Well, good morning everyone. If you would open your Bibles
with me to Mark chapter seven. Mark seven. Before we begin, let's bow before
our Lord together in prayer. Our Father, we've gathered here
together this morning with a heartfelt desire and need to hear word
from thee, to be enabled by thy Holy Spirit to worship you in
spirit and in truth. And Father, I pray that you would
enable us to do that. Father, give us the ear to hear.
Give us a heart to believe when we hear Christ our Savior preached. Enable us to forget about all
the cares and goings on of this life. And Father, speak to our
hearts. Would you be our teacher and
speak to our hearts and teach us the Lord Jesus Christ and
enable us to believe. Let his name be exalted and magnified
in everything that's said and done here today. Father, show
us your glory. Our constant cry is that you
would show us your glory. And Father, what we pray for
ourselves, we pray for our children's classes, we pray for your people
wherever they may be meeting together today. Father, bless
your people for your namesake in this dark, dark day in which
we live. Father, we pray for a time of
revival and refreshing, a time when you would make yourself
known to your people. And Father, we pray a blessing
for your people that you brought into the time of trouble and
trial. We pray for your healing hand upon those that are sick.
We pray for your comforting presence in the hearts of your people
who are sorrowing and heartbroken. We pray a special blessing for
our sister Andrea's family, Father, that you'd be with them in a
special way. Comfort their hearts as only
you can. We thank you for our dear sister. We thank you that she is home
with thee and her suffering is over. Her time in this world
of sin and body of sin is over. We're so thankful. and pray that
you bless her sorrowing family at this time. And Father, all
these things we ask and we give thanks in that name which is
above every name, the name of Christ our Savior, amen. All
right, Mark chapter seven, I've titled the lesson this morning,
Total Depravity and Total Salvation. Now our text this morning, our
Lord is gonna give us the definition of total depravity. Every son
and daughter of Adam is totally depraved. And total depravity
means this, that everything about us, everything in us, everything
we do is completely full of sin and iniquity. There's no room
for anything else. We're totally depraved. We don't
have the ability to do anything but sin. That's what Adam did
to his race. He made his race totally depraved. Nothing but sin. Now, if a totally
depraved sinner's gonna be saved, We need to be totally saved,
don't we? Somebody's got to do all the
work of salvation for us. And that's what the Lord Jesus
Christ does for his people. He totally saves his people from
their sin. Christ the second Adam undoes
for his elect everything that Adam did to him. And I want to
show you three manifestations of our total depravity this morning,
and then show you how Christ our Savior totally saves his
people from these things. The number one, our total depravity
is in our nature. Now remember last week we looked
at the Pharisees. They were so offended because
the Lord's disciples ate without washing their hands. And that
was a tradition of the elders, that you wash your hands before
you ate. That wasn't, you know, getting dirt and germs off your
hand before you eat, you know. That's wise, that's good for
us. Their tradition was a ceremonial washing. You know, whenever they
would get back home, when they went to town, they'd come back
home, they'd go through this ceremonial washing to wash all
the sin off of them that they got when they were out in the
world. You know, they'd go to town and they'd touch things,
they got sin on them. So you had to rush home and do
this ceremonial washing to wash sin off of them like they weren't
defiled when they left home, but now they're defiled because
they touched sinful things out in the world. You know, if they
just would have stayed home, they wouldn't have had any sin on them. That's a
ceremonial washing. And our Lord is teaching us here
that touching things out in the world, that's not what makes
us sinful. That's the religion of touch
not, taste not, handle not. It's seeing all being an outward
thing. That's the philosophy of men.
That's the traditions of men, but it's wrong. Now look here
beginning in Mark 7 verse 14. And when he had called all the
people unto him, he said unto them, hearken unto me, every
one of you, and understand. For there's nothing from without
a man that entering into him can defile him. But the things
which come out of him, those are they that defile the man.
If any man have ears to hear, let him hear. Our Lord tells
the people there that day and tells us here this morning. Now
you listen carefully and you understand what I'm saying. What
you put in your body doesn't defile you. What you touch out
in the world, it doesn't defile you. You're defiled already.
Our nature is defiled with sin. And sin flows freely out of us
because that's all our nature can produce. It's sin. Sin flows
freely from us because we're defiled with sin. The fountain
is defiled. So everything that flows from
our nature is defiled. You know, we're not gonna rot
away from the outside in because we touch something sinful out
in the world. We're rotting from the inside out. because our nature
is defiled. It's our sinful nature that will
rot the body from the inside out. You know, the nature that
we receive from our father, Adam, it's a sin nature. It's defiled
with sin. All it can do is sin. We didn't
become sinful the first time we touched something sinful.
We didn't become defiled with sin the first time we did something
sinful. Brother Henry said so many times,
he said, I didn't become a sinner the first time I stole a watermelon.
It's not the first time I did something. We became defiled
with sin. Let me tell you when. The moment
we were conceived in our mother's womb. Isn't that what David said?
Psalm 51 verse five. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity
and in sin did my mother conceive me. I was defiled with sin the
very moment I was conceived in the womb. So the problem, is
found in our nature, isn't it? And you can't change your nature.
You can't change the sin nature. Now, you might be able to change
some habits. It'd be a good idea for me to change some of my habits.
I've got some bad habits, but we're not talking about changing
some habits. You can't change your nature. Listen to Jeremiah
13, verse 23. Can the Ethiopian change his
skin or the leopard his spots? Then may ye also do good that
are accustomed to doing evil. We can't change and start doing
good, can we? Because our nature is evil. The
problem is in our nature. We can't quit sinning any more
than the Ethiopian can change his skin color, or the leopard
can change his spots to look like a lion. You can't do it,
because that's his nature. We can't start doing good because
our nature is evil. See, the problem is our nature. That's what the Apostle Paul
told us in Ephesians 2 verse 3, that before God found us,
before God saved us, we were by nature. The problem is our
nature, by nature, the children of wrath, even as others. That's
the nature that we're born with. Now that's our totally depraved
nature. So we need a savior who totally
saves, don't we? And that's our Lord Jesus Christ.
In God's salvation, sinners are totally saved, totally. Now salvation, first of all,
involves a work done for the sinner. But there also has to
be a work done in the sinner. If we would be totally saved,
there has to be both a work for us and a work in us. God the
Father did a work for his people when he elected them unto salvation,
didn't he? That's a work done for us. Then God the Son came
in the fullness of time and he did a work for his sinful people.
when he took their sin into his own body on the tree. And he
suffered and died to put that sin away by the blood of his
sacrifice. The blood of Christ totally paid
for the sin of his people. The blood of Christ totally atoned,
totally covered all of the sin of all of God's elect. Sin is
totally gone because of the blood of Christ. That's a work done
for us. But now if we're left to our
own sinful natures, God still cannot accept us into our presence.
The debt's paid, but something's got to be done about my nature.
So God the Holy Spirit does the work in all of God's elect. God the Holy Spirit gives God's
people a brand new nature in the new birth. It's a nature
that can never sin. Now the nature we're born with
in Adam, all it can do is sin, it can't do righteousness. When
we're born again, that nature that's born of God the Holy Spirit
cannot sin. It can only do righteousness.
That nature can never trust the works of the flesh. That nature
can only trust Christ. It can only believe Christ. It
can only love Christ. And that's the only nature that
a holy God will accept. So that's the nature he gives
his people. He puts it in them. Let me show you that in Galatians
chapter six, Galatians chapter six. Galatians 6 verse 12. As many as desire to make a fair
show in the flesh. See, they're still dealing with
the flesh. They're only looking at the flesh.
They constrain you to be circumcised only lest they should suffer
persecution for the cross of Christ. They're gonna mix grace
and works so they don't have to suffer persecution for the
cross of Christ. For neither they themselves who
are circumcised keep the law. but desire to have you circumcised
that they may glory in your flesh. But God forbid that I should
glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the
world is crucified unto me and I unto the world. For in Christ
Jesus, neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision.
In Christ, it doesn't matter what you've done in the flesh
or what you haven't done in the flesh. What matters? But a new
creature. See, all those fleshly acts of
religion, they don't help the salvation of our souls one bit.
They're just fleshly, they're just outward. But when God gives
you a new creature, a new creation, a newly created nature, now that
matters. It's the work of God done in
us. And that's the work that we need God to give us. That's
the nature that God the Holy Spirit gives all of God's, He
gives them all the same nature. And if you look at second Peter
chapter one, I'll show you how this is total salvation, total
salvation. Here we talk about the new birth,
you know, the new birth, this work of God, the Holy spirit
that's done in God's people. Listen to me. It's just as necessary
as the work of the father and election. And it's just as necessary
as the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. It's just as necessary. There must be this work done
in us. And when God the Holy Spirit
does this work in us, it's total salvation. 2 Peter 1 verse 4. Whereby are given unto us exceeding
great and precious promises, that by these ye might be partakers
of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that's
in the world through lust. If you're a partaker of the divine
nature, You're a partaker of the holy, righteous nature of
Christ. You're a sharer in this holy,
righteous nature. You're totally saved, aren't
you? Totally saved. That's our nature. All right,
number two, back in our text, our total depravity is seen in
our dead minds. You know, even believers who've
been born again, we still carry around that old dead mind with
us, don't we? Now, the Lord's given us a new
nature. We still carry around that old dead nature with us,
don't we? The Lord gives us a new mind, but we still carry around
that old dead mind with us. And here it is, you see it in
verse 17. And when he was entered into the house from the people,
his disciples asked him concerning the parable. They asked him,
what does that parable mean? What did you mean when you said
that? And he sayeth unto them, are you so without understanding
also? Do you not perceive, do you not
understand that whatsoever thing From within, entereth into the
man, it cannot defile him. Now the disciples, they didn't
perceive. They didn't understand what the Lord said. Because they
had a dead mind. Now all of us, believer and unbeliever
alike, we have a spiritually dead mind. A mind that cannot
understand. For those of you who trust Christ,
you believe him, you love him. Does it ever bother you how much
you forget what you've been taught? Does it bother you how often
you forget that in all things, go to the Lord first, trust Christ
first, you know, you have a problem come up and you immediately get
to work trying to fix it and you can't do it, and then you
go to the Lord in prayer and you think, why didn't I do that
the first time? I've been taught better. Why did I do that the
first time? Why do we forget? Why do we forget like that? The
Lord sends us through a trial, the deep valley of a trial. Oh, He teaches us. That's where
God teaches His people, down there in the pit of the trial. And He teaches us, and oh, we
learn. I learn I'm gonna trust Christ.
I learn His grace is sufficient. I've learned to wait on Him.
I'm never gonna forget that. How quickly did we forget? Now,
why is that? because we've got a dead spiritual
mind. Ephesians 4 verse 18 says this,
having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life
of God through the ignorance that's in them because of the
blindness of their heart. Now Paul talks about their understanding
being darkened, he's talking about having a dead mind. That's
the mind, the spiritually dead mind that we all are born with. See, our problem by nature is
our dead mind cannot understand who God is. Can't do it. We cannot
understand how sinful we are. We cannot understand how God
saves sinners. Now, we physically may hear the
gospel preached, but it's like hearing a foreign language. You
know, you just pick up a word here or there, but you can't
understand what's being said, the message of what's being said.
And I'll give you a good example. We used to go to Mexico every
year, and we'd go to the different churches down there in Mexico,
and I would preach. I would preach to the interpreter.
I'd say seven or eight words, and then Cody would translate
seven or eight words. And I'd preach like that, you
know, going back and forth like that. And then I'd get done,
I'd sit down, and the pastor would get up, just like we do
here, and he'd start talking to the congregation. So I kind
of had one single solid, I didn't have no idea what he was saying.
because he's speaking in Spanish. I didn't know what he was saying,
just sitting there, I didn't know what he was saying. But every once in a while,
I picked up on a word that I understood. You know what it was? Senor Jesus
Cristo. Oh, and he said that. Now I know
who he's talking about. He's talking about the Lord Jesus
Christ. I understood that name. I picked
up that word that I understood, and I knew who the pastor was
talking about, I didn't know what he was saying about it.
I couldn't understand. Now that's how it is for you
and me. If we only physically hear the gospel with a dead mind,
we're gonna understand some words. You understand some definition
of God, of Christ, of salvation, of grace, of substitution. You
understand some of those words. You pick out a word here and
there, can't you? but we can't understand the message. We can't
understand the message that's being preached that salvation's
of the Lord, that salvation is all in Christ, that righteousness
is all in Christ. Our problem is a dead mind. We
can't understand. You cannot believe what you don't
understand. So we need the Lord to give us
a new mind, don't we? A mind that does understand the
things of God. We need to be given a new mind
that understands how God saves sinners. When you finally say,
oh, I see what that preacher's been saying all these years.
All these men I've been hearing preaching the gospel, now I see
what they've been saying. What you're saying is now I understand.
Now I understand. Why do you understand? Why do
you understand now, but you didn't understand before? Because God's
given you a new mind. Now I understand. That's the
mind, that mind of understanding. How can God save a sinner like
me and still be God? If you know the answer to that
question, God's given you a new mind. Paul said in Ephesians
1 verse 18, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened,
God's given you a new mind. Now you see that you may know
the hope of his calling, that you may know the riches of his
glory, that you may know the inheritance of the saints. Now
we know. because God's given us a new
mind. You remember when our Lord was talking to the disciples
on the road to Emmaus after he had risen from the dead, they
didn't know it was him, and they were walking along talking, weren't
they? Now they understood some of the words that he was saying,
but they didn't understand what he was saying. They didn't understand
the message of what he was saying. In Luke 24, verse 45 says this,
then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the
scriptures. That new mind, he opened it. He gave them, and
what did they understand? When the Lord gave them a new
mind, when he gave them an understanding, what did they understand? They
understood the scriptures. They understood how all those
scriptures from Moses clear through the end of the Old Testament,
none of the New Testament, I guess was written at that time. They
understood now, what do those scriptures mean? I understand,
they're all pointing me to Christ. All those Old Testament scriptures
are pointing me from his birth to his death, to his resurrection,
to his ascension, to his second return. All those Old Testament
scriptures told me about that, pointed me to him. Now I see,
I understand the scriptures when I understand that those scriptures
teach me Christ, teach me to trust Christ. Now in God the Holy Spirit, Does
this work in us? It gives us a new mind. Gives
us the mind of Christ. It's very important. The mind
of Christ doesn't just understand doctrinal truths. Boy, if I think
I understand these doctrinal truths and somebody else doesn't,
I'm gonna get too big for my britches right quick, aren't
I? Oh, I know something somebody else doesn't know. I know something
all these folks out here in religion, you know, don't know, aren't
I something? The mind of Christ that God the Holy Spirit gives
us doesn't just understand doctrinal truths. The mind of Christ humbles
us and makes us worship Christ and makes us think of others
better than ourselves. That's exactly right. Now I can
show you that in Philippians chapter two. Philippians chapter
two. The mind of Christ doesn't just
know these doctrinal truths now, Having the mind of Christ is
gonna humble us. Humble us before God and before
our brethren. Philippians 2 verse 4. Let's
start in verse 3. Let nothing be done through strife
or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind. In this mind of Christ,
in lowliness of mind, and if we have a mind that understands,
we understand how low down we are, aren't we? We're low down.
In lowliness of mind, let each esteem other better than themselves.
Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on
the things of others. Let this mind be in you, which
was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought
it not robbery to be equal with God, but he made himself of no
reputation. He took upon him the form of
a servant who was made in the likeness of men and being found
in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient under
death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath
highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every
name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things
in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth, and
that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to
the glory of God the Father. Now that's the mind of Christ.
And if God's given us the mind of Christ, we're gonna humble
ourselves to serve our brethren and not think of ourselves as
better than them. See, the mind of Christ doesn't just understand
doctrine, does it? No, it directs our walk and humbles
us. It humbles us before God and
before our brethren. And boy, if you need to be humbled,
you don't have to go very far before we're humbled. Believers
have been given a new mind. No, we have been. We've been
given the mind of Christ. I understand these. I mean, you
know, I see through a glass darkly, I understand how God saves sinners.
You believe, you do too. But we still struggle with that
old dead mind as long as we live, don't we? Always struggle with
it. As long as we live on this earth, we're gonna be fighting
that old dead mind. Every believer has two minds. That dead mind, that depraved
mind that we got from our father Adam, and the mind of Christ
that God the Holy Spirit gave us. But the Lord knows. And we struggle
with that. The Lord knows. And do you know
that's why he keeps teaching his people? Look back at Matthew
chapter 16. I'll show you an example of this. Oh, we're so forgetful. I mean,
it's shameful. It's just humbling, isn't it,
to think about how forgetful we are. We forget the things
that God's taught us. We're so forgetful. Look here
at Matthew 16, verse five. And when his disciples were come
to the other side, they'd forgotten to take bread. Then Jesus said
unto them, take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees
and of the Sadducees. And they reasoned among themselves.
Here they are, they're reasoning with that dead mind, saying he
said that because we've taken no bread. Which when Jesus perceived,
he said unto them, O ye of little faith, why reason ye among yourselves
because you brought no bread? Do you not yet understand Neither
remember. See, here's the problem. They
forgot. Don't you remember? No, you don't
remember. The five loaves of the 5,000 and how many baskets
you took up? Neither the seven loaves of the
4,000 and how many baskets you took up? How is it that you do
not understand that I spake it not to you concerning bread that
you should be aware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees? They forgot, didn't they? They
forgot, and the Lord knew they forgot, so he taught them again.
After the Lord taught them again, then understood they how that
he bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine
of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. The disciples who had seen these
miracles, they'd seen the Lord feed these multitudes with just
nothing, basically. Not once, but twice they saw
it. And they forgot. The next time they were without
bread, they forgot. I can't throw a rock at them,
can you? But the Lord understood. So he taught them again. And
then they understood. You know why they understood?
See, they forgot because they got that old dead mind. You know
why they understood when the Lord taught them? The Lord gave
them a new mind. That's why. All right, here's
the third thing about our total depravity. It's seen in our dead
hearts. Verse 19, back in Mark chapter
7. The Lord says, whatsoever entereth
into a man that can't defile him, because it entereth not
into his heart, but into the belly and goeth out into the
draw, through the sewer, purging all means. And he said, that
which cometh out of the man, that defiled the man, for from
within, out of the heart of men proceed evil thoughts. adulteries,
fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit,
lasciviousness, and evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness.
All these evil things come from within and defile the man. You notice the Lord started out
this list of 13 of these evil things, evil thoughts. It's something
that happened within. Now all of them start out, all
these things that he lists start out from within. But it's obvious
the first one of these evil things that our Lord taught is evil
thoughts. Thoughts, something that's from within, from that
dead mind. They come out of us from the
heart, from the fountain of our heart. Brethren, our problem
is a heart problem. It's the wickedness of our hearts.
You know, we could be hermits, and we could lock ourselves away
from the rest of the world. That's looking more and more
and more appealing to me and Jan all the time. Let's just
go to the mountain and be hermits and lock ourselves away from
the world. But if we did that, you know what? All this wickedness
and that evilness would go to the mountain with us, would go
into that little cabin on the mountain with us, and if we never
saw anybody for the next 10 years, that evil would still be with
us because it's in our hearts. And it comes out, it comes out
in our actions, it comes out in our words, because it's in
our hearts. The Lord lists these 13 evils
and you know, not one of these evils is easy talking about,
it's found out there in the world. Every one of them is laying comfortably
in our heart, in our heart. The problem is in the heart.
Pharaoh in Egypt, when Moses came to Pharaoh and said, God
said, let my people go. Why was Pharaoh ultimately destroyed?
Heart problem. Exodus 8 verse 32, Pharaoh hardened
his heart at this time also, neither will he let the people
go. It was his heart was the problem, he hardened it. How did man get in this mess
with a heart like this? We got it from Adam. Genesis
6 verse 5, just a few generations separated from Adam God saw that
the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination
of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. God
didn't say he was destroying the earth because what man did
is what was in his heart. What was in his heart? Jeremiah
17 verse nine describes our wicked heart. The heart is deceitful
above all things. Who can know it? I mean, we can't
even know how deceitful and how wicked it is. Paul said Romans
2 verse 5, but after the hardness and impotent heart, it's because
of your heart you treasure up unto thyself wrath against the
day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.
Brethren, we've got a heart problem. It's totally depraved. And if
we would be totally saved, God's got to give us a new heart. Look
at Ezekiel chapter 36. That's what God promises to do
for all of his people. Give them a new heart. See, this
is another work. Now God's got to do this work
in us. He puts a new heart in his people. Ezekiel, excuse me,
36 verse 24. For I will take you from among the
heathen and gather you out of all countries and will bring
you into your own land. Then will I sprinkle clean water
upon you, and you should be clean. From all your filthiness and
from all your idols will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I
give you. See, here it is, this is what
we need. A new heart also will I give you. A new spirit will
I put within you, a new nature. And I will take away the stony
heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh.
And I will pour my spirit, where? Within you. and cause you to
walk on my statues and you should keep my judgments and do them. When God gives a sinner a new
heart, he gives him new loves, he gives him new desires. He
says, I pour my spirit within you, my spirit. That's being
totally saved, isn't it? And then here's the last thing. Here we are in these bodies of
flesh, and I understand the doctrine, I understand what the Lord's
teaching, By God's grace, I understand it because I've experienced it.
God's given me a new nature. He's given me a new mind. He's
given me a new heart. Chip, I don't feel like I've
been quite totally saved yet, do you? In the resurrection, I'm telling
you, there's a day coming. In the resurrection, God's people
are all going to be raised in the likeness of Christ. In that
day, we're going to be given a new body. that matches the
new nature, that matches our new mind, that matches our new
heart that God gave us when he caused us to be born again. And
in that day, we will be totally saved. Totally saved from our
sin, totally saved from the presence of sin, totally saved from this
old corrupt nature, this old dead mind, this old dead heart,
and we're gonna spend eternity worshiping God in perfection.
both body and soul. I got a list of things that I'd
like to do between now and the time I take my last breath. Honestly,
I do. But at the same time, I can honestly
say this, hasten, Lord, the day. Hasten, Lord, the day. All right,
I hope that'll be a blessing to you.