I'm going to continue on Bible
doctrine tonight. Tonight I want to talk about
total depravity and total inability. Total depravity and total inability. That's a mouthful, ain't it? Now, you know it told us there
in Romans 5, 12 about Adam's sin, and how sin got into this
world. How sin got into this world.
This world got into this sin through one man. Through that
one man disobeying God. That's how sin got into this
world. And then death came because of that sin. And so death, everybody's
going to die. Death passes from all men because
all have sinned. And this is what we call original
sin. Now when we talk about original
sin, there's people who don't believe in it. But we've seen
that the consequences of Adam's sin upon the whole human race,
and in Adam we have what we call original guilt. Now what does
that mean? That means that God holds us
guilty and responsible for the first sin of Adam. That's why He holds us responsible
for that. He holds us guilty for it, responsible for it, and
it says that all have sinned, and that's what He means, beloved.
He charged it to us, He imputed it to us. And that's the doctrine
of original sin. From the first sin of Adam, sin
became universal. That's the root of sin. That's
where it started at. And I'll tell you, look, that's
what he says in verse 13 here. It said, For until the law, sin
was in the world. You know, now that means before
the law was given 430 years after Moses, sin was in the world. You didn't need a law to make
you know that there's sin. That's what this is telling us.
But sin is not imputed when there is no law. Well, if there was
no law, then why in the world did people die? What was the
sin that they sinned against? And what Paul is doing here is
using a rhetorical statement to say, but sin is not imputed
when there is no law. But still yet, men died. Why?
Because of sin. Men died because of sin. Even
those that did not sin, a deliberate sin, like Adam did. And that
has to be infants. Only thing it possibly can be.
We sin deliberately. Babies, little babies when they're
first born, they can't do that. And there are two parts of original
sin. Let me give them to you. First of all, there's original
guilt. That guilt that God holds us guilty for Adam's sin. If
that God didn't hold the human race guilty for Adam's sin, infants
wouldn't die. They have no They haven't committed
a sin, and the only reason they die is because of sin, and then
the reason they die because of sin is because they're charged
with Adam's sin. Men only die because of sin.
Is that not right? They didn't sin after Semele.
They didn't just raise their hands up in God's face. Where
did they do that? They done it in Adam. So that's
why they die. And it hurts us to see babies
die. It hurts us to see infants die. But that's the reason they
die. Because of this original gift,
David said, I was shapen in iniquity, that is, sin, did my mother conceive
me. I was done up in sin we was conceived. And then there's what we call
original pollution or original corruption. Now what's that mean? That means when Adam sinned,
there was a dramatic change came over him. I mean, a dramatic
change. Here he went one day walking
with God, the next morning when God came, the next day when God
came to either. He was here. He was ashamed. He was afraid. He was naked. But one thing, he wasn't. He
was not remorseful. He was not repentant. He was
not seeking God. He was trying his dead-level
best to avoid God. So what dramatically happened
to him? That's what we call original
pollution, original corruption. And not only do we get out of
sin imputed to us, and we have the guilt of it, but then that
fallen nature that he had when he rebelled against God, that
horrible, fallen, corrupt nature that made him think that he could
hide his sin by a fig leaf, and he could hide from God in a bush,
and that he wanted to avoid God and blame everybody for his sin
but himself. tells us that that's what we
inherited. We inherited that. When Adam
sinned, these two things happened. He became guilty in all these
great changes that took place in him. Now, when we talk about
original pollution or original corruption, what are we talking
about? We're talking about we lost righteousness. We lost righteousness
and the loss of righteousness before God Almighty. God said
that Adam was made in the likeness and image of God. And that means,
beloved, that he was righteous and he was holy. Because God
created us in Christ in true righteousness and true holiness.
And Adam had a righteousness. It was a human righteousness.
He had a wholeness. It was a wholeness. It comes
from the hand of his Maker. He is perfect. But God is holy
and God is righteous, and to fellowship with God, you've got
to be holy and righteous, so Adam was. But when he failed,
and when he sinned, he lost that righteousness. And not only did
he lose it, but he lost the understanding of what it is. And that's why
it says now that there's none righteous, no, not one. There's none that doeth good,
no, not one. Why not? Because we've got Adam's
nature. We're born without righteousness,
and we don't understand what righteousness is until God teaches
it to us. And not only that, but we're
born with a positive bent towards sin, a positive evil within us. I mean, beloved, we are sinful. We're guilty. And now we have
a disposition instead of righteousness and goodness and honesty and
humility, we have a disposition to sin. You know, we often say this,
that, well, I'm not what I ought to be. And it's not just that
we're not what we ought to be, but I'll tell you what we are.
We are what we ought not to be. Huh? Sinful. Isaiah said we're
full of brooms, buses, and putrefying sores from the top of our head
to the sole of our foot. Well, let's just look at it over
in 1 John, talking about sin. 1 John, chapter 1. And you know, here's the thing
about sin. Sin is not just the absence of goodness. Sin is a
positive thing. What it means is the presence
of evil. It's the presence of badness. We, as you know, until
God does something from a man, he's got evil in him, he's got
sin in him, he's got badness in him, and it's the presence
of that in him, and that's what causes him to do what he does.
Why does a man lie? Does he become a liar when he
tells a lie? No, he lies because he was born a liar. Does he steal? Does he become a thief when he
steals? No, he steals because he's a thief. That's something
that's really in us. It's a positive thing. It's not
something that just adds to something from us. It's something that's
in us. And 1 John 1 says this, if we say we have no sin, and
what that means is if we have no sin in what we do, we deceive
ourselves and the truth's not in us. And down in verse 10 says, if
we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his words
not in us. Now, let me ask you this. Can
you stop? Can you stop the power of sin? Can you stop that corrupt nature? Can you change that corrupt nature? And how in the world is this
original corruption, this evil nature that we have, how does
it manifest itself in all of us? Well, two ways, total depravity
and total inability. Now let me tell you something
here now. There was a British monk named Pelagius, and I've
probably taught you this before, I'm sure I have, but Pelagius,
he was a British monk and he denied the fall altogether. He
said that all we got from Adam was a bad example. that a man
does not have to sin. He has to choose to sin. And
he taught that. So naturally, he denies original
sin, he denies original guilt, he denies the man's corrupt nature. I wonder what he ever done with
his own nature. I often wonder what he thought
kind of a person he was. But then there's the Armenians.
And this is why they don't believe in original sin. That's why free
willism is so horrible and Arminianism is so bad and so despicable and
so corruptible is that they believe that a person doesn't become
a sinner until they reach an age of accountability. So then
they have to deny original sin and original corruption. They
got to turn the Scriptures on its head when it says they were
shaven in iniquity and conceived in sin. But I really wasn't.
I didn't become a sinner until I came 13 years old, or 14, or
12, or whatever they say is age of accountability. So they deny
original sin. So let me give you some definitions,
and they're false definitions now. I want you to see this right
at the outset, that people use about total depravity. And total
depravity means that you're completely, absolutely, without a doubt,
in every faculty of a person's being, sinful. Not a spot, no
place, inside or outside, apart from the grace of God, that's
not corrupt and sinful. And I'll tell you, here's what
some people say it means. It does not mean that all are
as bad and depraved as they can be. Well, if they're not as depraved
as they can be, then they're not totally depraved. Here's another false definition.
It doesn't mean that men and women in their fallen state don't
have an innate knowledge of God. They are totally brave, but still
have a sense of God. When God said Himself, He says,
I'm not at all in their thoughts. And any thoughts they have toward
God, it's an enmity against Him, in the natural manner. And it does not mean that men
and women don't have a conscience. That they have a knowledge of
good and evil because of conscience. Well, I tell you what conscience
always does, always does, always chooses evil. Can't do anything
else. And then total depravity does
not mean, and this is psychologists and psychiatrists, sociologists,
they despise total depravity. It doesn't mean that people are
incapable of recognizing and admiring virtues. And while they
say that people can do virtues and do good and be virtuous people
and they're trying to do good, that's why they say that total
depravity is wrong. In fact, some preachers say that
you don't want to talk about such negative things as sin.
You've got to always be building people up. But a man will never
know anything about God The love of God, the grace of God, the
salvation of God, until he knows he's lost in what conditions
he's in. Is that not right? Well, what
does depravity mean? What does it mean? It means this,
that man in his fallen condition has a corrupt nature. I mean,
he is born with a sinful nature. He'll live with it, and he'll
die with it. unless the new birth comes and
changes that nature, and does give him a new nature. It's in
every part of his faculty, it's in his brain, it's in his thoughts,
it's in his heart, it's in his will, it's in his understanding,
it's in his emotions, it's in his affections, it's in every
part, you know, every faculty, every faculty have understanding,
third eye, whatever you call it, conscience, your will, your
affections, your emotions, everything, every part of our faculty is
infected and immersed in this thing called sin. God says that
our throats are an open sepulcher. That means that our throats are
like an open grave. There's nothing but rotten interruptions
that can come out of an open... You know, you go to an open grave
and there's a dead body laying there. Down in Mexico, down there
with them poor people, they're allowed to be buried in a grave,
and they're not buried that deep. And they're only allowed to stay
there so long, and the family has to come and dig up all the
bones, put them in a bag, and they'll build them a little concrete
thing, you know, about this big, and they'll put a little hole
in it, and they'll set their bags inside that hole with all them
bones. And you go down there and they got lime all over the
place to keep them from sticking up. But I'm telling you, watch
you, that's what God says that we are at our throats. That there
is nothing but corruption coming out of our throats. And we ain't
got no little pagoda to put the corruption in. And that's what
man is by nature. There's no spiritual good in
him. There's a natural goodness, there's a natural morality, but
there's no spiritual good at all. and he'll glory in that
spiritual goodness. Total depravity, absolute depravity. And you know, and I'm going to
give you an illustration. There's a preacher I used to run around with, Billy
Mitchell. I just called his name. And when God began to teach me
the gospel, And Ben Mitchell, you know, he went around behind
everywhere I went preaching, you know. When I preach, he said,
I want you to understand that now. I'm not agreeing with Donnie
Bell. I'm not agreeing with the election. I'm not in particular
against all these things. Because we run together for a
while. So we sat down to have a talk one day. And he said,
I agree with you about so many things. And he said, and I know
that men are totally depraved. He said, man's totally depraved
of everything but his will. He told Mary one time, you're
making God too sovereign and man too dead. How do you do that? How do you make God more sovereign
than he is, and man deader than he is? There's no limbo, but
there's no limit to God's sovereignty and power, and there's no degrees
in death. Whether you're dead for a second
or whether you're dead for a hundred years, once that soul leaves
your body and life leaves your body, you're as dead as you're
ever going to be. And the Scripture says we're dead in trespasses
and sins. And oh, and I'll tell you, it
means, and this is what I told the Prophet, it means that not
only us men, this is what I mean by positive evil, positive sin,
that every unregenerate person is at enmity with God. Now that's
something you deliberately, willfully do against His holy law. The
carnal mind is imitating with God. All the powers of a person
and a soul are misused and perverted. How are we misused our powers?
How have they been perverted? God Himself says this, He said,
He looked down and saw the meant that their minds were only evil
continually. Continually. That don't mean
just every once in a while. That don't just mean, you know,
two or three hours out of the day. That don't mean that there
was a good hour out of the day that made that pretty good. It
says they was only evil continually. Huh? Jeremiah says this, the
heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.
Huh? And all the carnal mind is enmity
against God, and it's not subject to the law of God. Neither, indeed,
can it be. I want you to look with me over
here in Ephesians 4. Here's something talking about
man's utter lostness, his corrupt nature and the effects and the
result of sin. Here in Ephesians 4.17, look
what it says. as a result of sin. I'm not telling you anything
that you don't know, and I'm not telling you anything that you
haven't experienced. But these are doctrines, and we want to
go through them again. But here in Ephesians 4.17, this
I say, therefore, in testifying of the Lord, that ye henceforth
not walk as other Gentiles walked, in the vanity of their minds.
in the uselessness, in the emptiness, the vanity of their mind. What's this? Having the understanding
darkened, being alienated from the very life of God Himself.
How? Through the ignorance that's
in them because of the blindness of the heart, who being past
have given themselves over unto lasciviousness to work all uncleanness
with greediness." Now, there is a description of man at his
best state outside of the grace of God. There's what is, having
the understanding darkened. There's no light in that understanding. Being alienated, I mean so foreign
to the life of God. Ignorant, blind. Being past feeling,
I mean talking about a conscience, being past feeling. Just give
themselves over to anything that they feel like and want to do
and need to do and just enjoy doing it. Oh my, what a description. And look in Titus 3. You talk
about a description of total depravity as a result of sin. Titus, that little bitty book
right before Hebrews. Titus 3. For we ourselves also were sometimes
foolish, disobedient. We were deceived. We served our divers lusts, all
the lusts, all the different lusts we had, and pleasures.
We just served them. We lived in malice. We delighted
in hurting people, delighted in making fools out of people,
delighted in making people feel uncomfortable, being mean and
saying mean and hateful, and we was envious. What is hateful
and hating one another? Y'all ever felt that way? Been
there? I was talking to a fellow a few weeks ago, a couple of
months ago, and he was talking about a person. They asked me
what I thought of them. I said, I think they're manipulative,
they're deceitful, they're malicious, they're evil in every way. I
said, that's an awful big statement. And they said, well, I know what
they, she told her daughter that she wasn't even her father's
daughter and her brother's sister. And I said, that proves right
there how malicious and wicked. What profit did it do her on
her deathbed to tell her daughter that? That's nothing but malicious
and evil. Hateful and hating one another.
I'm miserable, I want you to be miserable. I hate life, I
want you to hate life. How malicious would a person
be to tell a daughter that your dad's not really your dad? That your brother's not really
your brother? And they are in their sixties when they tell
you that. Wouldn't that be a cruel thing to do to somebody? That's
the result of sin. And you'll die like that if God
don't do something for you. Oh my. But I'll tell you
something, beloved. Salvation can't be known or appreciated
without knowing these things. We just can't. Just like Bob
was talking about. Oh, wretched man that I am. We can't know the love of God
until we see and know something about our sinfulness and how
far down God comes to get us. And the scriptures use lots of
terms. The scriptures use lots of terms to describe sin, to
describe depravity. Call it the flesh. Paul said,
I know that is in me, that is in my flesh. There is no good
thing. His term concupiscence, that
means an evil, evil desire. He talks about the old man. It talks about the law of sin
in our members. It talks about the body of sin.
It talks about the body of death. It talks about the carnal mind.
And these are all things to describe, to give us an understanding of
how depraved and how utterly lost man is apart from God, how
sinful he is. And total depravity means man
is as bad off in God's sight as he possibly can be. He's as
bad off in the sight of God as he possibly can be. We have sins
of the flesh, sins of the mind, sins of the thought, sins of
the eye, sins of the tongue, sins of the feet, sins of the
hand, sins of the will, sins of the everything, sins of the
affections, sins of the emotions. That's why we do that. That's
what total depravity means. Man's proud instead of being
humble. Man loves self, not God. Man is self-centered. In fact,
men revolve, or their world revolves around themselves. Thought it? Oh my, that's total depravity. That's original corruption. Now
let's talk about total inability. That's the second effect of it.
Not only were we totally depraved, I mean corrupt, corrupt, corrupt,
corrupt, corrupt, corrupt. I heard Bob say, you know, in
God's sight, if we had any idea, if we could see sin any way at
all like God sees it, We would. It would just slay us. It would
slay us. It would slay us. And I'm thankful. I'm thankful if you don't. And
there was a time that I would not know a thing in the world
about being a sinner. Not being half sinful. Only God
can make a man a sinner. Only God can. Now let's talk
about total inability. Second effect of this original
corruption, this original guilt, this original sin. And what total
inability means that man is absolutely powerless spiritually. He has
no ability to do anything spiritually good, anything to change his
nature, change his state, change his heart, change his mind, change
anything about himself. He's capable of being religious.
Oh, he's capable of being religious, getting him a Bible. He's capable
of praying. He's capable of joining a church.
He's capable of being a deacon. He's capable of being a preacher. But he can't change his heart.
He's capable of being civilly good. But everything he does
is defective. And why is it? Because he does
not have the glory and will and love of God as the motive for
doing it. And man is totally, totally,
completely, has no ability whatsoever to meet God's demands, to meet
God's requirements. He thinks he does. The Scripture
says that there's none righteous, no, not one. There's none that
understand it. What does it mean, none understand? They don't understand
God. They don't understand themselves.
They don't understand the Scriptures. They don't understand the world.
They don't understand anything spiritual. And not only does
he not understand, but there's none that seeks after God. He's
not seeking God. He's seeking a God, seeking his
own way. And not only that, beloved, but
the Scripture says that his best, his best that he does, his righteousnesses
are as a filthy rag. That's the best that he does. And here's the thing, man can't
change his preference for sin. He can't do it. How many times
when I was lost, I'd go out and do something and say, I ain't
going to do that no more. A few days, I'd do the same thing again.
Just like a hog to a sloth. Like a dog to its vomit. I mean,
without the grace of God and a new nature, you cannot change
your preference to sin. You cannot change your preference
to yourself. A man cannot change his nature. 1 Corinthians 2.14
says this, The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit
of God, and he will not know them. He just don't want to know them. Scripture says he cannot know
them. But the average preacher says,
well, he just don't want to know them. He'd rather not know them.
But God says He cannot know them. Why? Because they're strictly
discernible. Ephesians 2 says that you were
dead in trespasses and sins. And Romans 8, 7, just look at
it with me a minute. I just want you to see this.
You know, that's why the Lord says, you know, He told Nicodemus,
Nicodemus, the death that's born of the flesh is flesh. You can't
change it, except a man be born of water and the Spirit. He can't
see, can't enter, can't know anything about the kingdom of
God. I said flesh is flesh. And that's
why I said here in Romans 8-7, because the carnal mind, the
natural mind, is enmity against God. And that word enmity means
it's a furiousness. It's a hatred. It's an animosity. It's a terrible dislike. And
watch this, for it's not subject to the law of God, neither indeed
can be. Now, it doesn't say it just don't
want to be subject to the law of God. It's not trying to be subject
to the law of God. It said it's not subject to it.
And indeed, it cannot be. It's just he can't do it. He
can't do it. And that's why the Lord says,
you know, He says, no man, no man can come unto me. And that word can. You know,
everywhere you find something about natural man, it has something
to do with his ability, can or cannot. No man can come to me,
except the Father which sent me drawing. And you know, Jeremiah 13.23,
everybody knows this verse of Scripture. Can he be opened,
change the color of his skin? Can the leper change his spots?
How can you then, being evil, do good? How can you? Man can do many things, but one
thing he can't do, he can't change his nature. Man is under the
dominion of sin, under the dominion of self. And let me say this
in closing. Here's what's so tragic. Here's
what's so awful about sin, is that man, man, as we stand here
now, there was one time that God dwelt in a man in the garden. God once dwelt there. God once
communed there. God once had great fellowship
there. And you know God can again? He can dwell in us again. He
can fellowship with us again. He can commune with us again. Where at? He didn't want to stand here
in Romans 5. He says in verse 15, But not as the offense, so
also is the free gift. Now, the offense, was promised. I mean, that offense, you know,
God told him, He says, you know, when you sin, you're going to
be guilty, you're going to be condemned, and you're going to
die. But the free gift is not like
that offense. If through the offense of one,
many be dead, much more the grace of God and the gifts of grace,
which is by one man, Jesus Christ hath abounded unto many. Oh,
my. And he says there in verse 17,
if by one man's offense, death reigned by that one, much more,
much more, they which receive abundance of grace into the gift
of righteousness shall reign in life, not death, in life by
the Lord Jesus Christ. Watch down there in verse 21,
that as sin hath reigned unto death, Now watch this, two sovereigns
in this first scripture, sin reigned unto death. Now, then grace comes and it
reigns. And how does it reign? It reigns
through righteousness unto eternal life. Not death, eternal life
by Jesus Christ our Lord. Huh? Oh, he himself by our own
sins in his own body on the tree. And now we accept it in the beloved.
There's now no condemnation. It's them that are in Christ
Jesus. And now that disposition that we had to sin because of
the new birth, that disposition now is God. That disposition
now delights in God, wants God, needs God, cries out to God. And wants Him. Ain't you grateful? But we wouldn't know anything
about the grace if God hadn't shown us this over here. And
Bob said this, he says, we never start coming to Christ until
we see we see a need on Him. And beloved, I started having
a need years and years and years and years ago. And that need
is as strong today or stronger than it was then. I need Him. I need Him. I need Him because
of what I'm capable of. I need Him. Our gracious Father, in
the blessed name of our Lord Jesus, thank You for allowing
us this time together. Lord, these truths, they're true, and they put us
in a where we ought to be, in the dust. Put us in a place of
hunger and thirsting after righteousness. Show us our great, great need
of You. And not only do we need You,
Lord, but we want You. We want Your presence. We want
Your power. We want Your wholeness. We want
Your righteousness. We want Your fellowship. We want
to talk with You, and You talk with us. We want to fellowship
in communion. And we thank you that we have
it through our Lord Jesus Christ. God bless these dear saints as
they go to their jobs, their homes, their trials, their burdens,
their afflictions. And thank you so much for what
you've done for Tommy, and Robin, April, and the kids. We thank
you in Christ's name. Amen. Amen.