Before the break here, I mentioned
to you that we're gonna begin looking at the doctrine of total
depravity. You can't really preach the doctrines
of grace without talking about depravity. Now, whenever we first
started this series, I shortly mentioned about we are sinners,
just as the contrast of what we're about to embark on, on
talking about God and His sovereignty. But I told you that we would
come back and we would deal with depravity a little more thorough,
a little more fuller than what we did in that message. But we've
arrived at that place today and this is not a popular topic that
a lot of people just love to hear. You scroll through sermon
audio or a lot of other places that show how many people download
sermons and things and you look at the ones about telling people
that they're sinners and total depravity and stuff like that,
you're gonna find that they don't have quite the hits that some
of the other ones get because people just don't gravitate towards
this message. And a lot of people don't like
it. It's uncomfortable for them to hear that. And there's something
to be said about that. It's a saver of life unto life
and a saver of death unto death. To those who are being saved,
it is the saver of life to hear the news about who I am and about
who God is and what he's doing. But to those who are perishing,
then it's not good news and they don't like to hear these things
and it's uncomfortable. Plus, it's just not popular.
I mean, it's not a popular thing. You don't draw crowds preaching
these types of things. You know, if Joel Osteen would
ever preach these sermons, I don't think he could ever come up with
his own sermon on any of these things. But if he'd take a transcript
of some guy that preaches on the doctrines of grace and just
read them in his church, they'd probably scatter. His goats would
scatter all over the place. So it's not a popular thing. whenever we look at total depravity
we need to go back to the very beginning go back to where it
all began for us as far as as far as humans are concerned let's
go back to Genesis if you would and we know that the depravity
of man wasn't an accident I hope everybody has come to realize
that, that Adam didn't mess up God's beautiful creative plan
because of his stupidity, because of his arrogance, because of
his pride, his selfishness, his greediness, whatever you want
to lay to Adam. He did not mess up God's plan. Look in the second chapter of
Genesis, if you would, and you will find something very interesting
here. Something that I didn't pick
up on until a few years ago, and whenever I read it and read
it slowly, picked up on it, it completely changed my whole entire
outlook about the fall and what the fall actually is. about Adam,
about the nature of man, how God created man, about the two
seeds that we talk about here. And again, I always want to make
this clarification, not the two seeds of the, well, the guy's
name just slipped my mind, Daniel. Do you remember it, brother? I don't remember. It just left
my mind, Daniel Parker, not those two seeds that he purports, but
the biblical two seeds. Anyhow, it wasn't until I come
across and read this, and for those who are visitors with us
here, I've mentioned to our church every time, whenever studying
the scriptures, that every word counts, whenever you're studying
the scriptures. all scripture is given by inspiration
of God and is profitable and God has given us these words
and words have meanings and language has meanings God has chosen certain
language and grammar and context and syntax and things like that
he's put it there for us and there's meaning in that And whenever
we read, there isn't no throwaway words. Every word God has inspired. And when we read these things
and pay attention sometimes to what it's saying and not what
our theology says, then we come up with something that is called
the truth. And not some man-made doctrine. In Genesis chapter 2 look with
me at verse 17, and I want you to pay close attention to a two-letter
word in this phrase that means a lot God is speaking here to Adam
and giving Adam some instruction and some information. He says,
But of the tree, let's back up to 16 so you get it. And the
Lord God commanded the man saying, Of every tree of the garden thou
mayest freely eat. So God gave a command to Adam
to not eat. of a certain tree, but of all
these trees you may eat freely. Verse 17, but of the tree of
the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it. That's
the commandment. All these freely eat. This one,
no, don't eat. And that's all he said. this tree you're not to eat he
didn't say you don't touch it like eve said eve elaborated
on god's command thou shalt not eat of it and then he says this
for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die
now the two-letter word i want you to hone in on is the word
n i n God said for in the day that
thou eatest thereof he didn't say for if thou eatest thereof
thou shalt surely die. God wasn't making a condition
with Adam. God gave Adam the command and
then God informed Adam what was going to happen when he ate because
the God's purpose was that Adam eat of the tree all along. That was his purpose. He created
Adam natural so that Adam would fall. And in that fall, God would
do all that he has purpose to do. And so Adam didn't fall from
a spiritual man to a natural man. He didn't fall from being
a Christian to a non-Christian. He wasn't spiritually alive and
then spiritually died. I've preached that before and
I've heard it preached that in the day that he ate that he not
only died, began to die physically, but he died spiritually. He didn't
die spiritually. He never was spiritual. He was
created of the earth earthy. He the Corinthian says that he
was a natural man and God created him that way. Now we've talked
about that extensively here for those who have been here for
all that don't have time to elaborate more on that. But the reason
I bring this up is because to show us that God's purpose in
all of his creation and all of his redemptive work and all of
his justice and wrath and everything that's going to be displayed
in all that God does. God purposed for man to be completely
and totally unable to keep his law. That's how he created him. He created Adam in such a way
that Adam could not keep that law. The law wasn't given for
him to keep so that Adam might keep the whole human race with
eternal life. It was through Christ that eternal
life was to come, not Adam. I've heard that and I've said
it before in my younger years that, boy, if Adam would have
only not ate of that fruit, then we all would still live to be
forever because we would never die. Yeah, we'd also all be running
around naked too, you know. That doesn't mean that's a good
thing. Adam ate because God intended
for Adam to eat. And the reason for that is found
in the New Testament. The New Testament says, for by
one man sin entered into the world. That was God's purpose.
That sin and death enter into this world by one man and that
one man would be the representation of every man, woman and child,
And that man would be the head of that generation. And he had
a second man that would be parallel to that who would be the head
of his generation. One who is natural who cannot
keep the law and one who is spiritual who can keep the law. And God
made those two seeds. Out of those two seeds All of
Adam's race and all of Christ's race come. And that parallel
is there for us here and we see that God purposed that. Now,
how does that fit in with total inability? Well, see, total inability
was God's design to begin with because He had a people that
He loved before the foundation of the world. And those people,
He subjected them to vanity by Adam so that they would come
under sin and come under death and become what Adam is and that
through that he would redeem those that he loves out of that
to show his love, his grace, his mercy, his salvation, to
show that part of who he is. But the rest of them, He elected
to not do that so that He might show His justice and His hatred
and His wrath. That, too, is part of who God
is. God is who He is. When God said, I am that I am,
that means He is who He is. And God is just as much the wrathful
and fearful God as He is the loving and forgiving God. He doesn't swap back and forth. He wasn't the old ogrely God
in the Old Testament, and now He's the lovey-dovey God in the
New Testament. This God never changes. Those
attributes are His, but as we looked at God's sovereignty,
He is sovereign to display as He sees fit those attributes,
and He is also sovereign to dispose as He sees fit upon His creation. And so God intended for Him to
be glorified in the work of His Son. And to do that, sin and
death had to come into the world. And so the total inability of
man was from the very beginning when God made man of the earth
earthy and natural. And the Bible says the natural
man cannot keep the things and do the things and know the things
of the Spirit of God. He cannot know those things.
God intended for Adam to be that way and for all of the human
race to be that way so that there would be redemption from that. And so we get this notion that
Adam was something different than he was before the fall is
just incorrect. What he was before the fall is
not yet sinned. But that doesn't mean he didn't
have that nature already. And as we've talked about in
our sermons and discussions about this before, James tells us the
only reason that Adam did eat of that tree is because, as James
says, that there was something in him that was drawn away, and
when lust conceived, it brought forth sin. That's exactly what
happened with Adam. And so we see from the very creation
of man, we were created and able to keep God's law. so if we don't
even go to any other scriptures brethren just the fact to see
that adam was created in a perfect environment beautiful god made
him a wife beautiful didn't have any nagging kids or nagging in-laws
at that time beautiful but guess what No matter how
beautiful it was, man had that inward propensity and inability
to not keep God's law. And I know there's theologians
out there that want to argue about that. But my question always
is this, if Adam was spiritually alive and could have said no, that still doesn't prove anything.
OK. Even if he was spiritually alive
and lost that, it still doesn't change the fact that where did
the desire come from? If he didn't have a sin nature,
where did the desire come from? Somebody had to sin first and
God chose Adam to be the first sinner. And so He created him
in such a way to accomplish that purpose. And so if God at the
very beginning has made the plight of man, starting with Adam, to
be enabled to keep his law, what makes you think that now that
sin and death has entered into the human race that we are able
to keep his law? If Adam himself, who was created
in a pristine environment, only given one command, And the Bible
says he was created upright. The Bible says that he was created
good. Now that doesn't mean he was
created perfect or regenerate, if you want to use that term.
I don't like that term, born again or born from above or whatever
you want to quicken. If he was alive spiritually, So why did God make it that way? Well, He made it that way so
that we would see the hopelessness of ever trying to attain a righteousness
in ourselves. Now, for the child of grace,
we're given to see these things. We should look at these things
and say, I cast off all hope of ever attaining a righteousness
of my own self. If Adam himself can't keep that,
if Adam was created in such a way that he was unable to keep that
law that God give him. See, remember Adam was fine up
until the law came in, right? But whenever the law came in,
what happened? Adam died. Ain't that what Paul told us?
in the New Testament? When the law came in, I died.
Why? Because before the law came in, I didn't know who I was.
I didn't know what I was. I didn't know what I was capable
of. I didn't know that I was in this shape. Adam did neither
until the law came in. We did neither until the law
came in. We didn't know what Adam was
until the law came in. Until the law came in, we were
under the assumption that Adam was a perfect man. an immutable
man, impeccable man. A lot of people think that. They
think that he was impeccable. But if he was impeccable, he
never would have fallen. And so from the very get-go,
brethren, we in Adam, in this flesh, was created with the inability
to keep God's law. and it hasn't changed all the
way up to the day. So, if you think your good works
are going to get you there, it's not. If you think that you're
able to withstand and withhold and not sin, it's not going to
happen. It's never going to happen. Throw
off all abandon. But let me just say, let's just
say there is a sliver of chance that can happen. Small sliver,
very small sliver of chance. God's not going to justify you
for doing that anyway. Do you realize that? Again, here's
where theologians are going to rail against me because they're
going to say, well, you know, if there is no condemnation or
if there's no sin, if there's no law breaking, then there's
no reason for justification. The only reason you're justified
is because if you've broken the law, well, God said by the deeds
of the law, no flesh shall be justified. God never intended to justify
anybody by their good works anyway. That doesn't just mean that all
your working is going to make you justified. No, that means
God never intended to deem you justified by any good working.
It goes backwards, not forwards. It's not you doing all these
good things, God will think, well, okay, I'm gonna justify
you for doing all those good deeds. We think that big weigh
in the balance thing, that in the end, God's gonna weigh all
of our good deeds and our bad deeds. If our good deeds outweigh
our bad deeds, then God's gonna let us in and say, hey, you're
justified because you did more good deeds than you did bad deeds.
No, no, no, no. God's gonna say, here, you brought
all these good deeds, man, that's a whole lot of good deeds, but
guess what? I never intended to justify you. for good deeds. The only thing
that I intended to justify you on is by the blood and righteousness
of someone else. Besides all those good deeds,
they're good in your eyes, but in my eyes, they're filthy rags.
Menstrual cloths. That's all they are. Not a popular
message, is it? That's where we are at the very
beginning And it doesn't change as we go through the scriptures,
brother. It doesn't change that message doesn't change. Matter
of fact over and over and over and over and over again. God
reiterates reiterates reiterates the law comes in man dies. The law comes in man dies. You give a man the law he dies. Why? Because he is unable to
keep that. That's why I like that phrase,
total inability more than total depravity. When you say depravity,
people think, you know, Jeffrey Dahmer and, you know, Hitler
and guys like that. We're not saying that someone
is bad as they could be. We're saying man doesn't have
any spiritual ability or desire or capability. It's all Ineffective. We can't do nothing
effective spiritually because we're dead in trespasses and
sins. Now, look with me if you would
to Genesis chapter 6. Genesis chapter 6. I always like
to take people here, especially all these liberal flute and flower
children who believe in all the great goodness of man. Genesis chapter 6, look at verse
5. It says, And God saw that the wickedness of man was great
in the earth, and here it is, and that every imagination of
the thoughts of his heart was only, those four words are strong
right there, are only evil continually. Now that's God's assessment of
who we are in Adam. You know, we want to try to find
this good in every man that all of us has this little spark of
goodness, or we have this, you know, we try to hold on that
there's a good, there's good in every man, you know, all this
heebie-jeebie, you know, stuff, okay? Brethren, God's assessment
of man apart from the work of Christ in him is that they are
wicked, that every imagination of the thought of his heart is
only evil continually now whether you whether you think you're
that or not is irregardless of anything that's what god says
you are we have to take god's assessment of who we are your
heart is desperately wicked and is evil and you don't even know
it unless you're spiritually awakened Job, if you would, 14 and verse
4. Job 14 and verse 4. Again, God is giving some information
here to us through Job. Look at verse one. We'll start
there. Man that is born of a woman is a few days and full of trouble. We can just stop right there.
Our time here is short and the short time that we're here, our
days are full of trouble. He cometh forth like a flower,
and is cut down. He fleeth also as a shadow, and
continueth not. And dost thou open thine eyes
upon such a one, and bringest me into judgment with thee? Who
can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one." you think
you can do a life rearrangement you think that you can do some
self-help you can read all the self-help books that's in the
baptist bookstore what you want it's not going to help you and
there's a plenty of them it's not going to help you there's
no one that can bring a clean thing out of an unclean thing
You can't attain a higher level of achievement. There's all these
world religions out there and especially among Asian cultures
in Buddhism and Hinduism and things like that and the New
Age movement which is also steeped in all those things. who believe
that we can come to a higher sense of understanding of living
new light ism and all this kind of stuff that's out there that
teaches that through meditation and through you know discipline
and things like this that we can achieve these higher states
of humanity and life and that we can become greater than what
we are and all these things. The scriptures right here gives
us what we are. He said, we're unclean and we
can't bring an unclean out of, no one can bring an unclean thing
out of a clean thing out of an unclean thing. There's only one
person who can do that and that's God. He's the only one who can
do that. Cause he says, no, not one. seeing
his days are determined the number of his months are with thee thou
hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass you're not going
to get you're not going to change it you're not going to do you're
not going to do your own thing you're not going to carve your
own path you're not he's determined your habitations he's appointed
the bounds of that habitation and i'm not just talking about
where you live i'm talking about everything he's talking about
the amount of days you live where you live, how you live. He's
talking about the quality of life that you might have, your
thoughts, your deeds, everything. He has appointed all the bounds
and you can't pass past what He has created you to be. The bowl doesn't become the cup
after the potter's made it the bowl. You can't say, well, I don't
like being in a bowl. I want to be a cup. has not the
power power over the clay to make one vessel this way one
vessel that way and we can't say in there why is thou made
me this way I want to be like the cup I don't want to be the
bowl tired of being the bowl I think I'll be the cup no we
can't say I'm tired of being unclean I don't want to be unclean
anymore I think I'll go through the 12-step program and become
clean again I think I'll go to this organization and they'll
help me to be unclean again. I'll read Dr. Phil's newest book
and I'll be unclean again. I'll prescribe to Oprah and all
that she's hawking and I'll be unclean again. Well, unclean
again, you never was clean. The only way you become clean
is through the new birth. And there's only one person who
can give life, and that's Christ. We seek all the inventions of
man to better ourselves, brethren. I really do, I struggle with
Christians who seek out the inventions of man, psychologists and things
like that, for all their problems. God has given us everything that
we need for life, for living, right here. When
people come to me and they want counsel, you know, young people
come to me or anything like that, anybody comes to me with counsel,
I always tell them, number one, I'm not a counselor. I'm not
a psychologist. I've never desired to be one. I'm not a psychologist. And I
said, the only thing that I want to do with your questions is
we want to go to God's Word. That's the only thing I can give
you. It's the only thing I can offer you is God's Word. What
does God's Word say about it? If you want Mike's opinion, Mike's
opinion is only as good as it aligns with God's Word. Mike's
opinion don't mean anything. You can do Mike's opinion all
day long, and hey, you might get along well for a while. Mike's
opinions help Mike for a while, but that don't mean it's the
best thing. It doesn't mean it's good. Not
to mention Mike is a fallible person. He's ignorant in a lot
of areas, unlearned, and selfish. That's who you're coming to get
advice from. So I usually, you know, I let them know up front,
you know, anything that you're going to come in here, it's only
going to, we're going to go to God's word for the answers. And
I'm not going, that's the only place we can go. And so, you
know, whenever we look about becoming unclean and we try to
do this by the inventions of man whether it be through a program
or whether it be through a book or all these other things you
know 12 steps to christian maturity by bill bright you know that
was one of the you know the jehovah's or the mormons have their little
log of books well so does the southern baptist that was one
of them We can't do that. Who can bring a clean thing out
of an unclean? Not one. We rest, we hope, we
throw ourselves at the mercy of God, who is the only one who
can do that. Now, turn with me, if you would,
over a very familiar verse, and I'm sure you're going to know
it before you even say it, but Psalms 51. Before I read it, that is. Psalms
51. A lot of people have in their
mind that at some point in life we go from innocent childhood.
You know, I've got five kids over here. I love my kids and
I'll say my kids are pretty good kids as far as kids are concerned.
You know, I've seen a lot of kids that are pretty wild you
know, demanding and just hard to handle. And I'm thankful that
the Lord's given me kids that are fairly obedient and fairly
respectable. But, you know, when they were
born, they were the sweetest things on earth. We loved them.
I mean, it was a wonderful thing. And those kids, I mean, whenever
you look at that, you don't want to think nothing bad about your
kids, especially whenever they're just fresh. You know, they still
smell new. And you don't want to think bad
about your kids. But brethren, listen, the truth
of the scripture is, is we don't arrive at a place in our life
at a certain time where we go from innocent to not innocent. Okay? There's no such thing as
an age of accountability. There's no magical age or magical
number. There's no thing that automatically
clicks in our mind and we owe now. I know that I'm doing wrong.
So now it is wrong. Okay. Some people think that
as long as they don't know it's wrong, then it isn't wrong. Why do we spank our infant babies
whenever they're learning to stand up and reach and grab things,
and you swat their hands, say, no, no. Well, they don't know
that that's dangerous. Why are you whipping that little,
you're teaching that kid. But whenever that kid continues
to do that, continues to do that, and then cries when you tell
it no, you think, oh, that's so innocent,
that little baby just, no. That's sin nature coming out. And so a lot of people don't
realize that Psalm 51 five is even in the book here. It says,
behold, I was shapen in iniquity. And in sin, did my mother conceive
me? That doesn't mean David's mother
had an adulterous affair and David was the byproduct of an
adulterous affair. It means that David was shaping
an iniquity. And from the time that he was
conceived in his mother's womb, he was in sin. Meaning he was a sinner before
he ever sinned. And we say that here all the time,
that it isn't I'm not a sinner because I sinned. I sinned because
I'm a sinner and I would say that applies to Adam. Adam didn't
sin and that made him a sinner. Adam was a sinner who sinned. It just was called sin and it
ushered in sin into the world through Adam, but that was he
what he was created to be. But every one of us, brethren,
from the moment that we're conceived before we're ever born, we have
that nature and we are sinners. And we can't make ourselves clean. Turn over just a few pages to
Psalms 58. And look at verse three. Psalms
58. And verse 3, it says, the wicked
are estranged from the womb. They go astray as soon as they
are born, speaking lies. Now, I was present for all five
of my kids births. I seen them delivered, they came
right out, held them. Few of them, I got to cut the
umbilical cord and watch him clean all the gunk and all whatnot. And I was right there. Not one
of them came out speaking lies. But this thing right here says
that they come out speaking lies. What does he mean by that? He
means that we come out corrupt, unable to be truthful, to be
truth tellers. Why? Because in Adam, we are
liars we are cheats the wicked are estranged from
the womb they go astray as soon as they are born speaking lies so it doesn't take it doesn't
have anything to do with your environment a lot of people say
well you know it's because they were in the wrong environment
that's why why they you know they weren't taught to tell the
truth they weren't taught to live correctly you know That's not true. The Bible says
that we have an inability. And that inability begins before
we are ever born. And that inability shows itself
as soon as we are born. That's what this is saying here. But, unfortunately, there are
a lot of people who disagree with that, and there are a lot
of people in Christian realms that disagree with that. Some
that do not believe that there is a sinful nature from the start
passed down to everybody, that it is at a certain time that
they become that. But if you look over in Proverbs
30.12, Here's what the Bible says about
that kind of person that says, you know, Hey, we're pure. Those little babies are pure.
You know, they don't, they don't deserve anything. You know, I
don't know how many times I've heard at death of young people,
you know, that someone says, you know, that was an undeserving
death. Everybody's death is deservable. no matter how old they are. And
just as a side note, there's no such thing as an untimely
death. Every death is timely, right on time. But we think about
innocence and we think about children, we think about people
that are pure, that there are some people that they're just
pure people. But look at Proverbs here in
chapter 30. Look down with me, if you would,
at verse 12. It says, there is a generation
that are pure in their own eyes and yet is not washed from their
filthiness. There's a couple of things I
can extract from this, what God is saying. Number one is there
is a group of people that believe that they can be pure. Larry
knows about that. He comes from a group of them.
I've heard him tell about his childhood and about what he used
to be a part of. I've known people, I've went
to school with people among these organizations that believe that
they can achieve full sanctification and that they are pure, that
they are not sin. Then there are people that believe
that they never was impure. But no matter what the case might
be, there is people that think that they are pure in their own
eyes. now i'm going to venture out to say this everybody believes
that they are pure in their own eyes to some degree or another
someone may say well yeah i mess up once in a while but they still
think they're pure that even in their mess ups sin they still
think they're pure because their intentions are good I hear that
a lot, especially from parents, grandparents, good religious
people, friends, colleagues. Well, God knows my heart, you
know, God knows my heart, you know, my intentions are right.
You know, God knows that I didn't, you know, I don't intend to be
impure. And then we think we put on these
blinders, we put on a suit of fig leaves, if you would, and
think that we're pure. But it says here that there is
a generation that are pure in their own eyes. Brethren, if
you think that you're pure, it's only in your own eyes. Number
one, it's definitely not in God's eyes, because we've already seen,
he said that our heart is only evil continually. And it's definitely
not in other people's eyes, because we know you. We live among you. We're around you. I know you
might say, preacher, you're a really nice guy. I can't believe you
don't sin. I'm the chief of sinners. And
so are you. You know, some people actually
think their preachers don't sin. That's crazy. We're no different than
anybody else. I started with the same things
you do. I'm no different than you. If you think you're going
through some things, guess what? I am too. We're all impure. Those thoughts
that you've had, guess what? Everybody has. There's nothing
new under the sun. Every one of us has had the same
issues, gone through the same things in some areas or another.
And here we have a generation that thinks that they're pure
in their own eyes. They think of themselves as being
okay. I mean, Larry was just talking
before, right after, during the break about the Pharisees. The Pharisee prayed, I thank
you God that I'm not like this sinner. You know what that implied? That that Pharisee thinks that
he's not a sinner. That Pharisee thinks that he's achieved, that
he's arrived, that he's better, that he's equipped with righteousness
of himself. Now raise your hand if we've
not all had our thoughts the same way. We've all raised your
hand and if you don't, now you've lied, now you can raise your
hand with the rest of us. Okay? We've all thought that we are
pure because we do things pretty good. We come to church. We support
the ministry. We pray. We fellowship. We do good deeds around. We don't
cuss. We keep our alcoholic consumption
to a minimum. Maybe some of y'all keep it at
a maximum. I don't know. As my grandpa says,
we don't drink, smoke, or chew or go with the girls that do.
Whatever the case might be. And I'm just using those as examples
that people throw up, you know. Hey, I don't do this very much.
I don't do that very much. I don't do that. I don't do this.
It's all about what I do, what I do, what I do, what I do. But
we're forgetting the fact. And here's the point that I want
to make. We're forgetting the fact that it doesn't matter what
you do or don't do. It's who you are. That's the
point. It doesn't matter if you do all
of this pure and good and right with great motives. The Bible
says that it is filthy rags. It doesn't matter if you do all
of these things or not do all of these things. It doesn't matter
what you do. What you do is indicative of
who you are. You do the things you do because
of who you are and you are a sinner and you are unable to make yourself
clean. You're unable to bring yourself
up out of sin and death yourself. You can't do it. And so you might think you're
pure in your own eyes, but the Bible says you're not washed
from their filthiness. Now, what does that mean? What
does that mean? Preacher, what does that mean?
That means this, that Pharisee that stood and said, I thank
you, God, that I'm not a sinner like this man. And then if you
remember his prayer, he said, have mercy upon me, a sinner.
that man knew he was not pure before God that man had been
washed from his filthiness even though he knew he was a sinner
and the one who thought he was not filthy he's not been washed
from his filthiness Or if he has, he's not yet been
shown his filthiness. Because it is only through the
new birth that one sees their filthiness and their need for
some righteousness outside of themselves. See, that's why everybody
is always talking about church membership, about baptism, about
giving and about all these things that you do. Decisionism, writing
down your names on cards, shaking the preacher's hand, all that
stuff. Whatever it is that they put up that you have to do coming
forward. OK, that's that was the phrase
that was just rolled off of it. Come forward, come forward, come
forward as if there's some magical regeneration that happens as
you transcend the aisle to the preacher's hand. OK, everybody
looks at all these things. Why? Because they don't see themselves
as impure. They see themselves as someone
who just needs to do the right things. And if they do those
things, then they will be rewarded for those things. They don't
see themselves in need of grace. They're looking for reward. That's
what we are by nature. We are looking for reward. We're
looking for something for payment. Whenever I go to work, and I
put in all the hours that I do at work, and my boss brings me
that check, and he hands me that check, and he says, hey, I have
a gift for you. I'm gonna freely give this gift
to you today, and I hope you enjoy it, and it brings blessing
to your life. I'm like, are you nuts? free
gift I worked 60 hours this week for that you know that's not
a gift that's not grace that you're giving me grace is you
giving me this job but me getting that paycheck was because I worked
all week for that check that's due to me because you told me
a condition if I will complete all this work then at the end
of that week I will pay you this much money That's conditional. God doesn't save us on conditions
though. So whether you walk down an aisle,
whether you pray at an old-fashioned altar, and this definitely looks
like an old-fashioned altar, or bench, not an altar, but whatever
the case might be, all those are is works. The preacher is
telling you to do some work to get saved. And then if you press
them, they'll say, well, yes, we know that that doesn't save
you. But what's wrong with having
them do that? If you're ashamed of me before men, I'll be ashamed
of you before my father. Now, every head bowed and every
eye closed. You see that fallacy? I've done that. I've said that
in services before in my older days. We have a purity in our own eyes,
but whenever God gives us, if we've been born of God, if we've
been given to Christ, if we've been redeemed and He's died for
us, we'll see our filthiness. We'll
claim our filthiness. We'll say with Paul in Romans
7, O wretched man that I am. We won't say, I'm glad I'm not
like that guy, or that guy, or that guy, or that guy. We'll
say, who shall deliver me from this body of death? Turn with me, if you would, over
to Isaiah, and we're just going to look at a couple more here. Isaiah chapter 1. I've always said Isaiah is the
Romans of the Old Testament. Romans is the Isaiah of the New. Isaiah chapter 1, and let's start
in verse 1, it says, The vision of Isaiah, the son of Amoz, which
he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham,
Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. Hear, O heavens, and give
ear, O earth, for the Lord hath spoken. I have nourished and
brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. Well,
Isaiah, you should have been a better parent. Verse three,
the ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib, but
Israel doth not know my people doth not consider." sinful nation,
a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children
that are corruptors. They have forsaken the Lord.
They have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger. They are
gone away backward. Why should ye be stricken any
more? Ye will revolt more and more.
The whole head is sick and the whole heart faint. 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. Your country is
desolate. Your cities are burned with fire. Your land, strangers devour it
in your presence, and it is desolate as overthrown by strangers. And
the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as
a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city." What a commentary upon people. And that's who we are. From the
sole of the foot even into the head, there is no soundness in
us. We are as putrefying sores, bruises,
wounds, open lacerations. And the more they're left to
themselves, the more they get gangrene, the more they get infected. But praise the Lord. He can bring
us out of that. Praise the Lord. He can change
that. While we're in Isaiah, we have
Isaiah chapter 40. Look at verse 6. The voice said, Cry, and he said,
What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the
goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field. The grass
withereth, the flower fadeth, because the Spirit of the Lord
bloweth upon it. Surely the people is grass. The
grass withereth, the flower fadeth, but the Word of our God standeth
forever." See, we're as nothing. We think we're so important.
But in the scheme of everything, compared to who God is, We are
part of his creation. And yes, I would say we are the
chiefest of his creations. But brethren don't ever think
because we're people and everything else is not people. And that
we might be the chiefest of his creations. Don't think that that
makes us something more than we are. We are still his creation
and he is the creator. We are as grass. And as he says here, the grass
withereth, the grass fadeth, because the Spirit of the Lord
bloweth upon it. One more in Isaiah in chapter
64. Isaiah chapter 64. See, again, I like to just say
we find our doctrine from Scripture. We don't find it from theology
books. I've not yet once quoted a theologian. I've not yet once
quoted some seminary. I've not went to some book of
some guy. I've not pointed you to a website
or pointed you to a book or go say, you know, I've not, I've
not done that. All we've done is we've taken
the Scriptures, we've read what God has given us in the Scriptures,
and we look at that and we say, hmm, okay, if that's the truth,
then that's the truth. If that's what is being said
about me by God, then that must be the truth about who I am.
If that's what's being said about God, then that must be what's
the truth about God. And so I believe what God says. If that's what it says about
salvation, then that's what it says about salvation. See, I
don't have to try to make everything fit my theological system. My
theological system don't make the scriptures that I need to
throw that theological system out. That's why I don't care
about being in pigeon holes. I don't care about the monikers. I don't care about the name that
you put above me. I'm not here to fit into your
Facebook group. I'm not here to fit into your
society or denomination. we're here to preach and teach
the scriptures. And if we find unity around that,
that's wonderful. The Lord's brought us together
for that. Okay. But it isn't because I'm a Calvinist
or a reformed person or a sovereign gracer or a Baptist or this or
that. Now I don't have any qualms believing
and saying I'm sovereign grace. I believe in sovereign grace.
I don't have a qualm saying that I'm a Baptist. I believe the
things that Baptist called Baptist all through the ages have believed.
But the thing is, is I don't believe that because they say
so. Like I said last week, I disagree with almost 95% of the confessions
that's out there of Baptist. That doesn't mean that if they're
all bad, that's just that we disagree on some areas. But again,
it isn't what I say, it isn't what they say, it's what does
the Word of God say. And all we've been doing is reading
Scriptures. And the Scriptures point us to these truths about
who we are and who God is. Look if you would at Isaiah 64
verse 6. It says, But we are all as an
unclean thing We are all that didn't that doesn't
exclude anybody. Okay, but we are all as an unclean
thing and all our righteousness is. Are as filthy rags or excuse
me. I didn't say unrighteousness
is did it got you didn't it says all of our righteousness is See,
a lot of people think, well, yeah, all of our unrighteousness
is filthy rags. No, no, no. God said all of our
righteousnesses are filthy rags. Well, if my righteousnesses are
filthy rags, then what about my unrighteousness? Well, I think
God's kind of saying the same thing. You're all unrighteous
because even your righteousness is unrighteous. All of our righteousnesses
are as filthy rags, and we all do fade as a leaf, and our iniquities,
like the wind, have taken us away." Again, God's assessment
of us. We are unclean and we have no
righteousness. And so Jeremiah, and we'll read
two more verses and we'll be done for today. And we'll go
and look and see what the New Testament says about this topic
next week. Jeremiah then asked this question. And if you want to turn to Jeremiah,
it's going to be in chapter 13, Jeremiah 13. Jeremiah 13 and
verse 23. So we listen to all this stuff
and Jeremiah then asked the question, well can the Ethiopian change
his skin? Or the lepers his spots? Then may ye also do good that
are accustomed to doing evil, to do evil. Again, every word counts. Did
you see what that said? It didn't say that are accustomed to doing
evil. I just made that mistake as I
was trying to quote it without looking at it, but it didn't
say doing evil said that are accustomed to do evil. I think if you'll look that word
accustomed up, you'll find out it means something along the lines of
prepared to do or made to do, fashioned to do. We say that
this is custom cabinets. That means it was crafted, it
was made, it was handmade, it wasn't factory machine made.
It was handmade, factory made. We're accustomed to something Can an Ethiopian change his skin? I got a good friend over in Ohio. His name is James Guyot. He's
from Zimbabwe. and wonderful preacher of sovereign
grace. Matter of fact, he doesn't know
it, but he's an absolute predestinarian. He doesn't use the terms, but
he fits right in. He believes just like we do. But he's a black man, good friend
of mine. There's no way that he can turn
and look like me, and I can't turn and look like him, no matter
how hard we would want to do that. We can't do that. And that's what he's asking here.
Can the Ethiopian change the color of his skin? No, we can't. We can't do that. Can the leopard change his spots?
Can the leopard say, you know, hey, I'm tired of all these nice
little spots that I got on me. I think, you know, I want to
be like a hairy wolf and change its colors. We can't do that. Now people think, well, you know,
you're kind of getting a little silly there, Mike. no more silly than
someone who thinks that they can change themselves from being
depraved sinful and becoming righteous matter of fact there's
there's a greater chance that the Ethiopian can change his
color of his skin and the leopard change in his spots than you
becoming spiritual who are natural. There's a better possibility
that that can happen. Just look at Michael Jackson. Can the Ethiopian change his
skin? No. Can you, who are accustomed to do evil, do good? That's the jest of this. Can
you do good? We say, well, yeah, we do good
all the time. Wait a minute. What about what we just read?
All of our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. You see where
it's drawn us, brethren? You see where it's drawn us?
It's drawn us to a place where we're left to ourself with no
hope. We can't change who we are. We
are who we are. And without that being changed,
we're left by only one hope and that's sovereign grace. But people don't think that's
true. They don't believe that. They think they can bring themselves
out and help themselves. And so Jeremiah, back in chapter
17, if you want to move over a couple of pages, and I quoted
it earlier, forgetting that I'd put it in here. Jeremiah 17,
nine, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately
wicked who can know it. Your heart's going to tell you
you're all right. You're righteous. It's going
to tell you that I'm not like that sinner. That's what your
heart's going to tell you. But that heart is deceitfully
wicked above all things and who can know it? Guys. That is a scary. And heavy thing
to know that there are people out there who don't even have
the capacity, that's what we're talking about when we talk about
inability, total depravity, incapability, there are people out there everywhere
that are unable to even know their condition that they're
in. And their heart is deceiving them that they are good. Mamas, daddies, uncles, aunts,
children, friends, in so-called churches all over the country
worshipping another God, another Jesus. And I'm not talking about
Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons. I'm not talking about that. I'm
talking about an evangelical quote-unquote Christianity out
there worshipping a different Jesus than what this Bible teaches. A very similar but not the same. serving and worshiping a god
very similar to what's in here but not the same one and these
people are deceived they have a zeal for god but not according
to knowledge and you say well you know but we and we can even
get that pharisaical attitude you know well i'm glad we're
not like those free willers out there you know Hey, I'd still
be that freewheeler if it wasn't for God's grace. I'd still be
in the church where I grew up, probably preaching today, probably
even the pastor of that church there, if it hadn't been for
God's grace, giving me the understanding that this is not the gospel.
That Jesus is not the right Jesus. The Jesus of the scripture is
a Jesus who saves, not a Jesus who makes salvation possible.
The Jesus of the scripture is a overcoming victorious savior. He's a savior that saved his
people from their sin, not give them the opportunity to be saved.
The Jesus of the Bible has eternal life in his hand and he gives
it. He doesn't offer it. The God
of this Bible that should be worshiped is found in the man
Jesus Christ and that Jesus Christ is the one who does everything
for his people. And so we look at these scriptures
and we see that our heart can easily be deceived. And we see
there are multitudes being deceived. God has put a veil over their
eyes. God has put blinders over their
eyes. You know whenever the Bible talks
about in Romans and it talks about the Jews and the Gentiles
and it talks about them putting that Israel has a blinder over
their eyes. And we want to think in ethnicity. But we're talking about the pharisaical
religious people have blinders over their eyes. We look at that
from a spiritual aspect. We're looking at those who are
the religious because the Jews were the religious order. Okay,
Israel is a ethnic people Jews is a religious people and the
Jews eyes or blinded. The religious people's eyes are
blinded because of their religiousness. They think because they're religious.
And I'm not talking about potpourri religious. We don't have to dress
up in big crowns and staves and swinging, smoking things. I don't even know what they're
called. I've just seen them on TV. I've never been in service
to one. You know, the big frocks and
gold emblems not i'm not talking about that i'm talking about
people gathering in little buildings like this all of us looking the
way that we look talking the way that we do shaking each other's
hand hugging each other's neck maybe even eating around a table
like we're going to eat here in just a few minutes the preacher
will ever quit that one more one more point preachers always
got one more point my son pointed that out to me the other day that they look just like us,
they almost act just like us, they think just like us almost.
But yet their heart is deceitful and wicked. They don't even know
it. They've been given blinders. God the Bible says that they
will be given a strong delusion to believe a lie. God will give
them a strong delusion to believe a lie and they can't as we seen
here. They can't change that. They
can't make themselves undiluted. It drives us as looking and seeing
and knowing there's only one hope. It's Christ. There's only
one hope. And that's if God saves us. We can't save ourselves. A preacher
can't help you. Your mama can't help you. Your
daddy can't help you. Grandma can't help you. Your
brothers and sisters can't help you. A denomination can't help
you. Nothing is going to help you
except for Christ. We're beholden to Him. We look
to Him. We trust in Him. We throw ourselves
to Him for mercy, for grace, for life. If it isn't Christ,
it's not going to happen. no matter how good you are, or
how self-deluded you are about your religiousness. It's not
going to happen. We are depraved people. We are
unable to do anything good, and we'll talk about that in detail
in the New Testament Scriptures we'll look at next week. But
brethren, know this, that because of our inability, because of
the nature that we have in Adam, what we were from the very beginning
We need a Savior. And that Savior has to be merciful
or we won't see life. That's why I love sovereign grace. That's why I love irresistible,
overcoming, overpowering grace. Because that is my only hope
of ever wanting Him, loving Him, desiring Him, trusting Him. I'd never do that if He had not
first come and overcome my sinful nature and give me a new nature
and made me a new creation in Christ Jesus. and imputed to me a righteousness.
If he had not imputed a righteousness to me and took my unrighteousness
I don't have any hope because I can't do anything good because
from Adam I came out as a sinner and from the time I come from
my mother's womb I come out as a sinner. I'm a sinner all the
way around by nature and by action and Just one sin. If I commit one sin, the Bible
says that I'm guilty of breaking all of God's law. So even if
you just break that one, it's just one little sin. Well, in
God's economy, because of his holiness, his righteousness and
his justice, that one sin might as well have been 10 million
sins because you've transgressed holiness. And so we don't ever
have a chance. We don't ever have a hope apart
from Sovereign Grace. Hail Sovereign Love. Hail Sovereign
Grace. All right. Anybody got anything
or anything? 372.