What Should We Learn From the Murders of Michael and Alexander Smith

Q: What does the Bible say about the depravity of man?

The Bible teaches that the heart of man is inherently evil and full of sin, as stated in Romans 3:10-12. Scripture clearly indicates that the human heart is deeply depraved. Romans 3:10-12 states, 'As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.' This reveals that all men, by nature, are incapable of doing good. Our thoughts and actions flow from a sinful heart, as Jesus stated in Matthew 15:19, 'For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries…' Without the intervention of God's grace, the heart of man is inclined towards evil and cannot please God on its own. This utter depravity is a central tenet of Reformed theology, emphasizing our need for divine grace and intervention.

Q: How do we know God's judgment is real?

God's judgment is manifest in the sinful behaviors and societal decay we observe today, as described in Romans 1. Romans 1 provides a vivid description of God's judgment upon societies that reject Him. The passage indicates that when people persist in unrighteousness and suppress the truth, God gives them over to their sinful desires. This can be seen in the moral decay of our culture, where behaviors like abortion and sexual immorality are accepted as rights. The prevalence of violence and wickedness is a testimony to God's judgment, illustrating that what we witness today is not without consequence. The modern world, facing declining moral standards and increasing chaos, serves as evidence of God's judicial action against sin, highlighting the need for repentance and faith in Christ.

Q: Why is understanding total depravity important for Christians?

Understanding total depravity highlights our need for Christ and the power of God's grace in salvation. Recognizing the doctrine of total depravity is crucial for Christians as it outlines the necessity of divine grace for salvation. It asserts that every part of our being—mind, will, heart—is corrupted by sin and incapable of contributing to our justification before God. The good news is that through Christ's sacrificial death and resurrection, we can be made righteous. This perspective fosters a deeper appreciation for God's immense grace, as seen in Ephesians 2:8-9, which teaches that we are saved by grace through faith, not of ourselves. Understanding our total depravity allows us to approach God humbly, relying solely on His mercy for salvation.

Q: What should Christians learn from societal violence and immorality?

Christians should view societal violence as a reflection of moral decay resulting from rejection of God's truth. The increasing violence and immorality in society serve as a stark reminder of the consequences of abandoning God's moral laws. Romans 1:31 describes people who are 'without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection,' which perfectly aligns with our current societal conditions. Such behaviors illustrate the profound effects of sin in a culture that prioritizes self over righteousness. For Christians, these events should prompt prayer, self-reflection, and a call to evangelism, urging individuals to flee from sin and seek refuge in Christ. Our response should be grounded in the firm belief that only through the gospel can true transformation and healing occur.

times and strange alarming things are going on in our society. We live in a generation that is guilty of having changed the truth of God into a lie and continually does so. A generation that worships and serves the creature more than the creator. Now, that's not an unreasonable charge. The religious world around us, the Baptist, Papist, Pentecostal, Presbyterian, you name it, the religious world around us is devoted to entertaining and pleasing men, not to the glory of God. Now, you just read any bulletin you get, any religious paper you get, to testify to what I just said. This generation worships and serves the creature, not the creator.

And now we're beginning to reap the whirlwind of God's wrath. Peter made a strange statement once, strange to me. He said, judgment must begin at the house of God. That's where it began, at the house of God, among those who profess the name of God. And now in the church, in society, And in our homes we are reaping the whirlwind of God's wrath. Judgment which began at the house of God has spread through all the rest of society and permeates everything, everything. Those who will not hear the alarms that God is sounding are just fools. And if you'll hear, you'll hear. I've got some things to say that you need to hear.

Today, we, when I say we, I mean our culture, our society, this generation, we, we defend will worship in the name of divine worship. Paul calls the religious world in which we live, this religion that emphasizes the will, worth, and work of the center, Paul calls it will worship. Read Colossians chapter two. Today, men stand in pulpits like this all over this town and call it divine worship. It's world worship.

Today, in our culture, in our society, sexual promiscuity is defended in the name of moral enlightenment. We're such an enlightened age. We have such reason about us. Abortion is defended in the name of moral freedom. We're pro-choice. We believe women ought to have a right to choose whether she's going to murder her baby or not. We're pro-choice.

That's called moral freedom. Homosexuality is defended in the name of moral tolerance. Folks say it's just a moral thing to do. It's just a moral thing to do to be tolerant of perversion and deviant behavior in society. It's just a moral thing to do.

They're ever becoming more and more common in our society, all of these things. Rape, brutality, and murder have also become common. And I'm telling you, there's a direct correlation. There's a direct correlation. These things are even becoming common among children, preteen children.

And the sociologists tell us It's not their fault. I had a rather lengthy discussion with a friend on one occasion a while back who has been convinced that there are some people who have no ability to discern right from wrong. And the sociologist would tell us that all deviant behavior has got to be explained by declaring everyone else to be guilty.

The problem is not with that fellow. He didn't do that because of something evil in him. The problem is we've let him down. We've let folks down. Society has let them down. We've let them fall through the cracks of society, is the wording that's used in our day. And so the problem really is not a matter of moral guilt on the part of the sinner, but rather a matter of moral guilt on the part of society as a whole. Now you listen to these things.

Last year, Eric and Lyle Menendez, murdered their parents with such cold-blooded brutality that it shocked the whole nation. Weren't you shocked by it? Can you imagine a teenage boy walking into, well, just imagine Jay Hart walking into Charlotte's bedroom, emptying a shotgun in her face. It's just shocking. That's shocking. They did it, apparently, for a little money. And yet a jury exonerated them of guilt because they were manipulated into feeling sorry for those boys. Earlier this year, a teenage boy up in Northern Kentucky slaughtered his whole family. Slaughtered the whole family. Took a shower and went to school like nothing ever happened.

Back in 1989, in Rankwith, Kentucky, Tom and Roxanne Soliski put their five-year-old daughter, Alexandria, into a plastic bag and suffocated her. In 1992, Mary Fletcher murdered her three-year-old daughter, Ella, and tried to murder her four-year-old son to collect a few thousand dollars life insurance so she'd fix up the house. Last year, Marjorie Cottingham in Franklin County took her newborn boy, put him in a garbage bag, and tossed him in a pond. And then Thursday night, after a nationwide search for her two sons, Susan Smith shocked the nation by confessing that she had taken those two boys, strapped them in the back seat of her car, and drove him off into a lake to a torturous, merciless, heartless, brutal death. Little boy drowned in that lake.

Now, how can anyone explain those things? How can we explain or understand such barbaric, inhuman behavior? I listened to the news broadcast interviewing preachers down in Union, South Carolina and other parts of the country, and I didn't hear one preacher say anything that made any sense. Did you? I didn't hear one of them say anything that made any sense. And I suspect some of you wonder, how do you explain these things? How do you explain these things?

Not even wild beasts do such things to their young. Not even wild beasts. while beasts protect their young. But here are mothers who take their sons and daughters, and with malice, forethought, and barbaric, inhuman, unbeastly-like behavior, murder them. How can that be explained?

Only one answer can be found that will explain acts so horrifying. They are acts performed by people who have been given up by God in divine judgment unto vile affections of their own depraved hearts. A people whom Paul describes here in Romans 1 31 as being without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection. Implacable. unmerciful. Now really, these deeds should not be as shocking to us as they are. In fact, I'm really shocked that we don't read of more atrocities of this kind than we do. You stop and think for a moment.

These things are just the result, just the result of a society that has been taught for 30 years, been taught for 30 years, that if a woman gets pregnant and it's inconvenient for her to have her baby, it's just reasonable that she should have the choice to kill it. It's just reasonable. And let me ask you this, if it's reasonable for a woman to murder her unborn child because it's not convenient to raise it, is it not reasonable for a woman to murder her two, three, four-year-old child because it's not convenient? It's reasonable. If women can murder an unborn child without conscience, why not a born child?

Now here's something even more shocking. I found this even more shocking than the fact that Susan Smith committed those horrible acts of murder against her sons. After committing the atrocities, She retained, holds to, and hides in, I imagine with some measure of security, a form of godliness. Isn't it amazing? A woman standing with the blood of her sons on her hands, talking about praise and God's mercy and God's goodness. Isn't it amazing? As though indeed, She was walking acceptably with God Almighty.

Now this event that has captured the attention of our nation for the past two weeks should be alarming to us. For this event is an exact fulfillment of what the Apostle Paul said would come to pass in these perilous last days. Turn over to 2 Timothy for a moment. 2nd Timothy chapter 3. This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. Dangerous, dangerous, dangerous times.

For men shall be lovers of their own selves. Principal basis of doing everything. Lovers of their own selves. I like it. Makes me feel good and to hell with everybody else. I like it. Lovers of their own selves. Covetous. Boasters. Proud. Blasphemers. Disobedient to parents. Unthankful. Unholy. Without natural affection. Trucebreakers. false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God.

Now notice what he says. Lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. With their lips they profess to love, know, worship, and walk with God, but they live in pleasure, pleasing their own selves. Having a form of godliness, go to church Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, or whatever you make, read their Bible, say their prayers, go through their rituals, having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof. Now, while this event is fresh in your mind and mine, I want us, before we become hardened to it, as we quickly do, so quickly, Before we become hardened to it, I want us to learn from it.

And the only way to do so is to go to the Word of God. Now listen carefully to this statement. We must never interpret the Word of God by what we read in the newspaper. Don't ever do that. Don't ever interpret the Word of God by events or experiences. But we must interpret all events and all experiences by the word of God.

Now, how on this earth can we possibly understand what happened down in Union, South Carolina last week? How can we possibly understand that? I want to try to answer this question. What should we learn from the murders of Michael and Alexander Smith?

I'm not going to keep you long. But I've got a message with five barred arrows, and I've got them all aimed directly at your heart, and I want to reach it. I want to reach it. I want to, I want by God's Spirit to speak directly to your heart, and I want to instruct you, and I want to call you who yet know not our God, who yet live in rebellion to Christ, to trust the Son of God. Now I want to give you these five things. I'll give them to you as quickly as I can. The murder of these two boys, just babies, by their 23-year-old mother, the age of my daughter, 23 years old, is an undeniable demonstration of the utter depravity of the human heart.

That's right. When the news broke the other day, Shelby and I were about to have a bite to eat. As a matter of fact, I had just taken her hand and we were about to have prayer. When we did, this is what I said. Father, I thank you for graciously keeping us in measure from the evil that's in us. Now preacher, you don't mean that. Or with all my heart, I mean that. With all my heart, I mean that.

You see, Susan Smith was cut from the same bolt of cloth you were cut from. She made out of the same stuff you're made out of. And she acted out in her life what goes on in your heart and mind by nature. There is not a person in this room, not a person in this room, who is not capable of doing the same thing she did.

In her same circumstances, if God leads you to yourself, if God gives you up to your vile affections to do that which is in your heart, Shelby said to me yesterday, we were chatting about this. She didn't know I was planning to preach on it. She said, folks would be shocked to hear you say that. That got on television. Well, it's going on. And I wish the world would hear me.

I'm telling you, there's not one person here who wouldn't do what she did if God just left you to yourself. Not one. Don't ever imagine otherwise. The heart is deceitful above all things. I hear people say, I couldn't do that. Oh, yes, you could. Oh, yes, you could. The heart of man, not some men's, not most men's, all men's, not just men, the male species, but men and women, the male, the human race, the heart of mankind is full of evil and depraved utterly, so that there is not one good thing in any man before God by nature, not one. Turn to Matthew chapter 15, Matthew chapter 15. This is nothing new to you, but it needs to be clearly emphasized.

You young people, you think, well, I wouldn't do that. You say you were mom and daddy. Mama, don't you trust me? I wouldn't do that. I wouldn't do that. Don't be a fool and put yourself in circumstances where you could do it, because you would. You would. Don't you understand? You know I wouldn't. I couldn't do anything like that. Oh, there's not anything you won't do if God leaves you alone.

That's the reason why mom and dad keep rains on you. Because they know in your heart is evil. Know it. We don't have enough sense to recognize that there is nothing but evil in our hearts, but we know that's there. Look here in Matthew 15 verse 19. For out of the heart, not out of society, not out of the slums, not out of the ghettos, not out of ignorance, not out of poverty, out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, which ones all of them, murders, Which ones? All of them.

Adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things that defile the man. What's in you? What's in me? God says the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth. Forwardness is in the heart. It deviseth evil continually. When God saved us, this is the condition in which he found us. Lost, ruined, spiritually dead, and totally depraved at heart. Don't ever forget that. Look into the rock which you're in and behold the pit from which you've been digged. Nothing but evil. That's what we are. And I'll tell you something else.

Though now saved by God's grace, every child of God in this world is still by nature a totally depraved sinner. We must never forget that fact or even temporarily overlook it. Thank God the blood of Christ has washed away our sins. Thank God the righteousness of Christ has been imputed to us so that we are forgiven and justified in the sight of God Almighty. Thank God the Holy Spirit has put within us a new holy nature, that holy thing in you which is Jesus Christ the Lord. But don't ever be fool enough to imagine that the old heart is gone, that the old nature is dead. that the old man will never bother you again. Oh, don't even think it. Don't even think it.

Mark Henson back there, by nature is flesh. Just flesh, just like your pastor. And that which is born of flesh is flesh. Sinful, corrupt, vile flesh. And it won't change until flesh goes to the grave. That's the reason Paul said, oh wretched man that I am. Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I shouldn't have to offer one argument to demonstrate that to any of you.

You read the word of God and your mind runs in a thousand directions. and almost always to evil. You try to pray and your heart's fixed on yourself. Your pride, covetousness, your ambitions for yourself. You try to call on God and your mind runs rather than the heaven runs to hell. Am I telling the truth? Is that the way it is? That's the way it is.

You think things you would never utter to a human being. You'd never utter. You're aghast at what you even think of it, but we stand back and say, I wouldn't do that. No, anything you can think, you're morally capable of doing. You get hold of that, and you quit popping your suspenders so big.

I was listening to one of the TV preachers this morning for just a few minutes, and this is what he said. He said, it's hard to be humble. God's my father. I wrote it down there. He said, if God is your father, that makes you little gods. That makes you little gods. If your daddy's name is Jones, you're not a little brown, you're a little Jones. And if your daddy's name is God, if your daddy is big God, you're a little God.

No. Thank God God is my Father, God Almighty, full of grace and truth. And I'm your son. But I'm big sinner, nothing else. Nothing else. Secondly, when I think of the murders of these two babies, and other such horrifying things, I see and give thanks to God for the blessed restraint of his holy law. Now you listen carefully.

We rejoice to know that believers are entirely free from the law. It is absolutely true that the believer has absolutely no relationship to the law. The law has absolutely no power over us. but that does not suggest at all that we see no value or use for the law of God. With the apostle, we know that the law is good if a man use it lawfully.

Now, we're not going to look at these scriptures, but you can look them up if you want to later. I want to show you that according to the word of God, the law of God has four specific purposes, four uses, and these four things were to use the law to accomplish. First, the law of God identifies sin. That's the only thing that can identify sin. That's the only thing that can.

Years ago, when the Pharaoh of Israel was preaching to me one time, he made a statement, and it finally clicked. He said, what is it that makes the conjugal relationship between a man and his wife to be holy, and that same relationship between a man and another woman to be unholy? What is it? God said so. And that's all. God lays down the rules. God said so.

By the law is the knowledge of sin. Paul said in Romans 7, I had not known sin but by the law, so that there is no basis of moral decency, no basis of right and wrong, no understanding of that which is righteous and that which is evil apart from the law of God. And when society kisses the law of God goodbye, society kisses moral decency goodbye, and throws everything out the window except chaos. Secondly, the law of God condemns men for sin by exposing our guilt.

Paul said in Romans 3.19, Whatsoever things the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.

Thirdly, the law of God courts guilty sinners to Christ by showing us our need of a substitute. The law is our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. You understand that? The law identifies sin. The law pronounces guilt. The law shows us the way to Christ, shows us the necessity of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And then fourthly, I want you to turn to 1 Timothy 1. 1 Timothy 1. The law is useful by the threat of judgment. Somebody says punishment and particularly the capital punishment, all those things, that's not a deterrent to crime. Oh, yes, it is. Oh, yes, it is. God says that's what his law's for. Look here in 1 Timothy 1 verse 8.

We know that the law is good if a man use it lawfully, knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient. for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, for whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for men stealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and it could be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine. So the law of God is designed by God to restrain the evil that's in man. So that when men live under the threat of judgment, they're restrained from doing the evil that's in their hearts by nature.

Can you imagine what it would be like to live in this world if men and women were not restrained from doing everything that's in their hearts? Can you imagine what it'd be like to live with Lindsey Campbell if he wasn't restrained from doing everything's in his heart?

I'll tell you something. You wouldn't be caught in the same world with this man if he were trapped in a in an iron cage. You wouldn't be caught in the same world with this man if God didn't restrain me from the evil that's in me. That's just fact. And I wouldn't be caught in the world with you either.

Thirdly, the events of these past two weeks are, according to what we read in Romans 1 and 2 Timothy 3, direct results of divine judgment upon a generation that lives with its fist in the face of God Almighty. And being that, The events of this past couple of weeks show us the absolute certainty of divine judgment. What we see going on around us, what we read in our newspapers every day, while the reporters are totally ignorant of it, are reports of God's judgment. The reports of God's judgment. Forerunners of God's wrath. When I read of the tidal wave sweeping Bangladesh, I say God did that in judgment.

That's right. I know that's out of step with society. That's out of step with the religious world. But I worship a God who controls everything. God did that. If he didn't do it, the tidal wave wouldn't come. When I read of starving Ethiopians in Ethiopia, scattered throughout Sudan and Africa, I read about the famine, the starvation, the pestilence, the disease, God did that, this judgment. And when I read of the moral decay of society, the utter absence of moral decency in a society, that clings with tenacity to a religious cloak, a religious refuge of lies. I said God did that. God did that. God sent judgment, and men don't know any better.

And these things are just forerunners of judgment to come. When men and women are given up by God to their own reprobate minds to do what we are capable of doing, Words haven't yet been coined to describe the evil that can be done. Read your Bible with one hand, hold your Bible here and read it, another hand hold your newspaper and read it, and understand these three things, will you? Number one, there is a judgment that falls upon obstinate sinners while they still live on this earth. Romans 1 speaks of God giving men up. You had it in Acts 28 this morning in your lesson. Proverbs chapter 1 talks about God. God says, I stretched out my hands. I've called. You've refused. Therefore, I'm going to fix it so when you call, I'll refuse. You'll call on me and I'll sit back and laugh at you.

When God shut the door to the ark, not one drop of rain had yet fallen, but judgment fell when God shut the door because nobody had any hope then. You understand that? There is a judgment that falls upon men before they fall into hell itself while they yet live on this earth. And God fixes it so that they're damned while they live. Secondly, there is an appointed day of judgment that is yet to come. Acts 17 31 says that God hath appointed a day For he will judge the world by that man whom he's ordained in righteousness. Yeah, you're going to meet God in judgment. I promise you. I'm going to meet God in judgment. Absolutely. And he's going to demand of us perfection.

And he's going to cast us into hell if he sees any sin in us. And the only way to escape that judgment is to have your sins punished in a substitute and be robed in the righteousness of God's own Son. So thirdly, understand this. There is a place of refuge in which sinners fleeing can hide themselves from the impending wrath and judgment of God Almighty. Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men, come now to Jesus Christ the Lord. He's the refuge. Are you guilty? Has God in his justice exposed your guilt? Made you aware of your sin? Then I bid you flee to Christ. Like the manslayer who flees to the city of refuge. Get up and flee to Christ. Get up in your heart. and flee up to the Savior, and I promise you, you flee to Him, the justice of God will never touch you, never.

Fourthly, above all else, this horrible act of brutality, violence, and cold-bloodedness teaches and reinforces and causes me to give thanks to God for the blessedness of his sovereign, distinguishing grace. The only hope for this depraved, vile race of ours, the only hope there is for you who are without Christ, is that God in his sovereign grace will intervene in your life and set you apart from the rest of the world.

Only hope. Oh, how I pray. I don't come here, go anywhere else and beg sinners to do anything. But I beg God. I tell you what I ask God to do. I ask God Almighty to take you and break down the door of your obstinate heart. and set himself in me by his almighty grace.

Bind Satan, cast him out, and enthrone Jesus Christ in your heart by the holy violence of his grace. And I'll tell you what, if he does, if God will do that for you, the response of your heart will be faith in Christ. You'll believe him. You'll believe him. But if God leads you to yourself, if God passes you by, you'll never believe him.

You see, I recognize, and every child of God recognizes, that the only distinction between the believer and the unbeliever, the only distinction, the only difference between the reprobate soul and the regenerate soul, is the distinction that grace has made. That's all. We didn't set ourselves apart from the The scripture says, concerning the Lord God, it is God who puts a difference between the Egyptians and Israel. The Apostle Paul writes to the Corinthians and to us for which is like him. And he says in chapter four, first Corinthians, verse seven, who maketh thee to differ from another?

Come on now, who makes you different? Who makes you different from the Susan Bates, or the Susan Smiths of this world? Thinking about that Norman Bates movie. Who makes you different from the Susan Smiths of this world? Huh? Who makes you different from the Menendez boys of this world? Who makes you different?

What have you received? What do you have that you've not received? Now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory as if thou'st not received it? This is my testimony. And this is my constantly reaffirmed experience. This is my message to you. This is my hope. By the grace of God, I am what I am. God made the difference in his sovereign, distinguishing, electing love before the world began.

God said concerning Don Fork, I'll be his God, he'll be my son. He's mine. And he said to Hell, you can't have him. You can't have him. God made the difference when he nailed his son on the cursed tree 2000 years ago. The Lord Jesus Christ said, I laid down my life for Don Ford. I'm bearing his sins. I've bared them away. And he said to justice, you can't have him. You can't have him.

And God makes the difference in his sovereign providential grace in what we call prevenient grace. That's grace that goes before and prepares the way for grace. Ron Wood, sitting right where he is this morning, with a heart to worship God, rejoice in the free grace of God, because God Almighty Caused you to be born where you were born, raised where you were raised, influenced by the things that influenced you to bring you to faith in Christ in that sense. That's all. But what about his will? If God left you to your will, you'd either be in hell or somewhere between here in hell. That's all. But don't you realize, preacher, that man's got something to do with this? I realize man's got nothing to do with this!

Salvation by God's free grace. God's free grace. God made the difference by his sovereign regenerating power. The wind bloweth with it. Now, here's the sound thereof. We can't not tell whence it cometh, nor whither it goeth. So is everyone that's born of the Spirit. As many as were ordained to eternal life believe. Just that many, just that many. And God makes the difference still in his marvelous preserving grace.

I baptize some folks, and I declare it looks like they don't last long enough to get dry. Get out. See you later. Meet you at judgment. But some of you got something that stuck with you. You got something that lasts. And Satan's tried repeatedly to tear it from you. But if you last, if you last, it'll be because you've been kept by the power of God. And if God keeps you, you'll be kept.

I was discussing with Brother Mahan several years ago, a mutual acquaintance with whom we were very concerned. And he made such a profound statement as he is, by God's grace, so capable of doing. He said, well, if he's God's, God'll take care of it. And if he's not, there'll be no great loss. And if you're God's, if I'm God's, God'll take care of us. He'll do it. And if we're not, we won't be any loss to anybody. That's right. That's right. Because we're nothing but sin. Nothing but corruption. Sinners saved by God's free grace. One last thing.

Thinking about the murders of Michael, three years old, and Alexander Smith, 14 months old. I've been called to think a little more fully about the glory of the world to come. You see, I have absolutely no hesitancy in saying this. While their murder was an act of horrendous evil on the part of their mother, for which she must stand before God, it was an act of great mercy. on the part of their Heavenly Father. For it was by this means that the Lord God was pleased to call two more of his elect home to glory. You see, I assert without reservation and without fear of contradiction that all who die in infancy are imbecility, are chosen of God, Redeemed by Christ, born of the Spirit, and enter into glory.

Let me give you a taste of what I'm gonna preach on tonight. Listen to this. The righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart. The righteous is taken away from the evil to come. Here are two boys chosen of God from eternity, redeemed by the Lord Jesus Christ. His righteousness is imputed to them. Brought into this world through the womb of an apparently reprobate woman, What lies ahead for them? God says, I'll keep them from that. I'll keep them from that. How can you be so sure, Don? Three reasons.

David made a statement that God the Holy Spirit put down in scripture with regard to his dead son. Now you can talk about covenant family and covenant family salvation all you want to, David's boy was not part of a covenant family. He was the son of an adulterous relationship that resulted in murder. And David said, he can't come to me, but I'll go to him.

And if you think he was talking about going to the grave, you're a fool. He was talking about something with hope. He said, I'll go to him with absolute confidence. He wiped his eyes. He quit crying. And he said to his servants, boys, let's get about the business of God. God's taking care of it. Second reason, the law of God declares in Deuteronomy 24, 16, that the son shall not die for the iniquity of the father. The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not die for the iniquity of the father.

Does that mean that children are born innocent? No, they're born depraved. They're born guilty of sin. Because Adam's sin is imputed to us and Adam's sinful nature is inherited by us. But those who die as infants and in imbecility are men and women who are children who do not sin after the submissive of Adam's transgression. And they do not suffer the wrath of God because of the sin of their father Adam. The wrath of God is poured out upon men because of their own sin.

Understand that? And thirdly, I say it because I know something by experience of the gracious character of God Almighty. One of these days, God will take those two boys, Michael and Alexander Smith, And he'll set them before wandering worlds as monuments of his love, trophies of his grace, and examples of his wisdom and goodness.

While lost religious men and women who thought they were so good screech and cry for the rocks and the hills to fall. Our two little brothers have entered into a world of glory and bliss and peace. For they've entered into a world in which there is neither sickness nor sorrow, nor pain, nor death. Because they've entered into a world in which there is no sin. And for that, I envy them.

Now I urge you who are under the wrath of God, who are yet without Christ, I urge you to flee to the Son of God. Trust him. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. The book says so. Will you believe it? Or will you persist in your rebellion, in your obstinate unbelief, and be content to go to hell when mercy's gate stands open before you? I call on you who are the Lord's, always seek to view the apparently tragic events of life with a firm faith in God's wise, unerring and good providence.

I can understand a little bit about what's going on. God's saving his home. And when he wraps this thing up, when he wraps this thing up, I'm convinced. I don't have any question at all about this. He will take those very things which Satan and the demons of hell have used in an attempt to destroy his kingdom, and he'll demonstrate how he used them to build his kingdom. Everything. Everything.

And one last thing. Children of God, don't ever forget the debt you owe, the debt I owe, to the free grace of God in Jesus Christ the Lord. I heard, I read years ago of one of the old Puritans, they could be a little bit pious, in their humility, who saw a frog in a field, and he just knelt down and sobbed, and he said, oh, there but for the grace of God go I. And I heard one of our politicians a while back speak about some man in poverty and rags. He said, there but for the grace of God go I. I tell you, with regard to Susan Smith, and with regard to the legions in hell, there but for the grace of God go I, and you, and you. Well, I hope that helps you to understand something about what's transpired in the last couple of weeks. And I hope it'll help you to give glory to God for what he's done for you in Christ. And I hope for you who are yet without Christ, God's arrested your hearts and you cannot find rest for your souls until you find rest in Christ the Lord. Amen.

What Should We Learn From the Murders of Michael and Alexander Smith

What does the Bible say about the depravity of man?

How do we know God's judgment is real?

Why is understanding total depravity important for Christians?

What should Christians learn from societal violence and immorality?

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What Should We Learn From the Murders of Michael and Alexander Smith

What does the Bible say about the depravity of man?

How do we know God's judgment is real?

Why is understanding total depravity important for Christians?

What should Christians learn from societal violence and immorality?

Sermon Transcript

About Don Fortner

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