Our Devastating Depravity
Sermon by Rev. Steven R. Key

Scripture: Romans 3:9-18; Ephesians 2:1-10

We stand today before the truth of Scripture that is probably the most difficult truth for us to receive. It takes a wonder work of grace in our hearts, to be able to humble ourselves before God's Word of truth when it comes to that which we consider this morning. It is difficult enough for us to acknowledge the truth that we are fallen in Adam, and that we stand responsible before God for the guilt of Adam's sin. That is hard enough. But we saw from Scripture that we are indeed responsible, that we are inescapably guilty in Adam, who is our legal and organic head. That truth is clearly set forth in Romans 5, I Corinthians 15:22, Psalm 51:5, and a multitude of other passages in Scripture. Furthermore, we have seen that sin is not merely in the act; but it is a fundamental corruption of the nature. It is not simply that we occasionally do wrong. It is that we are wrong, dreadfully wrong, as we stand before the Holy God. We are corrupt. But today we stand before God's judgment of us when it comes to the extent of that corruption. And with the Catechism we ask the question: "Are we then so corrupt that we are wholly incapable of doing any good, and inclined to all wickedness?" Surely it cannot be that bad! But indeed it is. And indeed we are. We are so corrupt that we are wholly incapable of doing any good, and inclined to all wickedness—except we are regenerated by the Spirit of God. So says the Heidelberg Catechism. So says Scripture. Do you understand that? Do you humble yourself before that truth? It is that to which I must call your attention this morning as we consider:

OUR DEVASTATING DEPRAVITY

Concerning this theme we must consider:

I. THE TERRIBLE TRUTH

II. THE PROFOUND IMPLICATIONS

III. THE DEVELOPMENT OF THAT DEPRAVITY

WE STAND BEFORE A TERRIBLE TRUTH: TOTAL DEPRAVITY.

TOTAL DEPRAVITY—WHAT A TERRIBLE WORD; WHAT A DEVASTATING CONDEMNATION!

Wholly incapable of doing any good, and inclined to all wickedness. How can a man ever receive such a doctrine? How can we even dare teach such a thing? But that is the truth of Scripture, beloved. That is God's judgment of you and me as we are by nature, i.e., apart from Christ. That is God's judgment of every man, every woman, every child. It takes the work of God's grace in our hearts, if we are even to agree to such a sentence from the righteous Judge. It takes humble submission to the authority of the Scriptures to insist upon such a truth. But a rejection of this truth doesn't change the truth at all.

We saw last time that God created us inseparably connected with the first man Adam. That also served His eternal purpose to establish a people in the last Adam, Who is Christ. But you and I are one with Adam. He was our legal representative, our organic head, our first father. So we found as we examined Scripture that after Adam sinned, man was found guilty before God. Not simply Adam, but man, the whole human race. You and I are guilty before God. That, we saw, is plain from Scripture. We might object. We might not like that. We might say, "God had no business making me responsible for Adam's sin." But the only answer we receive from Scripture is this: "Who art thou, O man, that answerest against God?" He is the Potter; we are the clay. God did create you and me in that one man. God did hold, does hold, you and me responsible for the sin of Adam.

And therefore not only are we guilty, but we are objects of God's righteous wrath. God maintains His righteousness always. God had said, "The day that thou eatest thereof, dying thou shalt die!" He must maintain that word. He cannot lie. And so the guilt that is ours in Adam resulted in spiritual death. It resulted in physical death too, as we explained. Not that man immediately dropped dead. God would keep him on the earth for a while to accomplish His purpose. But immediately Adam's body became subject to death, so that physically he began the process of dying. That also was a result of the fall. But it is his spiritually dead condition that we focus upon today.

TOTAL DEPRAVITY MEANS THAT WE ARE ABSOLUTELY INCAPABLE OF DOING ANY GOOD, AND INCLINED TO ALL WICKEDNESS.

That is the teaching of Scripture, the Word of God which alone determines what is true and what shall be our confession. And when we turn to the Scriptures and study this matter, we find that the term "total depravity" is none too severe a term to denote the actual condition of fallen man. In Genesis 6, just prior to God executing His judgment in the Flood, we read what God observed in the fallen race: "And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually" (Gen. 6:5). That is no exaggeration. That is the righteous judgment of God Who knows the heart and the thoughts of every person. "And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth" (Gen. 6:12). That was the condition of the whole human race in their unrighteousness. There was but one family of whom God could not make this judgment, the family of Noah. And the only reason that they did not fall under this same judgment was because God looked upon them in the Christ Who was yet to come. Noah and his family—which constituted the Church, all that remained of the seed of the woman—Noah and his family found grace in the eyes of the Lord. That is, Jehovah looked upon them and saw the beauty of His own dear Son. That alone marked them as different. But of the whole world apart from Christ the judgment of God was clear. They were corrupt.

The sending of the Flood did not destroy that corruption. Even the flesh of Noah, the one who found grace in the eyes of the Lord, carried the seeds of that corruption. And therefore we find the Apostle describing the sinner's condition in terms that leave no room for dispute, as he quotes from Psalms 14 and 53, and expands upon them under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. I refer to that which we read earlier from Romans 3:9-18. I will not read that entire section again now. But read that again later, as you continue to meditate upon the Word of God today. That judgment of God embraces the whole human race, bar none. Man as he stands by nature is consumed with a devastating depravity! "What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin; As it is written There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are altogether become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one." And so he proceeds to describe how that depravity comes to manifestation. A horrible description of man! A humbling description of you and of me!

And in Ephesians 2:1-3 Paul describes the former condition of the members of the Church at Ephesus, as they stood apart from Christ. "And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; Wherein in time past ye 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." It is evident, therefore, that Scripture itself justifies the term "totally depraved" as the description of man in his natural condition under the judgment of God.

OUR DEPRAVITY INVOLVES THE DEVASTATING CORRUPTION OF OUR WHOLE NATURE.

It involves, therefore, the image of God in which we were created. Generally we have become accustomed to speaking about the fall as causing us to lose the image of God. But we must be careful in that connection that we are clear in our thinking. We do not teach that man lost that which made him man. He does not lose that which continues to make him a responsible being. Let us be clear in this. You will remember that when we discussed man's wonderful creation after God's image, we noted the distinction between man as an imagebearer, i.e., one created capable of bearing God's image, and the image of God in man. That is an important distinction. That is a distinction much on the order of the distinction between a 5-gal bucket and what is in that bucket. All the contents of that bucket may be emptied out. The bucket itself may even be all dented in and made extremely undesirable as a bucket. But it remains a bucket, even though empty and dented. Man was created a rational, moral creature. He is different from all the animals. It is that fact of man's creation that immediately exposes as the lie all forms of evolution which speak of man developing from lower life forms. That is immediately exposed as Satan's lie. Man was different from all the animals, even formed differently at his creation from the hand of God. That is something that he can never lose. He never loses his mind and talents and power, his thinking and willing and imagination. He never loses that which makes him a man, one who was created special and with a special calling before God. He remains, in other words, a responsible creature, one who must and who will give answer to God for every thought and every action.

But when we defined the image of God in man, we did so from Scripture itself in Ephesians 4 and Colossians 3. And we saw that the contents of that image consisted of three things, three ingredients if you will—true knowledge, righteousness and holiness. It is true that total depravity means that the image of God, in that sense, was completely lost in the fall. There is no more true knowledge; there is no more righteousness; there is no more holiness in the fallen sinner.

But to say merely that man lost the image of God does not say enough! Total depravity is not a simple loss! It's not simply a lack of something, even something as critically important as true knowledge, which according to John 17:3 is life eternal. Total depravity is not simply a lack of righteousness or of holiness, without which no one can see God, as we read in Hebrews 12. But it is far worse!

Total depravity is active! The sinner is dead. That is the clear teaching of Ephesians 2. But unlike physical death, the dead sinner is active in his spiritual death. It isn't merely a loss of something. It isn't just that man became inactive in knowledge, righteousness and holiness. Rather, those precious gifts of God were turned into the reverse! When your automobile loses power, it stops. That may be irritating, if your car stalls and stops. But when that car is stopped, it can't do any damage either. But the sinner doesn't stop. It is as if he is on an incline. And not only does he lose power to go in the right direction. He begins falling, rushing, headlong toward destruction! That is total depravity. Adam's knowledge did not merely become lack of knowledge when he fell. It became knowledge of the lie, and love for the lie. Adam's righteousness did not merely become lack of righteousness. It became unrighteousness, love of iniquity. Adam's holiness, that total consecration to God, did not become lack of holiness merely. But it became hatred of God and love of self, and that in the service of Satan!

Man did not become any less of a man. Oh yes, even his natural gifts were greatly decreased. Even man's natural light, that which belongs to his rational moral nature, was wholly polluted. But he is no less a man, able to think and will and totally responsible before God. The problem is, fallen man uses even those natural gifts in opposition to the calling God has given him. No longer does he employ his mind in the service of God and the neighbor, in love for them. He uses his gifts in the service of self. Even when he appears to be serving his fellow creature, self is at the core of his motivation.

Our Canons of Dordt explain it this way in Article 4 under the Third and Fourth Heads of Doctrine: "There remain, however, in man since the fall, the glimmerings of natural light, whereby he retains some knowledge of God, of natural things, and of the difference between good and evil, and discovers some regard for virtue, good order in society, and for maintaining an orderly external deportment. But so far is this light of nature from being sufficient to bring him to a saving knowledge of God and to true conversion, that he is incapable of using it aright even in things natural and civil. Nay, further, this light, such as it is, man in various ways renders wholly polluted and holds it in unrighteousness, by doing which he becomes inexcusable before God." Going back to the First Article under that section, we read this: "Man was originally formed after the image of God. His understanding was adorned with a true and saving knowledge of his Creator and of spiritual things; his heart and will were upright; all his affections pure; and the whole man was holy; but revolting from God by the instigation of the devil, and abusing the freedom of his own will, he forfeited these excellent gifts; and on the contrary entailed on himself blindness of mind, horrible darkness, vanity and perverseness of judgment, became wicked, rebellious, and obdurate in heart and will, and impure in his affections." That is our devastating depravity.

THAT TRUTH HAS PROFOUND IMPLICATIONS.

THE TRUTH OF TOTAL DEPRAVITY MEANS THAT WE CAN DO NOTHING TOWARD OUR SALVATION, NOTHING.

It means that if we had to do one thing, in order to be saved, we could not be saved. Impossible. We are dead in trespasses and sins. That is exactly why Jesus said to Nicodemus in John 3:3: "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." We can do nothing, except the Spirit works in our hearts the spiritual rebirth of life in Christ Jesus. Man can contribute nothing toward his salvation.

Jeremiah emphasizes that truth in different terms in Jeremiah 13:23: "Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots?" What do you children think about those questions? You have seen a black person. Some of you saw pictures of our Jamaican brothers and sisters in Christ, when we worked the mission field there. Have you ever thought what it would be like to be black? There is nothing wrong, clearly, with being black. God formed the black race, just as He formed you. In fact, if you read the Book of Solomon's Song, you find that his bride is said to be black. Do you know what that means? That bride is a picture of the church. Black with sin, but the Bride of Christ and cleansed with His righteousness. That is a beautiful picture. But sometimes it is not so nice to be black. Sometimes a black boy or girl might even think that it would be nice if they were white. Do you think that they could change the color of their skin? Do you think that if perhaps they used a special kind of soap and really scrubbed, they could change the color of their skin? You know that that wouldn't work, don't you. There is nothing that they can do to change their skin. God created them with that skin.

Back to Jeremiah 13:23. You children know what a leopard looks like. Suppose a leopard doesn't like its spots. What shall he do? Do you think that maybe, if he licks those spots hard enough, they will come off? They won't come off, though, will they. There is nothing a leopard can do to remove his spots. Impossible. Now let me read that text again in full. "Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil." You see? No more than the man can change the color of his skin, or the leopard his spots, can you and I do good, when we are accustomed to do evil. The totally depraved sinner can do nothing for his salvation.

STILL MORE. THAT TEXT SAYS THAT THE TOTALLY DEPRAVED SINNER CAN DO NOTHING GOOD.

Nothing good is to be expected from him, absolutely nothing. Total depravity allows for no good in the unregenerate. This is where the truth of total depravity becomes very hard to swallow. It isn't so bad, if only we can leave this truth an abstraction, something that applies only in our past, a past that perhaps we did not even realize, having been brought up in the church. If all we have known is life in Christ, then to talk about the spiritual death of total depravity isn't so hard at all. It is merely an abstract thought. But when we have to apply this truth to our present situation, and the world in which we live; when we must say that the natural man is incapable of doing any good, incapable even of wanting to do good, that all he can do is sin—then we want to hesitate, don't we. And we want to say, "It doesn't look that way, though, does it." Man may be partially depraved, much depraved perhaps. He may be totally depraved in certain aspects of his being. If only we can limit the concept somehow! But how can you maintain that the natural man never does any good?! Did not my wife receive good care in the hospital during the time of her illness? And were not some of those who cared for her unregenerated? Did they not do good, by their care for her? And the doctor, at least one of whom was not a Christian, is it not good what he did in administering medical attention and care for her? And are there not in fact many good works that men do, regardless of whether or not they are believers? When your car breaks down, will not your neighbor help you out? If you house is burning, will not your neighbors come to your aid? When you have a funeral, do not your neighbors or your fellow workers come to sympathize with you, even though they be unchurched and unbelieving? And are there not multitudes of those, just as some with whom you work, some of your neighbors, who, although not professing faith in Christ are nonetheless "good" people, decent people? And don't they do many good things?

Yes, here is an area where the truth of total depravity touches a nerve. Still more, it crushes the dreams of our society. The world expects big things from mankind! If only we can give the children of the world a good education, place them in decent surroundings, remove from their environment the crime and evils that stunt their development; if only we can teach them social righteousness and pay them decent wages, why, the world will be a much better place. That is what the world works toward. It dreams more and more of a new world order, in which all men will contribute to the development of society, and every man, woman and child shall receive his or her share of creation's blessings. It makes no difference, of course, that such a world will be without the Christ of the Scriptures, a man-made kingdom and a kingdom that exists for man and his glory. But, of course, then man cannot be totally depraved. If man is totally depraved, all these dreams are shattered! Then there is only one thing that can change a man, and that is regeneration, personal regeneration, life in Christ, life that brings complete submission to the Word of God, life that gives true knowledge, righteousness and holiness once again. But the dead sinner sees no need for such life. The very term "total depravity" therefore is nauseating to the world.

But we still stand before the question about those works of the natural man that have the appearance of good. What shall we say about those things? The learned professor of ethics in a so-called Christian college, who devotes himself and is even willing to sacrifice himself in teaching his students the noble principles of freedom and justice, who is committed to the social gospel, who even speaks of Jesus and His example and the social messages of the prophets, whose only fault (if it may be called such) is that he doesn't believe in the vicarious atonement of Christ's death and the infallibility of the Bible—that man is incapable of doing any good, you say?! Or the sweet smiling woman who travels the land to oppose the evils of drunk driving or child abuse, but who does not believe in the blood theology of the gospel—that woman, you say, is totally depraved? Yes. But make no mistake. That judgment is not simply ours; it is the judgment of God as revealed in the Bible. That dear man, that dear woman, noble as their causes may appear, are totally depraved, incapable of doing any good and inclined to all wickedness, unless they are regenerated by the Spirit of Christ in the biblical sense of the word.

That indeed is a difficult judgment for us to make. It goes against our own sense of tolerance and desire to judge positively. But in the first place, let us understand that we often make the serious mistake of judging the actions of men by our own standards. But our standards are not high enough. We forget that God is the Judge, and that His standard is perfectly righteous and holy. He judges not merely the outward actions, but the thoughts and intents of the heart. And it is He Who has said, even as we read in Romans 14:23: "Whatsoever is not of faith is sin." Whatever action, whatever thought, that does not proceed from that faith connection with Christ, in whom alone is life eternal, is sin.

Oh yes, the unregenerate man can yet discern that it is beneficial for him to walk outwardly as much as possible in the way of God's law. He sees that when it comes to the law of God—even though he knows only the letter of that law and may not comprehend its broader implication—when he considers that law, he knows that to walk in sin brings undesirable consequences. If we all were to disregard God's law forbidding murder and adultery and stealing, e.g., society would soon become a society of total disorder and chaos. And because of these things, men still pay some attention to their outward conduct. They are not ready to confess the seriousness of sin itself before God. They refuse to admit to their own devastating depravity. They have no regard for the perfect holiness of God and the wholehearted love that He requires of us. But for their own sakes men will walk in some outward obedience to God's commandments. And especially as they see themselves members of the broader society of men and women, they try to propagate this regard for some virtue even among others.

But never is this for God's honor and glory. And as soon as men are blinded to the effects that disobedience of a particular commandment may have upon them personally, they pay no attention to that commandment any longer. One clear example of that is the fourth commandment, which calls us to devote the Lord's Day entirely to Him and to fellowship with Him. Men, unable and unwilling to see the application and implications of that commandment, and unable to see any harm to themselves in disobeying that commandment, pay no attention to it. They spend their Sundays seeking their own pleasures or taking care of their own business, working or playing, and willfully neglecting fellowship with the Lord in His house of worship. Or, even if they go to church, it is something quickly to be gotten out of the way, so that the rest of the day can be consumed with self-seeking. And so the Lord makes His judgment, even as we read in Jeremiah 17: "But they obeyed not (they obeyed not His law concerning the sabbath day), neither inclined their ear, but made their neck stiff, that they might not hear, nor receive instruction." Hard-hearted. That is God's judgment.

So Scripture, in the strongest possible words, and that in a multitude of passages from both Old and New Testaments, Scripture throughout, teaches that while apparently in the world there are many things done by men that are noble and good, the fact is that in the eyes of the Righteous Judge there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Man by nature, in all his ways, is corrupt and ungodly. He is incapable of doing any good and inclined to all evil. Ours is indeed a devastating depravity. Especially in our times we must not let go of this truth of total depravity. As much as the world hates this truth, and as much as the church world despises and rejects this truth in order to find their fellowship with the world, we must not let go of this truth.

FINALLY, WE MUST UNDERSTAND THAT THE DEPRAVITY OF THE HUMAN RACE DEVELOPS.

ALONG WITH THE ORGANIC DEVELOPMENT OF THE HUMAN RACE HISTORICALLY, SIN ALSO DEVELOPS.

Depravity itself does not grow. Adam and Eve were as dead in sin as you and I are by nature. It is impossible to be more dead than they were. But there is a development of depravity that goes hand in hand with the growth and development of the human race. Adam stood in paradise immediately after the fall totally depraved. He was inclined to all wickedness, incapable of doing any good. But there were certain sins that he could not commit at that point in the historical development of the human race. Adam did not have at that time many of the tools we have today as the capital with which we sin. And where more gifts have been received, greater is the responsibility with which men stand before the God of heaven and earth. That is why we read in the Bible that it shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment, than for Capernaum and Bethsaida. And undoubtedly it shall be more tolerable for Capernaum and Bethsaida, than for us who have received the riches of the gospel.

As the human race grows and develops, becomes stronger and richer, and applies the light of nature more and more with application to the things of God's creation, man uses all things in the service of sin. We stand horrified at the potential of sin, as that becomes more and more evident every passing year. It isn't that every man commits every evil. That is not what total depravity means. Incapable of doing any good, yes. But it isn't that we perform every evil. Notice, the Catechism says we are "inclined to all wickedness." We have the sin within us that will commit every evil, if only we are given the opportunity and see that we can get away with it. The potential of sin is beyond comprehension. And at the end of the ages, sin will reach its greatest manifestation. Those days will be shortened for the elect's sake, as Jesus promised us in Matthew 24.

BUT LET US ALSO UNDERSTAND CONCERNING THE DEVELOPMENT OF SIN THAT ALL THIS SERVES THE GLORY OF GOD.

Although the Holy God cannot delight in sin, He sovereignly works in such a way that also the depravity of the sinner serves God's own glory. We read it in Romans 2: "But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God." God must be revealed in all His glory, in all His infinite and perfect righteousness and justice. The sinner serves the glory of God. He must.

But there are others who also serve God's glory. They are the chief objects of His focus, the objects of His love. They are those, dead in trespasses and sins, whom He will save. There is only one way in which He will save them. That is through Jesus Christ His Son and by the wonder work of His own sovereign grace. He will give them life, everlasting life in Christ Jesus. And they will say, "I am evil, born in sin; Thou desirest truth within. Thou alone my Savior art, Teach Thy wisdom to my heart; Make me pure, Thy grace bestow, Wash me whiter than the snow." To that end we preach as we do. To that end we speak of sin as we must. For that reason we preach this humiliating truth of our devastating depravity. And when we preach that, you who are the children of God respond with a hearty, Amen. And you will say into all eternity, "By grace we are saved, through faith, and that not of ourselves. It is the gift of God. That is our comfort, our only comfort in life and death.  Amen.

Preached:1) Randolph PRC 8/4/96 (am)

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