“T”
[John 6:65]
October 28, 2018, Second Reformed
Church
The
Canons of Dort are one of the three standards of the Reformed Church in
America. We have this document in the
pink book in our pews. This is one of
three documents – with The Heidelberg Catechism
and The Belgic Confession – which we
consider to be accurate summaries of what the Bible teaches. They may have errors in them – they are not
like the Bible – they are not inspired and inerrant and infallible, but they
are documents that we have found to be reliable in teaching the Bible in
summary form.
The Synod of Dort met from November
13, 1618 through May 9, 1619, so we are coming into the 400th
anniversary of the Synod, and it seemed a good time to review the five issues –
or doctrines – that the Synod made declarations about.
In 1610, the followers of a minister
named Jacobus Arminius, who had died the year before, presented five doctrines
with which they disagreed with the Reformed Church, and they asked for
tolerance in allowing them to teach their views.
For eight years, the five teachings were
debated, until a synod was called to settle the manner for good. Some 90 scholars from across Europe met for seven
months to weigh in on what the Bible truly teaches. These five teachings or doctrines that the
Synod affirmed are often called, “The Five Points of Calvinism,” and they are
known by the acrostic “Tulip.”
This morning, we will look at the first
doctrine: total depravity.
Total depravity does not mean that we are
as evil – sinful – as we can possibly be.
What it means is that every part – every
aspect – of our being has been affected by sin.
R. C. Sproul says he prefers to call this doctrine radical depravity –
meaning that sin gets to the root of everything we are.
So, let’s turn to the Scripture:
First, Adam and Eve were our
representatives in the Garden. Therefore,
every mere human being is born with Original Sin – that is, a sin nature – the
natural inclination to sin.
We remember that our first parents sinned
and were thrown out of the Garden. From then on, they and all their children –
including us – bore the curse for sin.
Paul explains, “For the wages of sin
is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord”
(Romans 6:23, ESV).
If you sin, you die – and this is
eternal death that Paul is referring to since its opposite in this context is
eternal life.
And the truth of the matter is that
everyone sins, as Paul writes, “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall
all be made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:22, ESV).
Paul explains that no one can be made
right with God – saved – through keeping the Law, because no one can keep the
Law and the Law was not given to save anyone but to show that we cannot save
ourselves – that we are sinners.
“as it is written: ‘None is righteous, no,
not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside;
together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.’ ‘Their
throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.’ ‘The venom of asps
is under their lips.’ ‘Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.’ ‘Their
feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way
of peace they have not known.’ ‘There is no fear of God before their eyes.’
“Now we know that whatever the law says it
speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and
the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no
human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes
knowledge of sin” (Romans 3:10-12, ESV).
All human beings are born sinners and no
one desires to do good or to seek after God and be made right with Him. When someone says that he is a “seeker” – the
One Person he will not seek is the True God.
Again, Paul writes, “Therefore, just as
sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death
spread to all men because all sinned— “ (Romans 5:12, ESV).
And don’t ever tell an unbeliever to just
follow his heart: “The heart is
deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jeremiah
17:9, ESV).
The unbeliever only follows his heart
deeper into sin and death by his own efforts.
Paul says that from conception, we are
sinners: “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” (Ephesians
2:3, ESV).
God’s Word tells us that we have inherited
a sin nature – the inclination to sin – from our first parents who were our representatives
in the Garden. And every mere human born
desires to follow after sin. Even the
good things we do – prior to faith – are done with evil motivations and
desires.
Understand, we may consider someone good
who is not a believer. By our own scale
and estimation, we may know unbelievers who do charitable works and care for
their families and work well with others.
But, remember, this doctrine does not teach that we are as evil as
possible. Not everyone is a Hitler – or
whatever figure you or I would put in the “really bad” category. This doctrine means that our inclination –
the choices we make – are all infected by sin in one way or another.
Remember what God teaches us through
James, “For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become
guilty of all of it” (James 2:10, ESV).
With God, you either keep the Law or you
don’t. You’re either holy or you’re
not. And – in-and-of our own efforts –
we are not.
The most saintly of grandmothers who never
believes and whose only other sin is that she stole a Snicker’s bar as a
seven-year-old will suffer the eternal torments of Hell with Judas and all the
others sent to Hell.
Every mere human being is born with
Original Sin – that is, a sin nature – the natural inclination to sin.
Second, since we are born sinners –
inclined towards sin – we do not have the ability to what is pleasing in God’s
eyes. That includes coming to God –
choosing salvation.
So, the question is: is it a good thing to believe in Jesus as God
and Savior – to believe the Gospel – Who Jesus is and what He did?
If you answer, “yes,” then that is
something no unbeliever can do. Again,
if you answer “yes,” that is something no unbeliever can do.
“And [Jesus] said, ‘This is why I told you
that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father’” (John 6:65,
ESV).
A few sentences earlier, Jesus says, “No
one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise
him up on the last day” (John 6:44, ESV).
Jesus says that no one has the ability –
due to total depravity – due to our having a sin nature – being inclined
towards sin – no one has the ability to come to Jesus – to believe in Jesus
savingly.
The only way a person will ever believe
savingly in Jesus is if God grants him – gives him belief – gives him the
ability to believe – makes him – causes him to believe.
In the May 2018 issue of Tabletalk magazine, we read:
“Total depravity is not utter depravity,
which would mean that we always sin to the greatest extent possible in whatever
we do. We are not as wicked as we could be, for God’s law is on our consciences
and it holds back even the worst of us from descending into the vilest actions
in every circumstance (Rom. 2:12–16). Nevertheless, total depravity means we
are as bad off as we could be, for it means that we are at enmity with God.
Because sin taints everything we do and are, we have fallen short of the glory
of God and cannot merit eternal life (3:23). We are cut off from the Lord and
cannot save ourselves” (https://tabletalkmagazine.com/daily-study/2018/05/utter-depravity/).
Third, why does this doctrine matter?
It humbles us with regards to our salvation.
No one who has ever existed or will
ever exist can boast that he saved himself or contributed anything good to his
salvation. No one is able to save
himself or contribute anything good to his salvation because we do not have the
ability to do or be what is necessary due to our sin.
So, we ought to never find ourselves
looking down our noses at unbelievers. “Oh,
look at those fools. If they had only come
to the same conclusion I did, they wouldn’t believe such silly things.” No, we didn’t save ourselves. We couldn’t save ourselves. We’ll see over the next few weeks, Lord
willing, how God saves us all by Himself for His own reasons which have nothing
to do with who we are or who we might be or anything we have done or can do. All mere humans are sinners deserving of
eternal suffering and death.
Rather, we ought to be of a mind
that says, “I have no idea why God saved me, but I am so stunned that He did, I
am going to spend the rest of my life striving to follow Him and do everything
He wants me to do and striving to be the kind of person He wants me to be.”
It shows us that salvation is all
God’s work –we contribute nothing to our salvation.
Rather than talk about how we got to
a point where we thought it was finally time that we believed and got on track,
we will recognize the Sovereignty of God in salvation and praise and glorify
Him because it is His work from beginning to end. All of Creation – and that includes us –
exists to glorify God – to show Him for Who He is and all that He has done to
save a people for Himself.
It leads us to be thankful for what
God has done in Jesus.
If God saved us for His reasons that
have nothing to do with who we are or will be or anything we have done – we add
nothing good – nothing of merit – to our salvation – but for some reason in Him
and known only to Him, we should be more thankful to Him than if we won the 1.5
billion dollar Powerball that just got picked.
And maybe some of us are hesitant –
1.5 billion dollars is a lot of money.
Think about this: God could give
you 1.5 billion dollars and eternal suffering in Hell, or He could leave you as
you are and receive you into His Kingdom through the work of His Son,
Jesus. Which would you be more thankful
to receive?
It removes our anxiety about telling
others the Gospel.
When I was in college, the church I
was going to had a seminarian give a sermon one day, and he said that when we
“get to Heaven,” God will have all those people walk before us who are now in
Hell because we didn’t “witness” to them – what a horrible lie!
You and I cannot save anyone, and
God is not a sadist Who will make us feel pain in the Kingdom! I hope that man learned better.
Some people say the being Reformed
means you don’t care about other people’s salvation – you don’t care about
missions – that is a terrible misunderstanding of what we believe.
Yes, we believe that we are called
to bring the Gospel to every person and nation.
We are to tell people Who Jesus is and what He did to save His people –
and we are to tell them that they must repent and believe or they will be lost
to the Wrath of God.
However, there is no “trick” to
convert someone. Yes, we ought to know
the Scriptures and we ought to be able to present them persuasively. But, the unbeliever is totally depraved. He cannot believe savingly in Jesus until and
unless God intervenes to enable him.
Why does a Reformed person tell
people about Jesus? Because God said
that every Christian is to tell everyone who is not a Christian Who Jesus is
and what He did to save the people God gave Him.
Our job is not to save anyone – and
we can’t. Our job is to present the
Gospel as best as we can and pray that God the Holy Spirit will intervene and
cause that person to believe.
There is no great scorecard in the
sky for who “saves” the most people. We
do not get a “demerit” if someone does not believe after we have done our best
to present the Gospel. No, if we have
presented the Gospel as best as we can, we have been faithful to our Lord’s
command – God Alone saves people.
It doesn’t mean we don’t care if people
don’t repent and believe, it means that we understand no one can repent and
believe until God causes them – enables them – to repent and believe.
We are to be about proclaiming the
Gospel. God is about saving people
through our proclaiming of the Gospel.
So, if we understand what the Scripture
teaches about this doctrine – total depravity – that all people are born
inclined towards sin and unable to believe the Gospel, then we will rejoice and
praise God and give Him thanks for saving us, and we will proclaim the Gospel –
we will tell others – in obedience to our Lord – Who Jesus is and what He has
done – pray that God will work in those people, and leave the results to God.
Let us pray:
Almighty God, help us to understand that
every mere human rightly suffers the results of the Fall. We are all sinners. We are all incapable of choosing salvation or
desiring to be right with You or to add any merit to our salvation. Help us to be truly thankful to You and to
strive for full obedience to You and the holiness You require. May we be pleasing to You and be filled with
Your joy. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
