Doctrine of Total Depravity

As we come to Romans Chapter three, Verses nine through eighteen, we come to a part of Paul's argument that basically is a culmination of his case against all mankind, and his case against anyone or anything that would boast in being worthy of God's favor or standing and being declared righteous before God. We have already seen, beginning in chapter three and verse eighteen, that he builds his case carefully in that chapter against the gentile world, and beginning in chapter two he builds his case carefully against the Jewish world. And we come to chapter three, and we are beginning to reach this crescendo. But as we reach this crescendo in three, it's important to understand that we are now at a moment of great tension. That tension, however, is not relieved until next week. But remember the letter was meant to be read at a single sitting. But we come to the place of being laid low today. We come to the place of recognizing what it is that we actually deserve from God and what it is that we've been saved from. If we don't get the doctrine of total depravity, total and ability, if we don't get the doctrine of man's sin, by the way, not the doctrine of original sin. We'll get to that later on in chapter five when we talk about padam and original sin. Now we're talking about total depravity and what that means, or radical depravity as it is sometimes referred to. Here are just a few implications of this doctrine why it's important that we understand this doctrine rightly. One implication, for example, is the way we disciple our children or discipline our children. If you disciple a child or discipline the child and don't believe in the doctrine of total depravity, it will change the way you approach the discipline of that child. Secondly, the establishment, even of civil government. There is a difference between the establishment of government among people who believe that man is basically good and the establishment of people who believe that man is a sinful creature and we must keep an eye on him through checks and balances determining guilt and or punishment of criminals. If you don't believe in total depravity, it will change the way you view guilt or innocence. It will change the way you view punishment for those who have sinned. Was it this person's sin, or was it the way they were raised. This doctrine also has a great deal to do with the way we treat so called mental illness. There is a great debate in the land as to what constitutes mental illness and when we're actually dealing with sin. Your understanding of this doctrine and the doctrine of total depravity can be the difference between believing that a person in a particular instance, not every instance, but believing that the person in a particular instance perhaps just needs a pill to feel better, or they should feel horrible about what's going on and need to come to repentance. Again, every time we talk about this, I make the same disclaimer because of the accusations that are always earle. We do not teach, nor do we believe, that there are no persons in this world who have actual organic or organic problems that need to be dealt with medically. That's not our argument, that's not what we're saying. But we do have a culture that, because of the denial of this doctrine, because of a failure to acknowledge the depravity of man, automatically and in every instance, goes straight to let's make a person feel better because nobody ought to feel bad. This doctrine affects the way we share the gospel, the difference between the way you share the Gospel with a person that you believe is kind of bad and one that you believe is radically depraved. This doctrine also affects the way that we hear and receive the Gospel. If I feel like I'm a pretty good person, I will never comprehend the depths of my own sin and the depths of my need of Jesus Christ. If I feel that I'm a pretty good person, I will never ever come to the place where I magnify Christ rightly and worship and adore Him in the way that He is to be worshiped and adored, because I do not comprehend the vast magnitude of difference between Him and me. It is only when I understand than sin rightly that I magnify and worship Christ appropriately. So this is bad news today. It's very bad news today. But without the bad news, you don't understand the goodness of the good news. Amen. With that in mind, let's look. Beginning in verse nine of Romans chapter three, he begins with his rhetorical questions again, what then, are we Jews any better off? Not at all, For we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are under sin. By the way, when did he already charge that? He already charged that in Chapter one, verse eighteen, through this point, as it is written, none is righteous, no not one. No one understands, no one seeks for God. All all have turned aside together. They have become worthless. No one does good, not even one. Their throat is an open grave. They use their tongues to deceive. The venom of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood, and their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes. That's the picture of man in his sin. That's the picture that God has painted. Several things that we need to understand. First. I want you to grasp this doctrine. Listen to this from Loring Bettner and his classic work The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination. This doctrine of total inability, which declares that men are dead in sin, does not mean that all men are equally bad, nor that any man is as bad as he could be, nor that anyone is entirely guesstitude a virtue, nor that human nature is evil in itself, nor that man's spirit is inactive. And much less does it mean that the body is dead. What it does mean is that, since the Fall, man rests under the curse of sin, that he is actuated by wrong principles, and that he is wholly unable to love God or to do anything meriting salvation. His corruption is extensive, but not necessarily intensive. It is in this sense that man, since the Fall, is utterly indisposed, disabled, and made opposite to all good, wholly inclined to all evil. He possesses a fixed bias of the will against God, and instinctively and willingly turns to evil. He is an alien by birth and a sinner by choice. The inability under which he labors is not an inability to exercise volition, but an inability to be willing to exercise holy volitions. And it is this phase of it which led Luther to declare that free will is an empty term whose reality is lost, and a lost liberty, according to my grammar, is no liberty at all. By the way, this is not a new idea that Paul comes up with. He quotes from several places. Most of these quotes come from the Psalms. For example, listen to Psalm fourteen one through three. The fool says, in his heart there is no God. They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds. There is none who does good. Does that sound familiar. The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man to see if there are there any who understand who seek after God. They have all turned aside together. They have become corrupt. There is none who does good, not even one. That's what's being quoted in Romans chapter three. Who listen to Psalm fifty three one through three, the fool says, in his heart there is no God. They are corrupt, doing abominable iniquity. There is none who does good. God looks down from heaven on the children of man to see if there is any who understand who seek after God. They have all fallen away together, they've become corrupt. There's none who does good, not even one. That's what Paul's quoting here. Not a new concept, not a new doctrine. This is something that has been since the fall. But what do we understand from the way that Paul lays out this argument. One thing we understand is this the universal nature of sin Verses nine through twelve. Look at verse nine. What then, are Jews any better off? No, not at all, For we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are under sin. By the way, when he says Jews and Greeks, he means the whole world. His argument in chapter one, verse eighteen through the end of the chapter is against the Greek world or the non Jewish world. His argument in chapter two is against the Jewish world. In other words, whether you're inside the Jewish world or outside of the Jewish world. Paul has stated clearly up to this point that you are not righteous before God. You are a sinner. As it is written, none is righteous, no, not one. No one understands, no one seeks for God. All have turned aside together they have become worthless. No one does good, not even one. There's a great phrase that is used there five times between verses ten and twelve, and in the English it comes across as no one or not even one, over and over and over again. He makes this statement in order to be clear, I've made an argument. Now I'm going to summarize my argument. And as I summarize my argument, I want you to understand that every human being on the face of earth from Adam to the end of time finds himself in the same condition, and that condition is completely and utterly ruined. Before a holy God. There's no one who is righteous. There is no one who understands. There is no one who seeks after God, no one. And this is difficult for us because, deep down inside of us, here's what we want to believe. We want to believe that God looks at the little old lady down the street who doesn't know Christ, and somehow graves on the curve amen. Somehow we want to hold onto that. Somehow we want to believe that because there are men who have been so much more evil outwardly than other men, that somehow God has to greet on the curve. Somehow, there have to be some people who are good, some people who are decent folks. No one is as bad as they could be, but everyone, everyone is condemned, and no one is righteous. But there's one thing to say that sin is universal, that sin touches all of us. But Paul goes beyond that point. His point is not just that sin touches all of us, but his point is also that sin touches every aspect of us. If you remember we talked about the Pelagian heresy on last week, the Pelagian heresy is not that there's no fall and nothing wrong with man at all. The Pelagian heresy doesn't just go that far and state it outright. People today who hold to that idea aren't saying that is no effect of sin, that there is no effect of the fall. But what they are arguing is, though man is affected by the fall, there are aspects of man's character, man's nature, man's soul, man's spirit that somehow are still able to respond to God. So they believe in partial depravity, not total or radical depravity. Man is only partially depraved, and there is something in man that somehow is able to cooperate with God in the synergistic process of salvation. Well, two things. First of all, here's the problem with that idea. It's going to be addressed particularly. But even when speaking of sin as being universal, notice what Paul says, no one is righteous, So again there's nobody who's righteous at all? Who can stand before God? No one understands, So there's no one who can reason themselves to God. If there's no one who understands, no one seeks for God. Again, remember the Pelagian argument, there is part of us, there's something in us that is still untainted enough to seek after God. Really, that sounds good in theory, but Paul just said there's no one who does that. No one does good, not even one. So again Palagianism has a problem, because what are we arguing in Palagianism or semi Palagianism that somehow there is part of man that is able Number one to do some good, Because you have to do some good in order to come to God. Number two seeks after God. Number three understands enough to number four be declared righteous words. The Pelagian heresy denies every principle that the apostle just put forth in explaining the nature of sin. It's universal and it's complete. How do we see it? First? Look at the sin we speak. Look beginning of verse thirteen. Their throat is an open grave. They use their tongues to deceive the venom of asps is under their lips, their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. I want you to notice what is spoken of here, the organs, throat, tongue, lips mouth. In other words, complete corruption, total corruption. Everything that comes out of your mouth is utterly corrupt. Throat, pungs, lips mouth. Is this something new? By the way, turn with me, if you will, to the right. Look at the book of James James, Chapter three, Begin at verse one. Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. For we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body. If we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well. Look at the ships. Also, though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire, And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell. Jesus said, it is not what goes into a man that defiles him, but what comes out. We read in Ephesian chapter four that we are to let no corrupting talk come out of our mouths, but instead that which is fit for building up. Why is there such an emphasis. Here's why there's such an emphasis, because one of the evidences of man's fallen nature is what comes out of man's mouth, one of the evidences of the fact that we do not belong to God, that we are not right with God, and that the lost, hurting and dying world desperately needs to be saved. That's what is spoken. Yes, sin is universal, but what we see of it is first that which comes out of the mouth, not just what we say. But also look at how we live among one another. Look at the next verse, verse fifteen. Their feet are swift to shed blood, and their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known. This is the way they walk. And when he says the way of peace, they have not known. He's not saying that these individuals have no inner peace. What he's saying is that fallen man has not known cannot know peace with one another. Because fallen man man has fallen desires, and his feet are swift to shed blood. Why, because he wants what he wants, and everyone else is an obstacle to his own satisfying satisfaction. So fallen man, apart from God, swift to shed blood, fallen man, apart from god Rick's havoc on his fellow man, fallen man, apart from God, wars with his fellow man. Interestingly enough, if you look at Psalm one, verses one and two and compare it to this text, you see that there's perhaps another Psalm that informed what Paul is saying here. Psalm Won, verses one and two. Blessed is the man who walks not in the council of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night, walk, stand, sit. Blessed is the man who does not walk, does not stand, does not sit in these places. And here in Romans chapter three, we see their feet are swift to shed blood. They're walking, and their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known. This is a man who's walking on his way, and as he walks on his way, the only thing he leaves in his way is destruction. That is the state of fallen man. That is the state of every fallen man. It is the state of every culture because of fallen men. Your state and my state apart from the person and work of Jesus Christ. And we must understand this. If we don't, we cannot comprehend his greatness and his majesty. There's a final peace. The sin we can't see verse eighteen. There is no fear of God before their eyes. So now we have it. All men are shut up in sin, every man who has ever lived in every place around the globe. Not only that, but we see the evidence of it as man opens his mouth, and has opened his mouth throughout the course of history, we've seen evidence of it, and what man speaks as man walks forth along his way, we've seen evidence of it, and what he pursues, and what he leaves in his wake. And by the way, there is no hope for this man in and of himself. Why because there is no fear of God before his eyes. So here's the picture. Lost man is walking under a curse. And as lost man walks under a curse, he opens his mouth and skews forth things that are in keeping with the curse under which he lives. His feet take him to places and bring about destruction that is in direct relation to the curse under which he lives. And as man goes forth and brings agony on himself and his fellow man, he knows that something is wrong. But because there's no fear of God before his eyes, he doesn't know what it is, and he doesn't know what to do about it. He's lost. This is what it means to be lost. You can't educate a man away from this. You can't argue a man out of this. You can't discipline a man into this. You can't coax him, you can't. There is nothing that you or I can do about this, because the blinders on his eyes are there supernaturally and must be removed supernaturally, otherwise there will never ever be a fear of God before his eyes. But here's what we often do. We find man in this condition and we try to compromise with this man. We find a man in this condition and we try to clean him up up on the outside. We find a man in this condition and we begin to work with him, and we say, don't talk like that, talk like this. And if you get a man who is in this condition to talk differently because of behavioral modification, what you have is a man who inwardly is still corrupt, but outwardly has learned how to use his tongue, his throat, his lips, and his mouth in order to get what he wants by being deceptive about it. If you can somehow guide his feet so that he is no longer as quick to shed blood, If perhaps you can incarcerate him so that he no longer has the opportunity to shed blood, what have you really done. You have merely put a man in a position where what he is on the outside can what he is on the inside cannot be expressed on the outside. I've told you before about my opportunity to preach in Angola, the largest maximum security prison in the world, and at eerie moment, we're at an opportunity that few human beings ever do, and none should ever want to stand face to face and eye to eye with a serial killer. There on death Row twenty three hours a day. He is in this cell by himself, twenty three hours a day. One hour a day he gets to go outside in a caged enclosure so that he can walk around no more than you would have for a doggie run. And after that one hour he goes back for the remainder of his twenty three hours a day. I stood there, face to face, an eye to eye, had a conversation, knew the history of these feet that were quick to shed blood, heard the words that came forth from this throat, this tongue, his lips, and his mouth, and have never been more disturbed by another human being in my life. And I realized, you can cage evil, but there's nothing you or I can do to eradicated. There was no fear of God before his eyes radically depraved. But here's the news flash. Apart from Christ, neither you nor I would be any better off. Why Well, he doesn't seek after God. Yeah I didn't either. Clearly he doesn't understand. Yeah I didn't either. Clearly he doesn't do good. Yeah I didn't either. Clearly he's not right. Just yeah, I wasn't either. Clearly my feet are swift to go and shed blood. Yes, mine were as well. Or do you not remember the teaching of Christ and the Sermon on the Mountain. You've heard it said that you shall not murder. But I say to you, if you hate your brother, you're guilty enough to face the fires of hell yourself. But for the grace of God, there go you, There go on. But for the grace of God. This is who we were apart from Christ. And unless and until we grasp this, we will never ever ever properly understand or appreciate our debt to Christ. Unless and until we understand this, we will never grasp and we will never understand how worthy He is of our worship. But your problem and my problem is this, we believe this about everybody else, but not about us. We believe this about the serial killer, but we don't believe it about me. We look back on our lives as we were before Christ, and if the truth were told, we actually believe that in us there was some inkling of something that Christ must have seen and must have appreciated, and that must have made us catch his eye. But instead we ought to say with the apostles, I was chief among sinners. But we do not. We do not. If we don't understand this, I'll say again, we don't understand our children and their greatest need. And we look at these behaviors of our children, and yes, we want to correct those behaviors, but we do not understand that. The reason our children, these small little cherubs, these so called innocent ones, the reason that they do what they do is because they are every bit of Romans Chapter three, verses nine through eighteen. They come into the world like this. One of the reasons that God makes human babies small is so they won't kill their parents in their sleep. They're evil. Yes, this is true of children. None is righteous, not one. None understands, No one thinks God, no one does good. Yes, that little precious one. You better believe it. If you don't, you miss the big picture and you don't realize your desperate need to get the Gospel to your child again and again and again and again. Here's the other thing you need to understand. It takes your whole life to wash this off. Amen, somebody the sanctification process. Again, we are declared righteous before God. There is that legal declaration, and praise God for that legal declaration. But here's what that legal declaration doesn't mean. You are deca laied righteous, and from this day on you will forget the things you used to know. Your feet will no longer remember those well worn paths to shed blood, your tongue will no longer remember how to shape those words that destroy. No you and I know better than that. And every once in a while we're reminded that we're saved, but we remember some stuff, and it causes us to remember once again our great need and dependence every moment of every day on the saving and sanctifying work of Jesus Christ. Of our great need week in and week out, to have the Gospel preached to us, of our great need to actively refuse to be conformed to this world, and to actively be transformed by the ongoing renewing of our minds. Is the other thing. I pray that this truth causes us to realize the great need of our family and our friends and our neighbors. What they need is the Gospel. You know. One of the reasons that we don't preach the Gospel to people around us, aside from just outright fear interrepredation. One of the reasons we don't is because we don't believe they need it. We're not desperate over the souls of our love lost loved ones because we don't believe this paragraph. We look at our lost loved ones and all we see is the inconvenience that they bring when they come over our house with their stuff and I don't mean their suitcases. Amen, That's all we see. And as a result of seeing just that, here's what we pray Lord when they come, when you please help them to just not be as horrible as they were last time. Instead of praying, God, this is who they are. They're not righteous, they don't seek after you, they don't understand. They do not do good, and nor did I. They haven't known the way of peace. Their feet are swift to shed blood. There is no fear of God before their eyes, and they need the Gospel. Grant me wisdom to share what they need. And would you continue to break my heart so that I share it again and again and again. And instead of praying that they don't inconvenience me so much, help me to pray that they would not offend you with their sin because the fact of the matter is, God, I am much more concerned about my lost friends, neighbors, and relatives inconveniencing me than I am jealous for the glory of your name. That's why we don't share the gospel, because we don't believe this. That's why we're not on our faces before God, weeping over people who've never heard God's truth, weeping over places where there are no churches, because we don't believe this. But we believe that somehow there are pockets of people in the world who are ignorant but not evil. Somehow there are evil people all over the place, but somehow there are people in the world who haven't had an opportunity to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. And those people aren't evil, They're just ignorant. That's why we sit down and we ask questions like, well, what about those people? Surely, surely God wouldn't condemn those people. Do We need to go back to Roman chapter one. They are without excuse. They too are not righteous, They too do not seek after God, they too do not understand, and they too are absolutely no good. That's why we must preach to them. Folks, This is why the Gospel is good news, because the fact of the matter is, neither you nor I would have seen fit to go and reading this. And yet God, being great in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, he did just that while we were yet sinnered. He did just that. Christ did not die for those who had a little spark and a little inkling that did something with it that made it worthwhile for him. Christ died for the ungodly. And it is because of his finished work and his shed blood that we are able to be saved. We get that, we get the greatness of the Gospel. We get that, we get the majesty of our Savior. We get that, and we get some of these proclamations that we make. And week out, do you view your sin this way? Because only when you do well, you you Christ rightly. Jupell me u U M