Depravity

DEPRAVITY

The Ubiquitous Human Condition

Romans 3:10-18

I had planned another sermon for this week but I felt constrained to change.

The events of the last two weeks in my home town of Union beg a response ... a biblical response.

For nine days the one question on everyone's mind was WHERE?

for the last four days the one question has been HOW?

There were many queries as to the WHERE... but the WHY has left people without any answers.

As the sheriff read the statement: “The mother has been arrested and will be charged with two counts of MURDER.”

You could hear the whole crowd gasp... it was a gasp that was heard throughout the city, the state, the nation.

During the days that followed, the whole ugly, unbelievable story unfolded.

We winced in disbelief, we were repulsed by the horror, we felt "Righteous indignation" well up within us.

As the horror was made public we continued to ask, "HOW?"

How could anyone, any human being tie two babies in the car seat and push the car into the lake?

How could any parent even dream of hurting a child?

HOW COULD A MOTHER, IN COLD AND CALCULATED FASHION, PLAN AND CARRY OUT THE HORRIBLE, SLOW, TERRIFYING MURDER OF HER TWO CHILDREN?

How could she hear her children crying out in fear and confusion, Mommy, Mommy, help, don't leave, help me Mommy?

And then be cool and calm enough to walk across the street and play the part of the grieving mother... so realistically that everyone was fooled.

HOW?????????

I feel compelled today to deal with that WHY?

To do this I want to go first to God's Word, the Gospel, The Word of God, the Holy Scriptures ... and I want to read ... selectively, but without comment until I have finished.

As I read these verses I want you to see them for what they are; God's diagnosis of the human heart.

He has used the perfect X-ray machine - His knowledge - and has taken a picture of what the human heart is truly like.

Take a look at what God's X-ray shows.

[ Read the highlighted verses in Naves, under Depravity of man]

THERE IS THE ANSWER TO ALL OF THE HOW?s and WHY?s.

Theologians call it TOTAL HUMAN DEPRAVITY.

Depravity means wickedness or evil. This is the total wickedness of the human heart.

The scripture puts it this way ... "And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually… " and in another place ... "the heart of man is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked"

Depravity is not a terrible thing that happens from time to time, when a person loses their sanity.

Depravity ... wickedness and evil is not the condition of a minority of humans.

Depravity ... wickedness, godlessness, evil is THE NORMAL STATE OF AFFAIRS FOR THE UNREPENTENT, NOT BORN-AGAIN HUMAN BEING.

Murder is not unthinkable or uncharacteristic of the run of the mill mother {or father} ...

IT IS IN THE HEART OF US ALL.

Spiritually, morally, socially ... the scripture paints one consistent picture of the heart of man in both the O.T. and the N.T... DEPRAVED!

I know: psychologists, and historians, and psychiatrists, and sociologists, and educators and even preachers are guilty of teaching us that man is getting better, that man is basically good and capable of great and unbelievable goodness. They want to paint pictures of the utopia that this world could be if we could just get rid of some of the few bad apples or habits in society.

It is like the old Wolf man. I remember watching Lon Chaney play the wolf man. He was tender and caring and soft spoken at heart but was afflicted with this demon that would take over on every full moon. That is how we choose to see ourselves... mankind. Basically and essentially good with a few bad habits or situations that hold us down and keep us

from being that way all of the time.

God says that we are really the wolf man, vicious, blood-thirsty, and a born killer. And that from time to time we are capable of great good ... but the true us, evil is what is the true us.

Good Allan or Bad Allan????????

It is the bad JOE, and he is capable of playing good JOE for a while but he can't keep it up, the real Joe comes out.

We are all that way ... We are the Bad Rick... but because society has taught me that certain behavior is frowned on awhile other behavior is rewarded ... I learn to keep the evil me in check, apologizing when it gets lose.