We are continuing our Doctrine of Man class, and we are going to be covering the issue of total depravity today. So, I mean, what do you say? You don't say, yay! But, it will be important, rich material. If you have your Bibles, pull them out and click on them. If you don't have a Bible, maybe grab one. And we're gonna, cause I'm gonna actually have you guys look up verses this morning. My thought was that I'll sort of go through like this and have everyone participate who's willing and has a Bible so that we'll read through various texts this morning. But before I do that, let's open up in a word of prayer and then we'll dive in. Let's pray together. Our father, we praise you and thank you for being So gracious to save us, we thank you that you have saved us by your free favor, through simple faith and trust, as a gift, apart from our own works or worth, so that we belong to you and our salvation is all to your glory. and that we live now not for ourselves, but for you who has saved us. And we praise you that even today you have brought us here because of your gracious and powerful work in our lives. Otherwise, we wouldn't be in this room. And we thank you for the fellowship of the saints that we have in our local church. And every Lord's Day are in corporate worship together. And we pray that even as we dive into your word today, that we would learn, that we would grow, and we know that that requires the activity of your Holy Spirit. We pray that he would illumine our hearts to understand your truth, soften our hearts to receive and accept it, and that the truth would be like a nourishment to our souls. And we pray for your glory and for our good, in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Okay, this is an important subject. I want to start by posing this question. We've been talking about the doctrine of sin. We started off with the doctrine of man, and we've been working through the doctrine of sin. By the way, doctrine is just a word that means teaching. You could say that Christian doctrine is what does the Bible teach about various subjects. So the doctrine of sin is, what does the Bible teach about human sin? And we've been talking about sin for the last several weeks, and today I want to talk about what's the damage? What's the extent of sin's damage upon humanity? We've already, last time I established that people are not basically good, they're basically bad. And that to deny that is a foolish and destructive idea. Unfortunately, it's a very common idea. But we as Christians have to have a rightly a biblical pessimism about human nature and the effects of sin upon human nature. But after we've established that man is basically bad, we have to ask the question, how bad is it? What's the damage, right? And here's some questions that we're going to consider this morning. Are we all sinful or just some of us? Has sin affected every part of us or just some parts? In other words, are there some parts of human nature that are left untainted by sin? And then finally, are we able to do anything good or not? So this is what we're going to talk about today, these questions. And we're going to address them in that order. So the first question, are we all sinful or just some? So once again, I'm going to have you guys read some verses today. So maybe we could start here. Ben, could you read 1 Kings 8 46? And then, gosh, Austin, I forgot your name for a second. Welcome, glad you're here with us today. If you wouldn't mind reading Proverbs 20, verse nine, that'd be great. Quinn, Ecclesiastes seven, verse 20. Patty, actually, I'll have you read first John one, eight, because I want to end with Chuck. If you could read Romans three, nine through 11 and verse 23. Okay, so what these verses are going to show us is that the Bible clearly and consistently teaches that all mankind are sinful. All right, so that's what we're going to see. So Ben, let's start with 1 Kings 8 46. If they sin against you, for there is no one who does not sin, and you are angry with them, and give them to an enemy, so that they are carried away captive to the land of the enemy, far off or near. So that little phrase in there, for there is no one who does not sin, that's a totalizing phrase. The writer just has an offhand comment recognizing that no one escapes sin. Proverbs 20 verse 9, Austin? Who can say I have made my heart pure, I am clean from my sin? Who can say it? Who can say I'm clean from my sin? No one. It's a rhetorical question. Ecclesiastes 7 verse 20. Certainly there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins. Certainly there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins. And then 1 John 1.8. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. And then finally, probably one of the most profound passages on this is Romans 3, 9-11. And just to set this up, remember that we're not taking this passage out of context. Paul's entire point in these opening chapters is to describe the sinfulness of all mankind, both Jew and Gentile. And in this sort of climactic passage in Romans three, he's sort of laying out his case by appealing to various Old Testament texts. So Chuck, let's read Romans three, nine through 11, and then adverse 23 in there at the end. What then are we Jews any better off now? Not at all. For we have already charged that all Both Jews and Greeks are under sin, as it is written. None is righteous. No, not one. No one understands. No one seeks for God. For all have sinned, and all fall short of the glory of God. Sorry, did I add anything? You know, I probably should have had you read verse 12 too, but that's okay. You get the point. He's making the case all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, and then he quotes various passages. None is righteous. No, not one. No one understands. No one seeks for God. And then verse 12, all have turned aside. Together they become worthless. No one does good, not even one. I mean, couldn't be more clear and when you get to Romans 5 we've been talking about original sin and you realize that we all have inherited the corruption and guilt that was the result of Adam's sin you realize oh yeah that makes sense all of us are Adam's descendants we all have original sin and this is why none of us escapes sin all are under sin and we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God there's not there's not a There's not a person out there, a human being out there who hasn't sinned, except, of course, for one, right? And so let's read these three verses because they really stand in stark contrast to all these verses that we've read. Ashton, would you read 1 Peter 2.22? And then let's see, Jen, would you read 2 Corinthians 5.21? Maddie, 1 John 3.5, do you have Bible too? Okay, 1 John 3.5, so, We'll start with 1 Peter 2, 22. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. And then 2 Corinthians 5, 21. Sorry, I sort of sprung that on you without any comment on the previous verse. For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. Alright, so, 1st Peter 2.22, he committed no sin. 2nd Corinthians 5.21, him who knew no sin. He knew no sin, he had no knowledge of sin in terms of his personal having committed it. 1st John 3.5. You know that he appeared in order to take away sins and in him there is no sin. In him there is no sin. So, thank goodness, Jesus was the one man who broke the pattern, right? And that was because he was the representative head of a new humanity, a second Adam as it were. And he had to have no sin in order to fulfill all righteousness on our behalf and in order to offer himself up as a sinless, spotless lamb, as a sacrifice to take away our sin. But other than Jesus, all mankind Is born is under sin as Paul says in Romans 1 and all have sinned So we're all born. We're all sinful and we all commit sin Should be pretty that's a pretty non-controversial one at least for us as Christians, right? Clarification the fact that all men all men are sinful Doesn't mean that all men sin equally Okay, so we're not arguing that You know, Hitler is the moral equivalent of Gandhi or Mother Teresa. What we're saying is that all men sin, even though they might not sin equally, they might not commit the same sins, they might not sin to the same degree, but all human beings sin. In fact, the reality is, is that we sin every day in many ways if you go beyond just mere action to thoughts and desires and motivations like Jesus teaches us to do. Yeah. One sin is just as bad as another sin. A little sin is just as bad. Okay, I know what you mean, but we have to be careful here too, don't we? And we'll talk about this a little bit more. All sin are equal in terms of the fact that they merit death, right? The wages of sin is death. We wouldn't want to say, though, that all sins are morally equivalent, right? So for instance, lusting after a woman in your heart is actually not equivalent to actually committing the act of adultery with another woman, right? There's a difference there, both in terms of degrees of sinfulness and degrees of consequence. They're both adultery and a violation of the... Seventh Commandment, they both merit death because the wages of any sin is death, right? But they're not equal. And you see this throughout the Old Testament law, for instance. You see that some sins have varying degrees of punishment, indicating that they have varying degrees of moral weight. And also, they're described in different ways. Some sins are described as toevah, an abomination. and our merit death, whereas other sins are not, and they have a lighter punishment. So, as long as we qualify what you're saying, right, that's a true statement. So, this is an important one in our day, because there are some Christians who unthinkingly will just say, we're all sinners and therefore all sin is just morally equivalent. And we say, no, no, no, that's not quite true. It all merits death, and we all sin, but all men don't sin equally. We are all equal in the sense that we all sin. But not all of our sin is equal. Okay? Yeah, any questions? Sorry, Marcus. Yeah, that's a great question. So I think that, first of all, we can say that human beings can do what is right, right? And in that sense, while we would say that no one is perfect, James says we all stumble in many ways, yet there are people who live relatively righteous lives, right? Like Noah and Abraham. But what is it that is the most fundamental qualification for living a righteous life? What do you think? Being right with God. Right, so, and we might even say that, how is it that we are right with God? Faith. Faith, right? So, Hebrews 11, 6, remember? Without faith, it is impossible to please God. So I think that what you are seeing in these statements that describe certain human beings like Job and Abraham as righteous is that you're seeing, first of all, a person who, by God's grace, through the work of His Spirit, Their hearts have been changed so that they believe in God. And then out of their faith, they begin to live a life of obedience. Not perfect, right? But obedience. And so, a righteous person is not just a person who you know, on the scale of humanity, you know, from the worst of the worst to the best of the best is, you know, over on this side of the scale. But it's a person who has true faith and trust in Christ through the grace of God, through the regenerating work of the Spirit. And as a result of their faith, they begin obeying His commands. I think that's what we're seeing. And in that sense, every believer would belong to that category of the righteous. Not only because of the imputed righteousness of Christ, because we're clothed with Christ's perfect righteousness so that we are right with God, but also because by the Spirit we begin our lives are characterized by righteousness. So you remember that famous Matthew 25, Jesus talks about the judgment day and says, He will say to some, I was hungry and you didn't give me food. I was thirsty and you didn't give me something to drink. I was naked and you didn't clothe me. And he says, depart from me, you know, into everlasting punishment. He says to others, I was hungry, and you gave me food. I was thirsty, you gave me something to drink. I was naked, and you clothed me." And they say, well, when did we do this? Well, as often as you did it to the least of these. So, he's describing that on Judgment Day, there will be a marked difference between the people of God, those who are believers, and those who are not. He's not saying that we are you know, we get into heaven by our works, but rather that every true believer will produce some fruit in his life. And that fruit will be like evidence in the judgment day, testifying to our state before God, our spiritual condition. I think that's what that means. So that it's, we're talking about an issue of the fruit of a person's life and particularly the root of it all is true faith in Christ. It's a great question though. Any other questions about this? Okay. All right. Well, let's move forward. Is every part of man sinful or just some? This is like a disturbing picture of conveying the idea of depravity and death. She's got her hand on a skull and there's black coming out of her mouth. Is every part of man sinful or just some? In other words, what's the damage here? Everyone is sinful, but that doesn't mean that everyone sins equally, but all are sinful. But what about sin's effect on human nature? Could we say that some parts of us are left unaffected by sin and others are affected by sin? What's the answer? The Bible teaches that sin affects every part of man's nature not just some of it So I'm gonna go through again, and we're gonna look up some verses here. I'm gonna have you guys read. What's let's see Scott would you be really willing to read 2nd Corinthians 416 We're also gonna. I'll just bring all these up here, and we'll read through them Let's see So you have the body and the soul. Remember I talked about how human nature has two parts, the immaterial part, the soul or heart, and the material part, the body or the flesh, right? So the body is affected by sin. in, by way of corruption, aging and death, 2 Corinthians 4.16. The soul is affected by sin, and there are some texts, like Jeremiah 17.9. So, Paul, would you take Jeremiah 17.9? Isaiah, would you take Mark 7.21-23? And these texts speak of the immaterial part of man, the soul, the heart, all together, and just describe it holistically. But you could also see how the Bible takes the various faculties of the heart. the mind, the will, and the desires, and talks about how sin affects those as well. So let's see, Craig, could you take Ephesians 4, 17-18, and then Becky, Romans 3, 10-11, we'll go back to that text, and then Katrin, could you take Ephesians 2, 2-3? OK, so we're going to read through this. So let's start with the body. Does sin affect the outer man, the physical body of human beings? And of course, we all say, well, empirically, yes. But Paul recognizes it in 2 Corinthians 4.16. So Scott, would you read that? So we do not lose heart, though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. OK, and so in this particular text, Paul is speaking of not just He's not just speaking of, you know, growing old. In the context, he talks about, you know, it starts with that famous verse in 2 Corinthians 4, 7, we have this treasure in jars of clay. And then he talks about carrying in the body the death of Jesus. And what does he mean by that? He talks about being persecuted, right? And so, all the sufferings that we experience, the persecutions, the afflictions that affect our body. However, we could also say that, you know, clearly Paul would easily have affirmed that also him growing older, having physical infirmities, sickness, and other ailments, and just the process of aging, and then finally death. Does sin affect our body? Absolutely, right? And this is the result of the curse. When, before Adam sinned, there would not have been such a thing as growing older and dying. But as a result of his first sin, even our physical bodies, as well as the whole physical world, was subjected to a curse. Remember, God told Adam, cursed is the ground because of you. And he also said, in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die. So aging, death, and the curse upon the created world, this is all part of the effects of sin. But it also affects our inner man, our immaterial part of us, of our nature. And so Jeremiah 17.9, Paul, would you read that? The heart is the sequel of all things, and that's what we see. We can understand it. So the heart in the Old Testament, that would have been a way of referring to that entire immaterial part of us, as opposed to our body, which is material and outer. Our heart is the immaterial and inner person. It's just roughly synonymous with soul. And he's saying, the heart is deceitful above all else and desperately wicked who can understand it. So that's a totalizing description, right? He looks at the entire heart of man and says, it's wicked. Mark 7, 21-23, just in case we think, well, Jeremiah was kind of negative, you know. He was the weeping prophet after all, but Jesus never would have said something like this. He was so positive. What about Jesus? Mark 7, 21-23, Isaiah. From within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, sexual immoralities, thefts, murders, adulteries, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man." Okay, that's even worse than Jeremiah, right? I mean, Jeremiah summed it up, and Jesus unpacked it. Out of the heart come all of these things. You know, the disciples And the Pharisees, they were so used to thinking of defilement as coming from what you ate and what you touched because of the ceremonial law of the Old Covenant, right? And Jesus is saying, look, that doesn't really defile you. Certainly, He was not denying that it produced ceremonial defilement under the Old Covenant. But he's saying the true defilement, the true moral defilement is what comes out of you, right? Comes out of your heart. And the idea is that your heart naturally produces these things. So that speaks to, how do you explain that? Well, Jeremiah explained it. Because the heart is deceitful above all else and desperately wicked. And by the way, you say, well, maybe you're an unbeliever and you say, I don't think my heart is that wicked. Well, this is where that deceitful part comes in, right? Because we can also deceive ourselves into thinking that we're not bad. But really, right, right. We can, we redefine morality so that, you know, we're good. We ignore the bad things that we do, you know. So, have you ever like, have you ever gotten mad that someone cut you off and, you know, yelled, you saw them getting mad, they cut you off and then they get mad and then you're like, man, and then like five minutes later, you pull in front of someone else and they're mad at you. We minimize our own wickedness and we magnify the wickedness of others. The heart of man is deceitful above all else and desperately wicked. How about the ineffective apology? Well, I'm so sorry that happened, but... Right. We excuse our sin. Right? And this goes back to the very beginning. The woman whom you gave me, she gave me the fruit and I ate. The serpent, he deceived me. Okay. But, we could go deeper. We could say, well, but surely those descriptions of the heart as wicked You know, surely there's part of us, we have, you know, part of our hearts are affected by sin, but perhaps, you know, our ability to reason, our minds, or our will is left untouched. But when we look at the scriptures, we don't see that. We see that the effects of sin is total. It affects all the faculties of our hearts. So let's look at a few. The mind, is the mind affected by sin? Ephesians 4, 17-18, so is that Craig? All right, so Darkened or futility of their minds futility is is the idea of empty Worthless Darkened in their minds sin is like a cloud which darkens their minds They're darkened in their understanding alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them and this is not just like a due to their hardness of heart. It's a willful ignorance, right? In fact, you see similar language in Romans 1, don't you? And what was the cause of the darkness of heart and ignorance in Romans 1? Does anyone remember? Suppressing the truth in unrighteousness, exchanging the truth about God for a lie, right? So, this is a willful ignorance that leads to a darkened heart, so that we profess to be wise, but have become fools. I mean, in so many ways, as we look, for instance, at something like, you know, the transgender ideology today, we could say, man, this is one blatant example of, this is professing to be wise, but actually becoming fools. I mean, the problem is that we all do that in our sin. That's what we're all prone to. And by the way, when it says the Gentiles here, This is not merely an ethnic statement, right? What made for a Gentile? There was an ethnic component to it, right? But, I mean, who were the Ephesians? Ethnically, were they Jews or Gentiles? Ethnically, they were Gentiles. And yet, he's saying, don't live as the Gentiles live. So, why would they now no longer be in that category of Gentiles? Yeah, because there's a covenantal status here, right? If you were part of the covenant community of God's people, then you weren't a Gentile in that sense. Gentiles were the uncircumcised, those who were outside the covenant community. And of course, we're talking about a spiritual circumcision here, as it were. So this is just simply talking about those who are unbelievers, those who are outside the community of God's people. So this is a broad evaluation. It's not just, you know, people out there. All right, and so this is what you might call the effects of sin upon the mind, and it's a willful ignorance and folly and darkness. What about our wills, our ability to choose? Let's see, Becky, I think you have Romans 3, 10 through 11. As it is written, none is righteous, no, not one. No one understands, no one seeks for God. Alright, and then I should have included verse 12 in there too, but all have turned aside. So, you have, once again, the effects of sin upon the mind, no one understands, but Hand in hand with that is, no one seeks for God. All have turned aside. So, precisely because we reject, we willfully suppress the truth about God by nature, that's what sin does, we choose to go astray from God, right? You remember that was in Isaiah 53 as well. All we like sheep have gone astray, each turning to our own way. So our wills, the choices we make are affected by sin precisely because the faculties upon which we, that we use to make choices are darkened by sin and twisted, right? Our thoughts, our desires motivate our choices And because our desires and thoughts are corrupt, we will willingly choose what is wrong. Okay, and that leads us to our desires. What about our desires? Are they corrupted by sin? And perhaps this is the most easy one. I mean, let me ask you, what do you feel like? Do you feel like you have desires that are corrupted by sin, or are all your desires pure as the driven snow? No, right? So, the Bible repeatedly talks about the passions of the flesh, the desires of the flesh. So, Katrina, I think you have Ephesians 2, 2-3, right? Yeah, let's do that. And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience. Among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind." Yeah, very sober assessment. And I could multiply many verses like this that talk about the sinfulness of the corruption of our desires. If we loved righteousness and didn't have any sinful desires. We wouldn't sin, right? I mean, if we had minds that were illuminated by God's Word, and we loved to do what was right and true, we wouldn't sin, right? Now regeneration comes along and breaks the enslaving power of sin and gives us new thoughts, illumines our mind with the truth and gives us new holy desires. So this is why Jesus says, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. So his people now have new holy desires. The problem is we also still have our old sin nature. And this is that battle in Galatians 5. If you walk by the Spirit, you will not carry out the desires of the flesh. Or Paul says, if you by the Spirit put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. So there's a battle right now. And one day, one of the most blessed things about heaven will be that we'll be finally freed from this body of death and we'll be no more no more afflicted by these corrupt thoughts and desires, and we'll be able to honor God, to love Him fully, and we will be able to, all the clouds of deception, self-deception and pride, and all these things will be dispelled, right? And then one day, our bodies too, right? We'll be resurrected, and so we will be freed from all the effects of sin. But right now, our entire nature, our body, and our soul, or heart, and all of the aspects or faculties of our inner person, we could add emotions in there, right? How many of you feel like your emotions are in no way disordered? Spend time with family? Yeah, I mean, whoo, you know? Right. So, every part of our nature is affected by sin, and there's a corruption that has happened. The Greek philosophers recognize some of these things. They said we have these evil desires, therefore we need to use our reason and think things through and realize actually that's not good for us. But this says actually your reason is not enough. This is one of the key insights Well, this is one of the key points of tension between enlightenment, rationalism, and Christianity, right, is that Christianity recognizes and affirms the Bible's teaching, and I think it's also empirically obvious, of what's called the noetic effects of sin, the effects of sin upon the mind, upon knowledge, and that our ability to reason is affected by sin. And it's not because it's not a hardware issue, right? It's because of the moral issue. And so, you know, do you think that scientific studies are affected by moral convictions? Right? I mean, and so, or look at the Pharisees. These are not, these are not idiots, right? The Pharisees, the Sadducees, these were very intelligent people. And yet they could look at Jesus's perfectly righteous life and all the miracles that he performed, and they were able to reason away that he was the Messiah. In fact, they reasoned that he must be worthy of death. They used their logic, they used their reason, they had deductions that they made. And Jesus explained why. The light has come into the world, but people loved the darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. So, there's a moral, the moral corruption of sin affects our ability to reason, to choose our emotions, our desires. So, absolutely, I think the Greek tradition and many within the rationalistic tradition of the Enlightenment period have sort of believed that yes, we have these lower desires, lower faculties of man, but we can overcome them through our reason which is untouched by sin. And the goal is that your reason would overcome your sort of animal desires and appetites. Now, there's an element of truth to that, right? Like, we recognize that I would want to have four servings of chocolate cake. But by my reason, I know that if I do that day after day, I'm going to have some serious problems, right? But what we have to recognize is that in no way can we affirm that our reason is somehow freed from the corruption of sin. As if our reason were not influenced by motivations, prior moral commitments, etc. Does that make sense, Mark? Right, right, and I mean... We see it in ourselves that we're doing it, sometimes we don't see it until all of a sudden, you know, the rug's pulled out from underneath you and you're looking up at the catastrophe you've caused and it's like, oh, wait a minute, man, did I make a mess of this situation? And we just blindly go through things, picking apart other people instead of ourselves. I can't tell you how many times in some kind of disagreement with my wife or my children, I'll win an argument through pointing out how they were wrong and I was right, but my conscience is troubled. Somehow I don't think that really went as well as it seemed, you know. And then later on, I began to see how my own pride and my own, you know, my own motive to not, to be in the right affected the way I was reasoning and I realized how corrupted my own of the situation really was, how affected by sin it was, and I have to humble myself and go back and say, this was not right. I need to ask for forgiveness. It doesn't mean that everything I said was wrong, but we see just how affected and how easy it is to deceive ourselves. This is why perhaps the greatest grace that God can give us is humility. and how we could rightly pray, God, please be merciful to me, grant me humility and protect me from becoming entangled in pride and all that comes with it. Okay, a clarification here. When we say that sin affects every part of man, that doesn't mean that man is as bad as he possibly can be. Wouldn't it be scary if Man, every human being was as bad as they could possibly be. No, I mean, thank God for the restraint of the conscience, for the restraint of human government. And, you know, this is why we need law enforcement. because people's ill behavior is not, you know, as Rousseau and many of the Enlightenment thinkers thought, is not, people don't act bad simply because of the bad influences of societal structures. People act bad because of what's in their heart, right? And if we don't have God has established human government to provide restraint to evil. If we don't have that, we are in deep trouble. And that's why when you see foolish people remove restraint, what happens? Does it get better? No, it just gets worse and worse. And then we go, oh shoot, we got to go back and rein things in. And oftentimes it's very difficult to do that. The last question, is mankind able to do anything good or not? This is a controversial question. The reformed tradition has talked about moral inability, and this is, I believe, a biblical concept, and I want to show you why. So, first of all, let me just sum it up. The Bible teaches that in his natural condition, Apart from regeneration, or what Jesus called the new birth, being born of the Spirit, man is dead in sin, enslaved to sin, hostile to God, and therefore unable to do anything good. Okay, now before we're gonna establish this, But before you, you know, raise your hand with objections, let's walk through this, and then I'm going to provide another clarification, and we'll unpack what we mean when we say unable to do anything good, because it is true, but in a particular sense, okay? So let's look at this. Man is dead in sin. Uh, so let's see. Katrina, is this, uh, Dennis. All right. Welcome. Did you want to read or? Okay. Ephesians two one. Uh, just hang on, you know, fight, turn to it and then hang on and we'll, we'll read this, uh, later. Uh, Marcus, uh, Colossians two 13. Man is enslaved to sin. So Phil, Romans 6, 17. And Marinel, Titus 3, 3. And then hostile to God. So Elena, if you would read Colossians 1, 21. And then Marty, if you would read Romans 5, 10. And then the last one is unable to do good. Diane, Romans 8, 7 through 8. And then Louise, 1 Corinthians 2, 14. And then we'll come back up front. Ben, would you read Luke 6, 43 through 45? And then Ashton, if you would read Hebrews 11, 6. OK, so we're going to try to go through these at a fairly good clip, as the British say. That was a very bad accent, attempt at the accent. Okay, so let's start with man is dead in sin Ephesians 2 1 so let's see who was that again that was Dennis Dennis, would you read that? All right, so dead in trespasses and sins and by the way When he's talking, what he's describing here is not just the condition of some people, right? He's speaking to believers. He's saying, this is how you were before you were saved. And then he adds that phrase at the end of verse three, like the rest of mankind, right? So this is everyone in their natural condition, again, apart from regeneration, dead and trespasses and sins. Okay, Marcus, Colossians 2.13. And you who were dead in your trespasses So once again dead in our sin and in the uncircumcision of our flesh and in Colossians He talks about the circumcision of Christ. So that's tied up with redemption with regeneration so uncircumcision of our flesh is just being in sin without The new life of the Spirit and we're dead. Okay, so dead in sin and by the way You know, we like to like squeeze that down. Well, dead, I mean, what does that really mean? How dead are we, you know? Well, what is the imagery being adopted there? Like, have you guys ever seen a dead thing? Not much going on there, right? Lifeless, immobile, unable to do anything. Rotting. Exactly. So this is the image he's drawing upon. He's saying, In your prior condition, before the regeneration, where God made us alive, we were like that, spiritually. That was our condition. Okay, enslaved to sin. So now we're coming back around to Phil. Romans 6, 17. Sure, I should have maybe said that. Right, so he's making this contrast. Before we were saved, we were slaves to sin. And then when we are united to Christ by faith, we are set free from sin and become slaves of righteousness, which is a glorious slavery. Okay, and then Titus 3, 3. For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves of various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. So once again, this is a totalizing description. Anyone who is a believer, he's saying, this is who you were. And one of the categories he uses is enslaved to various passions and pleasures. So you could think of it like this. As a Christian, if we are a ship, what is blowing our sails and moving us forward? The wind of the Spirit, right? Walk by the Spirit. But before the regeneration of the Spirit, what was blowing us along? The passions, the corrupt desires of the flesh. So, we were living in the lusts of our flesh, as Ephesians 2 says. And we were enslaved to it. We weren't able to say no, because we didn't have new holy desires. We didn't hunger and thirst for righteousness. Not in the truest sense. It's the mistake of somebody that we refer to somebody as being full of hot air because they're so puffed up and so blowing their own horn. Right. Even the good things that we do, are not, they're still the product of corrupt desires, whether that's selfishness or pride. Okay, so, dead in sin, enslaved to sin, and once again, what is the image being used there? It's, you know, think of someone locked up in chains in a cell. Okay, that's a provocative image. Not free, not free to do either good or bad, but enslaved to sin. Okay, hostile to God. So, lest we think of ourselves as poor sinners, slaves to God. We want to serve God, but we just can't do it. He adds a layer onto that, that our disposition was hostile to God. Colossians 121, is that you, Elena? And you who once were alienated and hostile in mind, do evil deeds, and you have now reconciled with each body of flesh. That is it. Alienated and hostile in mind, right? And so, because we were hostile to God, we did evil deeds. And again, this is not like, I mean, if you look at it in context, he's not talking about some people out there. He's saying you were, all of us were like this before we were saved in our natural condition. Romans 5.10. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more now that we are reconciled shall we be saved by his love. While we were, Hostile to God. So just think of this for a second. There have been certain gospel presentations which present, rightly say that sin separates us from God, but present it as if we really want to get to God, but there's just this gap between us. And then the cross is the bridge, right? So, finally, we're like, yay! We can get to God! There is a problem with that, though, and that is that the Bible says we were hostile to God, and enemies to God. So, we weren't at the edge of the cliff, trying to get across to God. We were running away from God. And hostile to him, enemies to him. We were like on the other side of the bunker, shooting at God. And that's not a good thing to do. He can easily squish us. So, all of this is building up to the glory of saving grace, right? Unable to do good. Okay, and it makes sense. Dead, enslaved, hostile. makes sense that we wouldn't be able to do good. So, when we flip over to Romans 8, what do we see? A very consistent teaching, Romans 8, 7-8. So, that was Diane, okay. Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God. There it is. The words used are, does not, indeed, cannot, cannot please God. Now, the cannot is precisely because of the does not, right? It's not saying that we We want to please God, but we just can't. He's saying, no, you can't because you don't want to, because you're enslaved to corrupt desires, right? Because our wanter is bad. We need a new wanter. We need a new thinker. We're dead, enslaved to passions and pleasures that are corrupted, right? Okay, and then 1 Corinthians 2.14. Who is that? That's Louise. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God. because they are spiritually discerned. So you see that, like just in the last passage too, it's that those who are in the flesh cannot please God. The natural man, in our natural condition, apart from God's regenerating grace, this is our condition. We cannot accept the things of the Spirit of God. They're foolishness to us, right? Once again, our hearts are deceitful and desperately wicked. We don't accept what's true because it seems wrong to us, right? It's odious to us. We want to believe that we can do wrong. We've established a different standard of right and wrong, and God's word and truth doesn't meet it. Luke 6, 43 through 45. I think that's up here, Ben. For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit. For each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thorn bushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil out of his evil treasure produces evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks." Man, that is powerful, isn't it? He's saying, yeah, if you want apples, you don't look to a thornbush, because a thornbush cannot naturally produce apples. It doesn't have the right nature. And then he says, the evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart produces evil. We need a new nature, right? We need a new creation. We need to be changed in our hearts to be able to produce what is good. So in our natural condition, we can't. Any more than your thorn bush out in the back can produce apples. Hebrews 11.6. And without faith it is impossible to please Him. For whoever would draw near to God must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him. Alright, so this is really getting to the bottom of it. We need a new nature that is fundamentally believing. And so, you think of it this way, we need Christ to come along and open blind eyes, open deaf ears, so that we can see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ and believe, repenting of our sin, And then, in that condition, which can only be accomplished by spiritual resurrection, the power to bring us from death to life and to break the bonds of sin, only then can we actually do what's truly right before God. Because faith in God is required for anything to be truly right. So this is why, in our natural condition, we don't have faith. We're spiritually dark in mind and hostile to God, and so even the good things that we do are tainted by that, by unbelief. So, here's a clarification. Though man in his natural condition cannot do anything good relative to God, yet of course he can do good things relative to man. So you remember Luke 11, 13? It's a very interesting verse in this regard. Jesus says this, if you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him? So, using good in a more relative sense, relative to other human beings, even an evil father does good things, in that he knows how to give good things to his children, right? So you say, well, you say you can't do anything good. What about a mother caring for a child or a soldier jumping on a grenade to save his compatriot, right? And don't we do many good things? Yeah, in a relative sense. But what is necessary for a deed to be truly good before God? Must come from a heart of faith for the glory of God. So think of it this way. I've used this before, so if you've heard this before, forgive me. If you were married, And all of a sudden your spouse began engaging in an extramarital affair. So they're in the state of unfaithfulness to you. And they begin treating this other person so well. They buy them flowers. They're kind and loving to this person. Would you look at their deeds that are, in a relative sense, good, and say, wow, that's very admirable? You would not, right? Because they're all done in a state of infidelity toward you. So, all their good deeds are like filthy rags. Well, isn't that the condition of humanity in their fallen state, in rebellion against God, worshipping and serving created things rather than Him, so that all the good things that they do are not good in an ultimate sense? It's only when their hearts are turned in repentance and faith toward God that they can truly begin doing what is right. Does that make sense? Taken together, these truths taught in scripture, that all men are sinful throughout their entire nature, so that they cannot do good, has come to be called total depravity. What are the implications of this? Well, number one, it really helps us to see how helpless we are to save ourselves. And I'm going to read Ephesians 2, 1 through 10. You could just see it, right? We were dead and trespassing sins, following the course of this world, living according to the lust of the flesh, following the prince of the power of the air, like the rest of mankind, children of wrath. But God, even when we were dead in our sins, because of the great love with which He loved us, made us alive, created us for good works. By grace, you're saved, apart from work, so that it's all a gift that He, you can't boast, right? So you see it? It's just, that's what we're talking about. We are completely helpless. Like Jonah said, salvation is of the Lord. Also, we can't even repent and believe in our natural condition. Remember how Jesus said in John 6, 44, No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And then he ties it in with that old covenant promise, looking forward to the redemption of the Messiah. They shall all be taught of God. We need regeneration to come to him, right? We need to have our hearts changed and to learn Christ. And then by the Spirit, we can repent and believe. 2 Corinthians 4, Paul said, that in our case, the one who said, let there be light, let light shine out of darkness, has shown into our hearts the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, right? So that's what's happened. God has gone, invaded our soul, turned the lights on by his power to create spiritual life. And it's only then that we've gone, ah, Christ is the Messiah, the Son of God, I believe in Him, I trust, I turn from my sin, right? So even faith and repentance is a gift of His regenerating grace. John 3, 3, unless you are born again, you cannot see the kingdom of heaven. That's what he told the Pharisee Nicodemus. Finally, this means salvation depends on God's choice to save us, right? We're enslaved to sin, we're dead, hostile to Him, unable to do good. If we're saved, it's not because we, out of some corner of our hearts that remained untouched by sin's corruption and enslaving power, were able to see the truth and come to Him. No, it was because God chose to bring us from death to life. And so this total depravity leads to the next in the five points of Calvinism, right? What comes next? Unconditional election not based on anything in us, but by his free and sovereign choice He chose to save us right Ephesians 1 3 he chose us in him That we should be before him holy and blameless He predestined us unto adoption and that all happened before the foundation of the world So it it really helps us to see that from beginning to end It's all of God And it had to be, because we were in a very, very bad state. All right. Please come and ask me questions that you might have. I appreciate you bearing with. I started a little late, and then I went even later. So let's pray together. Father, we thank you for just the time to reflect upon these truths. They're sobering, Lord. They are humbling to us. but they also magnify Your grace and mercy toward us, and Your power toward us in salvation. Oh Lord, we know that our flesh is worse than we typically think, and we desperately need Your Spirit to enable us to see, to humble ourselves, to rely upon Your truth and Your Word, to listen to what you have to say rather than leaning on our own understanding, because we're so prone to self-deception. And Lord, we need the power of your Spirit to enable us to hunger and thirst for righteousness. We thank you that you have made us new. Lord, we pray that you continue to help us to walk by the Spirit and not carry out the desires of the flesh. And we thank you, we give you all the praise for your saving work in our life. It's all of you and not of us, so that we can't boast. All the glory goes to you. We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen. All right, thank you guys.