Total Inability (Total Depravity - Part 2)

Thank you for listening to this message from the ministry of Morse Corner Church in Leverett, Massachusetts. Morse Corner is a non-denominational church that is committed to the preaching and teaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Our church was founded in 1896 by two students of the famous evangelist D .L. Moody. We seek to encourage and edify the body of Christ through the proclamation of God's word through the ministries of the local church.

If you'd like more information, visit our website morsecornerchurch .com. We hope you enjoy the message. Total depravity has also been called total inability. That you are unable to come to God without assistance from God the Holy Spirit.

The Father Drawing Sinners to Christ

As Jesus said in John 6, 44, No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him and I will raise him up at the last day. Do you know how you came to faith and how I came to faith? We heard the gospel, the Holy Spirit worked in our heart, and the Holy Spirit drew us to Christ through the gospel.

That's how people come to faith, not by really trying hard to be a better person. Self-reform, you can get rid of some bad behavior in your life, but you cannot work your way to God. You need the gospel, you need the Spirit of God.

Now, I have to bring this up because somebody is thinking this and some people know that total depravity, when you hear total depravity, what do you think of? A couple of you, what do you think of? Felons.

Felons, okay, well that's a good, yeah. But you understand that it's not just talking about felons, it's talking about everybody, right? Well, this is known, total depravity, is known as the T in the acrostic tulip or the acronym tulip.

We still haven't settled what's the difference between an acronym and an acrostic. Let me know later on, but this is one of the points of Calvinism. You've heard of Calvinism or the five points of Calvinism.

Some people are totally against Calvinism. Here's the thing, you don't need to believe in Calvinism to believe in total depravity, even though that's how people associate it. Non-Calvinists believe in total depravity as well.

And I just want to illustrate this. About 15 years ago, when I first started studying this subject of the sovereignty of God, I really found it confusing because you have the free will of man or what is called free will, and you have the sovereignty of God, and I didn't know how to make heads or tails of it.

But there was a man on TV that I often listened to, and that man's name was Charles Stanley. So I decided, because I would talk to people about this and ask people questions, and they either acted like they didn't know or they didn't want to talk about it.

So I decided I would send Charles Stanley a letter, and of course probably never got to him, but his secretary or somebody sent a pamphlet explaining to me that Dr. Stanley rejected the five points of Calvinism, but he did accept two points.

Charles Stanley believed in total depravity and the P of TULIP, perseverance of the saints. So I only say that for those who are against Calvinism. This is something that really every Christian should believe, Calvinist, Arminian, it doesn't matter.

The Biblical Case for Human Depravity

My point is this is biblical, okay? Total depravity is biblical. You say, I don't care about theology. I don't care about Calvinism and these old debates from 500 years ago. Just tell me what the Bible says.

Is that where some of you are at? Jeremiah 17 verse nine. The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? Psalm 51 verse five. David said, behold, I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin.

My mother conceived me. First Corinthians 2 14 says, but the natural man does not receive the things of the spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, nor can he know them because they are spiritually discerned.

And then Ephesians 2 verse one, which we're going to talk about in a moment, says that man is dead in trespasses and sins. You know why a person can't work their way to God? Because they're dead. Dead people can't do anything.

Obviously, it's not referring to physical death. What's it referring to? Spiritual death. People are born into this world with the sinful nature. They are DOA dead on arrival. People are born into this world spiritually dead.

So in their natural condition, they don't want to hear any of this. They do not want the gospel. They do not want Jesus ruling over them. Is that the natural condition? You didn't just look around and look at the world around you.

You see that that's that's the case. So is mankind basically good? No. Are you a good person? No. This is a hard sell. This is a hard sell. But if you think if I say, well, I'm a good person, I'll refer to somebody.

Yeah, he's a good guy. That's not a theological statement. It's just I find him to be a nice guy. But before God, compared to God's standard of perfection, none of us are good. Right. So there is no part of us that is left unaffected by the fall.

There is no island of righteousness within you. You know, we can't, you know, if we really try hard that we can pull ourselves up by our spiritual bootstraps to please God. You cannot do that. The apostle Paul says in Romans 718, for I know that in me that is in my flesh.

Nothing good dwells. Some of you say, I already know all this. I agree with all this. Yeah, this is because you're saved because you have the new nature. It's because you're born again. You are a new creation in Christ.

That's why you believe this. But for the people that don't believe this, you know why you don't believe this. Well, I mean, connect the dots. If somebody truly thinks that they are good and are not in need of God's saving grace, they're not in need of God's saving grace.

They are what? Lost. So you can't really understand who God is until you first understand who you are. All right. Now, moving on again, I realize when some people hear terms like this, doctrine or theology, you might be tempted to tune out.

So the third point is, why does this matter? Why should you care? Isn't this what people say with any type of preaching? How does this affect me? How does this affect my life? Some people will say, you know, these are doctrines and doctrine divides, but love unites.

So can't we all just love each other and just get along and never mind all this stuff? Or they'll say, just preach the gospel. And all that sounds good, but this cuts to the heart of the gospel. The gospel is what?

The good news of Jesus Christ. Salvation by grace through faith in the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. Without this bad news, and what I've been preaching up until this point is bad news. Oh, this leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

That's the point. This is bad news. The depravity of man is bad news. But until you understand the bad news, you'll never understand your need for the good news. I would argue if you don't understand total depravity, Jesus dying on the cross is completely irrelevant.

The gospel is completely irrelevant. Salvation is irrelevant unless there's something you need to be saved from. Now some of you, you get this already. And if you get this already, this is just reinforcing you and you've heard it again.

Now it should be able to roll off your tongue and you can tell it to somebody else. But there's others here or listening later online or radio that you don't believe this. You don't understand this, but it's essential that you do.

I would say this is one of the most important teachings from the Bible. One of the most. Because again, without this understanding of depravity, you can't really understand the goodness of God. Because you think you're good.

You think you're just like God. You think you're worthy of what God has. So the Greek word translated gospel, who knows what it is? Ewangalion. So in the Greek, that's the word. And it means glad tidings or good news.

So if everyone is already good, you know, if you're fine and I'm fine, if you're good and I'm good and we're all good and we're all fine. Then what's the point of the gospel? Who's good? Who is good? None good concerning mankind.

Who is good? God is good. Jesus died on the cross and rose again so that we might be saved. Saved from what? Saved from our sin and its penalty. I really don't think even a saved believer like you or like myself, I still don't think we really truly comprehend the depravity of the heart of man.

That verse, Jeremiah 17 verse nine heart is deceitful. He says, who can know it? Who? Not me, not you, but there is one who knows it. And that's God. God knows the human heart. This is why Jesus said in Matthew 7 verse 11, Jesus referred to humanity as evil.

And then in John 7 verse 7, Jesus identified this as the reason why the world did not accept him because he testified that the deeds of mankind are what? Evil. When somebody calls you evil, what do you do?

You get mad at them. When somebody tells you you're wrong or you need, you get mad and that's what they did. And they crucified the son of God. That's proof of total depravity. Nothing proves total depravity like mankind killing the son of God.

So God has given the 10 command. We could go to Exodus chapter 20 and go through every one of the 10 commandments. And we would see that you and I and every human being, we have all broken the 10 commandments.

If you've never broken the 10 commandments, indeed, you have broken them in your thought life. You've wanted to break the 10 commandments, even if you haven't. Let's say you've never murdered anyone. You know what Jesus said if because you've wanted to kill somebody.

You don't want to admit that to people, but you felt like it. Jesus said, if you are angry with your brother without a cause, you're guilty of that commandment. See, the 10 commandments are like a heading and all sorts of things fall underneath each one.

Well, you know, I've never committed adultery. Yeah, but you've you've wanted to. You thought about it. Jesus said, if you've lusted after someone in your heart, they are not married to you've committed adultery in your heart.

We know this, right? So if you've never actually broken the commandment in your heart, you have. This is what the Sermon on the Mount was all about. The Jews thought they were righteous in the hay. We keep the commandments.

We don't need to be saved. And then Jesus goes into all this and he's like, you haven't kept any of the commandments. So if anyone says that man is basically good, that just doesn't mean that means they just don't understand who God is.

They don't understand themselves. So that's why this matters. And then I want to talk to a more practical level why this matters. So we've talked about it from a stance of understanding the gospel from a personal position, just on a level for society.

Here's why total depravity matters. Do you realize that the founders of this country and not all of them were Christians? I think we get that. But the founders of this country understood something about the depravity of man.

When they set up the government, they did it with this biblical teaching in mind. This is why our nation has survived almost 250 years, because they understood depravity. Because they understood depravity.

What did they do? They had the separation of powers. Right. We have three branches of government. Some believe, incidentally, that this is based off of Isaiah 33, 22, which says the Lord is our judge.

The Lord is our lawgiver and the Lord is our king. Some people think the founders based the three branches off of that. I don't know if that's the case. But they surely didn't want one man having too much power.

Nor did they want one branch of government having too much power. What's the statement? That power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Thanks for listening. I'm Pastor Michael Grant from Morris Cornett Church.

If you'd like to listen to the complete message or if you'd like more information about the ministry, visit our website, MorrisCornettChurch .com. We'd love to have you join us some Sunday morning here in Leverett.

Until next time, may the grace of God be with you.