We are going to begin, as Nathan mentioned, a new five-part series concerning the Reformed doctrines of grace. And these doctrines, as you may know, have often been called the five points of Calvinism under the acronym TULIP. And I want to start by saying there is a tremendous schism in the church in America today, especially here in the Bible Belt, concerning these doctrines. And it's for that very reason that these doctrines are very personal to me. I grew up on the other side of these doctrines in what is known as Arminian theology, and it is only when I came to see the sovereignty of God, especially in salvation, in and over all things, it was only then that my eyes were opened to see the true gospel in a depth I hadn't before perceived. It was only when I came to understand these truths that we're going to talk about over the next five weeks that I began to see the depth of the love of God for sinners that Nathan started to go into more and more. It was only then that I began to see a holy God's love for me in that fullness it truly holds, that God, out of His own free will and sovereign love, would choose some, and that included me. That He would choose some who would never on their own choose Him. It was only when I saw that the cross of Christ actually did something, that it assuredly, effectually did something, that it accomplished salvation, that it succinctly precisely, decisively paid for sins of actual people in actual time who would actually place their faith in Jesus Christ. It was only then that the cross became even more glorious because not one sinner paid for would slip through the cracks. It was only when I came to see that I was drawn by the grace of God through the Spirit of God that the Savior's love became all the more apparent. And it was only when I came to see that the God and the grace which had saved me would be that very power which sustains me and preserves me also until the day of Christ. And for those of you who have seen these wonderful truths out of Scripture, these five points, I would say if you agree with them wholeheartedly, you have seen what I've seen. They've had that impact on you. And all of that, friends, can be summed up by the phrase I used earlier, we are dealing with the sovereignty of God, especially in salvation. These doctrines and the controversies surrounding them boil down to this question. Is God sovereign or is man? And I'll tell you from Scripture, there is one clear answer. And praise be to God that it is not man. God is sovereign over all things. And if God is not sovereign in salvation, there is no salvation. Before I move too far forward, understand as you hear me this morning, I am passionate about this. You can probably already tell. These truths I believe 100% without equivocation. But these truths, more importantly, are not necessary for you to be saved. You do not have to be a Calvinist. You do not have to believe in the five points. You do not have to believe in the reformed doctrines of grace in order to be saved. And that's very important. And so it's for that reason that we would do well to watch our pride lest we become boastful and prideful over brothers and sisters in Christ who don't believe them or maybe outright reject them. I have very dear friends and I have family members that wholeheartedly disagree with me. But they are believers. Sometimes I could see that they are much stronger believers than I am. And just because they don't believe these things doesn't mean I get to beat them over the head with it, and neither do you. But all in all, I've used the word quite a bit. These are controversial doctrines, and they began that way. These doctrines were articulated in response to the teachings of a man by the name of Jacob, or James, or Jacobus, we have a Latin translation of his name, Jacobus Arminius, as he and his followers ultimately rejected the sovereignty of God in salvation. a council was convened called the Senate of Dort and they began to work through five particular points articulated by Arminius and his followers that were now prevalent in the church of Holland. And after their meetings, The Arminian truths were ultimately deemed heretical. They were deemed incorrect. This synod, the Synod of Dort, then releases their response in what we know as the Canons of Dort, surrounding those same five doctrinal pillars articulated by the Arminians. And this is what we now know as these five points of Calvinism, these five doctrines of grace, neatly and nicely switched around in the acronym of the flower. Now, one point there, how do we reconcile that I said people don't have to believe in the five points of Calvinism to be saved, but these articulations against Calvinism were deemed heretical? How do we reconcile that? How can we call them brothers and sisters in Christ if brothers in the past who work through these issues very rigorously more than we'll certainly be able to? How can we reconcile that if they've said this is clear, it's heresy? We can affirm that they are brothers in Christ and sisters in Christ, though Arminian, and I would say though incorrect, because they get the essentials right. And I don't think I'm telling you anything you don't already know. They believe everything they need in order to be saved. And I won't go over those again because Nathan has worked through that recently in biblical doctrine as we've looked at the spheres of truth and we've done theological triage. We've looked at first level issues and then second and third and of course it goes on. We've looked at the doctrines you have to have right. The deity of Christ, you have to get that right. These gospel issues. But you should know, before the last 200 years or so, the Armenian theology was widely deemed incorrect. And it's only in the recent years that this has become more and more prevalent. All in all, its lifespan reaching around 500 years. but the roots of Arminianism. They do go all the way back to the 4th and 5th centuries because of a man named Pelagius. Mark Taylor, who's not in here for a second hour, actually taught about Pelagius in our Forerunners of the Faith series. And we need to talk about him for a moment because Pelagius was deemed an absolute heretic. There's no equivocation about Pelagian. If you are Pelagian in your understanding of humanity and sin, you are outside the kingdom. You do not understand what is necessary to be saved, namely, that you deny the doctrine of original sin. And original sin is actually going to be much more talked about today than I had planned on, because the first point articulated in TULIP, typically called total depravity, or as I would prefer, total inability, is built off of a correct understanding of original sin. Back to Pelagius. Pelagius taught that man from birth is inherently good, meaning he doesn't have a moral bent one way or the other. Pelagius denied that we inherited both the sin nature from Adam and that we also inherited the guilt of Adam. Steve said it this way, Pelagius taught that the only thing we inherited from Adam and Eve was a bad example. And you'll notice there, that is what most people generally think. We are born Pelagians. This is how the world, this is how unbelievers operate. Nathan said, they don't know they're lost. They think they're good. They don't understand that there is a bent toward sin. a sin nature. But that's not what Scripture teaches. Now, why am I talking about Pelagianism and Pelagius? Because we would refer to Arminianism as semi-Pelagian. Semi-Pelagian. It is very closely tied, though not heretical in the sense of Pelagianism, meaning you're outside the kingdom. You get it wrong from the get-go. Armenians or semi-Pelagians say there is original sin, but they disagree with the extent of original sin. In other words, they believe in the essentials of original sin, if I could put it that way, but they do not go as far as the Augustinian view. of original sin, and I'm throwing all kinds of terms at you. Augustinian would be the view that we here at Grace hold, and I'll define that in a moment. A lot of terms, and you're thinking, when are we going to get to the doctrines of Grace? We'll be there. very soon. But simply, what is original sin? This is the view of original sin that we would adhere to at grace, which has been widely accepted, you should know, since about 350 to 450 AD, being articulated by Augustine of Hippo and the Council of Orange. And this, that I'm going to read, is right off of our church website. So if you want to read more about it, go straight there, it's all on it. We teach that in Adam's sin of disobedience to the revealed will and word of God, man lost his innocence. It's right there. See ya, Pelagius. Man has lost his innocence. Incurred the penalty of spiritual and physical death, became subject to the wrath of God, and became inherently corrupt. Again, see ya, Pelagius. I'm gonna cut that quote off because it says more than I want us to see yet. We teach that because all men were in Adam, a nature corrupted by Adam's sin has been transmitted to all men of all ages, Jesus Christ being the only exception. All men are thus sinners by nature, by choice, and by divine declaration. That is original sin. That Adam's sin in the garden had effects, and those effects did not simply affect just him. As Adam sinned in the garden, man and all from him were cut off from the life of God. Man is condemned spiritually, dead spiritually, without a pulse to the things of God. Physically, still alive. We know that. We can read the Genesis account. But cut off from God spiritually. And now we are guilty in Adam as we are of the seed of Adam. It's all one pyramid going back to Him. We are given and born with the sin nature as it's passed down generation to generation. And within that nature, we now choose to sin freely within that nature. That is original sin. But now here, I want to read what Arminian theology teaches, and it's a little bit different. I want to see if you can catch those differences. And this is a quote right from, it's also on the website, the theology program we use here at Grace. It says, man is inherently corrupt. However, the fall did not bring condemnation upon any but Adam. Adam's sin is only imputed or given to us or counted to us. Nathan just spoke of that. It is only imputed to us when we commit a personal sin, thereby showing our agreement with Adam. The disposition of the will is corrupted so that man has an inclination to sin. But God gives man provenient grace to correct the sinful disposition. Now man is like Adam in the garden, able to choose good and evil. So I hope you caught all that. Ultimately, they're saying man is corrupted. We affirm that. We affirm original sin. There is corruption in man. But it is not fair, they would say, to count me bad just because Adam was bad. It's not fair to impute that guilt to me when I wasn't even born yet. It's only fair for me to be classified with Adam's guilt after I choose to sin. They say, yes, we affirm that we have the inclination to sin, a proclivity to sin, and we understand that man is spiritually separated from God after the garden. But men and women have to have a fair shot. And if we are corrupted, then how is it fair for God to judge us in that corrupted state? That's the idea. And we hear that this morning, and I remember the first time hearing that, and my inclination was to say, amen. It's like the kid in your class that keeps getting out of his chair and makes the whole class have to stay after for five minutes and you miss out on part of recess. Everybody's punished because of the one. How's that fair? That's not right, we would say. That one person affects everyone else. And maybe in that moment, like I saw, I was a lot more Arminian in my understanding than I realized. Because Arminius said the same thing. That's not fair. It has to be a level playing field. So, he invents, and I use that word on purpose, invents the doctrine of prevenient grace. And it's this grace that God grants to balance the scales, so to speak, so that we, in that corrupted state, now have that level playing field. And here is where we get to the doctrines of grace, and specifically the T in TULIP, total depravity or total inability. And I pivot here for this reason, because the doctrines of grace, as I mentioned, are specifically concerning salvation. So before I step into total inability completely, let's finish out that Arminian thought concerning salvation. Man is corrupted. It's not fair for man to be held accountable in that corruption on his own. So God must grant a prevenient grace. And now, it's this prevenient grace, this grace before, that makes you savable. Now that the scales are balanced, now you can make the choice from a totally neutral standpoint. You can choose God. But you can also, from this neutral standpoint, reject God. So you've been given this grace, but this grace isn't saving grace. And it isn't, as Steve says, it isn't even effectual grace. It didn't actually accomplish anything for salvation. It simply affects the possibility of salvation. This is grace that you must now cooperate with. You have been made able to cooperate, and now it's your job to do the work. In other words, it comes back to the question I asked you earlier, as it regards salvation, is man sovereign or is God? Because if man, if the Armenian is consistent, they would teach that man is sovereign in salvation. Because if man is not entirely free to choose God on a level playing field, again, then how is that fair for God to judge that man in that unbelief? These are not easy things that we're talking about. And what Arminius is trying to do is what Pelagius was trying to do, and that's get God off the hook. How can God be just in doing this? Now, total inability. Total inability is the right conclusion and the only conclusion if you properly understand the biblical doctrine of original sin in its fullness. In preparation this week, thinking of how to best explain this, I came up with this picture. Original sin is like a shoe. You have to have your shoes on. But not everybody ties their laces. Some people leave them with that little lace design you get right out of the box. Most people tighten them. Some people don't do anything to them. And total inability is the doctrine that tightens the laces up on that foot so it is secure. Original sin is the shoe you're walking in, while the doctrine of total inability clears up the gap so your stinky foot doesn't come through. Arminian theology, in contrast, allows the shoelaces to be open. Maybe I could say the tongue is messed up on the shoe. They have the essentials of original sin, right? They've got the shoe. but they've pulled their laces out. So just a quirky analogy, but you get the picture. Total inability is what makes everything else fit, and it's built on a right understanding of original sin. So what is it? What is total inability? Total inability is the doctrine that says, since Adam sinned in the garden, man is now corrupt. But, man is corrupt completely, totally, all the way to his core. There is not one part of him unaffected by the fall. And thus, as it relates to salvation, man in that corruption is totally unable to affect salvation for himself. He is without ability. And not only that, but he is unwilling to come to Christ apart from the sovereign, effectual work of God. Apart from the sovereign work of God in the man's heart, man cannot and will not repent of his sins and place his faith in Jesus Christ. And this is why total depravity tightens the laces on original sin. Because man is dead. Dead. He is cut off from the life of God. Nathan said, we are lost. We are useless. We have no hope. We do not want to come to Him. Romans 8, you can turn there if you'd like. Paul says in Romans 8 verse 6, For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace. Because, verse 7, the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God. The fallen mind hates God. It is hostile to God. It is an enemy of God. For it does not subject itself to the law of God." The fallen mind now hates God, but also hates His Word. It hates what comes forth from God. It doesn't subject itself to the law of God. Here it is. For it is not even able to do so. Not only is it a fallen mind that hates God, not only is it a fallen mind that hates God's Word, It is not able to subject itself. Totally unable. It can do nothing to satisfy God. It can do nothing to affect salvation positively. And verse 8 says, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. They are unable to do so. It's not in their capacity. They are without capacity. Perhaps the greatest text on it, Ephesians 2, Paul says, verse 1, and you were dead, dead, no life in your trespasses and sins in which you formerly walked. to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience." In other words, you were evil and dead spiritually, committed to a life of evil and death. Among them, verse 3, we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. Who is Paul talking to? He's talking to believers, and he says, we believers are children of wrath by nature. We are corrupt. We sin, not simply because we choose to, but because that's who we are naturally. Sin is now the natural outflow of who man is. And then, praise the Lord, he added verses 4 through 8. But God, being rich in mercy because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ. By grace, you have been saved, raised us up with Him, seated us in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus." That's only through verse 6. Paul is saying, God, of His own free will, knowing that we are dead sinners, without any life in us, without any good in us, inherently, to choose Him, God made us alive. God takes a dead man and grants life. I listened to MacArthur this week on this doctrine, and he goes straight for the story of Jesus and Lazarus. Our Lord's friend had been sick, he's died, he's been dead for a few days, and now he's in the tomb. And he comes up to the tomb, he has the stone rolled away, and Christ proclaims, Lazarus, come forth. And the dead man walks. No longer dead, but given life. And this is the reality of every man and woman born in the seed of Adam. We are guilty in Adam. We are given the sin nature in Adam. We choose to sin freely within that nature of Adam. And God then takes the dead sinner and says, Lazarus, come forth. The Arminian stands up and says, no, no, no, no, no. That is not fair. You, the dead sinner, you, Lazarus, have to be able to stand up and choose God on your own. You have to do it on your own, without any influence. You have to be neutral. And we look at Scripture and say, it tells you simply, you can't choose God. You are dead, and it is not our job to deal with fairness, because if you want fairness, as R.C. Sproul has said, nobody gets saved. If you want justice, you want fairness, you won't see heaven. This is a reality that is beyond man's responsibility to understand, or our capacity to understand. Why does God command sinners to repent and believe in Him, knowing they can't do it? The simple answer is, that we don't know, but that is what scripture tells us. To build off of that, I could give you this answer. God commands sinners to repent and believe in Him, knowing they can't do it, so then when by His grace they do repent and believe, they may be and come to Him wholly dependent on the grace of God and the sovereignty of God to save them from before time, save them in time, and save them beyond time to eternity, all in His own volition. He says, come to me all ye. Nathan said he has never turned someone away. He hasn't. He says he will not cast anyone out that comes to him. He says whoever comes to him will not be turned away. Whoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. But how is that fair? That's not the right question. The right question should be this, why is God so gracious and so loving that he would allow one sinful man to be saved and in his presence? that He would, from before time began, choose His own. And not only that, but He would not leave them up to themselves. He would go down into time, coming in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin. He would regenerate men and women through the power of the Holy Spirit, saving them in the rock of the cross of Christ, paying for all their sins actually, saving them and securing them to the end. We must, as man, be wholly dependent on God to do it. To do it all. Because there is no other way that man is saved. Yes, you must repent and believe, but you, friend, cannot do that out of anything in you. It doesn't matter if the scale gets balanced. You can't numb the reality of the sin nature, and you certainly can't make up a doctrine called prevenient grace to do that either. Scripture does not allow for it. And it's in that sense that we would say with Spurgeon, it's all of grace. From before time to the end of time, it is all grace. And to me, that's what makes these truths so wonderful. I want to share with you the beauty that I see in a God who looks at a sinner, and despite all their ugliness, despite as sheep like have gone astray that Nathan mentioned, as dumb as we are, as helpless as we are, in our deadness of heart, He says, I choose that one. He takes us all the way home. He says, Lazarus, come forth. You can go to Romans 3 if you'd like with me. Paul is quoting the Old Testament. It's probably the most referred to chapter on total depravity. Romans 3, verse 10. This is the condition of sinful man. As it is written, there is none righteous, not even one. There is none who understands. There is none who seeks for God. Nathan just told us. that you are not seeking God. You're seeking all kinds of different things if you're an unbeliever. You're going to drugs, you're going to alcohol, you're going to sex, you're going to whatever it is, your work, it doesn't matter. You are seeking after so many things. You are not seeking for God. There is none who naturally, of their own will and volition, does that. In other words, nobody is knocking on Christ's door saying, is anybody home? Verse 12, all have turned aside, together they have become useless. There is not one who does good, not even one. Let me ask you this, is choosing to believe in Jesus Christ for salvation a good thing? Simple answer is yes. There is none who does good. And in that sense, none who can do so on their own. But I see people do good things all the time. They feed the poor, they support a non-profit, they help somebody when their tire blows out on the side of the road. We were there just last week in the story of Cain and Abel. It's Hebrews 11, but verse 6, without faith it is impossible to please God, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him. How can you believe if you're not good? How can you believe if you're dead? How can you please God if you don't have faith? You can't. How do you exercise faith if you're dead? You can't. The Bible doesn't teach a prevenient grace. You can't make it up. It numbs the sin nature, allows you to make a choice off of something in you. The Bible teaches that dead men and women must repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, that the same way that a dead man like Lazarus must come forth, God must give that person life. I believe this is closely tied to what Jesus told Nicodemus in John chapter 3. Nicodemus, you must be born again. How are you the teacher of Israel and you don't get this? You have to be born again. Your biggest need isn't so that the scales are balanced, so that you can then choose God. No, you need to be regenerated, a new heart. This next text, it gets a bit ahead of where we are, but John 6, 44. Again, it has to do with ability. Jesus affirms that man is totally unable apart from the sovereign work of God to come to him. Verse 44, no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. We're working with Wilson on this very thing. He'll come up and he'll say, Daddy, Mommy, can I do this? Can I watch my iPad? Can I do whatever? And the reality is, of course he can. Wilson has the ability. That's why he's asking in the first place, because he knows he could. He knows he has the capability. What Wilson means is, may I do it. May I go upstairs and play, please? May I use the iPad?" And Jesus says, not may, he says, no one can come to me. They do not have the ability. And not only that, it says, the Father is drawing him. Nathan, again, so providential, takes us right to the shepherd who goes out. The shepherd is the one who brings in the sheep. The Father is the one that draws. The Father is the one doing the work, not man. And He's not merely drawing man either. That's what the English translation says, but literally it's to drag. It's like a fish in a net. It's like a fish is stuck on a hook and He is fighting. He does not want to get reeled in. He doesn't want to be dragged in. I have never met a fish that wants to be caught. And just like that fish, the Lord dragged you to Himself, pulling you through the waters of death and unbelief. And He regenerated you by the power of the Spirit of God, in the Word of God, and granted life where there was none. The Arminian again says, but that's not fair. Now you're believing against your will. You just said, Noah, you would never have wanted to where You were a fish. You would have never wanted to get caught. And you're right. You are right. I never wanted to get caught. And I would probably tell you, most of you guys probably didn't want to get saved. I certainly didn't. I thought I was self-righteous. Well, I was self-righteous. I didn't think I was self-righteous. I thought I was good. I wasn't the sick. unless in that effectual regenerating grace God gives the sinner a new heart and changes the will and gives a new disposition that awakens you to spiritual life and effectually shows you the deadness of your own soul. To see the lowest state in which you rest and in that sense the grace of God becomes irresistible. Now, I want to go back to Romans 5. I've mentioned it just in passing, teaching what it says. This is the go-to text, not on total depravity, but on original sin. And if you understand original sin, going back to the beginning, the right way, you can understand total depravity. It's a natural conclusion. Romans 5, 12. Therefore, Paul says, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned. What's he saying? The same thing we've said. Adam sinned, sin therefore enters into humanity, death follows sin. We know the wages of sin is death, see 623. Death therefore spreads to all men, and Paul adds, because all sinned. How did all sin? You weren't born yet. How did all sin? There is no way to reconcile that without the doctrine of imputation. Adam's sin and guilt, therefore, is imputed to me. We've said it a hundred times. I am count to guilty in Adam. I inherit the sin nature from Adam. That's why I'm subject to death from the moment I'm conceived. David says, in sin my mother conceived me. That's not talking about something his mom was doing. It's talking about that he was born in sin. He was conceived in sin. And then I, or you, in your own free and corrupt will, choose to sin within that nature. And in that sense, all sin. Because it's imputed to you. It's counted to you. But again, the question will always come back up. Because it's the only question you can ask on the other side if you fight this. How is that fair? Let's see how Paul answers it. Verses 18 and 19 of chapter 5. So then, as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness, namely the cross, there resulted justification of life to all men. For as through the one man's disobedience, the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the one, the many will be made righteous." In other words, Paul says, you keep asking, how is it fair? Only when it applies to Adam and his guilt coming to you. But you do not have a problem when it applies to Jesus and his righteousness. It's hypocritical. I don't mean that hatefully. It's hypocritical. You want Jesus and what He did on the cross to apply to you, but you're not willing to accept the guilt in Adam that was first applied to you. You want the doctrine, but you don't want it all the time. It's interesting, the semi-Pelagian argument picks and chooses what doctrine they want to apply and when. The Augustinian understanding of original sin And building off of that, the Calvinistic understanding of total inability says, I am corrupt and I am so corrupt that there is nothing in me that could ever have anything to do with my salvation positively, even if the Lord made some grace that balanced my scales, I still can't get rid of that sin nature. Yes, I believed in the Lord Jesus Christ and I was saved, but there was a lot more before that. I was chosen before time. I was called in time. I was regenerated in time. I was granted the faith to believe in time. And now I walk in the power of the Spirit, being sanctified, and one day, by God's grace, persevering and being preserved to the end, I will be glorified." We're almost done. Just two more things. Number one, this is not the same as utter depravity. That is to say that man is as bad as he could be. We've only seen that once in history. We'll see it once again in the Great Tribulation. The first time we saw it was in Genesis back when the thoughts of man were only evil continually and the Lord sends the flood and he kills everybody but Noah and his family. And then afterwards he establishes government. He institutes government to restrain the evil in the world so that man would never return to utter depravity. This is not that. That's utter depravity. That's partly why the word depravity is a little misleading. I prefer total inability. Because man is totally unable to come to God on his own. He is totally unwilling. Romans 3 again, no one seeks after God. There's so much more I could say. The last thing. Ezekiel 36. And I would ask you to turn here if you haven't turned anywhere. Ezekiel 36. This text is wonderful. Nathan took us here two or three summers ago. Ezekiel 36. I want you to listen to who the initiator is in all of this. Listen to what God says as he speaks to Israel about this text. Ezekiel 36, verse 24. God's word says, for I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands, and bring you into your own land. What was the second word in that sentence? For I, verse 25, then I will sprinkle clean water on you. The new covenant, you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and all your idols. Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. And I will remove the heart of stone in your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. Verse 27, I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you will be careful to observe my ordinances." Verse 28, you will live in the land that I gave to your forefathers, so you will be my people, and I will be your God. He goes on to say more and more, you can read the rest of the chapter, I, I, I, I, I. It is God who does it. The question is, who is sovereign in salvation? Is it God? or is it man? This is the doctrine of total inability. And next week, Lord willing, we'll look at unconditional election. Thanks for your attention.