Page 71 - Job

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
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

71