A Picture of Depraved Men

Q: What does the Bible say about human depravity?

The Bible teaches that all humans are born depraved and incapable of saving themselves without God's intervention. Scripture, particularly in Ephesians 2:1-3, teaches that by nature we are dead in our sins and helpless without God's grace. This depravity means that, like Jeremiah in the dungeon described in Jeremiah 38, we are spiritually lost, sinking in the mire of our own sin. We are without the 'water of life' and the 'bread of life,' which represents Jesus Christ, and this reflects our dire spiritual condition. Without God’s intervention, we face eternal consequences, illustrating the necessity of divine rescue from our sinful state.

Q: How do we know that regeneration is essential for salvation?

Regeneration by the Holy Spirit is essential because it transforms our hearts, enabling us to respond to God’s call. Regeneration is a fundamental doctrine in Reformed theology, asserting that the Holy Spirit must overcome our inherent resistance to God in order to bring us to faith. Like Jeremiah being drawn from the dungeon, this process indicates that we cannot lift ourselves out of our sin; instead, we need to be regenerated. John 3:3 emphasizes this need as Jesus states that one must be born again to see the Kingdom of God. The Holy Spirit works in our hearts, bringing us to see our true condition and turning us toward Christ for salvation, underscoring the sovereign grace of God in the salvation process.

Q: Why is faith in Christ important for Christians?

Faith in Christ is essential for salvation and spiritual life, as He is the source of eternal life and forgiveness. Faith in Christ is the means through which we receive the grace of God for salvation. The narrative of Jeremiah in the dungeon serves as a powerful metaphor; just as Jeremiah could not escape his dire state without assistance, we cannot attain salvation without placing our faith in Jesus, who is the 'rock of ages.' Romans 10:9-10 highlights that confessing with our mouth and believing in our hearts leads to salvation. This faith transforms our lives, enabling us to live out our new identity as believers who have been rescued from our pit of sin.

Q: What does the Bible say about hope for the lost?

The Bible teaches that hope for the lost can only be found in Christ, who rescues us from our sinful state. In the biblical narrative, particularly illustrated by Jeremiah's plight, the absence of hope is alarming. Jeremiah's condition reflects humanity's state without God, which is hopeless and devoid of life-giving sustenance. However, God's grace intervenes, offering hope through Christ, our living hope. In Titus 3:4-7, we see that the kindness and love of God our Savior appears, saving us not because of righteous things we had done, but because of His mercy. This hope is not contingent on our efforts but is fully grounded in God's sovereign grace and the work of Jesus Christ.

in the 38th chapter of the book
of Jeremiah. Turn over there with me. Jeremiah
38. And I'll show you something here
that is in keeping with what David said that describes every one of us by nature. The 38th chapter. Old Jeremiah was cast into a
dungeon here in this 6th verse. It says, Then took they Jeremiah,
and cast him into the dungeon of Malachi. I don't think that's the way
you pronounce that. the son of Hamelak, that was
in the court of the prison, and they let down Jeremiah with cords,
and in the dungeon there was no water but mire, so Jeremiah
sunk in that mire." Now that's where we was. That's what David
said. He said there that they brought
me up. also out of a horrible pit. That's
where I was. He was right there where Jeremiah
was. There was no water there. There was mire. And Jeremiah
sunk in that mire. No water. That means that the
Lord Jesus Christ, who's the water of life, He wasn't there.
He wasn't in your life. We wandered those many years
in this world Religious, maybe, but Jesus wasn't in our lives.
The water wasn't there. The water of life wasn't there.
I'll show you another thing down in that 9th verse. That 9th verse
says that there was a friend of Jeremiah, Emedelech. He went forth out of the king's
house, 8th verse, and he spake unto the king, saying, My Lord
the King, these men hath done evil in all that they have done
to Jeremiah the prophet, whom they have cast into the dungeon,
and he is like to die for hunger. There is no water there, and
there is no bread there. He is going to die from hunger
in that place where he is, for there is no more bread in that
city. There is no water there, and there is no bread there,
the bread of life. That is our condition by nature. Wandering along, being religious
these many years, no water in our life, the Lord Jesus, no
bread in our life, the Lord Jesus. We were, as Paul describes us
in Ephesians there, we were lost without God in this world and
without hope. We had no hope, we had no God. Lost. And if we die like that,
we'll die forever lost. Well, it says that this old E... Ebb... Well, this... I don't
know how you pronounce that fellow's name. The Ethiopian. The king told him, he said, well,
take thirty men with you and take up Jeremiah the prophet
out of the dungeon before he dies. You stay there, Daryl,
you'll die. If a man's not taken up out of
that dungeon, that horrible pit, if his feet's not established,
upon the rock, and that's the rock of ages, he'll die. It'll
not just be the physical death, it'll be the second death. If
all it was was just a physical death, to die and go into the
grave, our body go into the grave and smolder, and go back to the
dust from which God sent it, and that's all there was to it.
No eternal retribution for our acts, then that wouldn't be too
bad. If we was like a dog, or like a horse, or like a snake,
or like a frog, or like a fish, If we was like that, we'd be
all right. We'd be all right. We'd be no problem. But we're not like that. We have
a soul. We have a soul that will never die. We've just got one
soul. And that soul will never die. And if that soul dies without
water and without bread and is down in that pit and cannot get
out, dies in that pit of corruption, is never brought out and his
feet placed upon the rock and his goings-forth established,
well, then he's going to be involved in what's called a second death. When death and hell is delivered
up, those that are in Hades are delivered up, and all the wicked
and all the unbelieving is cast into that lake of fire that burneth
forever and forever, where the smoke of their torment ascendeth
up. Well, there's no end. Where hope
is forever shut out, and misery and corruption is shut in. Well,
that's what it says. It says, take thirty men with
you and take up Jeremiah the prophet out of the dungeon before
he died. Got to get him out of there.
If God doesn't come and rescue us, Out of this pit, there's no hope
for us. Well, this Ethiopian, I guess he's a colored fella,
wasn't he? Wouldn't you say he's a colored
fella if he's an Ethiopian? Moses married an Ethiopian woman.
Boy, them people in Alabama don't like that. They say it don't mean that,
but I believe it does. I believe that's the reason Miriam
got so mad. She got mad, boy. Her and Aaron
both got mad about Moses marrying that Ethiopian woman. Here's
the Ethiopian man befriending old Jeremiah, and I believe he
is a black man. He befriended him, and he took
the men with him, and they went into the house of the king under
the treasury, and they took things out, old cast clots and old rotten
rags, and they left them down by cords into the dungeon to
Jeremiah. And this Ethiopian said to Jeremiah,
put now these old cast clots and rotten rags under your arms,
under the cords. And Jeremiah did so. That is,
put them under there, kind of make a cushion, a pillow for
them. And then put the cords, I send down, put them under,
I'm going to draw you up out of here. And so they drew up
Jeremiah with cords and took him out of the dungeon. They
had to draw him up. You see, he was bogged down in
the mire. He was bogged down in this miry
deep. He was bogged down in this pollution,
in this corruption, in this horrible pit that it took these men up
there to draw Him up. And that's what it takes for
us. It takes the drawing of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit
must draw us. We'd never come if it were not
for the power of the Holy Spirit to overcome. He's got to overcome
all of our rebellion. You remember not too long ago
I preached to you about It was a greater miracle, or it is a
greater miracle, for God to quicken one who is spiritually dead than
it is for him to quicken one who is physically dead. The greater
miracle involved there because he that is dead physically, he
cannot make any opposition. either directly or indirectly
to the gracious motions of a sovereign God, as He graciously endeavors
to send means to raise Him from the dead. He cannot oppose the
power of God. He can't do it. No way can a
dead man, physically dead, oppose the hand of God. Lazarus was
in the grave, but he couldn't oppose the hand of God. He was
in the grave and he was dead. He'd been there three days. They
said he stinketh. And he couldn't, when the Lord
Jesus Christ said, Lazarus, come forth, he couldn't resist. He's dead. But a man who is spiritually
dead, who is spiritually dead in trespasses and in sins, he
resists the good motions of the Spirit when they come to him
to quicken him. He resists. In many ways, forms,
and fashions, he resists the Spirit of God. And God must completely
overcome that man. He's got to overcome his strivings,
his resistance. He's got to overcome it in order
to draw him out. That's the reason the Bible says
we're snatched as a bran from the burn. We're snatched. We're
pulled by the Spirit of God. We're so bogged down. We're so
bogged down in our natural condition, in our rebellion, in our sins,
in our lust, that God must pull us. It takes the Holy Spirit
of God in regeneration to quicken us from our dead state. And so it was with this old Jeremiah.
He was bogged down. And they put those old rags and
cast clots and said, put them under your arms, Aaron. threw
down them ropes and put them ropes underneath there and said,
we're going to pull you out. So they drew him out. That's a picture
of what he's talking about over here when he said, he brought
me up also out of a horrible pit. That's how he brought me. That's my experience. That's
how he brought me. Boy, I'll tell you, when the Lord saved
me, when I first heard the voice of the Lord, I wasn't running
to God. I was running away from God.
I wasn't running to Him. I had no interest in God. None
whatsoever. If God had not stopped me in
my mad pursuit to hell, I'd have probably been there by now. If
God had not arrested me, stopped me, and drew me with the cords
of love unto Himself, I'd have still been going. I'd have still
been running the other direction. But God stopped me. Through the
gracious operation of the Spirit and the Gospel, I heard I for
the first time in my life, my ears was open, my understanding
was enlightened, and my eyes was open, and I seen my desperate
condition. I seen myself. Never seen myself
before in my life. Thought I did, but I didn't.
But I seen myself undone. I seen myself in that horrible
pit. I seen myself bound, helpless and hopeless, and knew, and I
knew, When God sent that preacher,
when God sent that preacher with the message to me, I knew he
was talking to me. I knew it. I said, that's me.
He's talking to me. That's me. No doubt about it. That was my experience. He brought
me up. You never go up until you first
go down. And he set my feet upon a rock, upon Christ. That's where
our feet is. Someone told me one time, said,
well, you can be saved one day and lost the next. I said, well,
I never believed that. I said, I never have believed
that. Never have, never will. No foundation to that. The first reason I couldn't believe
that is this. If Christ, Jesus, the Lord, who
is God manifest in the flesh, the Eternal Son, If He satisfied
every claim that God's law had against me, and paid for every
sin, and gave me His righteousness, then what shall I answer for
when I stand before Him if He paid it all? God's got to renege. He's got to renounce what He's
already done, if that be so. That's impossible. God cannot
lie. God will not lie. God cannot lie. Secondly, a fellow
told me one time, he said, well, he said, he said, well, he said,
I believe that, I believe that you can take yourself out of
the hand of God. You know, I quoted to him in
the book of Romans where it said, nothing can separate us from
the love of God, nothing. Height, depth, principalities,
powers, or any other creature shall separate us from the love
of God which is in Christ." Nothing can do it. He said, yeah, but
he said, you can take yourself. He said, you can take yourself
out of the hand of God. I said, you can. He said, oh
yeah, you can do that. I said, well, I never heard tell
of a fellow who had his feet on the rock of ages and he didn't
like it and he decided to jump off. You ever hear tell of a
fellow like that? Never in my life have I ever
heard tell of a fellow that had his feet upon the rock of ages,
and he said, I don't like it up here. I'm going to jump off. Well, that's where our feet is.
He set my feet upon a rock, and that rock is Christ, and he established
my goings. It's not in man to direct his
own steps. His goings and his steps have
got to be established by God. Now, listen to what else he's
done. And he put a new song in my mouth. Put a new song in my
mouth. Behold, all things are new. Isn't that right? If any man
be in Christ, he's a new creature. All things are passed away. Behold,
all things become new. Things that I once loved and
now hate, things that I love now I used to hate and so forth,
vice versa. Put a new song in my heart. Sing
a new song. New desires, new habits, new
friends, new loves. New songs I sing now. I sing
now, worthy is the lamb that was slain. I sing now, there
is a fountain filled with blood that flowed from Emmanuel's veins.
Sinners plunge beneath that flood, lose all their guilty stains.
Put a new song in my heart, a new song upon my lips. But a new
song in my mouth even prays unto our God, and many shall see it."
That's right, it'll leak out on a fellow. No such thing as
a man being a secret Christian, are they? No, sir. You can't
be a secret Christian. You can't be a secret disciple.
You can't be one of those fellows that say, well, now I believe.
I believe. I'm a Christian, but I don't
think I'll let anybody know about it. I'll just keep to myself
for a while, And I'll prove to my own self that I can make it,
and then I'll let it out." No, you're not like that. If a man's
a Christian, if God's ever quickened him and given him life and brought
him out of that horrible pit and set his feet upon the rock,
it's going to leak out on him. Isn't that right, Raven? It'll
get out on him. Yes, sir, it'll leak out on him.
People will begin to see it by the way he talks. by the way
he walks, by his friends, by his habits, by these things which
he loves, his life will be changed, it'll be different. Many shall
see it. Some of them will fear, and because
of it, they'll trust in the Lord. Many times God has been pleased
to use that poor... I told you about that fellow,
that old happy Jack, didn't I? I believe I did, oh happy Jack. He heard some wash women singing
a little ditty, said that I'm a poor sinner and nothing at
all, and Jesus Christ is my all in all. And every day as he passed,
he passed where these wash women, they were always singing that
little ditty. I'm only a poor sinner and nothing at all, but
Jesus Christ is my all in all. And he began to sing that ditty.
And the first thing you know, that little ditty began to work
in his heart, and God saved him. And he began to go to church,
and he began to hear the word, and he began to rejoice in the
gospel. And he was a new man, and everywhere he went, all day
long, in his work up, as a kind of a tinker. And he said, I'm
only a poor sinner and nothing at all, but Jesus Christ is my
all in all. So he decided that he's going
to join the church, so he approached the minister, and the minister
said, well, I can't forbid you from joining the church, but
he said, have some deacons there, there
were some old-fashioned deacons in that church, and they wanted
to talk to him before membership. Anyhow, they had a particular
meeting, the deacons did, and old Happy Jack, that's what they
called him, he came before the deacons, and they said, Well,
now, Happy Jack, what do you got to say for yourself? He said,
I'm only a poor sinner and nothing at all, but Jesus Christ is my
all in all. Oh, they said, haven't you got
anything more to say than that? And he said, no. I said, I don't have anything
more to say than that. Well, they said, don't you have any
doubts and fears? And he said, no, I don't have
any doubts and fears. He said, I'm only a poor sinner
and nothing at all. But Jesus Christ is my all in
all. Well, he said, don't you sometimes
feel like you're going backwards instead of forwards? And they
said, no. I'm only a poor sinner. They
couldn't get him away from that. I'm only a poor sinner and nothing
at all. But Jesus Christ is my all in
all. And many in that town in England
was converted through the ministry and the testimony of O Happy
Jack. O Happy Jack. Many shall see
it and fear and shall trust in the Lord. I'm only a poor sinner. Nothing at all. Blessed is the
man that maketh the Lord his trust. Blessed is that man. Happy is that man. That's what
that word blessed means, happy. Happy is the man that makes the
Lord his trust. And respecteth not the proud,
nor such as turn aside to lies. Many, O Lord, my God, are thy
wonderful works which thou hast done. Listen to this, "...and
thy thoughts which are to usward," these are part of the wonderful
works of God, "...his thoughts which are to usward. Now they
cannot be reckoned up," that is, they cannot be summed up,
they cannot be counted, "...they cannot be reckoned up in order
unto thee, if I would declare and speak of them, they are more
than can be numbered." That is, of God's thoughts to us. Does
Jesus care? You know, we sing that song.
Does Jesus care when my heart is about to break? Does Jesus
care? I know He cares. I know He cares. He does care. His thoughts to
us. His thoughts to us cannot be
numbered. They can't be reckoned up. Sacrifice and offering thou didst
not desire, mine ears hast thou opened. Never one, you see. You know what that word open
means? I think it's maybe in your margin. There it is in mine.
That word open means digged, d-i-g-g-e-d, digged. You know
what that means? That means when a man was redeemed,
when a slave was bought in the marketplace and redeemed, And
he didn't want any freedom. He loved his master. He loved
his master. And he didn't want to be redeemed.
They called him a bond slave. And so they put a mark on him
and they called it digged. They digged a hole in his ears.
That's what that means right there when it says, mine ears
hast thou opened, mine ears hast thou digged. That means they
took an awl and they bored a hole right there in his ear. He had
a hole right there and he was a bond slave. You say, well,
he's a bond slave. He was freed. He was freed by
his master, but he didn't want his freedom. He loved his master
so that he said, Master, though I'm free, though I'm free, I'm
a bond slave to you. I'll stay here and serve you
the balance of my life. I'll not do it for money. Don't
do it for pay. I do it because I love you. Every man, you see, that's part
of the story here, I think, in Psalm 40. Man's been digged. He that hath been forgiven much
loveth much. See? Man's been forgiven, obviously
he loves much. Man's been brought out of that
horrible pit. If we ever come to the place
that we know we was down there and we was bogged down in the
mire of clay and the only thing in God's world that could get
us out of there was to God reach down there and pull us out. If
we ever know that, brethren, we'll put our ears to the doorpost
and we'll say, put a hole in my ear. Put a hole in that ear. I'm a bond slave. I'll serve
you. I'll serve you out of love. You
know, hell scared service in my life. A lot of folks, you
know, they don't know how to serve God. The only way they'll
serve God is in motions and pretense. afraid they're going to go to
hell. If that'll keep them out of hell, they'll go to church.
If that'll keep them out of hell, they'll give a nickel down there.
Not so with the bondservant. He didn't serve, he didn't get
it. God doesn't want any hell-scared servants. God wants the response to his
love with love. Well, you can read the rest of
that

A Picture of Depraved Men

What does the Bible say about human depravity?

How do we know that regeneration is essential for salvation?

Why is faith in Christ important for Christians?

What does the Bible say about hope for the lost?

Sermon Transcript

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A Picture of Depraved Men

What does the Bible say about human depravity?

How do we know that regeneration is essential for salvation?

Why is faith in Christ important for Christians?

What does the Bible say about hope for the lost?

Sermon Transcript

About Scott Richardson

Comments

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