Because he is a son of Adam the Sinner, man is born "dead in trespasses and sins."--(Ephesians 2:1). I once heard an evangelist describe mankind as being so dead that he spelled their condition "D-E-D-D—double-dead." This is also the description of Jude when he calls men "twice dead."--(Jude 12). You, sir, became a dying man the moment you were born. You began to "rundown" physically the moment you were "wound-up." But you were born dead spiritually--dead to righteousness and dead to God, for whereas you had eyes, you did not see the goodness of God. You had ears, but you did not hear the "sons of God shout for Joy." You had a tongue but you did not "taste that the Lord is Gracious." You had hands but did not handle the Word of Life. Your heart did not feel these things nor take knowledge of them. You were born dead even to the reality of the torments of Hell and you may still be dead to this fact. "Ah, I’m not so bad!" Man realizes nothing of his corruption until the light of God begins to shine in his heart. Isaac Watts expressed it, "Well might the sun in darkness hide. And shut his glories in, When Christ the Mighty Maker died, For man the creature’s sin!" Were we to catch a glimpse the holiness of God, we might remark with Martha concerning her dead brother, "Lord, by this time he stinketh,"--(John 11:39). This is exactly what Isaiah wrote in chapter one, verse six of that prophecy: "From the sole of the foot, even unto the head, there is no soundness in it; but wounds and bruises and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment." Christians of old used to picture mankind as a diseased man sprawled over the inhabited parts of the earth. Thomas Watson has correctly observed, "As man is infected, so is he infectious." "But how far has this malignancy spread through us? It is terminal. We are by nature "dead in trespasses and sins." The Righteous and Holy God has graphically pictured Adam’s fallen race: "The Lord looked down from Heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any that did understand and seek God. They are all gone aside; they are all together become filthy (the Hebrew reads "stinking"): there is none that doeth good, no not one."---(Psalm 14:1-3). "Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity."-~(Isaiah 59:7). "(Their) eyes (are) full of adultery."--(II Peter 2:14) "With their tongues they have used deceit."--(Romans 3:13) "Under their tongue is mischief and iniquity."--(Psalm 10:7). "The poison of asps (snakes) is under their lips."--(Romans 3:15). "(Their) mouth is full of cursing and deceit and fraud."(Psalm 10:7). "Their throat is an open sepulchre."--(Romans 3:13). "(Their) hands are defiled with blood and (their) fingers with iniquity."--(Isaiah 50:3) "Their belly prepareth deceit."--(Job 15:35). "(Their) bones are full of the sins of (their) youth."--(Job 20:ll). "Their inward part is very wickedness."--(Psalm 5:9). "And (they did) debase (themselves) even unto Hell."--(Isaiah 57:9) "Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? Nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush. Therefore they shall fall among them that fall: at the time that I visit them they shall be cast down, saith the Lord."--(Jeremiah 6:15). "Thus saith the Lord, ‘Stand ye in the ways, and see and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein and ye shall find rest for your souls.’ "But they said, ’We will not walk therein.’ "Also, I set watchmen over you, saying, ‘Hearken ye to the sound of the trumpet.’ "But they said, ‘We will not hearken.’" - (Jeremiah 6:16, 17)- "They are like the deaf adder (snake) that stoppeth her ear, which will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming never so wisely."--(Psalm 58:5). "0, generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh."--(Matthew 12:34). "From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds and bruises and putrefying: they have not been closed; neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment."--(Isaiah 1:6). "Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one."-- (Job 14:4) "That which is born of the flesh is flesh."-- (John 3:6). NEXT ISSUE: "BUT WHAT IS MAN THAT HE SHOULD BE CLEAN?"
June 22, 1750--Jonathan Edwards is dismissed from his church by his own Congregation. He is the preacher of the great revival that has swept the Eastern Seaboard.
June 25, 1810--A petition has been drawn up to be presented to the General Association of Massachusetts. Adoniram Judson and his associates have drafted this document which will result in the formation of the first American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. This is the birth of American missions. |