Turn with me again to the book
of Genesis chapter 1. Genesis chapter 1. We read verses
1 through 3. In the second verse, we read
that the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon
the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon
the face of the waters. I've chosen for my subject this
morning the depravity of the human heart, what we really,
really are by nature, how we stand before God in our own merit
and worth, or should I say in our demerit and unworthiness. And it's an amazing thing. As
I looked at this and I thought, well, Not so much as how can
I bring a message on this subject and honor Christ, but as I looked
at this passage and looked at scripture references concerning
the depraved man, I was overwhelmed with the thought of how gracious
God is and how merciful God is to reach down where He did and
raise up such worthless worms and pieces of trash as we are,
and as Hannah said, set us among princes. He raises up a bagger
out of the dunghill and sets us among princes, sets us in
His blessed, lovely presence. What an overwhelming thought
it is when we once get a sight of ourself to see how gracious
God is to raise us up to the heavenly heights that He has
raised us to. I think there's a two-fold purpose
For me at least, I'm trying to bring a message on the present
of the human heart. One is to reveal our sin and
inability to put us in our place. To show us exactly who we are.
Our sinnerhood. It's only when one sees who he
is that he will cry out for mercy. It's only the sick that knows
he's sick that will seek a physician. And it's only God that can reveal
our sickness. and can reveal the physician.
So we're told in His hands, and this brings us to our second
of the twofold purpose, and that is, this shuts us up to the Lord
Jesus Christ. This really does, because we
are rendered helpless and sinful, totally, absolutely and forever
incapable of doing anything for ourselves. We're in the hands
of our sorrows. That's where we are. All things
begin with God. That's what our verses tell us
in the very beginning of Genesis chapter 1 and verse 1. And I think I'd be remiss if
I didn't say something concerning this verse of scripture because
this brings us to where we are and what our subject is this
morning. All things begin with God, thus
all things begin with Christ. There's nothing that God does
that He does apart from His Son. And I hope we can grasp that
and understand that, that everything that God does, He does through
and by and for the glory of His Son. And everything that the
Son does, He does through and by and for the glory of His Father. The Son of God did not just sit
and wait for His time in God's purpose. He did not just sit
and wait for His time to come in God's purpose. He is in all
of God's purpose from everlasting. The Son of God has no beginning
as God has no beginning. If we don't believe that, we
have nothing to believe that is substantive. The Lord Jesus
Christ is God. He is no less than God. And this
is what we see in the very first verse of the very first chapter
of the Bible. In the beginning, God created
the heavens and the earth. The reason I know that the Lord
Jesus Christ was involved in this, and involved in what we
will try to bring out this morning concerning the depravity of man
and his restoration. In John chapter 17 and verse
5, the Lord Jesus Christ prayed and said, And now, O Father,
glorify Thou me with Thine own self, with the glory which I
had with Thee before the world was. You see, the glory of the
Lord Jesus Christ is a glory that He had with Him before the
world began. He is no more glorious now than
He was glorious then. He has the same glory. He did
not attain or acquire the attributes of God or the virtues of God
or the characteristics of God because He is God. He did not
take upon Him divinity, He took upon Himself flesh. He did not
become God, He became man. You see, He became what He never
was and He remains what He became and what He has always been,
which is God and the God-man. And also in Ephesians chapter
3 and verse 9, He said that He would make all men to see what
is the fellowship of the mystery, all believers, which from the
beginning of the world have been hid in God, who created all things
by Jesus Christ. In the beginning God created
and He created all things by Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus
Christ was with Him in the beginning. In Hebrews 1 and 2, He hath in
these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom he hath appointed
heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds." This is
the Lord Jesus Christ. This is who created all things. Sometimes we try to distinguish
these matters from God the Father and God the Son and God the Spirit.
Everything that God the Father has done and is doing and will
do is nothing is done apart from His Son. And everything that
God the Father and God the Son has done, is doing, and will
do is not done apart from His Spirit. You see, the Godhead
is inseparable. And there's a mysterious thing
concerning the Godhead, there still is with me. And I've never
been able to satisfactorily mine out all concerning the mystery
of the Godhead. And I've never read anyone that
is able to mine out the depth of this great mystery of the
Godhead. The Scripture says great is the
mystery of Godliness. God was manifest in the flesh.
God is one. And there's God the Father, God
the Son, God the Spirit, which are three, but they're inseparable,
they're all one. That's a mysterious thing, but
a wonderful thing, and a glorious thing. And this is who he speaks
of here, in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
All of the Bible speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ. All of the
scripture does. You say, well, I don't see Christ
here. Well, you may not, and I may not either, but I'll guarantee
you one thing, He's there. Just because you're too blind
to see it, and I'm too blind to see it, and God's not revealed
it to us yet, don't mean He's not there, because He is there.
The Scripture says, search the Scriptures in John 5.39, for
in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they which
testify of me. Which Scriptures? All the Scriptures. All the Scriptures. In John 1.1-3, In the beginning was the Word,
and that Word is capitalized. That Word is a person. And the
Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning
with God. The same. All things were made by Him.
Everything was made by Him. That's inclusive, isn't it? That's
encompassing. Everything was made by Him. Everything, every big thing,
every little thing, everything you can see, everything you can't
see, was made by Him. And without Him was not anything
made that was made. And that pretty much sums it
up if we had a question. If we say, well, what about this?
Or what about that? Or what about the other? It says
here, and without Him was not anything made that was made. So He made all things. And in
verse 14 of John 1, the Word was made flesh, still that capitalized
Word, which is Jesus Christ, and dwelt among us, and we beheld
His glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father. full
of grace and truth. In the book of the beginning,
we read in the first three verses of Christ. We read of him. And that's very, very important
concerning our message dealing with total depravity. It's very,
very important. And I don't think I really saw
the importance of this Although I knew Christ was in all the
Scriptures, I know the message is Christ. I have no doubt of
that. And I labor to preach Christ
and Him alone. But in dealing with the depravity
of man, there has got to be a center, there's got to be an axis, there's
got to be a point by which we arrive at the conclusion that
man is totally depraved. In this book of Genesis, in these
verses that are read, we also read of man's fallen condition. The earth was without form and
void, dark upon the face of the deep. We not only read of Christ,
but we read of man and his condition. We also read of the elect restoration
in Christ, verses 2 and 3. The Spirit of God moved upon
the face of the waters, and God said, Let there be light. And
there was light. Do you know why you're saved
this morning, if you are? Because God said, let there be light.
There wasn't nothing but darkness, that's what He tells us. Without
form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. You
know why folks can't understand when you try to preach the gospel
to them? When you try to tell them the gospel? When you try
to... Did you ever try to get somebody interested in the gospel,
and they're just not interested? Did you ever try to get folks
faithful? Just can't do it. Do you know why? Because they're
in darkness. In darkness. And they'll never
ever be any other way until God says, let there be light. It just ain't, I can't do it.
I can't make it happen. You can't make it happen. It
takes the work of almighty grace, sovereign, irresistible, And
that's what we see a picture here of in Genesis chapter 1
verses 1 through 3. The condition of the earth was
without form and void, and in deep darkness. This presents
a picture of man spiritually when he's born into this world.
When a man is born into this world, he comes forth from the
womb in that condition. David said in Psalm 51 and 5,
he said, I was shapen in iniquity and
in sin that my mother conceived me." What is he saying there?
That man is in this condition in conception. Not just when
he comes out into the world, but he's conceived in sin. There's
no way. Some folks think that because
you... and we should. We should raise
our children out of the gospel. And we should be an example to
them. You know, if you're unfaithful,
they're going to be unfaithful, more than likely. If you're not serious,
they ain't going to be serious. If you're casual, they're going
to be casual. And we should do everything we
can to teach and raise our children the truth and teaching of Christ.
But the thing about it is, this thing's not handed down. It's
not inherited. We inherited our death and darkness
of sin and depravity. We inherited that from our Father
Adam. And not only that did we inherit it from Him, we like
it. We're centered by nature, by
choice, and by practice. Men drink a nickel without water,
like a thirsty man drinks water. If God would give us a sight
of self, and what we really are. And man's not going to have no
need for Christ until he sees what he is. He's not going to
seek the Lord until the Lord shows him who he is. And he shows
him who he is by doing exactly what we're doing this morning,
preaching the gospel, telling him what God said. And if God's pleased
to use it, he'll do it. If he's not, he won't be none
the better when you leave here this morning. It won't make a
speck of difference. Because man is hard set against
God, it's selfish, self-righteous, and ain't nobody going to penetrate
except the Spirit of Almighty God. That's all it takes. Never
going to touch a heart of stone. But boy, when God breaks a heart
and shows you how much you hate Him, how sinful you really are,
how self-righteous and self-justifying and self-centered this flesh
is, how dishonoring we are to Him, Oh, it breaks a man's heart,
and a man never will know it until God shows it to him. Man is in darkness and depravity
and conception, and man is born in this condition. Psalm 58,
3, the wicked are estranged from the womb. They go astray as soon
as they be born, speaking lies. You don't have to teach your
children to lie. Do you know why is that? Because you're a liar. You're a liar. They're just what
you are. Do you know to raise your children
like they are? You say, oh my children. You
know folks, folks try to, I don't believe believers do so much,
but I hope we don't. I hope we know better. Sometimes
we call off guard and we do some strange things. But folks try
to pull, my kids are good kids, just brag on their kids, you
know how good my kids are and they wouldn't ever do this and
they wouldn't ever do that. Your kid do anything you ever thought
about doing. I didn't say anything you've done, I said anything
you thought about doing your kids do. Do you know why? Because
they're just like you are. They're liars and murderers and
cheaters and adulterers and aliens just like you are. By nature. That's just so. Like I am. You know, the filthiest thing
that there is in this world is not a cesspool of dung. It's
a cesspool of sin right in the depths of our soul and heart
by nature. That's what we are. Stags. Stags. Man is born in this condition.
And I believe the best definition of our depravity is found in
this passage of Scripture. And also in this one as well.
And that's the reason that at the outset I said something concerning
the Lord Jesus Christ and who He is. And I believe this is
the point right here. In John 6.53, and do us well,
do me well as well as you, to study this passage sometime,
look at it real carefully. Not just read it. I'm guilty
of reading the Scriptures. And one should be studying the
Scriptures. I should study them more than do. And maybe you should
too. This verse of scripture is the
words of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. John 6, 53. And I think this sums up the
total depravity of the human heart. Verily, verily, I say
unto you, except ye eat of the flesh of the Son of Man, and
drink his blood, And underline this last four words, five words. You have no life in you. That's totally practical. No
life. Dead. Dead. Somebody said, well how dead
is dead? I don't know. I really don't know. I don't
know how to describe what life is. But I know they're opposites. I know whether it's life or not
death. And I know whether it's death or not life. And he said,
except you have Christ. That's what the Lord is saying.
Except you have Christ. You have no life in you. Now
you may have religion. You may be a Baptist. A fundamental
Baptist. Maybe a Calvinist. May do a lot of things, do all
the things and the duties of religion. But if you don't have
Christ, you have no life in you. Let's look at our verse this
morning and kind of go over these adjectives that explain our depravity. The earth was without form and
void, and darkness was upon the faces of demons. The earth was
without form. What does that mean? No distinguishable
characteristics that would later be recognized. That means there was no, it's
like water. You know, water is just, it just goes however, what
it's in, however what it's in, it just, it's unstable. It has no form. You can't just
take a handful of water and stand it up out here. Try that sometime. That's kind of what this is comparing
us to as unbelievers, as those lost apart from Christ. Just
take a handful of water, try to stand it up, stack it up.
It just won't... no form. It just disperses. That's a condition of man prior
to regeneration. It looks nothing like what it
will look. Now you put that water in a vase
and freeze it. Put it in something free where
you can see it. And look at those sculptures
made out of ice. It has a form. But before that it just goes
wherever it will. Where it wants to. And that's
the way man is by nature. He has no direction. He has no
substance. He has no form of godliness. He has no reason except a selfish
reason to go drift and go where he wants to go and do what he
wants to do. There's nothing to distinguish
him and identify him with God. Because everything about him
is adverse to God and in contrast to God. God is holy. Man's unholy. God is righteous. Man's unrighteous. God is just. Man's unjust. God is truth. Man's a liar. See, everything
that God is, we're not without form. Without form. No life. Like the raging of the
sea. No stability. No life. No faith. No commitment to Christ. No love for Christ. No conformity
to the image of Christ. I'm talking about not our outward
appearance, but the inward man, the heart. Without form. Without form. In Ephesians 2.12,
that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the
commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenant of promise.
Having no hope and without God in the world. That's exactly
how a lost person is. That's what total depravity is.
Is having no hope, without God, without Christ in the world.
Having no form. You see, God has got a purpose.
He's a God of plan. He's a God of scheme. He's a
God of ordination. And man is adverse to that. In and of his own self, he has
none of these virtues and characteristics that identify him with God. Inwardly, he's total opposite. He has no form. Christ is seen
by those that don't know Him by faith. Christ is seen this
way. Did you know that? Of course you do. Those that
don't see Christ by faith, they see Him, well, they see Him alright. They see Him as a matter of fact,
as a matter of history. And don't take this the wrong
way, but any idiot knows that the Lord Jesus Christ
lived here on this earth, but they don't see Him as He is. They don't see Him by faith.
And this is the way they look at Him. They see Him just like
God sees a depraved man, a lost man. And Isaiah 53, 2, For he
shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, as a root out of dry ground.
He hath no form nor countenance. Now that's the way we really
are. And this is the way He is to
those that don't know Him. He has no form nor countenance,
and we shall see Him. There is no beauty that we should
desire. Do you know why folks don't desire to hear the gospel? Because they don't see Christ.
That's simple. That's a no brainer. Do you know
why folks have no desire for the things of God? Can't commit
themselves to the things of God because they don't see Christ.
It's not because the preacher don't preach on it enough, or
he don't make enough promises, or he don't do this and that.
Folks in religion will commit to anything except Christ. They will. But not to Him. But they will when they see Him.
They desire to. But He has no beauty that we
should desire Him if we don't see Him by faith. The earth is
without form and void, so is the sinner, apart from Christ.
He has no form, or no order in his life. When God created the
earth, and He created it by the way in six days, and He created
it 6,000 years ago. That's not a matter of opinion,
and I'm not going to argue with those that like to argue and
debate. That's just plainly what Scripture says. It says that God created the earth
in six days. And don't say any more than that, and don't say
any less than that, that's what it says. And when He created the earth,
it was without form and void. Some believe there's a gap between
verses 1 and 2. I don't believe that, but some
folks do. And that's alright, we won't argue about that. But when He created it, He created
it as a picture of what we are when we come forth from the Lord.
You see, when God created the heaven and earth, it was that
foreign void. And immediately it was that way. It was that
foreign void and darkness upon the face of the devil. That's
how man is. That's how we are. And we'll
remain so until God says, let there be light. That is a picture. That is how it is. That's how God sees it. That's
how it is. And it's void. Void. What is void? Empty. Destitute of the Spirit of God.
No life, no understanding of the things of God of truth. Void
of understanding. And to show you what that means,
from the Scripture, In Romans 3 verses 10 through 18, as it
is written, as God wrote it, as God said
it, as God sees it. I'm glad the scripture says that,
as it is written. That's telling you that's not
my word. That's not Moses' word. That's not Paul's word. This
is what God said. There is none righteous, no not
one, void of righteousness. No righteousness. There's none
that understands. Oh, you say, I understand. Do
you? Do you really understand? Do I understand? There's none
that seeks after God. And the common word in all of
this is none. There's none, none righteous,
none that seeks after God, there's none that understands. They are
all gone out of the way. When? The earth is without form and
void, from birth. They went astray from the womb,
speaking lies, born sinners. All gone out of the way, they
all went away. Isaiah 53, everyone went to his own way. All like
sheep have gone astray. They're together to become unprofitable. Good for nothing. That's what
unprofitable is. You say, well, I'm a poor man. I don't see how
the church would do without me. I know somebody comes to church
and they give a little money and they leave and say, oh Lord,
what are we going to do? The money givers are gone. By the
way, let me say this. I already said everything about
money, but I appreciate y'all. You know, it takes money to do
things, to operate, to be here. I appreciate what y'all do. Here,
giving it to church for the gospel sake, the glory of God. I know
some of you, when you're gone, I know this because you've done
it. You give me something, put that
off, and I'm going to be gone. You come back, you put it in,
you get back. You know, the bills have got to be paid when you're
gone, as well as it is when you're here. You know, if I'm gone half to
three months, I don't just forget about the light bill. I have
to pay it. I have to pay it up. They're going to turn my juice
off. And I appreciate that. But unprofitable. All together, unprofitable. There is none that doeth good.
No, not one. So I do. I do some good things.
If you think you do, you don't. Let me say that again. If I think
I do, I don't. And sometimes I catch myself
thinking I do. Let's be honest now. There's none that do it. There's
just one. They call him good master. They call the Lord Jesus
Christ good master. He said, why do you call me good?
Or just one good? And that's the problem. Their throat is an open separator,
their tongues they have to use to seek. The poison of asps 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, the way of peace they have not known. There
is no fear of God before their eyes. Somebody said, well whoever they're
talking about sure is a bad person. Whoever that is they're talking
about. If he'd have been here, I wish
he'd have been here and heard that. We're all here. We're all here. He said there's
none. Everyone he's talking about is right here. Right here. That's the depravity of the human
heart. That's who we are by nature. And if it weren't for the grace
of God, we would remain so. And we would remain so. Void
of righteousness. Void of anything good. Void of any graces. Void of life itself. No spiritual
life. Folks live born in this world.
Live 70, 75, 80, 90 years and die. And all that time live in
darkness. And die in darkness. Isn't that
something? Live after life on this earth.
And die in darkness. Darkness. Darkness from the face
of the deep. I can't imagine what the earth,
I tried to, but I can't imagine what it really looked like in
that space, short space of time. But there was the raging of the
water, no form, no land to be seen, barren, no life, darkness, nothing. Darkness is spoken of a lot in
the scriptures, and I'm sure you know that. And I'll give you a few examples,
and this will help us maybe more to understand what our subject
this morning. Darkness on the face of the deep.
The plague, the ninth plague of Egypt was darkness. Darkness, the scripture says,
it can be felt. Me and a friend of mine went
back to the cave once. Dan took me to the caves. Just had to
go down this mountain and some bushes and down the woods. Nobody
had ever found it. You'd walk right by it. We got
down there and crawled back in. We took our lights. We went there
about three hours. We decided we'd turn our lights
out. We turned the lights out. And I don't know what it is to
feel darkness, but if it could be felt, it could be felt in
there. You're talking about dark. Darkness. No light nowhere. You just wonder where you is
at. I'd look around and wonder where I am at. I'd think, does this
mean I'm here? It's so dark. Now that's just a natural darkness.
But this is talking about, this alludes, that darkness can be
felt in Egypt, speaks of the darkness And a man's soul and
his heart are from God. That darkness. And it's so dark
that those that are in this condition don't even know it's dark. They
think it's light. Isn't that amazing how deceptive
that the heart is? They think it's light. Think about that. They think
it's light. Examine yourselves. Let's examine
ourselves. Are we in darkness? Huh? Are we? It covered all the
land of Egypt so that they saw not one another. The next day
they didn't see one another. It's so dark you could stand
right next to somebody's face and not be able to see. When the Lord
Jesus Christ hung on the cross, there was darkness from the sixth
to the ninth hour. Darkness. Darkness veiled the
earth, the sun refused to shine. The birds thought it was night,
they flew and landed in the cleft of the rock, but their head under
their little wings. They thought it was darkness.
The stars, the moon didn't give their light, even though the
sun refused to shine, the lights of night did not appear. It was
total darkness. On Mount Sinai, when Moses, in
Exodus 20, drew near unto the mountain, there was thick darkness
where God was. Thick darkness. It was death
if man touched that mountain or approached that mountain. Because thrice holy God was there. He was just. If anything approached
that mountain that he didn't Cause approaching to him was death. God hid himself. This was the thick cloud upon
the mountain which Jehovah was when he spoke unto Moses there.
The Lord dwelt in the cloud over the mercy seat. And all of these
things speak of man's depravity. He can't approach God. He's so
much adverse to him and in darkness. And it's only by Jehovah's invitation
that we can come. It's a symbol of misery. Darkness is a symbol of misery
and adversity. Do you know one of the most darkest
times that there will be on this earth For you, if you don't know
Christ, I'm going to tell you. Or me, if I don't know Christ,
I'm going to tell you when the darkest time is going to be. It's going to be when we're laying
on our deathbed. And if God gives us, keeps our
senses about us, we especially have heard the gospel. You've heard this told Louis,
this two-by-four preacher, try to tell you of Christ. And you
lay on that death bed, and God keeps your senses about you, and lets you think and consider
and face the truth of who you are, and yet he withholds his
mercy and grace and lets you die. That's a darker style. that you've ever, ever faced
in this world. And it will even get worse throughout
eternity. You think things are bad now. You ain't seen nothing yet. And I tell you what, hell is
moving to meet you. It's coming. It's mouth wide
open. Ready. Swallow you up in anything
you can do. If God don't save you, you're
gone. That's just the way it is. Darkness. And then in death, if I understand
the Scriptures correctly, those that don't know Christ are going
to fall in an abyss of outer darkness, where there's weeping
and wailing and gnashing of teeth, and never touch the body. I fell a few times, and it's
a terrible sensation to fall to this natural body and this
mind. But to fall conscious, All your senses, your memory,
your faculties. And burning not with natural
fire, but with the fire of God's wrath. The truth, knowing it. Oh, God help us. Soul, center, I don't know if
God will save you or not. Now one thing, what I'm going
to do, and what I'm doing, is say, Lord have mercy, have mercy. And look to the Lord Jesus Christ,
by God's grace. Darkness is a symbol of misery
and adversity. Outer darkness refers to the
darkness in the East, years ago. Just to give you some idea. Some of the cities, they didn't have street lamps.
There was no lights at night. There was no lights. All the
lights were ordered to be out in homes at certain times. There
was no street lamps. There was no lights at all. And
they called this outer darkness. And there was everything come
to a standstill. Nobody moved, nobody went anywhere.
When the lights were turned out in the house, everything was
shut down, everything stopped. And that's the way it is for
those that are lost. Unbeknowing, everything shut
down. Everything? Darkness. Also refers to death. Same thing. No movement. Darkness. Death. Darkness within, darkness without. But man, let me conclude with
this, and I'm by no means through with my outline, but let me say
this, that man, on the outside in this world, he lives in this
world, unconscious of his sinful heritage, his sinful nature,
he goes about doing his business, unheeding, uncaring, Touched
a little here and there sometimes. Every once in a while he's prodded
to do a little better. His intentions sometimes are good.
So he thinks. But he goes on through life deceiving
himself, deceiving others. But all the time he's in darkness. And you know, really, I would
like to tell you that there's something you can do about this. I would. That's a human nature,
a thought of mine. I would like to tell you there's
something that you can do about it. But there's not one thing
you can do. Not one thing. Nothing. Now these children can
understand that. There's nothing that you can
do to save yourself. But I'll tell you what you can
do. This won't save you. This don't guarantee anything.
You can avail yourself to hear a Christ priest every time you
can. You can look in the Scriptures.
Study the Scriptures. He's given us the Scriptures.
He's given us time and space and opportunity to hear the Gospel. He's given you a mind to think
and consider what you hear. And I know that these things
don't save you. But I know this, it's only those
that seek Him that find Him. In all reason, we seek Him. And
I don't have to qualify everything, The only reason we seek Him is
because He seeks us. But Scripture says, Seek the
Lord while He may be found. Call upon Him while He's near. Seek Him. I want to see you in
glory. I do. I want to see you there. And we are depraved. We're lost. We're doomed without Christ. We are. We are. No wonder the Apostle stood and
looked out over Jerusalem. Looked over his kingdom. He said,
if I could, I'd be a person from Christ for my kingdom according
to the flesh. The Lord Jesus Christ looked
out over Jerusalem. He said, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem.
How oft would I have kept together as a hen does her chicks on her
wings, but you would not. This does two things. I question myself about trying
to preach a message concerning the depravity of man. I know
it's so, and I know it needs to be preached. But I'm convinced
it does two things if God will use it. It reveals our utter helplessness
and hopelessness apart from His sovereign grace. And it shuts
us up to Christ and Christ alone, period. If He leaves you alone,
you're going to perish. crafts, pleading crafts. Pleading. What's the matter with you?