John 5:39-40. Those who search the scripture with a goal to attain eternal life will not turn to Jesus. John 6:44
The doctrine of inability is the most attacked doctrine. It is the most attacked because it is the most despised.
It is the most distinctive Christian doctrine.
Because good works are the foundation for all other religions, Total inability is the most attacked.
People know that they are evil but will not see the evil in there good works.
Man is so sinful that he makes other religion.
There are so many evangelical spokes people hate the doctrine of Total depravity.
Church growth strategies are against this doctrine.
Every group that minimized this truth has strayed.
Total depravity is the historical doctrine of the church.
If you drop into the world today you would think that it is new because of the prevalent view of “free-will.”
What is the Bible’s teaching on this doctrine?
Usually in the language of death.
This is a condition that effects everything in the person.
So powerful that no sinner, unaided by God, can over come it.
Preachers don’t realize that what the sinner wants is the last thing God wants to give them
Eph. 2: 1-3. We have inherited a corrupt nature from Adam (Rom, 1 Cor). Sinners by birth.
Eph. 4:18.
Col 2:13. God commands and life comes.
John 1:12-13. Salvation is the work of God.
John 3:3-8 (8, it is up to the Holy Sprit. He moves when he wills)
John 5:21.
John 6:34.
John 8:36.
(In none of these texts Jesus never defends the sinner’s will.)
Rom. 8:7-8. The sinners is unwilling to come to Christ.
1 Cor 2:14.
2 Cor 4:4-6. (4)It is a compounded blindness: flesh, world, Satan. (6) it is the divine miracle to give light to the blind.
Rom 3:10-12.
Total Depravity: You can only sin. You cannot please God savingly. It affects you totally.
The contemporary idea is that there is some residual goodness in sinners.
Arminian Theology: The sinner must make the first move. Then God will move.
Depravity: The sinner can’t and won’t move.
In regeneration we neither move or cooperate.
2 tim. 2:25.
Titus 3:3-7.
Implications:
Historical of rejecting this truth:
The heart of old liberalism.
Don’t want to be about doctrine
Want to just live like Jesus.
Destroyed the church.
Church Growth movement.
(never present Jesus as the one who will meet the fallen sinner’s wants)
A Biblical approach destroys the sinner’s self-centeredness.
Never appeal to what enslaves the sinner to try and save him.
“Soft preaching makes hard people”
Never change the message according to cultural conditions.
The hearts of sinners are always the same. All need the same message.
Be Meek, be humble.
So, one should be as humble as those who preach the gospel. We are the only group that can take absolutely no credit for what we do. We can only take credit for what we fail at. We are only clay pots.
Be faithful to understand that the condition of the sinner is one that you can never change by anything you do.
The heart of the sinner never changes. The means of God changing the heart has never changed.
About Me
- The Reformed Pastor
- My real name is Charlie Albright. I am the pinnacle of evil who God has flooded with His mercy. Declaring my sinful self righteous and holy in His sight! Lavishing His grace upon me by the blood Jesus shed on the cross! Carrying me through this life and giving me satiatfing joy! Anything good about me is only because of His grace!
