The Word of God comes to us tonight from Genesis chapter 6 and Ephesians chapter 2. If you would first turn to Genesis chapter 6 as we read together the first 13 verses. A familiar portion introducing the great flood. Hear now the Word of God. Genesis chapter 6 beginning at verse 1. When men began to increase in number on the earth, and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose. Then the Lord said, My spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is mortal. His days will be a hundred and twenty years. The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God went to the daughters of men and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown. The Lord saw how great man's wickedness on earth had become and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. The Lord was grieved that he had made man on the earth and his heart was filled with pain. So the Lord said, I will wipe mankind whom I have created from the face of the earth, men and animals and creatures that move along the ground and birds of the air, for I am grieved that I have made them. But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. This is the account of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God. Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight and was full of violence. God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. So God said to Noah, I am going to put an end to all people for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I'm surely going to destroy both them and the earth. We'll end with that there. And if you would turn over to Ephesians chapter 2. Ephesians chapter 2, beginning at verse 1 through 10. As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions. It is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus in order that in the coming ages He might show the incomparable riches of His grace expressed in His kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God, not by works so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. May God add His blessing to the reading and consideration of His Word tonight. And I invite you to turn in the back of this altar hymnal to pages 102 and 103 as we continue our consideration of the canons of Dort. We've considered the first head of doctrine, the second head of doctrine, And now we begin tonight with the third and fourth heads of doctrines, which are considered together. Of course, you recall that ordinarily, or most, we think of the five points as tulip. But that's not how the Synod of Dort dealt with them and recorded them. They considered them in the order of all tip, U-L-T-I-P. So tonight we begin with toll depravity, entitled here, The Corruption of Man. and then with the fourth head, his conversion to God and the manner thereof. I want to read just Articles 3, 4, and 5, although we'll be looking at a bit more throughout the sermon. Article 3, page 103. Therefore all men are conceived in sin and are by nature children of wrath, incapable of saving good, prone to evil, dead in sin, and in bondage thereto, and without the regenerating grace of the Holy Spirit, They are neither able nor willing to return to God, to reform the depravity of their nature, or to dispose themselves to reformation. Article 4. 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 shows some regard for virtue and for good outward behavior. 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 hinders in unrighteousness by doing which he becomes inexcusable before God. Article 5 In the same light, we are to consider the law of the Decalogue delivered by God to His peculiar people, the Jews, by the hands of Moses. For though it reveals the greatness of sin, and more and more convinces man thereof, yet as it neither points out a remedy, nor imparts strength to extricate him from this misery, but being weak through the flesh, leaves the transgressor under the curse, Man cannot, by this law, obtain saving grace. Well, beloved congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, our United Reformed Federation of Churches is preparing in July, the Lord willing, its synod meeting. A synod meeting which takes place for our federation only one time every three years. And it will take place over four days. Four days of deliberation considering an agenda that is about 500 pages long that the delegates will consider recommendations and overtures and all kinds of information. Four days for three years of business. 500 pages. The Synod of Dort was a meeting that lasted six months. Many more days. And though the fruit of that great synod was indeed great, namely, a summary of the doctrines of God's grace of salvation taught in Scripture, yet the five points, as we call them, it was the fruit of a very, very careful consideration of what Arminianism was teaching. Some of which even sounded orthodox. Even sounded right and true. Oh, indeed, as we have already considered, there was a clear controversy when it came to unconditional election, which we believe the Bible teaches, that God chose some based only on His own good pleasure, not on any conditions man could meet, versus the Arminian teaching of conditional election, that God chose some based on the fact that He foresaw that they would believe of their own free will. And there was a controversy with regard to limited atonement as the Bible teaches. That Christ came to save and indeed save only those whom God had chosen versus the Arminian teaching of unlimited atonement, a universal atonement that all have the same chance, all have the same possibility of being saved. There were those controversies with those first two points. But listen to what they said, the Arminians, the remonstrants said with regard to the corruption of man, the depravity of man. This is what they said. That man does not have saving fate of himself, not by the power of his own free will, since he in the state of apostasy and sin cannot of and through himself think, will, or do any good which is truly good, but that it is necessary that he be regenerated by God in Christ through His Holy Spirit and renewed in understanding affections or will and all powers in order that He may rightly understand, meditate upon, will, and perform that which is truly good according to the Word of Christ in John 13, 5. Without me, you can do nothing. Now, of course, I don't expect you to have memorized that as I read it to you. But most likely, as you listened, especially at the beginning, you might say, well, that sounds pretty on. That sounds pretty good. And we ought to understand that the fathers of the Synod of Dort, with them, there was no objection to this paragraph. There was no objection to what was said here all by itself. And as we know, the canon's response to this is what we call total depravity, the third head of doctrine that we have. and it's considered again with the fourth head irresistible grace for a very good reason, and that is because how we understand man's condition has everything to do with how we understand God's saving work. And as one commentator says, if sinful man is simply wounded or sick spiritually, but not wholly dead, he will not require the kind of redemption geared to the circumstance of one altogether dead. In other words, beloved, it does not take the same kind of work to resuscitate one who has fainted as it does to resuscitate one who is really dead. But there's another reason why the third and fourth points are considered together. Now, I trust we would all understand that the five points of the canons stand or fall together. Change any one of them as we understand them, and they all fall. For example, if election is conditional, as Arminianism teaches, then there is no hope, absolutely no hope, for the totally depraved sinner who cannot meet any sort of condition. And we could talk about a lot of things in that way, comparing all of the five. But the truth is, only God's unconditional election and His saving work in Christ on behalf of His people, only those answer to the needs of the totally depraved sinner. And because man is totally depraved, only a grace that is irresistible, that cannot be resisted, gives hope for conversion. In the same way, the five points of Arminianism also stand or fall together. For example, if election is conditional again as they teach, and if all can be saved by doing something as they teach, and if grace is resistible as they also teach, then there cannot be total depravity as Scripture teaches and as their statement makes it sound that they believe in. You see, their belief in the other points and especially point four, man's conversion, betrays their orthodox sounding point number three. and in the rejection and errors section that we have following each head of doctrine with this rejection and errors section we find there explained even more fully what they actually did believe when it came to the corruption of man his depravity the bottom line is beloved Arminianism spoke of the necessity of God's grace but they were not talking about a saving grace they were really talking about what we might call just a nudge. A nudge for man. To nudge him to use his free will, which we will talk about more next time, the Lord willing. But to use his free will, to nudge him to use that in order to choose for Christ. So the decisive step in Arminianism lies with the sinner and his willingness or his unwillingness to believe. Apart from his willingness, God's grace, they would say, could not be effective. God's grace depended upon man's willingness and therefore they cannot truly believe in what we call total depravity. But that, beloved, is the truth of Scripture. Man's total depravity, which alone gives true comfort. Now it may sound strange for me to say it that way, and total depravity is not meant to make the believer feel bad, to convict us to be sure, but in a sense not to make us to feel bad, but it is to remind us of who we are. And so that then we might see just how glorious is God's grace in our salvation that in spite of our total depravity, God chose to save us. And therefore we consider tonight God's grace illumined by man's total depravity. Noticing first of all the contrast of man's total depravity with his creation. In order to understand the depth of man's fall, just how far man fell, we must understand and realize the height from which he had fallen. Article 1, if you have your Psalter hymnals open yet, to page 102, article 1 begins, 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. Man was created in the image of God as God Himself said He was going to do. And Paul gives us a glimpse of what that was like in chapter 4, verse 24 of Ephesians when he says, and to put on the new self created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. He is speaking there about the image of God being restored in man by the Holy Spirit for the sake of Christ Jesus, but giving a glimpse again of man in His created state before the fall. We might say man was the masterpiece, God's masterpiece, the crown of God's creation. Man was made a rational and a thinking creature to enjoy a blessed fellowship with His Creator. Human beings were made with the capacity and the ability to govern and to develop the earth for God and to His glory. Adam and Eve were not made as robots, but they were made as people capable of serving God freely, making responsible decisions, pleasing to Him, able to do and to will and to think the right things. And man possessed, as the Bible teaches and as our confessions confess, True knowledge, true righteousness, and true holiness. True holiness. Not just the potential to become holy, but man was holy right from the beginning. True knowledge. Again, not just the potential to learn things about God, but he had true knowledge of Him and true righteousness. Man possessed it. It was his. Adam delighted in the will of God. He sought only the glory of God and to serve Him. He enjoyed perfection and sinlessness. Beloved, that is how it was. We might say that man was on top of the world. But he deliberately chose evil. Before the fall, man had a free will to choose obedience or disobedience and he chose to reject and to rebel against God as he fell into sin. so in the second place notice the consequences of man's fall article 1 continues but revolting from God by the instigation of the devil and by his own free will he forfeited these excellent gifts and in the place thereof became horrible in blindness of mind horrible darkness vanity and perverseness of judgment became wicked, rebellious and obdurate in heart and will and impure in his affections he became totally depraved totally completely sinful with a severely mangled or distorted created image just a residue some say a residue of that image remaining a remnant he ended up with exactly opposite of what God had given at creation he lost his true knowledge righteousness and holiness which he needed to enjoy that blessed fellowship with His Creator. He became spiritually blind to the things of God, not able to discern any of it. His direction became a direction of vanity filled with perversion in all of His judgments. As far as replacing holiness was a wicked and impurity in heart and mind and will. He became completely saturated with sin. Boys and girls like a sponge that is filled with water. Or an illustration that I've used before, if we were to take this glass full of water here and put one drop of poison in it and stir it around, I suspect not one of us would take a drink. Because every single drop of that water would become poisonous. Through and through. And that is what happened to man. His whole being, spiritual, physical, mentally, became sinful. And this is true of all humanity. Article 3 says, Therefore, all men are conceived in sin and are by nature children of wrath, incapable of saving good, prone to evil, dead in sin, and in bondage thereto. And that happens from the time that life begins at the moment of conception. Every single human being is totally depraved, corrupt, sinful. Little children do not learn to sin by imitation. But they sin because they're sinful. They have a sinful heart from the time that they are conceived. In everything, man became corrupted in sin and uses all of his faculties of knowledge and reason against God. Listen again to what Genesis 6 verse 5 says, The Lord saw how great man's wickedness on earth had become and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. In verse 12, God saw how corrupt the earth had become for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. Every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. Words, thoughts, actions saturated with sin. And instead of following the ways of God, Paul gives us a glimpse of what took place then after the fall. At the beginning of chapter 2 in Ephesians, as for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins in which you used to live. You lived. That was your walk of life, transgression, and sin in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the Spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful natures and following its desires and thoughts like the rest we were by nature. Objects of wrath. Following a different way, a different path, a different leader. The consequence of man's fall, total depravity, but not absolute depravity. We know there's a difference between total depravity and absolute depravity. Absolute depravity means that one is as evil as he can be all the time in absolutely everything. Because of the restraining hand of God, man's sinful nature does not express itself in the fullest or worst possible manner. Again, think of Genesis 6, verse 5. It does not say that man acted on every evil inclination. Every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. It doesn't say he acted on it. It may seem like it to us that there is absolute depravity out there with the Hitlers and the Bin Ladens and the Mansons of the world. But the hard truth for you and me, beloved, is that every human being has that potential. In sin, man was not reduced to an animal or a beast with absolutely no concern for anything around him. He has that residue of the image of God. The Confession says he has glimmerings of natural light. Article 4, 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 shows some regard for virtue and for good outward behavior. Man retains some knowledge of God. Paul says that in Romans 1, doesn't he? God reveals His wisdom and power in creation. He leaves man without excuse. John Calvin says of that that man has a sense of the divine. In other words, we might say that inside he knows that there is a God. But as Paul says, he suppresses that truth. and his total depravity, he suppresses that truth in unrighteousness. He retains some knowledge of natural things. Even in sin, man is still a rational creature with the ability to think and to reason and to learn. He is still able to live in this world and to use it to man's advantage to invent technology, to engage in scientific investigation, much of which is for the use of man on earth. Again, we know that God is the ultimate provider of these things, but he does so even through sinful man. Totally depraved man retains some knowledge of the difference between good and evil, the difference between right and wrong. In Romans 2, Paul says that the work of the law is written on the hearts of mankind. The work of the law is to divide, to make a distinction between what is acceptable, what is not acceptable, what is right and what is wrong. And that is written on the hearts of mankind. We see that throughout the civilizations of history. As civilizations have developed standards of right and wrong for the earthly benefit of man and for the good order of society. And the totally depraved man also shows some regard, the confession says, for virtue and for good outward behavior. And we know that to be true, don't we? We all know of unbelievers whom we would say of them, well, they're pretty good people. They're pretty nice people. They do some pretty good things. There are many who give the external appearance of morality. There are those who are kind to their wife and to their children or to their husband. There are those who are very, very good employees and employers. There are those who are honest and helpful and faithful in the things that they do. Even Jesus in Luke 6, verse 33, Luke's record of the Sermon on the Mount says, even sinners do good. In Matthew's account, as we have considered, he said even pagans love those who love them, indeed showing that it is given out of selfish motives. But even unbelievers do a certain good in times of emergencies or natural disasters. The world, it seems, and it's not just believers, I don't think, the world, it seems, come together to donate blood and water and provisions in abundance. even the wicked do some natural or moral or civil good. The dangerous part about that is that many of them are deceived by that, thinking, well, they don't need God. Yet, it's not spiritual good. It's not good in the sight of God. It's not the good that Catechism 91 says arises out of true faith, conforms to God's law, and is done for His glory. It is not that good that demonstrates that one has a saving relationship with Jesus Christ. Beloved, the proof, the evidence of total depravity is clear. No one really would argue that. Not even unbelievers. They wouldn't call it total depravity. They would call it bad things. But it's all around us. If you watch the news or read the newspapers or simply go to certain parts of town and just watch, it's clear. wars, diseases, perversion that is expressed in a multitude of ways. In the last nine years, we've become more familiar with suicide bombers than I would suspect any of us ever thought we would. In our own community, all we need to do is mention the names of Amber Dubois and Chelsea King and immediately we think of the horrendous crimes that were committed against them and the one who committed those crimes. Even the world would admit that bad things happen. The evidence, the proof is all around us. As well, Scripture testifies to that. Paul gives really a chilling description in Romans 3. There is no one righteous, not even one. There is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away. They have together become worthless. There is no one who does good, not even one. Their throats are open graves. Their tongues practice deceit. The poison of vipers is on their lips. Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Ruin and misery mark their ways and the way of peace they do not know. There is no fear of God before their eyes. Beloved, an ugly but inaccurate description of man outside of the grace of God. saturated with sin from the inside out. The evidence is clear all around us. It's clear from Scripture which testifies to it. And I would imagine that the most clear evidence for each one of us comes or ought to come from ourselves as we look at ourselves. You see, beloved, if we are honest, we all know our own thoughts and our own desires and especially those that we do not or have not acted upon. Even if nobody else around us knows, we all know our own struggle with sin. We all know our own propensity to sin. The evidence of total depravity is clear in ourselves. It's all around. And if we were to talk about a reason for total depravity, well, the world would say it's not because of sin. The world would say it might be one's environment, it might be the way one was raised, it might be some sort of sickness, it might be some sort of lack of education, but it's not my fault. It could be a host of other things, and therefore the way to remedy that would be to educate better, or to simply try harder, or to get the proper prescription. But when it comes to the reason, beloved, the truth is, again, as Genesis 6 verse 5 says, every inclination of the thoughts of his heart. It was only evil all the time. And Jeremiah 17, verse 9 says, the heart is deceitful above all things. It is a heart problem because man's heart is dead in sin as Paul makes clear in Ephesians 2. Notice, it's not dead to sin so that it has nothing to do with sin. But the very opposite, it is dead in sin. sinful inclinations governs everything about man so that he suppresses the knowledge of God. So that as Paul says, there is no fear of God before their eyes. And even when it comes to natural or civil or moral good, whatever may be done, it is not done out of love for God. It is not done to glorify His name, but it is done out of love for oneself, to glorify oneself. When it comes to the world, the unbeliever keeps earthly laws for the most part? Well, because it's good for him. Because truth be told, he fears evil results of sin in the sense that he doesn't want anything bad to happen to him. He doesn't want somebody to steal from him. He doesn't want somebody to hurt him in any way. The good that the world does is only for selfish reasons. The world uses that good knowledge of science, for example, well, not to glorify God, but to try to prove that evolution is true and to disprove God. And the world makes laws claiming that those laws are for the good of the people. They're for the rights of the people. But really, they are meant to promote the selfish desires of mankind. For example, to end the life of the unborn. Or to engage in lust and hedonism. For example, alternative lifestyles. the reason is a dead heart. And therefore, beloved, the ultimate consequence of man's fall is his total inability to save himself. Boys and girls, that means he absolutely cannot save himself. There is no way back to God from our side. There is no way back to God by our doing. We can't and we don't want to in sin. Man is dead in sin. He is dead to the things of God. He has no interest in God, no desire for Him. Instead, the very opposite. Only rebellion against God. He is a slave, bound in shackles, as it were, to sin. That's all He wants. That's all He can do. He is blind to the things of God. Cannot discern the things of God. Cannot discern or see the truth that He is an object of God's wrath. as Paul says. What does that mean? Well, very simply, it means that God's intense hatred for sin, unquenchable apart from the satisfaction of Jesus Christ, but God's intense hatred for sin rests completely, wholly, against man. There's no escape for man by himself. Man is dead with a will bent only on evil that cannot and will not respond to God on its own. And that glimmer of natural light, beloved, that residue will not lead one to the truth of God. Article 4 continues, 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 hinders in unrighteousness by doing which he becomes inexcusable before God. That glimmer of light will not lead him to the truth of God. And as Article 5 says, the law of God cannot, it will not save him. The law of God will only demonstrate the magnitude of sin. It only demonstrates man's desperate condition. It emphasizes our guilt and how we deserve to be forever cursed of God. It gives a correct and accurate diagnosis. But it does not give, in the third place, and very briefly, the cure for man's hopeless condition. Paul touches on that cure. He points to it when he says, beginning in verse 8, for it is by grace you have been saved through faith. And this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God, not by works so that no one can boast. The cure is the gospel of Jesus Christ. And leading up to verse 8, he speaks of God's kindness to us in Christ Jesus. God's grace to us in Christ Jesus that God has given new life, makes His people alive for the sake of Jesus because of what Jesus Christ has done. He has earned that gift of new life and that gift of faith which is given by which you and I might believe. That cure, the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit for Jesus' sake. We know that a dead person can do nothing. I know it's a morbid thought and I apologize for that, but it's a clear thought that we have to have. When you see one who has died in a casket, it is no more clear than when you're standing by the side of that casket that that one can do absolutely nothing. Not a thing. Not even twitching a finger. A dead man is useless without new life. Jesus told Nicodemus in John 3, not, well keep on studying Scripture and striving to do your best and you'll be okay. you'll get there but he told Nicodemus that he needed to be born from above Nicodemus needed a heart that pointed in God's direction a heart that desired him a heart that was cleansed by the precious blood of Jesus Christ beloved for ourselves and unbelievers whom God may call upon us and give us the privilege to evangelize to that message is not we'll do all the earthly good you can get all of the education you can Just strive to be a better person and you'll be fine. That's not the message. That does not pay for sin. That does not bring new life. In fact, apart from true faith in Jesus Christ, that only increases one's debt because it's not pleasing to God. But that message for you, for me, for those who need to hear it, is that Jesus Christ came a sinner's Savior. I am a sinner. You are a sinner. All men are sinners. Jesus Christ came a sinner's Savior. So the message is not look to what we can do because we can't. But the message is look to what Jesus Christ has already done. Our sin was so great. Our condition so depraved and so dead that God the Father could not spare His own Son. In order to save his people, he could not spare his own son. That is how great our sin was on one hand, or is. But that is how great God's love is on the other hand. Jesus Christ left his throne in glory. He humbled himself all the way to death to raise us from eternal and spiritual death to the heights of eternal glory. You see, beloved, he became the ultimate object of God's wrath and he suffered for every last bit of our depravity, paying for our sin and giving us his perfect obedience and righteousness as our very own so that we are now no longer objects of God's wrath but objects of God's eternal love. That's God's truth and promise for all who repent of their sins and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for you, for me. From total depravity to the fullness in Christ as we were beautifully reminded this morning, all that He is and all that He has to give. My beloved, total depravity is to impact us in such a way that it would give us a great humility. A great humility. Because it's not that we were so good that God chose to save us. It's not that we were so smart that we could save ourselves. It's not the power of my faith or the strength of my will that my hope is to be placed in, but God's amazing grace in Christ Jesus who saved a wretch like me and a wretch like you. Such grace is illumined by our total depravity when we understand our desperate, despicable condition. It's like a spotlight, as it were, shining on God's grace and all that He has done. And His grace encourages us out of thankfulness to keep His law, to delight in it, not so that we can be saved, but because we have been saved. And the believer's new desire is to represent Him well, striving to be holy even as He is holy, comforted each and every day as we do struggle in the blood of Christ. And can it be? It's all in Him. Now, total depravity is not meant to make the believer feel bad. The other day when my wife asked me what I was going to preach on Sunday night, I said, total depravity. She said, that's kind of depressing. And I kind of laughed and said, well, yeah, if you stay there. It's not meant to make us feel bad because we're not meant to stay there. But it's meant to remind us of God's amazing grace in Christ Jesus. Amen.