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The Ruin of Humanity (Part 2)

Sunday English Service – 12 JUN 22

Transcript

Let’s go to the Word of God, please turn with me to Romans chapter three. We’ve been teaching on redemption, a series called redeemed. And in order to understand what we are redeemed from, and what this redemption involves, showed you that we need to first of all understand what God gave to men in the beginning when God made man, then only you can understand what man lost when he fell into sin. And only if you understand these two things, then you will understand the third thing that is, what you must be redeemed from.

 So, a couple of weeks ago, we looked at Psalm chapter eight, and we saw what God gave man when he made him first. We have said four things that, it is God who made him as the psalmist said, you made him. Then he says, you made him in your image, and likeness. So, the second thing is that God made him just like himself. And thirdly, that you crowned him with glory and honor. The psalmist says, so man was made with great dignity crowned with glory and honor. And fourthly, he says, and you gave him rule over all things, and placed all things under his feet. So, man was made a ruler over everything. These four things we mentioned, so that we’ll know what God gave him in the beginning, what man was like at the beginning? What did he lose? Last week we dealt with it. And we preached about the ruin of man. We said that there are six ways in which man is ruined, I explained the five of them, and the sixth one, I’ll explain today, and then go on to something more.

The five ways that man has been ruined are this. There is a moral ruin that happened so that man is unable, not to sin right now. Because sin has become a factor in his life, he’s a slave to sin, he is unable not to sin. Then there is intellectual ruin, where his mind has been darkened, that he does not even understand the things of God. Thirdly, there is a ruin in his volition, that is in his capacity to exercises his will, there is a problem. God gave man the will so that he can make not only the right decisions, but also to stick with it. And continue with it and in a determined way and accomplish certain things. So that man can make long term commitments and stay faithful to his commitments.  

That’s why God gave man will, determined to do things and stay with it and get it done. So very important thing. But as a result of sin, now man is not going to be so confused that he is unable to make the right decisions, he is unable to stay with his decisions. So that he changes his mind, he’s become very fickle, no matter the will. So, he promises that he will marry and stay with the woman that he is married until death, us do part. In all kinds of circumstances, this is what he promises. He’s supposed to exercises his will to live with her, with a long-term commitment. But he quickly changes his mind. That is just one example, but there are many things in which he quickly changes his mind, so that his will is not powerful anymore. He is not able to accomplish things for God. Determine and stay with it. Even when you do ministry, you got to exercise your will. You need to give your life to God consecrate yourself to God and decide to do this, whether it’s small or big or great or not so great. Whether it’s very successful or not so successful. You commit yourself in the long run. For your life, you can make a commitment. And no matter what happens you stick with it. Anybody that has achieved anything, or people that exercise this God-given will to make a commitment for a cause, and stuck with it till the end. And overcoming all obstacles on the way. They go on to achieve great things for God. Now, that is missing many times, man has become very fickle, changes his mind all the time and doesn’t even know what to do many times, doesn’t even know what kind of decision to make.

Then there is an emotional ruin. God gave us emotions made us emotional beings, so that we can pour out our desires, show our liking, show our love, and pour our heart out to love someone, a wife, children, family and so on friends. God has made us emotional beings for a good purpose. But today, the emotion is not very dependable because the passions and the desires which form the emotions are flying in all kinds of wrong directions. Passions are going berserk. And it’s all oftentimes it’s about wrong things. And today’s world is an emotion-based world people say, go with your feelings is the dictum by which people live. Go with your feelings. Well, can you go with your feelings? Will it be the right way to do things? No. Because you need to always consider whether a certain thing that you’re going with is right or wrong. Is it righteous or unrighteous? Is it godly or ungodly? Is it according to God’s will or not? That is more important than what you feel, your feelings have become undependable now. You cannot depend on your feelings because it oftentimes guides you in the wrong direction, because your passions are flying every way. So, the feelings are messed up, the emotions are ruined.

And then there is the relational ruin we talked about. In relationships, we are not able to carry on relationships in a healthy way, because the mother of all relationship is the relationship that we have with God. And that relationship is based on the fact that he has given himself sacrificially for us, sacrificially. So that we may live, he died, that this what brought us into this relationship. The Bible says he first loved us; I love Him because He first loved me. I understood his love, and therefore, I give myself to him. I give myself to live for him. And even if I have to die for him, I give myself to him. That’s the kind of love I have between myself and God. That’s the kind of love that you have between yourself and God. That’s the relationship. It’s a relationship that is based on sacrificial love, understanding that you have given yourself to someone. Now, when people don’t have a relationship with God, this kind of relationship, then they don’t understand the relationship at all at the basis of relationship, that it is sacrificial, not insisting on one’s own rights and privileges, but living for someone else. So, and people don’t understand these things, relationships don’t go well. You live for yourself when everything’s going well. And I think it is beneficial to you, it is profitable to you, you carry on the relationship. If it is not beneficial or profitable to you, you move on and forsake this relationship. This is how the world is messed up today.

So, we’re ruined morally, ruined intellectually, ruined volitionally, ruined emotionally and ruined relationally. Let’s talk about this sixth kind of ruin that has happened. And that is the ruin in the area where we have the capacity to rule over everything. They call these dominion ruins, the dominion that is given to man. In that aspect also, we have experienced ruin. We were made to rule God gave us rulership over everything put everything under our feet. He has made us rulers over everything that has been created, all creatures. We were made to rule subdue the earth and tame nature. We were made to cultivate the earth, develop the earth that God has made. So, this was the charge that was given to Adam in the beginning. And this is the capacity that God has given to them, that he’s able to cultivate and make things beautiful and wonderful, if God made earth, he can work and make things beautiful. And look how man has developed the earth. You can’t say that he has not done it. This way I showed you last week, that when we talk about ruin, we don’t mean that all is lost. We don’t mean that man is not capable of any good anymore, that man is not capable of any intelligence or good emotions or good exercise of the will and so on. No. What we’re saying is, you see two things in man now. One is you see the greatness of man how he can exercise his will and achieve great things. You can see it on one hand. On the other side, you see the fickleness, the weakness of his will. You see how he can love and pour out his love upon those that belong to him, and live in a loving relationship, affectionate relationship on the one hand, on the other hand, you can see that his emotions are flying in all kinds of directions, ruining his family, and relationships.

So, you can see the greatness of man on the one hand, that’s why I told you about the piano player playing in the midst of the ruins of the Second World War. Amazing talent, very gifted person, he is great in piano playing, but he hasn’t had anything to eat for so many days. He hasn’t even had a piece of bread and he’s not had anything to drink, he is emaciated. He’s almost dying, is thin, he doesn’t even look like his original self. Totally destroyed. He’s lost his respect, lost his rights, lost everything that he had, he lost his property. It’s been deprived of everything. But yet the greatness comes out of him as he sits on the piano and plays it. The greatness that is inside of him, his ability that God has given to him, this gift that is part of his life comes up beautifully as he plays that instrument in the midst of ruins all around. And the dust flying everywhere of the wall. Here is a man playing piano beautifully, himself hasn’t eaten for so many days. But bringing out the gift and the talent that is part of his being. Amazing contrast the greatness of the tragedy of man. This is what we mean by ruin.

We need to understand the Christian doctrine of sin very well, because we can’t go out and simply say that, but all those that don’t know God and sin are worthless and useless. And they have no intelligence they’re not capable of any good. The Bible does not teach that the Bible still says that in the image of God. You can see the traces of God’s image in them. When they accomplish things great and extraordinary. You see the image of God in them. Therefore, when we look at people that didn’t mend things, and come up with solutions for human problems, come up with medicines to heal various illnesses, come up with technological findings. We appreciate them, we respect them. There may be people that don’t believe in Jesus Christ, not believe in God, but we appreciate and respect them because they’re still in the image of God. We’re not disrespectful toward those. In fact, we use those things that they’ve invented and brought into being, we respect them for what they have done. But what we are saying is, on the one hand, there is greatness on the other hand, there is the tragedy. That’s what man’s life is today, all about.

So, you see that in the rulership that he exercises also, you see you go to some of the countries, you see the countryside, how they have developed, you see the roads and you see the buildings you see the facilities. I mean, I think about the Garden of Eden and where they brought us today. They’ve developed this God made earth so beautifully made it so easy for man to live so comfortable for men to live. Today a lot of the houses are air conditioned, were sitting on sofas and sleeping in beds and dressing up in fine clothes and eating out of fine plates, and so on. I mean things that those people never knew anything about. We’re living a wonderful life today. Because man has developed, cultivated from the time that it began, man has exercised his rulership, he has brought all problems and he has found solutions. There was a time there was not even a bicycle, but today we just take our cars and go in speeds that are unimaginable. We can fly. So many things are available today because man is a cultivator. The earth that God has given to him, he has not just kept it laying around. Without developing man has developed it he has exercised his rulership. God says Be fruitful, multiply, fill, subdue and dominate. He has taken what God has given and subdued and dominate are all problems solved many human problems. Wonderful. Thank God for the airplanes that began flying. Thank God for the cars we can drive. Thank God for driverless cars that I really thank God for. Because drivers are the problem. Car is not a problem. Soon we’re going to have all driverless cars. Man is making life more and more, better and better, if you asked me. Because he’s a cultivator. That’s what is called subdue and dominate. He’s dominating over his problems. It’s wonderful to see.

But on the other hand, this dominion principle is subject to corruption also, it has been corrupted in so many ways, is the dark. The pendulum swings from one extreme to another. So, man today in his rulership over everything that God has created, he goes from one extreme to the other from being irresponsible and neglecting his rulership, not ruling when he’s got the rule, not bringing everything under subjection, not taking charge. Irresponsible neglect on the one hand to tyrannical oppression on the other hand, on the one hand, is sitting in the recliner, watching TV, not doing anything, not taking charge of his life taking charge of the problems. On the other hand, if he gets up to rule, he’s a tyrant. He’s like a Hitler is ruling his home with an iron hand. They should be fair enough to say that our Lady Hitler’s also always make mention of that. Because when I said that the first time they say How about Lady Hitler? Somebody said to me after the service, you just mentioned what men has Hitlers. What about women? Yeah, let me be fair about this. There are lady Hitler’s also. And I’ve seen a few of them. Whatever they say goes, otherwise, the whole house is a warzone. So, it works both ways. They have been given rulership law, they’re making a mess of it, they’re competing with one another to see whether who’s going to rule you or me, who’s going to rule over who. It’s a competition that is going on, in many places. Take for example, ruling over this earth and cultivating this earth. They’re going from one extreme to the other, they’re either abusing the earth, or they’re worshiping the earth and the nature. On the one hand, they’re abusing.

And I knew a place where the house was closed down, I mean, shut down and not being used for some time. For months together or years together. There was a tall building with many flats in it next to it. And the people started using this independent house that was sitting next to it closed down as a dumping yard, garbage can. So, I’ve seen ladies get out of their kitchen and throw the garbage from there into the compound, very convenient, you don’t have to put it in the garbage bag, take it down for the garbage man to take it and all that. You can just throw it into that compound, then your job is over. It becomes another man’s problem. So that the garbage grew and became like a mountain. And rats running everywhere. In the city in this very area, I’m talking about unbelievable. People just right from their eyes, they just do this every day, throw the garbage right into the next compound there’s no one to ask. Abusing instead of cultivating, instead of making everything beautiful and wonderful. Instead of taking this God-given earth and maintaining the cleanliness. They are abusing it. And if you tell them you’re abusing it, there are others who go to the other extreme. They’re ready to worship the nature. That’s another extreme. They worship everything from the sun, moon or the stars, they’re not created for us to worship. They’re created for us to serve our purposes, thank God for the sun, moon or the stars, we have great respect for God’s creation. We don’t abuse anything. We cultivate everything. We protect everything, we maintain everything. We make sure that all of these things function well and not be a hindrance to its proper functioning. But we are not worshipers of these things. We worship God who created these things. We don’t worship creatures; we worship God who is the creator. So, people are going from one end to the other. I can go on give you more examples, but I think that’s enough.

 Dominion principle has become corrupted. Is Man exercising dominion? Yes, many times in the wrong way. Sometimes not exercising his dominion though, not realizing that these men to exercise dominion, take charge of his problem and turn things around for the good. He doesn’t do it. When he’s supposed to do it. And when he does it, it’s a mess. All right. Now, let’s go on and do something else. And that is, in Romans chapter three. Paul explains this ruin of man in his own words. I taught the book of Romans here in the church for seven and a half years, verse by verse. It is one of the greatest books of the Bible. It explains the gospel like no the book does, Romans is a fantastic book. And Paul is a tremendous writer. Let me read you from verse 10 to 18 what Paul has to say about man’s ruin. Listen to this.

As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one. There is none who understand there is none who seeks after God. They’ve all turned aside they have together become unprofitable, there is none who does good. No, not one. Their throat is an open tomb with their tongues they have practice deceit, the poison of asps is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood, destruction and misery or in their ways, and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God, before their eyes. Look at man’s condition. This is the description of a fallen man. Now, Christian, teachers who teach Christian doctrines have taken this description. And they have a name for this doctrine concerning the fallen man and his condition. In Christian teaching, they have a name for this. They have a title for this that is total depravity. That man is in a state of total depravity, they say. Now this is a much-misunderstood concept, total depravity is, because the very title is often misunderstood in total depravity means everything is gone. Man is depraved of every good thing. He has nothing good in himself is not capable of any good. That’s the way we begin to interpret immediately. And they say well, I can’t believe that. You know, people begin to say, well, you mean to say I’m totally depraved? Do I look like totally depraved? I’m an intelligent person, you are living a useful life. I’m living a productive life. I’ve done this good, that good and so on? How can you say? Or how can you believe that man is totally depraved? This Christian doctrine is something that has to go.

Well, let me explain what the Bible teachers mean by total depravity. Because when you understand that you will know what they’re talking about. I wish there was another name for this doctrine. So that this Misleading idea will not come up. But somehow, it’s been there. And it’s been there for centuries now. And the idea that this is totally wrong also has therefore come up. So let me deal with this. Before we go into that, let me say this. See it is so important to understand man’s condition for us. We live in a world, we are living here for God, we are preaching to a world, ministering to a world with sending forth a message of the gospel. Not only the preacher, the Christian people themselves must be careful, particularly these days, in the name of preaching the gospel you should not invite trouble. You need to be careful about how you present the gospel. And I see that too. One of the ways we go wrong in presenting the gospel and end up aggravating people who hear the Gospel is when we don’t make certain things clear. When we don’t understand their condition, and when we preach, we sometimes put them down and begin to hammer them with all the things that we think is what is Bible is saying. And so, people get aggravated very much.

So, we need to understand the Bible properly so that we can present the gospel in a very proper way. Plus, it is helpful also for Christians, because they will understand what has happened to them, where they were, what their falling condition was, and how they’ve been redeemed now, you will appreciate redemption after today’s message a lot better, you will rejoice in God, you will be thankful to God that God has redeemed you. So, this usefulness on both sides of presenting the gospel out there, to an unreached world as well as to the Christian, who needs to know what he’s been redeemed from, he must understand his own problem, the depth of his sin and sinfulness so that he can appreciate from where he has come from where God has picked him up, and what God has made out of him through redemption.

Now, some years ago, at the turn of the century, there was a book published that is called The Purpose Driven church. There was a book called Purpose Driven Life, which became very popular millions of copies are sold by Rick Warren, passed from the Saddleback Church in America. Then they published purpose driven Church, which was also read very heavily by a lot of people, because, you know, they thought its churches growing very wonderfully. And he was talking about some of the principles they follow and so on. One of the things that he emphasizes there is that when you minister in a society, you need to understand that society’s condition. Sociologically you need to have a sociological understanding of that society. Now he presents it like this in his book, that he’s got a picture of a man there, a man from maybe the 90s, or man who happened to be there, at the turn of the 20th century, that kind of man from that generation, about 20,25 years ago, maybe. So, this man’s picture is there, and all kinds of arrows pointing to various parts from the head and so on. And each arrow is pointing to something about that man, we’re trying to get a sociological understanding of the typical man of that period. So, they call the man Saddleback Sam, not my name, but the Americans call their government, Uncle Sam. So, the Saddleback Church, so they call this typical man that belongs to the church as Saddleback Sam. So, Saddleback Sam is there and he’s got many arrows pointing to him. And one arrow that’s pointing to his head. He says that he’s well educated. So, Saddleback. Sam is very well educated, typical person that comes to Saddleback Church is a highly educated person. Modern guy is a college graduate, hopefully. And another arrow pointing to him, and that says, he likes modern music, contemporary music, he doesn’t go for the old hymns and all that. He likes this contemporary stuff like what we have here. And then there’s another arrow pointing out to him saying that he is crazy about fitness. He cares about keeping his body fit, and eating the right thing, doing exercises and so on. He cares about that. And then there’s another arrow pointing to his clothes and saying that he likes to wear casual clothing and not formal clothing. This will be considered formal, casual as jeans, you know. But after having read a book like this, only a lot of pastors started wearing jeans. And you’ll notice in the last 10,15 years, because he revealed Yeah, that’s right. Everybody’s wearing jeans and everybody wants to be casual. This is the trend this is the sociological makeup of people of this day. Therefore, in order to reach our people that live in these days, we need to play contemporary music. We need to wear jeans and preach and they even wear jeans that are holes and stuff. Just be like them. So,you can reach them is the idea.

Well, that’s fine with me. I’m not a guy who criticizes all these things because if you’re trying to reach people in, if your jeans with holes helps, so you can reach them is the idea. Well, that’s fine with me. I’m not a guy who criticizes all these things. Because if you’re trying to reach people in, if your jeans with holes helps have more holes, as far as I’m concerned, no problem with me. Whether I will wear it or not, I don’t know. But it’s no problem with me really, I’m an open-minded person, I take in these things very easily. It’s not a problem at all. I’m glad that people are reaching people, somehow, somewhere, Christ is preached and people are reached. And I’m happy about it. So, the idea is sociological understanding is necessary to reach the people of our day. In Paul’s day, Paul feels that something like that is necessary to preach the gospel to the world. And that is why he gives these verses that versus 10 to 18. But he’s not trying to give a sociological understanding. He’s not against it, but he feels that the understanding of man in a sinful state in sinful condition, the spiritual understanding of man, instead of sociological understanding man, the spiritual understanding of man is more important in order to be able to minister to that person, effectively.

And that is why he gives this list that says There is none righteous, no, not one, there is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God. They’ve all turned aside and they’ve together become unprofitable there is none that does good. No, not one, their throat is an open sepulchre, here is a spiritual assessment of people of his age. What is a fallen man like? What kind of a world I’m preaching to what kind of world into which I’m going, getting the gospel? What kind of people out there what is their condition? What is their spiritual condition? Is let me tell you There is none righteous? No, not one. It says There is none who understands, they’ve all turned aside they will all together become unprofitable, there is none who does good, no, not one, that throat is an open sepulcher and so on.

So here is a spiritual assessment of the society given by Paul so that we can minister to people of his day. Now, that spiritual assessment is what has ended up being called by Christian teachers and experts as total depravity. So, today’s Christian teachers, a lot of them have taken this and said Paul’s idea of a man in sin is that he’s totally depraved. Alright, but what is total depravity? To what extent is it depraved? People always ask the question, Am I totally depraved? I mean, I’m totally depraved? I’m bereft of anything that is good. I do not have anything good in me. Am I totally depraved? Unbelievable, they say. So let me bring some understanding about that. What is total depravity? What is the Christian doctrine of total depravity? The doctrine of total depravity says that men are dead in their sins. That’s a very strong statement. Obviously, they don’t mean that we are physically dead. But in some way, man is dead. Man is dead. Now, if he’s dead, nobody can do anything about this man that’s dead. Nobody can bring him back to life. Because he’s dead. Only God can raise him up. That’s why they say man is dead. That’s why the description is like that. Man is dead. That means no matter how much you do anything, no power on this earth can do anything. Only God can give life. Just like a dead man can be given life only by God. A man who has fallen into sin and is in a state of sinfulness is a dead man. And his salvation is like God Himself giving life to a dead person. That’s how they describe this total depravity. But the total depravity that they talk about, does not mean listen to this very carefully, does not mean that people are all equally bad. It does not mean even the people have become as bad as they can be. And it does not mean that anyone here in this world is entirely destitute of virtue of any goodness doesn’t mean that it does not mean total depravity does that mean that human will is evil in and of itself. It does not even mean that the person spirit is dead, or that his body is dead. In fact, his spirit is working well, bodies are alive.

So, the body is alive, is not dead is spirit is not even dead. And they say he is dead, it doesn’t mean that his spirit is dead, because some people that have their spirits wonderfully working, they’re in contact with all kinds of evil spirits, you know. This is not exactly dead. They’re very active with evil spirits. So, what is the problem with man? Let me say it again. It does not mean they’re all equally bad. total depravity does not mean that they’re all equally bad. It does not mean that they are as bad as they could be, or any man has become as bad as he could be. That is not total depravity. It doesn’t mean that anyone is entirely destitute of virtue, it does not mean that human will is evil in itself, it does not mean that their spirit is dead, it does not mean that body is dead, then what does it mean? What does total depravity mean? It means that since the fall, man rests under the curse of sin, he has come under the curse of sin. And in that state, he is actually operated by wrong principles by a wrong power, he is operated the power that works in the children of disobedience. Ephesians chapter two says, that is a power that is at work in him an evil power, since he has come under the power of sin, under the curse of sin, that is a power that is working him he is actuated by the power he is operated by the power and what is the result? Listen very carefully. He is wholly totally unable to love God. Ah, that is what total depravity is. Doesn’t mean that he’s totally unintelligent. He has lost his all his intelligence. No, don’t be going out and talking like that. They’ll think you are fools. What are you talking about? Look at all the unbelievers how? What kind of inventions they’ve made?

You can’t go ahead and say that they have no brain, no intelligence. No, that is not what the Bible is teaching. The Bible is teaching, saying that they are unable to love God, not simply unable to love God, they’re totally unable to love God and are unable. When it comes to loving God, they can’t do it. And not only that, they’re unable to do anything. That would merit salvation, they are unable to change their condition, the sinfulness, they are unable to save themselves, they are unable to come out of that spiritual bondage and condition. They cannot do anything. They’re totally depraved. totally unable. There is total inability to save themselves. That is total inability to love God, there is a total inability to save themselves from that condition. How many of you understand what I’m talking about? That’s the doctrine of total depravity. I have no problem with it right now. And I’m sure you don’t have any problems with it. Also. When you say more than what it’s saying, that’s when the problem comes. They’re not saying things that some people think they’re saying, No Christian teachings are not foolish teachings. Unable to love God, unable to change their condition, unable to love God, unable to bring themselves into salvation. unable to do anything about their salvation, they cannot save themselves from that condition. How unable they’re totally depraved have that power totally gone. They cannot do anything about it. No effort that they put out will be possible to bring them out of that condition. Some people call this total depravity, radical depravity. What is radical depravity, this comprehensive depravity that is it is depravity that touches every single area of our life, every aspect of our life. Like we talked about intellectual, relational, emotional, moral, relational, so on. Every aspect of our life is touched, have talked about the pollution of sin. This place is completely closed shut in tight. Air conditioning is there but you know how much dust is there? The people that sold as the speakers opened it up and said we have never seen so much dust in our lives. How can there be so much dust? Well, this is not a house.

This is a place where people come in by the droves in one service after the other, they’re all carrying dust in their feet and walk in and all the dust gathers into the speaker’s. Dust is like that, it just gets in into the crevices into the corners, into places where you will not reach and put some dirt dust there, it will just fly and get in there. And soon if you touch it, your hand will be full of dust. Sinners like that when sin comes into a person’s life, it does not leave anything untouched. it touches every corner every aspect of your life. It bothers everything, it ruins everything. The effect of sin is felt and seen and experienced in every area of human life. That’s why the Christian teachers talk about the pollution of sin. All right, now look at Paul’s description. And see, that is indeed true. Let’s go through the description and like give a little description for the description. That’s what I’m supposed to do. Paul is literally saying, Yeah, that’s right. Man is totally depraved. In what way he cannot love God is totally unable to love God, totally unable to redeem himself, bring him out of that condition, unable to save himself. Nothing that he does in this world, no matter how rich or poor he is. Even if he’s a king, he cannot save himself. He does not have the power to save himself, he’s totally depraved. Look at verse 10. Paul teaches that in a very powerful way, this idea of total depravity. He says as it is written, there is none righteous, and no, no. Where does Paul get this assessment spiritual assessment, not from some kind of consumer study of his time. This comes from the Old Testament. That is why he begins by saying as it is written, every single one of these things, statements that he makes about the fallen man is from the Old Testament, I’m not going to go through the oldest one right now, because we don’t have the time. But we know that it’s all from the Old Testament, a lot of it from the Psalms, as it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one. What does it mean? There is none righteous, you mean to say there is not one righteous person? First of all, you need to understand what righteousness is, then only you understand the statement. What is righteousness. Righteousness is the ability to stand before God.

 Without guilt without condemnation, without shame, without guilt, condemnation, or feeling of inferiority. He says there is not one person in this world that can stand before the Almighty God is true and living God without guilt, shame, or guilt, condemnation and inferiority. Why? Because God is a holy God, and His Holiness is indescribable is a God who cannot even look upon sin. The Bible says Habakkuk. The Prophet says, He cannot even look upon sin. He hates sin so much he has nothing to do with sin. So that he does not even look upon sin. That’s how holy he is. So that’s why in the wilderness when God told Moses to build the tabernacle, there was three parts in it. The innermost part was the Holy of Holies. And generally, people were not allowed to walk into the tabernacle, just like they were told to stand outside. And the people that came in there, they came in after so much purification ritual was done for them, particularly to go into the Holy of Holies. The high priest can go in there only once a year. He cannot simply walk in anytime he wants, once a year after doing certain rituals of purification, where he’s carefully gone through the procedure, and make sure that he’s purified. Then he walks in with a rope around his waist, extending all the way out, because in case he has not purified himself and walks in with sin, he will be dead there he will be struck dead there, the Holy of Holies. And if anybody goes in there to pick him up, they will die also, they can’t even pick up his dead body. The only day you can do is just pull that rope. Pull him out. That is how the rope around the waist came about, I guess. That is its business you can’t play with God.

You can’t play with God’s holiness. That is declaring very loudly man you are a sinful person. You have no right to come into God’s presence. God is holy, you are a sinful person, do not even come in here. If you came in here without purification, you will die, make sure that you can stand before God. That’s the message that he was giving. Jesus died on the cross, the curtain that separated that spot from the rest of the place, was rendered to [INAUDIBLE] that now a way has been made for men to come into God’s presence. That is what Jesus has done through the cross of Calvary. That’s a tremendous message in the Bible regarding that. But people find it difficult to believe that no man is righteous. No, not one. That’s the way Paul put it. Not one person in the whole world. But you know, people are so adamant. When it says there is no not even one person is righteous, have the ability to stand before God without guilt, condemnation and inferiority. You know how many people are still trying? Thank God, I have enough intelligence to know that if no one is righteous, and the Bible says no, not one, I better not try it. I’m wasting my time. If Paul says there is no not one righteous, then why would I want to try that? I believe him. So, there must be some other way. If there is not one person righteous, then I shouldn’t try, by my own ability to become righteous to come and stand before God. You know, Martin Luther was one who tried. He would claim the stairs of his church, on his knees until his knees tore. One day he got so tired, he could not get the assurance of salvation, he could not get the assurance that God has accepted him, he doesn’t have peace. He has no assurance that his sins are forgiven. He’s a very spiritual man. That is, he wants to get close to God. He’s trying his best. He’s fasting he’s praying, and he’s reading and meditating, and he’s going on his knees to God, anything is ready to do if you want him to roll, he’s ready to roll. If you want him to hurt himself, he’s ready to hurt himself. If you want to take some kind of punishment physically, he’s ready to do that. That’s why he’s hurting his knees, is ready to do anything to be acceptable to God. He’s living as holy as possible for a man. Then he got really tired and went to an old preacher of his day, to the church that he belonged to and he said to him, look, this God is a horrible God. Because I’m trying so hard. But he says till it’s not enough.

He says, my righteousness is not enough. It’s like filthy rags. That’s exactly what the Bible says, my righteousness, the best that I can bring is like filthy rags. And he says, the only kind of righteousness that he will accept is the righteousness that he himself has. If I can come with the righteousness, that he has the perfect righteousness, I will be accepted otherwise, I will not be accepted. How can I get that perfect righteousness? Where can I go to find that righteousness? I don’t have it. I cannot produce it. I cannot make it up. Where will I get it? And that old preacher told him, oh, my God is not an evil god. He’s a good God, He will show you. So, he went and prayed and started reading the Bible and God gave him a revelation. God showed him look, it is because you can never produce this kind of righteousness. You can never come up with righteousness. There is no not one, not even one righteous in the world. What I have done is since for no man it’s possible to produce righteousness, like the righteousness I have. I’ve decided to put my son on the cross and take your sins and put it on him and take his righteousness and put it on you. So, righteousness now in Christianity has become the gift of righteousness. Romans chapter five verse seventeen Those that have received the gift of righteousness shall reign. By one Jesus. They shall reign in life. Have you received the gift of righteousness? righteousness can come only as a gracious gift from God, not by your own trying and your own efforts. It is a gift. It’s a loving gift from this almighty God who sees the world and sees that all are lost. He has come up with this wonderful gift, the gift called righteousness.

Secondly, there is none who understands. Now this fact that no one is righteous and no one can get righteous on their own is not understood by people. That’s a big problem is a. Jesus met Nicodemus, Nicodemus was a teacher of the Jews. And he was shocked because Jesus told him you must be born again. He said, who me, he said yeah, don’t you know who I am. I’m a Jewish teacher. I’m a religious man, but I’m not a sinner. I’m a Jewish teacher. Jesus said, you must be born again, if you cannot even see the kingdom of God, if you’re not born again. Just imagine how much it would have shocked them. You cannot see the kingdom of God if you’re not born again, how to be born again. How can I be born again, Jesus tells him only by the Spirit and by the water, you can be born again. That means the Spirit of God has to get into you and do a work. And the water of God’s word must cleanse you. The Spirit of God must bring the regeneration. That means you must hear the word, the anointed word, the word that produces saving faith, and the Holy Spirit must work through that and produce regeneration into you so that you are born again. Only then you can see the kingdom of God. It is absolutely and totally the Word of God because you’re totally depraved. He’s telling the Nicodemus, know your religiosity won’t help you. Your religiosity will not bring you to God will not bring you to the kingdom of God. Only a word from God into your heart can bring you in the presence of God. But people don’t understand it. In 1 Corinthians 2:14, Paul says it very powerfully, he says, but the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for their foolishness to him, nor can he know them because they are spiritually discerned. Natural man cannot know the things of God His mind is darkened. He cannot understand. That’s why a man doesn’t understand that he’s lost man does not understand that by his words, he cannot come.

That is where Martin Luther could not understand that no matter what he does, it will never qualify him before God. He’s a good man, but doesn’t understand because the heart is darkened by sin. Jesus says in John chapter eight, you look at John chapter eight. John, chapter eight is where Jesus has big battle going on between him and the Jewish leaders. John, chapter eight, verse 43, Jesus says, why do you not understand my speech? Listen to this, why are they not understanding that leaders, that Jewish leaders they have read the Bible, but they are not understanding Jesus’s speech, his sermons? Why do you not understand my speech? And then he gives the answer, not because it is not understandable. Not because God has hidden something and it’s no secret. Nobody can get it. No, no, no, no. Why don’t they understand? He says, because you’re not able to listen to my word. one translation says, because you’re not able to bear it. In other words, they hate him. And so, they’re not able to bear what he says. If you hate the person don’t have any respect for a person. What the person says, you will hear the sound, but what he says, you will not mindedly listen, to understand, because you disrespect him, you’re so you disregard Him in your heart. That is what was happening. There not able to bet it. Romans chapter one, verse 18, onwards, talks about that problem. Romans one verse 18. For the wrath of God has revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.

See, people suppress the truth. They don’t want the truth to come out. He says, And God is full of wrath against such people, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. It’s not that God has hidden it God has shown given the revelation of Himself. For since the creation of the world, His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse. From the time God created the world. God has put before man a tremendous witness to the fact that he exists, and to the fact of who he is and what kind of God he is. The creation speaks of him, this invisible God can be seen through the visible creation because although they knew God now listen to this, they know God Yeah, but they did not glorify much God. And nor were thankful. The translation must be known with their worship, because they realize this God, but became futile in their thoughts and their foolish hearts were darkened. Alright, let me go quickly. Thirdly, Romans three, thirdly, verse eleven says. There is none who understands. And then it says There is none who seeks after God. There’s no one looking for God. They’re looking for meaning in life. They’re looking for some kind of truth, some kind of salvation. Because look at all the people that are going behind all kinds of Godmen and so on.

 They’re looking for something, they will turn to any kind of foolishness. You tell them to roll in and tell them to climb a mountain, you tell them to hang from say they’ll do everything. Tell them to pay some money, they’ll do anything in the world ready, but they will not listen to God. They will accept all kinds of foolish beliefs, but not the truth. The heart of man is an idle factory, really. That is why man won’t seek after God. He likes to make his own God according to his convenience. Because if he makes his own god, he can make him like he likes. You see, God made man in His image. Now man is trying to make God in His image. So, he can make God like himself to his liking. That’s the problem. Verse 12, listen to this. They have all turned aside them together become unprofitable There is none who does good. No, not one. What does it mean? It means the world turned aside altogether become unprofitable. none that doeth good means they’ve all become sinners fallen into sin and become slaves of sin. Therefore, it’s unable they’re unable to not sin.

It’s what Paul describes Romans chapter seven, he says the thing that I want to do, I’m not able to do the thing that I don’t want to do, which I know is right. This thing should not be done. I don’t want to do it. I end up doing it, he says. So, they’ve all become slaves of sin. Verse 13, and 14, their throat is an open tomb with their tongues, they have practiced deceit. Now they’ve all become sinners fallen into sin. Now, verse 13, and 14 describes how you can so easily identify them, you can identify them by the way they speak. Their throat is an open tomb, it stinks, it seems when they open their mouth. They speak in such a way that when they open their mouth, their words are filled with such evil that it stinks open tomb with their tongues their practice deceit the poison of asps is under the poison of snakes is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. You can identify them, by the way they speak. Isn’t that amazing? I’ve spoken so much about the tongue, how the Bible emphasizes the tongue. sinfulness is manifested in a very primary way through the tongue. You listen to a person talk. You know where he comes from. There used to speaking in a hurting way, the deceiving way. That is the nature of the fallen man. There is Venom there is poison under their tongue. One preacher said about how he went to seminary and the first day of class, the professor wanted to prove something about sin. So, he said, how about you guys going and trying to live without sinning through your mouth for one week? Try not to sin with your mouth with your words for one week. And after one week you write a report of your experience truthfully. We’re not bad you write a report.

Tell us what happened. They said the whole Without better you write a report. Tell us what happened. They said the whole class went, and not one fellow passed it. They’re all dedicated Christians coming for ministry, He said, not one of them was able to do it. Some of them failed the very same day, by afternoon. They’re already done sinning several times with their mouth. That’s how the mouth works. The sinfulness manifests itself through the mouth. And finally, 5:15 and 16. Their feet are swift to shed blood destruction and misery are in their ways. And the way of peace they have not known. What a description. That means sin manifests itself through the tongue primarily, then it manifests itself through violence. Just look at YouTube today. Look at how people speak. You want to hide it from children because they don’t want to hear this kind of talk, you know, such talk evil words, hateful words, words that have no respect. That’s not the way to speak. But people speak like that. sinfulness showing its true colors, talk all kinds of things. And then it leads to violence. Just like it says their feet are swift to shed blood. They talk results in violence, destruction and misery or in their ways, the way of peace they have not known. They know how to make [INAUDIBLE]. They know how to make a riot. But they don’t know how to bring peace. Isn’t that the condition of the world today, wherever you go in the world? Whichever country you go wherever, whichever society you go, that’s the problem. Easy to bring this harmony, easy to bring hatred, easy to bring enmity easy to speak words that will set on fire the emotions of people and cause them to fight with one another. But nobody knows how to bring peace.

 They’re unable to bring peace. What a perfect description 2000 years ago, or even more than that, if you consider that these things come from Old Testament, what a perfect description of humanity fallen in sin. Martyn Lloyd Jones talks about the verse 18, where it says there is no fear of God before their eyes. That’s the summation of all these things. And Martyn Lloyd Jones says this, he says they hate God. They’re against him and all his laws, because they’re dominated by the devil, was the hater of God and the devil. He is reproducing Himself in them. What powerful words they hate God, the Father is the devil. And the father is reproducing Himself through His children. That is why they’re speaking like that. That is why they bring such violence out of what they speak. He says, amazing. This is the condition not have some people have each and every one of us. I don’t want you to forget this. When second world war was going on, Martyn Lloyd Jones preached a message called, why God allows wars. And everybody was upset about Hitler, because he was bombing London like anything. And his church was in London, then Why does God allow wars and he said, you know, you all hate Hitler. But the truth is, we are all Hitler’s only in some way, every single one of us can be a Hitler. You all have the seeds, the very same seeds, that’s in Hitler we just haven’t had that opportunity. Somebody put us in that same spot, we’ll do the same and we even worse, he said, we are all Hitlers’. Now, the thing is, when you realize where God brought you from what God redeemed you from, what happened in the fall, what condition you were in, and I was in as a result of the fallenness where we were in the depths of our sin, unable to save ourselves, unable to love God, unable to redeem ourselves unable to do anything about our salvation. We were in that condition. And God redeemed us from that. When you understand the plight of the sinful man, then only you will appreciate redemption.

Jesus was in a house in the Pharisees house invited for dinner, eating there. There was a woman standing there, and everybody knew she was a sinner. The story is in Luke chapter seven. She is Standing there are weeping, and her tears fell on Jesus. And she was wiping his feet with her hair. And she has brought an alabaster oil, a bottle of alabaster oil, and she was anointing his feet with an oil and the man that invited him was a Pharisee. So, he was very upset. He said, if he’s a prophet, does he not know that she’s a sinner? Why would he allow her to touch his feet and wipe his feet with her hair? What is this? What kind of a man is this? what kind of a preacher is he, he was criticizing? Jesus looked at that man said look. Now two people that needed some money. They went and borrowed some money. One man gave the money one guy 50 rupees. The other guy 500 rupees. Both of them couldn’t pay back. They went and asked for pardon the guy pardoned both of them. Who will love the guy more? The Pharisee said the one who has forgiven 500 rupees, because he is debt was greater. Jesus said, that’s exactly what is happening. When I came into your house, you never washed my feet. You never kissed me. Like she’s kissing my feet. You never even kissed me on my cheek. You never washed my feet. You never cared to love me and invite me with such hospitality. And here you call her sinner and she has come. And she’s doing all this. He said, why is she doing all this? Why is she going out of the way? Why is there such devotion because she has been forgiven much? I tell you, if in your Christian life, you’re not enjoying the joy and the rejoicing of your salvation. You don’t know about the joy of salvation, you may be saved, but you don’t understand what you were like in your sin, what the sinfulness was like, you don’t understand your plight, as it was when you were a sinner. You don’t understand where God redeemed you from where God brought you out of. That is why there is no joy. Once you understand where you were, in what condition you were, you were in a state of total depravity, not able to save yourself unable to do anything about yourself lost totally and completely unable to save or do anything about your salvation, that God came and gave his life and redeemed you. When you understand that then your joy will be great. You will be worshiping God; you’ll be thanking God you’ll be thrilled about God. You will have the joy of salvation, when you understand that. Amen. Shall we all stand together?

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