North America, all over the world, there's none
righteous. No, not one. That means there
is no righteousness in you, or you, or you, or you, or you,
or you, or you, or you, or me. There's none. You guys are not
righteous. No righteousness. You have none. So that right there, is as plain
as day, clear as day. But guess what? Until the Spirit
reveals that to you in your heart, you hear me say it. You read
the words there. You can honestly say the Bible
says that, but still not believe that in your heart. And I know
you don't believe that in your heart. None of us believe that
in our heart fully. because we still try to please
God by the things that we do. Even us who have been born from
above, we still revert back in the flesh to try to please God
by the things that we do. Now, thankfully, we have that
new man in us that is renewed every day, that doesn't get bad,
that doesn't get worse. He's renewed every day. That
is the constant reminder that Christ has finished it all. We're thankful for that gift.
But brethren, there is no righteousness in us at all. Verse 11. There
is none that understandeth. Wait a minute. We have the Bible.
We can read it. God's given us a brain. God's
given us intelligence. God's given us wisdom. Can't
we read the Bible and ascertain what it means? Listen, there's some people that's
listening to me right now that don't even know the word ascertain,
that I just use, much less spiritual things. People can gather knowledge,
but here the Bible is very clear. It says there is none that understandeth. So, how many people understand
spiritual things? None. So no one does. Okay, so we have everybody who
has ever existed in all the world that is not righteous and cannot
understand spiritual things. There is none that seeketh after
God. Well, wait a minute, I came to
church today. Wait a minute, I went down the
aisle, went to the old-fashioned altar and knelt down there and
confessed my sin, repented of my sin, Got up and turned my
back on the world. Started living for Jesus. Got
put under the magistrate waters. Now I'm a member in good standing
at the First Baptist United Pentecostal Crazy Circus Church of the Firstborn. Reformed and Protestant, by the
way. There's none that seeketh after
God. There are a lot of people who say, well, I sought after
God. I was going my own way, and then all of a sudden, one
night in the middle of the night, God just, you know, laid upon my heart
that I need to seek after Him. It says, none seeketh after God. Well, wait a minute, preacher.
The Bible says, seek me while I may be found. The Bible says, those who seek
will find. Well, brother, that's a statement
of fact. Those who seek will find. But
the question again is, who is it that seeks after God? Well,
the Bible here says no one seeks after God. Well, then who are
the ones that the Lord's talking about that seek after Him? You see why the doctrines of
grace is beautiful? See, nobody would seek after
God if God didn't draw them to Himself and cause them by giving
them spiritual life. See, everyone thinks it's God
drawing them and dragging them unwillingly to Him and making
them. He's forcing them to believe.
That's not right. God doesn't force against our
free will. See, that's the problem. Is your
quote-unquote free will is not righteous, it doesn't understand,
and it doesn't seek after God. Your will doesn't do those things.
What will you have? It doesn't do those things. See, God doesn't drag somebody
against their will to come to Him. No. Those people don't have
spiritual life, so they don't want those things. They don't
understand those things. They can't do those things that
God requires. And so, what is this then? God is giving them, first, spiritual
life. Once somebody has spiritual life,
then, They understand. Then they seek. It says in verse 12, they are all
gone out of the way. They are together become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good,
none, not one. How many do good? Zero. None. There are none that do
good before God. Verse 13, their throat is an
open sepulchre. No, it's a sepulchre. I have
to tell you the story about a sepulchre some other time. Their throat
is an open sepulchre. Y'all know what a sepulchre is?
Y'all young people know what a sepulchre is? A sepulchre is
a grave, like a tomb. It's an open sepulchre. Their
throat is an open sepulchre. Open grave. meaning that the
only thing that comes out of it is deadness. Their tongues,
they have used deceit. The poison of asp is in 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. Now brethren, that's who we are
by nature. That's what we are by nature. That's what the Bible
tells us about ourselves. Look if you would with me over
at Romans chapter 8. But with me in verse 6, Romans
8 and verse 6. It says, for to be carnally minded
or fleshly minded, that's to be carnal. Whenever we use the
word carnal there, it means fleshly. That means who we are by nature.
That's who you are in your father Adam. Father's name was Wayne. No,
we're talking about in our earthly, natural father, Adam. We are all born from Adam. We
are the seed of Adam in the flesh. That's what the word carnal means,
fleshly mind. For to be carnally minded or
in the fleshly mind, the fleshly person that we are, that old
man, is death. But to be spiritually
minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind, or the
fleshly mind, the old man's mind, is enmity against God. Y'all know what the word enmity
means? I want y'all to understand what
I'm saying here. Y'all know what enmity means?
Enmity basically means hatred. It means to be an enemy of, okay? So it says here that naturally
the people All of us, from Adam, down, are enemies against the
true God of the Scriptures. Now, we're not enemies against
the God that they make up out there in all these other churches
that just everything is love and joy and peace and hupti ha,
let's hold hands, sing kumbaya and, you know, 95 verses of,
you know, glory, glory, glory, glory, glory, glory, glory, glory,
glory, shout it all down, you know. The Holy Spirit's in me
and I'm such a wonderful person. the God of Scripture, who is
sovereign over all things, who has chosen whom He wills, who
has given Christ to die for His people, and who will with all
right not equip the wicked. It's not the one that the nature
of man loves. It's an enmity against God. And
it's not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be.
See, that tells us that the old man, the fleshly man, the carnal
man, cannot be subject to the law of God. And here we have
churches everywhere today out there telling everybody that
they need to keep up with keeping all these laws. please God or
to stay safe to either be accepted of God or to stay in right standing
with God. Their standing before God is
dependent upon their keeping the law and right here the Bible
tells them that our flesh cannot keep the law. So then, they that are in the
flesh, here's the summation ain't this what I just said? They that
are in the flesh can not, can not please God. So is there anything that you
can do to please God in your flesh? No. The person that you are, born
of Adam, and from him all the way down to whoever is alive
today across this world, no one can please God. So see brethren,
that's why I tell you, this is the battleground for the doctrines
of grace. See, you're not going to rejoice
in unconditional election because you see your ability to please
God. You think you have an ability
to seek after God, to please God, and that there is no enmity
between you and Him. You think that there is some
kind of a righteousness that God's going to say, hey, all
right, come with me with what you've got. So see, unconditional election
is something that you don't even want to consider because you
think there is something that you can provide to God so that
He will save you. See, limited atonement or particular
redemption isn't something that you want to even consider at
all because if God is my friend, if God does love me and desires
for me to be saved, and there is no enmity between me and him,
and there is something that I can provide to him that he will accept
on my behalf, then Christ can die for anybody and everybody. And so Christ's death makes it
possible that everybody can be saved, but that we have to come
to God. We have to come to grips with
we've sinned before God and we need to come to Him and accept
Jesus as our Lord and Savior. So particular redemption is something
that is not even considered or loved because they feel that
salvation is open and free to all. They surely don't like irresistible
grace because again, God is never going to make somebody do something
that they don't want to do or be something that they don't
want to be. I always just love it whenever
I hear stories of atheists, those who actually deny that there
ever was a God, whom the Lord reaches out with irresistible
grace and gives them spiritual life and they come to believe
in Christ Jesus, especially if they are believing the doctrines
of grace. They come to these things and they begin to believe
these things. There again, perfect example to all you religious
zealots out there. What about this guy? He didn't
even believe that there was a God that existed, but because God
exerted His sovereignty and gave that man spiritual life, who
never would have come to God, who was in full enmity against
God, even though he didn't believe He existed. God gave that man
life to now come and believe on Him and love Him, and now,
look, now what are you going to say about that? Is that a
horrible thing? Is irresistible grace a bad thing there? That
man, look at the Apostle Paul. The Apostle Paul didn't make
a decision for Jesus on the road to Damascus. The Apostle Paul
was in hatred to the God that those people were preaching.
He believed it was another God. He believed this Jesus fella
was a blasphemer who came and blasphemed God and was a liar. And he was going to put to death
everybody in the way. That's what the Christians were
called at that time. Those of the way. the way of Jesus. The
Apostle Paul was going to put them to death, throw them in
prison, stop their churches, stop their preaching, stop the
spread of this game green before it gets out to more people. That's
what Paul was on his way to do, and on his way to do it, he was
whistling along the Damascus road thinking that he was going
to end this way, and God come by irresistible grace, and changed
that man's heart, brought him into the purpose that God had
raised him up from, predestinated him to, and Paul became the greatest
apostle among all those apostles, spread the gospel throughout
all the world, wrote half the New Testament or more, given
us one of the best glimpses of Christ Jesus and His salvation
than anything else we see in the Scriptures, the clearest
presentation of that by the Holy Spirit's given Him them words. But Paul here is someone who
by irresistible grace became what he became. Is irresistible
grace such a horrible thing? No, but from the perspective
of the person who doesn't love the God of the Bible, it is. It says here that no man can
please God. So if we are unable to please
God, if we are in enmity with God, if we cannot understand,
if we cannot seek, if we cannot, cannot, cannot, cannot, cannot,
the Bible teaches that every one of us has a total inability
before God. Look with me if you want to Romans
chapter 3. Look down at verse 12. We just read this, but I want
you to see something here. It says, they are all gone out
of the way. There are none. They are together
become unprofitable. There is none that do it good.
No, not one. To reiterate that, look at 512. Whenever he means all, who is
all? Everyone. Verse 12, Romans 5, 12. Wherefore,
as by one man, sin entered into the world, and death by sin. So death passed upon all men,
for that all have sin. That means every one of us are
sinners. So from Adam on down, all of us sin. So not only do
we have an inability of spiritual things before God, we have actually
transgressed God's law and holiness And we are unholy before God.
We are sinners before this God. It isn't just that we don't want
God, and we won't come to God, and we can't understand God,
but here we are, these innocent little people all over here who
just lack the knowledge and understanding. No, we have grievously sinned
against that God. We have sinned against Him. We
have transgressed Him. And it says here, all have. Not
one person gets away from that. Everyone is like that. And that
comes from Genesis 5.3. You don't have to turn back if
you don't want to. I'll read it real quick. In Genesis 5.3, the Bible says,
you remember whenever Adam was created, the Bible says that
he was made in the image of God, right? Well, guess what happened
after Adam sinned? Showed who he was. When Adam
manifested who he was, by sinning, Adam manifested his total inability,
Adam manifested that sin that was within his heart, that temptation
and lust that was within his heart. Whenever man sinned against
God in the Garden of Eden, it showed who he was and what kind
of man he was. And if you'll look there in Genesis
chapter 5 and verse 3, the Bible says that Adam lived 130 years
and he begat a son in his own likeness after his image and
called his name Seth. So here we see that from Adam
and then everybody that came from Adam's loins, which is everyone
else, that will ever be. Listen, brethren, there's never
going to be a severance where Adam's line stops and another
line starts among people, among mankind. See, Adam is the first seed of
every seed. And the Bible has laid down a
foundational principle that all things reproduce after its own
kind. Adam has reproduced after himself
a man who is enabled to keep the things of God, to know spiritual
things. Adam was the representative or
the natural head, I should say, not representative, but Adam
was the natural head of all his seed. Meaning that everybody
that was born of him is going to be born like him, his likeness,
in his likeness. and everybody has. So that means
everybody is born enabled just like Adam was. It's our nature. Look if you would with me in
Psalms chapter 51. Psalms 51 and I want to look at verse 5. It says, the psalmist writes,
behold, I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive
me. So you didn't become a sinner
at some time in your life. You know, I grew up as a Southern
Baptist and among the Southern Baptist, there was this doctrine
that was called the doctrine of the age of accountability.
It meant that there was a point where a child becomes accountable
before God because of his knowledge of sin. But there is this time,
from the time that they're born until the time or the age of
accountability, which nobody can put their finger on. Nobody
knew when that age was. It just was something made up
by theological people. from the time that the child
was born until the time that he comes to the age of accountability,
that that child was in the age of innocence. That they were
innocent before God. So if that child dies before
the age of accountability, that that child would automatically
go to heaven because that child didn't know anything. Never heard
the gospel. Didn't know right from wrong.
Had no opportunity. didn't know or didn't ever commit
a sin yet. They haven't yet sinned. They're
not cognitive of their sinfulness. So there's this mystical age
between birth and between that age, whatever it might be, that
these children are accepted before God based upon their not sinning
or their not being a sinful person. But, brethren, that is unbiblical
as the day is long. There is no grounds in Scripture
whatsoever for that. Now, people can argue about,
are there babies in heaven? Do all babies go to heaven? Or
whatever the case might be. I'll just give you my opinion
on that, my thought on that, and I think it's as grounded
in Scripture as it can be. Because there isn't anything
in Scripture that says 100% There are things that's there on both
sides of this argument, but here's what I do know the Bible says.
The only ones that are gonna be in heaven are the children
of God, who've been elected before the foundation of the world.
So if all babies who die before this quote unquote age, then
they were elected before the foundation of the world, not
only to have died that death, but to have been elected of God
to be a child of grace. They were elected to do that,
okay? But nobody's going to be in heaven
that was not elected by God to be the child of God, to be redeemed
by the death of Christ, and to be given the faith in that Christ.
That person was given that. He was given to trust and believe
on Christ. Now I'm going, how did the babies
do that? I don't know. How did John the Baptist leap
in the womb whenever Jesus' name was mentioned and he was still
in the womb of his mother? The Bible says that he was filled
with the Spirit of God. How was he filled with the Spirit
of God if he never made a profession of faith and asked Jesus to come
into his heart? How was he filled with the Spirit?
Because God sovereignly did it. God sovereignly gave him that
whatever faith that there was to respond to the very name of
Jesus, John had it in the womb. So don't tell me that a baby
that don't know nothing can't be born of God already and be
given faith in Christ Jesus. That faith is manifested. There
are some that have one measure, some that have a hundred measures.
Christ is the giver of the measure of faith. But brethren, the fact
remains that whenever that baby was shapen in the womb He was
shapen in iniquity, meaning that he was in the same line and seed
of Adam, who is a sinner. And it says here that he was
born, shapen in iniquity and in sin,
my mother conceived me. So he was a sinner before he
was ever born. You were a sinner before God,
before you were ever born. Because that's your nature. Again,
I use this illustration all the time, and I know you guys are
probably getting tired of it. That oak tree out there that's
in my front yard, before another oak tree ever, I mean, sometimes
you go out there, especially in the springtime, you can see
them even right now, there's these little oak trees that are
starting to grow, these little sprouts growing there. How did they get
there? Because of that oak tree, the
oak tree is making new... An acorn fell out of that oak
tree at some point, and fell down on the ground, and it went
to the ground, and it started springing out a new oak tree,
right? Well, before that acorn ever hit the ground and started
sprouting life, the life of that oak tree that's sprouting up
was in that oak tree. And everything that that oak
tree is is gonna show up in that little bitty sproutling. It's
gonna grow up to be an oak tree. It's gonna have bark that looks
like that, It's going to have leaves that look like that and
it's going to produce acorns that look like the acorns that
that tree produces. Why? Because like I said, light produces
light. You're born of atom. You're a seed of atom. Everybody
that comes into this world is a seed of atom and they are going
to manifest the same nature as their father. Just like every
one of those trees that's out there are oak trees that are
going to continue to make oak trees. Every one of us is going
to continue to make atoms. over and over and over and over
again. Sinner, sinner, sinner, sinner,
sinner. Everyone is a sinner. Everyone's
born into this world a sinner. So before you're even born, you're
already a sinner before God. You're already totally enabled
to do spiritual things before God. That's who you are. Look, if you would, at Genesis
chapter 8. I do want you to turn with me
on this one, and I want you to read this with me. If you will,
I'm not going to force you. If you don't, though, I might
grab Larry's cane and hit you in the head. Genesis 8. I especially want
you kids to follow along with me. I want you to read these
things. It's good for you to learn them
and know them, see what they say. Chapter 8, look it with me if
you would, verse 21. It says, And the Lord smelled the
sweet savor, and the Lord said in his heart, I will not again
curse the ground any more for man's sake. Here it is, follow
along if you would. Are we still turning? Alright,
I'll hold off because I want you guys to see what the Bible
says. Genesis 8, verse 21. First book of the Bible, 8th
chapter, 21st verse. It's the first book of the Bible. First book of the
Bible. Chapter 8, verse 21. The Lord smelled the sweet savor,
and the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground
anymore for man's sake. For the imagination of man's
heart is evil from his youth. The imagination of the heart
of man is evil from his youth. So now we have proof that the
infant, yay, even before that, the embryo. Notice I said embryo
and not a mass of cells. Did you say 11 or 21? 21. And
I'm on genesis. Oh, I'm on, okay. Genesis 8. I was on the wrong
thing. Genesis 8 and verse 21. Alright. So, before you're born, you're
a sinner. As you're born, as an infant,
you're a sinner. In your youth, that would be
Everybody from an infant up to adulthood. You're a sinner. Look at Romans 7, if you would. This is just the Bible commentating
on itself that it said, for all have sinned. We just read it.
For all have sinned, right? Well, not all. The babies haven't
sinned. The age of accountability, the
children haven't. Romans 7. Romans seven and then look down
with me if you would want to read Verse 14 says for we know that the law is spiritual
but I am carnal, fleshly, sinful, sold
under sin. Now who is saying that? I think that is talking about... God was sinful? No, God doesn't
sin. It could be John. No, it's the
book of Romans and so we know that Paul is the one who wrote
the book of Romans. So the Apostle Paul is saying
here that he is sold under sin, that he is carnal. And this is
the Apostle Paul saying that after he was converted, that
he was carnal. As a matter of fact, this whole
seventh chapter of Romans is Paul explaining the warfare and
the duality of the child of grace in the old man and the new man.
The old man who is born of Adam is carnal and sold under sin.
That tells me that adults are sinful. So we have before you're
born, after you're born, in your childhood and adulthood, there
is no change. All have sinned and continue
to be sinful people before God. We have a sin problem. We have
an inability problem. We do not have any ability for
righteousness. But it's not just in our nature,
brother. Not just in your nature. While you're in Romans there,
I was going to go to another passage, but since we're already
there in Romans, let's go to Romans chapter 3 again. The verse right before where
we started reading this morning. See, it's not just our nature
that is sinful before God. Okay? It's an actuality. It's not just a position or a
standing we have before God as sinners. We are actually sinners. We sin. We do sin. You say, well, I know I'm a sinner,
but I don't actually sin. That's just who I am in Adam,
you know. No. Verse 9, Romans 3, 9. What then, are we better than
they? No, in no wise. For we have before proved both
Jews and Gentiles that they are all under sin. The Bible says, if you would,
look in 1 John, Chapter 1. 1 John, chapter 1. It's towards
the back of the book. First epistle of John. Chapter 1. Chapter 1, verse 10. It says,
if we say that we have not sinned, we make Him, and that's speaking
of God, we make God a liar. and His Word is not in us. So if you say that you don't
have sin, or that you have not sinned, or never sinned, then
you make God to be out of honor. Now, I want to go back and I
want to ask a question, having said what I've been saying, and
what I said earlier about the age of accountability. For those
who say that children, from before them being born until the Suppose
at age of that accountability, have they sinned? Yes, they have sinned. The Bible
says they did. Because no matter who you are,
what you are, no matter, like even before you were born, you
sinned because the person before you who made you alive sinned. No matter what you are, you are
a sinner. That's right. Yep, we're all
sinners and we fall, the Bible says we fall short of the glory
of God. That means that not only who
we are, but what we do. So our nature falls short of
being the glory of God, but our actions fall short of the glory
of God. So who we are and what we do
is sinful. So we are totally enabled to
be righteous. We are totally sinful. That's who you are. At all times. 100% of the time. 100% of the
day. Every day. Larry is a good man. In human speaking. He knows what
I mean. In human speaking, Larry's a
good man. He's a gentleman. He tries to
do and help people all the time and he's a very nice fellow. But as good as Larry is, Larry
is a sinner. And guess what? Larry sins all day long. I sin all day long. Grandma sins
all day long. I sin all day long. You sin,
everybody. What do you mean by that? I haven't
lied today. I haven't stolen anything today.
I haven't cheated. I haven't lusted. I haven't bore
false witness. I haven't done any of those things.
What do you mean I sin all day? Well, sin is the transgression
of the law. Right? That's what the Bible says. Sin
is the transgression of the law. Well, the law says that we are
to keep God's law at all times. And every day I stand breaking
the law of God because I cannot keep it. That's what Paul is
saying in Romans 7. I try but I can't. I try but
I can't. Every time I go to do good, evil
is present with me. Why? Because anything these fleshly
hands puts its hands to do to be accepted before God or to
be in right standing before God is putrefied because this flesh
produces no righteousness and God will not accept anything
in this flesh. We cannot please God. So that
means at all times, 100% of the day, everything that I do is not acceptable before God.
So you say, well, then if that's
the case, if that's our state, if that's our standing before
God, if that's the actuality about us, then what are we going to do? See, there's where the gospel
comes from. Because the gospel comes in and isn't a gospel of
do. The gospel is the gospel or the
good news of done. It was already done for you.
Your standing before God was made holy and without blame. And that was laid to your account.
Guess what? Even before Adam was created.
You don't believe me? Look at Ephesians chapter one. Adam, even before he was made,
he was still a sinner. Even before he was made. Well,
before he was made, he wasn't a sinner because he wasn't made
yet. Well, you know that. Adam was made as a sinner. He was made without the ability
before God. That's right. Yes. Ephesians
chapter 1, the Bible says, blessed be the God in verse 3. Blessed
be the Godfather of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ,
according as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before
Him in love. See, it's done. The works were
finished from the foundation of the world. What works? The
works of Christ were finished from the foundation of the world.
Well, wait a minute, I didn't think Jesus came until 1 AD.
Yeah, Jesus came and manifested that which already was from the
beginning of the world. That's why 2 Timothy says that
we have been saved, we have been called with a holy calling, not
according to our words, but according to the mercy and grace that was
given to us in Christ Jesus before the foundation of the world,
but has now been revealed to us. Who has saved us and called us,
saved us. Who hath, who hath, past tense,
saved, past tense, us, and called, past tense, us, with a holy calling,
not according to our works, but according to His purpose and
grace, which was given us, past tense, in Christ Jesus before
the world began. So saved, called, purpose and
grace was all before the foundation of the world. But is now, in
this time, The time of the manifestation of God's purpose. God's purpose
existed. It was finished. It was done.
It was settled. Every detail outlined. But is being manifested in this
time that God has given to man. But is now made manifest by the
appearing of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who has abolished
death and brought life and immortality to light. That's the good news. The good news is bringing to
light what has already been done. So we are sinners by nature. We're sinners by practice. And Brethren, listen. I think
I'll probably stop here, but it includes every part of us.
It includes our mind. It includes our heart. Everything. And I'm pressed to go forward. Are you all tired? Look with me in Jeremiah. Jeremiah
17. Look at verse 9. It says, The
heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.
Who can know it? So here we see that our heart
is deceitful. And it's wicked. This is above
all things. The heart is deceitfully wicked
and desperately wicked above all things. So the heart of man
is sinful. Back again in Romans, we see
in chapter 8 where we were at earlier,
Verses 6, For to be carnally minded is death, and to be spiritually
minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity
against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed
can it be. So then they that are in the
flesh cannot please God. So here we see our heart is deceitful
and wicked above all things. Our mind is sinful. So we have
a heart that's a sinful, we have a mind that's wicked, a mind
that's wicked, sinful. Well if our, of course we just
read in Genesis, you don't have to return back there if you don't
want to again, I'm going to just so don't misquote it. Back in
Genesis chapter five, or six, verse five, And God saw that the wickedness
of man was great in the earth and that, listen to this, every
imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Have you come to grips by the
revelation of the Holy Spirit, been given knowledge that every
imagination of the thought of your heart is only evil continually? Well, the Bible says it is. So our heart, our mind, our thoughts,
Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 1 tells us that everything about
our life is sinful. Get over there. Ephesians chapter
2 and verse 1 says, have He quitted who were dead in trespasses and
sin? Our whole entire life is dead
to God. The life that we are outside
of God is death. You say, well, how's life death? That means that our life is a
carnal life, a fleshly life. It's dead to spiritual things. It cannot perceive spiritual
things. It cannot enjoy spiritual things. It cannot receive spiritual things. It's dead. There is deadness
there. There is nothingness there. There
is darkness there. Remember last week we spoke that
we are darkness. That's what we are. We were dead
in trespasses and sins. So our sinfulness reaches into
our whole entire existence and into our lives. Psalm 39, look with me if you
would at verse 5. Psalms here says, Behold, thou
hast made my days as a hand breath. Now what does that mean? Okay,
that means this right here, this is the breath, or the distance
across my hand. That's what the word breath,
breath, B-R-E-A-D-T, B-R-E-A-D-E-T-H, breath, the breath. that you
have made my days as a handbread, meaning not very long. That's
what that's telling us. My age is nothing before thee. Verily, every man at his best,
every man at his best is altogether vanity. You know what that word
vanity means? It means sinful. The word vanity
means sinful. No. I wasn't speaking about Barbara. Vanity. Vanity. It means sinfulness. Sinful. So at his best state, Every man
is altogether sinful. God is best. That's why the Bible
says that all of our unrighteousnesses, no, that's not what it said.
All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. Our very best state
is sinfulness. See, brethren, we're totally
enabled before God. We cannot hear. We cannot believe. We cannot understand. We cannot seek. We cannot do
anything to please God. There is nothing that we do that
God accepts. Our heart is a sin factory. All
it does is sin. All of our mind is sinful. All
of our actions are sinful, all of our thoughts and our life
in its totality is all sinfulness. Now whether or not you feel that
about yourself or not does not mean that it's not true. That's
what God says about you. That's the truth about you. That's
the truth about me. We are sinners before God. So unless God intervenes into
our life and gives us spiritual life irresistible grace, and
God dies on our behalf, particular redemption, because He has chosen
to do that for us before the foundation of the world, unconditional
election, we will never continue to walk in faith and see God
at the end. Perseverance, preservation of
the saints. See how all the doctrines of
grace are dependent upon the understanding depravity, your
inability. So you're never going to fully
enjoy or love the other ones. And those who do not love those
other ones don't love them because they've never been shown the
first one, inability. They've never been shown their
total inability. God has not given them spiritual
life to believe and to see and to recognize their sinfulness
before God. They're still in their sins.
That's why Jesus said, those who are well don't need
a physician, only the sick need a physician. That's why Jesus
told those religious Pharisees, you know, you know your sinfulness,
you've been given to know your sinfulness. These have not been
given to know these things. See, some have been given to
know, and some have been given to know. That's why the Bible, in
the Beatitudes, said, blessed is the poor in spirit. Those who are poor in spirit
are the ones who have been given to know their inability before
God. They're poor. They know, I'm poor. I have nothing.
I have nothing to give God. I have nothing for God. Nothing
that God will take, because I have nothing. That's why we're naked
before God. We don't have anything. But there
are those, the Bible says in Revelation, who don't realize
that they're poor and lame and naked, destitute before God. They still think there's something
they can do. They're kind of like old Daniel
over here. He can kind of walk, but he has
to walk on them crutches. He's got crutches he can walk
on. He's not totally crippled, but
he's just kind of partial. right now. Well, see, that's
what they think about their whole entire lives. I'm not totally
enabled. I'm just partially enabled. I
still have some crutches that I can walk on. See, the Bible
teaches that we're totally enabled before God, sinners to the utmost. Therefore, if God doesn't intervene
with unconditional election, irresistible grace, particular
redemption, and perseverance, We never would have anything.
All right, we'll stop right there. Anybody else have anything that
you'd like to add or say? Comments, questions? Corrections
or reviews? Nope. All right. I want you guys
to remember, if you would, remember my mother, or my stepmother,
Sarah. She's been in the hospital again
and was still losing a lot of blood. They're having to give
her like two liters of blood every day. And their large blood clots are coming
out and everything from her bladder. And so she's over in the hospital
over here in Miami. So continue to remember her.
My stepdad, he was rushed to the emergency room a couple of
days ago. They thought he had a stroke at work, he couldn't
remember anybody's name, what he had told his workers to go
out and do and everything. So they rushed him to the hospital,
found out that he had what's called a TIA. I don't know what
that stands for, but a TIA, a mini stroke. They ran a bunch of tests
on him. They think that there was just
possibly maybe a tiny little blood clot or a piece of little
plaque or something. Hit something, caused that, but
they did CT scans, MRIs, ultrasounds of his heart, of his head, his
neck, all that kind of stuff associated with strokes. Everything
seems to be good. He was fine whenever we got there
to see him in the hospital a day or so ago, and everything like
normal. But anyway, he got to go home
just a little bit ago. I got to text a little bit ago.
that all the tests came out fine, and the last MRI that was done
was good, so they got to go home. But continue to remember him
and everything, because he's had these kind of off and on,
and hopefully they can figure out what it is that's causing
it and figure out how to keep from doing that. Anyway, keep
him in your prayer. Also remember Gracie, and she's
not here today, but we'll talk about that later. remember her,
and Brother Lynn Terry, continue to remember him in prayer. And
anybody else want to forgive him out? I think that's it, everybody. So continue to remember them.
Those are the ones who are kind of directly connected with all
of us. All right, let's bow and have a little prayer. Father,
again, we thank you for this day, and we thank you for your
grace and your mercy in Christ Jesus. We thank you, Father,
for all that you've done. We thank you that you've given
us life and that you've given us grace. We thank you for the
doctrines of grace that you've given us to see our inability
before you, but you've given us faith in Christ Jesus on what
he has done on our behalf. Lord, we do want to lift up those
ones that you, we've mentioned this morning for my stepmother,
my stepdad, for Gracie and for Brother Lynn Terry. Lord, we
just know that you're in control of all things and whatever is
to happen, happens by your will and for your purpose and ultimately
for your glory. And we just pray, Lord, that
you might help us. As finite people, Lord, we can't
see everything or know everything and even understand the glory
of your purpose. But Father, as you take us through
these hardships and hard times and the things that we experience,
especially with our loved ones, Father, may you continue to strengthen
our faith that we might continue to look to you and trust in you
in all of it, even though we might not fully understand why
and for what purpose it's happening, Lord, that we know that you are
good and gracious and that you do all things for your glory.
Lord, we again thank you for this opportunity to be here today,
for all the brethren that are here, and we ask you to bless
this time together in Jesus' name.