Romans chapter 3. Many have said
and written that the book of Romans is maybe the most profound piece
of literature in the history of the world. And it's not just
literature, it's the divinely inspired word of God our Savior. And the portion we're going to
read this morning has to do with the awful condition of humanity because of sin. Romans chapter 3 and verse 9. What then? Are we better than
they? Now in this context, Paul is
referring to the we as himself and the Jews, and the word they refers to Gentiles. What then, are we, Jews, better
than they, Gentiles? No, in no wise, for we have before
proved both Jews and Gentiles that they are all under sin.
As it is written, there is none righteous. No, not one. There is none that understandeth.
There is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of
the way. They are together become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good.
No, not one. Their throat is an open sepulchre.
With their tongues they have used deceit. The poison of asp
is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.
Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery
are in their ways. And the way of peace have they
not known. There is no fear of God before
their eyes. What a very solemn, sobering
description of fallen man. My subject this morning is depravity
and deliverance. Depravity and deliverance. Some of you this morning here
have in your lifetime walked a long way down the road of depravity's
destiny, just a few steps away from hell. But the Lord stepped in, changed
things, intervened, delivered. Depravity and deliverance. Depravity
is the helpless condition of the natural man fallen in sin. The condition is so helpless
that men don't think they are helpless. And deliverance, of course, is
the work of God. We don't deliver ourselves. The
term depravity is a much despised term. rejected term. Some prefer total inability rather
than total depravity. It sounds a little nicer, but
it's only one side of the condition. Total inability is the inability
to do good. That's true. But the term total
depravity includes not just the inability to do good, but the delight to do evil. And regarding salvation, not
only is man not able to save himself, he is bent toward damning
himself. It's not just a neutral thing.
No. Now this term total depravity
does not mean that a person can do no good at all in the natural
realm. He can. There's been some very
wicked men in history that have been known to do some honorable
or gracious deed for someone. So total depravity does not mean
that bad people can't do good things. They sometimes do. It means that we are totally
incapable of pleasing God in the matter of earning or accomplishing
our own salvation. Can't do it. No, we're not as
bad as we can be in life. You could be worse. We're not
as bad as we can be. But we are as bad off as we can
be concerning obtaining salvation. We're helpless in the matter. Every part of us is corrupted
by sin. That's what the total means. The body can't do right. The
mind can't think right. The heart can't love right, and
the will can't desire right. Now before you contest that,
answer this, how right is right? It's as right as God is. You cannot come up to God's standard
in body, mind, heart, or will. In action, in thought, in love
or desire. Every part of us is depraved. What fool would make the claim,
I do think love and desire like God does? No. No. None of us are that well off. Helpless we are. Helpless we
are. Not to get too carnal and too
far off base here, I'm just going to put this in a simple way. Most people, what most people,
they have what I'd call Otis Campbell religion. Did any of you ever watch the
Andy Griffith show? Well, Otis Campbell was the town
drunk. And every weekend, he'd get loaded,
and he'd stagger in over toward the sails, and he'd
reach up on the wall and get the key, unlock the sail, hang
the keys back on the wall, go in, shut the door behind him,
and sleep it off. The next day, he'd get up and
stretch, reach through the bars and get the keys, let himself
out. Y'all look at me like y'all never
seen this before. I've seen it a million times, and I never
get tired of it. Let himself out. He was a prisoner,
but he wasn't a prisoner. The business of being a sinner.
If it is a prison at all, most people believe we have access
to the keys. We can let ourselves out when
we're ready to get out. Well, I want you to listen to
God's word. Concerning what sin has done to us. It makes some
very clear statements. This is God's Word. God's children
don't argue with God's Word. You need to know that. We may argue a little bit among
ourselves about the understanding of it, the meaning of it, but
God's children don't argue with it. Because we know that our Heavenly Father is not
wrong about anything. So here's God's Word. Now I'm
not going to ask you to turn to all these scriptures, just
listen, I'm going to read them to you. Genesis 6-5, every imagination
of the thoughts of man's heart was only evil continually. That's
before the flood. Only evil continually, all the
time. Genesis 8-21, the imagination
A man's heart is evil from his youth. That is from his birth. Job 15, 16, how much more abominable
and filthy is man which drinketh iniquity like water. It comes just as natural as getting
a drink of water. To drink iniquity. drink of nicotine
like water. Psalm 14, three here, Paul, I
mean, this is what Paul quoted in Romans three, where we just
read, they're all gone aside. They're all together become filthy.
There is none that doeth good. No, not one, two walls. They're all gone aside. They're
all together become filthy. And then there's none. No, not.
There is none that doeth good, no, not one. Jeremiah 5.22, they are wise
to do evil. We know how to do that. But to do good, they have no
knowledge. Jeremiah 13.23, can the Ethiopian
change his skin? or the leopard his spots, then,
if that can happen, then may ye also do good that are accustomed
to do evil. That's what God thinks of your
condition. Jeremiah 79, the heart is deceitful above all things. A deceived mind is bad enough.
But the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked,
not slyly, but desperately. Who can know it? People say, well, if I know my
heart, you don't. You don't. The heart is deceitful
above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? Job
14.4. Who can bring a clean thing out
of an unclean? Not one. That's God's answer
to man, not one. First Corinthians 2.14, But the
natural man in all his intellect and education, the natural man
receiveth not the thing. of the Spirit of God, for they
are foolishness unto Him. You just talk to some of this
crowd out here, and they'll tell you how foolish they think this
is, what we're doing here this morning. Things of the Spirit
of God, they are foolishness unto Him. Neither can He know
them, because they are spiritually discerned. It's not something
He can learn by education, with intellect. John 6, verse 44, the words of
our Lord. No man can come to Me, except the Father which hath
sent Me draw him. He's helpless. It didn't say
no man will, it said no man can. You say, well, I've always believed
I could come to the Lord if I wanted to. Yeah, but you can't make
yourself want to. We're helpless. We're helpless. John 12, 40, he has blinded their
eyes and hardened their heart that they should not see with
their eyes nor understand with their heart. Hopeless without God. Romans
8, 7, because the carnal mind, the natural man is enmity against
God. For it is not subject to the
law of God. Neither indeed can be. Ephesians
2.1, dead in trespasses and sins. Titus 3.3, foolish, disobedient,
deceived, serving divers lust and pleasures, living in malice
and envy, hateful and hating one another. You'd think Paul
was living in the 21st century to say stuff like that. That's the natural man. Psalm
51, 5, David, behold, I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my
mother conceive me. That's David, the natural man.
The spiritual man was a man after God's own heart. Big difference. I've just referred
to 15 scriptures. We could read a lot more. which
assert total depravity, that by nature men love evil and hate
good. Love wrong and hate right. Love
self and hate God. You say, I don't hate God. You
don't hate your God. That little one you've manufactured
in your mind. But the natural man hates the
God of this Bible. The natural man in me, the natural
man in you hates God. There's a Judas Iscariot in me
and in you. There's an Adolf Hitler in me
and in you. The natural man hates God. Four things about man's condition,
fallen in Adam, the state of the natural man. The scripture
declares first that we're all in the classification classified
by God himself as being under sin, under sin. And it's a it's a it's a it's
a big statement. Galatians 322, but the scripture
had concluded all under sin. Under the weight of sin, under
the guilt of sin, under the bondage of sin. It's not like being under the
bed covers that you can just throw off when you're ready to
get up. No, it's like being under a fallen building. You're crushed,
you can't breathe, you can't move, you can't deliver yourself. All under sin. There's no escaping it. As to
acts of sin, committed sin, Romans 3.23 says, for all have sinned
and come short of the glory of God. We're all guilty. As to
the nature of sin, It thrives on rebellion against
the Almighty. If God says, thou shalt, you say, I don't believe I will.
I don't want to. If God says, thou shalt not,
you say, well, I'm doing it anyhow. There's something wrong with
us. There's something bad wrong with us. That's against our God. We're under sin in this fallen
humanity. None of us are exempt and none
of us can escape it. Second thing. The scripture teaches
that we're in this condition. We're spiritually dead. And unless regenerated. By the
spirit of God. You live and die spiritually
dead. You die physically, spiritually
dead. What does that mean? It means,
it means God's world, God's person, God's realm don't exist to you. I mean, you won't say that you
don't believe in God. You do, but in your life, you
don't think about him. You don't talk to him. You have
no use for his word. You're spiritually dead. It's
as if God don't exist. But in spiritual life, it's you
that don't exist. You're dead. No consciousness. Fellow said
to me one time, I don't believe anybody's so dead. They can't
come to Christ. Well, I don't know what his understanding
of dead is. Dead people don't come anywhere. Dead, spiritually dead. Our former
pastor, Brother Huntley, he used to say concerning the natural
man, he knows no more about God than a hog knows about a sewing
machine. He used to say that. Did you ever see a sewing machine
set up out in a hog lot? And the old sow sewed on a nice
piece of cloth? No. Hogs are dead to that world. And the natural man is dead to
the life of God. And if you don't know him, you're
dead. And don't want to. The third
thing. included under sin, spiritually
dead and three under condemnation. John 3, 19. And this is the condemnation
that even though light is come into the world, men love darkness
rather than light and are under condemnation. In 2 Thessalonians, or excuse
me, 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, Paul says to God's people, to
God's elect, he says, for God hath not appointed us to wrath. Why? Because his wrath fell on
our Redeemer at Calvary, which we sung about. He has not appointed
us to wrath. But all the rest of humanity,
because of sin, God has justly appointed to wrath. Don't argue with God about damning
people because of sin. You're wasting your breath. I've
heard it all. God's not fair. That just wouldn't
be fair. No, what would be fair would
be for all of us to go to hell. That's what would be fair. So don't argue with God about
damning people because of sin. Spend your energy pleading with
Him that you're not one of them. That you might be found in Christ.
Paul said that's what I want. That's my plea. That I might
be found in Him. Not having my own righteousness.
It's nothing but filthy rags anyhow. But the righteousness
of Christ. Paul was an old man when he said
that. He'd been preaching many years. He said, that's all I
want is to be found in him. That's all I want. So by nature,
under sin, spiritually dead, under condemnation, and fourthly,
under the power of Satan. People deny that. Ephesians 2.2,
he's the prince of the power of the air. the spirit that now
worketh in children's disobedience. And Paul went on to say there,
we all used to be there, Ephesians 2, 3, among whom also we all
had our conversation in time past. Thank God we're not there
now. But we were by nature. We were
all. We could be it ourselves. What
was that? Children of wrath. deserving of God's judgment,
condemnation, damnation. And the scary part is when we
were there, we loved every minute of it on our way to hell. But God, one of the remarkable
statements concerning regeneration is in Colossians 113. He had
delivered us from the power of darkness. He delivered us from
the power of darkness. When somebody says to me, well,
I'm glad I decided to turn my life around, I don't put one
click of confidence in that. If you're dropping toward a bottomless
pit, what good is it to turn around? Still going in the same
direction. He has delivered us from the
prison house of Satan. And those who deny total depravity
and teach that you have the ability to come to Christ and all they've
got to do is talk you into it. No, you don't have the keys to
the prison you're in. You don't. Sin has you bound in a prison
you don't have the keys to. God has the keys. And those with all their religious program worked out, those who
offer salvation by pleading with you to walk down the aisle and
they'll, quote, lead you to Jesus. Leave God the Holy Ghost out
of it. We can get it done. That's about as absurd as me
offering to show you inside the vault at the bank where I do
business. I don't have the authority to
go behind the teller's window, let alone into the vault, let
alone show you No. No. I don't have those keys. I don't have that combination.
I don't have the authority. You say, but what about my free
will? It's a lie. That's what about it. That's
what about it. This Bible teaches that unregenerate
persons are bound in sin. Does an alcoholic have the free
will not to drink? We could say yes. But no always wins. He drinks. Does the drug addict have the
free will not to do drugs? We could say yes. But no, always wins. He does
it. See? Does a hog, I'm talking about
hogs today as far as I've noticed. Does a hog that you've washed
clean with soap and water have the free will not to plunge back
into that mud hole? We could say yes. But no. It's in his nature. He'll plow
right back in there, red ribbon and all. It's in the nature. It's in the
nature. We had that verse in Jeremiah
13, 23, if the Ethiopian could change his skin, if a black man could say, I don't think I'll
be black anymore. I think I'll make my skin white. If the leopard could change its
spots. If the leopard could say, I'm
sick of these spots. I believe I would rather be a
tiger and change his spots to stripes. God says that that could happen.
Then might you, who are accustomed to doing evil, do something good. That's your chances. Boy, this is rough. Yeah, it's
very negative. I hadn't even scratched the surface. If your eyes weren't so bad,
you could really see in the mirror. If you ever did, you'd be so
sick of yourself. You say, well, don't you think
I'm a good person? Considering what we're all made
out of, I'm afraid to think about you a person or mine. Then what's my hope? Please give
us a word of hope. Is there any hope? for deliverance. Depravity is playing. What about
deliverance? I'll give you the only hope I
know of in one verse. Turn with me to Mark chapter
one. We'll be through in just a few moments. Mark chapter one. Everybody needs this verse of
hope. Mark chapter one. I hear you turning, I'll give
you time to get there. Mark chapter 1. Mark chapter 1 verse 40. And there came a leper to him. Leprosy speaks of sin. This is not a fine person like
you. This is a leper. A sinner who knows it and everybody
else knows it. We spend all our time and energy
and religious efforts trying to make sure that nobody else
knows that we're a sinner. They know it. You know it. This man knew it. There came a leper to him, beseeching
him. That's begging him. He never came negotiating. You
don't have anything to negotiate with. He came begging and kneeling
down to him. A testimony to a helpless and
hopeless condition. People will say in their trouble
one to another, well, I'll ask, but I'm not going to beg. I'm
not going to bow down. Well, the only hope you have
with God is to bow in your heart and say,
God, you're right, I'm wrong. Beg, bow and beg. Forget who all you know, they
can't help you. Forget what all you've done,
it can't help you. How great you think you are,
forget it, forget it. Bow and beg, bow and beg. But what would I say? How would
I go about it? I wouldn't know how to talk to
God. Well, let's read it here. Read it. Quit your so-called
rights. That'll damn you. Quit your so-called rights and
say what this leper said. If thou wilt, thou canst make
me clean. He said, Oh Lord, it's never
been about whether or not you can. I know you can. I know you can. It's all about
whether or not you will, if thou wilt. That's what it's about. We don't have any bargaining
chips. Y'all don't bargain anyway. Plead
for mercy. Has it come down to that? It's
been down to that all along. Plead for mercy. Do I not have any assets at all
with which to represent myself before God? None at all. Plead for mercy. How depraved
am I? Totally. Every part of you. We hear things like, well, so-and-so
has a good head on his shoulders. No, he don't. Sister so-and-so has a good heart.
No, she don't. Well, I believe they really mean
well. No, they don't. It's all about self worship,
self praise. Innocence, I'm innocent. We're all like dogs and hogs
apart from the mercy of God. But I'm so glad he is a merciful
God, depraved by nature, delivered by grace. That's my story. That's why I'm here and I praise
his wonderful name for it. Thank you.