Mark the seventh chapter. The
title of my message this evening is Total Depravity, and you will
understand why I have given the message that title as soon as
we have read verses 14 through 23. When the Lord Jesus had called
all the people unto Him, He said unto them, hearken unto me, every
one of you, and understand." Now you'll recall that the Pharisees
raised objection because the Lord's disciples ate with unwashing
hands. And so he says, hearken to me,
every one of you, and understand. There is nothing, there is nothing
from without a man that entering into him can defile him. But the things which come out
of him, those are they that defile the man. If any man have ears
to hear, let him hear. And when he was entered into
the house from the people, his disciples asked him concerning
the parable. And he saith unto them, Are you
so without understanding also? Do you not perceive that whatsoever
thing from without entereth into the man, it cannot defile him? Because it entereth not into
his heart, but into the belly, and goeth out into the draft,
purging all meats. And he said, that which cometh
out of the man defileth the man. For from within, out of the heart
of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders,
thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil
eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these things, all these evil
things, come from within and defile the man. Now, all human
religion, like the religion of the Pharisees, operates on the
assumption that the defilement and corruption of a person's
soul comes from without, that it comes from the things we come
into contact with in this world. That's the reason down in Casey
County you have folks living in communes. They are they call
themselves the simple people or the plain people, and they
they live in isolation from the world because they think if they
get too close to you, you're going to corrupt them. They think
if they get too near you, you're going to defile them. And if
they can separate themselves from other people, then they
will be holy. Now, all religions of men operate
on that assumption to one degree or another, and therefore they
have rules and regulations. And they teach folks to not touch
this, not do that, not go here, not wear this, not look at that,
because this is where the corruption comes. And if we can somehow
raise our children in a separated, isolated environment, keep them
from being influenced by wicked people out in the world, and
keep them from ever seeing anything evil, then everything will be
all right. But the fact is, The creed that says, touch not, taste
not, handle not, is not the creed of scripture, it's the creed
of the world. The religion of this world, all of them, says
that. Touch not, taste not, handle
not. Separate yourself from that which is evil and everything
will be alright. But the problem is that they don't understand.
The evil is in here. And you can't separate from that.
In our text, our Lord Jesus shows us that the defilement and corruption
of our souls arises from within us. He shows us that our hearts
are polluted, defiled, corrupt, and depraved. And so the doctrine
of our text is plain. All men by nature, I ought to
say all men and women. Brother Mahan was preaching one
time up in Paintsville. He was working over man's depravity
pretty good, and this woman came out at the service. She said,
I always knew men were evil. Well, all men and women by nature,
since the sin and fall of our father Adam, are totally depraved
at heart. That includes you. And that includes me. Everybody. Totally depraved at heart. As Lindsay pointed out in his
exposition this morning of Romans chapter 3, excellent exposition,
men and women are not as evil as they could be indeed, but
we are as evil as we can be at heart. All of us, there are no
exceptions. As we go through these verses
together, I want to call your attention to three things. And
I trust that God, the Holy Spirit, will be pleased to teach us these
three things effectively. Number one, we have before us
in verses 14, 16 and 18, a clear demonstration of the dullness
of our minds. The simple fact is fallen man
has absolutely no spiritual understanding. He's not just slow to understand
the things of God, he is utterly incapable of understanding the
things of God. No matter what evidence you set
before him, no matter what argument you give him, no matter how you
illustrate truth, no matter how clearly you enunciate truth,
natural man has absolutely no ability to understand the things
of God. He is incapable of such understanding. Our Lord called the multitudes
together here and he says, hearken unto me and understand. Understand,
these fellows don't know what they're talking about. These
fellows have no idea what spirituality is. These fellows have no idea
what righteousness is. And then he said to his disciples,
you mean you don't understand? After all I've taught you, you
don't understand? Do you also, are you also without
understanding? You see, the natural man is totally
void of spiritual discernment. I've been pastoring a while.
And I have discovered that every mother's son is an authority
on the Bible. All you've got to do is let somebody
know you're a preacher. All you've got to do is just
let somebody know you're a preacher, and suddenly everybody starts
to explain to you the Word of God. I go out and if I happen
to go play golf somewhere and they match me up with somebody
that I don't know, I never like that. If I figure I'm paying
for playing golf, I can play with who I want to, but sometimes
they match you up with somebody that you don't know, and they
ask me, well, what do you do? I've got a place to answer like
Milton Howard. Of course, you know, Milton, he's 6'7", and big as
Texas. He and Walter were playing golf
out in California, and they matched him up like that, so I asked
them, I said, what do you do? He's out there with dark shades on.
He said, you don't want to know it would ruin your day. But if you tell them, if you
tell them, they're going to talk religion all day long because
everybody is an authority. And the fact is, as soon as they
open their mouths, you know they don't have any understanding
at all. None at all. Our Lord said to
Nicodemus, that proud, self-righteous, well-taught religious leader. He was among the Jews, the Billy
Graham or the Pope John Paul of his day. And our Lord said
to him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a man be born
again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. And he said, unless you
are born again, you cannot see the kingdom of God. There is
none that understand it. No, not one. The natural man
receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness
unto him. Neither can he know them. Notice
the language Paul uses. He says he does not receive them,
and he cannot know them because they are spiritually discerned.
The corruption of the human nature is a universal corruption. It
affects every man's heart, every man's will, every man's emotions,
and every man's conscience. And it affects every man's mind
as well. His reasoning, His memory, His
understanding. Those who are smart, clever,
even brilliant in other things, until they are taught of God,
are without understanding in spiritual things. Worldly men
of brilliance often stumble over the simplest things and reveal
the truth. I heard a man say one time, and
he's exactly right, the Word of God is deliberately, intentionally
written to confuse unbelieving people. People find everything
in this book over which to stumble into hell if they will not bow
to the truth of God, if they refuse to bow to the authority
of God in Holy Scripture. The natural man sees no beauty
in the revelation and spiritual truth of the Gospel. They see
no beauty in Christ crucified. The worldly wise man sees no
wisdom or depth of meaning in the clearest statements of Holy
Scripture. Those things which to the believer's
mind seem rapturous with wonder are to the natural man just foolishness
and nonsense. Those things which cause the
believer to just sit back spellbound as he reads them, as he hears
them declared. The natural man hears the same
thing and it's just so much noise to him. He sees no beauty in
it at all. He listens like a fellow listening
to somebody talking in a foreign language. Every now and then
he catches a word, but got no idea what's being said. And he
really doesn't have any interest because it's all gobbledygook
to him. It's all something that's totally
foreign to him, irrelevant to him. The Holy Spirit puts it
this way, the world by wisdom knows not God. Sometimes I wonder why God does
things. Last Sunday evening, I started
to bring an exposition to this passage. And about the time we
had Scripture reading in the office, power went out. And I
can preach without my notes, but you can't very well follow
along without going through a passage like this. So I thought, well,
I'll bring a message on the Lord's table and started working that
over in my mind. And as soon as Rex got up to
read scripture and he read a statement to us, I understood why I needed
to wait until tonight to bring this message. And so I worked
it over again and included in the message what Rex read to
you last week. He'd been studying the life of Thomas Jefferson,
one of our great, brilliant minds in this country. And he was.
He was a brilliant man. He and Benjamin Franklin were
just brilliant, brilliant men. But infidels. Just utter, utter
infidels. I know that's not how the world
describes them, and that's not how conservative politicians
in our day describe them, but that's what a deist is. He's
an infidel. A deist is someone who by force of reason, by force
of reason, acknowledges that God is. In other words, he looks
out in the universe and he says, well, anybody with good sense
has got to acknowledge God made this. But the deus says God made
it and he established certain laws of nature by which the universe
is perpetually governed. But then having made the world
and established those laws, God has nothing more to do with it.
He's left it alone. That was Jefferson's religion.
That was the religion of most of his peers in the intellectual
political arena in his day. And this is what Thomas Jefferson
said, this brilliant, brilliant man. This is what he had to say
concerning our God. He said, I can never join Calvin,
that is John Calvin, in addressing his God, addressing our God. Jefferson said he was indeed
an atheist. He was indeed an atheist, which
I can never be. Or rather, his religion, the
religion we preach, the religion we practice, the religion we've
experienced, he says, was demonism. That's all right. I don't mind
that. I like for a fellow to say exactly what he believes.
If ever a man worshipped a false god, Jefferson wrote, Calvin
did. The being described in his five
points is not the God whom you and I acknowledge and adore,
the creator and benevolent governor of the world, but a demon of
malignant spirit. And what do you say to all that?
The natural man understandeth not the things of the Spirit
of God, for they are foolishness unto him. Neither can he know
them. It doesn't matter how smart he
is. It doesn't matter how educated he is. It doesn't matter how
much learning he has. Neither can he know them because
they're spiritually deserved. But the simplest man, the simplest
woman, the most uneducated, most illiterate among God's saints
has the mind of Christ and by the spirit of God discerns everything. His ears are clear. The sheep
hear the shepherd's voice. Sovereign election to the worldling
seems unfair. The world then hears you talk
about God electing some and passing by others. That's not fair. That's
not fair. First words out of the mouth.
That's not right. That's not right. God can't do that. Divine
predestination to the unbeliever seems to be just fatalism. Well,
if God predestinated everything, I'd walk out on the road, don't
matter whether I look which way or not. That's the way natural man
talks. The doctrine of the Trinity to
the brilliant infidel seems an impossible riddle. How can you
believe in three gods and one God? How can you believe in three
persons and one God here? The incarnation and virgin birth
of Christ to the worldly mind. Seems to be both needless and
impossible. The worldly religious fellow,
he studies and he studies and he reads the liberal writings
and he reads the philosophies and he gets he gets things reasoned
out in his mind, he said. Now, if If Christ was God, there's not
any reason for him to become a man. When the scripture talks about
the incarnation, it's talking about just the embodiment of
virtue. It's not talking about the embodiment
of God in human flesh. Substitutionary redemption and
penal satisfaction to the unbeliever seems to be a barbaric concept. How can God demand satisfaction? Why it's barbaric that God should
punish sin. Imputed righteousness to self-righteous
worldlings is utter nonsense, because they see no need of anybody's
righteousness but their own. Salvation by grace alone to men
and women who have no idea what grace is, is utter foolishness. Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter
1. I want to read a passage to you. In these verses we're about to
read, the Apostle Paul states plainly and clearly that God
Almighty holds the religion of this world, the educational hierarchy
of this world, the educational institutions of this world, the
educational philosophy of this world, the brilliance learning
of this world. God holds the whole thing in
utter contempt. And I do, too. in utter contempt. In I Corinthians 1 verse 18,
the preaching of the cross is to them that perish, quite literally
to them who are perishing, foolishness. To some of you, what I'm doing
tonight is just utter foolishness. You listen But you're kindly forced to by
circumstances, so you just sit and you think, well, you might
think Don's a nice fellow, you might not think that, but you
might think, well, Don's a nice fellow, but you know, he's kindly touched
with this thing of religion. He really doesn't know what's
going on. He's not real smart. Otherwise, he wouldn't talk about
this stuff all the time. He'd talk about the things that people
are interested in. The preaching of the cross is
foolishness to you. But unto us which are saved,
to us who are being saved, it's the power of God. For it is written,
I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and will bring to nothing
the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the
scribe? Where is the disputer of this
world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? Every
brilliant strategy the world comes up with. Every brilliant
philosophy the world establishes. Every brilliant scientific investigation. Every brilliant thing proven
by scientific investigation. Every brilliant, brilliant thing
the world has ever laid hold of and said, this is it, this
solves the problem. This answers the question. Give
it ten years and they come up with something to replace it.
God makes it foolish every day, every day. Look at this, we found
a rock, fell in Florida from outer space. This is the answer. Oops, washed up out of the sea. God makes it foolish. And what
do you do with all this? I sit back and laugh. That's
what I do, I just sit back and laugh. For after that in wisdom
of God, The world by wisdom knew not God. It pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. For the Jews
require a sign. The Greeks seek after wisdom.
The Jews say, show us a wonder. The Greeks say, give us some
philosophy. Give us some science. But we
preach Christ crucified. To the religious fool, a stumbling
block. To the educated fool, foolishness.
But to them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ,
the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness
of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God stronger
than men. For you see your calling, brethren. How that not many wise
men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called,
but God has chosen the foolish things of the world. to confound
the wise, and God hath chosen the weak things of the world
to confound the things which are mighty, and base things of
the world and things which are despised hath God chosen yea,
and things which are not to bring to naught the things that are,
that no flesh should glory in his presence. But of him are
ye in Christ Jesus, who of God has made unto us wisdom and righteousness
and sanctification and redemption, that according as it is written,
He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. Now sometimes people ask, you know, aren't
you afraid to match wits with worldlings? I don't match wits with anybody.
I ain't got any business trying to match wits with anybody. But
I'll stand in any place among any group of people, no matter
what their imaginary brilliance is, and proclaim to them the
simplicity of the gospel and do so with absolute confidence
that what I've got to say cannot be refuted. And you can either
bow to it or perish. And I'm telling you, that which
God has revealed, you will either bow to it or you will perish.
And the only way you will ever understand it is to bow to it. Even those of us who are born
of God and taught of God are sometimes slow to understand
the things of God. I know that God's people, Christ's
sheep, hear his voice and they follow him. I know that all who
are born again have the mind of Christ being taught of God.
They discern all things spiritual. And yet, as long as we live in
this body of flesh, as long as we live in this flesh filled
with sin, our discernment and understanding at best is partial
and always tainted. Certainly, that was the case
with these disciples. Looking at it from this distance, our
Lord's teaching here seems so very simple, and we think, how
could anyone miss that? How could anybody misunderstand
our Lord saying, now, fellows, drinking that without washing
your hands first won't bother you. How could anybody misunderstand
our Lord saying, the thing that corrupts you is what's within
you? And yet these disciples, being
both depraved men by nature and being corrupted by the influence
of religion around them that arose from depraved men as well,
they heard that parable and they said, Lord, what are you talking
about? What are you saying? What's the
meaning of this parable? I've stressed this because I
want you to understand, we must pray daily for the teaching of
God the Holy Spirit, if we would understand His Word and His ways. If we would understand the book
of God and the things of God, we must be taught of God constantly. Without the teaching of the Spirit,
the most brilliant mind is confused by the simplest truths. In reading
your Bible and hearing the gospel preached, As Mark prayed a little
bit ago, God, control our wandering minds and teach us. Teach us. Because if God doesn't do it,
you can go through your scripture reading every day of every week
for the rest of your lives and never understand what the book
says. If God doesn't teach us, you can be here for every Sunday
school class, every preaching service, every special meeting.
You can go across the country here and there and attend meetings
everywhere. If God doesn't teach, you'll never learn anything concerning
the things of God. All you'll get is theory and
notions in your head. We must always approach the things
of God with humility, with childlike, teachable spirits, praying with
David, teach me thy statutes. Now look at verses 15 and 16.
Here our Lord sets before us the defilement of our nature.
Our minds are dulled so that we cannot understand spiritual
things by nature. And our natures are defiled.
Our Lord says there is nothing from without a man that entering
into him can defile him. Now, He's talking about moral,
spiritual defilement. If you drink something mixed
with arsenic or strychnine, it's going to defile you. You can
make on that. That's not what he's talking about. He's talking
about moral, spiritual defilement. He says, There's nothing from
without that entering into a man that can defile him, but the
things which come out of him. Those are they that defile the
man. If any man have ears to hear,
let him hear. Are you listening? Do you have
ears to hear? Asceticism is not Christianity. Asceticism is the teaching that
evil is without you. Evil is out yonder. Evil is in
the things of this world. God did not create an evil world. Men have made evil out of things
that God created, but God did not create an evil world. Separationism
is not spirituality. People think because A woman
doesn't wear any makeup, and she looks as homely as a mud
fence, and her hair is kind of stringy and tied back in a knot,
and she wears dresses down to her ankles, down to her elbows,
and up to her neck. and she has absolutely no physical attraction
whatsoever, and she never speaks a cross word, and she doesn't
go out of the house, and she doesn't go to the picture show,
and she doesn't receive any worldly magazines, and she doesn't watch
television, and she doesn't smoke, and she doesn't drink, and she
doesn't chew, and any of that stuff, you know. She's holy.
She's spiritual. If that's so, If that's so, every
nun in a convent is holy and spiritual. It's not spirituality. It's not holiness. It's got nothing
to do with it. People think that moral purity
and spiritual purity somehow depends on us washing or not
washing our hands. Touching things or not touching
them. Eating things or not eating them. Moral, spiritual purity. does not come from those things,
and it certainly doesn't come, as the Pharisees foolishly imagine,
from the exercise and diligent use of outward religious rituals
and ceremonies. Every man, woman, and child in
this world carries in his inmost being a cesspool of wickedness,
corruption, and defilement. None of us need bad company to
corrupt us. We are bad company. You remember
the story I've told you many times about Brother Jack Shanks
when they had the religious school down there in Houston. A lady
called him up about 11 or 12 o'clock one night, and Jack goes
to bed with the chickens. He doesn't like getting disturbed.
She said, Brother Shanks, my name's so-and-so, would you be
sure my little boy who started in your school today doesn't
get in the wrong crowd? And Jack said, what's your boy's name?
And she told him, and he said, honey, your boy is the wrong
crowd. Now, I got news for you. You're the wrong crowd. You're
the wrong crowd. And I am, too. We are not corrupted
by what's without us. We corrupt what's without us.
We're not corrupted by other men. We corrupt one another. We have wickedness in the root
and essence of our being. We are within us corrupt and
vile fleshly and evil, not spiritual, not moral, not good. We ought
always to bear this in mind, especially mamas and daddies,
when you're training and educating your children. It is not wise, in my opinion,
and I think I can give scripture for it, it is not wise to shelter
our children and try to raise them isolated from the world. The religious school movement
has for its essence this idea that somehow if we can pull our
children out of the public schools and pull them out of the public
arena and keep them from the evil, then they'll be all right. I'd rather, this is my choice,
I made it. I'd far rather my daughter be
exposed to things a little at a time, and me deal with them
a little at a time, than suddenly when she's 18, 19 years old,
throw out there and be exposed to everything all at one time.
That's not the answer. When our children do wrong, it
is never good for them. And it is never right that we
blame their companions or their environment. Well, you know,
he got with the wrong crowd. Number one, mama and daddy, it's
your responsibility to see to it they don't get with the wrong
crowd. It's your responsibility to choose their friends for them.
Oh, you can't do that. Who says you can't? What do you
think you are? You're a daddy. You're a mama. That's your responsibility. Oh, but we have to trust our
children. You trust your child, you trusted
a fool. That's exactly right. Foolishness is bound up in the
heart of a child. You ought to teach kids that.
You young people, you listen to me. I'm telling you the truth.
The reason God gave you parents, the reason God put you under
subjection to authority is because at your heart you're a fool.
And you got to have somebody tell you what to do. Somebody
to direct your steps, somebody to order your path. And that's
the responsibility of parents. You see to it that the rod of
correction drives the foolishness from their hearts. You say, well,
I won't raise my child that way. Okay. I'll meet you down the
road." I'm telling you, foolishness is bound up in their heart, and
the problem's not out yonder. The problem's not with the schools.
The problem's not with the neighbors. The problem's in... and you're responsible, and I'm
responsible to direct them. We ought to be diligent, therefore,
in discipline and care, and we ought to be diligent in praying.
Oh, God, my child, that Syrophoenician woman said, is grievously vexed
with the devil. Have mercy on me. Somehow I got a notion there.
If we approach the Lord the way she approached the Lord, we'll
get what she got. My child's grievously vexed with
the devil. Have mercy on me. The only hope any of us have,
the only hope any of our children have, are being made righteous,
are being accepted with God. is the Lord Jesus Christ. We must all be washed in His
blood. We must all be robed in His righteousness. We must all be born of His Spirit.
Because we are defiled, we need washing. Because we are unrighteous,
we need the righteousness of another. Because we were born
dead in trespasses and in sins, if we would live, we must be
born again by the power of His Spirit. Now look at verses 20
through 23. We're given a clear description
of the depravity of our hearts. Now, these verses would drive
Sigmund Freud and the NEA and the politicians of our society
absolutely bonkers. They wouldn't either because
they're all crazy anyhow. These verses are so. Read what God says. That which cometh out of the
man, that defiles the man. For from within, out of the heart
of men. Now, notice the language. It's not accidental. So that's
improper grammar. No, it's exactly proper grammar
if we understand what our Lord's teaching. Out of the heart, singular,
of men, plural. Because Bob Ponce's heart, Don
Fortner's, is exactly the same. Exactly the same. The heart of
men who seed evil thoughts. Which ones? All of them. Is there a man or woman here? who's honest with himself, honest
with herself, who'd like to stand up here and tell this congregation
of people everything you're even aware of that you've thought
today. We'd like to quit popping my
suspenders now. Evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye,
envious, jealous eye. Blasphemy, pride, foolishness. I know our society, we've decided that adultery and
fornication, lasciviousness and deceit, those things are acceptable. Somebody was talking this morning,
something he'd seen or read, folks, Consider, what do you
think is evil? What do you think is right? What
do you think is wrong? And the idiots who take the survey
start with kindergarten kids, you know. It doesn't matter what
you think is right. It doesn't matter what you think
is wrong. It doesn't matter what the world says is right and the
world says is wrong. Some things are right, because God says they're
right. And other things are evil, because
God says they're evil. And you're going to meet God
in judgment one of these days. You'd better understand what
He says. All these things come from within and defile the man. Now, these words describe every
one of us. Our Lord is not here speaking
only of the prophet. the base, the disreputable, but
also of the high, the mighty, and the respectable. He's not
just talking about those kids who spend the night out every
Saturday night in drunken reveling, breaking their parents' hearts.
It's all about you kids who spend every Saturday night in your
home rejoicing your parents' hearts. He's not just talking
about the man who is an adulterer and a fornicator in the outward,
profligate behavior. He's talking about you folks
who are deacons and preachers and servants of God in this world.
Every one of us by nature are described in these words. Everyone. These words describe every human
being without exception. The seeds of all evil, while
they may be hidden and covered, by pretense of piety, restrained
by society, they are at the very core of our beings. We are all as an unclean thing,
the prophet said. I cannot now, for lack of time,
and probably should not, expound the meanings of these various
corruptions of the human heart. Let me just say three things
in response to these things that our Lord has just declared. How humble we should be before God. And I'm not talking about a show
of humility, Rex. I'm talking about real humility. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity,
and in sin did my mother conceive me. And when David made that
confession before God, he was not excusing his wickedness.
He was describing the aggravating circumstances of it. He says,
Lord, what I did Uriah and Bathsheba. Vile and base as it is, is nothing
compared to what's inside me. I was born in sin. I was shaped
in iniquity. I went forth from the womb speaking
lies. I know that in me, that is in
my flesh, dwelleth no good thing. Burl, we ought to pray God to
seal that to our hearts and make us know it constantly. Nothing
good. How thankful we ought to be. What? No, you're not? Body is
the temple of the Holy Ghost. You've been bought with a price. You've been redeemed. The unrighteous
shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Neither fornicators,
nor adulterers, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor lascivious,
and such were some of you. Oh, children of God, we've been
washed. We've been justified, we've been
sanctified by the Spirit of our God and by the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ. We're redeemed. Oh, I thank God for free grace.
Were it not for free grace, I'd either be in hell tonight or
I'd be on my way to hell. I thank God for blood atonement,
the precious blood of Christ. that has washed away my sins,
so that God Himself beholds me in His Son, through the blood
of His Son, as perfectly holy. How I thank God for free justification,
imputed righteousness, and immutable mercy. That song Judy sang a little
bit ago, I don't think I've ever heard it before. Oh, I thank
God that He, His purpose, will not forego. His mercy will never
change. His grace will never be frustrated. And He'll never take from us
the gifts and callings of His grace. How I thank God for the
Lord Jesus Christ. Of Him are ye in Christ Jesus,
who of God is made unto us, and righteousness and sanctification
and redemption, that according as it is written, he that glorieth,
let him glory in the Lord. How humble we ought to be, how
thankful we ought to be, and how watchful we ought to be over our thoughts over our tongues, over our behavior. Years ago when the coal miners
still dug coal by hand, hauled it out with donkeys and carts,
there was a great big fella, great big fella. God saved him. He was a brawler, He drank. He ran around. He stayed constantly in trouble.
And God saved him. His name was Jake. They called
him Big Jake. And old Big Jake, after God saved
him, folks started riding him pretty good. And they teased
him. And they kept trying to provoke
him, see if they couldn't stir up and rile up his flesh and
prove him, after all, to be a hypocrite. And Jake would just, he'd just
pass it off. The fellow who used to take them
and pop their jaws real quick, he'd just smile and pass it off,
just go on. And one day he was working in
the coal mine and he'd filled his bucket up, getting ready
to haul it out, went back and get another bucket. The most
fellow came and turned his cart over. He goes back and fills
it all up again. Goes back, starts to dig coal.
They sneaked up, turned his cart over again, stood there and laughed
at him. He started filling it up again. And before he got full,
got the thing full there, turned that thing over again. And man,
he started after them. He was going after them. And
just about the time he grabbed his shovel and started to clean
the house, he stopped right there in his tracks. Tears run down
his cheeks, and he began to sing, I need Thee, oh, I need Thee. Every hour I need Thee. Oh, bless me, now my Savior,
I come to Thee. And I need Him. Every hour I
need Him. Let me never forget for a second
my constant need of Him. Because I am a depraved man at
heart by nature. And I pray you will never forget
for a second your need of Him. Because you are a depraved sinner
at heart by nature. Let's sing that hymn. Can we?
Number 318, I believe it is.