Page 69 - Reading Job to Know God

Now, wretchedness does not mean man is at his worst. You go out there
and you will see that people could be far worse than they are. The
doctrine of depravity says man is wretched, and he is potentially at his
worse. That is, inside of man there is no end to the evil he can do.
The second aspect of depravity is Helplessness. Man is ignorant of his
own condition. He is senseless of his own state. He does not see his sin.
He does not see his danger and, obviously therefore, he cannot see his
own remedy. I am not going to quote Scripture passages at this time to
illustrate the helplessness of man because it is everywhere. It is all
through the Bible. But, if man were to see his condition, his misery, his
pollution, his wretchedness, the Bible teaches he would be absolutely
helpless to do anything about it. He could not lift one finger to improve
his situation. Without a miracle of mercy, he could not be delivered from
his wretched condition.

Let me give the third thing that depravity must have. Something worse
than total wretchedness and absolute helplessness. You say, now what
could be worse than that? The word the Bible uses is enmity, which
means to be in opposition to. That means this. Wretchedness says, “I am
lost”. Helplessness says, “I cannot do anything about it”. Enmity says, “If
I could do something about it, I would not”. That is the condition man is
in. He is an enemy of God. He not only cannot do anything, but if he
could, he would not. He would refuse to do anything about it. Now this is
an amazing thing, but this is what the Bible teaches concerning every
man. Not only the unsaved, but Christians also are totally depraved. Our
“old man” can pop up and take control at any time. We are absolutely
sinful through and through. We are helpless, absolutely helpless. And we
are at enmity with God.

If you do not believe man is like that, just think of this. In order to
keep man from sinning, you have to restrain him. In order to get a man
to the Lord, he has to be drawn by God. “No man cometh except the
Father draw him.” Doesn’t that tell you something about the heart of
man? Regarding sin, he must be restrained. Regarding God, he has got
to be drawn or he will never come. What a condition man is in.
Jeremiah 17:9,

“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked:
who can know it?”
Man cannot think of damnation and the consequences of sin, without
terror. And on the other hand, man cannot think about sin, the cause of
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