The Nature of Fallen Man
We
are going to finish this series on the nature of the fallen man. Total
depravity of man. The word depravity means, wicked, corrupt and sinful. When we
see that the fallen man is totally corrupt, it means that he is totally wicked,
corrupt and sinful. Although the fallen man is alive physically but morally he
is dead toward God, he is spiritually dead. As a result, he has no will to
reach out for God, he is dead toward God and his will his opposite to Gods
will. However, the majority of the unbelievers and the majority of the churches
do not believe this position.
Pelagian was a British monk who did not believe in original
sin. The sin of Adam was only for Adam; all the rest of mankind is born
innocent without the original sin. As a result, man has the will to choose what
is right and wrong.
Semi-Pelagainism believes when man sinned, he was affected
by sin and as a result, he is morally sick, but not dead toward God. As a
result, man still have the will to choose good and evil. God and man both have
to cooperate in salvation. Roman Catholicism and the majority of the Protestant
Churches believe this view, although all the early church and the Reformers
deny this view in the light of scripture.
But let us get a quick
review, what we have been studying so far. We saw that the man was made holy, righteous
without sin and he had a free will. Adam broke the commandment of God and
sinned entered the human race. (Romans 5:12) All have sinned and fallen short
of the glory of God, we saw that none is righteous and all have gone astray. We
saw that the fallen man became an enemy of God.
We saw the natural man is
dead in his spirit. He is dead toward the true living God. (Gen 2:16-17 ;Eph
2:1-3
The heart to the natural
man is exceedingly evil.
Jer 17:9 The heart is
deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
22 Thefts, covetousness,
wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness:
23 All these evil things
come from within, and defile the man.
The natural man cannot
receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, nor
can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
Pr 20:9 Who can say, I
have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin?
Job 14:4 Who can bring a
clean thing out of an unclean? not one.
Jer 13:23 Can the
Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good,
that are accustomed to do evil.
Isa 64:6 But we are all
as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all
do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.
1Co 2:14 But 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.
Ro 8:7 Because the carnal
mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither
indeed can be.
8 So then they that are
in the flesh cannot please God.
Ps 7:11 God judgeth the
righteous, and God is angry with the wicked every day.
We saw that the natural
man cannot love God, and unable to come to God because of his nature. The defect is not in the body, as the natural
man is alive and strong physically, the defect is in the mind and in the heart.
It is spiritual. As he is spiritually dead. You may say, there are so
many religious people in the world and we see they have a great love for God,
as they are very religious. My answer is who would be more religious than the
Jews. They worshiped one God, they kept all the traditions and the rituals and
they even knew the word of God. But inside in their hearts, there was no true
love toward God. They were dead to God inside. Jesus said to these religious
people, But I know you, that ye have not the love of God in you. (John 5:42)
Idolatry
The
lust of the flesh is the completely corrupt nature of man. This is the fallen
mans nature as he is a worldly man. They are seeking to gratify their flesh, it
is more important for them this body than the word of God. The lust of the eyes
is having an eager appetite for material things, or for immoral sex. The fallen
mans eyes are always looking for those things that look beautiful and have much
splendor and glory. This is how the devil tempted our Lord as he showed the
glory of the world. The pride of life is haughtiness, ambition, self-love,
selfishness, boasting, self-confidence and putting others down.
Compromise
The true living God is infinitely holy, hate sin, he is just
and will not compromise with sin, and he will punish the sinners. But you do
not feel comfortable with the true living God, instead you have formed a god
that will suite your opinions and your religion, a god who will compromise with
sin, a god who is not infinitely holy, a god that will conform to your
thinking. Psalm 51:20 speak of you.
Ps 50:21 These things hast thou done, and I kept silence; thou thoughtest that I was altogether such
an one as thyself: but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before
thine eyes.
False submission to God
The
natural man will show some respect to God and many in the church will see this
respect and think that they are not enemies of God. Let us see some of these
outward acts. They will attend the Lords Day services. They will pray in public
and their prayers they will say, God is great almighty, a glorious God,
infinitely holy God. They will even pray to God in secret and will take much
pain to worship, will show much respect to God in their prayers. They will show
much respect to God in their voice and other gestures. They will look like any
other Christian. But let me tell you, all this is done in hypocrisy. You will
certainly disagree with me and say how can you say that? I will tell you, yes
there is much respect to God externally, outwardly but not sincerely inwardly.
It is only a show and nothing else. Jonathan Edwards said, You cover your
enmity with a painted veil. There is external honor but inward despise to God.
Ps
66:3 Say unto God, How terrible art thou in thy works! through the greatness of
thy power shall thine enemies submit themselves unto thee.
The
word submit in Hebrew is kahash means {submit...: or, yield feigned obedience:
Heb. lie} This is what it means in the context. The word feign means only a
show, a false appearance. John Calvin about this verse said, Through the
greatness of Gods power, his enemies feign submission to him. Calvin goes on to
say, The power of God is such as to force them into a reluctant subjection.
Let
me give you an example. If you are traveling in your car on the freeway, and
the speed limit says, 65 miles per hour, but you are going at a speed of 85
mph. Then suddenly in the back mirror you see the police, and then naturally
you will slow down to 65 mph. My point is you did this reluctantly. You had to
force your self to do it. As soon as the police pass by you and you see the
police exit, then you will resume your speed again at 85 mph. When the police
car was behind you, you became obedient. Why? There was a fear; there was a
respect to the police. You became humble, you were afraid, that you will get a
ticket. But this was only a show; it was a false submission because as soon as
the police left you began speeding again.
In
the same way the fallen man in the presence of God, show a great show of
respect to him. We can see his manner of speaking, his reverence in the voice.
You put a humble act out of fear to God. But it is only a feign respect. It is
done as a show. There is no true sincerity. When people are in the Church it is
easy to show respect to God, when they are gone, then you are on your own
again.
Restraining Grace of God
When
you see the natural man who behaves well and have a good moral character, it is
not because of their nature that they are good but God has restrained them.
Their nature is exceedingly evil, they seek to do evil but they have been kept
from wickedness not because they are good but because God has restrained and
kept from sin.
Ro
3:13 Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used
deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips:
This
is extreme wickedness, want to kill and murder men. Their tongues are extremely
deceitful full of poison.
14
Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness:
Their
language is an abomination to the Lord. Cursing comes out like a stream of
water, and they are full of hate and bitter.
15
Their feet are swift to shed blood:
They
live by the sword or the gun. The gun is their god. They are full of pride and
if anyone makes them angry they will fight, they will fight to kill. The other
day early in the morning a policeman stopped a vehicle for a traffic violation,
when he walked to the motorist car, the man pulled a gun and killed the
officer. These men will kill anyone.
16
Destruction and misery are in their ways:
They
are ferocious above measure, they will destroy everything wherever it prevails.
17
And the way of peace have they not known:
They
are violent, cruel and savage. They do not know the meaning of peace.
18
There is no fear of God before their eyes.
Every
wickedness comes with disregard to God. It all came from Adam and Eve as they
had no respect to God, and had no fear of death.
We are all bad as Judas,
bad as Pharaoh, bad as Herod bad as the Pharisees, bad as Hitler and bad as the
rapist in the city if not for the restraining grace of God. We are all natural
enemies of God as those teenagers who killed the man who brought them food. If
we have not committed the unpardonable sin, it is not because we are good but
we are indebted to God for his restraining grace.
Job said, That the wicked
is reserved to the day of destruction? they shall be brought forth to the day
of wrath. (Job 21:30)
Sometimes you will see
how the wicked people are flourishing here on earth, they live in wealth,
comfort and much security, but God has reserved them for the day of
destruction.
Ps 37:20 But the wicked shall
perish, and the enemies of the LORD shall be as the fat of lambs: they shall
consume; into smoke shall they consume away.
They wicked are fed now,
but there is a day of slaughter.
We have
seen very clearly and precisely that the natural men are enemies of God. The
reason is the natural man is totally depraved. He is a born sinner, only God
can bring salvation. Total depravity is crucial for presenting the gospel. All
the other doctrines are linked to total depravity. If someone is wrong in this
doctrine, then he is wrong in the others, then it is not the right gospel. Let
me show it to you.
Lu 18:10 Two men went up
into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican.
11 The Pharisee stood and
prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are,
extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican.
12 I fast twice in the
week, I give tithes of all that I possess.
13 And the publican,
standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote
upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.
14 I tell you, this man
went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that
exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be
exalted.
The difference of these
two men is very vast. The Pharisee is very confident in approaching God. Let us
see their motives. The Pharisee went to the temple, to show God how good he is,
he sees his glory and not Gods glory. He is thanking God because he is righteous
in his eye, really, he is thanking himself. He does not see total depravity in
him, he sees himself as religiously good. The publican on the other hand, he
went to the temple in fear of the judgment of God that is going to come upon
him. He realized that he is unworthy, but God is infinitely lovely and holy,
that he will not even look up to heaven, he smote his breast, because he saw
how deeply he had hurt God the almighty, all powerful God in his sins, we see
true humility and true repentance because he was a true Calvinist who believe
in total depravity.