Man’s Total Depravity

Minister:
Date: PM
Text: Genesis 6:5
Psalters: 273, 253, 146, 165
  1. The depravity.
    1. Total depravity means that man’s nature is corrupt, perverse, and sinful throughout.
      1. The unregenerate man is dead in sin, and his will is enslaved to his evil nature (Eph. 2:1-3).
      2. Zacchaeus was “lost” in sin, i.e., in a wretched and hopeless spiritual condition, unworthy to be saved (Luke 19:10).
    2. Through his willful fall into sin, Adam brought spiritual death on himself and all his posterity (Rom. 5:12; I Cor. 15:22).
      1. David confessed that he, as all other humans, was born into the sphere of sin (Ps. 51:5; 58:3).
      2. If any human is to be God’s child and enter His kingdom, they must be born anew by the Spirit (John 3:5-7).
    3. Consequently, man’s will is no longer free, but as a result of inherited depravity is in bondage to his sinful nature.
  2. The extent of the depravity.
    1. The reign of sin is universal, i.e., all are under its power; no one is righteous (I Kings 8:46; Ps. 143:2; Eccl. 7:20; Rom. 3:9-12).
    2. “Total” means: the whole of man’s being (every faculty) is completely affected by sin and everyone is as sinful as they can be.
      1. Scripture teaches that natural man is totally unable to do anything spiritually good.
      2. Man sins in everything he does.
  3. Man’s only hope is that Jesus came to save the lost, sinners, the ungodly.
    1. For a lost sinner to be saved, the Spirit must perform a rebirth, powerfully making the dead to be alive (John 3:3-6).
      1. This power has to come from outside the man, in fact, outside of the human race.
      2. Jesus came to seek the lost in order to save them.
    2. When we look at ourselves and our children, then salvation has to be nothing less than a work of the Almighty by His Spirit.