READ passage. This passage shatters man’s concept of himself, but it’s a passage that has to be studied very carefully because it is one of the shocking truths revealed by Jesus.
Depravity means that a person is always short of God’s glory, and is always coming short of God, and is always failing to measure up to God. Very simply, man is not holy as God is holy. He’s not perfect like God. That’s because man is born with a sinful nature—a nature that is imperfect and as radically different from God’s perfect nature as it can be.
READ v. 41. Jesus is stating the fact that man sins by doing the deeds of and following after a father other than God. That’s because sin is not of God. Evil deeds are not of God. So, they must be of another father. A person who sins and does evil is following another father, an illegitimate father. After all, aren’t sin and evil due to the nature of the devil? Man sins because he is in the family likeness of that father, the devil. Like we said last week, man still denies that fact.
These religionists that Jesus was talking to knew exactly what Jesus was saying. They knew He was speaking spiritually and that He was charging them with being sinful and depraved, always coming short. They knew He was charging them with following some father other that the Father of heaven. How do we know they knew that? Because they immediately come back and say, “We are not illegitimate children. The only Father we have is God himself.” So, they knew what Jesus was saying.
These Pharisees, like most people, denied that they had an idolatrous father. In their minds God was their Father and they were children of God, and there was no question about it. If you had talked to them one on one, you would see that they claimed: They believed in and professed the God of the Bible. They worshipped and followed the true God. They did enough good to be accepted by God. They had not done enough evil deeds to be rejected by God. They had done the best they could do to please God. They had enough godly heritage to be accepted by God.
The tragic fact is that the vast majority of people today make the very same claim, refusing to accept the truth. What Christ was doing was trying to get men to see the truth. Men desperately need to turn away from their evil deeds to God, to genuinely believe and diligently seek God. Once again, Christianity is not about, rules, regulations, tradition, pomp, circumstance, it’s about a relationship with Christ.
READ 42-43. The first proof of man’s depravity is that man doesn’t love Jesus. Not like he should. Picture the scene. God sent His Son into the world and man doesn’t recognize Him, doesn’t recognize His words, or His works.
If man were of God, that is, of the same spiritual world and dimension as Jesus, he would recognize Jesus, His words and His works. That’s what Jesus was saying. He came from God. And any person who is of God is bound to recognize Him, will love and welcome Him, and not reject Him. The person who wants nothing to do with Jesus is not of the family of God, they’re not a child of God. They are a child of some father other than the Father of Jesus.
Quick note: A person cannot possibly be of God if they don’t understand the teachings of Christ OR who doesn’t open their heart to His Word.
In verse 43 we have the word “unable” or “cannot”. READ v.43. They could have understood and heard His Word, but they wouldn’t, they refused His Word.
READ v. 44. WOW! Here’s the 2nd proof of man’s depravity and that is that man shows that his father is the devil. The person’s works reveal his true father. You should show your salvation by your works. If you are conniving and try to gloss over on the outside something that you know is not following God’s will, then you are showing the works of your REAL father, the devil.
Many may say, “That’s a terrible thing to say.” And it is. But it’s just what Jesus wants us to recognize. The fact has to be faced. The point is this: man’s sinful behavior and evil works prove that his father is not the Father of Jesus. Sinful behavior, under the table conniving are evil deeds not of the Father in heaven but of the father in hell. And all you have to do is think about it for a minute and you will see clearly what Jesus was saying.
1. Satan and men lust. They are both controlled by desires.
2. Satan and men murder. Satan is a murderer in three senses.
a. He was behind the first murder: Cain killing his brother Abel.
b. He was behind the sin of Adam, which brought death to the whole human race. He is the murderer, the one who caused the death of men.
c. He is behind the murder of human life and behind the loss of man’s experiencing real life here on earth. The devil destroys life and all abundant living when he can: all joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and discipline. (fruit of the spirit)
Jesus was saying that one thing is certain: God is not the father of murder—the devil is. They who commit murder are children of the devil. Jesus’ underlying message to them was that He knew they were trying to murder Him. But there was more to it than that. The real meaning of murder revealed by Jesus was that murder was the same as: Anger, Bitterness, an uncontrolled spirit, Desiring a person’s ruin, Striking out at a person, Slandering, speaking ill about a person and destroying a person’s image, Envying and killing a person’s happiness.
All the things that these religionists were guilty of.
3. Satan and men hate the truth. Both reject the truth and refuse to hold to it, they refuse to abide in God’s truth.
4. Satan and men lie and deceive. It’s their nature to lie and to protect and to look after themselves. That’s what he means when He says, “he speaks his native language.” In other words, man is at ease and comfortable in lying. It’s man’s nature to lie. Anything that is not true is false—whether it’s a lie, our thoughts, ideas, words, or acts. Lying is of the devil and exposes a person to be a child of the devil.
READ v. 45. Jesus is telling man the truth, but man refuses to accept it. It’s tough to accept the truth that one follows and actually behaves as a child of the devil. But in order for a person to change and see the world changed and become a child of God, he must accept the truth.
READ 46-47. The 3rd proof of man’s depravity is the sinlessness of Jesus. Jesus made the most staggering claim: no man could prove Him to be a sinner. No person could prove a single sin in Him. He was sinless and perfect. He was in the closest imaginable relationship with God, of the very same nature as God.
Let’s close with the all-important question. Since Jesus was sinless, why don’t people believe Him? He was telling the truth. So, men should believe Him. Jesus answered His own question. He that is “of God” hears God’s Words. He that is “not of God” doesn’t hear God’s Words. The person who doesn’t belong to God doesn’t hear and believe because he is not a child of God. He is a child of the father of lies, the devil.
Jesus was talking about this when it was recorded in Matthew 13:15, “For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise, they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.”
Paul predicted this same thing in his letter to Timothy, 2 Tim. 4:4, “They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.”
The prophet Zechariah wasn’t just foretelling what would happen in Jesus’ day, but in our day as well when he said this:
Even Zechariah prophesied in Zec. 7:11, “But they refused to pay attention; stubbornly they turned their backs and stopped up their ears.”
