Let us turn please to two passages tonight. First of all, Genesis chapter 6 and then the book of Romans. Genesis chapter 6 and then we're turning to the book of Romans and chapter 1. For those who have just gathered with us tonight, we are have begun and are continuing through a study of Calvinism and the five points of Calvinism, which is really a study of the doctrines of the faith, the Christian faith that is. So we commenced last week by looking, really giving a primer on Calvinism, where the name originated, where it began, and I trust that you have remembered at least something of that message from last week. But we come tonight to the first point in the five points of Calvinism. As you remember, we had that little acrostic tulip, T-U-L-I-P, the first T being total depravity, which is part of the defence of the Calvinists that was presented at the Synod of Dort in 1618-1619. So come with me this evening then to the Book of Romans, Chapter 1. 24 Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own heart, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves, who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. 25 For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections, For even their woman did change the natural use into that which is against nature. And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another. Men with men, working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet. And even if they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient, being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, coppice, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity, whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiseful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents. without understanding, covenant-breakers, without natural affection, implacable and merciful, who, knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them. Then if you go over to chapter 3, verse 23, the verse that we all know, For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. Then chapter 6, verse 23, For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. So those are the verses that we will be leaving with you tonight. And I trust that God will bless them to your hearts. So the first point that the Calvinists presented at the Synod of Dort in 1618-1619 as a defence of the Reformed faith was man's total inability or man's total depravity. Otherwise known as, well we could say, man's complete foe into sin as a complete creature, body, mind, will, affections, heart. It was all completely affected by sin. The doctrine of man's total inability was not first declared at the Synod of Dort in the Netherlands, South Holland in the years 1618, 1619. I did say to you last week that there's a very important date in the calendar of the Reformed faith, the year 1618, 1619, when that illustrious synod of men, godly men I might say, who stood to defend what had always been believed to be biblical amongst the Dutch churches. As we said, that synod or that gathering of assembly of people was not for the arrangement of Christian truth. It was set for the defense of the gospel. It was not so men could maybe understand or have defined what the gospel actually was. But it was called to settle a controversy that was pulling the Dutch churches apart. We took you back to the year 1610, whenever we said that almost civil war broke out in the land of Holland because of a group who followed a man by the name of Jacobus Arminius. Those people over time became known as the Arminians. But yet they so persuaded the authorities in Holland that they actually had Calvinists, those who followed the teaching of John Calvin and Theodore Beza, John Knox, the other men of that time, had them banned from preaching in certain places and in other places where they otherwise would have had freedom. So that's the kind of controversy that these men were facing to settle in the years 1618-1619. The Arminianism is not about the extent of Christ's atonement. Many people will say that the controversy between Calvinism and Arminianism is in regards to who or for whom did Christ die. That's not the case. That certainly is a part of it, but it is a very broad spectrum. We said that the Arminians had five points. And the five points that they presented at that synod, they failed to defend from Scripture. They were asked to come and justify from God's Word what they believed, but they refused to do so. And the synod took the five points of Calvinism in response to those five points of Arminianism, and they found them to be agreeable to, founded upon, the Word of God. One of the things that the Arminians denied was man's total depravity. They would not accept that when Adam fell, his actions and his Adam's actions had serious implications for the human race. They believed that man was not a fallen creature. They believed that man, as one preacher said, it's like a man falling off a five story building onto the pavement. And the Arminian believed that that man could redirect himself and could go to maybe a phone box and phone for help. And he could help himself. Whereas the Calvinist, he would believe that a man who has fallen from such a great height has fallen to this death. I believe fully that God's word teaches you, and I trust you will see this tonight, that man spiritually has fallen to his death. He is not somewhat affected by sin, that he can still exercise good and have love and desire towards God. That's just not the case. The controversy raged, and still rages today, between those who believe that man is totally depraved as far as the biblical extent is, that is, he cannot bring himself to God. And those who say, no man, was maybe affected, he was maybe slightly put out of sorts, but he can still do spiritual good. That is the teaching that was brought before the Synod of Dort. Now, in order to understand the doctrine of man's total depravity, we need to go back to the 5th century. You're getting a history lesson here tonight. I hope it's worthwhile. We go back to Augustine. Some of you may have heard the name Augustine. He was the Bishop of Hippo, North Africa in the year AD 395 to the year AD 430 thereabouts. Augustine was a man who taught or held on to the teachings of John the Apostle. You have to remember that John, in A.D. 100 perhaps, was the last of the apostles, the last man who carried the torch of truth. There were no more after John. And we fall into what you may say was the beginning of the dark ages, where there were men here and there who did have the truth, but that was so confused. And men lived lives that were licentious, rampant vileness. Sin was in every place, and even in the church. Oh yes, religion carried on. But it was so confused with paganism that very few people knew what the truth actually was. But there were men like Augustine who, in the year 395, was able to define doctrine and to present truth. And one of those truths that he sought to uphold, indeed his whole ministry was very much argumentative. It was very much embroiled in controversy. Because how else could it be? He was fighting for the truth. He was standing for the truth against men who believed not the truth. So his ministry in many ways was defensive. It was controversial. But we need to go back to Britain around the same time. There was a man called Pelagius. I know these names may not be familiar to you. Pelagius was a British monk who was actually believed he was born in Britain. But Pelagius was driven out of Britain and he arrived in North Africa with his teachings. Now Pelagius denied total depravity. He totally removed it. He believed that infants were born innocent, that they were born perfect in the same way that Adam was. Now Pelagianism, as it's known, teaches that. that each and every one of us is born completely without sin. There is no such thing as original sin, being passed down from the fathers. David said, in sin did my mother conceive me. But Pelagius, he said no. He had a brilliant mind, he was a prolific author, but his existing writings show him to be at complete variance with the teachings of the Apostle Paul, the Apostle John, Peter and with Augustine. Now he came to North Africa, which of course brought him into direct conflict with this godly man, Augustine. Now I just must say here, Augustine was no angel. You read his life, he was a most wicked young man. lived in sin for most of his early life. Immorality. It's not a testimony you'd be very proud of. But nevertheless, God used him to hold the torch of truth in a time whenever it was needed. But in his most famous work, that is Pelagius, which is known as called A Treatise on Free Will, he states there that, listen to this, all men are born neutral with the capacity to do good or evil. He also taught that by Adam's first sin, that is, the first sin, Adam injured only himself. Injured himself. Didn't destroy himself, but Adam injured only himself, not his posterity. Now, do you see where I'm coming from? Pelagius was teaching that Adam destroyed himself, but his sin did have no effect on you or anyone else. That was the teaching of this man. He was in fact saying that every man is born in precisely the same condition that Adam was born. Adam was born perfect. Pelagius taught that we are too. And you can see how that brought another controversy in the year AD 395. Because Augustine, he was arguing at this time, no, we are fallen, we are dead in sins, we are completely ruined. Our minds, our wills, we can't even think godly. We can't even bring ourselves to God. We're like the man who came off the five-story building. We're dead. Destroyed. No life. Unable to think. Unable to cry out for help. Unable to shout for assistance. We can't do that. That's man by effect of the fall. Now this dispute between Pelagius and Augustine plays a major part in our understanding of the Calvinist position on total depravity. We need to begin here. Because when we come to the Synod of Dorton 1618, these men were not presenting a new teaching. They were upholding what Augustine had warred with Pelagius against, saying, no, we are destroyed by sin. We are completely corrupted. So do you see why I bring you through history? Augustine, man is totally depraved. Senator Dort, we believe that the scripture teaches man is totally depraved. Westminster Confession of Faith, 1647, to which I assign to, and which you as members of this church have agreed to, teaches that man is entirely and totally corrupt. Why do we believe that? Because it is founded upon and agreeable to the Word of God. Now there's another man I want to introduce tonight. So there's Augustine, Pelagius, Jacobus Arminius, John Calvin, of course, He's always drawn into these things somewhere. Another man by the name of John Cassian, born in the year 360 AD. Now this man, John Cassian, or Cassian, was an opponent of Augustine. And he didn't agree with Pelagius. So he created something that became known as Semi-Pelagianism. You know what it is, it's a halfway house. He took something from this side, he took something from that side, and he created a whole new system of doctrine which is Arminianism. What is Semi-Pelagianism? It was presented at the Synod of Dort. I know this may be heavy thinking tonight, but I trust you will see the reason why it's important that we look at this. Was this man right? Of course he wasn't. There's no rightness, it's not true, to bring together something that is a mixture of truth and error, and present it as something, well it's only a compromise on this side, compromise on that side. Well, sure, it must be right. There's truth on both sides. No, it's not. As I said, he disagreed with the truth. That's it. He disagreed with Augustine, but he disagreed with the truth. He disagreed with the false, but he brought in the false with the truth. And we have this teaching today that Cassian said, like Pelagius, that Adam's fall into sin didn't totally corrupt you and I. It injured us. It left us, yes, corrupt, but not totally corrupt. We can still choose to do good. And that's what you have today in the system of easy-believerism and Arminianism. Where there's a gospel presented that men are not dead in trespasses and sins, but are free to choose Christ when and where they will. It's not the gospel, men and women. But that is semi-Pelagianism. So there you have the history behind this. We arrive now at Dort. It lets us see that prior to the Senate of Dort, this controversy had been raging. But the Calvinists, they formulated it for us. And they now tell us, here's the first point, total depravity. Biblical Christianity. So what do we want to consider tonight? I hope we have time to go through this this evening. The first place I want you to turn is Romans chapter 5 in the verse number 12. As a verse we all know, wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin and so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned. That brings us to consider original sin. The original sin was a very important doctrine, not only to Augustine, but to the Dutch churches in every church since. It was central to understanding the doctrine of total depravity. What is it that corrupted man? What is it that brought man into a state of sin and misery as our Catechism teaches? Well, here it is. By one man, sin entered the world. Pelagius says, that's right, Adam was corrupted by his sin, but as for everyone else, they're fine. Semi-Pelagianism or Arminianism says, no, they were corrupted, that is, Adam was corrupted and the whole human race was corrupted, but not completely. The Calvinists say, Adam was corrupted, his whole human race was corrupted, and outside of Christ and the gospel, there's no hope. That's Calvinism. Look at verse 12 again with me. One man's sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for let all have sin. Pelagius, I don't know where he got his logic from. But I read in the Apostle Paul's writings, which he had, by the way, that the proof that sin has affected you and I is death. Now, what man would be His right mind willing to stand up and say that death is not the result of the fall. Men are dying all round us. Young and old. And it's the result of sin, men and women. It's not the result of some catastrophic occurrence or just human nature taking its course. If we were all created Original sin not affecting any one of us, that means you and I would live like Adam. But that's not true, of course. So how does a semi-Pelagian get out of that? He says, well, that's part of the partial corruption. Man dies. But as regards to his mind and will, he can do what he wants. He can choose Christ or he can reject Christ. But the Calvinist says, no, no, no. Martin Luther said this. He spoke about the bondage of the will and he says, you men are in bondage to your will and you can will only to do evil. You are in complete bondage, sinner, tonight. You can't do one spiritual good or one spiritual action that God will find meritorious or any good in. There's nothing pleases him in you because you're a corrupt, dead sinner. Adam. Look at Romans 5 verse 19. Adam was our federal head. This is how you explain this. Adam's sin, now I know it's a big word, imputation. Adam's sin was passed over. It was imputed. It was laid to your account. In other words, Adam, as he acted in the Garden of Eden, he acted on your behalf. Tony Blair. Gordon Brown, George Bush or Barack Obama, what they do as the leaders of their country has repercussions on the citizens of that country. And we either share in the benefits of that decision made by that leader or we reap the consequences of that leader. I was just reading a whole thing last night in George Bush about, I think it's a very unfair criticism I have to say, about how he, by his actions, has made America one of the most despised countries in the world. I think it's very unfair, but nevertheless, can I say to the congregation, it shows us that the decisions that a man makes politically has far-reaching consequences. Whether it be Stormont, or whether it be the White House, or anywhere else, when a man makes a decision, it has far-reaching consequences. for his people, for his citizens. The benefits will be passed on or the consequences will be felt by you and I. And sometimes we complain about that when you go to fill up your car at Tesco or wherever else you fill your car up. You complain and say, here we go again, our government has taken this decision and now look at it, we're paying for our diesel, for our fuel. But that's the system in which we live. It's a representational system. Men make decisions. We feel the consequences. If I, as the representative of my home, take the decision that my children will have no more food, they will feel the consequences. If my wife says, you're not going to have any more food, the consequences will probably be good and beneficial, at least for the time being. But you can see what I'm saying. I am the representative of the home. You men are. Decisions you take, your family feel them. Consequences also of your actions, whatever you might decide to do. And that's how we understand the doctrine of total depravity. Adam sinned, he was a representative, which means his, what he has done, affects you and I. He damned himself, which means he damned us too. We haven't the time to go into everything about the imputation of Adam's first sin, except to say that we, by our consent, agree to it. By our actions. I remember reading the story of a young lad in his school. And he had an apple. And he wasn't eating the apple, and the teacher said to him, why are you not eating your apple, young man? And he says, well, there's a worm that's just come out of it. Good enough reason. And a teacher who was a believer said to the young man, well, tell me, did the worm come from the inside or did it come from... did it eat its way into the apple or did it eat its way out? The young lad says, I haven't a clue. He says, it ate its way in. Of course it didn't. And the teacher took that little simple illustration to explain how original sin works and how it manifests itself. And the teacher explained to that young lad and to the class that how the worm, the worm egg, was planted in the blossom and how that it hatched in the core of the apple. And over a period of time, that worm began to eat its way out from the inside out. And that's the original sin, men and women. The seed of sin has been planted in our nature. And over time, that sin breaks forth into what we call actual sin. And men are sinning, men, in God's word indeed. I mean, the scripture teaches that very plainly, that no man, even the child, it's not too long after his birth that he begins to really express his new nature. Sinful, corrupt. A fact of completely. But nevertheless, We need to understand that Adam was our federal head. He acted on our behalf and he constituted us as sinners. Look at verse 19 of Romans 5. For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners. One man, many sinners. The seed has been sown. We are dead. Spiritually that is. Dead in sin. That is why Paul could say, look at Ephesians 2, verse 3. He could say, we are all by nature the children of wrath. We are all by nature doomed. We are damned by God because of one man's sin. What he has done, his actions are my actions. His thoughts were my thoughts. And I own my sin because of Adam. There was a preacher once said, He was listening to a group of young men who were arguing over the doctrine of original sin. And he said to them, Do you believe in actual sin? And the young men said, Yes, of course we do. Do men sin thoughtward indeed? Well, they do. They murder. They commit fornication. They lie. They do all kinds of things. We believe that. The old preacher turned around and said to them, Have you ever seen a tree growing without a root? The seed's there. The root's there. And very soon that It will begin to grow and the branches will appear. And there you have the proof. Your heart, men and women, your hearts, my heart, is the fountainhead of sin. But that brings us to consider something else here, and that is the free will of man. Is man free to choose? Because that was the great controversy at the Senate of Dort. The Arminians, their theology taught, no man has complete freedom of his will. He can do with the gospel what he wants. He can come to Christ when he wants. Whereas the Calvinist said, listen, man's will, that is how you think young man, woman is completely dead. See, Adam was born with a will that was completely towards his God. He loved to serve his God. He didn't serve God because he just wanted to. And now that man has fallen, his mind is towards sin, always to sin. Completely corrupted. If I could have you just think for a moment. The choices you make in life are always determined according to the direction of the will. Why is it the believer thinks Godwards? It's because in redemption his will has been changed, renewed. Why is it the sinner can never bring himself to think other things than sinful things? Even good things that he determines as good are sinful. I can think of a man I knew. And for you to look at him, you'd have thought, there's a very good church-going man. He gives his money into the church. He attends church. But why does an ungodly man do that? You know why? Because there's a sinful thought in his mind that tells him, I am making myself acceptable to God. And that man I'm thinking of, that was his idea. He would have told you that. Which lets you see tonight that you may say, well, how does it explain the good works that man does? There are men in this town and they're good men. They give money to charities. They give money to those in need. But deep down in their hearts, if they know not Christ, their will is still towards evil. Thinking, this is good. I'm making myself acceptable to God. No man can charge me. Oh, I do this. I do the other thing. How can you say I'm a sinner? Your will tells you. Your will is corrupt. You do not have a free will. Oh, I can do what I want. I can do a bad thing if I want. Or I can do a good turn if I want. No, you can't. You are corrupt. And as Luther said, your mind, your will is in bondage. You choose only to do those things which are evil. Can I quote from the Westminster Confession here? Section 3 of chapter 9. Man by his fall into the estate of sin hath wholly lost all ability of will to do any spiritual good accompanying salvation. So is a natural man, being altogether adverse from that good and dead in sin, is not able, listen to this, is not able by his own strength to convert himself or to prepare himself thereby. Can a dead man lift himself up to God is the question. Of course he can't. But who is it brings the dead to God? Do you remember that? day that Christ stood outside the grave of Lazarus. He who was dead four days. I mean, Pelagius and John Cassian would say he wasn't really dead. He probably heard the voice of Christ, they would say. And he chose to come out of that grave. He could have chosen to stay in, you know, Lazarus. But he decided, no, I think I'll come out. That's Arminian theology. Talbot says, Lazarus was stinking, he was dead, he was corrupting. But yet the voice of Christ called him, and Lazarus could do nothing else but come forth. And you will find this when we come to examine irresistible grace. That when God calls a sinner, that sinner, as you will know, believer, that night the Lord saved you. You could do nothing else but come forth. Respond to the call of the gospel. There was something about that night, or that day, or however it happened. You'd heard the call of the gospel. You young men, for example. There's many times you've been under the sound of the gospel. Older people, for years maybe. And it's never dawned on you your need of Christ. Then all of a sudden, there's one evening you're under the ministry of the gospel. And the words that the preacher were using were like nothing you'd heard before. You've heard the text preached on a hundred times. But as the Word of God made effect on the Word, He draws you to yourself. He does for you what you cannot do for yourself. Convert yourself, or even prepare yourself. Augustinianism. That was a teaching of Augustine taught that by Adam's transgression, The will of man was completely and utterly lost. That is the freedom. Freedom to do, to choose for good was completely lost. It's a very important teaching. But there's something else we must as we move on here, and that is that man has not only lost the freedom of his own will, but he has been entirely corrupted. Turn please to Romans 3 and verse number 10. This really is the evidence of total depravity. And you don't have to go too far to find the evidence of the corruption that is in man. But Romans 3 in verse number 10. As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one. Now if you go to Genesis chapter 2 and chapter 3 verse 7, and study the actions of Adam as a fallen creature. He loved his Lord, he walked, he talked in the cool of the day, But after the fall, we find that every action of fallen man is emblematic of man's fallen nature. What was the first thing? We find there in Genesis 3 verse 7, that the eyes of them both were opened, and they saw themselves to be naked. But the word there, saw, referring to them seeing their nakedness is actually more than that. It's really to express that they not only saw that they both were naked, but they actually felt something. They felt a nakedness in themselves. That's the intensity of the verb there. They saw, but they felt the awful destitute. Nakedness of their soul. Yes, their bodies were naked. Before, there was no shame. But now they run and they hide. That's the second action. They run to the darkest part of the garden. John 3 verse 19. Man loves darkness rather than light. Whereas before, Adam loved the light. But now we find he runs to the darkest part of the garden. Just like the unconverted man. by means of his own good works. He tries to clothe himself. Adam sought to clothe himself, but as we find, the Lord comes and reveals his nakedness to them. That's why the Lord tells us in Romans Revelation 3 verse 18. He says to men who are ungodly and wretched, why don't you come and buy raiment, white raiment, that you may be clothed and without shame. But your nakedness may not appear. See, men are completely stripped of righteousness. There are many other things we could bring before you there. But look at John 3, verse 19. I've just quoted from it. John 3, verse 19. This is the condemnation. That light has come into the world. And men love darkness rather than light. Why is that so? Because their deeds were evil. Adam ran from God because his deeds were now evil. He was corrupted in his thought life. His thoughts toward his wife's own body were corrupted. He was ashamed of those thoughts. He seeks to hide those thoughts. It was the same with Eve, her husband. And both of them now realize there is something wrong here. They begin to think about one another in different ways. And over time, we find that that has gradually developed in men until we come to Romans chapter 1. What do we find? Look with me at verse number 26. For this cause God gave them up to their vile affections, where even the woman changed the natural uses of them that is against nature. Sodomy, every other kind of vileness, is an expression of the corruption that began in Eden. Their own bodies, nakedness. It doesn't make pleasant reading, men and women, but it goes to show you that in here There are the seeds of depravity that no one of us can control. The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? Who can understand the depravity of the heart of this man? No one. Again, can I read from our confession? The guilt of this sin was imputed, and the same death in sin and corrupted nature conveyed to all their posterity. It was passed on, descending from them by ordinary generation. But listen to this. Confession of Faith, chapter 6, section 4. From this original corruption, whereby we are utterly indisposed, disabled, and made opposite to all good, and wholly inclined to do evil. That is the will. We're turned that way to do evil. I take you back to the Synod of Dort here. Jacobus Arminius, of course he was not there, but those who were his followers, Arminians, held to the view that man was only injured by sin, not ruined by sin. Their teaching was semi-Pelagian. The man was just kind of corrupted, though he dies as a result of the fall of Ras Pelagius. I denied that. He says, no, look, it hasn't affected you whatsoever. But these men said, well, we can't accept that, but we'll teach this. They're kind of injured. But my confession tells me I am disabled, indisposed, unable, completely paralyzed, unable to bring myself, and that's true of you, from the womb. I want everyone here tonight to turn to Psalm 58 and verse number 3. Pelagius taught that the infants who were born were not born in sin. But Psalm 58 and the verse number 3 sets it forth very plainly that all infants from the womb are corrupt. The wicked are estranged from the womb. They go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies. Now, how do you get around that? I don't know. As soon as they are born in the womb, they go astray and they are speaking lies. Psalm 51, verse 5. With old I was shaven in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. The heart is deceitful. Jeremiah 17, verse 9. I don't know. Could it be any more plainly? Man loves to give free expression to his own wicked heart. You look with me there at Romans again, chapter 2. I'm sorry, chapter 3. Verses 10 right through to verse 19. There's none that understand it. There's none that seek it after God. You know what that's saying? The mind is completely gone. Can't understand. They're all gone out of their way. No direction. Verse 12. They are all together becoming profitable. There's none that doeth good. No, not one. Now, have I got the Scriptures wrong when a man says to me, no, I can do good? If you want to be technical, you say, no, you're semi-Pelagian. Just tell him he's on C if he's unconverted. He needs Christ to show him his need. Their throat is an open sepulcher. Verse 13, their tongues use deceit. 14, their mouth is full of cursing, bitterness. Verse 15, they think nothing of shedding blood. Their feet are swift to shed blood. 17, their way of peace have they not known. 18, the fear of God before their eyes is not there. Look at verse 19, part B. All the world guilty before God. We've not only been We are not only brought into this world with sin. We are guilty. We are condemned. Look at Romans 5 with me in verse 14. Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses. even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression." Now that's a very difficult verse for you to understand. But it's really saying this. Death reigned from that period between Eden and the giving of the Ten Commandments. Now sin is the transgression of the law of God. Which means men die because they break God's law. But there was no law given before Sinai. That's what Paul's saying. Now there was a law, but we're saying we didn't have the Ten Commandments. But they were there. They were given to Adam in the Garden of Edom. But nevertheless, the truth is here. The man who says, well listen, there were no Ten Commandments until the year when God gave them at Sinai. So, how do you explain sin? How do you explain death before the Ten Commandments? Well, it's very simple. Original sin. Death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned. That is, Even those that had not known the law of God in its ten commandments or its summarized form. They still died and they died as sinners because we're told here, Adam's transgression. He was a figure of him that was to come. He was a representative and he was a picture of Christ who would come. Can I close this evening by looking at the cure for man's inability? Man gives free expression to his wickedness. And can I just say to you tonight that even in hell, man unleashes the full extent of his depravity. In the Gospels, we're told that men in hell, they wail and they gnash their teeth. And I've heard preachers saying that's in repentance. It's completely unscriptural. Men in hell, the word nashir means they grate their teeth in anger and hatred for God. You know, on earth, that's why I said right at the beginning, man's depravity needs to be understood in a biblical context. Sproutsy speaking, he can do nothing. But it's true, isn't it? Men do good works. They are restrained. Their heart's capable of murder, but they don't murder. There is a grace that restrains them. There's something that holds them in. But in hell, where there is no grace, there's no actual restraint on the heart of man. It's a bursting forth of the fountainhead of complete wickedness, total depravity. And men will actually curse God to their face. I've heard men say, preachers, that men become repentant in hell. No, they don't. There is not one repentant sinner in hell, and there never will be. They grate their teeth, they grind their teeth, and they curse God for their damnation. Men and women tonight, is that going to be you? Am I speaking to some young man or someone here in this meeting tonight who will be among that company that the Lord says there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth? Grating their teeth? Venting their anger against God for damning them. That's what the Bible tells us. Calvinists are presented as having no love for people. It's not true. These men were seeking to get the right remedy for the problem. The medical practitioner, if he doesn't diagnose the patient the right way, He's going to get the remedy wrong, the cure wrong. It's true that I've heard Reverend Beggs warn us time and time again in the theological hall, men, if you get total depravity right, you'll get the gospel right. That's why we're not in the business of making men feel good about themselves. We're not in the business of making men feel, well, I'm not too bad. The men are totally depraved. And the last thing that I want to be doing is ending up administering the wrong cure. That's where easy believism comes from. That man isn't too bad, that he's only been injured. Listen, there's problems in your life. No, no, no. Your life is completely ruined. And that's the gospel men need to hear. Where does that cure come from? It comes outside of man. It comes from God Himself. God's cure is a redemptive one. Look at verse 19 with me of Romans chapter 5 as we close. For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners. That's the disease. You're corrupt. But read on with me, please. So by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. Is that not a wonderful gospel? So by the obedience of one man, like Adam, he who was after the similitude of Adam, the figure to come, he has kept the law of God. He has died in the place of his people. And those for whom Christ died, they now feel the implications of his success. Romans 5.19, By the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. One man plunged this the whole human race into death, sin and misery. But yet by one man, many are lifted, made righteous, given a new mind, a new will. Seek Christ. He imparts strength to the soul. He illuminates the mind. He takes a stony heart away. He gives a heart of flesh. He draws them to Himself. There are some verses I would love to leave with you, but I quote them now. John chapter 5, verse 40. Ye will not come to me that ye might have life. Does that not blow the doctrine of free will into a million pieces? Ye will not come to me. You will never come to me. But the Lord says, He that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. You know what he's saying? You cannot come. Though you're commanded to come, it requires me to bring you. And the Lord does bring you, and that means if He does bring you, He will certainly bring you. He won't leave you halfway. It's an awful gospel, men and women, to say to a man, God has done His bit, now it's up to you. Will you choose Christ or will you just leave it? God's not in the business of making men half righteous. God says, I will justify the ungodly. And you thank God for that tonight. That's the gospel. That whenever you come to Christ, you're brought to Christ. When you come to know Christ, you can rest content. You are a justified man. There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. I trust this makes sense to you tonight. As we commence our series on this, I wanted to get this right, that you all here tonight will understand that we're all dead and trespasses and in sins. Ephesians 2, verse 1 and 2. But by grace are we saved. And that not of yourselves, you're lying like the man from the five-story building It can't move. It's not of works. It can't even crawl. It can't move a muscle. But there's One who comes alongside. And He breathes life into us. Resuscitates us almost. And we have life forevermore. I trust tonight that many of you tonight who know not the Lord will seek this Christ. There is no hope outside of Him. May the Lord bless His Word.