What is a Reformed Baptist..

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com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. Okay, together we've made it through the first level of our Bible studies, and this week we'll be starting in level two. Now, I hope you know what I'm talking about.

If you remember a few weeks back, Nelson and I, we have been telling you that the structure of our Bible studies, our midweek Wednesday Bible studies, will look like Four levels. Four levels of the evangelical church. You remember that? And we went through those levels, and we said the first level will be what comprises an evangelical church, and we spoke about that being at least the five solas, and that's what we finished last week with Soli Deo Gloria, all glory to God alone. So this week, God willing, we're now starting in the new level, which is what is it, what does it, what is a Calvinist church?

Basically, what is a Calvinist church? What do Calvinists believe? And if a church was to call herself a Calvinist church, what doctrines does this church need to believe and teach? So we will look at that, and the doctrines for a Calvinist church, we said last time, is the doctrines of grace. And that's probably what you've heard it as, or the acronym, TULIP, T-U-L-I-P, the T being, any takers?

Anyone? T, it's today's study. Total depravity. You standing for, it's okay, guesses? No?

unconditional election, the L standing for limited atonement, the I standing for irresistible grace, and the P stands for the perseverance of the saints. And if you remember The reason why we are doing these studies, or we've chosen to go down this path, is not only so that we would be identified as a Reformed Baptist Church, but also that we would all collectively be able to explain why we are a reformed Baptist church. What is it? What are the doctrines that we hold to? What makes us reformed?

And what makes us reformed Baptists? So the first level was we went through the five solas, and that's the minimum that a church needs to hold to and teach to be evangelical. And today we're starting in a Calvinistic church. Next week, or not next week, sorry, in about five or six weeks, we will start in what is it, what is a reformed church? What doctrines do we need to hold to in order to call ourselves a reformed church?

And then God willing, after that, we will look at the distinctives of being a reformed Baptist church. And we also said that these levels build one on top of another. So this evening we'll start level two. What is a Calvinistic church? And we'll do this by teaching through the doctrines of grace.

And we explain what they were with the acronym TULIP. Okay. We'll explain what these acronyms, what the tulip means, the total depravity, the unconditional election, the limited atonement, the irresistible grace, and the perseverance of the saints. These are big words. They might not mean a great deal to all of us at this point, but as we come to those studies, as the weeks go on, we will explain them in detail.

And God willing, by the time we're done, I'm hoping that all of us will have a good grasp what these doctrines are and also what the synonyms for these doctrines are as well because sometimes you might not hear them labeled as we we have just said. Okay, so today our topic is the T in tulip, total depravity. Now I want to start by explaining what total depravity is not. The misconception or misrepresentation of this doctrine is sometimes that it teaches or it's said that we teach that man is as bad as man can be. In other words, man is as evil as he could possibly mean.

He's totally depraved. This is not what this doctrine teaches at all. It's a misconception and we'll clear that up this evening, God willing. That's why some in the reformed camp have relabeled the title Total Depravity and they've given other names like Total Inability or Moral Inability and sometimes you may have even heard Radical Corruption. These all point to the same doctrine of total depravity.

Now I'll be using the title total depravity although it's known as others so throughout our study I'll be referencing it as total depravity but it doesn't matter what title you prefer the basic meaning of this doctrine is this a person in their natural state unregenerate, unsaved, someone still in the flesh, is unable to do anything that is of spiritual or moral good before God, including to believe in the gospel of Christ. I'm going to say that again. that is basically a person in their natural state, unregenerate, unsaved, someone still in the flesh, is unable to do anything that is of spiritual or moral good before God, including to believe in the gospel of Christ. In other words, a person can't do anything to please God unless God takes the initiative to save this person. Why?

Because total depravity teaches that every part of a person, his mind, his will, his intellect, his emotions, every part of that person has been completely and totally corrupted by sin. All of humanity has been completely corrupted since the fall of Adam, even from birth. I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me, David, in Psalm 51. Also, just to clear another misconception, we do not in any way, in any way, deny that people have a will and are free to act upon the desires of that will. They choose what they will do, they choose who they will marry, people choose what they will study, where they will live, what car they will drive, and so on.

People are free to make choices all day long, as long as they live. Proponents or people who support the view of total depravity never ever deny this. But beloved, at the foundation of every decision that the natural person makes is a total corrupted will. Although free to make any choice they choose, they will never ever choose God. For the desires of the flesh are against the spirit, and the desires of the spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other.

Now let me ask you, how can a spiritually dead person desire spiritual salvation? He can't. Beloved, everyone has a will and they are free to act according to the desires of that will. But the desires of that will are only ever fleshly desires. They are only ever sinful desires.

Whatever they choose to do, always, without exception, is according to the flesh and by definition against the Spirit of God. Always. Tonight we'll spend some time unpacking this truth and of course we'll allow scripture to be our final authority in this matter. The Bible is clear and in my opinion leaves no room for error regarding the spiritual condition of the natural man. Total depravity comes first in the doctrines of grace not because of a coincidence or because someone who likes flowers thought tulip would be a great acronym.

No. Total depravity in the doctrines of grace is like sola scriptura in the five solas. It's strategically placed in the beginning because everything else that comes next and follows this doctrine is founded upon the understanding and acknowledging the truth that total depravity portrays. It's really important that we understand this. There's a lot at stake here.

Beloved, this is because more And this will become more evident as the night goes on. But the moment you diminish or even lessen the deep-rooted corruption of man in his natural state, you begin, hear this, to diminish the sovereignty of God in salvation. and it shines the light or takes the light away from appreciating the incredible grace of our triune God in redeeming his people. This doctrine does matter and it matters a lot. Now let's look at a little bit of history.

The doctrine of total depravity has been a point of contention among believers fairly early in the church history. The reformers in the 16th century did recover this biblical doctrine. that seemed all but lost in the medieval years. But the debate started well before Martin Luther nailed the 95 theses to the Wittenberg Castle door, way back in the time of Augustine of Hippo in the early or in the late fourth and the late fourth and early fifth century. You may have heard both Nelson and I refer to Augustine on several occasions, and that's just because that apart from the Apostles themselves, Augustine rates as one of the most influential of Christian theologians in our history.

I won't spend too much time on this because we've already touched on Pelagianism, and semi-Pelagianism in a previous study, a study on Sola. Remember which study it was? It was Sola. Yeah, someone said it. Grace.

Gratia. So we already looked at those two views. But the debate between Pelagius and Augustine began when Pelagius heard someone read a prayer of Augustine. I've referenced this before. The prayer went like this, command what you will, give what you command.

This left Pelagius completely appalled. You see, Pelagius rejected the doctrine of original sin. So he believed that man had the ability in and of himself, without the grace of God, to believe in Christ and be saved. Beyond that, he believed that Christians are able to become perfect and without sin if they try hard enough. He even, in some of his writings, he even says some of the Old Testament saints reached sinless perfectionism.

Needless to say, Pelagius became very legalistic in his thinking. In other words, he became one who thought that you've got to do all these things to please God. You've got to do all these things to earn salvation. Thinking these things, he thought that by fasting or by refraining from human pleasures, he would somehow attain a higher level of Christian virtue and be more pleasing to God. recognized this faulty elevated view of humanity and refuted Pelagius through the letters of Paul, insisting that Adam's sin is no private matter.

Adam's fall has totally corrupted the whole of humanity. The church ended up declaring that Pelagius was a heretic. But controversy remained and the tension between these two views continued throughout church history. Of course, Martin Luther and Desiderius Erasmus had their heated exchanges that you could read about in the 16th century. You can read about in Martin Luther's book, Bondage of the Will.

And it's an interesting note that all the books and all the articles that Martin Luther wrote and authored, bondage of the will, in his words, was the most important of them all. Luther knew the implications of underestimating human corruption and the corruption of the will. Nothing less than God's sovereignty is at stake. I said I'll be brief and in the part of history, so I'll wrap it up there. But it's suffice to say that the controversy has been evident throughout history, with many of our Armenian brothers and sisters still holding to this erroneous view of free will.

Now remember, I said before, we aren't against Humans have a will and they have choices, but the view of free will whereby a man or a woman in and of themselves is able to choose God in their sinless state, we believe is an error. Total depravity matters. The doctrine is important. At its root, this doctrine of total depravity answers these questions. How much has the fall actually corrupted mankind?

Asked another more specific way, is man in his natural state able, even to a small degree, to accomplish moral good and do what is pleasing to God? In particular, is man able to choose righteousness and to come to God for mercy on his own volition, as Pelagius and Erasmus would say, or has man been totally corrupted and now spiritually dead and therefore completely dependent upon the divine initiative of God for salvation, as Augustine and Luther would say? Put more simply again, is our salvation monogistic, that is, it means does God work alone, or synergistic, meaning God works together with men. It's good to remember those terms, monogistic and synergistic, or monogism and synergism, because if you're doing a study on this topic, these words will come up. As Reformed Baptists, we believe that salvation is monogistic.

God works alone, without the exertion of human will to regenerate a totally corrupted person and grant faith and repentance for justification. God gets all the glory for our salvation. You see, a denial of total depravity must necessarily mean that man shares some of the glory with God for his salvation. proponents or people of this view would say, of the free will view, would say, no, no, no. We don't get any credit.

God gets all the glory. God gets all the credit. But God does not violate human will. Their argument is God doesn't want robots to love him. He desires man to choose him and love him in and of himself.

Now I understand this well-intended response, but it's faulty on many levels. And I can explain why only because God has revealed how he saves sinners in his word. So let's open our Bibles together to settle the matter once and for all. and settle that the clear teaching of scripture upholds the doctrine of total depravity. So if you have your Bibles, let's open them up to Romans chapter 3.

And we'll be reading from verses 9 through 18. Romans 3 verses 9 through 18. Can I have a volunteer to read? Sam, thank you. What then?

Are we any better off? No, no, no, no. For they have already charged that both Jews and Gentiles are all under sin, as it is written. There is no one righteous, not even one. There is no one who understands.

There is no one who seeks God. All have turned away. All alike have become worthless. There is no one who does what is good, not even God. Their throat is an open grave.

They are deceived with their tongues. Vipers' venom is under their lips. Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Ruin and wretchedness are in their hearts, and the path of peace they have not known.

There is no fear of God before their eyes. Amen. Thank you, Sam. Just to share some context, Paul up until this point in the letter has established that everyone without exception in their natural state is dominated by the power of sin. Apart from the righteousness of Christ imputed upon the believer through the means of faith, there is no hope for salvation.

Up to this point, Paul has accused or charged the whole of humanity being guilty of sin and under the righteous judgment of God. Verse 9 summarizes the first two chapters. Listen to what he says in verse 9 of chapter 3, For we have already charged that all, both Jew and Gentile, are under sin. Beloved, in Paul's vocab, you're either a Jew or a Greek. Sometimes he uses the term Gentile, but it's only those two categories.

There are no other categories. We all fit into that. And Paul is saying that whether you're a Jew or a Gentile, no matter who you are, if you bleed red and you're a human, this is descriptive of you in your natural state. The passage we've just read is an amalgamation, that is a joining together of many of the Old Testament passages, which Paul uses to affirm that in the natural state, man, that is the unsaved man, is incapable of doing any good before God. Paul uses the all-inclusive language.

Listen to what he says. None righteous, no not one, all have turned aside. No exception, all. No one does good, no one. No one seeks after God, and there is no fear of God before their eyes.

So let me ask you this question. Does the description, or this description, sound like someone who is concerned with his or her spiritual state? Does it sound like someone who is concerned to seek forgiveness and seek God's righteousness? Not at all. If read carefully, you'll see that Paul is impeaching the whole of humankind into complete and total corruption.

No one is righteous. Corrupt morals. No one understands. Corrupt mind. No one seeks after God.

Corrupt will no one does good corrupt intentions mouths filled with cursing corrupt speech and according to our Savior in Matthew 15 corrupt mouth means you have a corrupt heart beloved this is indicative that the whole person in his natural state is corrupt and evil. We can go on and on, but I want to take you through a few more passages in the New Testament. For the moment, it's suffice to say that Paul, he, in Romans 3, is indicting the whole of humanity into full corruption, and he's saying that every facet of man is corrupt. Body, soul, heart, mind, and will. Let's look at man's corruption in other passages.

John 8 47. I'll read this one. Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God. This passage connotes not only hearing, but obeying.

The natural person is spiritually deaf. He cannot hear a thing because he's spiritually deaf. He cannot respond to a spiritual call for salvation because he cannot hear. Jesus, no less than a dozen times throughout the New Testament, says these words, He who has ears, let him Here, were people in the first century Palestine born without physical ears on their heads? Is that what Jesus means?

No, of course not. Jesus is saying that only those with spiritual ears can hear and obey. Interestingly, Jesus in this same passage in John, is speaking to Jews who claim to be children of Abraham, or Abraham is their father. You remember what Jesus said? He said, no, Abraham's not your father.

The devil is your father. Because if Abraham was your father, you would do as Abraham did, but rather you do as the devil does. So your desires are what the devil desires, he says. And the point of Christ is this, that the devil never, ever has any desires that are righteous before God. And Jesus' point is, neither do his children.

Second Corinthians 4.4, speaking to unbelievers or of unbelievers, Paul writes, in their case, the God of this world has blinded the mind of unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. The natural person is not only spiritually deaf, but he's also spiritually blind. How can an unsaved person see the true light of the gospel, the only way to salvation, if he or she is spiritually blind? This person cannot acknowledge the truth if it's staring him in the face.

He's blind. No matter how much free will you have, it cannot enable a blind man to see. Beloved, if a blind man, and no disrespect to blind people, but if a blind man stood before us and at the top of his voice declared, I choose to see, will that restore his sight? No, of course not. If he's blind, he needs a miracle.

He needs divine intervention to make him see. It's the same for spiritual blindness. But it gets even worse. John 8, 34 reads, Jesus answered to them, truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. The natural man is enslaved to sin and enslaved to obeying its passions.

A slave cannot free himself. He's bound by his master. And in this case, his master is what? Sin. Furthermore, an unsaved person doesn't want to be freed from his sin because he loves his sin.

He wants to remain in darkness where the wickedness or his wickedness is not exposed. Jesus makes this point in his dialogue with Nicodemus. Unless the will is changed by the power of the Holy Spirit, Man only desires that which is sin. The flesh desires the things of the flesh and the spirit desires the things of the spirit. Righteousness in an unnatural sinner is impossible.

It must come from the outside. He's enslaved to sin, unaided, unhelped. He'll never please God. He's totally depraved. Also, the meaning in this passage of practicing sin, when Christ says, he who practices sin, speaks of one who is living a life defined by sin.

In other words, a life of habitual willful sin. Sounds like Genesis 6-5, doesn't it? This passage should be fresh in our minds because of the corporate reading of God's Word on the Lord's Day. But I'll refresh your mind. It reads like this, The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart were only evil continuously.

You might say, yes, but God destroyed that pre-flood generation. These words may not apply to us. Beloved, they do. Listen to Jeremiah 17, nine. The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick.

Some translations, desperately wicked. Who can understand it? This is the condition of every heart. If the heart is evil, the whole man is evil. Remember the passage in Romans 3?

The first passage that we read? It said the mouth, or their mouth, that is the unsaved man, is full of curses and bitterness. You know why? Matthew 12 verse 34 tells us, For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks, because the heart is entirely corrupt. And as I said earlier, if the heart is corrupt, the whole person is corrupt.

Let's once again look to the Apostle Paul, but this time in his letter to the Ephesians. So if you have your Bibles, let's open them up again to Ephesians chapter 2, and we're reading verse 1, but keep your finger there because we're going to come back and read 1 through 5 a little bit later on. So Ephesians chapter 5, verse 1. No, no, Ephesians chapter 2, verse 1. Ephesians chapter two verse one.

Any volunteers? Okay, I'll read it. And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience. But did you hear what Paul is saying here? An unsafe person is dead in trespasses and sins.

He's dead spiritually. Beloved, dead means dead. He has no spiritual heartbeat and our salvation is spiritual. Dead people can't respond to anything. We've already proven biblically that the natural man is spiritually deaf, spiritually blind, a slave to sin, has a totally corrupted heart, and now we're told he's spiritually dead.

Can the Bible be any clearer on the doctrine of total depravity? A spiritual dead man can do nothing spiritual that is pleasing to God. Without faith, what? It's impossible to please God. Hebrews 11.

6. Now the Arminian or the free will defender may say, okay, I agree. Without faith, it is impossible to please God. But he would go on to say the natural person is able to use his own free will to exercise faith. At this point, I would have to ask, how does one get faith?

You all know the passage, you probably know the passage I'm just about to refer to. Romans 10, 17. So faith comes from what? Hearing. and hearing through the word of Christ.

If an unsaved person is deaf spiritually, how can he hear in order to believe? You see, divine initiative is always necessary. God must do the work. Without it, man in his natural state, the Bible tells us, at best can offer God what equates to filthy, dirty, good-for-nothing rags. That's all we're capable of offering God in our natural sinful state.

So then I ask, how can a spiritual dead person respond to the spiritual gospel call which requires faith and repentance? If his ears don't hear and his eyes don't see, and in fact he doesn't even have a spiritual heartbeat, how can this person obey God's call? How can anyone say that the natural man is free to choose or reject Jesus Christ when this is the condition of every unsaved person? Beloved, let's not kid ourselves. Apart from God, who freely gives spiritual life to whomever He pleases, faith and obedience to the gospel call is impossible.

Listen to what Paul says in Romans 8, 7-8. For the mind on the flesh is death. but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law. Indeed, hear this, it cannot.

Say that again, for it does not submit to God's law. Indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. Beloved, it's impossible for an unsaved person in and of himself to submit to God's law. In other words, it's impossible for him to be obedient to God.

Impossible. It's not a matter of choice. It's not like it can happen, but it's very unlikely. No, it's impossible. Can an Ethiopian change his skin?

or a leopard change his spots, then you also can do good who are accustomed to do evil. Jeremiah 13, 23. Or can a bad tree bear good fruit? Luke 6. We all know the answer to that question.

It's a definitive no. Without the regeneration that is God giving spiritual life apart from the person's will, one cannot have faith in God, one cannot receive forgiveness of sins, one cannot be justified, and hear this, it's impossible to please God. Impossible. But beloved, this is where grace shines. Because what is impossible with man is what?

possible with God, Luke 18, 27. Let's now go back to our Ephesians passage, Ephesians chapter 2, we'll read from verses 1 through 5. were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of the world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind, but God. being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ, by grace you have been saved. Wow, what a wonderful passage.

Every one of us is described in this passage. But then our great God took the initiative to save us. We were dead in our transgressions, following Satan, disobedient to God, living in the passions of the flesh, carrying out the desires of our bodies and evil minds by nature, children of wrath. But then in verse four, the most glorious words in the whole Bible, I think, but God I love those words, but God being rich in mercy because of the great love which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ by grace, you have been saved. You see, it wasn't that we made the righteous choice to believe God in order to be saved.

In our sin we had no regard for God, unconcerned for Him. Our only concern was ourselves and how we can indulge in satisfying the desires of our own flesh. Our salvation is all of God and none of us. It's His doing. He makes dead people live.

He gives faith and repentance and belief. Hear these words in 2 Timothy 2 24-26, Now remember, this is Paul's pastoral letter to Timothy. He goes on to say, God perhaps grants them repentance, leading to a knowledge of the truth and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil after being captured by him to do his will. God grants repentance. Did you get that?

God grants repentance. That's what the passage is saying. Do you know what this means? Even when a person recognizes that he is a rebel and he sinned against a good and holy God and in his own consciousness comes uncoerced and unforced to God in repentance, God has already done a work of regeneration in that man. He's already brought spiritual life to that person.

God grants repentance that leads to eternal life. Yes, that's exactly what this passage is saying. This is why we believe that the Bible teaches that regeneration, that is spiritual life, God bringing spiritual life to a person precedes, comes before faith and repentance. Let me give you another example in Acts chapter 11, when Peter comes back to Jerusalem. And so Peter's been away now, he was at Caesarea, and he was at the house of Cornelius, a centurion, and he preaches the gospel.

And beloved, the whole household believes in the gospel, and the whole household is saved. So Peter comes back and declares this great news to the apostles and the Christians in Jerusalem. Listen to what is said in verse 18. Peter says, and they, sorry, the narrative, which is Luke writing this, and they glorified God saying, hear this, then to the Gentiles also God granted repentance that leads to life. Make no mistake, God himself grants the repentance.

No one truly says, I am sorry to God, unless first he has had a divine act of regeneration by God. God needs to move in a sinner's heart. God needs to change a sinner's will before they will acknowledge that they need a Savior. Listen to one of the clearest passages in the Bible and we'll close with this. on the topic of total depravity.

John 6, 44. John 6, 44. Jesus speaking to the crowd who are now following him at the outskirts of the Galilean sea. He says these words, no one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him and I will raise him up on the last day. Beloved, no one means no one.

No one can come to Christ unless the Father moves him to come. Listen, there are many things a person can do and can choose not to do these things. You can throw a rock into your neighbor's window, but I hope that you will wisely refrain from doing that. So you can do it, but you choose not to do it. Throwing a rock is something you can do, but you exercise your will not to do it.

Christ is not saying some people can come to him, but choose in and of their own will not to come. Rather, he's saying, hear this, and this is so important, they can't come. They're unable to come. It's impossible for them to come because, hear this, dead people don't walk. It's not in the realm of their possibilities.

There is no escaping the fact that man is totally depraved. His will, his emotions, his intellect, his desires have all been totally corrupted, and he is incapable of any moral good, including believing in the gospel of Christ, the only means to salvation. Salvation, beloved, is a work of God from start to finish. Romans 9.16 is clear on this point.

So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who has mercy. Tonight, if you're trusting by faith in Christ alone for the forgiveness of your sins and the redemption of your soul, you ought to be forever praising God who has taken the initiative to save you. Because you and I in our natural state would never dream about coming to Him for repentance. It's His work. He's sovereign over it.

He's done it for the praise of His glorious grace. Sola Gratia. Our salvation is monogistic and he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. To the glory of God alone. Amen.