GRACE FOR TODAY Radio Message #412
TOTAL DEPRAVITY - A
BIBLE DOCTRINE
Pastor
Don Fortner
Grace Baptist Church of Danville
2734 Old Stanford Road
Danville,
Kentucky 40422-9438
Let me show you that the
Scriptures plainly teach the doctrine of man’s total depravity. We take our doctrine directly from the Word
of God. As I keep reminding you, the basis of our faith is the Word of God
alone. We do not build our doctrine upon human opinion, reason, and logic,
church tradition, historic creeds, confessions, and catechisms, or
denominational history and tradition, but upon Thus saith the Lord.”
All that we believe we believe because it is plainly stated in the Word of God.
Does the Bible clearly and plainly teach that all the human race is
totally depraved? I appeal to no authority except the Word of God. I want you to read for
yourself what God says in his Holy Word about this subject (Gen. 6:5; Job
15:16; Ps. 51:5; 58:3; Isa. 1:4-6; 53:6; Jer. 13:23; 17:9; Matt. 15:19-20; Rom.
3:9-12; 3:23; 5:12; 1 Cor. 2:14; Eph. 2:1-3; John 3:19).
These
fifteen passages of Holy Scripture are but a very few of the many, many
statements in God’s Word about the total depravity of the human race. Read each
passage carefully in its context. They stand without comment, declaring that
all men are by nature totally depraved. To deny what these texts declare is to
deny the Word of God. To argue against the doctrine of Total Depravity is to be
found fighting against God himself!
God declares that every
imagination of the thoughts of man’s heart is only evil continually! Fallen,
abominable man drinks iniquity like water. We are all conceived in sin and born
in iniquity. We have all gone astray from our mothers’ wombs speaking lies. "All we like sheep have gone astray; we
have turned every one to his own way.” Our hearts are deceitful above all
things and desperately wicked. We all once
“walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the
power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of
disobedience: Among whom also we all
had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the
desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath,
even as others."
The
Word of God plainly and universally teaches that all human beings are, since
the fall of Adam, born in a state of total depravity: lost, corrupt at heart,
condemned under the curse of God’s holy law, and utterly incapable of removing
that curse or changing their condition.
In
fact, man’s depravity is so thorough and complete that he cannot even make any
contribution toward removing the curse of the law, or changing his condition.
Fallen man cannot even make a move toward God, much less bring himself back to
God!
Let me be crystal clear in
stating what the Scriptures teach about the doctrine of Total Depravity. Unless
we have a clear understanding about the depravity of man, we cannot have a
clear understanding about any other gospel truth. Here are five things revealed
in the Word of God about the total depravity of the entire human race.
1.
Man
by nature is a fallen creature (Eccles. 7:29).
2.
We
were all born with a decided bias toward evil, with an utter hatred of God
(Mark 7:21-23; Rom. 8:7).
3.
No
one has the ability to save himself by his own works (Gal 2:16).
4.
No
one has the will or ability to come to Christ by faith (John 5:40; 6:44).
5.
The
only hope for depraved sinners is the free and sovereign grace of God in Christ
(Rom. 9:15-16).
AMEN.