Warning! reading this may be hazardous to your pride

I am privileged to meet and teach a small men's Bible study on Tuesday mornings. We are coming to a fuller understanding of the gospel and the dangers of living in our American culture. Occasionally I write emails as these particular thoughts work their way through my heart and mind. This email is devoted to understanding the nature of man's evil heart and mind. Therefore I warn you before you read that this article could be very hazardous to your American pride and arrogance, especially when it comes to "the gospel."

I was studying an aspect of the gospel this morning that I want to share with each of you. It is "bad news" that will lead you to the "good news." Did you know that your heart, mind, and will in its natural state is evil and wicked? The pride and arrogance of man leads him to want to believe that there is some good in him somewhere. But the Bible never speaks this way and so if a person thinks they are a little good then they are deceived.

Read the following verses:
Genesis 6:5 - Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
After the fall God makes this declaration regarding the heart of all men for all time in their natural and unregenerated state.

Jeremiah 17:9 - "The heart is more deceitful than all else
And is desperately sick;
Who can understand it?

Proverbs 20:9 - Who can say, "I have cleansed my heart,
I am pure from my sin"?

What is the answer to that rhetorical question above from Proverbs? The answer is no one has a cleansed heart and is pure from sin.

These are just a few of the verses that deal with the natural state of a man's heart. However some people still unconvinced will gravitate to the mind of man and say he can think around his evil heart. Or they would infer that the mind of man can override the evil when the mind reasons in a rational and good way.

Romans 1:28 - And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper,
When man enters this world in his sinful state not only does he not want God, he is rebellious against God. As he continues to rebel then we learn in Romans that God finally will give the man over to a mind that is reprobate.

2 Corinthians 4:4 - in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
This is the case of the mind that is unable to believe due to the fact that it has been blinded by the devil.

1 Corinthians 2:14 - But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.
The mind of man in his natural state can not understand the things of God because this man does not have the Spirit of God to disclose and reveal the things of God to him.

There are literally hundreds of verses to support the heart and mind of man that is evil and wicked in its natural state. But if you need a summary statement that may be the best at diagnosing the universal condition of man's heart, mind and will then go to Romans 3:10-12
Rom. 3:10 as it is written,
"THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE;
Rom. 3:11 THERE IS NONE WHO UNDERSTANDS,
THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS FOR GOD;
Rom. 3:12 ALL HAVE TURNED ASIDE, TOGETHER THEY HAVE BECOME USELESS;
THERE IS NONE WHO DOES GOOD,
THERE IS NOT EVEN ONE."

The apostle Paul is writing Romans Chapter 1:18-3:21 to convince us that our condition before God in our natural state is totally evil and wicked and that there is not one drop, not one ounce of good in any of us.

Guys, if we are to understand the gospel then one must come to terms with this doctrine that is so very, very clear in Scripture.

I am so sick and tired of liberals, seeker-friendly, post-modern and others who want to soften, gloss over and just plain ignore this critical truth from the Bible. And they do so in order that people can leave church on Sunday feeling comfortable instead of convicted! I was told by someone while pastoring the Shepherd's Church "our family wants to feel good when we leave church." What kind of idiotic statement is that other than from the mouth of an idiot! Yes, that is exactly what I said and I concur with the apostle Paul when he called the Galatians starting in Chapter 3 verse 1 - "stupid idiots!"

Gentlemen you are sitting beside people in church today that are going to hell because they have no thought, clue, idea or proper teaching of these things regarding the gospel.
The mission field is in your own church! How many people have walked down to the front of a church and prayed a prayer with a preacher or elder only to leave thinking they are saved by the prayer? Is there anything, I mean anything that a man can do to save himself? Well according the the word of God the only person that can save a man is Jesus Christ Himself.
Read Ephesians 2:1-2 and answer me this question - how dead is dead?
Then travel over to John 11 and read carefully the account of Jesus calling to Lazarus from the tomb. My question to you is "how dead was Lazarus?"
This is a picture for us of how we come to spiritual life. He must call and from His call we respond. According to 1 John 4:19 - we love Him because He first loved us.
Everywhere in Scripture God is the initiator of salvation and man is dead, rebellious and evil.

Guys, this is part of the gospel but it is not all of the gospel. You don't stay in your depraved state and just wallow in how evil you were and how unworthy you were to be saved. Even though all that is true you continue to work through the reality that Christ came and by His grace and only by His grace, He saved you! Will you not allow that to be part of your daily meditation and prayer? Will you not fall before this holy,righteous, all knowing and all powerful God and submit yourself to Him and say Thank You, Thank You, Thank You, I don't deserve it and can only receive it, oh how much I Thank You Lord!!!

This doctrine is fast losing its appeal in America in lieu of the new marketing of Jesus to be everything for you that He needs to be. How tragic, and blasphemous that we have taken our own methods and practices in order to show people in the church how to convert people and then we advertise the statistics. This is wrong, it's wrong I tell you not to let people know, it is wrong not to preach and teach clearly on these things that God Himself declares in His word about man. Well fellows I am going to declare them by the grace of God until He releases me from this burden. I remain committed to the doctrine that God is holy, holy, holy and man is sinful and evil beyond what we can know or imagine and then only hope, the only hope we have is the Lord Jesus Christ by grace alone and through faith alone can save us to Himself!!! We in the church are so far from understanding these things and is why today so many Christians are still sucking on a bottle of milk and aren't capable of eating the meat of the word. Fellows it is time to grow up, and fess up, and repent up and get prepared one day to go up!!! The wishy washy, milk toast, feel good and stroke our little fragile egos preaching is a lie from the pit of hell that is a man centered and not a God-centered theology.