ministry designed to train expositors,
to equip them to exposit the Word of God, to preach the Word
of God. That's the focus of Dr. Lawson's ministry, the verse-by-verse
exposition of Scripture. He's the author of many books.
His latest is The Moment of Truth. By the way, we have many of his
books on the book tables at 50% off, just so that you know and
take advantage of that. He's the series editor for the
Long Line of Godly Men series with Reformation Trust. He and
his wife, Anne, have three sons and a daughter, and we are very
grateful that the Lord has allowed him to be back with us this year.
Please welcome him as he comes to preach. Well, I want you to take God's
Word and turn with me to the book of Romans, Romans chapter
3. I want to dive right into this.
And while you're turning to Romans chapter 3, I want to thank your
pastor, Richard Caldwell, for his gracious invitation to have
me back this, a third time. And I just want to say what a
joy it is to be here and the opening message by your pastor
was outstanding and it was just well stated and developed and
it was an encouragement to my own heart. The assignment that
has been given to me is to speak on total depravity and the clarity
of evangelism. So, in Romans chapter 3 tonight,
I want us to look at verses 9 through 20. I want to begin by reading
this passage that will be our focus for tonight as we will
look at total depravity and the clarity of evangelism. Beginning in verse 9, what then? Are we better than they? Not
at all. For we have already charged that
both Jews and Greeks are all under sin, as it is written. There is none righteous, not
even one. There is none who understands.
There is none who seeks for God. All have turned aside. Together
they have become useless. There is none who does good. There is not even one. Their throat is an open grave. With their tongues they keep
deceiving. The poison of the ass 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 paths, and the path of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before
their eyes." Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks
to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be closed
and all the world may become accountable to God. Because by
the works of the law, no flesh will be justified in His sight,
for through the law comes the knowledge of sin. The doctrines of grace always
begin at this place, with the biblical truth of total depravity. And the reason for this should
be very clear. Here is the desperate need for
the saving grace of God that is supplied in the other four
doctrines of grace. We will never understand the
other four doctrines of grace. until we come to an understanding
of the full magnitude of this first doctrine of grace, total
depravity. In other words, it's something
like a domino effect. And this first doctrine, once
it is understood, it sets in motion and it demands the other
four. You tell me what you believe
about total depravity and I will tell you what you believe about
the other four. If you are weak on total depravity,
you will be weak on all the other four doctrines of grace. If you're
shallow here, you're going to be shallow across the board every
place else. But if you have depth of understanding
here, then it necessitates that you must believe the other four. In these verses in Romans chapter
3, what follows is the most compelling, concise, and comprehensive case
for total depravity to be found in any one portion of Scripture. Total depravity means very simply
this, that the internal corruption of Adam's sin nature has been
passed down to the totality of every part of every person at
the moment of their conception. It does not mean that every person
is as totally depraved as they could possibly be. We would have
to admit that some, such as Hitler, went to far greater lengths of
depravity than others. Total depravity means that the
corruption of Adam's sin nature has corrupted every part of human
nature. In other words, the totality
of a person from the top of their head to the bottom of their feet,
every inch and every ounce of them has been plagued and polluted
by Adam's sin. The result is this, and this
is just by way of introduction. Mind, affections and will have
all been corrupted by Adam's sin nature that was passed down and made real at the point of
conception. In other words, we entered into this world already
corrupt. You don't have to teach a little
child how to sin. You teach a little child how
not to sin. The mind is darkened so that
the unregenerate person cannot see and cannot understand the
truth. You might as well be describing
a sunset to a blind man, or a Beethoven symphony to a deaf person. because the mind has been corrupted
by sin. Further, the affections, the
desires of the heart have also been poisoned and polluted by
sin such that everyone coming into this world loves what they
should hate and they hate what they should love. Further, the
will is in bondage to sin. Some Christians, some well-meaning
Christians think that only the mind and only the affections
are plagued by sin, as though the will is uncontaminated, as
though the will is an island unto itself surrounded by an
ocean of depravity. But the fact of the matter is,
the will is simply a handmaiden of the mind and the heart. You
tell me what the mind and the heart know and love and I will
tell you exactly every choice that the will will make. Wherever
the mind and the heart go, the will must follow. The will is
the tail, the mind and the heart are the dog, and the tail is
not wagging the dog. The dog is wagging the tail. Now as we look at this passage
tonight, verses 9 through 20, I want to give you three main
headings as we walk through this passage. In verse 9, I want you
to see the charge. This is something of a courtroom
setting. And the Apostle Paul is the prosecuting
attorney. And he brings his charge against
the human race. It is an indictment that all
are under sin. And then in verses 10 through
18, I want you to note the case. As Paul will call his witnesses
to the stand, and as Paul will bring exhibit A, exhibit B, exhibit
C, and Paul will build his case to support the charge that he
makes. And it is an overwhelming case. A blind man could see this. And
then finally in verses 19 and 20, I want you to note the condemnation. as the gavel comes down hard,
and there is the pronouncement of the condemnation of the human
race. So let's begin now in verse 9
with the charge. Paul begins by asking two questions. The first question is, what then?
In other words, what more can be said? Paul has just made his
case. for the condemnation and the
corruption of the entire human race." That began in chapter
1 verse 18 when Paul wrote, for the wrath of God is revealed
from heaven against all unrighteousness and ungodliness of men. And the entire human population
that is outside of Christ is this very moment under the pending
wrath of God. It's not just that there will
be wrath declared on the last day, but this very moment God
has already spoken and the entire human race is under the wrath
of God. And as Paul has built his case,
it is both Jew and Gentile. who are under this condemnation.
And so he has made the case. And in verses 9 through 20, this
is in reality the summation. It's like when the lawyer has
one last opportunity to address the jury to be as persuasive
as he can possibly be. And so he says, what then? In other words, nothing else
can be added. And then the second question,
are we better than they? And the we probably refers to
Paul and the believers in Rome and those on Paul's missionary
team. Are we any better than they?"
Was there anything more...were we...was there anything more
morally esteeming in us than there was in the world? And he gives the answer, and
a very short answer, not at all. Paul is saying, in and of ourselves,
We too have been corrupted by this sin. It's not that we're
smarter. It's not that we're better. It's
not that we had any advantage or anything going for us that
the rest of the world did not have. We've all been poisoned
from the same fountain and from the same well, that being Adam's
sin. And then he says in verse 9,
for we have already charged. And this word charged is a legal
term that represents the indictment has already been made. In chapter
118 through 3.8, it is a tour de force, for we have already charged.
that both Jews, we understand who that is, and Gentiles, that
is our Greeks, that is the rest of the world, every non-Jew,
now watch this, are all under sin. To be under sin is to be
under the pollution and the power of sin. It is to be under the
control and the curse of sin. It is to be under the curse of
the law. It is to be under divine judgment. It is to be under divine
wrath. It is to be under the sentence
of death. It is to be under the tyranny
and the mastery of sin. It is to be helpless and hopeless
under the sway of sin. And he says the word all. We are all under sin. From the moment of conception,
through the moment of delivery, through every successive day
of a person's life who is unregenerate and outside of the grace of the
Lord Jesus Christ, Whether you grew up in church or whether
you've never darkened the door of a church, from the moment
we put you into the nursery, from the very moment you were
brought home from the hospital, you were already under sin. Sin plagued you. Sin polluted
you. It was in your spiritual DNA. You were born with it. That's
the charge that Paul makes here. And it is the charge that has
been brought against every one of us here tonight until such
time by the grace of God, as the other speakers will elaborate,
you were brought out from under the death sentence. So I want you to note second
the case, because Paul does more than simply address the bench
and address the jury and bring his condemning charge. Paul now presents his case, and
as he presents his case, he does so with Old Testament There are
more Old Testament quotations in this section than in any other
place of the thirteen epistles that the Apostle Paul wrote.
And as he does so, the reason that he quotes the Old Testament
is several-fold. Number one, to show the church
in Rome that this is nothing new. that this was all taught
in the Old Testament. It's already in your Bible. It
was put there long ago. Second, it is to show that this
is not really Paul's case, this is God's case. As Paul will now
quote the Word of God, This is not Paul's estimate. This is
not Paul's perspective. This is God's own case that is
being presented. And further, there is really
a double authority by quoting the Old Testament. Not only is
Paul saying this by scriptural authority, but on top of that
by apostolic authority as he speaks on behalf of the head
of the church, the Lord Jesus Christ. So he begins by saying
in verse 10, as it is written, and please note the verb tense,
it's not as it was written that we would expect him to say, but
no, as it is written such that it has a present binding power
and authority over our lives. So he begins in verse 10, there
is none righteous. not even one. In one sense, he
begins with the bottom line. He begins with the final summation. There is none righteous. And
I point out for you the word none because he will repeat in
verse 11, there is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God. The emphasis on the word none
and even at the end of verse 10, not even one." Six times
he will say, none or not. In verse 12, there is none who
does good. There is not even one. As Paul speaks, he speaks with
global and universal authority. There is none righteous. The word righteous very simply
means conformity to a standard and that standard is none other
than the very holiness of God Himself. And when He says there
is none righteous, what this means is when we are weighed
in the balances and the holiness of God is put into one side of
the balance and our own character and our own life is put in the
other side of the balance, it is way out of balance. But we
have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. So there
is none righteous. And then to double-reinforce
it, he follows it up by saying, not even one. None meet the divine standard
that is required for acceptance with God. God does not grate
on the curve. And it really doesn't matter
if you're a little better than some drunk who's laying in the
gutter. It really doesn't matter if you're
a little better than someone who is a serial murderer and
is on death row. The fact of the matter is, you
and I and the whole world have been weighed in the balances
and we have all fallen woefully short of what is required to
have acceptance with God in heaven. And anyone who does not understand
this is ignorant of two things. You do not know how holy God
is and you do not know how unholy you are. There is none righteous. Not even one. And now as he walks
through this, there you will note are different body parts
that represent this total depravity. In verse 11 he will speak of
the mind, there's none who understands. In verse 11 he will speak of
the heart, there is none who seeks for God. In verse 12 he
will talk about the will, all have turned aside and have become
useless. And then you will note in verse
13, the throat, and then the tongues, and then the lips. In
verse 14, the mouth. In verse 15, the feet. And in
verse 18, the eyes. Do you see all these various
body parts? These are metaphorical and representative
of the totality of the human nature, and the idea is from
the top of your head to the bottom of your feet, the entirety of
your personhood is corrupted and depraved by sin. So, let's walk through this.
In verse 11 we see that the entire human race has a darkened mind. Please note in verse 11, there
is none who understands. And when he says none who understands,
he's referring to spiritual understanding of who God is and what God requires
and who you are and what you so desperately need. There is
no one who gets it. There is no one who is able to
come to the understanding of their need for grace apart from
God's divine intervention. None understand their human condition
before God. None understand the depth of
their own depravity and their guilt. None understand that the
grace of God is the only way of escaping this wrath. No matter how high their IQ,
their SAT, their ACT, their LSAT, their GPA, it doesn't matter
how smart they are in school, they are dummies before God. They do not understand the truth
of the gospel and their desperate need of it. Their minds are unplugged
by sin. And to describe the gospel to
them, as I've already said, is to present a glorious painting, a masterpiece
to a blind person. They just cannot see it. In 1 Corinthians 2 and verse
14 when Paul writes to the church at Corinth, he says, a natural
man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God for they
are foolishness to him. And that word foolishness comes
from a Greek word, moros, that comes into the English language
as moron. Every unconverted person is a
spiritual moron. They do not have the mental capacity
to understand spiritual truth. He goes on to say, and he cannot
understand them. You understand what the word
can means, how it differs from the word may? May is a word of
permission. Can is a word of ability. It
says, he cannot understand them. So when you give a witness for
the Lord Jesus Christ to someone who is unconverted, no matter
how well taught you are, no matter how well prepared you are, no
matter how many verses you have memorized, no matter how many
classes on evangelism you have attended and graduated from,
even with your best crystal clear presentation, they cannot understand
it, apart from divine intervention. So back to Romans 3. It is a
darkened mind. And then at the end of verse
11, second, a defiant heart. There is none who seeks for God. This is representative of the
fact they have no desire for God. They have no love for God. They have no passion for God.
Now, they may want what only God can give to them, such as
material or physical blessings, but do not mistake the gift for
the giver. All they want is the gift, they
do not seek for the giver of these benefits, which is God
Himself. And so, inverted is their heart. that they hate what they should
love and they love what they should hate. And this is true
of every unconverted person, whether they are a lost church
member, whether they are in a false religion, whether they are in
a cult. And it may give the appearance
that, oh, look at them, they are so sincere and they are looking
for God. No, they're not. They are running
away from God as fast as they can. You just simply need to
be able to see as God sees. They have a defiant heart. Third,
in verse 12, they have a disobedient will. All have turned aside. That is to say they have gone
their own way. that they are going in the wrong
direction. They have turned away from God
and have turned aside to their own path. Isaiah 53 verse 6 says,
we all like sheep have gone astray. Each one of us has turned to
his own way. And the result of that, he says
in verse 12, together, which is a summation of the entire
human race, outside of grace. Together they have become useless,
totally, completely useless to God. In fact, in reality, you're
just in the way. The word useless here is used
of fruit that has spoiled. It's just useless for any human
consumption. The word is used of meat that
has turned rotten. It's used of milk that has soured. The idea really is they have
rendered themselves unfit for any purpose of God. And so, at the end of verse 12,
there is none, none. who does good, good as it relates
to God's estimate, good as it relates to God's summation. There is not even one. This is
an extraordinary indictment. This is as far away from the
title of that book from several years ago, I'm Okay, You're Okay. No, I'm rotten, you're rotten. Fourth, a deceiving throat. Verse 13 says, their throat is
an open grave. What a powerful picture that
this is. Graves were never left open.
Graves were always sealed up. Why? Because what is down in
the depths of that grave is decaying, has turned rotten, is full of
worms, is full of maggots. The stench that arises from an
open grave is odious, it is foul, it is unbearable. stench because
there is a dead corpse down in this...in this grave. And when Paul paints this picture,
he says, their throat. Every time they open their mouth,
there is nothing but the stench of death that comes out of their
mouth. Every time they open their mouth,
what is down in the heart, the deadness and the decaying heart
ruined by sin comes out of their mouth. It is loathsome. It is heinous, it is ransom as
they are non-stop exalting themselves, promoting themselves, magnifying
themselves and speaking so irreverently of God. There's an old saying,
what's down in the well comes up in the bucket and what's down
in the heart comes up the throat and then out of the mouth. And you can know what is down
in the heart by what comes out of the mouth. And so, this leads to deceiving
tongues because what is down in that spiritually dead heart
is coming up the throat And now the tongue wags and it says,
with their tongues, they keep deceiving. They can't stop deceiving. They are continually shading
the truth, falsifying the truth, misrepresenting the truth, and
it is a constant and continual lifestyle for them. and then six, deadly lips. Please
note at the end of verse 13, he says, and what an image this
is, the poison of asps. An asp is a venomous snake, a
poisonous snake with its lethal, deadly poison, with its fangs
ready to inject its venom into the unsuspecting victim. And Paul's assessment, which
is in reality God's audit of the human nature, is that the
deadly poison of snakes is under their lips. Their mouth is like
a den of vipers, injecting death into the other bystanders by
their slandering, by their lying, by their deceiving. And then seventh, their defiled
mouth. In verse 14, Paul continues quoting
the Old Testament and he says, is full of, please note, full
of, not just a few drops in there. It's just like bubbling up and
spilling over is full of cursing and bitterness. Cursing is just
intense hatred. toward God, toward other people,
continually judging other people, continually condemning other
people, continually elevating themselves and full of bitterness. And it's
because down in the heart, the heart is deceitful above all
else and desperately wicked. Who can understand it? It is beyond human comprehension
how devilish and dark is the human heart. And then eighth, destructive
feet, in verse 15. Now remember, we started with
the mind, with the head, and Paul has started at the top and
it's as if he's just working his way down now to the feet. Their feet are swift to shed
blood. There is so much hatred in their
heart towards others, there is so much antagonism within their
heart towards others, there is so much envy and so much jealousy
that given the opportunity, they are swift like a...like a sprinting
athlete running as fast as it can, not slow, swift to shed
blood. And this does not mean that every
member of the human race is a murderer physically, but it does mean,
as Jesus said in Matthew 5, that you are a murderer within your
own heart because you do not love God. So, verse 16 talks
about the path that they take with these feet that are swift
to shed destruction and misery are in
their paths. And destruction here indicates
that as an ongoing habitual lifestyle, they destroy peace within families,
they destroy peace within relationships, they destroy the reputation of
others, they destroy the livelihood of others, they destroy homes. Their feet are continually pursuing
destruction. And misery is the result of the
destruction because when they tear down and destroy, they leave
the highway strewn with misery. It says it's in their past. It's where their feet have taken
them. And Jesus said in Matthew 7 and verse 13 that those who
enter through the broad gate and go down the broad path, they
are headed for destruction. And they're already there before
they reach their final destruction in the bowels of hell. This is an overwhelming case. This is God's audit of the human
race. And anything less than this is
an absolute fabrication of reality. And if you need any further proof,
just go home tonight and turn on virtually any cable news Get
on your computer and just surf the internet and you will see
more evidence and more validation for what God is saying in this
passage than you can even process or handle. So, verse 17, and the path of
peace. They have not known. They know
no peace with God. They know no peace of God. They know no peace with others. It's only destruction and misery
that they know. The path of peace they have not
known. They haven't even sniffed it.
They haven't seen it for one day of their life. And then note,
finally, in verse 18, their distorted eyes. There is no fear of God
before their eyes. They have no reverence for God. They have no taking God seriously.
They have no holding God in high regard. They have no awe for
God. They have no respect for God. They have no regard for God. There's no fear of God as a template
before their eyes as they look around and see. And when he says,
before their eyes, he's talking about their whole life perspective,
their way of seeing life. They don't see God, they see
themselves. Their whole worldview is skewed. This is the devastating case. that Paul has presented against
every single person who has ever entered this world who is or
has been outside of the kingdom of God. This is a closed case. This is
irrefutable evidence. The entire realm of humanity
is guilty as charged. The mind is darkened. The heart
is defiant. The will is disobedient. The
throat is decaying. The tongue is deceiving. The
lips are deadly. The mouth is defiled. The feet
are destructive. The eyes are distorted. It's
total comprehensive. holistic depravity. And before we proceed any further,
I want to address the nature and the inability of the human
will. The unregenerate will is not
free to choose in Jesus Christ. The will is in bondage to its
cruel master sin and can only obey sin. Free will is a pagan
myth of religious superstition. Spurgeon said, I've heard much
about free will but I've never met it yet. George Whitefield said, man has
a free will to go to hell but none to go to heaven. And let
me just give you a few cross-references because I just want to make sure
that this is...this is nailed down. I know how well taught
you are here at Founders Baptist Church, but I just want to drive
this nail down. In Ephesians 2 verse 1, it says,
you were dead in trespasses and sin. I remember the day in seminary
when my professor asked this question, what can a dead man
do? And with that one question, it
was like a rock thrown into a large glass window and that one rock
shattered my entire world view and my understanding of human
nature. And I was seated on the front
row and I kept waiting for one of my classmates to answer this
professor, what can a dead man do? And the answer came from
the back row, it was stink. But that is all that a dead man
can do. A dead man has no capacity whatsoever
to respond. There have been times as a pastor
I've gone into hospital rooms to call on a dying church member
and to arrive there barely too late and the church member has
already passed away and has gone to glory and there is the corpse,
it is laying there in the hospital bed and it doesn't matter how
well You could speak to that person, sing to that person,
read to that person, they have no capacity whatsoever to respond
to you because they are dead. And so it is for the unregenerate
person, they have no spiritual life even in their will. to be
able to respond to God and to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. In John 6 and verse 44, Jesus
said it so clearly, it is astonishing that anyone could fail to understand
the deadness of the human will when He said, no one, John 6,
44, no one can come to Me unless it is granted by the Father.
To come to Christ is to believe in Christ. There is what R.C. Sproul called moral inability
to respond to the gospel. Further, in Hebrews 12 and verse
2, it says, Jesus is the author and perfecter of faith. You are
not the author of your faith. You are the exerciser of your
faith, but your faith did not come from you. If it was left
up to you to believe, you would have zero faith whatsoever to
put your trust in Jesus Christ. It is Jesus Christ who must offer
that faith. And the fact is, in Acts 3 and
verse 16, it says, all faith that is in Jesus is a faith that
has come from Jesus and has been issued through Jesus. Jesus must
grant saving faith before anyone can believe in Jesus Christ. And the final cross-reference
I would give you before I wrap this up is Romans 6 and verses
16 and 18 in which Paul writes, Romans 6 verse 16, "'Do you not
know?' Stop right there. That means this is Christianity
101. This isn't some higher level
Ph.D. program that you finally are
able to ascend to such knowledge as this. No. He says, do you
not know? Are you breathing? Are you saved? Then you know
this. And do you not know that when
you present yourself to someone as slaves for obedience, you
are slaves of the one whom you obey? So in other words, everyone
here tonight is a slave. No one's free. You're a slave,
I'm a slave. No one is not a slave. It's just
not in this room. The same is true throughout the
world on all seven continents. He says, either of sin, so everyone
is either a slave of sin resulting in death or of obedience, a slave
of obedience resulting in righteousness. So, if you are unregenerate,
the only thing you can do is obey sin. And if you are a believer,
the general thrust of your life will be to obey righteousness. And those are the only two categories.
So, he says in verse 17, but thanks be to God that though
you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that
form of teaching to which you were committed and having been
freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. Every unconverted
person is a slave to sin and to Satan, held in the unbreakable
chains by any human effort to be free to believe in Jesus Christ. You and I were in the dungeon
of sin. held in the chains of sin, unable
to liberate ourselves, unable to exercise any notion of freedom
or free will towards the gospel of Jesus Christ. And so, this
is the case that Paul has brought against the human race. So this
leads finally to the condemnation in verses 19 and 20, Romans 3,
and we'll wrap this up. Now comes the judge's final verdict,
verse 19. And this verdict is irrevocable.
This verdict is universal. Now we know, and again, this
is Christianity 101. that this is less than Awana
stuff. It's good to know where you are
tonight. You don't have to win the Timothy
Award to know this. Now we know. Of course we know
this. If you don't know this, where
on earth have you been? Now we know that whatever the
law says, please note, present tense says, not once said to
Moses, not once said in Old Testament times, but the law is still speaking
today. That whatever the law says, present
tense now in the New Testament, it speaks, again, present tense. to those who are under the law. And to be under the law is to
be in a posture and a position of direct accountability to the
law, to obey the law and to fulfill the requirements of the law.
But, of course, none of us being under the law can fulfill the
law So he says in verse 19, so that every mouth, these mouths
that were...that had the poison of ass under their lips, these
mouths that were an open sepulcher, so that every swearing, cursing,
slandering, self-promoting mouth may be closed, just shut. As they stand before God, no
excuse can be offered, no rebuttal, no self-pontification and all the world may become
accountable to God, the entire planet. Verse 20, because by
the works of the law, meaning all self-efforts at law-keeping,
no flesh...there's another no...no flesh will be justified through
the law in His sight, for through the law comes...again, please
note, present tense, right now. through the law, the law is speaking
right now and there is knowledge coming from the law to every
person. Through the law comes the knowledge
of sin because the law is the standard by which each and every
one of us are measured and we have all sinned and fallen short
of the glory of God. And so, this is the condemnation
of the entire human race. It is a slam-dunk case. There
are no exceptions. There are none excluded from
this. And so, how important is this
truth to evangelism? Because that's the topic that's
been given to me, total depravity and the clarity of evangelism.
Well, let me conclude by just giving you this. Number one, how what we just looked at is
necessary for evangelism. Number one, every person you
will ever meet for the rest of your life needs the gospel. There
is not one single person, no matter how sweet they may appear
to be, no matter how many old ladies they help across the street, Everyone you will ever meet for
the rest of your life is in desperate and dire need of the gospel based
upon this indictment. You have the message that every
person desperately needs to hear. Second, no one, no one No one will ever be saved until
they know they are lost sinners. It's not enough for someone to
feel weak, they must feel wicked. It's not enough for them to feel
lonely, they must feel lost. It's not enough for them to be
depressed, they must feel that they are damned. No one giggles through the narrow
gate. No one in the history of the
world has ever been converted apart from coming under deep
conviction of sin. Number three, no one will ever be saved. until
they know there is absolutely nothing they can do to contribute
to their salvation. All you would contribute to your
salvation is more sin to be laid upon the Lord Jesus Christ, more
poison from your lips, more stench from your throat. No good works,
no religious ritual, no good intentions, no church membership,
no water baptism, no repeated prayer, no aisle walking, no
personal ministry, nothing can be added to the work of God
in salvation. Number four, no one will ever
be saved until they know they are utterly helpless and hopeless
without the grace of God. And fifth and finally, we cannot
save anyone. No amount of arm twisting, no
amount of manipulation can ever talk someone into the kingdom
of heaven. It is exclusively a work of God's
grace by which He says, Lazarus, come forth. and the dead are
raised from the grave of sin. We must share the gospel. We
must, as Pastor Richard said, we must plead, we must urge,
we must persuade. But even that on our best day
cannot contribute to anyone's salvation. It is one thing for
us to give the external call, but no one will be saved until
the internal call is issued. And here we see just how dead
in sin and depraved in iniquity the entire human race is. Now,
let me just tell you this and I close with this. When I was ready to ask my wife
to marry me, I went to a store to buy a diamond. to put on that
ring. And I went into this store and
I told the salesperson, I want to buy a diamond. He brought
the diamonds out and he put them in front of me on the counter.
And there was nothing that was especially appealing to me as
I looked at these diamonds. They looked so mundane. They looked so average. They
looked so commonplace to me. And the man could see that I
wasn't impressed. And so, he reached under the
counter and he pulled out a black velvet pad and he put down the
black velvet pad on the counter. And with those tweezers, he picked
up a diamond and placed it on the black velvet pad. And in a moment, that diamond
exploded with light. and every overhead light was
immediately sucked into and through that light and it refracted light,
it radiated light. It was like that diamond came
alive before my very eyes. What made the difference? It
was the black velvet pad. And what we have talked about
tonight is the black...the blackness of God's condemnation of the
human race. It is what it is. It is the truth.
But without this black velvet pad, everything else you're going
to hear in this conference is...is really just boring and it is
a yonner. You need to know how wicked,
how vile, how evil the human race is. And once you understand
that, when we then pull out the diamonds of unconditional election
and definite atonement and irresistible grace and the perseverance of
the saints, those truths will explode with light before your
very eyes and they will be the most appealing The truth that
you've ever heard in your life. But without what we've talked
about tonight, that there is none who understands, there is
none who seeks for God, no, not even one. Without this truth,
there is no amazing grace. There is only just common grace
that would make us have no interest. in the saving grace of the Lord
Jesus Christ. So, we've got to take you down
into the grave before you can ascend to the heights of heaven
with your praise to give glory to God. Let us pray. Father in heaven, What we have studied tonight
is hard truth. It is straight talking. It is
blunt. It is to the point. There is
no perfume sprayed on these verses. There's no fine print here. There's nothing withheld. It's just sheer, unadulterated,
unvarnished truth. Lord, may You so work in our
understanding that we would grasp the magnitude of the devastation
of the entire human race in sin. And may we see it that from the
top of our head to the bottom of our feet, every member of
our body, as it were, has been poisoned by sin. How we praise
You for the new birth. How we praise You that You have
taken out this old heart of stone and given us a heart of flesh.
How we praise You that though our will was rendered inoperative,
You exercised free will towards us and by Your sovereign will
You chose us in eternity past. Lord, we rise up and we bless
Your name tonight. In Jesus' name, amen.