Alright, turn to the book of Romans chapter 3. The message today concerns total depravity. I'm going to talk about it in a little bit different way. We're talking about the difference between believers and unbelievers. And this message is called, Believers Are Not Totally Depraved. And I'll give some clarifications, qualifications, distinctions. as we go along, so as not to be misunderstood. Some people might have already tuned out, but that's not my problem. Verse 10, Romans chapter 3 and verse 10. All right now, as we read these three verses, we're going to read 10 through 12. I want us to keep in mind these verses are talking about the view of unregenerate natural man. In other words, those that are not born again, those that are not believers. That is who this is talking about. This is a grand indictment of natural man and total depravity. Probably one of the best descriptions in the whole of scripture. It is written, referring to the Old Testament, as it is written, there is none righteous, no not one. There is none that understands. There is none that seeks after God. They are all gone out of the way. They are together become unprofitable. There is none that does good. No, not one. As I said, I had to preach unexpectedly yesterday in Indiana. I was kind of short on time to prepare this message, but I think it'll be suitable and I'll try to keep it brief. When dealing with the scriptures, using doctrinal and theological terms and phrases, when we do that, you all know this, we have to make distinctions in what we say. You can talk to 10 different people about a term and they'll have 10 different definitions. Mark it down. That's just the way it works. So when we talk about things, it's just like, for example, the term Armenianism. I posted something this week. To clarify, when I use the phrase Arminianism, I always have these schoolboys usually that have gone to seminary to talk about, you know, classic Arminianism and this, that. No, look, I'm not. Here's what I'm talking about. We're talking about conditionalism, salvation conditioned on the center. Grace plus works. Really anything that is universal atonement on down. They say, well, a person that might be a four-point Calvinist, and they believe in universal atonement. No, they're just an Armenian. That's the way I use the phrase. I keep trying to tell people that's what I mean. It's not salvation by sovereign grace alone. It's something less, which is no salvation. So that was just an example of a term that I'm constantly having to qualify. But today we're talking about total depravity. And we're talking about total depravity in different senses in reference to two types of people, saved and lost. So if you want people to understand the meaning of what we say, it's our duty as we claim to represent God in the ministry, whether we're preaching, teaching, writing, or witnessing to people, or even if we're on social media, typing of gospel information. We have to strive to constantly define our terms. and explain and qualify what we're saying. I mean, I think we know this because there's so much religion and so many denominations. You go to all these different churches, they mean something else. I've had people write me, do you believe in predestination? Well, you know, of course we do. I usually say, yeah, but what do you mean by that? You know, so you'll get all kinds of different answers. And I can probably think of some more examples to use. I think you get the picture. The subject today is going to concern the change that takes place once one moves from darkness into light, that has passed from death unto life. The change of the elect after they've been given faith, after they've been regenerated. What changes take place? Is there a change? Some people say there's no change. I'm accused of saying that. You know, Scott, you just believe that cold, dead, dry doctrine, and all you have is an intellectual head knowledge, and you think it's got to be a perfect head knowledge to be saved. So we're accused of teaching salvation by works of knowing things, which is goofy. I think we're always going to have our accusers. There's enough people in the world to continue to do that. So at one end of the spectrum of this, what I'm talking about today, of the issue of total depravity, some say there's no change at all, and others say if there's not certain changes, and they make it conditional, and we've talked about that in some of the weird views, conditional views of sanctification. They'll talk about those type changes and they'll judge people. It ends up being judged and saved and lost by the law, conditioned on how they do in sanctification with the law. So that is the two extremes. So we're going to talk about the biblical view of what takes place, what changes, and hopefully it will help. So let's get right into it. We're in Romans 3 still. First, I want to talk about what is total depravity. What is total depravity? Now the word total is in there for a reason. You know, over the years, I don't know how many series of messages I've listened to on the doctrines of grace, the quote unquote five points. And when, and I've mentioned this before in a message the last couple of months, I think it was called Calvinist missing the gospel. And what I did is I went over each point and I showed what I thought where there was a compromise. And when I hear these, especially the popular preachers, it's weird because they seem like they pass the same garbage on down the line, you know, to each other and they repeat these phrases. And usually when they're given a series on the Doctrines of Grace, they say, well, you know, our Armenian brethren don't understand it the way we do, you know, and they'll tolerate the Armenian compromise on all these things or the actually opposition on these things. But I've noticed that when some talk about total depravity, they talk about how that sinners are not as bad as they can be. And there again, if I'm listening on a CD or cassette, I can't talk to the person because it's impersonal. It's a, I have a disc. I can't say, what do you mean by that? Maybe they mean that God in his providence restrains certain people from doing certain things. And we know he does that. But then again, it might mean, and I think some have meant, when they say that, is that there is still something in man that is able to operate. They talk about, I've heard a lot of psalm grace reform Calvinists talk about some form of free will, which is ridiculous. that unregenerate man has, and I continue to see that. I didn't really notice that before, but I think it might be something to do with common grace and the free offer. But there's been this compromise, and some people would call total poverty, total inability. But then they would describe some type of ability that's left in people. It's not the case. People are as bad as they can be in that they are dead. You can't get any more dead than dead, right? If somebody is void of a righteousness, they don't have a little bit left, or they don't have a jumpstart. They don't even know how to get a jumpstart. Jumpstart won't work anyway. You got to be declared perfectly righteous. Sinners are completely, totally depraved. They're as bad as bad can get. They're dead. They're lost. And in two ways. Number one, This lends to the, I meant to grab the official definition on our Articles of Faith, but as I said, I'm cramming for two messages this weekend. I didn't do that. They are depraved in at least two ways. Legally, first of all, all people without exception were represented by their federal head, Adam, and God imputed the transgression of Adam illegally to the whole human race. And this is the chief reason that man is totally depraved. They are legally condemned. Anything else you can talk about depravity comes out of that. Imputed sin is the ground of condemnation. What flows from that is all these inabilities and what these depraved sinners do in reference to what they are. So they're born sinners. Everyone is born a totally depraved sinner because of Adam. They're born with a sin nature. So they're spiritually dead. They're morally corrupt. So those are the two main heads of the problem that they have, legal and spiritual. They're done. They're as bad as they can be. Under this idea of coming out with a sin nature, they sin constantly. That's all that they do. They don't have faith. Whatever is not of faith is sin. They can't do any good. But as they sin, there are two types of sin, and I just break this down just for the purpose of study. Their main sin that they commit, that they don't even know they're committing, and we have several messages on the sermon audio, that deal with this, the sin of self-righteousness, the most deceiving sin. They don't even know they're doing it. They're actually committing self-righteousness in order to gain favor with God, and they don't even recognize that it's self-righteousness. To me, that point right there is the thing that is missing in most sovereign grace Calvinist reform ministries. That is not talked about. This idea of Repentance from self-righteousness, repentance from former idolatry and dead works is rarely talked about. There's so many connectors to that. But also, of course, the sins of immorality, just the breaking of the commandments of God. It's weird how those two things are related because the self-righteousness will get a hold of the commandments of God and try to repair the damage from the broken law. So one is open to the conscience. Man, whether or not he has the tablets of stone in front of him to read the law, that doesn't even matter because the conscience, the natural conscience that has been imparted to all people without exception after the fall shows them that they are lawbreakers. They know that they're lawbreakers and then without being regenerate, and that's the problem, them not being regenerate, they go about to repair that themselves by taking that same law or taking their conscience that's bugging them. And the old idea, well, sin got me into this thing, obedience will get me out. And then some will even claim to be sovereign grace reformed Calvinists, and they'll bring that idea in to their daily living, their so-called sanctification, and they'll work that idea in it. and make it conditional. And it's probably people listening right now that hear me say that that are in that category. They're just shaking their head. I hate my guts. But some of us have been there. We've been rescued from that. Some people that listen to these messages out there that aren't a part of this church, this has happened to them and they have been rescued from it. And it's like night and day. It's like night and day. And they look back and say, I can't believe I used to think that way. Total depravity, that's why. That's the answer. You were totally depraved. Let me just run down a few things here in the introduction of some problems that we have, or we had, believers had, in the total depraved state. They have this, this is tied to self-righteousness, they have this constant idea of trying to justify and reconcile themselves to God because they know there's a problem. The text says that there's none that seeks after God, but under self-righteousness, they seek something. They're seeking something they think is God in the wrong way. And usually they lean on their free will, their desire, their sincerity, some form of meritorious positive direction that God would say, oh, isn't that, he's trying, you know, and hopefully get the blessing of God. So they actually don't seek after the true and living God. They have no understanding. The text told us that. We know that in Proverbs it says, and in so many other places in the New Testament, this idea is there is a way that seems right unto a man naturally, but the scripture says the end of their way is death. There again is that blinded self-righteousness, zealously, fervently, sincerely trying to do the best they can, to think they can reconcile themselves to God. But it's the wrong, it's the totally wrong way. It's the opposite way. They're digging themselves a deeper hole when they do this. It's not just like, it's okay. God's going to tolerate it. No, it's detrimental. It's negative. It's evil. It's the most wicked thing in the world to do is try to establish a righteousness of on your own. It's the worst sin in the world ever. There's a six-part series on them that I would highly recommend. It has been very helpful to people where I've gathered up these ideas about self-righteousness. And just do a search on self-righteousness on Sermon Audio and see the six-part series. They can't believe. They're unable, totally unable to believe. We know that God must give faith for someone to believe. Scripture says not all men have faith. Faith is a gift, and we know it's not an offer. Let me back up in the introduction when I said something about there are those that say that totally depraved sinners are not as bad as they can be. Well, a lot of these people have that common grace free offer idea in there, and I think we know, you can see the trajectory of what I'm going at here, those of you that know the era of that. If faith is an offer, then it's like God is sitting back and waiting. If God, some even say, ridiculous, that there is some desire in God that the non-elect, the reprobate, would believe and would come to him, and God actually desires their salvation. So combine that with an offer, and does the omniscient Almighty God that controls everything, even controls the gift of faith. Does he have the general call from people preaching the gospel and God sits back and says, you know, I'm giving you a space here. I'm showing you mercy by giving you space. I'm giving you some time. Are you going to repent? Are you going to believe? It's ridiculous. It's a ridiculous notion that God would be the reactionary. He's the one that gives faith. Is he wondering, let me look at my books here, you know, is this guy elect or not? Am I going to give him faith? Am I going to maybe change my mind? Maybe I'll go back and change the election books. It's stupid. And we'll get into that further in the election series when we talk about evangelism and election. We'll try to cover that. They can't repent. There is a form of legal repentance by when their conscience is stirred up, when they sin and break the law, their conscience is stirred up. So they might have a foxhole religion experience, or some type of faith in a time of crisis, and they'll make promises, and it just stirs up dead works and self-righteousness. And they'll try to turn over a new leaf, some type of a repentance out of legal conscience conviction, which legal conscience conviction can happen, we know, without the power of the Holy Spirit. It happens the life of the unbeliever. There's a legal conscience conviction. It's not helpful. It's detrimental because this is the tool Satan will use to cause them to stir up self-righteousness. So that's the problem in the totally depraved state. They can't love God. Totally depraved, unbelievers, unregenerate, cannot love God. Now so far, and I'll touch more on that in a second, but so far everything I've listed, false religion is totally engaged in trying to do. And some would even argue with me about that even unbelievers can love God. It is not possible. We will look at some texts that deal with that. They might say they love God, Scripture actually says that they hate God. They can't do good. They work evil continually. They are not subject to the law of God and they can't be. They're at enmity against God. They're God's enemies. They have no reverence for God or His law. They might even talk about how they handle it and do something with it and keep it. They think they're obeying it. Or some are just outwardly rebellious to deny that there even is a God, and they say, you know, I'm not accountable to him at all. But we know that before one is a believer, they're under the law. They're under the curse of the law, and they're under condemnation. So there are just a few things that I threw in there that I think most of us readily know. that totally depraved unbelievers are in that state, and that's some of the fruit that comes from that. Now, I want to make a distinction, first of all, about the flesh. If I don't make this distinction, I don't know that the rest of the message will even be understood. And I'll quote you some of these verses. We're going to go ahead and turn to Romans 8. That's one we will go to, but I want to quote Something out of Philippians 3, while you're turning there. One of my favorite chapters in the scripture that talks about an evangelical or gospel repentance from self-righteousness is Philippians 3. I think it's the clearest statement or picture or as far as Paul's representing repentance here, what he went through as he repented from dead works, was given the grace to do that is in Philippians 3. I just want to quote one verse out of there, verse three, where Paul says, first of all, he talks about those in false religion, actually what he came out of and they, the Jews, Paul was a Pharisee, of course. They call the Gentiles dogs because they're not part of, you know, the Jewish club that has all the Jewish stuff that is favored by God, according to them. As Rob read John 3, dealing with Nicodemus, same type character. But he turned it around and he said, these guys are dogs. These Pharisees that think they're law keepers, they're the dogs. And he's like, I'm speaking from authority. I used to be one. That's the idea. He flipped it around and they claim to be the circumcision. Now he says this, he says in verse three, he says, for we are the circumcision, talking about believers. Those that have been circumcised of the heart have had a new heart, Romans chapter two. We are the circumcision who worship God in the spirit. Remember, anybody that worships God must worship him in spirit and in truth, John four. So he names three things. We're the circumcision, here's the three things we do. We worship God in the spirit, we rejoice in Christ Jesus, and we have And here's why I brought us here. No confidence in the flesh. No confidence in the flesh. This here is like, I think, the litmus test for a believer. You know, don't go around judging people by the law. That's an error to begin with. Use this formula right here. Talk to them about these things. Now in Romans 8, I want to talk about how that the justified elect are not even in the flesh. And it says in this section here, they don't walk by the flesh. Look at number verse one, Romans eight and verse one. Therefore, there is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit. Now let me just stop here a second. We've talked about this before. When we're looking through this section here especially, when it talks about flesh and spirit, we see some on the legalist side turn this into a conditional thing, and they want to make it about being spiritual versus being immoral. This is not talking about that. This is talking about the gospel, whether or not you believe you're justified by the blood and righteousness of Christ, or you're leaning on the arm of the flesh trying to justify yourself into self-righteousness. That's what this text is talking about. So those that are in Christ have been justified. Christ is their representative. They've been placed in him. There's no condemnation. They're justified. Sin is not imputed to them. Righteousness is. Verse two, but the law of the spirit of life in Christ has made me free from the law of sin and death. These are facts here. This is not an if. For what the law could not do, that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin condemned sin in the flesh, so that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. Now it's not making this conditional, like you do this first and God will do this for you. This is stating a fact of some fruit that flows from your mindset, that flows from a justified believer. Verse five, for they who are according to the flesh, mind the things of the flesh. So he's starting to set up the principles here, the categories. He's going to be repetitive here. I want you to notice it. These are facts. Those who are according to the flesh, or in other words, in the flesh, they mind the things of the flesh. They're given over, they obey, they think in that direction, they have a mindset, they're into it. But they who are according to the spirit, mind the things of the spirit. Now we know we've been wearing it out lately. What does the spirit do? His job is to testify of Christ. And I think he's successful at it. Irresistible grace takes care of that. And it's lifelong where he works in us. He'd have begun a good work in you. We'll finish it until the day of Christ. And that's what the spirit does, points to Christ. We grow in Christ. The spirit does a good job there. and we're thankful. For to be carnally minded is death. This is referring to being in the flesh, thinking in that realm of the natural man. But to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind, this is the unregenerate, the natural man, is at enmity against God. That just simply means they hate God, they're God's enemy. This is the scriptural fact of total depravity. When one is in this state, they hate God. I mean, they can swear up and down they don't, but they do. If you don't know the gospel and believe the gospel, you hate God. That's the fact of total depravity. For it is not, talking about the carnal mind, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. That carnal mind does not understand why the law was given. There is no respect for the law in reference to Christ has to be the one to deal with the law. Just everything is wrong about their view of the law because somehow, some way, they think they're involved themselves in doing something under that law or in that law to recommend themselves to God. Even if it's just the desire to keep the law, even though knowing they can't keep it, even if it's the desire, they'll fall back on that. The desire of me wanting to keep the law, they say, is evidence of my salvation. No, it's not. That just might be the evidence of your total depravity in that you're trying to produce a righteousness of your own. That's why these things need to be straight in our minds. I will talk later about desire and our obedience and things, if I get that far. I'm not saying that believers don't desire to obey God. I'm not saying that at all. I know that could be misrepresented, me saying that when I made that statement. But that is one of the chief issues of a totally depraved sinner, is them trying to do something with the law. And maybe seeing that the burden is too heavy and then they bump it down to sincerity or desire. Very deceptive, very subtle lie. So the carnal mind, it's not subject to the law of God and it can't even be. It's impossible. This is part of the statement earlier that the sinner is as bad as he can be. If you can't be subject to the law of God, it's not like you're going to bump up and get any better so that you are a little bit subject. The carnal mind is not subject to the law and can't be. That's as bad as you can get. Verse 8, so then, so it kind of sums up what's been said before, they who are in the flesh cannot please God. Just another statement added to that point, they're as bad as they can be. If you are required to please God some way, believers look a different way to please God, not the way we did when we were depraved. We know that the way not to do it is to have the mind, the carnal mind and do self-righteousness and do the opposite things that God says you need to do to be accepted. They're of the flesh that can't please God. We know, if I don't get to it later, we know that those connected to God by faith, that's what's pleasing. Without faith, it's impossible to please God. Here, they who are in the flesh cannot please God. They don't have faith. And hopefully we'll have some time and I'll try to remember to make some distinctions about the change there. And here's a fact. He's talking to believers in verse nine. He kind of like wipes that all away in the believers minds because they're not in that category anymore. He says, but you are not in the flesh. You're not in the flesh. He kind of puts them back in mind of verse 1. You guys, there's no more condemnation here with you guys. Because you're not in the flesh, you walk according to the Spirit. He says, but you're in the Spirit if the Spirit of God dwells in you. See, that's the point. If you've been regenerated, then that means the Spirit dwells in you. You've passed from Death and the life because you've been justified, regenerated. And now you have life. You're no longer dead in your trespasses and sins. The spirit dwells in you, leads you into all truth, guides you, works in you. And those people, because of the gospel they see and believe by the power of the spirit, puts them on the path of walking by faith. and walking, living by faith and walking in the Spirit. But if any has not the Spirit of Christ, then he is not of his. Pretty distinct, stark separation there of ideas. No faith? Lost. No regeneration? Lost. No belief in the Gospel? Lost. Going about to establish a righteousness of your own? Lost. hate God, lost, on and on and on, all the things I talked about in the introduction. Now look here, verse 10, we're going to end here with this section. And if Christ is in you, indeed the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness. The spirit of God works upon the ground and foundation of what has already been established by Christ. The spirit is enabled to work in the believer because Righteousness is established for the believer, imputed. There's all those meritorious things that Christ gathered up for his church in his death, and they're distributed by the Spirit of God. All the spiritual blessings in Christ are seen when we enter into that spiritual kingdom, and we can see now what it's all about, and we're removed from that total depraved state. Secondly, go to Romans 7 since you're close by. There is nothing good in the flesh of the believer. And that is important that I make that distinction in talking about the word flesh before we move to the four points of the message of the four changes. I'm not going to read too much here, just verse 18. Paul says, under the authority of the Holy Spirit, he has written this, the inspiration of the Spirit. Paul says, I know that in me, and there's a little qualifier here, he says that is in my flesh, dwells no good thing. In my flesh, in my flesh, Paul, dwells no good thing. For to will is present with me, but how to perform it That which is good I don't find in the flesh. We got to keep remembering those distinctions in the flesh. There's no good thing and I can't perform and do good things in the flesh. It's not talking about in reference to as long as I'm alive and walking around with a physical body, it's talking about the warnings of these other things of the flesh that were talked about. No confidence in the flesh and not walking in the flesh. So I wanted to mention those distinctions there, those qualifiers, before we went on. I want to talk about the four things that have definitely changed from a totally depraved state when we're brought to God through Christ by the power of the Spirit with the means of the gospel. Here are some changes that take place. If you go back to your text in Romans 3, and we're going to maybe go to some other verses, try to pick some Roman stuff so we can stay in the same area. Verse 10 says, as it is written, referring to the Old Testament, there is none righteous, no not one. Now, we've stated it several times in the past. Part of our problem, our main problem in total depravity is that we as an unregenerate, unjustified, are void of a righteousness that answers the demands of God's law and justice. We're in need of a justification. We don't have that. So here's a clear cut statement that in that state, you're not righteous. We know that our own righteousness in that state is filthy rags. Even now, our own righteousness is filthy rags. I don't believe I have a personal righteousness. I don't want one because I have Christ's and that's all I need and the fruit from that is the Spirit guides me to do what I'm supposed to do, which we'll get to some of those things in a minute. But there are none that are righteous. They are all condemned in need of a justification. This is one of the worst problems that they have and we talked about what comes out of that. They try to justify themselves We know that, you can turn to chapter four, Romans. We know that justification is only by the imputed righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Lord our righteousness. That is the only kind of righteousness that comes to us, that puts us in this state, is a righteousness that is imputed. In my message last night in Indiana, I quoted I can't get out of this and go into the other page, but I quoted some things from the Council of Trent back in the 1500s or something about what the Catholic Church states about the doctrine of justification by the imputed righteousness of Christ. They said anyone who holds to that is anathema or damned. So our doctrines oppose each other. And there was a little caveat in there, sort of a little thing added They tried to sneak in. They said if it's by the righteousness of Christ and not also by the work of the Spirit in you, that's a subtle form of conditional performance. If you cooperate with the Spirit, we'll see how you do in the end. That's the idea there. All right, verse 1 here of Romans 4. We're talking about righteousness here, so let's pay attention to that. Remember our text in chapter three said there's none righteous. Well, this is gonna say something about that. What shall we say then that Abraham, our father, notice this, as pertaining to the flesh has found. For if Abraham were justified by works, back up, stop. Did you get that? What did he find according to the flesh? And here, another term is used for flesh. It's works, right? It's not talking about Abraham, you know, was of some kind of a, just like the scribes and Pharisees, they said, you know, we're of our father Abraham. It's about the physical seed. Abraham, it's, that's not being said here. It's talking about, I mean, Abraham was the, like the first dude anyway, you know, that the Pharisees claimed to have credit in. Abraham, we know was justified. We'll see here in a minute, but That language there shows what it was talking about. What did he find according to the flesh? It's talking about what did he find according to works? That's what that means. Some might misread that into the Jewish nation thing, but it's talking about works. For if Abraham were justified by works, if so, we know he wasn't, He would have whereof to glory, or in other words, to brag or boast, but not before God. And this is a fact that God, he won't put up with that because you can't glory in something substandard than what Christ, the glory of God is. What's the scripture say, is asked there in verse three. Abraham believed God, says in a, remember a couple of weeks back, I think it talked about in Galatians, how that God preached the gospel to Abraham. same gospel we believe concerning Christ, salvation being conditioned on him. Abraham believed God and it was counted or reckoned or imputed unto him for righteousness, the merit of Christ. That's what the gospel is about, the righteousness of God revealed in the gospel. It was shown here that Abraham had this righteousness imputed to him. The whole chapter talks about that. Verse four, now unto him that works is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. In other words, if you worked for salvation, God would owe you salvation. But that's not the way it works. God doesn't owe anybody salvation. First of all, their works would not be good enough to gain salvation. But here it just kind of slams that whole idea that people may think that you can actually work for your salvation. Verse 5, but to him that works not, to him that does not count on his flesh, doesn't lean on the arm of the flesh, doesn't walk in the flesh, doesn't have confidence in the flesh, no matter at what level, what amount, To him, that works not. But believes, God-given faith causes someone to believe. But believes on him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. These are the people that are justified, in other words. These are the ones that have been imputed with Christ's righteousness and are accepted to God. Gives another example, even as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness without works. That's spoken of in the Old Testament, I think that's Psalm 32. Saying, this is a quote, Old Testament, blessed are those whose iniquities, that's lawlessness, sins, in other words, Blessed are those whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. God will not charge justified people who have been imputed with Christ's righteousness. He will not charge them with sin. Who shall anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. There is therefore now no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus. It all fits together, right? That's just a couple of texts put together. All right. So I think that's an easy one. Once the elect are justified, they are righteous. They're declared righteous. And that's real enough because that righteousness of Christ that he established is charged or reckoned or transferred to their account. It is effectual. They are justified in an unchangeable state that never goes away, so much so that they can never ever be charged with sin now. That's safety right there. That's salvation. Secondly, in our text, and you don't have to keep turning back to our text. These are just like one-liners. I've got them copied and pasted so I can just read them to you. Matter of fact, you can go to 1 Corinthians because that's where we're going to go next. But the next section here in Romans 3, 10 through 12, is there is none that understands. The natural man does not understand what God is about, what God is telling them the requirements are, doesn't understand how to attain unto salvation. Just spiritually dead in reference to understanding what needs to be done and what's demanded to be done in attaining glory. So they were previously, before this state, previously ignorant of the righteousness of God revealed in the gospel. But now there has been a change. Look at 2 Corinthians 2, starting in verse 9. Pretty popular verse that a lot of people don't finish. They don't go to the next verse. The mystics likes to stop at verse 9 and never quote verse 10. But as it is written, I hath not seen nor ear heard, neither has entered into the heart, or in other words, the mind of man, the things which God had prepared for them that love him. And that's not everybody. That's a certain group. We love him because he first loved us. Now, look, here it is. This is where most people stop. But God has revealed them unto us, talking to believers, By his spirit, for the spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. And Paul here just starts asking some questions to get you to think. For what man knows the things of man except the spirit of man that is in him? His conscious mind, the way he thinks. So man knows some things when man talks to man. There's communication, there is some form of understanding, but he's gonna make a contrast here in dealing with not just talking about the mind of man and dealing with mainly earthly things, but the mind of God is a totally different story. Even so, the things of God knoweth no man, but through the Spirit of God. You see the move there, the change in topics we're talking about now, the things of God, not just the things of man. So we need the spirit to affect us to understand the things of God. Now we have, verse 12, we have received not the spirit of the world. This will be fleshly ideas, right? But the spirit, which is of God, that we know the things which are freely given to us of God, which things also we speak not in words of man's wisdom that teaches, but which the Holy Ghost teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual things. Now, just think for a second, what does man do? Man, the self-righteous, compares himself with one another. Scripture said, it's in Corinthians also, says, this is not wise. Man with man is not the standard. Christ is the standard. So we can take those ideas we see that say Christ is the standard and we can forget about comparing ourselves with ourselves. That's stupid. It's foolish. It's not wise. Scripture says. And here we go. This is a very good total depravity verse. But the natural man, there is the qualifier. Who are we talking about? The natural man. This is the carnal mind. the one that walks in the flesh, the one that's not born again, the one that cannot see the kingdom of God, the one who's totally depraved. The natural man receives not, they can't receive the things of the spirit of God, for or because they are foolishness unto them, neither can he know them. There's your inability. He can't even know them because he doesn't have the spirit in him, right? He's trying to interpret fleshly earthly ideas because he's a man, he only has the spirit of man, he doesn't have the spirit of God. So he can't get a grasp on what's going on without the spirit of God opening his blind eyes. It can't be done because these things are spiritually discerned or understood. Someone that's spiritually dead can't understand spiritual things. Hence the word dead. But he that is spiritual, talking about regenerated, justified people, judges all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. Who can lay the charges of those people anyway? Nobody. It's God that justifies. For or because who hath known the mind of the Lord, that we may instruct him. But we have the mind of Christ. The spiritual mind is synonymous with the mind of Christ. Before this, your ways are not my ways, your thoughts are not my thoughts in a totally depraved state. Now we're given the mind of Christ, we're given an understanding and we now start to think like and grow in that like God thinks because he says what he thinks and we absorb the word of God and study and learn and we grow in those ideas of the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Go to 1 John 5.20. This should seal the deal here, really, because of the clarity of the language. The text that we're looking at and trying to show the change is, there is none that understandeth. Now, in this verse here, 1 John 5.20, it shows the change. And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding that or so that here's the reason that we may know him the one that's true and that we are in him this one that's true in case you didn't understand redundantly I'm talking about even in his son Jesus Christ this is the true God in eternal life this harmonizes with John 17.3, and this is life eternal, that you may know Him, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom He has sent. We understand now. We've been given an understanding. This also defeats that goofy idea that they claim we're saying you gotta have perfect knowledge. This undoes all that. We're given an understanding. It's a revelation, right? 2 Corinthians 4.6, we read it all the time, with God that caused light to shine out of darkness, to shine in our hearts or our minds, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ to us. That's the change. If that change didn't take place, there's no salvation. It's not conditional. It's something God works in you. All right. None righteous, none that understandeth. The third one is there is none that seeks after God. So before, go ahead and turn to John 10, before faith in the gospel, there is a total inability and blindness that is in place. And you think some blind person turned loose can seek anything? They're just grappling, you know, grasping, fumbling. They can't see anything. I remember one preacher talking about somebody so blind that, and they're trying to find a black cat in a closet at midnight or something like that. I mean, he's trying to state it in human terms, like, it's not going to happen. You're blind. You know, you have to be given eyes to see. And we see all these types. in the healings of blind people in the scripture. And we see language that alludes to this idea of not having sight and then having sight. So this is kind of what we're getting at. In that state, people are dead in their trespasses and sins and not even seeing their need of Christ's righteousness, because the evidence of that is they're going about to establish one of their own. Look at John 10 and verse 25. Jesus speaking, it says here, Jesus answered them, and he's talking to, and I wanted to include this where he's talking to religious people who are blind, and then he talks about the justified elect who have had that problem fixed so that they may seek him. Jesus answered them, verse 25, I told you, and you believed not. That the works that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me. But you believe not. Here's a good total probability verse. Here's why you don't believe. You believe not because you are not of my sheep. Right. Those that are. What's the other animal? Goats. This is the non-elect. This is what's sometimes commonly called the reprobate. You've got your sheep and your goats. Goats don't turn into sheep. A sheep is one that is chosen from the foundation of the world and is a lost sheep. And then God finds them and brings them to himself. And this is what this is talking about. But he's talking to the non-elect, says you don't believe. And your reason is it's because you can't, because you're not one that I chose. You're not of my sheep, right? And as I said unto you, in verse 27 here, now this kind of gets at what we were, that deals with the religion up there. Now here, we're talking about those that are his. My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me and I give to them eternal life and they shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. And here's the thought of what I speak. He says, he says, my father, which gave them me, an election, we've been talking about that, he's greater than all. And no man is able to pluck them out of my father's hand. I and my father are one. Remember, all the father gives me shall come to me and he that comes to me, I will no wise cast out. There's a blending of those ideas there. So we're talking about seeking after God. A person has to go to God by faith. They have to hear the word of God. And here we just read, my sheep hear my voice. Is Christ lying? My sheep hear my voice. Isn't his voice effectual? And that is through the word of God. He's the living word of God. We read the word of God. There's the general call through preaching. We hear the voice of Christ in the preaching of the gospel. And the Spirit comes in power and gives us life so that we may see that gospel and come to Christ. That's what's going on. How can we deny that? How can we say that there was not a change from a totally depraved person that cannot experience this, do this by grace? And then now there's been this change. If this change, again, if this change doesn't take place, there's no salvation. Let's go to that John six, running late on time here. Verse 37, we're all familiar with. And all that the father gives me shall come to me. That's your seeking after God. They're going to do it. Christ promised right here. He's not a liar. All those that the father gave him an election, they're going to come to him. And he that comes to me, I won't ever cast out. They're secure. We read in chapter 10 why, part of the reason. I came down from heaven, not to do my own will, but to the will of Him that sent me. And this is the Father's will that sent me that all which He's given to me in election, I'm not going to lose any, but I'm going to raise them up in the last day. They're going to be with Him. All without exception that He has saved, they'll be with Him. And this is the will of Him that sent me. Everyone which sees the Son, that's equivalent to hearing His voice. and believes on him by God-given faith, right? They have everlasting life, and I'll raise him up in the last day. He's repetitive about that idea. It's a sure and certain thing. Jews murmured to him and said, he said, I'm the bread of life, which came down from heaven. And they said, is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How is it he says I came down from heaven? Jesus, therefore, answered him and said, murmur not amongst yourselves. No man can come unto me except the Father which sent me draw him, and I'll raise him up at the last day. It's written in the prophets that they all shall be taught of God. These people that they've been talking about, he's been talking about in the context. They'll all be taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, my sheep and my boys, They've been drawn, right? And hath learned of the father shall come to me. The father who demands perfection, drop the law in your hands. He that worketh not, but believeth. Go to Christ. He's the one. That's the only one the father will accept. So we hear that about the father. We hear Christ's voice concerning that he's perfect. He's not going to. He will kill you if you try to approach him some other way. I'm the mediator, I'm the only one, right? I'm the propitiation. Not that anyone's seen the Father. Christ is the only one who's seen the Father. Remember, face to face throughout eternity? In the beginning was the Word, that section. So Christ is going to testify about the Father. Nobody's seen the Father, talked about him, can't look upon God and live anyway. So Christ is the spokesman, the Word. He expresses the logic of God to us, sheep hear his voice. except the one which he hath seen the father talking about himself. Verily I say unto you, he that believeth on me hath everlasting life. So third change. There it is. Complete. No problem. God's people are not in that state anymore, lacking that. They have that. It's a promise. It's so redundant throughout scripture. Now, the fourth change is, verse 12 says, they are all gone out of the way, all together have become unprofitable, there is none that does good, no not one. This is a controversial one, and of course, you know, I'm like an hour in, so it kind of is a hint that this is going to be the longest part, but I need to speed it up. Go to Titus, chapter 2. We'll look at some things there. Before faith, what I want us to see, remember, in the totally depraved state, before faith, Everything, without exception, is wicked, evil, and sinful. Everything. There's no faith. That which is not a faith is sin, says the Romans. We know that the natural man, the carnal mind, the one that's not born again, the one that's not justified, is at enmity against God, is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. There is a need of reconciliation, but God's people are now his friends. They've been reconciled to God. We've already read about the three other changes that took place. That brings us to this spot right here. Look at Titus chapter 2 and verse 1. I want to go through this kind of fast, but I want us to see what Paul, as he's writing Titus, exhorts these things need to go on here. But I speak thou the things which become sound doctrine. That the aged men may be sober, grave, temperate, sound in the faith, charity in patience. The aged women likewise, that they be in behavior as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things. That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children. Be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed." Have we seen anything yet at all with the word good in it? Yes. I'll keep going. Young men, likewise, exhort to be sober-minded. I'm just talking about not getting drunk, but just don't be foolish. That's kind of what that's saying there. In all things, showing yourself a pattern of good works. Whoa, the scripture uses that word. Now I know anything you say after that, you could really mess that up, right? If you have these other three changes in place and you know what they mean, reference to a righteousness that's imputed to you, that answers all the demands of God's law and justice, you should have this problem. taken care of and not go awry on your reason for obeying God. But if we have time, we'll talk more about that. So in doctrine showing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity, sound speech that cannot be condemned, that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed, having no evil to say against you. In other words, we don't want to do things to give people the excuse to accuse us. And, you know, as the verses said, to dishonor the church of blaspheme, the church of God or Christ. Verse nine, exhort servants to be obedient to their masters and to please them well in all things, not answering again or talking back. I imagine that means not purloining, but showing all good fidelity that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things. For because the grace of God that brings salvation hath appeared to all men. It's referring to the elect. Teaching that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world. In our lifetime, in other words, since we've been converted. Looking for the blessed hope and a glorious appearing of the great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity. You just stop here just one second to make a point. We are not obeying God to rid ourselves of iniquity. That's Christ's job. And here it says he's done it. It's done. It's finished. This is the motive of thankfulness and love to God. and it's not, we don't need an incentive to obey to get things. This is enough right here, what Christ has done for us, our thankfulness because of that. That he might redeem us from iniquity and purify into himself a peculiar people, notice, zealous of good works. These things speak and exhort and rebuke with all authority and let no man despise you. Well, I have people that despise me for saying this. And so do you guys. And we're saying it the right way. And then there's people on the other side that we're not agreeing with the way they're saying it. And they despise us because we're not living in reference to the law as being the rule of our life. And they accuse us from the other side. I think that's always going to continue. I don't care if you clarify all day long. Doesn't matter. Let's finish by going to Hebrews 10. Let's start in verse nine. Then he said, lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first and establishes the second, talking about the covenants. The old covenant's done. He is the mediator of the new covenant by his blood. By the witch will, we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once and for all, or once and for all time. Every priest stands daily, talking about the old covenant priests, stand daily, ministering and offering oft times the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But this man, Christ, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, not to be repeated, sat down, because it was finished, at the right hand of God. Sorry about being like an amplified Bible, but I can't help it. We're running out of time and I just want to throw those things in there. Those that are following along can know what's my words and what's the words of Scripture, but I wouldn't be saying it if I didn't think they were true, even if I said them after I read the text. From henceforth, from now on, expecting till his enemies be made his footstool, for by one offering he, Christ, perfected forever those that are sanctified. Whereof the Holy Ghost is witness to us for that after that he had said before, this is the covenant that I will make with them in those days, saith the Lord. I'll put my laws in their hearts and in their minds will I write them and their sins and iniquities I will remember no more. He can't because they're gone, Christ put them away. Now where remission of these is, in other words, one sacrifice perfecting his people once and for all, when this has taken place, they're remitted, they're removed, they're gone. When this has happened, there is no more offering for sin. There's no need of it. No other offering could do anything anyway. Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Christ. By a new and living way, which he's consecrated, it has to do with a form of sanctification and holiness, he's purified and set it apart for a specific purpose, for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh. And having a high priest, Christ, over the house of God, what are we supposed to do now, after knowing all that and seeing all that, the ground of everything that's taken place and it's finished, and knowing that we're already perfected forever? So there's no incentive or motive to get brownie points. You can't improve on perfected forever, right? So what do you do? Let us draw near, verse 22, with a true heart, in full assurance. And how can you have anything less than full assurance after you just read what you read? It's already taken care of. Perfected forever. With full assurance of faith, having hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience. Forget about the dead works and self-righteous. You know, that's over with. and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering. There's that assurance again, for he's faithfully promised. You're looking to the one making the promises, the God who cannot lie. Here we go. Let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works. Now, what did our text say? There's none that doeth good, no not one. Those are the totally depraved folks. Here, we're exhorted to do good. The last text we looked at said the same thing. We're to be a people zealous of good works. Is God sending mixed messages to his people? You know what it means? It means that we're not totally depraved anymore. That's the point of the message. Our state has changed and It is God that works in us now to will and to do of His good pleasure. The flesh can't take credit for what this exhortation is towards because it's not the flesh doing it. Remember, if the flesh is doing it, we're in a carnal, fleshly enmity state, but we're out of that now. We've passed from that state by the grace of God. And we were completely passive, by the way, in that. Completely passive. We were resurrected spiritually. We were dead. God resurrected us. Grace is irresistible. Remember faith. He works in you. The power of the faith that he works in you is the same power to raise Christ from the dead. You think I'm going to resist that? It's too late. You're done. You're alive. You know, you've seen memes. of Lazarus being raised from the dead. And sarcastically, Lazarus said, hold on now. You didn't ask my permission or you didn't knock before you came in. You've seen that. I mean, that's that's a point here. There's a change. Lazarus had nothing to do with his resurrection. He was not asked permission. You know, we don't know what Lazarus thought before that time, maybe he was done anyway. You know, But he was resurrected and he had life. And it's just a picture of, you know, the jail cell, the prison cell swung open. What are you going to do? You're going to walk out. You've been in bondage. You have life. You have all the treasures of wisdom in Christ and you have all the spiritual blessings in Christ. God has done this. It's not the Armenian perverted idea. You've seen cartoons where God's twisting your arm, making you do something, coming to life. Or the reprobate is wanting to be saved, but God won't let him. Those two ideas are ridiculous. The truth of the scripture is God has graciously saved us. With a new heart, we're not going to complain that God has saved us. Our heart has changed. We love Him now and we want to serve Him. So we provoke one another unto love and good works, not forsaking the assembly of ourselves together as a manner of some as, but exhorting one another so much more as you see the day approaching. Now I'm not gonna go any further, but the next verse talks about, let me just read that verse. For if we sin willfully after we've received the knowledge of the truth, there remains no more sacrifice for sin. A little qualifier here, this specific sin talking about in verse 26, we've talked about it before, is the sin of unbelief, which is getting out of the new covenant and having a temptation to go back into the old covenant where the sacrifices were repeated and there were conditions and things the sinner had to do. That's what he said up above, he said, there's no more sacrifice. Where the remission of these is, there's no more sacrifice for sin. So how can you go backwards? Go to the last couple verses there of that chapter. Verse 38, now the justified believers, in other words, those now that are not totally depraved, shall live by faith. And if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. Well, first of all, how can they draw back if faith in Christ, God's pleased by Christ, our faith in Christ, God's pleased. Without faith, it's impossible to please him. So this is just a warning. It's not saying it's conditional and people can lose their salvation. We already defeated that argument about the sheep hearing his voice and they're in his father's hand and they'll never be cast out. And here he states it, verse 39, but we believers are not of them that draw back. We who are not totally depraved anymore, we don't draw back unto perdition, but we are those that believe unto the saving of the soul. This harmonizes with Colossians chapter one, where it talks about we're presented to God. There's three things I can't remember because I'm thinking different versions in my head. Undefiled, unchargeable, irreprovable in his sight. If you keep the hope of the gospel, with you to the end. Well, this is talking about the hope of the gospel. It means I can't move from here. If I go anyplace else, I'm going backwards. This is it. I'm complete in him. I can't be improved here because God has brought me from that other state to this state. And this is the best place I can be in. Christ is seated in the heavenlies, the highest spot that anyone can be seated at. And I'm in him there as he represents me. He's in the highest spot of any place historically in the past or ever can be in the ages to come. And as long as he has done and fulfills his promise of what he's done, and matter of fact, it's already over, it's finished. That's why he's sitting up there. And now he's caused me to change the state that I'm in. And now believers are no longer totally depraved. There has been a change. And if there's not a change here, We don't have the Spirit of God in us. It means we're deceived in like maybe believing a false gospel or we're partially conditioning salvation. There's all kinds of forms of deception. This is why we make these distinctions so we can make sure we're holding the things right and we see things right in Scripture. So I hope that was helpful. Any questions?