Depravity of Man

This is the explanation of our world, wherever you go. Don't let anybody ever cheat you. Human beings are all the same.

They may put a thin veneer of religion on the surface, but if they have not regenerated hearts, you can be sure, face to face with the true demands of scripture, they will show their true colors, their ugly colors, these same colors we are seeing here. And you will see that they are truly deprived. Human beings are in a state of mutiny because of this fallenness.

Brethren, it is to people in this condition that we are called to preach repentance. We are called to go to a people in this rebellion and say, thus saith the Lord, repent or perish. That is what our calling is.

Now you may be sitting there saying, but if this is their condition, it must be useless to even start talking about going to them to say they should turn from their sins because they will not turn from their sins, you are right, but for the grace of God. Therein lies the only hope for our world, that he who has sent us to a people that are dead in sin, with hardened hearts, blind eyes, minds that are dim, he who sends us to them has chosen a people for himself and uses the preaching of the gospel to infuse life into them to bring them to repentance. And when anyone turns from sin, putting his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, we need to recognize that he is a direct product of God.

It's God who has acted upon his soul, graciously doing so, otherwise it is completely impossible. But therein lies our hope. Therein lies our confidence, a God who in Jesus Christ is a present Savior.

He is in the world by his Spirit, reaching out to those whom he intends to serve. Therefore, we know that the utopian cannot change his skin, a leopard cannot get rid of his spots, but God knows those who are his and through the preaching of the gospel will bring them to himself. Therefore, with our own eyes, oh I trust you have something of this joy even today.

With our own eyes, we will see the impossible happen. With our own eyes, we will see a people that would have wanted to drag God off his throne and put him before them as a little idol. We will see them bowing to the true God of heaven, wanting to live for his glory and even to die for him.

That is what God wants us to experience as we go through our evangelistic work. Not that the people by nature are ready for him, but ours is a God who truly saves, changes lives through the gospel and makes them worshippers of himself. Oh that we may believe it, that we may believe it, that in this pitch black darkness of depravity, God is saving souls, bringing them to genuine repentance.

Let us pray. Eternal and gracious God, save us from the superficiality that has become so common today that has filled the church, the church's membership, with unconverted pagans. Help us, oh God, to see the reality of what we are up against and to cry to you, the God who truly saves.

That as we stand in the valley of those bones, we might speak your word and see the dead leave. Father, do this and glorify yourself on the eve of the return of your son. In whose name we pray, amen.