I want you to turn back in your
Bible to the Gospel of Luke. If you don't have your Bible,
you can use your pastor's commentary. The outline is in there. We are
in Luke 23. You can just sit your Bibles
on your laps and listen. Our subject today is one of the
most important subjects in all of Holy Scripture concerning
an accurate assessment of human nature without which it is impossible
to have a proper assessment of the glory of God. Nothing is
more evident to me every day that I live on this earth that
the whole human race is deceived. That's you and me too. Deception is something that lives
with us like our breath. And if God isn't constantly removing
those elements that keep us under a false notion of what we are
and what we think we are, we would perish in our deception.
We are a deceived people. Be sure to know that. Every one
of us. Our subject is the glory of God
and human depravity. human depravity. Our context
describes for us in Luke chapter 23 what may rightly be considered
the darkest day in human history as far as God is concerned. As
far as God is concerned what was done by this demonically
possessed mob was bad enough The way they behaved, what they
said, how they said it, how they conspired together, what transpired
over the 24 hours that led up to this monumental event in the
epic of history is bad enough. It's bad enough what they did,
but it's worse to whom they did it. It's worse to whom they did
it. And so I say, as far as God is
concerned, this is the darkest day in human history. And to
affirm that, we might note what the author said in the 45th verse
of our text, and the sun was darkened. That's a metaphor for the obscuring
of the glory of God. in the person of Christ. And
the sun was darkened. There's no hope when the sun
is darkened. And when the sun is darkened because of the behavior
of the masses, then we know the masses are themselves a very,
very scrupulous, unscrupulous bunch. The sun was darkened at
high noon. It was darkened in the middle
of the day. It was darkened at that time
where it should have been in its brightest manifestation.
And the sun was darkened by God Almighty to reflect and represent
the darkness that had prevailed in the hearts of this merciless
mob that mercilessly slaughtered the master of mercy to let the
whole world know how absolutely depraved you and I are by nature. We are a depraved group of people.
The men and women that put our Lord to death represented the
whole of the human race. They were Jews and they were
Gentiles. They were men and women of low
estate and they were men and women of high estate. They were
civil authorities and they were religious authorities. They were
pagans and they were Christians. All together at one time with
one symphonic voice, they said, crucify him, crucify him, crucify
him. After they were prodded and persuaded
by the leaders of the church that we'd rather have Barabbas
than this man. a man who was a known murderer,
a man who was known for sedition. It was incontrovertible. He was
a guilty man. And they identified more with
him than they did with the spotless lamb of God. You know why? Because
man by nature is depraved. That includes you. And it includes
me. We are a depraved group of people. a massively depraved group of
people. Without being restrained by the
law of God, without being restrained by the Spirit of God, you and
I would do some of the most heinous things anyone could imagine. Our subject is absolute human
depravity. And the reason why we want to
deal with this is because we have been going through a series
of messages and we are intentionally laying the foundation of what
we know to be historic Christianity. Those things that are clear and
explicit in the scriptures concerning the glory of God and concerning
the nature of man. And it is so critical that in
this day we be reminded one more time of what the true condition
of the human race is because there is a veil one more time
over the masses of the people in terms of a wrong assessment
of who you and I are by nature. The vast majority of the world
believe that human beings by nature are good. This is diametrically
contrary to the teaching of scripture. The vast majority of men and
women, including most Christians think that there is a spark of
goodness in the heart of mankind. And this is diametrically opposed
to the teachings of scripture. Nothing in the word of God allows
for you and me to draw any such conclusions, but we do. And we
do it all the time. He's a good person. She's a good
person. They're a good person. Now, when
you hold to that faulty logic, you are holding to a lie. And
when you hold to a lie, ladies and gentlemen, you are bound
to be surprised and upset when the reality of our vile, corrupt
nature manifests itself. It is very important, therefore,
that you and I understand the doctrine of total, absolute,
comprehensive human depravity for several reasons. The benefit
of this doctrine, if you're asking that question to yourself, Because
see, we have been sort of conditioned never, never to view ourselves
in a negative light. This crushes our self esteem. And it humbles those who already
have a problem with low self esteem. The psychologists and
the psychiatrists have told us, never ever put the mirror up
on society. You do that and you just destroy
any hope. But the word of God is a mirror.
and true believers walk in that mirror. The life of the believer
is looking into the perfect law of liberty, into the mirror of
God, that they might see themselves as God sees them and that they
might see their hope in something else other than themselves. So
let me share with you some positive benefits to this doctrine as
we get ready to consider it for a season. One of the positive
benefits of the doctrine of absolute, total, comprehensive, corrupt
nature in mankind is that we might think God's thoughts after
Him. Is that all right? Isn't it all right to think God's
thoughts after Him? Isn't it all right for the people of God
to think like God? Now, here's the reality. Only
God knows the heart. I, the Lord, try the reins and
the hearts. Only God has eyes of fire and
can see everything. And therefore, for us to be able
to make a right assessment about anything, we've got to hear from
God. And we've got to think God's
thoughts after him. And the Bible says concerning the Christian,
we have the mind of Christ. So the benefit of this doctrine
is that we get the opportunity to readjust our thinking and
assessment if we have fallen prey to the delusion that we
are scaling upward as a society. We're making our way to a state
of civility and one day we will reach that utopian state of perfect
peace among our brethren. Mass deception. God says, listen
to me now, that every man is wicked by nature. That's men,
women, and children. God says in Jeremiah 17, nine,
that the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked and no human
being can know the depths of its desperateness. This is what
God says. God says that the thoughts of
mankind unrestrained, left to himself without supervision by
the divine being are only evil continually. That means even
his alleged good thoughts are wicked in the sight of God. The
Bible tells us in Romans chapter three, there are none walking
the face of the earth that are good. I'll get into that in a
moment mark that preposition are there are none that do good
now that's God's view and we put tags of goodness on everything
that was good that was good that was we like to play God don't
we and God saw it and said it was what so we go around saying
that that was good that was good but what did God think about
it God says there are none good, there are none that do good,
there's none that know God, there's none that do righteousness, there's
none that seek after God, there's none that understand. Every one
of us are unprofitable to God. That's what God says. What do
you say? What do you say? God says that
every imagination of the heart of man is vile and corrupt. The Lord Jesus said himself in
Matthew 7 out of the heart proceeds all manner of wickedness, adultery,
fornications, lasciviousness, thefts, lines, murders, covetousness
proceed from the heart of man. That's what God says. What do
you say? God says, started in the womb
in other words unlike our popular psychiatrists and psychologists
and philosophers we didn't get bad because of circumstances
we came out of the womb bad God says in Psalm 58 the wicked go out
of the womb lying about God That's what God says. He says we are
like vipers and asps that cannot be tamed. You and I from the
womb hate God. That's what God says. What do
you say? It is critically important for
us to understand our condition because when we are under the
false notion that we are basically good, We will fall prey to absolute
devastation when our loved one who tells us that they love us
in a moment of selfishness show absolute and utter contempt for
you ready to throw you over the cliff. And that's the one that loves
you. It's important for you to know
human depravity according to the scriptures so that you won't
fall prey to the delusion that your children are better than
everybody else's children. And that you were so wise to
raise them up so righteously that they never give you a problem
in the world. And then they rise up and spit
in your face and show contempt for you. Cause our teenagers are vile
by nature too. And desperately wicked. All of
them. Including mine. By nature. Vile. Wicked. Desperately wicked. Giving over to selfishness. Narcissism. Consumed with their own self
sovereignty. And they'll throw you under the
bus, mama and daddy. To get what they want. And the problem with this truth
is what you don't like is that it's a mirror because it actually
reflects mama and daddy. That's why we don't like it.
We like to make them good because we want to make ourselves good,
but they're not good and you're not good. Now the concept of
total depravity, is a theological concept forged out of a battle
against humanism that started in the third and fourth century
with Augustine and Pelagius and moved its way up to Calvin and
Luther against those who were part of that corrupt Catholic
church system that would allege that man is basically good. All
he needs is a little help, a little religion will get him to glory.
And that's a bold faced lie. What did religion get Jesus? What did he get in? We're going
to talk about that in a moment. What did religion get the Son
of God? Did it get him a promotion? Did
it get him a seat on the Senate? Was he able to stand among the
rulers and the elite and a pedestal? It's a remarkable text of scripture
with all sorts of lessons, which we don't have time to unfold,
to unpack. We should, but we don't. It's
horrific. Go back and read it. 48 hours
earlier when the Lord Jesus is walking with his disciples to
Jerusalem and he stopped in the middle of his journey and he
said to his disciples, my soul is exceedingly sorrowful now,
even unto death. My soul, the soul of the son
of God began to apprehend the darkness that he was walking
into, the abject darkness. And he said to the rulers, this
is your hour and this is your power of darkness. Where might
the sun and glory veiled from the human race be? God in his
mercy had to close the curtains because of our darkness and because
of our depravity. God had to close the curtains
because of our darkness and our depravity. That's what we're
dealing with here. That's what we're dealing with.
How depraved is mankind? History confirms our depravity
everywhere. I don't know how a person can
frame their lips and say that the human race is basically good
when the whole of history, the whole corridor of history, all
of time as we know it, testifies to the viciousness of mankind,
the hostility of mankind, the rage and insanity of mankind.
How can we frame our lips and say that? There's nothing in
the annals of human history that suggests or imply that there's
any hope to be found anywhere in any society. Anywhere. Anywhere. And our passage underscores
this. Our passage underscores the nature
of our corruption. Our corruption is horrific. It's
important that the children of God understand so that they're
not surprised when their loved ones turn them in. for their own advantage and their
own gain. This has been going on since
time immemorial. Isn't that so? Solomon, who was
the wisest man in all the earth beside the Lord Jesus Christ,
said in Ecclesiastes 7, There's not a just man upon the earth
that doeth good and sinneth not. Now was he exaggerating? Was
he extrapolating? Was he being hyperbolic? Or was
he under the unction of the Holy Ghost and simply telling the
truth? Because not only did he assess what he saw, he assessed
his own heart, which is critical to walk in the light. The Lord
desires truth in the inward man. And from the hidden parts, he'll
make us to see God's glory. But if you lie on yourself and
lie on God, you'll never see his glory. We're depraved, we're
corrupt. And it's critical for us to know
that in order that we might find our escape and our hope from
our desperate situation somewhere else besides ourselves. Jeremiah
chapter 17 around verse five or so says it like this. Woe
unto the man. Cursed is the man that trusteth
in man. That puts his trust in the flesh
of man or in the arm of man, in the strength of man. And yet
that's all politics is, ladies and gentlemen. The trust of the
flesh. Are you hearing me? That's all
education is, trust in the flesh. That's all employment is, a trust
in the flesh. Working to scale the ladder so
that we can be economically successful. We're trusting in the flesh.
And when we find ourselves into the throes of economic melees
like we're going through now, we wonder what happened. This
was all by design. This is a good place that we're
in, that we might find out that we're trusting in the wrong thing
and make some changes. We are a depraved people. The Bible is very clear concerning
the depravity of the human race. And what's remarkable is it should
have been the job of the church to tell the world precisely that. We have two roles in the church
of God. We are a priesthood and we are a prophetic ministry. The prophetic ministry should
operate as a mouthpiece for God to tell the world what the problem
is. Am I telling the truth? And as a priesthood, our job
is to assess rightly the desperate nature of man's sickness. so that we can cry leprosy, leprosy,
leprosy, leprosy, leprosy on the whole human race. That was
the goal of the priesthood. Read it, Leviticus 13 and 14.
The goal of the priest is to assess the condition of frail
man so that the contamination can be apprehended and stopped. And the whole world is a leper. From the soles of our feet to
the crown of our head, everything about us, is leprous. That's
the concept of human depravity. What that means, ladies and gentlemen,
because I know some of you don't believe me. You're not as bad
as I am. But the reality is you are. When the doctrine is discovered
through the whole of the word of God, what it means is we have
been corrupted in all of our faculties. We never think like
God. We never act like God. Our motives
are not like God's motives. Even when you are born again,
don't you find that it's a battle to think God's thoughts after
him? And that's designed to help you tell the truth about your
true condition so that you can help lost people understand what
their problem is. Only a priest who has infirmities
can help people who have infirmities. But if you're not a sinner, you
can't help nobody else. And so you leave the whole human
race writhing in the condemnation and the field of sin with a misguided
and misappropriated assessment of what's going on. We got economic
problems. That's not your problem. We got
political problems. That's not your problem. We got
race problems. That's not your problem. If we
can just turn this race thing around, we can fix it. That's
a problem, but that's not your problem. It's an evidence. They used to get their picnic
baskets and walk down to the center square. Everybody thought
they was going to the circus. They was watching folks get hung.
That's depraved. That's depraved. Are you hearing
me? But white folk don't have a monopoly
on that. Are you hearing me? All around
the world, every ethnic group you can imagine has committed
these same types of vile atrocities, even against their own people.
So black folk don't get to say, I'm bad, but I'm not as bad as
white folks. Yes, you are. Yes, you are. Africa has committed
the same atrocities, the Ivory Coast, the Middle East, The Far
East, Asia, our Filipino brethren will tell you some things that
go down in the Philippines. Our Asian brothers will tell
you some things that go down in Asia. And we come to find
out that the word of the Lord is right. All his works are done
and true. The whole human race is corrupt by nature. Well, Pastor,
why don't we just break out in abject chaos and mayhem? Because
God keeps his hand on the whole human race. He restrains sin. He contains sin. He keeps sin
down, even in your life. Let God take his hand off of
you and see how vile you are. The necessity of understanding
this doctrine is so that you don't lie to yourself and so
that you aren't overwhelmed when you see it break out right near
to you because it happens. It happens. I love my Reformed
brethren for being bold enough to tell the truth as they discovered
it in Scripture. We are a desperately wicked people. desperately wicked people if
you follow me in your outline we'll look at our second point
with regards to this a green tree season our Lord in his regal
regal absolute gloriously royal regal Constitution walking bearing
his cross under the burden of God's wrath in his soul because
he was a substitute for his people burden with it he had enough
of enough temerity and enough grace to make some observations
about the hypocrisy of religion in the process of killing the
Son of God. As we read in verse 26, and as they led him away,
they laid hold upon Simon the Cyrenian coming out of the country
and on him they laid the cross that he might bear it after Jesus.
And there followed him a great company of people and of women,
which also bewailed and lamented. Isn't that cute? Wailing and
lamenting poor Jesus. This is what religious folk do
every year at Easter. This is what religious folk do
every year at Easter. They make a big huckamaboo about
the death of Christ. All of a sudden now we're doing
Lent. All of a sudden, we're doing Ash Wednesday. All of a
sudden, now we're going to go through the mode of mourning
and grieving over the death of Christ when Christ should have
been preached every Sunday. Jesus, keep me near the cross. We are a depraved people, an
absolutely depraved people. The Lord saw it and he says,
let me help these folks. and so he gave them a word here's
what he said over in verse 28 and the Lord Jesus turning unto
them can you imagine that bearing your cross and you turn to him
turning unto him and said daughters of Jerusalem now that's a epithet
in the Old Testament for the religious portion of Israel those
who call themselves sons and daughters of God. Daughters of
Jerusalem was a tender term for those who were the most religious
in Israel. Daughters of Jerusalem, do not
weep for me. What a statement. What a statement. When the cross is preached to
you and you are made to vividly comprehend the historical events
that occurred at that time, Don't let the deceitfulness of your
heart tug on your emotional coattail and cause you to start dripping
down tears. The master never says to you
to weep for him. Weep for yourself when you see
him. Weep for yourselves when you
see him. Our Lord knew that shortly hereafter,
All these folks would go back to life as normal. You know how
we do it after the funeral? You know how depraved we are?
You guys don't even sense how important this message is. That's
how depraved we are. That's how depraved we are. You
don't get it. That's how depraved we are. We are dealing with the
one event that fully discloses our hatred for God. This is where
you are. This is where I am. The Lord
Jesus said these words in verse 29, behold, behold, he says,
behold, the days are coming in the which they shall say, blessed
are the barren and the wounds that never bear and the paps
that never gave suck. What is our Lord doing? He's
operating in the mode of the prophets. He's the last of the
Old Testament prophets operating and confirming and affirming
the mode of the prophets. The prophets constantly warned
Israel about the horrific days that would come and those days
would be so grievous, so horrific, so painful that a woman would
be best to never have had a child. Imagine the kind of pain and
suffering and judgment, universal judgment poured out upon everyone.
And you have to bear the burden of knowing that your sons and
your daughters are partaking of that same judgment in your
heart. You'd wish you never had children. This is radical. Listen to it. As he goes on to
explain before we narrow the lens in even more on ourselves,
he says in verse 30, Then shall they begin to say to the mountains
fall on us and to the hills cover us. What is our Lord doing? He's
giving us the sixth seal. The sixth seal in the book of
Revelation says, the sun will be darkened, the moon will not
give its light, the stars shall fall from heaven like an untimely
fig tree in her conception. And the kings of the earth and
the servants of the earth will say, hide us from the wrath of
the Lamb. They will say to the mountains,
fall on us. That's a metaphor for wanting
to escape the inescapable wrath of God. And our Lord is saying
in the midst of him suffering the wrath of God, are you ready? Your turn's coming. You're sitting here lay-minning
like somehow your lay-minning is gonna avert the judgment on
you. Your turn's coming. Don't weep for me. And I'll just
use this as an elliptical statement from our Lord. I can handle it.
Weep for yourself. Because what's about to come
in 37 years is about to wipe you out. It's a foreshadow of
what would happen under the Roman Titus in the days when Israel
would be surrounded for two years, and the famine would be so great
that moms and dads would be eating their children. And then he would
come in and just mow Israel down, burn it down. Over a million
and a half people were destroyed. The rest were scattered to the
four winds. This has happened cyclically all throughout human
history. Isn't that right? See, we are
so enamored by death now, we can count hundreds of millions,
hundreds and hundreds of millions, until we get to the billions.
And when we get to the billions, that won't be a problem for us.
That's how jaded we are. A billion people died in that
massive nuclear attack in the year 2013. And we go on watching our sports
and ESPN and CNN and Fox News and going on about our lives,
trying to get our cars and our houses and this and that. And
we're being jaded more and more because we're corrupt. Are you
hearing me? This is our Lord speaking to
us about the absolute depravity of the human race. Here's another
absolute glorious and necessary truth for the church to learn.
Look over in verse 31. 4. If they do these things in a green
tree, what shall be done in a dry tree? Our Lord is still operating
in the form of a prophet. He is the ultimate prophet. All
the Old Testament prophets pointed to Him. All the Old Testament
prophets were inspired by Him. It was the Spirit of Christ that
was operating in all the Old Testament prophets. The prophecy
of the Old Testament prophets was about who? Christ! And so
Christ is taking up from Ezekiel's prophecy in Ezekiel chapter 20
and Ezekiel chapter 17, where Ezekiel talked about the dry
tree being burned up and the green tree being burned up. And
in that prophetic role, it was talking about the condemnation
of Israel and the sufferings of the only green tree on planet
earth, the Lord Jesus. You think you're a green tree? See, the trees in the scriptures
represent men, it represents kingdoms, and it represents Christ. The trees in the scriptures represent
kingdoms. And what John said when Jesus
showed up, remember his cousin John the Baptist? Oh, the ax
is laid to the root of the trees now! Isn't that what he said?
It's getting ready to get cut down now. And for three and a
half years, the Lord Jesus, through the preaching of the gospel,
cut down the trees of hypocrisy, the trees of self-righteousness,
the trees of legal religion, the trees of hypocrisy, the trees
of self-justification. He cut them all down, cut them
all down. And then it was his turn to get
cut down. That's what we're looking at here. The green tree. It's only one green tree in this
world. And that's Christ. Blessed is the man that walks
not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law
of the Lord. In his law he doth meditate.
Day and night he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers
of water, whose leaves never wither. His fruit is always in
its season. Whatever he does shall prosper. That's not you. Never has been. Never will be. You might meditate
a little bit on the scriptures, but not day and night. Don't
tell that lie. And you have walked in the counsel
of the ungodly and you have stood in the way of sinners. And you
do scorn the righteous sometimes. You're scorning me now. That Psalm is about our master.
That was the resume of the king. And he was exposed in Psalm chapter
two as already being seated on God's throne. I have set my king
upon my holy hill of Zion. In order for God to get the job
done, he's got to do it himself. I thank him for it, don't you?
I thank him for the king. I thank him for the king. But
this is not about you. This is about him. Remember that.
Don't lie to God. Don't lie to yourself. You might
meditate every now and then on the scripture, but your constitution
is so weak that your mind drifts back and forth. And on your screen,
you got this program and that program and that program. The
screen ain't totally all about God. Come on now. Let's deliver ourselves from
this hypocrisy. It's good if God would give us
just a slither of a revelation of himself. All I need is a little
vision of Christ, just a little insight of the son of God, just
a small minute picture of his glory. That's enough for me.
That's enough for me. But we all see through a glass
dimly and much of what we do is vanity. Man in his bestest
state is altogether vanity. Our thoughts are vanity. They
fly off into worlds that we wouldn't want nobody else to know about.
Tell the truth. Even when you're praying, even
when you're sitting here hearing the preaching of the gospel,
tell the truth. Depraved. Depraved. Pastor, what is depraved? It's
not deprived. Just to help some of y'all. Just
to help some of you. Cause I don't look at, I'm not
seeing anybody deprived. Y'all look like y'all eat pretty
good to me. You're not deprived. You are depraved. So don't speak about man's total
depravity. You're depraved. You're depraved. Without the
grace of God, we can never think a good thought. Without the grace
of God, we could never do a good deed. without the grace of God,
we couldn't even desire to do a good deed. It is God who worketh
in us the will and to do of His good pleasure. Am I telling it
to you? This is so critically important.
Okay, now let's zero the lens in a little bit. Let's zero this
lens in a little bit. And you can follow me in your
outline. This is absolutely critical now. The two malefactors, the
two malefactors. The Bible tells us there were
a couple of malefactors led with him. Look over in verse 32. Are
we there? And there was also two other malefactors led with
him to be put to death. To be put to death. I have a
question. What are these malefactors doing here? Let's work with this for a moment.
These malefactors are condemned to death. You know what the word
malefactor means? Criminal. Guilty criminal. Condemned criminal
examined by the courts found guilty and condemned. That's
what a malefactor is What are they doing there? These are children. They're grown men. That means
they've lived their whole life doing something and At the end
of their life according to the appointed time according to the
decree of God according to justice and according to their actions
They have found themselves under a death sentence and dying. What are they doing there? You
know I used to and I still can as a way of application use this
text as that sort of last hour text where folks are lying on
their deathbed like the thief on the cross and you try to tell
them you got one more hour left and God's merciful. Now God will
save you. Trust Christ. This is sort of that last hour
text and it's valid for that. It's valid for that. We'll see
something glorious here in a moment. But I wanna help you a little
bit. This here doesn't have anything to do with man being caught in
his worst exigency, in his most desperate situation, in his greatest
plight. This is the case of the whole
human race from the womb. From the womb, we're guilty. From the womb, we're condemned. From the womb, we are thieves.
Am I helping you from the womb in the mind of God from the womb?
You and I are what we are even when we die and go to hell Proverbs
chapter 15 11 says this hell and Destruction are before the
Lord How much more so the hearts of the sons of men? What are
you saying preacher God sees the end? from the beginning Hell
starts in the heart And as far as God is concerned, just as
sure as hell is hell, so the heart of man is the fuel that
keeps hell burning for all eternity. God sees it both as the same.
That means, ladies and gentlemen, on judgment day, God's not going
to be looking up the script to see if you're guilty. You're
guilty! Are you hearing me? Guilty! guilty. A psychiatrist one time who was
writing a book took her time and she was part of a project. She worked in the corrections
facility with those kinds of criminals who were very very
notorious murderers, absolute heinous murderers. Men with famous
names, you know them all. Individuals whose pathology was
just ridiculous. They couldn't live on planet
Earth because all they did was, at a certain point, break out
and absolute murder Jeffrey Dahmer and folks like that. And she
would evaluate these individuals and she would ask them this question
inevitably, wanting to get into their mind, wanting to understand
how they think, wanting to get some answers as to why they all
ended up in prison, if not dead. And she said, almost to a man,
the answer that she got when she raised the question, how
is it that you ended up here? How is it that after 20 and 30
and 40 murders, that you just didn't stop. The Bible will say
because they are desperately wicked. They said because they never
ever thought once that they'd get caught. And that's the human
race, ignorant of the glory of God and their true human condition. Will you hear me? The whole human
race lives every day breathing in and breathing out, living
in God's world, eating God's food, enjoying God's resources,
never ever once thinking that they'll get caught. But we've
been stealing God's glory from the beginning. We've been lying
on God from the beginning. We've been robbing God from the
beginning. Are you hearing me? And see what the Bible says just
to help you, all the verses are in your outline, all you got
to do is go home and read them if you get so moved. The Bible tells
us that every way of man is right in his own eyes. Every man says
to himself, I'm not as bad as the other person. The Bible tells
us there's a way that seems good unto a man, but the end thereof
is death. The Bible tells us in the Proverbs everyone proclaims
his own goodness. That means here is one aspect
of human depravity. We actually define our own goodness. We don't take God's term for
goodness. We define our own goodness. And you will find desperate,
heinous criminals in prison who will tell you they don't deserve
to be there because they drew up their own standard of goodness.
And you and I do it too. Tell the truth. You young people,
when mom and daddy catch you doing something wrong, the first
thing you do is say, but what about what's-his-name? What about
what's-his-name? You know what you've done? You
had your standards set up. And you said to yourself, you
were better than your brother. But it ain't about your brother
right now. It's about you. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
And we do this with one another. Every time we justify our guilt
and condemnation, we have set up a flawed, faulty standard
of self-righteousness. And we do it our whole life.
And we go to church to get reaffirmed in it. We want our pastors to
tell us we're good people. So then you might as well do
what the psalmist says in Psalm 50, cast God's covenant behind
your back. What have we to do with God and his covenant? Since
we are partaker with these and we indulge with adulterers and
we tell lies on the true and the living God, we have no desire
to obey his book. I mean, we're not going to even
tell the truth. We're going to tell everybody that good, you
good Christian people. No, you're not. You're not good
Christian people. You might be saved Christian
people. I hope you are saved, but you're not good. You might
be graced, Christian people. I hope you are graced, but you're
not good. You might be kept, Christian
people. I hope you are kept, but you're
not good in yourself. Are you hearing me? You might
be sanctified. You might be preserved. You might
be being used by God, but don't steal God's glory and say you're
good when there's none good but God. And the goodness that's
manifesting itself in my life is God operating in His own sovereign
providence to get glory through me. Paul said it in Romans chapter
7 around verse 21 through verse 23, I know that in me dwells
no good thing. And you couldn't hold a candle
to the brother of Apostle Paul. You and I couldn't hold a candle
to that brother. The love of Christ dwelling in his heart
was such that it caused the apostles to scatter when brother Paul
came. He says, I labored more abundantly than they all, yet
not I, but the grace of God that was working in me. That brother
was hot, white hot for the son of God talking about love. And
yet he'd tell the truth in me dwells no good thing. That's the doctrine. That's the
doctrine. Why are these two thieves here
then? How did they find themselves here? What happened? What took
place? They thought they would never
be caught. That's what happened. And then
they're there, ladies and gentlemen, for several other reasons, to
teach you and me some lessons. In our outline, point number
four, why are they there? Because of blindness. That's
what I'm underscoring. You and I are blind. Please understand
that. Now watch this. Some of us were
saved by the mercy of God through the preaching of the gospel in
the midst of a horrible, horrible pit. Tell the truth. And that's the only place God
could save you because you had a faulty estimation of yourself
And all the while the gospel was being preached to you, and
you were living large, and you were walking free under the delusion
that you were all right, God couldn't speak to you until you
saw that you were not only in a pit, but a horrible, horrible
pit. See, that's the only time you're
gonna call on God, when you realize you are in a horrible, horrible
pit. Some of you are in that pit right
now, right now. some of you in that pit right
now. I'll tell you what you do. Do what David did. I cried unto
the Lord. The Lord heard my cry. He inclined
his voice to hear me and he delivered me. He delivered me out of a
horrible pit. That's how saved folk talk. Saved folk don't talk where he
delivered me out of a horrible marriage. He delivered me out of a horrible
job. He delivered me out of a horrible economic situation. That's not
the pity delivered you out of. He delivered you out of the pit
of hell, which by nature you wanted to stay in. Is that okay? That's how God
works. And something marvelous is taking place in our text that
I want us to see before I wrap this up. Are you persuaded that
you are depraved that your fellow man is depraved, that the whole
human race is depraved, but yet God's mercy still dwells in the
human race. As we've already learned, the
whole earth is full of the mercy of the Lord, and we've learned
that mercy is God not doing what he should do. You and I are on
borrowed time, human race. And I'm hoping the Holy Ghost
catch up with some of you guys in the middle of the night tonight
who don't believe me, and he expound this thing to you. calls
you to see your horrible pit and teach you how to beg God
for mercy, for mercy. Why are they there? Blindness.
Four things that constitutes the condition of the human race.
Their constitution. Do you see that in your outline?
Their constitution. Now this is where people are
deceived. Romans chapter five verse 12 says, by one man sin
entered into the world and death passed upon all. For all have
what? Religion. Religious folks been reading
that all their life. That has nothing to do with feelings.
It's called Constitution. It's God's judicial assessment
of the human race based upon their representative, Adam. And
when Adam fail, we fail. As far as God is concerned, all
of us are damned. Did you hear what I just said?
So you can be riding around thinking you're okay, but your license
was suspended several months back because you neglected to
go to the court and take care of that business. Police pulled
you over and said, show me your license. You showed him your
license. He said, we got to lock you up. Why? Because you're riding
around illegally. Well, I didn't feel like I was
riding around illegally, but you were. See, the gospel starts in glory,
not in your heart. The message of redemption starts
with God, not with you. You can never find truth in your
heart. You can never find truth in your
heart. It doesn't start with your heart. It starts with God,
and God has to reveal his truth and plant it in your heart. Is
that okay? I know this is tough, folks. We'll get past total depravity
in a moment. Just hold on. I want you saved. God constitutes the whole world
dead in trespasses and sins. Ephesians 2, 5. Isn't that right?
God constitutes the whole world dead in trespasses and sins.
When He gave the revelation to Ezekiel in Ezekiel 37, He said,
Ezekiel, look, do you see it? The valley? Dry bones? That's a whole human race. Very
dry bones. No moisture in it. It means we've
been dead ever since Adam. When I don't feel dead, you are
dead. If you don't know Christ, you're dead. And if you do know
Christ, your spirit is alive because of righteousness, but
your body is still dead because of sin. You can't do what you
want to do. Can I get a witness? You can't
do what you want to do. Those of us who are born again
want to do the will of God. And we got this dead carcass
keeping us from being able to do what we want to do. Is that
true? Dead. Dead. I'll get back to
that when we deal with the myth of free will. We'll get back
to dead. We are constituted dead. Our
condition, our condition is depravity. I quoted already Jeremiah chapter
7, 17, 9, Romans 7, 14, Proverbs 5 verse 22. We're already dead. Proverbs 5, 22 says the sinner
is bound by the cords of his iniquity. That's our condition. Do you know outside of Christ
you are a slave to sin? Talking about you free, you're
not free. You don't know anything about freedom. You are under
compulsion all the time to do that which is sinful. It's a
mystery to you because you don't believe God's word, but the fact
of the matter is you don't want to do right because you can't. and you're bound by the cords
of your iniquity. The good that I would I do not, the evil that
I would not do, that I do. What's going on? Bound by the
cords of my iniquity. The cords of iniquity keep leading
me into paths of unrighteousness, paths of darkness, paths of sin.
I do what I do because I'm bound. I'm not free, you're not free
either. You're not free. The only liberty we ever experience
is the liberty that God gives us in Christ. And we don't even
operate in that the way we ought to. I'll deal with that when
we get down to the concept of liberty. Bound by the cords of your sin.
Bound by the cords of your sin. Husbands, you said when you go
home you're going to talk nice to your wife. You got through
the door and you turned into a monster. Bound by the cords of your sin. Wives you said, you know, I'm
gonna come a whole nother way with my husband this time a whole nother
way But then he said it the wrong way and then you flip right back
bound by the cords of your sin Bound by the cords of your sin.
Why do I do that a slave of sin? We are sinners constitutionally
we are sinners conditionally we are sinners in our conduct
that's why these fellows are here And what perpetuates our
sinfulness is deception. Hebrews chapter four says that
the deceitfulness of sin hardens our heart against the truth.
And it perpetuates our deception. We keep telling ourselves we're
all right when we're not all right. And the fourth one is our consequences.
By nature, we are sinners constitutionally, conditionally in our conduct
and behavior. That's obvious. And the consequences
are death. The wages of sin is what? And
we even try to hide that up when we do funerals. We remove the
whole term death. We remove the mourning. We party
coming in in the funeral. Don't cry for our sister. Don't
whine for our brother. They wouldn't want you to whine
and cry. Why not whine and cry? They died. They died. When Lazarus died, Christ cried. The Son of God cried. Did he
cry? Did he cry? Don't cry. Why not? Are we trying to hide something
in the funeral parlor? We don't want to deal with the reality
that there's something going on after this thing called death.
Plus, death is ugly because of the way it happens, and when
it happens, and where it happens, and the consequences, and the
prevenient issues that took place. And we try to cover that thing
over. Boy, we're good with facading things, aren't we? It's religion for you. That's
why Jesus turned to him and said, you guys are getting paid delayment
from me. That's what they did in the first century. Paid delayment.
Paid mourners. Since you're getting religion
today, paid mourners. Folks that get paid to hoop and
haul and fall over the casket. And oh, oh. I know you, I know it seems so
funny. We laugh. I don't laugh. I don't like going
to those kind of funerals. It just bothers me that we can't
even face God in the house of mourning. God ain't in that mess. I'm here to tell you he's not
in it. He's not in it. He's not in the scam of religion. He's not in it. He doesn't show
up at those kind of funerals. You want to see the funerals
God shows up at? Go to Luke chapter 11, not in
your own time, sorry, John chapter 11, and see how Jesus showed
up at Lazarus funeral. That's how he shows up. You better tell the truth. Unless
he was saved, then we can rejoice. If he's saved, we can rejoice.
Now it's time for shouting. That brother been promoted to
glory. He out of the war. He's gone through the battle.
He's in the tribe now. We can shout. But with folk dying
because they got caught trapped doing things they shouldn't have
done and never darken the doors of the church, made a decision
for Jesus 50 years ago and we try to make him save, that's
treason against the glory of God. Treason against the gospel
of God's grace. Even at the threshold of eternity,
we're trying to deceive the masses concerning how God saves. I know
it hurts, it's just true. Point number five, a conflict
between two thieves. Can I finish my message? A conflict between two thieves,
4041. Are we there? Our Lord Jesus had just suffered
some of the most outrageous behavior on the part of all of the masses.
they were sneering, they were jeering, they were spitting on
him, they were beating him, they were mocking him, they were ridiculing
him from the ruins on down, all of them, even the two thieves,
even the two thieves were doing the same thing. Matthew's gospel
says it, and Mark's gospel says they were casting the same in
his teeth. Can you imagine that? The holy, harmless, spotless
Lamb of God being ridiculed by everybody. That's the message. See, this is all about the man
in the middle. There would be no message without
the man in the middle. But everybody is ridiculing him. And then something happens. Conflict
between two thieves. 29. I'm sorry, 39. And one of the malefactors which
were hanged railed on him saying, if you be the Christ, save yourself
and us. That's a doctrine that prevails
in the church today. You want to be saved from everything but
sin. want to save you to save you you got it verse 40 40 says but the other
answering rebuked him that is so remarkable first they were
both together in harmony right along with the masses of the
people saying the same thing to Jesus now all of a sudden
there's a conflict between these two things There's a conflict
between these two thieves. One thief now, after, you know,
see these two thieves have been with Jesus, listen to me now,
for over three hours. They've been with Jesus since
about nine o'clock in the morning when he was officially taken
to be crucified. And it's 12 noon now. And so
they have heard the jeers, they've heard the malignment, they've
heard the mockery, they've seen all the people oppose Christ
and they've heard everyone say, he's guilty, he's guilty, he's
guilty. And they said the same thing.
See, because when you're ignorant of the glory of God, you make
the same estimation about Christ that everybody else does, guilty.
He can't say he's not the son of God, he's not who he says
he is, he's an imposter. That's the way you're supposed
to think because you're part of the world. These two thieves
did it. The whole world's a thief, didn't
I tell you that? But all of a sudden, one thief finds himself in opposition
to the other thief. Now he's rebuking the other thief. Now he's saying something to
the other thief that he never said before. What just happened
to one of these thieves? See, it's all about the man in
the middle. It's about that man in the middle.
they were in this remarkable epic event with the man in the
middle and something happened to one of the thieves. Now saints
and ladies and gentlemen this depicts the nature of the human
race from the beginning of time to this very hour all throughout
human experience where the man in the middle shows up among
all of us thieves And all of a sudden your thieving
buddy has a change of mind. And he started talking differently.
Whereas y'all both was cussing the church and cussing the Bible
and cussing the preaching and ridicule and mocking. All of
a sudden you notice in that other thief some fear, some reservation,
some halting. All of a sudden that other thief's
estimation of Jesus is different. And it just blows you away. How
does it mean we, you know, we, we, we ran together and now all
of a sudden you, you got good things to say about the man.
We was blaspheming in the hell holes that we were in all the
time. What just happened has everything to do with the glory
of God in the midst of human depravity. I'll help you. This thief wasn't
smarter than the other thief. He wasn't brighter than the other
thief. He didn't decide to flip the script because he had the
capacity to. He didn't all of a sudden, like
religious folks say, came to his senses. The reason why this thief now
is on the other side of that other thief in opposition to
his former buddy is because of a revelation. There was a revelation
given to the heart of this thief because of the man in the middle.
This is the glory of God's redeeming grace even in the most desperate
of circumstances. God does save to the uttermost
those that come to him by faith. He ever lives to do just that. He gets glory out of catching
a man right before he goes to hell. Got it? And salvation, ladies and gentlemen,
is not bargaining with God. Salvation's not you are making
vows to God. You don't keep them anyway. Salvation
is God revealing to you the glory of Christ, His perfections, His
beauty, His impeccableness, His righteousness, His honor. Do
you notice how this thief spoke? just listen to it as I close
he says man don't you fear God the answer should have been no
no man I don't fear God you don't either but the fear of God became
an issue for this man didn't it the fear of the Lord is the
beginning of what God has to give you that fear that right
all of a sudden. He's a God-fearing man That's one of the fruit seven
seven emblems of the spirit in in Isaiah chapter 11, right?
And he shall be filled with the spirit of the fear of the Lord
That's what happens when a man gets a when a man or woman gets
a now they reverence God now they fear God now they honor
God now they see him as the judge am I telling the truth I start
telling the truth on God. He started telling the truth
on God. He said over in verse 40, but the other thing said,
do you not fear God seeing you are in the same condemnation?
You know what he recognized now and admitted he's guilty. See,
we don't, we don't admit our guilt until God convinces us
of sin. The first work of the Holy Ghost,
John 16, eight is to convince the world of what sin. That's
why I say, if you, if you frame your lips to say you're not a
sinner, the Holy Ghost hasn't done anything for you. Did you
hear what I just said? He hasn't done anything for you
because the only folk getting saved are people that tell the
truth. This man said, we are in our condemnation and we are
justly here. He recognized he's under the
wrath of God. Now that's the work of the spirit
of God. He recognized that he's going to hell. That's the revelation
of the gospel. He recognizes that he's under
the wrath and he's going to hell and he deserves it. Now see,
when you come to know the mercy and goodness and grace of God,
you can tell that true. I am a sinner. I, by nature, am under
the wrath of God. I deserve to go to hell. If God
is a good God, if God is a righteous God, if God is a holy God, God
must send me to hell. Is that true? Or else He's not
the God of the Bible. The wages of sin is that God
cannot look upon sin. God must punish sin. Every sin,
every transgression must receive a just recompense or reward.
That's God's nature. I have to tell the truth, you
do too. Now you can't say what I just said and mean it without
having a safety net to fall back on. Got it? That's why they don't
say it. Adam and Eve hid behind the trees
when God said, where you at? Because if they were adequately
covered in the righteousness of Christ, they could say, watch
this now, I'm in Christ. That's where I'm at, which is
my hope of glory. I'm not in myself. I'm not in
the church. I'm not in self-righteousness.
I'm not in legal religion. I'm in Christ. Father, say, where
you at, son? I'm in Christ. That's my only
hope, the righteousness of Christ. Got it? That's my only hope.
Now listen to what he said. Verse 41, moving to the latter
part. And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of
our deeds. He's admitting that his deeds deserve death. But
this man has done nothing amiss. How do you make that assessment?
an individual of whom the whole world around you has just said
he's the most guilty criminal on planet earth so guilty that
we can take a murderer and a seditious person in his place how do you
make that assessment about that man unless God has revealed to
you that he is the holy harmless spotless son of God that he knew
no sin did no sin in him was no sin at all none God has to
reveal that to you God has revealed to you the glory of the impeccable
Son of God. And then you're gonna say what
God says about His Son. Christ is God's blistering righteousness. Isn't that what we say? There's
no righteousness outside of God in Christ. And that man has never
done anything wrong. Never. Never. Folks talk about,
well, you know, the thief on the cross was saved. He didn't
know a whole lot. He had a complete body of theological doctrine.
He fully comprehended the gospel, fully comprehended the truth
in Christ. The thief on the cross knew more about the gospel than
most folks who grow up and die in the church. Now watch this, I'm closing right
here. And when he had said unto Jesus, and he said unto Jesus,
verse 42, this is amazing. Remember Me. Remember Me when you come into
your kingdom. Remember Me when you come into
your kingdom. All He said to the Master was,
Remember Me when you enter into your glory. The revelation and
illumination of this man's mind was so thorough and comprehensive,
not only could he witness to his friend, both gospelly and
apologetically, but he could confidently say to the master,
you about to enter into your kingdom. Now it's one thing for
us to say that 2,000 years removed from the event that took place.
It's a whole nother thing to say not only surrounding the
master, the circumstantial areas where the master was, but to
be hanging on a cross right alongside of him to be able to say you're
going to enter into your kingdom is a revelation from God. All he said was, remember when
you come into your kingdom. You know what he wasn't doing?
Saying, Jesus, you got to save me because I just did you a good
thing right there. Salvation by grace. God doesn't have to
save anybody. And God saves sovereignly whom he wills when he wills.
The thief wasn't saying, you've got to save me. He's just saying,
remember me, Lord. Oh, I'm done. Mark this. In the midst of our master's
suffering, as he hangs on Calvary's tree bearing the wrath of God
in the midst of it, in the midst of the travail and pain of the
Son of God. And it pleased the Lord to bruise
him. He put his soul to grief. He made his soul an offering
for sin. The Lord was stricken for the
transgressions of his people. God had poured upon him his chastisement. Christ was bearing the wrath
of God. And all while he's doing it,
he reaches over and saves a sinner. saves a sinner. That's called
glorious. I told you grace is glorious.
You know what he said this day, boy, you with me today. You're
with me. No hesitation, no purgatory,
no, no waiting, no 10 minute program today. You're with me
in glory today. You're with me in glory right
now, right where you are, right where you are. Do you hear
me right where you are? break and submit to the crown
rights of the only glorious person in the universe. Right where
you are. Amen.