Series:
Romans
Title: Depravity and Its Cure
Text:
Romans 3:9-18
Date:
June 7, 2018
Place:
SGBC, New Jersey
Our subject: Depravity and Its Cure.
In our
text, God shows us that all men are totally depraved by nature.
Romans 3: 9: 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; 10: As it is written, There is none
righteous, no, not one: 11: There
is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. 12: They are all gone out of the way, they
are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.13: Their throat is an open
sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is
under their lips: 14: Whose
mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: 15: Their feet are swift to shed blood: 16: Destruction and misery are
in their ways: 17: And the way
of peace have they not known: 18:
There is no fear of God before their eyes.
My goal
in this message is to show you how totally ruined we all are as we come into
this world. Then we will see that only God can remedy each of these aspects of
our depravity. When we declare that God
chose a people, Christ redeemed us and the Holy Spirit created within us a new
man, we are not saying that God’s elect are better than anyone else, by nature—
Romans 3: 9: 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;
Proposition: As we are born in this world all are under sin—totally
depraved, totally sinful—so that all those God saves must be made an entirely
new creation, which God, by himself, creates.
Since
each of these things is what we all are by nature, nothing of our sin-nature
can be used of God. God in Christ must make those he saves an entirely new
creation. This work must be entirely the work of God the Father, God the Son
and God the Holy Spirit, apart from anything in us because we are depraved.
Divisions:
There are seven things stated here concerning fallen man. We will take them one
by one.
CONCERNING RIGHTEOUSNESS
Romans
3: 10: As
it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:
God says
all are, by nature, guilty. Adam was the
only man that God created innocent because he was the head of the whole human
race. By Adam’s sin, we all became guilty before God.
That
means God alone can make us righteous. It is only by his Son, Christ Jesus. Just as all those who would be born of Adam
were represented by him and made sinners, all who shall be born of Christ were
represented and made righteous by Christ.
Romans 5:19: For as by one man’s disobedience many were
made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.
The
righteousness of God is by the faithfulness of Christ and his righteousness is
imputed to those who believe on Christ—
Romans 3: 22:…the righteousness of God…is by faith of
Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no
difference: 23: For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
We are
justified, made righteous, freely by God’s grace through Christ redeeming his
people from the curse of the law by being made a curse for us.
Romans 3: 24: Being justified freely…by his grace…through
the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:
God set
Christ forth to be the propitiation—the one in whom satisfaction is made, the
one in whom God will be merciful to us.
Romans 3: 25: Whom God hath set forth to be a
propitiation…through faith in his blood,
Christ
declares God’s righteousness—how God can be just and justifier.
Romans 3: 25:..to declare his righteousness for the remission
of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; 26: To declare, I say,
at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him
which believeth in Jesus.
So none
are righteous. Only God makes his people righteous, by Christ, through faith in
Christ.
CONCERNING OUR UNDERSTANDING
Romans
3: 11: There
is none that understandeth,
By
nature, no man has any spiritual understanding of the true and living God and
of what God requires. No man has spiritual
understanding of what he himself is. No
man has spiritual understanding of who Christ is and what he has accomplished. No man has any spiritual understanding, period!
Ephesians 4: 18: Having the understanding darkened, being
alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because
of the blindness of their heart:
We will
not and cannot receive spiritual understanding by nature nor can we receive
spiritual understanding in our old nature.
1 Corinthians 2: 14: the natural man receiveth not the
things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he
know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
Job 28: 20:
Whence then cometh wisdom? and where is the place of understanding? 21: Seeing it is hid from the eyes of
all living, and kept close from the fowls of the air.
If we get
spiritual understanding, God alone must give it.
Proverbs 2: 6: For the LORD giveth wisdom: out of his
mouth cometh knowledge and understanding.
Psalm 119: 130: The entrance of thy words giveth light;
it giveth understanding unto the simple.
Understanding
and wisdom is in and by Christ Jesus the Son of God. Speaking of believers
taught of Christ Jesus, the apostle John said,
1 John 5: 20: And we know that the Son of God is come,
and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we
are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true
God, and eternal life.
The two
men on the road to Emmas walked with Christ and did not know it. They could not know it. Even when he revealed himself, they could not
understand the scriptures he preached to them. “Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures,”
(Lu 24:45)
Ephesians 1: 17: the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the
Father of glory,…gives unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the
knowledge of him: 18: The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye
may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of
his inheritance in the saints,
We have
no righteousness, no understanding—both are given by God.
CONCERNING OUR SEEKING GOD
Romans 3: 11:…there is none
that seeketh after God.
By
nature, we will seek things in this world to save but we will not seek God.
Isaiah 31: 1: Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help;
and stay on horses, and trust in chariots, because they are many; and in
horsemen, because they are very strong; but they look not unto the Holy One of
Israel, neither seek the LORD!
Isaiah 9: 13: For the people turneth not unto him that
smiteth them, neither do they seek the LORD of hosts.
This is
due to the pride of our sin-nature. Man in his pride will not seek God and
confess he needs another to save him.
Psalm 10:4: The wicked, through the pride of his
countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts.
Hosea 7: 10: And the pride of Israel testifieth to his
face: and they do not return to the LORD their God, nor seek him for all this.
Therefore,
God alone must make us seek him. Christ
said,
John 6: 44: No man can come to me, except the Father
which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day. 45: It is
written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man
therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me…65: And
he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it
were given unto him of my Father.
Concerning
all for whom he died, Christ said,
John 12:32: And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will
draw all men unto me.
Jeremiah 31:3: The LORD hath appeared of old unto me,
saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with
lovingkindness have I drawn thee.
Song of Solomon 1:4: Draw me, we will run after thee: the
king hath brought me into his chambers: we will be glad and rejoice in thee, we
will remember thy love more than wine: the upright love thee.
CONCERNING GOD’S WAY
Romans 3: 12 They are all gone out of the way,
As soon
as God gave the law at Mt. Sinai, men turned from it.
Exodus 32: 8: They have turned aside quickly out of the
way which I commanded them: they have made them a molten calf, and have
worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, These be thy
gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.
It is not
God’s fault, only man’s.
Ecclesiastes 7: 29: Lo, this only have I found, that God
hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions.
Isaiah 59:8: The way of peace they know not; and there is
no judgment in their goings: they have made them crooked paths: whosoever goeth
therein shall not know peace.
What is
man’s way?
Jeremiah 2:13: For my people have committed two evils;
they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out
cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.
Man has
left God’s way. The way God teaches, man has left. And made themselves a way
which shall end in death. Sinner, do not go in man’s way!
Proverbs 16:25
There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are
the ways of death.
So then,
if any man will be brought into God’s way, it will have to be by God, by his
grace. God does not turn us the way of
the law of Sinai and the works of our hands, but to Christ the Way.
John 14: 6: Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the
truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
God’s way
was to send his Son who bore all the iniquity of all his elect.
Isaiah 53: 6: All we like sheep have gone astray; we have
turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of
us all.
All the
iniquity from all the sinful ways of God’s elect, God made Christ to bear then
made him a curse to suffer the punishment because of it because justice had to
be satisfied for God to be just and save us.
The effectual result is God gives us understanding and draws and makes
us seek Christ the Way and find him. All those whose sin he bore shall be
returned unto Christ.
1 Peter 2:25: For ye were as sheep going astray; but are
now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls. [note the connection
between this verse and Is 53: 6]
CONCERNING OUR PROFITABILITY
Romans 3: 12: they are together become
unprofitable; [in Ps 14: 3 they word is filthy]
Unprofitable
means useless, unserviceable, unfit to serve God in any capacity, entirely
unprofitable and useless to God. It is because we are filthy in sin and God is
holy. Again, it is man’s own fault, God
did not create us this way.
Genesis 1:31: And God saw every thing that he had made,
and, behold, it was very good.
But after
Adam sinned and plunged all men into sin and we came forth sinning,
Genesis 6: 5:
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. 6: And it repented
the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. 7: And the LORD said, I will destroy
man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and
the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have
made them.
When you
are cleaning out the garage and come across something useless and of no profit
to you, you throw it onto the trash heap and burn it. In his parable of the unprofitable servant,
Christ said that is what shall become of all men who meet God filthy, useless,
unprofitable sinners.
Matthew 5: 30: And cast ye the unprofitable servant into
outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
So if a
man will be washed from his filth and made profitable to God, it will be by the
grace of God alone. After God saw the
wickedness of all men in the earth, and determined to destroy the world,
scriptrue says,
Genesis 6: 8: But Noah found grace in the eyes of the
LORD.
God alone
washes his people from our filth.
1 Corinthians 6: 9:
Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not
deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate,
nor abusers of themselves with mankind, 10:
Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall
inherit the kingdom of God. 11: And
such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are
justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.
When he
has washed us in regeneration, God makes us profitable to ourselves and to
other sinners.
Isaiah 48:17: Thus saith the LORD, thy Redeemer, the Holy
One of Israel; I am the LORD thy God which teacheth thee to profit, which
leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest go.
When God
has brought us to follow Christ, God gives us the Holy Spirit, making us his
witnesses of Christ that we might be profitable to God’s lost sheep to teach others Christ our Salvation.
1 Corinthians 12:7: But the manifestation of the Spirit
is given to every man to profit withal.
1 Corinthians 10:33…not seeking mine own profit, but the
profit of many, that they may be saved.
Philemon 1: 10: I beseech thee for my son Onesimus, whom
I have begotten in my bonds:Which in time past was to thee unprofitable, but
now profitable to thee and to me:
2 Timothy 4:11:…Take Mark, and bring him with thee: for
he is profitable to me for the ministry.
Yet,
because we know every gift we have came from God above, this is the testimony
of every true servant of God.
Luke 17:10…when ye shall have done all those things which
are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which
was our duty to do.
CONCERNING OUR GOODNESS
Romans 3: 12:…there is none that doeth good,
no, not one. 13: Their throat is
an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps
is under their lips: 14: Whose
mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: 15: Their feet are swift to shed blood: 16: Destruction and misery are in
their ways:
This all
proceeds from a dead, deceitful, poisonous, bitter, murderous, destructive
heart. Vain religion preaches morality,
constantly urging sinners to put away their sinful deeds and live outwardly good
lives. Yet, they do not preach Christ and tell sinners they are incapable of
doing good. Will-worship only seeks to
stop the outward bodily members from doing sinful things. They do not preach
the total depravity of all sinners in heart.
They do not preach that salvation is entirely of God.
The
Pharisee’s are the illustration: they condemned Christ’s disciples for not
washing their hands before they ate, saying their filthy hands defiled things. Christ
said, “No! the issue is the sinful heart!”
Matthew 15: 7:
Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying, 8: This people draweth nigh unto me
with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is
far from me. 9: But in vain they
do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. 10:
And he called the multitude, and said unto them, Hear, and understand: 11: Not that which goeth into the
mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a
man. 12: Then came his
disciples, and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended,
after they heard this saying? 13:
But he answered and said, Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not
planted, shall be rooted up. 14:
Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the
blind, both shall fall into the ditch. 15:
Then answered Peter and said unto him, Declare unto us this parable. 16: And Jesus said, Are ye also yet
without understanding? 17: Do
not ye yet understand, that whatsoever entereth in at the mouth goeth into the
belly, and is cast out into the draught? 18: But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth
from the heart; and they defile the man. 19: For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries,
fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: 20: These are the things which defile a man: but to eat
with unwashen hands defileth not a man.
Matthew 12: 33:
Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt,
and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit. 34: O generation of vipers, how can
ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the
mouth speaketh. 35: A good man out
of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out
of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things.
Seeing that
there is none good because there is none with a good heart, then none can make
themselves have a good heart that they might do good. Only God can create a new
holy heart within and give a man new, right motives from within. Christ said,
John 3: 7: Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be
born again.
The new
birth cannot be of man because there is none good, our hearts are wicked. The
new birth in which God gives a new heart must be entirely of God, apart from
the sinner’s will or works.
John 1: 13: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the
will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
Ezekiel 36: 26: A new heart also will I give you, and a new
spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your
flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.
There is
none good, therefore, only God can give a new heart.
CONCERNING THE WAY OF PEACE AND OUR FEAR OF
GOD
Romans 3: 17: And the way of peace have they not known: 18: There is no fear of God before
their eyes.
Christ is
the Way of Peace. He alone is the Way of Peace between the sinner and God.
Matthew 7:14: strait is the gate, and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and few there be that
find it. [narrow as Christ himself],
Luke 1: 78:…the dayspring from on high hath visited us,
79: To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to
guide our feet into the way of peace.
Christ is
the Way of Peace: the King of Righteousness and the King of Peace. Christ is revealed
to a sinner—that Christ alone is the Righteousness of God, that Christ alone
has justified his people by his blood, that Christ alone “was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our
justification.” (Rom 4: 25) Then the sinner finds peace.
Romans 5:1: Therefore being justified, by faith, we have
peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:
John 14:27: Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto
you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled,
neither let it be afraid.
Then he
has the fear of God before his eyes—he
hates the evil of his former self-righteous, self-exalting way.
Proverbs 8:13: The fear of the LORD is to hate evil:
pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate.
The fear
of the Lord is to depart from the evil of sinful self-salvation: self-righteousness,
self-teaching, self-sanctification, self-preservation and rest in Christ alone
for all. Peace of Christ’s reconciliation and the fear of God are connected.
The fear of God comes when God makes us behold mercy and truth meeting in
Christ by which all our iniquity is purged.
Proverbs 16:6: By mercy and truth iniquity is purged: and
by the fear of the LORD men depart from evil.
This is
all the work of the LORD!
Isaiah 57: 19:
I create the fruit of the lips; Peace, peace to him that is far off, and
to him that is near, saith the LORD; and I will heal him. 20: But the wicked are like the
troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. 21: There is no peace, saith my
God, to the wicked.
So we see
there are none are righteous—Christ is made our Righteousness; none
understand—Christ is made our Wisdom; none seek—God draws us to Christ; all are
out of the way—God brings us into Christ the Way; all are unprofitable—Christ
makes us useful as his witnesses; none do good—the Holy Spirit gives a new
heart and from it Christ constrains us to do good; none know the way of peace
nor fear God—God brings us to rest in Christ our Peace and creates in us the
fear of God making us hate trusting self-salvation. In other words, “Salvation is of the Lord!”
Amen