What a piece of work is a man, how noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, inform and moving, how express and admirable, in action, how like an angel, in apprehension, how like a God, the beauty of the world, the pereagon of animals. They're the words of William Shakespeare. Placed on the lips of his tragic figure, Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, as he muses with his friends, what a piece of work is a man. His reason, his faculties, his form, his movements, his apprehensions, his beauty, he is this humanity, the greatest and most magnificent expression of the created realm. But do you know the story of Hamlet? It's a story ironically that reveals humanity's darkest flaws. You see, the young prince Hamlet comes to discover that his beloved father, the king of Denmark, has been murdered by the king's own brother, Hamlet's uncle, who in turn marries Hamlet's mother and subsequently assumes the throne of Denmark. This sets Hamlet on a course of murderous revenge that will not be abated until the story finally ends in tragedy and bloodshed. But in the process, dear friends, a profound metamorphosis occurs in Hamlet's view of humanity, a metamorphosis that by and by leads him to spurn the beloved of his heart, the beloved Ophelia, the woman to whom he had pledged his love, it is this murder of his father that poisons his regard for the whole of the human race, and at a very high point he says to this Ophelia, get me to a nunnery. Why would thou be a breeder of sinners? I am myself in different honest, but yet I could accuse me of such things that were better my mother had not born me. I am very proud, revengeful, ambitious, with more offenses at my back than I have thoughts to put them in, imagination to give them shape or time to act them in. Why should such fellows as I do crawling between earth and heaven? We are errant names all believe none of us go thy ways to a nunnery, not merely marry someone else dear Ophelia, get me to a nunnery, go to a place where you will never be able to perpetuate this fallen race. Now let me ask you, what do we think about what Hamlet says concerning the human race? Was he right the first time or was he right the second time? Were his original musings legitimate, his admiration of the human race, what a piece of work is a man? Or were his subsequent sentiments? However much they were stated in great despair indicative of a true and more accurate reality. Why would thou be a breeder of sinners? Let me pose the question to you in this manner, which of these two portraits of humanity is most Christian? My dear friends, if our assessment of the human race is to be informed and matured by the full instruction of the Holy Scripture, then what we will find is that these two perspectives regarding the nature of humanity are not mutually exclusive. To be sure they are in severe contradiction with one another, but they are also contemporaneous in that they exist side by side in each one of us. ours is an existence in contradiction. We are a humanity without integrity, without wholeness, but he explained you what I mean. As Biblically informed Christians, we should be able to say, without the slightest blush, without hesitation, what a piece of work is a man. I mean you can hear this very sentiment in the words of King David, we sang part of that song today, Psalm 8. David says, when I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon, and the stars that you have established, what are human beings that you are mindful of them? mortals that you care for them, yet you made them a little lower than God, and crowned them with glory and honor. You have given them dominion over the works of your hands, you have put all things under their feet. And of course my friends, what is dominant in the mind of King David at this point is that scene in the Garden of Eden, when God himself, at the climax of the creative process, draws upon his own limitless genius, and fashions a human being out of the dust of the earth, breathing into this creation, his very own life. And uniquely, it is then said about this man, and the woman fashioned from his side, they would be the bearers of God's own limit, such dignity, had not even been said of easily. As originally designed, the man and woman were a creation of unimaginable possibilities and potentialities, possibilities and potentialities that would serve to reflect back to God, the glories of his own image. And my dear friends, I submit to you this morning, though this image has been marred, it still exists. It has been darkened to be sure, but it has not been destroyed. And so we can still say, and we must say, what a piece of work is a man. We see it in the evidences of a Rembrandt painting. We detected in the sounds of a Chopin piano sonata. We see it in a physical coordination of a great athlete. We observe it in the skills of a first-rate surgeon. I don't know about you, my friends, but I want to tell you I find the talents and skills and abilities and insights that are unique to our humanity created in the image of God to be a source of incredible pleasure and delight. And frankly, my friends, I find this to be the case, even when the people who possess such powers are not Christians. Herein is the dignity of the human race. Herein is the justification for a proper self-worth that every human being is an image bearer of the living God. Not just the microbiologist who may one day discover a cure for cancer, but the single woman down the street who has never managed to get married, living on welfare with four dirty-faced children. Have you ever paused to consider the dignity that Jesus Christ granted to people? From the sophisticated to the simple? It's not that he sought to invalidate sociological distinctions. We do not get Marxism from Jesus Christ, my friends. He simply recognized that both Nicodemus and the Samaritan woman were image bears of his father. Have let it's right. What a piece of work is a man, but this is not all that the Bible tells us about ourselves, is it? We have to begin there. And often people like us have missed that perspective, but that's not all that the Bible tells us. Sadly, we are people of a great contradiction. We have been made in the image of God himself, and yet now it is also true that the whole of our being has been marred by a deeply rooted perversity. In other words, a deviation has taken place from God's original design. And brothers and sisters, this is something that I really want you to hold onto. Please never forget that humanity in the truest sense is without sin as exemplified in the perfect man himself, Jesus Christ. This is what heaven will be, you see. We will not be deified. We will be made human in the fullest sense. Being is alien to authentic humanity. Sin is the intruder. Something unnatural happened to us when sin invaded the human scene. Our humanity was distorted so that now you see that which was once altogether abnormal has become profoundly natural. We have become sinners through and through. One writer has said it like this, we are so entirely controlled by the power of sin that the whole mind, the whole heart and all our actions are under its influence. Now my friends, I know very well that to say such a thing puts me out of step with the prevailing notions of our culture. But you see, beloved to be mistaken at this very point is to leave ourselves susceptible to a danger of the most serious kind. Failure to rightly understand the extent of human fallenness inevitably results in a distorted understanding of divine grace apart from which there is no experience of eternal salvation. You see, if on the one hand man's problem is that he is weak and in need of strength from God to cooperate with his own efforts of getting into heaven, then the solution he needs is of one particular kind. If on the other hand man's problem is something far more severe, namely that he is helpless, that he is hopeless, that he is blind, that he is deaf, that he is lost, that he is powerless, that he is dead, then the solution he needs is of yet an altogether different kind. See the prayer of the first man is this, dear God, if I am to get into heaven, then you must give me grace to compensate for what I lack. The prayer of the second man is, dear God, if I am to get into heaven, then every bit of it must be of your grace. Will you see each of these dispositions reflect a corresponding perception of one's dilemma? Allow me to give you a brief lesson from history. In 1610, the followers of a Dutch seminary professor, his name was James Arminius, drew up five novel articles of faith. The Armenians, as they came to be called, insisted that the Belgian confession of faith and the Heidelberg catechism, they are historic documents of the Protestant church, were in error and in need of change particularly as they addressed issues related to the salvation of human beings. And so a national synod was convened to examine these views of Arminius in the light of the scriptures. 84 members from five different countries met in 154 sessions over the course of seven months, failing to reconcile the teaching of Arminius with the word of God, they unanimously rejected each of these five articles of faith. But to merely reject them, however, did not seem sufficient to them. And so five corresponding articles were written in order that they might positively set forth the scriptural teaching regarding these vitally important issues. Subsequently, they came to be known as the five points of Calvinism known by the Acrostic, T-U-L-I-P. Total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace, perseverance and the preservation of the same. Now perhaps you immediately recognize that historically these have often been referred to as the doctrines of grace, for the simple reason that they capture the very essence of God's work and the saving of the human being. Well you see my friends, the very first article of Arminius was a strike at the heart of the doctrine of human fallenness. To be sure, they said, human beings have been affected by the intrusion of sin. We are not pelagians, we are not saying that man is born neutral, yes man has been affected by sin, but man has not been left helpless. Human beings are not to be regarded as enslaved by sin, but as possessing a will that is free to choose good over evil in spiritual matters. If a human being then cooperates with the invitation of God's spirit, he can be born again, and so wild to be sure he needs the spirit's assistance, he does not require the spirit's regeneration. And therefore faith is to be understood, not as a gift from God to the sinner, faith is to be understood as the sinner's gifts to God. It is the sinner's contribution to salvation. This was Arminianism's first line of attack against Christian orthodoxy. Now friends, here is the irony. What was recognized and labeled as heresy by our Protestant forebears in the 17th century has in the last 200 years become the predominant view in American evangelical Christian ended. It may be that in my simple explanation of Arminianism you sit there and you think, that's what I believe. That's what I've been taught, that's what I grew up hearing. People are sick, people are struggling, people need help, but if they will simply choose God he'll supply all they need to make things better. I submit to you my friends, it is a neo-Arminianism that holds the Church of Jesus Christ captive in our day, captive in the sense that it harnesses the message by which the Church advances. Because you see the very thing that makes the good news good can only be rightly interpreted by the full or verminutic of the bad news. I am not saying that a person needs to be a conscious Calvinist in order to be saved beloved, I am saying that Arminianism radically underestimates man's need. It consequently diminishes God's provision and thereby compromises the very integrity of the only message that can save our fallen race. And the key to all of this, the lynch pin, the fulcrum in all of this is the T in the tulip across everything radiates from that point. So allow me if you would, to clarify what this means because a great deal of confusion surrounds the doctrine of total depravity both from the part of Arminians and ignorant Calvinists. Let me clarify what this means first of all by giving you three very brief negative statements and then secondly following that up with three more fully developed positive statements. Here's the first negative statement, total depravity does not mean the human beings have no sense of right or wrong. Total depravity does not mean that a person, a human being, does not have a conscience. Second, total depravity does not mean that human beings are all together devoid of any qualities that are pleasing or beneficial to society when judged by human standards. What did Jesus say? You who are evil can give good gifts to your children. Third, total depravity does not mean utter depravity. That is to say, total depravity does not mean that every sinner is as wicked as it is possible for him or her to be. Here's what total depravity is stated more positively. First, total depravity means that the corruption of the human race is universal. Total depravity means that the corruption of the human race is universal, that is apart from the sinless son of God, Jesus Christ, sin has infected every person who has ever lived without exception. This is total depravity in its extensiveness. And my friends, it is the very clear burden of the Apostle Paul and these early chapters of the Book of Romans to establish this very point. As chapter 1 opens up in the first 17 verses, we have Paul's introduction and the statement of his great theme. Verse 16, he says, I'm not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes. First for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For in the gospel, the righteousness from God is revealed a righteousness that is by faith from first to last just as it is written. The righteous will live by faith. There is a message Paul says that I am proud to proclaim. The righteous God has revealed his righteousness in the provision of a salvation that is universal. It is for everyone who believes, Jew and Gentile. And why is this something from which Paul will not shrink back in shame because this gospel, he says, is the power of God to uniquely answer a universal dilemma. The dilemma of human guilt of which no person is exempt. And so beginning in verse 18 of chapter 1 through verse 32, Paul then levels his accusation against the Gentiles. They have had the revelation of the created order, Paul says, they have had the revelation of human conscience. And yet it is plain to see by looking at them, Paul tells us that a simple evaluation of their lives would lead us to one irrefutable conclusion. They are not righteous. And then in chapter 2 through chapter 3 verse 8, Paul sets his sights on the Jew. Oh, to be sure, they had experienced great benefits from God. They had been the recipients of the law of God. But this was the problem, you see. They couldn't keep the law well enough to please this righteous God who is satisfied with nothing less than absolute perfection. The law then, rather than providing them with the means of salvation, served to expose their susceptibilities to condemnation. The conclusion regarding the Jews, like under that of the Gentiles, not righteous. And so Paul brings his argument to its logical conclusion in verse 9 of chapter 3. What shall we conclude then? Are we, that is, we who were Jews, are we any better, not at all? We have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin. You see it there, beloved? His accusation is comprehensive. Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin. His accusation is universal. And so this depravity, you see, is total in the sense that it is pervasive. No one escapes it. Jew, Gentile. And as if the words of the Apostle Paul himself were not enough, he says, Now let me make clear to you that God is on my side. How about a few Old Testament quotations? Finding after all our theology is as only a sound as the extent which it rightly reflects the revelation of God. Let me quote the Old Testament repeatedly. And now you listen for the universal language. Verse 10, there is no one righteous. That's what we call the universal negative, not even one. There is no one who understands no one who seeks God. Oh, you hear that universal language? Have turned away. They have together become worthless. There is no one who does good, not even one. This is the doctrine of total depravity, that the corruption of the human race is universal, which tells us, beloved, something very important, that at the end of the day, I'm not persuading you to be a Calvinist. I'm not persuading you to embrace reformed theology. I'm not persuading you to be an Augustinian. This is Pauline. This is Christian. In fact, you need a bit more support. In 2 Chronicles 6, King Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, said, there is no one who does not sin. The psalmist asks of the Lord, if you, O Lord, kept a record of sins who could stand. David says to God, in Psalm 143, no one living is righteous before you. Proverbs poses a question, who can say, I have kept my heart pure, I am clean and without sin. The book of Ecclesiastes adds, there is not a righteous man on earth who does right and never sin. What did we say this morning? We all like sheep have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way. And just a few chapters after that Isaiah writes, all of us, all of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags. My friends, God has been abundantly clear about the universality of sin, hasn't he? In fact, to argue this point is not merely to engage in a futile exercise of denial, it is to place yourself in the position of taking issue with God himself. And so first John tells us, if we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we claim we have not sinned, we may come out to be a liar, and his word has no place in our lives. Total depravity means that the corruption of the human race is universal. In fact, you'll note here in verse 19 that Paul's concluding argument is decisive. He says, now we know that whatever the law says here, the law being a reference to those verses that he has just quoted in the prior seven verses above, we know that whatever the law, the Old Testament says, it says to those who are under the law. He's talking to Jews, and he's referring to the passages that he's just quoted above. Jewish brothers, he is appealing to them. You must not think that you are exempt from this guilty standing before God. The citations I've just quoted speak of you. We know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law. But here's his point in condemning you, the whole of humanity stands condemned. Whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. You see his logic, beloved, it is an argument from the greater to the lesser. If the Jews, God's chosen people, the recipients of those innumerable benefits from God, if they cannot escape the reach of sins, stain and guilt, then it surely follows that the Gentiles, who have no prior claim on God's favor, must also be equally guilty. Therefore he says no one will be able to justify himself, the entire world will be silenced in their guilt and liable to the judgment of God. Total depravity means that the corruption of the human race is universal. He tells us in verse 23, all have sinned. Perhaps you have made your children memorize it and yet the considerate implications of it. Second, total depravity means that sin has infected every part of a person's humanity. Sin has infected every part of a person's humanity. There is no piece of a person being that is left untouched by the presence and power of sin. So my friends, if on the one hand we suggest the total depravity is extensive, that is it encompasses every person, then it must also be understood that total depravity is intensive, meaning it reaches into every part of our humanity. Notice what Paul says here. Look at how comprehensive he is. He says there is no one who understands that speaks of the mind. No one seeks God, that speaks of the will. All have turned away. No one does good, that speaks of the heart out of which actions flow. And then to illustrate this sin, he then talks about specific sins in particular, sins of communication. Their throats are open grains. Their tongues practice the seed. The poison of bipers is on their lips, their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness. Mind will heart, throat, tongue, lip, mouth. Notice the sin expresses itself in violence, verse 15. And their feet are swift to shed blood. Ruin and misery mark their ways. And the way of peace they do not know, he mentions the feet. And then the final expression of their sinful condition, verse 18, there is no fear of God before their eyes are swift to shed blood. Ruin and misery mark their ways. And the way of peace they do not know, he mentions the feet. And then the final expression of their sinful condition, verse 18, there is no fear of God before their eyes. We've got the mind, we've got the heart, we've got the will, we've got throat, tongue, lips, mouth, feet, eyes. Now, I realize my friends that in some cases Paul is speaking metaphorically here, as he mentions these various parts of our humanity. But nevertheless, inciting these particular Old Testament texts, you can't help but see that Paul is intending to show it even by way of implication that sin has affected the totality of who we are as human beings. And the fact of the matter is, beloved, the totality of biblical revelation makes this clear both Old Testament and New. For example, we know that sin has affected the human heart, hasn't it? Jeremiah chapter 17, the heart is deceitful of all things and beyond cure, who can understand? And sin has affected the human mind. Since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind. Their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened, so there we have the mind and the heart. Titus says of those still in sin, their minds and their consciences are corrupted. So we have the mind affected by sin, the heart affected by sin, the conscious affected by sin, do you realize that sin has affected the human emotion? It's amazing today, we live in a time when people think that emotions are the true test of what is real. Sin has affected human emotion. Jesus says of unbelievers, light has come into the world, meaning himself, but men love, that's a word of emotion, darkness instead of light. Everyone who does evil hates the light. Sin has affected our emotional nature. Sin has affected our human body. You say, well, how do you know that? Well, according to Romans chapter 5, the greatest proof of a person's centerhood is that he dies physically, every time we go to a funeral. This is what we're reminded of. The person in that casket in front of us was a sinner. The soul who sins will die, the wages of sin is death. My friends, there is not a sliver of your humanity that has been kept from the infection of sin. This corruption is pervasive, it is thorough, heart, mind, conscience, emotions, body. And so the New English Bible translates to Psalm 53 like this. God looks down from heaven on all mankind to see if any act wisely, if any seek out God, but all are unfaithful, all are rotten to the core. Total depravity means that the corruption of the human race is universal. It means that sin has infected every part of a person's humanity. Finally, total depravity means that sin has rendered a person unable to respond to God in any kind of positive fashion. Now, you take a look at chapter 3 here again. We have seen the scope of Paul's accusation, Jews, and Gentiles alike, all people without exception. We've seen the source of Paul's accusation as it is written, the revelation of the Old Testament scriptures. But before we start, let's look at the history of the Old Testament. As it is written, the revelation of the Old Testament scriptures. But before we finish, friends, we must not miss the substance of his accusation. We have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin. Not in sin. He chooses his words very carefully. He uses the greatest precision in the choice of that preposition, under sin. He's not saying that all people without exception are sinful. He is saying that all people are under the domination of sin. If you are familiar with how the Apostle Paul speaks about sin in the Book of Romans, then you will understand when I say that Paul often personifies sin. He uses a literary device to speak of sin as though it were a tyrant, abusively exercising its rule over the lives of people, that people are enslaved to the Lordship of sin, and they can do nothing to extricate themselves from that bondage. That is what Paul is saying here, my friends, all are under sin, apart from the liberating power of the gospel of Jesus Christ, every single human being lives under the domination of sin. Sin controls, sin masters, sin is not merely a transgression against the law of God, it is a condition to which a person's life is bound. We sin because we cannot not sin. And at this point, beloved, I have to tell you, Paul is simply expressing the teaching of Jesus. Who says in John chapter 8, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. And there was nothing we can do to free ourselves from that condition. Jeremiah asks, can an Ethiopian change his skin or the leopardate spots? Neither can you do good who are accustomed to doing evil. Jesus said it proverbially, a bad tree can't bear good fruit. Beloved in all of our consideration of the doctrine of total depravity, this without question is the most devastating thing of all. Listen now, listen. Total depravity does not merely suggest that man will not come to God, or that he may not come to God. Total depravity asserts that man, if left unated by grace, cannot come to God. It recognizes the great tenot statements of the New Testament. Let me give you a few, John 3. Unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. It's not that he may not see the kingdom of God. He can't. The issue was not one of permission, the issue was one of ability. 1 Corinthians 2, a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness to him and he cannot understand them. John 8, why do you not understand what I'm saying? It is because you cannot hear my word. Romans 8, the mind said on the flesh is hostile toward God. It does not subject itself to the law of God for it is not even able to do so. And those who are in the flesh cannot please God. And perhaps the most condemning of all are the words of Jesus himself in John 6, when he says, no one can come to me unless it has been granted him from the Father. He's not saying no one may come. No one can come. Now, my friends, did you hear all of that? Total depravity then means that a man cannot see, he cannot understand, he cannot hear, he cannot please. And if left to himself, he cannot come to Jesus Christ for the gift of eternal life. Where spiritual issues are in view, total depravity means total inability. Though it may not seem altogether tasteful to you to use this illustration. Try to take a needle and prick the big toe of a corpse. What can I expect? No response. Why? Because the corpse no longer possesses the capacity to respond to physical stimulation. In the same manner, though we lovingly and compassionately prick the heart and mind of an unbeliever with the needle of the gospel, we must understand that until God's grace grants life, such a person has no capacity to respond to spiritual stimulation. Paul says it like this, you were dead in your transgressions and sins. This is total depravity. It means that the corruption of the human race is universal. It means that sin is infected every part of a person's humanity. It means that sin has rendered a person unable to respond to God in any kind of positive fashion. Ours is an existence in contradiction. We are image bears of the living God, who at the same time are controlled by a deep-seated perverse city in every facet of our humanity. We are guilty. And left to ourselves, we can do absolutely nothing to change our status before God. Brothers and sisters, please don't mistake me this morning. I take no delight in wallowing in the doctrine of human depravity. But I do say to you without shame, you will never ever appreciate the goodness of the good news. Until you finally embrace the full implications of the bad news. Let me finish this morning with two brief statements of conclusion. First, if depravity is total, then there can be no room in our hearts for outrage against a God who eternally condemns sin. If all people are guilty before God, it seems to me that God has left with three options. He can save all of them. He can save some of them. He can save none of them. The option he chooses is a discussion for another day. The point now is simply this. Whichever option best suits his purpose, we cannot lay the accusation of injustice at his doorstep because all are guilty before him. So that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. Here's the second conclusion. If depravity is total, then the salvation of any human being is in its entirety the consequence of the grace of God. You cannot contribute to your salvation in any way, my dear friend. No one will be declared righteous in his side by observing the law. You can't get moral enough. You can't get religious enough. You can't try hard enough. You can't clean yourself up enough. You can't. That's the point. And since you won't seek God, then he must come seeking for you. And that's the message of the Bible. From the Garden of Eden to the New Jerusalem, the Bible is a record of the God who has gone out searching for a group of people on whose behalf he would do everything. If you are a Christian this morning, this is the very thing that defines you. For you, God has done everything your salvation in its total package is his doing. He chose you, his son died for you, his spirit transformed you, and in response you see an inevitable response to that irresistible grace. You've turned away from all other means of salvation, which are no means of salvation at all, and you trusted solely and wholeheartedly in the work of his son. Faith was not your gift to him. Faith was his gift to you. Your salvation in its entirety, my friend, is the consequence of God's grace, and you can't be an Armenian and know that. Are you not a Christian this morning? I know what that's like. I live that way for 20 years. You are powerless to change your circumstances. You are a sinner with no ability to make things right with God. The good news is there is a God who can do everything for you. Total depravity can be overcome by total grace. The contradiction of your existence can be removed by his son, Jesus Christ. Do you want him? Do you desire this salvation? Do you long to be freed from your enslavement to depravity? Do you seek escape from the condemnation that your sin has earned? If you do, then praise be to God this morning. It is because he has already begun the process of doing everything for you. This is the God you need. You have no hope without him. Not a prayer apart from him. He alone can remove the contradiction. Total grace for total depravity. From God, born new. Let's pray together, shall we? Our Father in heaven, how we love you, and we thank you, O Lord and God, for an honest evaluation of who we are, so that in turn, we might more clearly see the magnificence of your grace. Our Father, we love you. For those of us who are Christians, I pray that all that has been said would prove to be fuel, that would stoke the fires of worship. For those who are here who are not Christians, O Lord and God, I pray that this would ring in their ears until such a pointing time as they cry out for the only one who can save them. That they would seek out Jesus Christ and find Him to be the great Savior that you have provided. O Lord, may they know even at this moment that they will not be disappointed in Christ. All who come to Him, He will not turn away. And Father, if there be Christians here who have labored unto the delusion that they are better than they are, may they come to adjust their things so that it matches your words. This is at the very heart of everything Christian. We love you. And thank you for our time together in Jesus' name. Amen.