The Doctrine of Man - Part 1 — Paul Washer

The Depravity of Man and Humanity’s False God

Now, we're talking about a very, very special and very dangerous doctrine. We're talking about men. We're talking about the depravity of men. Now, when I was a little boy, I remember you could go into certain places, country stores where men would sit around and talk, or barber shops.

And I even saw in one of them a sign one time, you can talk about anything here but politics and religion. Because we all know that those two things, especially religion, will cause a war. But when you start teaching on the doctrine of man, you are trampling on humanity's God.

Because humanity's God is humanity. Mark Twain said, my religion is humanity. And that is the religion of men. And so whenever you begin to take this doctrine on of what is man, know that war is going to be declared upon you.

How dare you speak about me this way? But the doctrine of man determines almost everything else that you understand in the Scriptures. As a matter of fact, it was through coming to grips with the doctrine of man that eventually led me to the doctrines of grace.

To come to the conclusion, if man is truly as the Bible paints him, then there is absolutely no hope for man except a gracious God that initiates and fulfills the very thing he initiates. Now, when we talk about the doctrine of man, we talk about the fall that was set before us.

Mystery, Inference, and the Doctrine of the Trinity

We have to always realize that there is a great deal of mystery. And there are things in Scriptures that are direct statements that we can grab a hold of. There are other things that we feel comfortable in making inferences, but realize they're still inferences.

A perfect example of this would be the Trinity. I know that God is one. I know that there are three distinct persons who are God. I know that from Scripture. Now, when I start trying to put all that together, I move into the realm of inference.

Now, it's important to wrangle with these things of exactly how did it happen? But when it comes down to it, what we have to do is accept the fact that God said this. It's true. Martin Lloyd-Jones is very good on this in chapter five of the book of Romans, because he basically says this, ask me to explain imputation.

And he says, I will tell you that I cannot explain it. I do not fully understand it. But I believe it's true because it's exactly what God says. So we have to deal in this realm a lot of times now. But I want you to consider some things about the fall before we go on to our text in Ephesians.

Some things that are very, very important. I want you to look at the fall of man Christologically. Now, what do I mean by that? God, through this redemptive work of Christ, is summing up everything in Christ.

It's all about Christ. It has always been all about Christ. It is so all about Christ that I have come to the conclusion recently that to truly be holy is to love what God loves. And the greatest object of God's affection is his son.

So for me to be most holy is to most love his son. It is all about the son. Everything is about the son. He created the world through the son. He sustains the world through the son. He redeems the world through the son.

He judges the world through his son. He reveals himself to the world through the son. It has always been the son. It's always been about him. Now, turn to Ephesians just quickly. It's not to the main passage, but I want to hit on this before I go to really begin to talk about man.

Christ’s Work and the Revelation of God’s Grace

I want you to look in Ephesians 2. In verse six, it says, and raised us up with him and seated us with him. That is Christ in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Why? So that in the ages of come, he might ages to come.

He might show the surpassing riches of his grace and his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. Now go to chapter three, verse 10, so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.

One thing that almost all theologians agree on, even even neo-Orthodox theologians, is that God is the God of revelation. I'm not speaking about the book of Revelation, but the doctrine of revelation.

God is the God who reveals himself, who unfolds himself, who opens himself up, who makes himself known. Well, now, let's just take a look at something for a moment. Whenever you and I think about God and we're brought to heights of joy and rapture, it's usually not because we're singing about the condemnation of sin or the fall.

Usually when you and I are brought to the greatest delight in God is when we are reveling in grace, when we are reveling in mercy. These are attributes of God that have been revealed. And now therein lies the problem.

How do you reveal grace and mercy and unconditional love in anything but a fallen world? It's an impossibility. It's an impossibility. So this thing of the cross is not just about or primarily even about the redemption of man, but it is about a revelation of the glory and the splendor and the full attributes of God.

What I'm going to tell you is simply this. Apart from the fall, God could never be known in his fullness. Not only could he not be known to us in his fullness, he could not even be known to the principalities and powers and mights and dominion in his fullness.

What is grace? How can it be demonstrated except upon a completely, entirely undeserving creature? When we talk about the fall of Adam, I want you to know that presents some of the greatest philosophical and theological problems in all the Bible.

Adam, Satan, and the Necessity of the Cross

We even take a step back from that. We talk about the fall of Satan. And I mean, when when when Adam is created in the garden, it does not say he was created innocent. It doesn't say that it says he was created good.

And there is a tremendous difference between that. Most pop theologians today, what they do is kind of put it like like God made a cone or a pyramid. Absolutely mathematically perfect with a perfect point at the top, and then he took a perfect sphere, Adam, and he set him and balanced him perfectly.

On that cone, on that point, and then he stood back to see what would happen when the winds blew, would Adam go this way or would Adam go that way? And depending on what Adam did, God would have to respond now that totally removes the sovereignty of God from any sort of picture.

But it does something even worse. It makes Christ plan B. Can you imagine a religion without the cross? Can you imagine a Christianity without the cross? Can you imagine anything of knowing God apart from the cross?

So many people say the cross was necessary because of the fall. I turn it on its head. No, the fall was necessary so that there could be a cross. It was necessary. Now, I want you to look at something else.

God put Adam in that garden. And do you know what? Even those well, let me put it this way, he could have kept Satan out of the garden. Let me even go farther. He could have allowed Satan in the garden and God could have sustained Adam by his grace so that he would not fall have fallen into temptation.

Now, the object there are the objection that most people would present to that is no, no, no, he couldn't do that because then Adam would be a robot. You just annihilated heaven with that statement, because we all believe that in heaven, God will sustain us with his grace and we will not fall.

Does that make us all robots? He could have sustained Adam. But for some reason, he chose not to. We see the same thing with the elect angels. He chose not to. Adam was fully responsible for everything that he did.

God could have sustained him by his grace. God did not. He did not. He did not. And there was a reason for it, a reason for it. That down through the centuries. Would come the Christ to reveal God in the fullness of his glory to reveal God.

God’s Sustaining Grace and the Believer’s Dependence

Now, I want you to look at something, look at the just imagine the world for a moment. I don't suppose there are any Unitarians here or universalist, but just imagine the world for a moment. We all believe that not only did God have to create the world, but he has to sustain the world.

If God draws back from that world, it created he created. It does not have power in itself to remain in existence. It comes to nothing comes to ruin. So he not only creates, he has to sustain. It is the same way.

Not only had it had to create Adam, he had to sustain Adam in that first position of righteousness in his creation to draw back from him. To let him go leads to the fall. Now, what does this teach us?

It teaches us something absolutely spectacular for man himself, absolutely spectacular for the Christian. Is that even in heaven, there will not be this sense in which God makes you perfect. Now it's a done deal and he draws back from you.

No, it is in heaven that God in his covenants and his graciousness is constantly sustaining you. Constantly, so disgusting with some students last night, I said, you think that you've got a certain sin in your life and you're going to pray and fast and read the word and you get victory over it and then you forget about your need of God in that certain area and you fall back into that sin.

That's because God is not going to give you power over that sin and make you complete so that now you can live independently of him. He's teaching you that to have victory over all sin, any sin at any time, you must live in complete and constant dependence upon him.

But this was in God's decree. Adam was not sustained and Adam fell. Now, in this passage in Ephesians that we have here, it says in in chapter two. So that in the ages to come, he might show the surpassing riches of his grace and his kindness towards us in Christ Jesus.

Grace Displayed to Angels and Believers

Let me just share with you what what's going to happen in your future. This is your future. This is the purpose of everything. Satan falls and there's pure justice, perfect. God creates man a ball of dirt infused with holy breath, places him on a planet.

Of dirt. And this creature, so insignificant in comparison to the glorious angels in such a place, so earthy and dirty and primitive. This creature falls. What are all the principalities and powers and might and dominions expecting?

Justice, perfect, unmitigated justice. And what do they see for the first time in all of their existence? Grace. An animal is taken. Skins are made and the covering. They took a look, they take a look at Adam, the wretched state of these two parents of ours, they take a look at God and they see grace and they fall down and they worship God in a way that they could never have worshipped him before.

And then it just keeps going. The grace keeps growing as we see Noah saved. He should have died, too. And we see Israel called forth and we see their heresies and everything else they commit against, but yet more and more grace in all of creation is looking at this wretched thing, looking at God and seeing grace and worshipping in a way they could have never worshipped before.

And then. Comes the Christ incarnate. To walk in the cesspool of our reality, he goes to a tree and he dies, he rises again from the dead, he's seated at the right hand of God's the man for us in heaven, and then there's you.

I want to talk specifically to you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you are born. In sin. File, you came forth from the womb, and if you did not make Hitler look like a choir boy, it's only because the grace of God restrained your evil so that a work of redemption could be done and all of creation is looking down at you saying condemnation, condemnation, condemnation.

And then one day a preacher is sent. And the word of God comes forth and the spirit of God comes and makes you alive and the blood of the lamb cleanses you from your filth and all of creation is looking at this moment and they're worshipping God in a way they could have never worshipped God before.

And then what's going to happen is you're going to die in corruption and then a horn is going to blow. And you will be raised. And you will be seated with Christ. And throughout all of eternity, every day of eternity will lead to greater, more heaping amounts of God's graciousness poured out on your head.

And as you roll through eternity, God's goodness toward you will be more and more exponentially manifested so that all of creation every day, basically their task will be to get up, look at you, see the great things God has done for you in Christ and then worship him in a way they could have never worshipped him even the day before.

This is what's set for you. So now we can we can be burned at the stake. Now we can be hated by all men. Now we can be slandered and maligned and everything else. Why look at this certain future? That is coming upon us that could have never happened without a cross and could have never happened without a fall.

Ephesians 2 and Spiritual Death

Now, let's go on to our our sermon. Let's go to Ephesians, chapter two and chapter two, verse one. You were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.

Among them, we, too, all formerly lived in the lust of our flesh, indulging in the desires of the flesh and of the mind and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. But God, for our young theologians here, I've never been able to say I've never seen in my days as a little boy and things watching these old preachers.

I've never seen one of those preachers get to, but God, without a tear in their eye. That's how, you know, these doctrines have made their way into your heart. Now, I want us to look at some things that are very, very important.

It is not very it is not in vogue today. To teach that men are evil. You see, you say a man is a sinner, everyone will laugh and agree with you, but for me to stand before a group of people and say that men are evil.

Now, that's a completely different thing, but that's exactly what the scriptures are teaching. Now, people will come to me and they say, why are you always talking about this? Why are you always talking about sin?

Why can't you just go on? I mean, why is this so important? Well, I want to share with you biblically why it is so important. I want you to look in chapter one of Ephesians, verse 18 and 19. Paul says this, I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you will know what is the hope of his calling.

What are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints? And what is the surpassing greatness of his power towards us who believe these are in accordance with the working of the strength of his might?

Now, Paul prays this, that the believers eyes might be open to the greatness of what God has done for them in Christ. It is not a coincidence that in Ephesians two, he begins talking about the radical or total depravity of man, the spiritual death of man.

You see, here's what you need to understand in order for us to understand the greatness of what God has done for us in Christ, we must understand our prior condition. You see, if I bring someone in here and they're finally dressed and they're speaking in a mannerly way and I tell you that they were born in in England and that their father worked for the king and that he was actually an instructor in manners and customs and that the child has been brought up in a right fine religious environment, you wouldn't be amazed at him standing there speaking well and dressed in fine clothes.

But if I told you this child was taken out of the very gutters of Calcutta. Where it lived like an animal for the first 15 years of its life, you say, then what brought about the transformation? Something amazing has happened here.

Why Depravity Must Be Preached

Now, I want to give you some of the reasons why. When the founders have a conference on man and depravity and sin, that they're not just a bunch of mean spirited people with nothing to talk about, but terrible things, there's a reason for this.

The first one, we cannot, according to verse 18 and 19, we cannot fully appreciate the greatness of God's power unless we understand the radical, pervasive, total depravity of man. What had to occur in order for us to be rescued cannot be understood unless we understand what we were.

Secondly, we cannot understand the nature or depths of Christ's love. We cannot. I mean, Paul lays out that argument for us in chapter five of the Book of Romans, he says, well, I suppose for a good man or a righteous man, someone might die and it would be an incredible thing if they did.

But Christ died for us when we are sinners. Now, you can't just leave it at that, because today people laugh at sin. They sell their products by using sin. Sin is a joke. So it is the task of the preacher to show people what that word means so that it wipes the smile off of their face.

We cannot understand the love of Christ. A reporter asked me one time, he was so angry, he said, why are you talking so much about sin? And I said, because I want you to love God. I want you to appreciate what God has done for you.

Now, there's another reason we cannot understand the depths of Christ's suffering, that he who knew no sin has made sin on our behalf, that he became a curse for us. If you do not understand the vile nature of men and the sinfulness of sin, then you can never appreciate what Christ did for you on that tree.

And not just for not just on the tree, but in the incarnation itself, how he had to humiliate himself to walk among us. You see, you must understand these things. My great goal is for you to love Christ.

You know, I say this, if I walked up to a Bill Gates or someone that wealthy and I said, here, sir, a bologna sandwich, even if he was a polite man, even if he knew how to act, he would. What do I need with a bologna sandwich, a bologna sandwich?

I can I can buy a restaurant. But if I go to the streets, the inner city of Lima, Peru, and I say here, ma 'am, here's a bologna sandwich. She will kiss my hands. And we and she will tell of my graciousness to her, to her children and her children's children, I want you to be that kind of person.

I don't want to hurt you by making you see all the darkness that was and even some of it still remains. I don't want that to end there with you simply hurting. I want that to cause you to get an upward glance at Christ and see him as altogether lovely.

That's why we talk about the darkness of men. I'll always tell tell people, I'll say, let me ask you a question. Where did the stars go this morning? Did some gigantic, you know, cosmic creature come by and pick them up, pick them up in a basket and take them all away?

Where did they go? I said, well, they didn't go anywhere, Brother Paul, they're still there. Why can't I see them? Too much light. That's the same way. I can only admire the beauty of the stars when they're set against the pitch black of night.

I can only see grace in its most gracious form when it's set against my evil and the evil of humanity. Also, we cannot not only can we not understand how much Christ loves us, but a connected doctrine to that is we cannot understand how much we have truly been forgiven.

You forgive me for eating too much at your table. I suppose I will appreciate that. You forgive me for murder. How much more my appreciation? Jesus said she loved much because she's been forgiven much.

He who has been forgiven little loves little. So sometimes we wonder, you know, how is it that this prostitute or this this drug addict or this this person after they were converted has such a zeal, such a love for Christ?

Therein lies the reason they weren't in your country club. They never wore pretty clothes. They knew what they were and in that they can appreciate forgiveness. Another thing which is very important to me and my calling is this.

Conversion as Resurrection from Spiritual Death

We cannot understand apart from understanding the doctrine of depravity, we cannot understand the power that is required in the conversion of men. Every time and every preacher ought to say this every time I walk out onto a platform behind a pulpit preaching in the streets, I am Ezekiel.

I am in a valley of dead bones that are very, very dry. I am by the Holy Spirit asked this question, can these bones live? And my answer must not be unbelief and it must not be presumption. I must not fail to believe my God by saying there's no way, Lord, they can believe.

There's no way they can live, but I must not presume upon him and say, yes, they will. I say, you know, Lord, that the only way someone is getting converted here tonight is by the supernatural hand of God.

And you see how that frees up the preacher. I now no longer have to be a circus clown or an entertainer or someone filled with tricks and gimmicks and nuances. I no longer have to manipulate or coerce.

I am no longer a charlatan or a car salesman or this or that. I am a prophet and I speak to men and speak to God and the Spirit of God comes and raises them to life. That is the difference. You put away all those stupid little toys that cannot make men come to life.

Just one man and a Bible and a proclamation of thus saith the Lord and bones will. Men, we are prophets. We are not entertainers, we are not to be toyed with. We're not kings, we wash feet. We're wrapped with a towel, we're not little gimmicky people with quick speech to sell something that no one would really want if they knew what we were selling.

We're prophets. We proclaim truth and men come to life. It's a noble thing. Don't allow that, allow that to be stolen from you. Another thing, we cannot well shut up men to grace until we have exhausted every possibility of self-redemption.

That is Paul's entire argument in Romans three, don't you say? I mean, the closest thing we have to a systematic theology in the New Testament is the book of Romans, and it's not a systematic theology.

But again, it is a collective thing that we can see Paul's mind in theology working. And isn't it amazing? He spends basically his first three chapters with one intention to condemn everyone, to shut the mouth of every man.

You see, in preaching and the old men knew this, that if you if you if you set before the sinner and you preach to him and he's trying to save himself, he thinks he's a good man. If you cut him off in this direction, he'll run in that direction.

You cut him off in this direction, he'll run the other direction. You cut him off and cut him off again. He'll try to dig under. He'll try to go over the wall. You've got to shut him down. You've got to prove to him with the scriptures.

You cannot have to leave him destitute. And only then, only then does the sinner take the option. For man, it's always the last option, grace. So we must preach this way. Also, if we do not understand radical depravity, we do not understand the seriousness of the gospel ministry.

Judgment on Faithless Ministry

If I were to describe. Evangelicalism in America, most churches and most preaching. I'd say about the best description I could give it is it looks to me like a six flags over Jesus. I hate it. It's pathetic and I'm not going to use any kind word.

It's a travesty. Do you know what how many of you read Pilgrim's Progress? Do you realize that the church in America looks exactly like Vanity Fair? I know that I will stand before God and be judged and I want you to know I fear that many people do not understand.

Second Corinthians chapter five, where it says, where Paul says, knowing the fear of the Lord, he persuades men. Most people think that that Paul is saying this, that since he knows men are going to be judged by God.

Since he knows what that judgment is going to be like, he persuades them to turn before their judge. That's not what he's saying in that context. What he's saying is this, I myself, knowing the fear of the Lord, that I will be judged.

I will persuade men and not water down the truth so that they'll like me. I'm afraid. I have a stewardship before God and I will be judged. That's why I persuade men. But I want to tell you something.

The judgment will fall hardest upon evangelical pastors. It will fall harder upon evangelical pastors than it will upon liberal politicians and presidents. Many of these men are not converted and some that are converted, they have been led astray by the Balaam of self-preservation.

A man came to me a few years ago and he said, Brother Paul, if I start preaching the truth, they'll kill me. I looked at him and I said, then die, then die. Do not be a coward. Cowards will not inherit the kingdom of heaven.

Be brave, play the man. Now, I must stop here, though, and I must tell especially you young preachers, if I were to take a church tomorrow, a typical church like the one I've described, I would not come in there with guns blazing.

I wouldn't be deceptive. But here's what I would admonish you to do. This is what I would do. Most young men will take a church and immediately they'll start preaching on the book of Ephesians. When I went years in the ministry before I even dared start thinking about preaching through that book, here's what I do.

I go into a church. I'm not going to be controversial. I'm going to teach them wonderful things about Christ. I am also going to teach them truths about everything that really hits home with them, like home, like marriage, like children, how to grow, how to read your Bible.

I'm going to teach them things no man has ever labored to teach them non-controversial things. And I'm going to love them like no man has ever loved them. I'm going to visit hospitals. I'm going to pray with them.

I'm going to be concerned for the souls of their children. I'm going to teach them to catechize. I'm going to do all kinds of things that have nothing to do with all this stuff. And then when I get to the point where it's time to teach the book of Ephesians and they hear strange things coming out of my mouth, this is what they're going to say.

They're going to say, we never heard this before. And it actually goes against some of the things we have heard. But we have never had a man in our pulpit that taught us the things this man has taught us or loved us the way this man has loved us.

Depravity, Divine Wrath, and the Justice of Hell

Let's listen. Do you see that? Just just a remark there. All right, let's go on. Apart from these doctrines, we cannot understand the doctrine of wrath. Apart from the doctrine of depravity, we cannot understand the doctrine of wrath, nor can we understand the doctrine of hell.

As a matter of fact, there have been some even some men that I have cherished that in recent years have begun to draw back on the doctrine of hell. Saying things as such as that it is it is a once and for all destruction, it is not eternal, men are annihilated, all sorts of things.

And I believe that the root of their problem comes down to this. They do not understand radical depravity. You see, apart from the doctrine of depravity, it can be argued that both wrath and hell are immoral.

Because how could a partially partially righteous, how could a good person, that is, someone who's not an axe murderer, how can they actually be confined to hell? It is only when we understand that men are evil and continue throughout eternity in their evil that hell is no longer immoral, but is actually just.

When you begin to realize, let me set some things before you, because I may not have time in the next two sessions, just I want to give you an idea of what I'm talking about. Someone always asks me when I'm at a university, they go, well, what about the good atheist?

And I say, well, first of all, before I answer that, could you give me his name and number? Because I hear about this guy all the time, but I've never met him. Of course, no one can. But they say, well, what about the guy is an atheist, but he mows the yard, you know, for his neighbor.

He fixes the elderly woman's battery in her sink when her pipes get clogged and all these things. He's not an axe murderer. What does God do to him? And I said, oh, well, the deepest part of hell is reserved for that man.

They said, well, how can you say that? I said, you are supposing that the restraint of evil in his life and the appearance of good is done independently of God. I said, if this man is not an axe murderer, it is the grace of God that has restrained him from being that.

And if he does go over to help his neighbor, even though it is driven by self-love and not love for God, it is still the grace of God, the common grace of God that enables him to do so. So what's actually going on here is we have a beast.

We have an evil, evil man who has the appearance of goodness only because of the grace of the very God he denies. Even our unconverted children, teenagers and things like that, we love them, don't we?

We want them saved, don't we? But the Bible teaches also that they are radically depraved creatures. One correctional officer described it this way, says, after all my years of working with young people, I have this to say.

But if you took an 18 month old child, you're holding it in his arms, you're holding that child in your arms, reaches for your watch. You say no, says the child begins to squirm and reaches for the watch again.

You say no, begins to squirm and cry, reaches for the watch again. No, the child's arms begin to frail. He said, I would submit to you at that very moment that if that 18 month old child had the strength of an 18 year old man, he would slaughter his father where he stands, rip the watch off his arm and walk over his bloody body without feeling an ounce of remorse.

Now, see, that disturbs you. But I submit to you that apart from the grace of God, that's exactly what would happen. And that is why on the day of judgment, what will happen is the things you loved about all the people around you who did not know Christ, but you were still endeared to them, you saw them as precious and other things, what you were loving upon them was the grace of God.

And on Judgment Day, the very thing that endeared you to them will be removed and you will see the monster that they actually are. And when they take their first step into hell, you will raise your hand and say, the God of all the earth has been just.

You see, even when you start talking this way among reformed people, they get shook up. This is ugly. This is ugly and it's real. It's real. Whether you want to go to Auschwitz or the killing fields or a child that simply didn't have his way in a department store and kills his mom and dad, it's real.

Grace, Regeneration, and the New Nature

And the only reason the whole of humanity is not sucked down the drain is that the common grace of God is restraining humanity, keeping it together so that he can do his glorious work of redemption. Now, apart from these doctrines.

We can also not appreciate. What has been done to us, I want you to understand something that's very, very important. When I walk into a place and I'm preaching to a bunch of unconverted carnal church people, I am going to preach about sin, preach about sin, preach about sin, preach about sin.

But I want you to know something else. When I am with a group of people who are genuinely converted, who are genuinely sheep, I am going to spend the whole of my strength trying to explain to them. All the great things that have been done for them.

The new nature that's been given to them, the spirit that indwells them, I'm going to teach them about grace, grace, grace, grace, grace, because you see, if they've truly been regenerate. Their freedom from the law and the grace that has been given to them and the unconditional love of God will not promote ungodliness among them.

It will promote greater and greater desires for holiness. You see, in many congregations, most of the people are unconverted so that if you're going to get them to look like sheep at all, you've got to manipulate them, coerce them, drive them with fear and everything else.

I shall not do that to the bride of Christ. If a person is genuinely converted, the more they learn about their freedom, the more they learn about grace, the more they learn about unconditional love, the more holy they are going to want to be.

So the same grace that turns an unconverted church person into a lawless person. Promotes holiness among God's people, what I want you to see, like I'll have Christians come up to me, Christians who truly love the Lord, but they've learned this kind of language.

I say, how are you doing, brother? Well, you know, Brother Paul, I'm just a filthy, wretched sinner with, you know, just a God-hating heart. And I'll look at him and say, let me ask you a question. Just what did God do to your heart when He converted you, when you were born again?