NXR Podcast - DAILY TRUTH - Utter Depravity VS. Total Depravity
Aired: 2023-02-16
Duration: 08:13


=== Heart vs Utter Depravity (06:36) ===

[00:00:00]  All right, listen, guys, I get it.
[00:00:02]  Many of you are unable to financially support this ministry because you're spending your cash and your lives on raising young children in the fear and admonition of the Lord.
[00:00:10]  Praise God for you and that endeavor.
[00:00:13]  However, algorithms are a thing, shadow banning sadly is a thing.
[00:00:18]  And one major way that you can help to expand the reach and effectiveness of this ministry that doesn't cost you a dime is by spending just a few moments leaving us a five star review.
[00:00:31]  Also, perhaps even more effective than that, you can share our podcast with a friend.
[00:00:36]  We hope you'll take the time to do so.
[00:00:38]  Thank you so much.
[00:00:39]  God bless.
[00:00:42]  Jesus said, Man cannot live on bread alone, but from every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.
[00:00:48]  You're listening to Daily Truth.
[00:00:52]  An unbeliever today, at the level of the heart, every intention of his heart is only evil continually.
[00:01:00]  That is a theologically true statement.
[00:01:02]  And it will be true in every time, in every place, every culture, every generation.
[00:01:08]  That is the accurate biblical description of an unbelieving man at the level of his heart.
[00:01:14]  That doesn't mean that outwardly he can't do good things.
[00:01:17]  Doesn't mean that outwardly he can't walk a sweet old lady across the street.
[00:01:20]  Doesn't mean that outwardly he can't even die for his comrades in a battle, in a glorious sacrificial death, you know, fighting as a soldier.
[00:01:29]  It doesn't mean those things.
[00:01:30]  But what it means is this at the heart level, what he cannot do is anything that is pleasing to God.
[00:01:37]  We spent probably way too much time on that principle in Hebrews chapter 11, right?
[00:01:43]  Man cannot please God without faith, for without faith it is impossible to please him.
[00:01:48]  Or Romans chapter 14 says, anything that does not proceed from faith is sin.
[00:01:53]  And I define faith week after week after week as saying to do something in faith is to do it with a reliance on God's grace, acknowledging God's grace as the source of every good and perfect gift, and with an aspiration, a goal, a commitment to God's glory.
[00:02:10]  So relying on God's grace and committed to God's glory, meaning that to do something in faith is not only, not merely to do something outwardly that aligns with the moral will of God, the law of God, but also at the inward level, your heart, your motives, you are acknowledging that you couldn't do anything if it were not for the grace of God.
[00:02:31]  And the thing that you're doing, you're not just trying to benefit your fellow man, but ultimately you want to have your good deeds shine before men so that your ultimate aim, they might glorify your Father who is in heaven.
[00:02:45]  You're doing it with a motivation, with a recognition of I can't take my next breath apart from the grace of God and everything that I do.
[00:02:52]  I don't want to just make the world a better place for the sake of making the world a better place.
[00:02:56]  I don't want to only love my neighbor.
[00:02:58]  I want to love my neighbor, but first and foremost, love the Lord my God with all my heart, with all my soul, with all my mind, with all my strength.
[00:03:06]  Everything that I do, whether I eat or drink, let all that I do glorify God.
[00:03:11]  An unbeliever cannot do that.
[00:03:13]  An unbeliever can keep his wedding vows.
[00:03:16]  He cannot cheat on his taxes.
[00:03:18]  He can love his country.
[00:03:19]  An unbeliever can do a lot of good things outwardly, but he cannot do any of those things in faith with a reliance on God's grace and a desire for God's glory.
[00:03:30]  And therefore, anything that does not proceed from faith is sin.
[00:03:34]  Without faith, it is impossible to please Him.
[00:03:36]  That's the doctrine of total depravity.
[00:03:38]  Total depravity, just for the record, for anybody who's new to Reformed theology and Calvinism, if you haven't found out by now, I am a Calvinist.
[00:03:45]  Now, it gets a little bit confusing, right?
[00:03:47]  If you stick in this church for a while, you'll be like, I thought he was a Calvinist.
[00:03:50]  Well, I'm a Calvinist and I'm also a post millennial, which.
[00:03:52]  Kind of throws a wrench in the gears because it's like I'm really hopeful and also pessimistic at the same time.
[00:03:57]  So you have to kind of work through that a little bit.
[00:03:59]  I think I like to call it the sweet spot, the perfect balance.
[00:04:02]  To each his own, some of you would reject it.
[00:04:04]  But all that being said, total depravity, which is one of the Calvinist points, is not, hear me, it is not the same as utter depravity.
[00:04:14]  Total depravity is not the same as utter depravity.
[00:04:18]  We do not believe that the Bible teaches that people made in the image of God, even though that image has been tarnished by sin, even though man apart from Christ is fallen, Even though every single element of his being, his reason, his conscience, his moral compass, every single part of him, even his flesh, his body, and a physical capacity, everything has been marred by sin.
[00:04:42]  But we believe that the curse of sin, that it tarnishes the image of God, but it does not utterly destroy the image of God.
[00:04:49]  So that a vestige of the image of God remains, not just for the Christian, but for all people.
[00:04:55]  All people, man, woman, adult, child, black, white, Christian, non-Christian, are created in the image of God.
[00:05:02]  The imago day.
[00:05:04]  The image has been tarnished, but the image still remains intact.
[00:05:09]  And because of that, people are not, as image bearers of the living God, even under the curse of sin, people are not utterly depraved.
[00:05:17]  Totally depraved, yes.
[00:05:19]  Utterly depraved, no.
[00:05:21]  Utter depravity, what's that?
[00:05:22]  Utter depravity is you are doing as much outward evil.
[00:05:26]  At the level of the outward manifestations and behaviors and actions, and not just thoughts or feelings or intents or motives, but outwardly in speech and deed.
[00:05:37]  You are doing as much evil as you possibly can all of the time.
[00:05:42]  Not just every intention of your heart, but every action with your body is as much evil as you possibly could all the time.
[00:05:50]  That's utter depravity.
[00:05:52]  We do not hold or affirm a doctrine of utter depravity when it comes to our anthropology, our view of man.
[00:05:59]  We do, however, hold to what I believe is a thoroughly biblical doctrine of total depravity.
[00:06:05]  Not that we're doing every outward evil we possibly can, but at the level of the heart.
[00:06:10]  God in His mercy is restraining our actions.
[00:06:14]  But at the level of the heart, the unbeliever, every thought, every intention, all of the time, continually, is bent on evil.
[00:06:22]  And evil, specifically defined, being not wanting to ever acknowledge God's grace, not wanting to ever bring Him glory, which is immensely evil.
[00:06:34]  That is evil.

=== Evil Defined by Grace (01:37) ===

[00:06:36]  Can I be frank with you for just a second, right here at the end?
[00:06:39]  Look, some of you guys, you're financially supporting this ministry.
[00:06:43]  And from the bottom of my heart, I say thank you.
[00:06:46]  I cannot thank you enough.
[00:06:48]  However, some of you, you just, you can't afford it.
[00:06:52]  In fact, some of you, you shouldn't afford it.
[00:06:55]  Let's be honest.
[00:06:56]  I mean, we're living in Joe Biden's ridiculous economy.
[00:07:00]  Our nation and our totalitarian political elites lost their minds over the last three years due to COVID.
[00:07:10]  We have written checks that we simply cannot cash.
[00:07:13]  It doesn't matter if people change the definition of a recession.
[00:07:17]  We are living in a recession right now, regardless.
[00:07:22]  Some of you are struggling to afford a carton of eggs at the grocery store.
[00:07:27]  You cannot support financially this ministry at this time, nor should you.
[00:07:33]  But you could still help us tremendously.
[00:07:35]  I am asking you, please, if you're willing to do so, take one minute of your time.
[00:07:41]  Leave us a five star review on your favorite podcast platform.
[00:07:46]  iTunes, Spotify, whatever that might be, this is the way the system works.
[00:07:51]  We want to be innocent as doves, but shrewd as vipers.
[00:07:55]  We need to be strategic.
[00:07:57]  You leave us a five star review, and our podcast shows up for more people.
[00:08:02]  And the Word of God and courageous theology applied in practical ways to every realm of life gets out there.
[00:08:11]  Help us get it out there.
[00:08:12]  Thanks for tuning in.