The Doctrine of the total depravity of man is a despised teaching in our day, and if believers knew the truth of it then they would of necessity embrace the five-points of the doctrine of grace. Permit me to begin by defining what

FIRST, UNDERSTAND WHAT THE DOCTRINE DOES NOT MEAN.

It does not mean that man is as sinful as he can be, nor his conduct as bad as it can be. For example, 2 Tim 3:13 says that "evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse." But rather it means that man is as ruined and as separated from God as he

Isaiah 1:5-6, "Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sor

Does this not verify the terrible condition and the total depravity of every person of which I speak?

Rom 2:15 speaks of the heathen having a conscience. However it has been twisted like all the rest his human faculties.

Scripture gives testimony of man's depravity.

Genesis 6:5 says, "And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually."

Jeremiah 17:9 says, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? 10 I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings."

The Bible reminds us in Romans 8:7-8 that "Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God."

Titus 1:15 says, "Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled."

The Bible again tells us in the 58th chapter and 3rd verse of the Psalms that "The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies."

Isaiah 1:5-6 says, "Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; [but] wounds, and bruises, and put

PLEASE TURN YOUR ATTENTION TO THE EFFECTS OF TOTAL DEPRAVITY.

Understand that there is no remnant of good in any person. Romans 3:10-12 clearly says "As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the

THE FALL LEFT MAN SPIRITUALLY DEAD.

What does the word dead mean? Natural man is as dead to all spiritual things as a man who is physically dead and whose body lies in a casket awaiting burial is dead to the things of this physical life. The one is dead spiritually while the other is

The Scripture says in Romans 5:12, "Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:"

Ephesians 2:1-2 tell us, "And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the

And although the Apostle Paul had reminded the believers in the Church at Ephesus that they too had been dead in trespasses and sins, yet God had quickened or made them alive unto the things of God. In the 10th verse of the 2nd chapter of Ephesians

TOTAL DEPRAVITY LEFT MAN UNABLE TO COMPREHEND SPIRITUAL TRUTH NOR WILL HE RECEIVE IT FOR HE VIEWS IT AS FOOLISHNESS.

1 Corinthians 2:14 says, "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."

Natural man, that is, man in his unsaved state will not receive truth nor can he know it because to him it is foolishness. It is interesting to me that the "receiveth" is translated from a Greek word which means, "not welcome." The things of the Sp

TOTAL DEPRAVITY HAS LEFT MAN UNABLE TO TURN FROM SIN UNTO GOD IN GODLY REPENTANCE AND FAITH.

Until quickened and made alive through the inner working Spirit of God, there is also a lack of willingness to turn toward God.

Listen to these Scriptures which speak of man's spiritual inability!

Jeremiah 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."

John 5:40 "And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life."

John 6:44 "No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day."

The world wants to build up self-esteem, and this humanistic philosophy has found its way into many churches. Folks today want their ears tickled and thus cannot endure sound doctrine. People do not have to be taught to think more of themselves. Th

THE DOCTRINE OF TOTAL DEPRAVITY WOUNDS OUR PRIDE and we do not like that. IT STRIPS US OF OUR SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS and brings us into dust of the ground where we belong and to that we strongly object. This is particularly true if we are rel

Listen to the words of John 8:31-33, "Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. They answered him, We be Abraham's

Little do the advocates of the "free will of man" understand that the will of man is in bondage to his sinful nature, a bondage, which has rendered him, depraved totally. The human heart is deceitful and desperately wicked and cannot see itself in

Jeremiah 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."

John 5:21, "For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will."

Romans 5:6, "For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly."

Romans 8:7, "Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be."

2 Corinthians 4:3-6 says, "But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, shoul

Ephesians 2:1, "And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins."

In 1 Timothy 1:15 we are reminded that Paul's conversion was a pattern for them that should hereafter believe on the Lord to life everlasting. I would also bring to your attention of Paul's behavior before his conversion. Paul says in Gal 1:13-15,

The point I am making is that the doctrine of the total depravity of man makes it necessary for God to extend an effectual calling, or else man could never be saved. We have already seen that confirmed in the scripture. People do not easily receive

IT MATTERS NOT WHAT SAITH OR THINKETH THE CREATURE FOR IT IS THUS SAITH THE WORD OF GOD WHICH BEARETH AUTHORITY.

The Bible says that salvation is of the Lord. Because every person born into Adam's race is depraved totally, God must bring about the work of salvation in the life of a sinner. It is God that quickens. It is He that makes alive. He is the One who

THE DOCTRINE OF THE TOTAL DEPRAVITY OF MAN BRINGS HONOR AND GLORY TO THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD, but it also brings man down into the dust of the earth where he belongs. Man on the other hand wants to raise himself up by bringing God down to his lev

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