Understanding Total Depravity

Sovereign Grace Family Church iconSovereign Grace Family Church

2 views

0 comments

00:01
Last week, I had a sermon that had three points and I got through one of them.
00:15
And I said that, well, I better just go ahead and break it into parts because there's so much that need be said on this subject that it's not really appropriate to simply just try to force it all in to one message.
00:34
But if you would turn your Bibles, we are still in Hebrews chapter 11, verse 1.
00:42
And the reason why we are belaboring this subject is because this particular passage of Scripture reminds us of what faith is, that it is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things unseen.
01:02
And we talked in the first week about simply what the verse is telling us.
01:08
And then last week, we talked about the fact that true Christian faith has to have an object.
01:19
And the object of true Christian faith is the finished work of Christ.
01:27
That if the object of our faith is anything other than the finished work of Christ, then it is not genuine Christian faith.
01:35
If the object of our faith is our own works, or if the object of our faith is the work of someone else other than Christ, or if the object of our faith is a mixture of Christ's work and my works, then we are pointing our faith at the wrong thing.
01:54
And I said this is the major problem in the cults.
01:57
Last week, we dealt with the groups like Islam and Mormonism and the Jehovah's Witness movement, all of which teach that the finished work of Christ is not sufficient for salvation.
02:12
And our lesson last week, again, was to express the sufficiency of Christ's work.
02:21
So that's the object of true Christian faith.
02:24
Today, we are going to look at the origin of true Christian faith.
02:33
And we're going to ask this question.
02:36
If faith in Christ is necessary, where does it come from? That's the question we're going to seek to answer today.
02:52
That being said, let's stand and simply read the verse of our study, Hebrews chapter 11, verse 1.
03:07
Now, faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
03:20
Father, as we study the Word this morning, and as we seek to understand the various scriptures we're going to be examining, I pray that you would help, Lord God, all of us.
03:33
Help me, of course, by keeping me from error.
03:36
Help the congregation by keeping their minds clear and focused on the Word.
03:41
Help us all, O God, to glorify you in our study.
03:46
Forgive us of our sins and help us to have a time of genuine worship through the Word.
03:55
Again, Lord, guide me as I preach.
03:59
In Jesus' name, Amen.
04:08
The question again is this, and if you're taking notes, this might be what you want to put in bold letters, big letters, because this is the key of the morning.
04:20
If faith is necessary for salvation, where does this faith come from? Is it mustered up by our own human will and desires? Or is God the one who gives us the desire to believe? Now, to introduce this subject, I want to talk about a doctrine that is very important, especially in the Reformed movement.
04:57
When we talk about the Reformed movement, we talk about the Reformation, the 15th, 16th century Protestant Reformation, and we talk about the doctrines that arose out of that.
05:11
These are not new doctrines.
05:13
They weren't new with the Reformation, but they were important in solidifying what the Reformers were saying in opposition to what was being taught by Rome.
05:25
And one of those doctrines that is of utmost importance is a doctrine that we call total depravity.
05:36
Total depravity.
05:37
Now, total depravity can be somewhat misleading, because when you think about total, you think about full, all to be expressed in that sense.
05:50
And when you think about total depravity and you think about human beings, you think, well, you know, we're not as bad as we could be.
05:59
And that's not what total depravity is saying.
06:02
Total depravity is not saying we are as bad as we could be.
06:05
Even Hitler could have been worse.
06:07
He could have killed another million.
06:09
I believe, you know, if truth be told, he probably had a few friends.
06:13
I can imagine being friends with him.
06:15
But I'm sure there were people who said, you know, Adolf's a pretty good guy.
06:21
You know, the point of the matter is when we talk about total depravity, we are talking about the condition of the human heart, that we are by nature not seekers of God, but by nature because of being born in sin and because of our relationship with Adam and the fall and the curse, that we are born with a nature that is in opposition to God.
06:59
And you may think, well, not me, I was pretty good.
07:03
Look at your heart and be honest with yourself.
07:06
Look at the heart of those around you and be honest with yourself to see, do you truly have a heart that seeks after God or did you before he first sought you? I want to read to you a passage of Scripture.
07:21
And if you want to look at the passage of Scripture with me, you can.
07:24
It's probably one of the most telling on this particular subject.
07:27
And it is the book of Romans chapter three and verse 10.
07:34
I better hurry, too, because this could end up being a two part by itself.
07:38
This is the third part of another set, so better hurry a little bit.
07:42
Romans chapter three, verse 10.
07:46
Paul is quoting various passages from the Old Testament.
07:51
And he said in Romans chapter three, verse 10, as it is written, indicating that he's quoting from Old Testament Scripture, as it is written, none is righteous.
08:02
No, not one.
08:04
No one understands.
08:07
No one seeks for God.
08:11
And if you look at that word in the Greek, actually the phrase there, it doesn't just say no one seeks for God, it says there is no God seeker.
08:19
That is the more expressed use of the term in the Greek there.
08:24
And I think that the reason why I make that point, I think that the focus Paul is making is that no one can call himself a God seeker.
08:34
No one can call himself a seeker of God.
08:37
All have turned aside, together they have become worthless.
08:41
No one does good, not even one.
08:44
Their throat is an open grave.
08:45
They use their tongues to deceive.
08:47
The venom of asps is under their lips.
08:50
Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.
08:53
Their feet are swift to shed blood.
08:55
And their paths are ruined in misery.
08:57
And the way of peace they have not known.
09:00
There is no fear of God before their eyes.
09:06
That's the way the Apostle Paul chooses to describe humanity.
09:14
And what you have to remember is that this comes on the heels of the Apostle Paul describing both sects of humanity.
09:22
He's saying there is the Jews and there's everybody else.
09:28
And that's how the Jews viewed the world.
09:30
The Jews viewed the world as sort of an us opposed to them mentality.
09:35
God has chosen Israel as a nation.
09:37
So he's chosen us.
09:39
He has not chosen them.
09:40
And they separated themselves.
09:42
And they said, look, this is the way it is.
09:44
There's us in them.
09:45
And even though they might be unrighteous, we are the righteous ones.
09:49
And the Apostle Paul says, look, here's the way it is.
09:51
All of the Gentiles, all the Greeks, all of them, they're all sinful.
09:57
And then so are the Jews.
10:00
And then he goes on to chapter...
10:01
That's what Romans 1 and 2 is all about.
10:03
Romans 1 tells us that all of humanity is sinful.
10:07
Romans 2 tells us that even if you're a Jew and you think you're not among humanity, you are.
10:10
You're just as sinful as they are.
10:12
And Romans 3 comes to the point at the great apex of his argument.
10:15
And he said there's none good, no, not one.
10:20
Now, that is what we call in language a universal negative.
10:28
When I say there is none good, no, not one, that means if there was one, that would be wrong.
10:38
Right? If I said no one can ride a bike and I see somebody pedaling across on a bike, I'm wrong.
10:46
Because I made a statement of a universal negative and it was proven to be wrong.
10:52
So if somebody tells me I'm a seeker of God and God has not first sought them, they're wrong.
10:59
Because the Bible makes the statement of the universal negative, that we by nature are not God seekers.
11:08
That's why these churches, we're a seeker sensitive church, a seeker friendly church.
11:14
Well, we are, too, but we're concerned with him because he's the only seeker that truly seeks.
11:23
Anyway, getting back to the point, Jesus affirmed that there is none good, no, not one.
11:33
When the rich young ruler, I don't know if you guys remember that story, but there's this guy who ran up to Jesus and he says, good teacher, tell me what I must do to be saved.
11:42
What did Jesus respond? Well, he said, so our possessions, that's first or assuming that's part of it, but that's not first.
11:51
What do you say first? Why do you call me good? That's very good.
12:03
That's right.
12:04
He said, why do you call me good? There is only one good and that is God.
12:11
Now, in that Jesus is not denying the truth of his own divine goodness.
12:17
He's not denying his own deity.
12:20
What he is, however, doing is he is expressly rebuking the assumption of the man.
12:31
The assumption of the man is that someone could be good.
12:37
When he comes up and he says, good teacher, Jesus said, slow down.
12:42
He said, wait a minute.
12:44
Why would you call me good? Don't you know by the very nature of mankind that there is none good? See, to Jesus, this wasn't even a debate.
12:58
It was just how we know by the very nature of the way the world works.
13:03
There is none good.
13:04
Why would you even think to call me good? It's very important because when we understand that by nature we're not good, when we understand by nature we are sinful and rebellious and opposed to God, when we understand that being in that natural state, the second thing we have to ask ourselves is, does that natural state change by an act of my will? Or does that state change by an act of the will of God? That's where the question comes in.
13:40
Can I change my nature? Well, the Bible says no.
13:47
The Bible says in Jeremiah chapter 13 and verse 23, it asks a question.
13:53
Jeremiah asked this.
13:54
He says, can the Ethiopian change his skin? Answer, no.
14:02
He says, can the leopard change his spots? Answer, no.
14:09
He says, then can you do good? Who are, and it says accustomed to do it, but I would I would I would translate who by nature are evil.
14:25
So what has to precede my doing good? What has to precede? The acts of righteousness towards God, faith, these things.
14:40
An act of God on my heart to change my nature.
14:45
An act of God must precede my action.
14:50
The Bible tells us that before we are regenerated or the more biblical term before the word Jesus uses is born again.
15:01
He said before.
15:06
Got to keep my voice now.
15:09
I'll be yelling later at the football team.
15:11
No, I'm just kidding.
15:18
The Bible teaches that man before he is regenerated or born again.
15:25
Is dead in sin.
15:30
That little key word dead in sin.
15:34
Should should at least paint a picture for us as our condition, because one thing dead people do not do.
15:43
Dead people do not resurrect themselves.
15:48
They don't will to come out of the tomb on their own.
15:54
In fact, when Lazarus had been dead in the tomb.
15:58
For four days and Jesus is standing there and he says, remove the stone.
16:03
What they say by now, he's thinking.
16:06
That's what they said, what they mean, it's over.
16:12
He can't make a decision to stand up and walk.
16:14
He can't make a decision to come out of that tomb.
16:16
He is dead and he can't do anything.
16:19
Jesus said, roll the stone away.
16:20
He said, Lazarus, come forth.
16:22
And one of the great speakers of history said the reason why he said Lazarus come forth.
16:27
So he didn't say just come forth is because all the tombs would open up and they had a, you know, everybody would have came.
16:32
The power of Christ is unlimited.
16:34
But he said he made the distinction Lazarus come forth and Lazarus got up and walked out of the tomb.
16:41
And I am beloved, even though that is not a parable.
16:44
That is an actual historical event.
16:47
I think there is a parabolic significance to how we as dead sinners are brought to new life.
16:55
We are called from death to life by the power of God, not by the power of our own will.
17:02
We are as dead as Lazarus was in the tomb before Christ saves us.
17:07
But Christ reaches down into our dead, cold stone hearts, and he gives us a living heart of flesh that we might live for him.
17:16
That's the picture that Scripture gives to us.
17:19
The Bible says, for the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile towards God.
17:23
What's the mind that is set on the flesh? The mind that hasn't been changed.
17:26
The heart that hasn't been converted.
17:27
It says that's hostile towards God.
17:29
It does not submit to God's law.
17:32
Indeed, it cannot.
17:36
Cannot.
17:37
You remember when you were in school? And you remember when you'd raise your hand and you'd say, teacher, can I go to the restroom? And she would say, uh uh uh.
17:49
Of course, you can go to the restroom.
17:55
But the question is, may I go? Right.
17:59
You remember that? I don't know if your teacher did it.
18:01
Mine did it all the time to express the difference between the right and the ability to say, may I do something is is a speaking of a right to do something.
18:15
But can I is a speaking of ability.
18:18
Thus, when I go back to this passage and it says the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile towards God, it does not submit to his law.
18:26
Indeed, it cannot.
18:29
Doesn't say it may not.
18:30
Doesn't say it doesn't have the right.
18:31
Said doesn't have the ability.
18:34
Because the nature has not yet been converted.
18:41
I know I'm just building upon building, trying to prove a point here.
18:45
But the fact is, beloved, we have a we have a nation of people in the Christian church, the Christian community that that that that just believe that you turn on and turn off your conversion like water.
18:59
That is something we do.
19:01
I believe so.
19:05
I got saved.
19:06
It was all something I did.
19:07
It was an action I took.
19:09
What caused the action of faith? Was it your sinful, unconverted, undesirous of God's soul that made you come towards God? Or was it because God reached down into the tomb and the pit of your sin and pulled you out in mercy and grace? It's not a difficult question.
19:31
We just don't always like the answer.
19:36
John six is the passage that I think most clearly expresses this truth.
19:43
So if you want to turn there, we're going to be all over the Bible today.
19:48
Because any time you're expressing a truth like this, you want to ensure that you are using the analogy of Scriptorum or the analogy of Scripture, you're comparing Scripture with itself to see if what you're saying is correct.
20:03
John chapter six, Jesus is preaching at the synagogue at Capernaum.
20:12
Now, this is right after Jesus had fed the five thousand.
20:18
He had gone to Capernaum and he had throngs of people following him.
20:24
And he looks at a he looks at the group of people and he says, look, he said, you follow after me, but you don't believe.
20:32
You don't really believe.
20:34
And that's what we're going to talk about next week.
20:36
We're going to talk about what false faith is.
20:38
We're going to talk about what it means to to to say you believe in Jesus, but not have a converted heart.
20:43
There are millions of people who call themselves Christians who still live like the devil.
20:51
But that's next week.
20:52
I want to go there.
20:54
The point is, Jesus says this.
20:56
John six thirty seven.
21:02
He says this.
21:03
He says all that the father gives me.
21:07
Will come to me.
21:10
And whoever comes to me, I will never cast out.
21:13
Now, what is the term come to me mean? That phrase is parallel to the idea of faith.
21:21
All that the father gives me will come to me in faith, will come to me in belief, will come to me.
21:26
What do we mean when we say we came to Jesus? It means we came to believe, came to faith in him.
21:31
And this specifically says that there's something that precedes our coming.
21:39
What is it? The father giving us.
21:46
To the son.
21:48
Jesus is speaking, he says, all that the father gives me.
21:53
Who is that? Well, that's believers, that's people who are who are faithful.
21:58
That's the father.
21:59
That's who the father is giving to the son.
22:01
He says, he says, but all the father gives me will come to me.
22:05
You notice the giving of the father precedes the coming from the believer.
22:10
Logically, it is a necessity that if all the father gives will come, then the giving of the father precedes the coming of the believer.
22:18
Now, jump down to verse forty four.
22:20
I'm not trying to spread it out.
22:21
I could do the whole passage for us, but I'm not doing next to Jesus of John six.
22:25
We'd be here for six months and I'm not joking.
22:31
But just to look at how this passage flows, Jesus said, all the father gives me will come to me and whoever comes to me, I will not cast out.
22:38
Then later in verse forty four, he repeats this in the universal negative.
22:42
Remember, I already talked with universal negative is right.
22:44
That is, whenever somebody says no one, that means there is not one.
22:50
He says right here in John six, forty four, no one can come to me.
22:56
Unless.
22:58
All right, there's the great dividing point of the sentence.
23:01
No one can come to me.
23:02
If it stopped there, we'd all be in trouble.
23:03
That would mean we'd all be lost in our sin, unable to be saved and dead forever.
23:07
And just waiting for hell's fire.
23:10
If that's what the sentence ended, no one can come to me, we'd be out of luck.
23:16
This is no one can come to me unless there's the divide in the sentence.
23:22
The father who sent me draws him and I will raise him up on the last day.
23:31
Now, let's talk about that word draw, because I've heard people say, well, what that is, is that's God wooing the unbeliever like a groom might woo his potential bride.
23:55
Beloved, that word in the Greek does not mean to woo.
24:00
It means to well, in the most literal sense, compel.
24:07
In fact, later on in the book of Acts, it talks about Paul being thrown into prison.
24:17
And it's the same word.
24:19
And I got to tell you, those guards weren't going, come on, Paul, come on into prison.
24:26
He was not wooed into prison.
24:30
He was dragged into prison.
24:33
He was compelled to go.
24:37
And that word draw, you can look at a study of that word over and over and over and see that never does it mean to simply wish upon a star that something would happen or to woo or to beg.
24:53
It literally means to compel.
24:55
But just in case you think, well, that's not enough of an argument.
24:59
The linguistics doesn't convince me.
25:01
If you look at verse 65, there's a parallel.
25:04
And look what it says in verse 65.
25:05
The parallel says Jesus is speaking and he or he said is talking about what you said.
25:10
And he said and Jesus said, this is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by my father.
25:26
Beloved, what has to be granted? The ability to come to Christ.
25:36
That is not something we do naturally.
25:39
It is not something we do by virtue of our own will.
25:44
It is something that God must grant us the ability to do.
25:47
Why? Because we don't want to.
25:51
Because we don't have a natural inkling to.
25:53
It goes against our natural desire of self-governance and total human autonomy.
26:02
Man does not want in his fleshly state a sovereign God.
26:08
That's why the preaching of God's sovereignty, which is what I'm doing right now, is often met with great disregard and even hatred because people don't want to hear it.
26:18
People don't want to hear that God is sovereign.
26:20
It offends the natural mind, which is why God must change the heart.
26:26
We won't.
26:26
We don't come to God on our own.
26:28
God must change our heart for us to even desire to come.
26:33
I look at it like this and this may you may think this is kind of a weird analogy, but Jeff Thomas wrote this.
26:38
I thought it was interesting.
26:43
And some of you may think this is going a little weird, but hang with me.
26:47
I promise it'll make sense.
26:56
Think about murder.
26:58
All right.
27:01
Most of us would not be able to simply murder someone in cold blood.
27:12
If you said now you're going to have to murder this person or if the idea of murder came up, your first statement would be, I can't do that.
27:25
Right.
27:26
But what does it mean when you say you can't? Does it mean you don't have the ability? No.
27:34
You got muscles.
27:35
You got the capability of going and procuring a weapon.
27:40
You've got everything it takes physically to act it out.
27:44
But there's something inside of you.
27:46
There's a nature inside of you that would tell you can't do that.
27:51
Most of us have a nature that's opposed to murder and we wouldn't murder.
27:59
Because it would be in opposition to our nature.
28:02
Our nature would have to change for us to desire to murder someone in cold blood.
28:09
Well, beloved, that might seem like a strained analogy, but if you look at it the other way, it's the exact same thing.
28:16
Our nature is predisposed to sin and predisposed away from faith.
28:22
And unless God changes our nature, we will not believe.
28:28
That's the point.
28:30
Not because we lack the inward parts that make up who we are to believe, but because it goes contrary to our very nature to do such a thing.
28:41
Unless God changes our nature.
28:45
And again, does this paint a real rosy view of humankind? No.
28:51
But at the same time, the Bible is very clear.
28:55
You know what? You know, one of the things that bothers me most when I read the Scriptures and I talk to people is how much people like the story of Noah.
29:12
We talk about Noah and the ark and all the animals like it's a kid's story.
29:23
But why did God tell Noah to build an ark? Because he was about to wipe the face of humanity clean because of sin.
29:37
Because the Bible says in Genesis that the only desire of their heart was only evil continually.
29:48
I take that as a picture of humankind and tell me we don't have to have our nature changed before we will willfully come to the Savior.
30:01
I got a lot more to say on this and I don't want to belabor the point.
30:07
But I do want to make this very clear.
30:14
Faith is not something that we muster up on our own.
30:18
Faith is something that God gives us the ability to do by changing our nature.
30:24
And the Bible is clear that faith is a gift.
30:28
Romans 12, verse 3, it says that we are all given or I'll just read it says, For by the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think.
30:40
What's Paul saying there? Don't think too high of yourself.
30:42
Why? But to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.
30:48
Ultimately, because it's not your goodness that you ought to be praising.
30:51
It's God's goodness being good to you, giving you that ability to even have the faith God has assigned it to you.
30:58
Philippians 1, 29 says it is granted to you for the sake of Christ that you should not only believe in him, but also suffer for his sake.
31:05
That sounds kind of funny in English, but in Greek, it is very clear.
31:08
It says that that which is given to you is the ability to believe.
31:15
John 6, 29.
31:16
Jesus said this is the work of God that you believe in him who he has sent.
31:20
This is the work of God that you believe.
31:24
I think that's pretty clear.
31:28
Ephesians 2, 8.
31:29
My favorite verse.
31:29
Used to have it on a bracelet.
31:31
Lost my bracelet.
31:32
It doesn't matter, but it was still my favorite verse.
31:35
Ephesians 2, 8 says, say it with me, For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that is not of yourself.
31:42
It is the gift of God and not of works, lest anyone should boast.
31:46
For by grace you've been saved through faith, and that is not of yourself.
31:51
And people say, now, wait a minute, Pastor.
31:57
That, looking backwards, the direct antecedent of that is faith.
32:02
However, it doesn't match in the Greek that faith is the preceding antecedent of that.
32:08
So when it says for by grace you've been saved through faith and that is not of yourself, they'll say that is talking about grace.
32:13
But grace doesn't match it in the Greek either.
32:16
You see, the Greek antecedent and the preceding or the noun and the adjectives have to agree.
32:23
And neither one of them agree.
32:25
But what does agree is the entirety of the whole.
32:27
Salvation itself is a gift from God, which includes both grace and faith.
32:39
All right, give me another minute of your attention, because now we're going to get to something real important.
32:45
Because I wanted to say this in addition to the faith being a gift.
32:49
This is important.
32:51
There is something that is, from a religious Christian perspective, there is something very akin to faith.
33:00
What do we call it? Repentance.
33:05
Right.
33:06
Repentance and faith are often used side by side in Scripture.
33:10
If you look at Jesus, when Jesus in Mark chapter one, he went about preaching, what was the very first thing he preached? Repentance towards God and faith in the gospel.
33:20
Right.
33:20
Repent and believe the gospel.
33:24
So one question I would ask.
33:28
Is repentance.
33:31
If repentance and faith are two sides of our conversion, because we know that's both tantamount as part of our conversion, we repent and believe or we believe and repent.
33:43
And there's an argument about the orda salutis, which comes first, faith or repentance? I have a whole page on it we're not going to get to today.
33:48
But in the argument sort of goes like this.
33:53
Well, if belief has to precede repentance because faith is what causes repentance and others would say, well, repentance simply means to change the mind.
34:00
And if you're going from unbelief to belief, then faith is a form of repentance.
34:04
So repentance preceded it.
34:05
Blah, blah, blah.
34:06
Don't worry about it.
34:07
Just know this.
34:08
I got a whole lot written on it and we could have went there, but I don't want to I don't want to drown us in that.
34:14
What I want to say is this.
34:16
Faith is a gift of God and so is repentance.
34:19
And the verse that I like to show people that is so clear to me is in the book of Second Timothy, and I want you to go there.
34:27
And this is the last place we're going to go today.
34:30
Second Timothy chapter two.
34:34
What is Timothy about? What is Paul writing Timothy about? Pastoral ministry.
34:41
We call First and Second Timothy and Titus the pastoral epistles.
34:46
Meaning that they were written particularly on the subject of pastoral ministry.
34:52
Paul writes to Timothy in the second letter of chapter two.
34:58
He's talking about how the minister is supposed to behave.
35:03
Verse 24, he says, and the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome, but kind to everyone.
35:20
Able to teach.
35:23
Patiently enduring evil.
35:26
Correcting his opponents with gentleness.
35:31
And now he gets to the why.
35:34
Why? Why must the pastor? Why must the minister be not quarrelsome? Why must the minister be kind to everyone? Why must the minister be able to teach patiently enduring evil, correcting everyone with gentleness? Why? Because God may perhaps, King James says, peradventure.
35:57
God may perhaps grant them repentance.
36:06
Leading to a knowledge of the truth.
36:09
And they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil.
36:13
After being captured by him to do his will.
36:17
Beloved, don't tell me repentance is not a gift.
36:19
Because the Bible says God grants repentance and it's his sovereign will to do so.
36:32
Now, I want to end with a question that I know some of you may have.
36:38
Some of you may ask this question.
36:40
Well, Pastor.
36:42
Faith and repentance are things that we are commanded to do.
36:46
We're commanded to believe and we're commanded to repent.
36:49
So why, if there's something we're commanded to do, would we call them gifts from God? I want to make this perfectly clear.
37:00
When we say that faith and repentance are gifts from God.
37:05
What we are saying is that the ability to do that is a gift from God.
37:15
Our natural desire for faith and repentance is not there.
37:20
The gift of God gives us the change in our nature that is required to desire, to believe and to repent.
37:30
But God doesn't believe for you.
37:34
Neither does he repent for you.
37:37
It's your faith and your repentance.
37:41
But you would not have come to that place were it not for the preceding gift of God, which gave you the ability, which changed your nature, which made you able to believe and to repent.
37:57
There is a saying from St.
37:58
Augustine.
38:01
He said, Father, grant what thou commandeth and then command what thou will.
38:13
We need to understand that little statement.
38:16
Because Augustine made perfect sense.
38:18
He says, God, it is to you and to you alone who can grant us the ability to do what you want us to do.
38:26
Because apart from God granting us the ability, we would be unable to do it.
38:43
With our heads bowed and eyes closed, I just want to make this point clear.
38:46
If you are here today and you have come to Christ in genuine faith and repentance, know that it is because God has shown mercy to you in giving you the ability to come.
38:57
Jesus clearly said no one can come unless the Father grants it.
39:03
And if this is not your condition, I pray for you.
39:06
I pray God's mercy upon you.
39:09
I pray that he would change your heart so that you would believe.
39:13
Father, we thank you for this day.
39:16
We pray, oh God, and thank you for your mercy.
39:19
We thank you for that sovereign grace which has reached down into our dead souls and given us fresh life.
39:27
We pray, oh Lord, that we will understand not only the doctrine of total depravity, but the doctrine of sovereign saving grace.
39:35
That you, by your mercy, have saved us in accordance with your will.
39:41
We pray now as we prepare for our time where we call on people for prayer, that Lord, if there is one among us who has never been called by you or known by you, Lord God, if it is your will to call them today, we pray your spirit would have his way to work in this place.
40:01
All these things, Lord, we pray in Jesus' name and for his sake.
40:06
Amen.
40:10
Beloved, let us stand now.
40:12
And if you have a need to come forward for prayer, if you feel the Lord drawing you, perhaps you want to join the church, perhaps you just need to be prayed over, please come as we sing.