Page 70 - Reading Job to Know God
P. 70

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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