Doctrines of Grace: Total Depravity

Tonight, we're going to start with, here he comes. Raise your hand if you didn't get one of those.

I know we're pretty short. Plenty extra. Yeah.

I would say the main reason is that we need to be humbled first to understand just how bad our condition is before you ever will be open to talking about election.

That's like my, I learned it that way.

And I think a lot of times when people will try to share about election with me, it would be like, come on, I'm not that bad.

Like, come on. Like, I seem to think that sin wasn't as bad as it actually was.

And so a few quotes for us.

And these men likewise believed in what we're talking about.

But Augustine in the fourth century, the whole humility of man consists in the knowledge of himself.

Yep. So the more you actually learn about you, the more humble you will become through God's eyes. Right.

And Calvin said, man is never sufficiently touched and affected by an awareness of his lowly state until he has compared himself with God's majesty.

It is evident that man never attains a true self-knowledge until he has previously contemplated the face of God and come down after such contemplation to look into himself.

So we all think much of ourselves. Right.

But when compared to God, we tend to shrink and be very, very small.

That's what Calvin's saying.

We need to humble ourselves.

If you want to look on your sheet, your handout here.

Each week I'll begin with an example, a quotation.

This was Spurgeon.

And so and so one of the things that I guess experientially confirmed this truth for me.

So I will tell you from the beginning, but your convictions have to come from Scripture first and then your experience after that,

because your experience doesn't trump what's what's true and what lasts forever.

But what happened to me was I read these things in the scriptures and then I began to kind of think about how I saw them in my life.

And one of those realities is I'm aware of what God's pursuit of me before I was a Christian.

I could see God tracking me.

I could see him following me and pursuing me.

Yeah, even though I was pursuing and doing my own thing, he was he was on my track.

He was going to and he was going to catch me.

He was going to run me to ground when he was ready to.

And that's something I'm like thankful for because he didn't have to do that.

And that's what Spurgeon said.

So something I want you to think about is trace back the steps of your life and look at all the ways that God has shown you grace

and all the ways that he has put people in your life.

He's put Bibles in your life.

He's put a church in your life.

Maybe parents that have taught you about Christ.

This is what Spurgeon did.

So let's read this together.

He said one one weeknight when I was sitting in the house of God, I was not thinking about the preacher's sermon for I didn't believe it.

That's a nice start, right?

The thought struck me.

How did I come to be a Christian?

I sought the Lord.

But how did you come to seek the Lord?

The truth flashed across my mind in a moment.

I should not have sought him unless there had been some previous influence in my mind to make me seek him.

I prayed, thought I.

But then I asked myself, how came I to pray?

I was induced to pray by reading the scriptures.

How came I to read the scriptures?

How did I read them?

But led me to do so.

Then in a moment I saw God was at the bottom of it all.

That he was the author of my faith.

And so the whole doctrine of grace opened up to me.

And from that doctrine I have not departed to this day.

I desire to make this my constant confession that I ascribe my change wholly to God.

So I hope that that's encouraging to you to begin to think about, well, how did this happen?

You keep looking back and you see that God was underneath every little bit of what was going on in your life at the time.

So, let me see here.

When we talk about these things, we're looking at them, most of us, from a post-Christian perspective.

Most of us are believers in here.

But we have to look back and see what our condition was before we were in Christ.

And for a lot of us, we might have become a believer at a very early age.

So that's awesome.

Don't go any further.

Right?

Some of us will testify.

Like, that's awesome.

But if we look back, we don't really realize how bad our condition is until we see it in hindsight.

And let me give you an example.

So I had that lung transplant.

I knew I was pretty sick.

I knew I was very sick, actually.

But I didn't realize how close to death I actually was, though.

And after the transplant, the surgeon said to me,

well, no, actually, he didn't say it to me.

He said it to my family.

He's like, those are the worst set of lungs I've ever seen.

And I don't know how he was alive on those.

I had no idea.

Like, how he was still breathing on those.

And so, you know, so thankful the Lord spared me.

But what I have the impression of, if you're like me, you tend to think sin is bad.

Sin is not desirable.

Sin is, you know, to be walked away from.

But it is really, really bad.

Like, it is, like, so bad beyond our minds.

And I think most of my early Christian life, I thought, yeah, sin's bad.

I'm a sinner.

Yep.

And I never really knew how much the Scripture actually had to say about it.

Until the doctrines of grace or Calvinism or Augustinism, whatever you want to call it, whatever label you want to put on it.

My personal favorite is what John Newton called it, the doctrine or the gospel of amazing grace.

That's what we're just going to call this.

It's pretty easy to remember, right?

It's the doctrines of amazing grace.

And so I look back on my simple condition now and I see just how bad it actually was.

And so if you don't realize how low you are, you're never going to be really willing to respond to anything from God.

Like, until you really realize how bad it is.

So, but one of the go-to passages for sin in the Bible, which we have been through on Sundays, is Romans chapter 1.

Romans 1 · chapter mention

And this idea that God gave us over to our sin.

So let's just read this quickly.

For although they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him.

But they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

All right.

Now, as we're going along tonight, think about, like, the anatomy.

Have any of you kids had anatomy in your classes yet?

A few of you have.

Okay.

Well, the human body, right?

So think about, like, a spiritual anatomy.

The mind, the heart, things like that.

But you see right here, it kind of says this idea that our foolish hearts were darkened.

Claiming to be wise, there's the mind idea.

Right before that, futile in our thinking.

We became fools.

We exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

Therefore, God gave them up in the lust of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves,

because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator who was blessed forever.

Now, that is like the essence of what sin is.

It's taking your love and your worship, the failure to fulfill the great commandment to love God and giving it to idols, giving it to the things of creation rather than the creator.

And we all have done it.

I could give you a list of mile long, the stuff that I have worshipped and put my value in that have let me down and destroyed me.

So that's a great example.

We worship and serve the creature rather than the creator who is blessed forever.

For this reason, God gave them up to dishonorable passions.

And jump forward to 28.

And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.

OK, so this idea of giving them up, if you were here on Sunday, we were doing Romans 9.

It's God saying, all right, deal with the consequences of your sin.

It's giving him over to all the terrible things that follow our rebellion.

So it's an act of judgment for him to just go, OK, go do it.

And that's what in essence what we're saying.

So so in the doctrines of grace or Calvinism, whatever it is, we use this phrase total depravity.

Right. We've heard that phrase.

Anybody know what depravity means?

Biblically speaking, anybody?

I don't care.

Ty, we give a shot.

No, what you're eating.

It seems like a syndrome of corruption.

Yeah.

And you get a depravity of the worst it could possibly be.

Yeah.

So back on history, we talk about the worst we could possibly be.

Mm hmm.

Yeah.

That's all we're talking about.

Literally.

Look at that last verse, that debased word.

That's the word we're going to look at.

That's what depravity is.

Other translations may actually say depravity.

Let's just look at MacArthur here to define it for us.

He says, a godless mind is a depraved mind whose predetermined inevitable disposition is to do the things that are not proper.

The basic meaning of a dakamas, which is depraved, is that of notwithstanding the test.

And the term was commonly used for metals that were rejected by refiners because of impurities.

See that to the connection.

These impure metals were discarded and a dakamas.

Therefore, came to include the ideas of worthlessness and uselessness.

That's what we just read, right?

In Romans, it became worthless, became useless.

In relation to God, the rejected mind becomes a rejected mind and thereby becomes spiritually depraved, worthless and useless.

The mind that finds God worthless becomes worthless itself.

It is debauched, deceived, deserving only of God's divine wrath.

So, important to remember this.

Like, the reason, and this is hard, okay?

So again, it's humbling for me.

Before you were in Christ, you are worthless.

That's what this just said.

And the reason why is because we were created, again, we're going back to the beginning, in God's image for a purpose.

That purpose was, again, to walk with Him and to reflect His holy character in all that we do and to have that special relationship with God, to bring glory in Him in all our lives.

And so, sin has flipped that.

It means that you have not fulfilled your purpose of being created.

Therefore, you are depraved, right?

These metals have these impurities that are discarded.

Also important to remember, don't let anybody tell you if you are in Christ that you are depraved.

You're not.

There's a change that happens, okay?

Now you're accounted as God's family.

Now you're accounted as adopted, valuable, loved, cherished.

Alright?

So, and we have that.

We're having that image restored in us, as it says in the New Testament now.

So, we're learning.

We're following Christ and becoming more like Christ in the process.

So, I think, before we go further, pause for like maybe two minutes.

Any questions?

Hard words.

They suck.

But, how it is.

I mean, you saw it right there, right?

The Lord is talking about the mind.

Do you need to pray?

Just a word to pray.

But, he's referring specifically to verse 28 in this one.

It talks about being a debased mind or a depraved mind.

We're just taking the word depraved.

Yeah.

So, when you said that we're no longer depraved as a believer,

you're not speaking specifically of the mind being something different,

but rather something more fundamental.

Sure, yeah.

I was just giving you a biblical example where depravity is found in the Bible.

But, really, it's applied to our whole being as fallen people.

But, yeah.

But, the mind is corrupted for sure.

So, yeah.

But, as believers, what is our mind doing now?

Being transformed by the renewal of our mind.

So, it's changing.

So, this also should invoke pity and brokenheartedness for those who are around us, right?

Because, if they knew Christ, they could have that image restored again, right?

So, that's what leads us to share with other people.

But, yeah.

We're going to get to...

When we do the saving work of the Spirit,

we'll talk more about why missions and evangelism are so important

and why this is actually, like, fuel behind going, not a hindrance to it.

So, yep.

Let's walk through this first,

because it's important to go through the Scripture first.

Then I have just some other stuff for you on the PowerPoint.

But, for now, I want you to think about that anatomy idea.

You know, as I do this...

You know, let's do this first.

It's more important than going through that.

But, alright, so man is not sick.

Man is not injured.

He is dead spiritually.

Alright?

And there's a lot of Scriptures that say these things.

I just picked a few.

But, point number one, really,

as a result of Adam's transgressions,

men are born in sin

and by nature are spiritually dead.

Therefore, if they are to become God's children

and enter His kingdom,

they must be born anew by the Spirit.

So, think about that connection.

You've heard the phrase being born again.

You have to be born again

because your condition is dead.

Like, that's the point.

It's connecting the two.

Same thing as, like,

there's a need for us to be regenerated by the Spirit.

Let's just...

Let's just pick two of these.

This is the idea of original sin, right?

That Augustine kind of coined.

Let's look at Romans 5 there.

Just as sin came into the world

through one man

and death through sin.

And so death spread to all men

because all have sinned.

And then Ephesians 2.

You were dead in your trespasses and sin,

to which you once walked,

following the course of this world,

following the prince of the power of the air

and the Spirit that has not worked

in the sons of disobedience.

So...

But...

That's so important

because dead means corpse.

Dead means useless.

You can't do anything.

Like...

I may have never been to a funeral before

and seen the corpse there like I have.

They can't do anything.

I can't say,

hey, jump up and fix yourself.

Put yourself together.

You know,

my grandmother just went to be with the Lord

a few...

Like last summer.

And I couldn't say,

come on, Mildred,

just stand up.

Get yourself together.

You know?

She would have slapped me silly

if she had heard me say that.

But...

The corpse can't do anything.

That's the connection.

You need to be born again by the Spirit.

So...

And a dead person has no ability

to do anything for themselves.

Now, our spiritual senses

are likewise darkened.

Okay?

So think about your senses.

Sight.

Feel.

Touch.

Those sort of things.

As a result of the fall,

men are blind and deaf

to spiritual truth.

Minds are darkened by sin

and hearts corrupted by evil.

We just read that in Romans 1.

We just read it.

But to give you a few more,

I mean, right out of the gate,

right in Genesis,

the Lord saw the wickedness of man

was great on the earth

and every intention,

every intention

of the thoughts of his heart

was only evil continually.

Right?

That's the heart.

Look at Jeremiah 17.

We all know this one.

The heart is deceitful above all else.

Desperately sick.

Who can understand it?

Don't follow your heart.

Right?

So that's the heart.

Then Jesus talks about how

all sorts of evil

proceed from the heart of men.

Look at 1 Corinthians there.

The natural person,

or the person without God,

the person that's without Jesus,

the natural person

does not accept,

does not accept

the things of the Spirit of God.

For they are followed to Him

and He is not able

to understand them

because they are spiritually discerned.

Yeah.

So,

if you look at Ephesians,

oh shoot,

I have the wrong,

wrong one on here.

It's the right chapter,

wrong verse.

I found it in my bed.

I apologize.

But it says,

don't walk as the Gentiles

do in the futility

of their minds.

See that?

Like our minds

are directed towards them.

The darkened

in their understanding,

alienated from the life of God

because of the ignorance

of the image

and the hardness

of their heart.

So,

just look at that kind of language

that's there.

So yeah,

there's a lot of other verses

that kind of go with this.

But,

this is the scary one.

This one scared the death.

You know what?

I mean,

when I first read it,

I was like,

wow,

I never thought about that.

But,

before in Christ,

we're in bondage to Satan

and slaves to sin.

Right?

It's not made up language.

Before sinners are born

to God's kingdom

through the regenerating

power of the Spirit,

they are children

of the devil.

Satan.

And under his control,

they are slaves to sin.

Alright?

What?

You,

so,

in the context of John 8,

y'all know what's going on

in John 8?

Anybody remember

what's going on in John 8?

Jesus is arguing

with the crowd.

He's arguing

with the Jews

who were there.

And they're

giving him

a lot of stuff

and

they're rejecting him.

They're rejecting

his words.

They're rejecting

his truth.

And I don't want you

to think about it.

Like,

you could have one person

share about Christ

with your friends

or your family.

Who would you want?

Jesus,

probably,

right?

He himself.

So he's standing there,

the Son of God,

and he's talking to them.

They're going,

nope,

nope.

So this is what he says to them.

He says,

you are of your father,

the devil.

And your wills

do your father's desires.

Wow.

He was a murderer

from the beginning

and nothing to do

with the truth

because the truth,

because there is

no truth in him.

When he lies,

he speaks of his own character

for he is a liar

and the father of lies.

2 Timothy,

he's talking about

sharing,

you know,

the good news

with unbelievers

in verse 26

and hopes that,

right,

they may come to their senses

and escape the snare

of the devil

after being captured

by him

to do his will.

I mean,

we all have like

made these connections

like they're everywhere

and Jesus,

I tell you the truth,

truly,

truly,

everyone who commits sin

is a slave

to sin.

And then Titus,

we ourselves

are once foolish

to disobedient,

slaves

to various passions

and pleasures.

Right?

So,

that's not language

that no one likes to hear.

I'm,

you know,

and again,

I'm looking at it

in Christ now,

like,

oh my gosh,

I had no idea

it was that bad.

Like,

I had no idea

that I was that

ensnared

by sin.

Alright?

Important to know,

when we use the phrase

total depravity,

it's different

than using the phrase

utter depravity.

Okay?

There's a reason

why we use that.

Tolerance means

that all our faculties

have been corrupted

by sin.

But,

through God's grace,

we are able

to do some things

for good.

Right?

We are able

to do some things

that somewhat

look like

the image of God,

but those are

distorted still.

Utter depravity

means that we are

as evil as we could be

all the time.

And that's not the case.

Like,

there's restraints

on us.

Right?

You see

utter depravity

inch a little bit

further

with,

you know,

police going away

and,

like,

the authority

of the state

going away

and people

just can do

whatever they

want to do.

You're seeing

that go a step

further.

There was

restraints on them.

So,

utter depravity

is different

than total depravity.

This one doesn't

need a lot of

explanation,

but,

like,

how bad is it?

everybody.

Because you may

think,

deep down,

like,

I know I'm bad.

I know I'm really bad,

but I don't think

I'm that bad.

Like,

it puts us all

under the same

umbrella.

It does.

Sin's reign

is universal.

All men

are under sin's

power,

and consequently

all are guilty,

none are righteous,

none are even one.

We read this morning,

I think,

TJ read

Psalm 130,

if you,

O Lord,

should mark

iniquities,

O Lord,

who could stand?

Right?

Like,

are any of you

ready to face

God's judgment

on your own,

apart from Christ?

Like,

no,

we could not stand.

We would just

perish before Him.

And,

so,

we all know,

I think that's

a pretty commonly

accepted one,

that we're all

under the same

curse.

But,

there was a

rabbi

many years ago

who wrote

a book called,

some of you

are all

enough to

remember this,

why do bad

things happen

to good people?

Remember that?

Krishna?

What's his name?

Well,

as humbly

and as gently

as I can say

this to him,

it would be

because there

are no good

people.

That's what

this says,

right here,

right?

no one is

righteous,

not even one,

no one understands,

no one seeks God,

all have turned

aside,

all have become

worthless,

as we just read,

no one does

good,

not even one.

Alright,

so that's

the condition

we all find

ourselves in.

And our mind

is hostile

to God.

See that in

Romans 8?

The mind

that's in the

flesh,

right,

is hostile

towards God

and will not

submit to God's

law.

Won't.

Won't do it.

Alright,

so this leads

to the next

and last point

which is

controversial,

right?

Men,

being blind

in death

to spiritual

truth,

are unable

of themselves

to repent,

to believe

the gospel,

or to come

to Christ.

They have no

power within

themselves to

change their

natures or

prepare themselves

for salvation.

So,

is it like,

excuse me,

some of you

say,

well,

yeah,

yeah,

of course,

I couldn't

say myself,

duh,

but I kind

of met God

halfway,

right?

Like,

I used my

abilities and

my goodness

that was in

me and all

and my free

will and I

met God

kind of halfway

and then he

did his part.

well,

no,

what we're

saying here

is that

you couldn't

even prepare

yourself for

it.

Like,

you were so

low.

Really

motivational,

right,

people?

Like,

just enough.

I feel like

I'm getting

hammered,

you know,

I feel like

I'm getting

roasted here.

So,

and this is

important,

no man can

come to

faith in

Christ unless

God grants

him repentance

resulting in

faith.

Jeremiah,

y'all know

the song

Jesus

Painted

All,

the leper

spots the

heart of

stone.

What about

the Bible?

What about

that?

Can the

Ethiopian

change his

skin or

the leper

his spots?

And also,

you can do

good who are

accustomed to

doing evil.

So,

yeah,

like,

again,

when you have

no power,

I have no

power to

change myself.

I can't

just reform

myself and

prepare myself

for God.

I'll give

you another

one.

You see

that in

2 Corinthians

there,

that blinded

the mind,

Satan,

the God

of this age,

has blinded

the minds

of unbelievers

to keep

them from

seeing the

light of

the gospel.

And then

2 Timothy,

you've got

the second

part,

God may

perhaps,

perhaps,

grant them

repentance,

leading to

a knowledge

of the

truth.

They may

come to

their senses

and escape

the snare

of the devil

who have

been captured

by him

to do

his will.

So,

this idea

that God

has to

grant it,

it has

to come

from God

himself.

Those are

just a

handful.

Like,

people told

me this

stuff,

I'm like,

yeah,

I don't

believe it,

whatever.

they

started

saying,

what about

that one?

What about

that one?

And I

was like,

ah,

they're

drowning

me in

scripture

here.

So,

I guess I'm

just going to

have to

bow the

knee and

say,

man,

I am

more,

I was

more

wretched

than I

ever dreamed

I was.

Like,

it was

much worse.

Like,

the surgeon

being like,

I don't

know how

you were

alive.

Like,

that's

crazy.

Worst

pair of lungs

I've ever

seen.

Isn't it

weird I

want to

actually see

them?

I mean,

they got

rid of

them before

I was

conscious.

But,

we were

not just

bad,

we were

really,

really bad.

So,

any questions

before we

move on

to the

next section

of this?

About how

bad we

are?

We were

really bad.

That's

really only

understandable

in the

context of

how good

God is.

Yep.

Mm-hmm.

Standing

on our

own,

we can

justify

all kinds

of good

behavior.

But,

that's not

what we're

talking about.

Nope.

No,

no,

look,

listen,

you may

be very

good compared

to some

people you

know.

Right?

Like,

that's a,

you hear the

gospel people,

most people,

but that's

changing now,

most people

have some

morality,

they're like,

some sense

of right and

wrong,

and they'll

say,

well,

I'm not

that bad.

Nobody's

perfect,

right?

I'm like,

yeah,

you have no

idea how

ironic that

saying is.

You're right,

no one's

perfect,

and the

standard is

perfection.

You're not

there,

and I'm

not either.

So,

it's,

so yeah,

only after you

contemplate who

God is do you

actually see this

first.

Probably could have

it a whole other

week,

just talking about

how great God

was,

and then we

showed up here,

and we're like,

oh man,

we're done.

Colin,

in his

institutes,

writes something

like,

like if you

look down at

the ground,

and you can

see things on

the ground,

like rocks,

dirt,

whatever,

down near your

feet,

and very,

very clear,

right?

Like your vision's

very clear.

You can see it

perfectly,

unless you have

this bad eyesight,

like me.

And,

he compares that

with looking at

your earthly

righteousness.

Like,

as long as I'm

focused on earth,

it's good.

He's like,

as soon as you

gaze,

like straight into

the sun,

your vision just

blurts,

right?

He's like,

that's what it's

like to compare

your righteousness

to God's.

Like,

you can't.

And,

your righteousness

is skewed

at that point.

So,

you know,

but yeah,

only after you

have contemplated

the face of God

and come to

look into

yourself.

Anybody else?

We're all

family here.

I know nobody

came here

to hear from me,

but I'll say

that I

oftentimes

don't feel

a great draw

to get into

the Word

or to pray,

but what I've

learned is

that if I

open up the

Psalms

or go to

the last few

chapters of

Job,

start contemplating

God and

His holiness

and mightiness,

it doesn't take me

long to be very

affected and

really want to

pray.

Yeah,

turn the light

to the roof.

so I think

that illustrates

to a great point

that even

in my

redeemed state,

the reality

is that

the old man

is still

within me

and those

same things

that are

described in

Scripture

about the

lost and the

depraved,

praise God

that I'm not

relieved with

them,

but at the same

time,

those things

are still

so present

in me

knowing the

holiness and

greatness of

God is the

only way

that I can

see myself

as I am

and the

Lord.

That's good,

brother.

Yeah,

knowing what

God's known in

your life,

I agree with

you.

That's awesome.

So,

I heard Aaron

Menekoff at

Mount Vernon.

We were at

that conference.

What was really

funny was,

you know,

I was preaching

on election

that Sunday

and he taught

on election

at that

pastor's

conference.

His main

goal was

that all

doctrine is

practical and

all doctrine

affects us.

It's not like

there's doctrine

and there's

practical.

Look at all

in Mary together.

And he said

these discussions

on what we're

talking about

are in-house

conversations.

There's conversations

you mainly

talk to about

with your family

and they get it

because they're

your family.

Right?

That's kind

of what

the goal

of this is.

And Jay,

why is that?

You brought

up a really

good point.

Why?

Why is it so

hard to focus

on God?

You can focus

on a lot

of other

things easily.

Why?

It's so hard

to think about

God.

It's like

we've had a

stroke spiritually.

I can't do it.

We need help.

It's like

loving

of pride.

Because he's

holy.

He's so

other

from anything

else in our

daily lives.

I think

about it

as long as

maybe

a little bit

we see more

of our sin

and then more

of his

greatness in it.

It can be a little

overwhelming.

Yeah.

Very overwhelming.

Yeah.

And that way

to be careful

not to get

it away.

Because we

have to develop

this sense

of unworthiness

where we're

fearful to draw

near to God

through Christ.

But yeah,

it's just

self-evident.

Why is it so

hard for us

to do what

God calls us

to do sometimes?

And why is it

easy to do

other things?

I could focus

on other

things for hours

and just lose

myself in it.

But when it

comes to God,

what is it

that makes

us just turn

off sometimes?

And we need

that extra

help by the

Spirit to

really engage

our minds

and engage

our hearts.

It's just

self-evident.

Again,

we've had

something go

wrong spiritually,

right?

Even as

believers,

we have to

fight it.

Anything else?

All right.

Let's get

into some

other fun

stuff.

Oh,

sorry.

I guess

I'd also

choose to

have

believers

there

to

still

sin

in us

that

first

step

because

if

we

didn't

still

it

wasn't

still

sin

in us

then

we

wouldn't

have

that

issue.

we

were

in the

process

of

becoming

perfect.

We're

not

there.

This is

sanctification.

But thank

goodness,

though,

unlike Rome,

Rome puts

sanctification

before

justification.

You know that?

So only

once you've

reached a

certain state

of perfection

or holiness

then is

right for

God to

justify you.

So God

helps those

who help

themselves.

that's

just not

what

Romans 5

teaches

at all.

We were

justified,

right?

Then

sanctified.

So to

give you a

few things

here,

over how

has sin

affected the

will of

man?

because we

use the

term free

will like

like crazy.

You know,

we hear it

in culture,

we hear it

from non-Christians,

we hear it

from Christians.

What does it

mean?

My youth

pastor,

well,

actually,

I was already

out of high

school,

but he was

a new youth

pastor when I

was a freshman

of college,

and I was

going to

school close

to home.

So I

helped out

with the

youth because

I was kind

of a young

believer.

I know a

lot more

than these

schools.

So I'll

come here

and try

to help

these younger

people out.

But he's

the one who

introduced me

to all of

this.

And I

loved him

and I

couldn't

stand him

because he

would just

shoot down

what I

believe just

by saying

some things.

But one

time he

was just

sitting back

on the desk

with his

kind of

smug face,

kind of his

feet propped

up, and he

was just

like,

so what is

free will,

Clay?

And I

was like,

I don't

know,

I heard

a movie.

So,

he's like,

all right,

go figure

that out,

then come

back before

we continue

this.

So,

I just had

to wear it.

But in

short,

the will

is the

faculty or

the power

of making

choices.

Okay?

There's a

difference

between choosing

something and

willing something.

All right?

our will

is what

governs our

choices.

Right?

It controls

what choices

we make.

Our wills

do.

So,

let's go

back over

this a little

bit.

So,

there's

arguably

more,

but there's

three major

controversies.

So,

you had to

see the

scripture

first.

All right?

Now,

we're going

to look at

some church

history.

Not enough

just to have

church history.

But there

was a

major

controversy

around

1418,

the early

part of

the church

where

Augustine

was the

primary

influence

at that

time.

He coined

the term

original sin.

You've

heard that?

Like we're

born in a

fallen sinful

state.

Thinking about

what David

said and

others.

And he

wrote a

prayer in

his

confessions.

And it

basically said,

Lord,

command what

you will,

but grant

what you

command.

Meaning like,

Lord,

you've

commanded us

to do

this,

but give

us your

grace to

do it.

We need

your grace

to be

faithful to

you.

We need

your grace

to keep

your

commandments.

Right?

And so,

yeah,

it makes

sense to

us.

But there

was a

British

monk

named

Pelagius.

This is

like Romanized

Britain time.

And he

had an

issue with

that.

He was

like,

God

wouldn't

command us

to do

something

if we

couldn't

do it.

And it

just started

this huge

controversy

in the

church.

And he

was the

one who

talked about

the idea

of man's

will being

free.

Alright?

So look at

the Augustinian

view versus

the Pelagian

view.

Alright?

The

Augustinian

view,

we're going

to go

from left

to right

here.

Adam's sin

affected the

entire human

race.

That's what we

just read out

of Romans 5,

right?

Pelagius

said sin

affected only

Adam.

And he

coined the

phrase like

tabula

rosa,

right?

The clean

slave.

You're born

a clean

slave,

untainted

by sin.

Adam messed

up,

but you

don't have

to mess

up,

right?

That's kind

of what he

was basically

saying.

In short,

Augustin

taught man

was born

into a

state of

sin and

spiritually

dead,

right?

That's what

we just

read Ephesians

to.

He said,

no,

man is

born into

a state

of righteousness

and spiritual

life.

Clean

slave.

Alright?

Now here's

the deal.

Third,

man could

not

live or

do any

spiritual

good apart

from God's

sovereign

grace.

Then Pelagius

said,

man could

live and

do spiritual

good apart

from God's

grace.

None of

us would

probably go

that far,

right?

But basically

if this is

true,

the man

doesn't need

a savior.

He needs

a teacher.

He needs

some moral

assistance.

He needs

a life

coach.

He's got

the ability

within himself

because he's

not falling,

he's not

tainted.

So he

just needs

a teacher

to help

him.

Like,

yeah,

go that

way,

buddy.

Do this.

Live that

way.

And man

has the

ability.

He could

do it

on his

own without

Christ's

grace.

But eventually

the church

kind of

anathemaed

and kicked

Pelagius out

of the

official

accepted

church

at that

time.

Probably

for good.

Augustine

also taught

this about

the will

of man.

This is

important

because you're

like,

I make

choices

every day,

so aren't

I free?

Like,

I do this,

I want to

go home

and do

what I

want to

do and

go to

bed.

Well,

some of

you.

And so,

but this

is what

he defined

it as.

Free will

is the

faculty or

power by

which choices

are made.

Right?

Now,

he made a

distinction

between

earthly choices

and spiritual

choices.

moral

liberty,

the ability

to use

that faculty

of free

will to

embrace the

things of

God.

Does that

make sense?

Right?

After the

fall,

moral

liberty was

lost,

but free

will remained.

Meaning,

like,

yeah,

I can still

make choices,

but those

choices don't

include the

things of

God.

It's like

we can't

do things

spiritually.

But we can

make decisions

every day

but we're

kind of like

the walking

dead,

really.

We don't

have that

ability to

make any

spiritual good.

So he

equated that

with moral

liberty.

That was

lost after

the fall.

Right?

But not

until

regeneration

occurs and

man's,

is man's

moral liberty

returned.

Alright?

Now,

so when we're

born again,

that's restored.

Right?

God saves us.

He gives us

a new heart.

Puts His

spirit within

us.

Writes His

law in

our hearts.

And so,

so then,

after regeneration,

that moral

liberty is

restored where

we can freely

love God

again.

Alright?

So we're

not robots.

We're not

puppets.