Page 70 - Reading Job to Know God
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damnation, without pleasure. This is the conundrum of the human
condition and the teaching of the Bible. You say, okay, that is great on
depravity, but how does that tie in with Job chapters 3-31? Just this way.
Man is taught these days that he has strong points, saving qualities. Not
from the Bible, but from people. Humanism says we are born perfect with
a propensity toward high morals and creative genius. But the idea of total
depravity is that you don’t have any strong points. You are totally
depraved. Somebody says I read the story of Moses, and his strong point
was meekness. I read about Elijah, and his strong point was courage. I
read about Peter, and his strong point was loyalty. I read about Job, and
his strong point was patience.
Boy, Satan would love to have you believe that. You read the record and
you will see in every case each one failed miserably. Elijah failed in his
courage. Moses failed in his meekness. David failed in his morality. Peter
failed in his loyalty and Job failed in his patience. Satan would love to
have you believe that your life is divided up into areas of strong points
and weak points. Someone says, “Well, I know I have some weak areas.
I have these tendencies’ you know. God built me with a short fuse. I tend
to procrastinate or exaggerate. I often lust or worry”. Someone worries.
Worry is a sin. They say, “Oh, that’s just my nature. I am always anxious,
always worrying. That is just a weakness that I have. But I would never be
untrue to my life partner. Not a chance. I would never attempt suicide.
Somebody else might, but I’m strong there. You could never look at me
and say there goes a potential drunkard. There goes a potential
homosexual. There goes a Sabbath breaker. I would never rob; I would
never murder; those are my strong points.”
Be careful. Be warned. Every man, the most spiritual man, is totally
depraved. We are wretched; we are helpless; we have enmity; we have no
strong point. It is only the grace of God that can keep us from sin, from
the worst kind of sin. There is no such thing as strong points and weak
points. We are all less than zero before God.
Editor’s Note: The Lord showed me something once that
really goes along with this teaching. We like
“Superheroes” in the world and in the Church. But there
are no “Superheroes” just “Superzero’s”. Thinking in a
numerical dynamic there is only one 1 in all of creation;
God Almighty is the number 1. The rest of us are all
zeroes. Now you might not like to think of yourself as a
zero because it denotes nothingness. But you see if a
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