LAWSON: Well, forty-two teaching lessons. I mean,
come on, there's four chapters in Philippians. It just takes a while to go
through four chapters in a book but that was a great joy for me to be able to
exposit and expound the book of Philippians, and I would certainly commend Philippians to you. Well,
the topic that has been assigned to me for tonight is the topic of total depravity. So, I have a few
devotional thoughts that I want to leave with you on total depravity. It's also the title
of my new biography that's coming out. Wait a minute, not an autobiography. No,
it's the "Life and Times of Bob Godfrey – From Glory to the Grave." So, yeah, when my wife saw
what my topic was, she said, "Why do they always ask you to preach these
hard messages?" And so, I do, I embrace this, and so I want to preach to you tonight on total
depravity, and it is critically important that we understand what this doctrine is because it
affects every aspect of ethics and morality. So, I hope you have a Bible with you because you
are going to need to use your Bible tonight, so go ahead and open your Bible to the book of
Romans, and you will want to keep it open. We are going to spend our time tonight, the vast
majority of our time, in the book of Romans. I want to begin by reading a couple of
verses as a launching point for us tonight as we think about total depravity. In
Romans chapter 5, and beginning in verse 12, as the Apostle Paul writes to the church at Rome,
he writes this, beginning in verse 12, "Therefore, just as through one man sin
entered into the world." Let me repeat that, "Just as through
one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to
all men, because all sinned (For until the Law, sin was in the world, and sin is
not imputed where there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam until
Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam,
who is a type of Him who was to come.)" It's been well said that a right diagnosis is
half the cure. And so, we ask the question, what is wrong with the world? What is wrong
with people? What is wrong with the human race? Because something is obviously, desperately wrong
as our world is unraveling like a cheap sweater. We see all around us war and strife and
envy and conflict and murder and lying. And most people look in all the wrong
places to try to diagnose the problem. They claim that the problem is on the outside
of man. That the problem is the environment, the problem is the government, the problem is
the economy, the problem is global warming, the problem is your upbringing, your disadvantages,
etc., etc., etc. But you and I know that there is no cure for a spiritual problem to be found in
politics or in finance. All of these explanations fall short of where the real problem lies. And
the fundamental problem of man and the world and the human race lies not outside of man, but on
the inside of man, and in one word, it is "sin." So, what is sin? Well, sin is any lack
of conformity to the holiness of God. Sin is any transgression of the law of God.
Sin is falling short of the glory of God. Sin is going astray from the will of
God. And this is man's greatest problem. And in order to grasp the magnitude of
what is wrong with everyone and everything, we need to understand the magnitude of sin.
So, this necessitates that we are well taught in three major doctrines, and these will be the
three headings that I will have for us tonight. Number one, "The Doctrine of Original Sin,"
number two, "The Doctrine of Total Depravity," and number three, "The Doctrine of Universal
Guilt." These three are interrelated and interwoven, and these three doctrines are
so well addressed in the book of Romans. So, I want us to note, first of all, "The Doctrine
of Original Sin." And I direct us back to Romans chapter 5 and verse 12, because original sin is
that first sin of Adam, and its effect upon the entire human race, bringing sin to the entire
human race, and death to the entire humanity. And so, we read in verse 12, "Just as through
one man." We know who this one man is. His name is Adam. His name is mentioned twice
in verse 14. And Adam will become the channel, the passageway by which sin will enter into the
world, "Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world." Adam's
one sin, his one transgression, sin entered the world like a floodgate had been
opened up, and sin came pouring into the human race through the one act of disobedience by Adam.
And please note it says, "sin" in the singular, not "sins" in the plural because the
emphasis here is upon the presence of sin, and the power of sin, and the pollution of
sin, and the principle of sin. This all came into the human race, and from
it came the plurality of sins. You will also note that sin entered into
the world. It did not originate with Adam. Satan had already failed in his cosmic rebellion
against God in heaven, and when he disobeyed, sin entered into the world, and death through
sin. And so, with sin, there is always death. And God had said in Genesis 2 verse 17, "In the
day that you eat of this fruit, you shall surely die." And the moment he disobeyed God, not only
did sin enter the human race, but death entered as well. There was an immediate death for Adam,
a spiritual death. But with that spiritual death, there would eventually come physical death.
And were it not for the grace of God, there would be eternal death. And so, Adam opened
the door to sin, and sin opened the door to death. And so, we read in verse 12, "Death spread to
all men." It spread like a malignant cancer, and it spread to every human being in the human
race, beginning at the moment of conception. And then he adds, "Because all sinned," and at
the moment that Adam sinned, his offense, his sin was imputed to every person that would
ever be conceived in their mother's womb. And so, when did you become a sinner?
Over six thousand years ago, Adam's sin was charged to your account. And long before you
were conceived, and long before you entered into this world, you were already condemned, and
you were already under the wrath of God, and you were already a sinner.
This imputation of Adam's sin, it was immediate. It took place to the entire
human race once and for all at that point. It was comprehensive. It went to every member of the
human race. It was realistic in the sense that we were charged as though we ourselves had committed
that sin. It was fatal in that it brought death. And it was representative in the sense that
the one man acted on behalf of the many. And this is reinforced five more times here
in Romans chapter 5 in the following verses. Now, I want to let your eye go down the page
from verse 15 to verse 19, and I want you to see verse 15, where it says, "By
the transgression of the one, the many died." Adam's one transgression brought
death to the entire human race. Verse 16, the judgment arose from one
transgression resulting in condemnation, the divine punishment, and judgment of
God on the entire human race. In verse 17, we read, "By the transgression of the one, death
reigned," and death reigned like a cruel tyrant, and has ruled over the human race from the time of
Adam's sin. It is appointed for a man once to die and after this the judgment. In verse 18, we
read, in Romans 5, through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men. And so,
eternal condemnation and eternal punishment was declared by God against every member of the human
race long before they were conceived or born. And then, in verse 19, we read, "Through the
one man's disobedience," referring to Adam's disobedience, "the many were made sinners,"
because his sin was imputed to every person, and we were charged as guilty before God before
we entered the human race. This is the doctrine of imputation. That the action of one man is
regarded as the actions of the many others, and it is based upon the principle of federal
headship. That the action of a representative head would affect all those whom he represents.
And Adam was our representative head, and his actions would be accredited to us, and
would be imputed to us. And so, his one act has condemned the entire human race to the end of the
age till the last person is conceived in the womb. And this speaks volumes of the
holiness of God, that just one sin would condemn the entire human race. Just one
sin by one man, and the entire future population of the world stood judged and condemned
before God. That's how holy God is, and that is how sinful one act of
rebellion against this holy God is taken seriously by Almighty God; one sin
by one man and the entire human race condemned. So, Adam opened the floodgate
of sin and death around the world to every tribe, to every tongue, to every people,
to every nation, to every continent. And do you want to know what's wrong with the world? Do
you want to know what's wrong with mankind? The answer is original sin. But this
leads us now to the second major doctrine, and it is "The Doctrine of Total Depravity." And
so, I want you while you're in Romans to turn back to chapter 3, Romans chapter 3 and verse
9, because not only was Adam's sin imputed, credited to every person of the human
race, but the sin nature of Adam has been transmitted to us in the moment of
conception. The sin nature of Adam has been passed down from parent to child, parent to
child, and you inherited that sin nature. So, beginning in verse 9, Paul will give really
what is the quintessential signature text on total depravity. And just by way of introduction,
before we work our way through these verses, total depravity means that the totality
of human nature has been corrupted, poisoned, and polluted by sin. From the top
of your head to the bottom of your feet, every inch and every ounce of every person born
into this world has had sin like a fatal poison flooding through their soul. The mind of every
person has been darkened so they cannot see or understand the truth. The heart of every person
has been defiled so that they do not love the truth. They love what they should hate, and
they hate what they should love. And the will of every person is dead and in bondage to sin and
cannot believe the gospel in and of themselves. And so, beginning in verse 9, it's an incredible
scene. Let me just set this up because the scene is a courtroom scene. And the entire human race
is standing trial before God, and God is judge and jury and prosecutor. And Paul is like a courtroom
reporter, and the defendants are the entire human race. An unconverted mankind is without an
advocate. And the evidence is submitted, and the evidence is found in God's
Scripture, the Old Testament. And the verdict is indisputable; it is
the condemnation of the entire human race. And there will be no defense offered by mankind.
And there is no appeal to a higher court. So. beginning in verse 9, here is the charge. Paul
begins in verse 9, "What then?" In other words, he is saying, "What more can I say?" Because
this section began in chapter 1 verse 18, when he writes, "For the wrath of God is revealed from
heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness."
And throughout the rest of chapter 1, chapter 2, now coming into chapter 3 verse 9, he says, "What
more can I say?" He has built an indisputable case of the condemnation of every man and every woman
under the wrath of God. So, he says, "What then? Are we better than they?" And the
"we" refer to Paul and the believers who were in Rome, and the "they" refer
to those who are yet outside of Christ. "Are we of better stock?" "Did we
have a better nature?" "Were we more spiritual than they?" And he says,
"Not at all," unequivocally no, "For we have already charged," and that's a legal term of an
indictment of a crime, and to be found guilty. "For we have already charged that both Jews
and Greeks," that covers the entire human race, "are under sin." All mankind is under the penalty
of sin. All mankind is under the power of sin and the pollution of sin. All mankind
is enslaved and dominated by sin. And so, now beginning in verse 10, and extending
through verse 18, Paul now presents a devastating indictment against the entire human race that is
outside of Jesus Christ, and in reality, this is God's case. This isn't Paul's case; this is God's
case against humanity. So, he says in verse 10, "As it is written," and the word "written"
there signals that he will be bringing Old Testament Scripture to bring to bear in building
his case. There will be eight Old Testament texts: from Psalms, from Isaiah, and from Ecclesiastes.
And he quotes from the Old Testament to show that what he is saying is nothing new, that
this has been the condition of the human race since the dawn of human history throughout all
of the epics and eras of Old Testament times, now coming into New Testament times, this
has always been God's case against humanity. And so, he begins in verse
10, "There is none righteous, not even one." That serves as something as a
topic sentence over everything that will follow. It's an umbrella term that spans everything else
that will be said that none can meet the divine standard, none measure up to the
holiness and the moral perfection of Almighty God. That the entire human race has
been weighed in the balances and found wanting. This a devastating case. And in verse 11, he talks
about the mind of every person, the understanding of every person, "There is none who understands,"
because every unbeliever lives in spiritual darkness. And they are spiritually blind, they
live in spiritual darkness, and they have a veil over their eyes. 1 Corinthians 2:14 says, "For the
natural man receives not the things of the Spirit, for they are spiritually appraised."
And in 2 Corinthians 4 verse 4, it says, "The god of this age has blinded the minds of the
unbelieving." No matter how clearly and precisely we may present the gospel and the good news
of Jesus Christ, they cannot understand it, they cannot see with eyes of understanding
because their minds have been unplugged and are in total darkness. He says in verse
11, "There is none who understands." And then he says, "There is none who seeks for
God." The reason that they do not seek for God is because they do not understand their condition
before God and how they have been weighed in the balances and are under the wrath of God already.
So, he says, "There is none who seeks for God." They're all running away from God. R.C.
Sproul used to say, "In a seeker church, the only person who would show up would
be God because there is none who seeks for God." I mean, there it is. And
he explains it because their heart is defiled and they do not desire the truth, they
do not desire God. They may desire the blessings that would come from God but they just do not
want God Himself. They are running away from God. And then in verse 12, he says, "All have turned
aside." They have gone in the wrong direction, they are on the wrong path, they are headed
to the wrong destiny. And then he says, "Together they have become useless." And
the word "together" just lumps the entire human race together. They have become useless.
The word means "worthless," "of no value" in their current state of total depravity. He
says, "There is none who does good." There is none who is morally excellent. There
is none who is morally upright. And then to be emphatic, he adds, "Not even one." There is
no exception to this, not even the kindest grandmother who is outside of Christ. She does
not meet the standard; she does not measure up. And then Paul moves to the
throat in this total depravity, he says, "Their throat is an open grave."
In other words, what is down in the heart comes up through the throat, and will eventually
come out of the mouth, and be spoken by the lips, but what's down in the well comes up in the
bucket, and what is down in the heart comes up through the throat, and it says, "Their
throat is an open grave." This is awful. Graves are to be closed because when the corpse is
put into the grave, the decaying process begins, and with the decaying process, there soon comes
the stench and the odor that comes from the decay. And then soon, it begins to rot, and it
begins to reek, and there are worms that then produce maggots, and it's a detestable
side. And so, "Their throat is an open grave," and every time their mouth opens, there is this
stench of death that comes out of their mouth. He says, as we continue to look at this, he
says, "With their tongues, they keep deceiving." The deception here is that they lie,
they pervert the truth. And then he says, "With the lips," at the end of verse 13, "the
poison of asps," which is a snake or a viper, the "poison" here referring to the venom that
would be injected into the prey. The poison of asps is under their lips. And every time they
open their mouth, they are like a snake that injects its fangs into the victim, and
then releases the venom and the poison that is deadly that brings extraordinary harm to
everyone else. And this isn't Paul's estimation. And this isn't a theologian's estimation down
through church history. This is God's Word, and this is God's case against humanity. Let God
be found true, let every man be found a liar. And then in verse 14, "Whose mouth
is full of cursings and bitterness." Their mouth is foaming and overflowing
with "cursings," which is intense hatred, and "bitterness" which is open hostility. And then
he says in the middle of verse 14, "Their feet." And so, he has started with the head, and he
has worked all the way down now to the feet, and he has covered the totality of a human
soul with the metaphors of body parts. And in the middle of verse 14, he says, "Their feet are
swift to shed blood." They are anxious and ready to elevate themselves, to push others down, to
unleash their ego upon others. And to shed blood is the ultimate harm that could be done to
them. And they are not dragging their feet, they are not shuffling their feet. They are swift.
They are there running like a sprinter to carry out their dastardly deeds of destruction upon
others. And then he says, "Destruction and misery are in their paths." They leave a
trail behind them of destruction and misery. "Destruction" refers to calamity and
the harm that is done to others. And misery is the result of the destruction. Wherever there's
destruction, it's always accompanied by misery. And it's in their paths where their feet
have taken them as they have run swiftly. This is God's indictment in
the supreme court of heaven brought against the entire human race.
This is God's estimate of every person. And then in verse 17, "And the path of peace
they have not known." They only know destruction and misery. They have never had one ounce of
peace, one ounce of rest, or calmness. They are always hyperactive to pursue more sin and more
destruction. And then in verse 18, he concludes, "There is no fear of God before their eyes." He
comes back up to the head now. He started at the head, and goes down to the feet, he now comes back
up to the head where the eyes are. And Paul here is giving the profile of every
person ever born into this world, whether you were born in church, whether you were
born in a Christian family, whether you were born with Christian influences around you, whether you
were born and soon attending a Christian school. Regardless of what was on the outside, it was this sewer that was bubbling up on the
inside and spewing its depravity to the totality of your being, such that the mind, to use these
words that Paul has pulled together, the mind, the heart, the throat, the tongue, the lips,
the feet, the eyes are all poisoned and plagued with sin that has infiltrated the nature of every
person as it has been passed down from Adam. And any other vantage point would just
be a Pollyanna total denial of reality. And when you go back to your room tonight, and
when you turn on cable news, or if you surf the internet, you will see Romans 3:10 through 18
on steroids in every direction that you turn. And this is not an isolated
indictment of humanity. In Genesis 6 verse 5, from the very
beginning, way back in Genesis 6 verse 5, we read, "The Lord saw that the wickedness
of man was great on the earth and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only
evil continually." You know, sometimes, I hear people say that the world is getting worse and
worse and worse. It was awful in the beginning. And God just wiped out everyone with a
flood, except eight people in one little family that got on the ark. God just drowned and
devastated men, women, boys, girls, children, infants because they were all under the sentence
of death from Almighty God. In Genesis 8 verse 21, "The intent of man's heart is evil from his
youth." He doesn't have to be taught to be evil. He came out of his mother's womb
speaking lies, the psalmist says. In Ecclesiastes 9 in verse 3, and I'm reading from
the Old Testament just to show that this has been the case against humanity from the very beginning,
"The hearts of the sons of men are full of evil and insanity is in their hearts." Do you want
to know why? Because sin will make you stupid. Sin will make you make the worst choices a
person could possibly make. It is moral insanity to sin against God. Jeremiah 17 verse 9, "The
heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick. Who can understand it?" It is
a rhetorical question. The answer of which is: no one can even understand the depths of depravity
and the evil that is lurking in the human hearts down deep on the inside. It's far worse than what
any one of us could even begin to comprehend. And in Isaiah 1 and verse 5 and 6, "The
whole head is sick, the whole heart is faint. From the soul of the feet even to the
head, there is nothing sound in it." And again, it's the same imagery that Paul is
using in Romans 3, from the feet to the head, and every body part representing a different
aspect of the human nature and the human soul. Isaiah says, or God says through Isaiah, "There
is nothing sound in it." It would be like taking a glass of water, and you have a thimble of
cyanide, and you pour it into the glass of water, that cyanide now permeates the whole
glass of water, such that there is death now in every sip of the water. And Adam's
sin has been poured out into the human race like the poison of cyanide and it has
affected every aspect of human nature of every person in every generation on
every continent born into this world. So, do you want to know
what's wrong with Washington? It's total depravity. Do you want to know what's
wrong with Hollywood? It's total depravity. Do you know what's wrong with the abortion mills and
with transgender operations, with homosexuality and lesbianism and child abuse? Do you want to
know what the problem is? The problem is the human heart. Do you want to know what is driving
pornography and racism and anarchy in the streets, and one country invading another country
and slaughtering and killing innocent lives? There is only one answer, and it is total
depravity. Man sins because man is a sinner and because he has a sin nature. So, this is the
case that Paul has presented in Romans chapter 3. And what I love about the Bible is
that the Bible is a straight-talking book; it tells it like it is. And this is the
realistic estimate of the human race. So, we are ready for the verdict in the
courtroom of heaven. In verse 19 and 20, we have the verdict. Paul has presented God's case
and now the gavel is ready to come down. And in verse 19, "We read, "Now we know," and
there's a note of certainty about this, "Now we know," with certainty, "that whatever the Law
says, it speaks to those who are under the Law." And what the Law says is three things: it's the
holiness of God that is revealed in the Law, it is the sinfulness of man that is exposed by the
Law, and it is the curse of sin which is death. So, we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks
to those who are under the Law. Well, that is every human being whether they have heard the Law
or have not heard the Law, that Law was written upon their heart, as Paul argued in Romans chapter
2, and so, here's the result. "So that every mouth may be closed." This is such an overwhelming
slam dunk case that no sinner standing in the final judgment will even bother to
offer an excuse by opening his mouth. There is no self-vindication that can be
possibly offered against this airtight case of condemnation. There can be no
self-justification, no offering of excuses to God. Every mouth may be closed because
the case is so overwhelming. And at the end of verse 19, "And all the world, all the world may become accountable
to God," must answer to God, must stand in the judgment before God, must
hear the verdict that will come from God. And so, verse 20, "Because by the works
of the Law," whatever man's attempts at self-righteousness, whether it be through his own
efforts, whether it be through a false religion, whether it would be through human philosophy,
whether it would be through secular humanism, whether it would be through whatever attempt
to meet a standard that they perceive that God would have, he says, "By the works
of the Law no flesh will be justified." No person anywhere on planet Earth
will be made right before God. Then he adds in, "His sight," meaning all
that matters is what is in God's sight, not what is in man's sight. He says,
"For through the Law comes the knowledge of sin." So, the Law makes sin
known but the Law cannot save. This is God's case against
humanity. This is God's case whether, again, you grew up going to church,
whether you never darken the door of a church, this is all flesh condemned by sin. So, this leads now to the third and final
doctrine, "The Doctrine of Universal Guilt." And in Romans 3 and verse 23, here is the
universal guilt and universal condemnation. He says, "For all have sinned." It means every
person in every place in every generation have sinned. It's in the aorist tense. It's
translated as in the past meaning throughout the entirety of your entire life, everything
leading up to this moment, "You have sinned." The word "sin" means to miss the mark, to
err, to go wrong, to wander from the path, and all humanity has sinned. And then he says, "And fall short," and he
changes to the present tense, not only have you sinned throughout the entirety of your life
from the moment you came out of your mother's womb but you continue to sin in the present, and you
now fall short of the glory of God. And here are the scales, and your entire life is put into one
dish of the scales: every thought, every deed, every word, every action, every reaction, the
entirety of your life's record, every sin, every transgression, every iniquity is placed in
this dish, and you are weighed in the balances. And on the other side of the scales in the other
dish is not the average morality of the culture. It's not the sum and the substance of where people
are. On the other side of the scales is placed the glory of God. The sum and the
substance of all that God is: His holiness, His righteousness, the fullness of the eternal
being of God, His intrinsic glory is placed on the other side of the scales, and our entire
life is placed on the other side of the scales. And as we are weighed, we have all fallen short
of the glory of God. And this is universal guilt. And because of universal guilt,
there is universal condemnation. If you would turn back to Romans
1 verse 18, Romans 1 verse 18, this text that we can almost cite from memory, Paul writes, "For the wrath of God," stop right
there. The word "wrath" is a Greek word orge that comes into the English language as "orgy." "Orgy" is used in the negative sense of
heated sexual passions, heavy breathing, in erotic parties. But here orge
is used in the positive sense of God's heated anger against sin.
That God is not a stoic sovereign. That God is not mildly indifferent to the
transgressions of the human race. But the fierce, fiery, blazing, passionate anger of God is
revealed from heaven against all ungodliness, that is, godless attitudes and unrighteousness,
that is, godless actions. And Paul puts ungodliness first because that's
the attitude, the heart attitude, and coming out of the heart attitude is the
unrighteousness. For the fierce passionate anger, heavy breathing of God is
revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men
who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. This is sinners in the hands of an angry God. And so, Romans 6:23 says,
"The wage of sin is death." So, the death sentence hangs over the entire
human race. The entire human race is perishing. The entire human race is on the
broad path headed for destruction. The entire human race is rightly and justly
the object of God's holy anger and wrath, and there will be the unleashing of the fury of
His vengeance as the result of the final judgment. This is total depravity. This is the
devastating state of the human race and the condition of the fallen world in which we
live. These are the only lenses that we can put before our eyes and have a Christian worldview
and look around and see the state of humanity. And so, the question is, is there any hope? And, of course, you know the answer is yes.
That there would be One who would come who would be the second Adam. There would be One
who would be a fulfillment of the type of Adam who would come into this world and be born of a
woman, to be born of a virgin. He would be born under the Law, and where the first Adam disobeyed
by eating of the forbidden fruit, the second Adam has obeyed God at every point. He has been tempted
in all points such as we are, yet without sin. And He went to the cross and He bore our sins,
the sins of His people. He shed His blood and He made the only propitiation
there is for the fierce anger of God. In the sinless life and substitutionary
death of Jesus Christ, He satisfied the vengeance of God towards those for whom He
died, His people. And in His death, He bought us, at the price of the gold and silver of His
blood. And with that death, He set us free from our tyranny to sin, and He reconciled
all those for whom He died to the Father and reconciled the Father to them. He has established
peace between God and those for whom He died, and He shed His blood to wash away all
of their sins and to reverse the curse. And through the miracle of regeneration, He now
gives a new mind that can understand; it is the mind of Christ. He now gives a new heart, a heart
of flesh that has a spiritual pulse for God, that loves God and desires the things of God. He has
given a new will by which we now are released to obey God. We have new feet that run after God. We
have new ears that now can hear the truth of God. "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation.
The old things passed away. Behold, new things have come." And it is through the work of Jesus
Christ upon the cross and in His sinless life, and through the shedding of His blood
that He has washed away our sins, and He has cleansed us from all unrighteousness. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and
righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And He says,
"Come let us reason together," says the Lord, "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be
white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be white as wool. And
there upon the cross, Jesus Christ, in giving His life unto the death, shedding His
blood to make the only atonement for our sins, He has purged the guilt of sin from us, and He
has clothed us with His perfect righteousness. And we now are presented
before the throne of grace, and we are found in full and
perfect acceptance with God. But there is no good news until
you know what the bad news is, and there is no amazing grace until you know the
weighty condemnation that was once upon us. When I decided to ask my wife to marry me, I knew I
needed to buy an engagement ring. And I went to a jeweler in downtown Dallas, and he brought me into
the showroom, and he began to pull diamonds out. And I looked at those diamonds, and there was
nothing that really captured my eye. There was nothing that really drew my gaze to the diamonds.
They all looked just so mundane. They looked so dull. Then he said, "Wait a minute," and he
reached under the counter, and he put down a black velvet pad. And with those tweezers, he picked up
a diamond and placed it on the black velvet pad, and every light in that entire showroom suddenly
burst through that diamond, and that diamond literally exploded before my eyes, as I could
see the light refracting and shining through this diamond. What made the difference? It was the
same diamond. It was the black velvet backdrop that caused the diamond to shine so brightly. And
if you take away the doctrine of total depravity in all of its fullness, you have
diminished the glory of the cross. But when you see the blackness of sin and the
death and the depravity of the human soul, and then you hear the gospel of Jesus Christ, that
Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners, then you rejoice that God would have
grace and mercy on a hell-bound sinner like me. So, may we give glory and praise to God.
