Human Depravity Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit
By The Rev. Evan Probert, Of Bristol.
My Christian Friends, You Are Quite Aware That The Subject Which Is To Engage Our Further Attention This Afternoon, Is
Human Depravity—A Subject About Which There Are Different Opinions, Which I Shall Not Attempt To Examine At The
Present Time, But I Shall Confine Myself To The Teachings Of God’s Word, Which Is The Only Infallible Rule Of Faith And Practice, And From Which We Learn What Man Was When He Came From The Hands Of His Maker, And What He Is Now As A Fallen
Creature. It Is Explicitly Declared By The Sacred Writers, That God Made Man Upright, And Therefore His Condition Was One
Of Perfect Innocence And High Moral Excellence. There Was No Tendency To Evil In Any Part Of His Nature, Nothing That Deviated In The Least From The Instrument Of Moral Rectitude. Whatever His Duty Was, It Was To Him His Invariable And De-
Lightful Employment. But, Alas, Man In Honor Did Not Long Continue. Through The Insinuating Wiles Of The Devil, Our First
Parents Were Induced To Violate The Positive Command Of Their Maker, The Observance Of Which Was The Condition Of Their
Happiness, And As A Punishment For Their Transgression, They Were Driven Out Of Paradise And Became Liable To Be Cut Off
By The Sentence Of Death, And Consigned To Everlasting Misery And, In Consequence Of Our Connection With Adam, As Our
Federal Head And Representative, We Became Subject To The Dreadful Consequences Of His Fall. This Is Evident From The Testimony Of The Apostle Paul, In The Fifth Chapter Of His Epistle To The Romans. There We Read, “By One Man Sin Entered
Into The World, And Death By Sin, So That Death Passed Upon All Men, For That All Have Sinned.” And, Again, “By The Offense
Of One, Judgment Came Upon All Men To Condemnation, And By The Disobedience Of One, Many Were Made Sinners.”
It Is Evident From These Passages That God Viewed Adam In The Covenant Of Works As The Head And Representative Of
His Natural Posterity, And Consequently, When He Fell, We Fell In Him, And Became Subject To The Tremendous Consequences
Of His Fall. Here It May Be Asked, What Are The Consequences Of His Fall? What Were They To Him, And What Are They To Us?
To Answer This Question, We Must Ascertain What The Apostle Means When He Uses The Words Death, Judgment, And Con-
Demnation. I Think That He Uses These Words In Opposition To The Grace Of God, To Justification Of Life, And To The Reign Of
The Redeemed In Life By Jesus Christ. These Are The Benefits Which Result From The Grace Of God Through Christ, And Which
Stand Opposed To The Evils Which Sin Has Introduced Into Our World; And, As It Cannot Be Supposed That These Benefits Relate To Temporal Life, Or Solely To The Resurrection Of The Body, It Cannot Be That The Evils Involved In The Words, Death,
Judgment, And Condemnation, Relate Simply To Temporal Death, But They Must Be Considered As Including Temporal, Legal,
And Spiritual Death.
From The Very Hour That Adam Transgressed, He Became Mortal—The Sentence Of Death Was Pronounced Upon Him,
And The Seeds Of Depravity Were Sown In His System; Thus The Fair And Beautiful, And Glorious Creature Began To Fade, Wither And Die, And All His Posterity Became Mortal In Him, And Have From That Day To This Come Into The World Dying. What-
Ever The Case Of Man Might Have Been If He Had Not Sinned, We Cannot Say. This However We Know, That He Would Not Have
Died; For Death Is The Result Of The Federal Failure Of The Father Of Our Race. “Dust You Are,” God Said To Him, “And Unto
Dust Shall You Return.” “By One Man Sin Entered Into The World And Death By Sin.” “In Adam All Died.” So That It May Be
Said To Each Of Adam’s Sons And Daughters, “Dust You Are, And Unto Dust Shall You Return.”
But Adam By His Transgression Not Only Brought Temporal Death Upon Himself, And His Posterity, He Also Brought Legal Death. Having Violated The Law That Was Given Him To Observe, He Became Under The Curse Of That Law, Which Involved Not Only Temporal Death, And Expulsion From Paradise, But An Exposure To Suffer The Just Demerits Of His Transgression; And In Consequence Of Our Connection With Him As Our Federal Head, We Are Under The Curse Of The Same Law—“By
One Man’s Disobedience Judgment Came Upon All Men To Condemnation.” And Further, “By The Offense Of One Many Were
Made Sinners.” The Very Moment Our Progenitor Transgressed, All His Descendants Became Subject To The Curse. The Holy
Nature Of God Abhorred The Apostate Race; The Source Of His Holy And Righteous Law Has Always Rested Upon That Race;
Judgment Has Been Given And Recorded Against Us As A Fallen World, In The Court Of Heaven, And Unless It Is Reversed It
Must Fall Upon Us With All Its Tremendous Consequences.
We Are Also, In Consequence Of Adam’s Transgression, Become The Subjects Of Spiritual Death, Which Consists Not Merely In The Deprivation Of The Principle Of Life, But In Having Become Depraved Creatures—All The Faculties Of Our Souls, And
Members Of Our Bodies Are Depraved—So That It May Be Said Of Us, As The Prophet Says Of The Jewish Nation, “The Head Is
Sick, The Whole Heart Is Faint; From The Sole Of The Foot Unto The Head There Is No Soundness.” What? No Soundness In Any
Part? Nothing Good In Any Part? Nothing Spiritually Good? Nothing If Cherished And Fostered, That Will Not Lead To God,
To Heaven And To Happiness? Nothing Whatever. Let No One Mistake Me. I Do Not Mean To Say For A Single Moment That Sin
Has Destroyed Any Of The Faculties Of Man’s Soul, For They Are All There. They All Exist As They Did When They Were Produced;
But I Mean To Say That Sin Has Deprived Man Of The Principle Of Spiritual Life, And Made Him A Depraved And Debased Creature; And We Believe That We Can Prove This From The Word Of God, As Well As From Observation.
First—From The Conduct Of Little Children. Children Begin To Sin Very Early In Life. If There Were Any Good In Us, It
Would Show Itself In Infancy, Before Good Habits Became Corrupted, And Evil Principles Were Produced By Our Connection
With The World. But Do Little Children Prefer Good? Are They Inclined To The Good And The Excellent? Do You See From The
Earliest Period Of Their Existence, That They Are Desirous Of Good? On The Contrary, I Say, As Soon As They Begin To Act, They
Prove By Their Actions, That In Them There Is A Depraved Nature, From Which They Act. “Madness,” Says The Wise Man, “Is
Bound Up In The Heart Of A Child,” They Go Astray From The Womb Telling Lies. But It May Be Said, In The Way Of Objection,
That This May Arise From The Unfavorable Circumstances In Which Some Children Are Placed. No Doubt, Unfavorable Circumstances Have A Bad Influence Upon The Minds Of Children; But It Is Not So With The Whole Race. Point Out To Me One
Child Who Is Disposed From Infancy To Seek That Which Is Good, That Which Is Holy! And Surely, If The Tendency Of Infants
From Their Earliest History Is To Evil, It Is A Proof That It Must Arise From The Evil Propensities Within Them Which Grow
With Their Growth, And Strengthen With Their Strength.
Secondly—We Have Further Proof Of Human Depravity From The Aversion Of Sinners To Come To Christ. They Are Invited To Come, Persuaded To Come, And Are Assured That They Shall Find Pardon, Acceptance, And Salvation. But They Cannot Be
Induced To Come To Him, And Why Will They Not Come? Is It Because He Is Not Willing To Receive Them, Or Because There Is
Anything In Him To Prevent Them? No! It Is Because Of The Deep-Rooted Depravity In Their Hearts! The Heart Is Averse To All
That Is Good, And Therefore Rejects The Savior, And Turns Away From Him. Hence He Complained When In Our World, “How
Often Would I Have Gathered You, Even As A Hen Gathers Her Chickens Under Her Wings, And You Would Not.” “You Will Not
Come To Me, That You Might Have Life!” What More Need Be Added? Man Turns Away In Proud Disdain From All The Blessings Of The Gospel, And The Glories Of Heaven Brought Before Him, And Rushes On With Steady Purpose To Damnation!
“Light Is Come Into The World, And Men Love Darkness Rather Then Light, Because Their Deeds Are Evil.” Oh, To How Many In
This Land May It Be Said, “They Hate Knowledge, And Did Not Choose The Fear Of The Lord; They Would None Of His Counsel,
They Despised All His Reproof”?
Thirdly—We Have Further Evidence Of Native Depravity From The Testimony Of Scripture. In The First Place, Let Me Refer
You To The Fifth Chapter Of The Book Of Genesis, And The Third Verse. There We Read, That Adam, After He Had Lived 130
Years, Begat A Son In His Own Likeness After His Image. Mind You, The Image In Which Adam Was Created Was The Image Of
God, But That Image He Had Lost Before He Begat Seth! Therefore, The Image In Which Seth Was Born Must Have Been The
Image Of His Progenitor, As A Fallen And Depraved Creature. Let Me Refer You, In The Second Place, To The Third Chapter Of
The Gospel By John. “He Who Is Born Of The Flesh,” Said The Savior To Nicodemus, “Is Flesh, And He Who Is Born Of The
Spirit Is Spirit.” To Be Born Of The Flesh, According To The Wisest Interpretation Of That Passage, Is To Be Born Of A Depraved Nature; To Be Born Of The Spirit Is To Be Born Of The Holy Spirit Of God—Which Birth, The Savior Told Nicodemus,
He Must Experience Before He Could See The Kingdom Of God. And Again, We Have Several Passages In Proof Of This Point.
In The Seventh Chapter Of The Epistle To The Romans, At The Fifth Verse Of That Chapter, The Apostle Says, “When We Were
In The Flesh, The Motions Of Sin, Which Were By The Law, Did Work In Our Members To Bring Forth Fruit Unto Death.”
“When We Were In The Flesh,” Means This—When We Were In An Unrenewed, Depraved State. In The Same Chapter He Says, At
The 14Th Verse, “We Know That The Law Is Spiritual, But I Am Carnal, Sold Under Sin,” As If He Had Said, “I Am As A Sinner, A
Depraved Creature.” In Accordance With This The Apostle Says, At The 18Th Verse Of The Same Chapter, “In Me—That Is, In
My Flesh—Dwells No Good Thing.” No Love To God, No Holy Aspirations! No, None Whatever! At The Beginning Of The
Eighth Chapter Of The Same Epistle, We Find The Terms “Flesh” And “Spirit” Placed In Opposition To Each Other, “Who
Walk Not After The Flesh,” Says The Apostle, Describing Christians, “But After The Spirit.” To Be In The Flesh Is To Be In A
Depraved State, To Be In The Spirit Is To Be A Partaker Of His Grace; To Walk After The Flesh Is To Walk After The Dictates Of
Corrupt Principles And Propensities, To Walk After The Spirit Is To Be Governed By Spiritual Principles, And By The Holy
Spirit Of God. And The Apostle, In Writing To The Galatians, Says To Them, “Walk In The Spirit, And You Shall Not Fulfill
The Lusts Of The Flesh.” These Passages, I Think, Prove Beyond All Contradiction That Man, As A Fallen Creature, Is A Depraved
Creature, Destitute Of Any Good!
There Are Many Other Passages Of Scripture That Confirm This Doctrine Of Human Depravity, Such As The Following,
“Who Can Bring A Clean Thing Out Of An Unclean.” Not One. What Is Man That He Should Be Clean, Or The Son Of Man, That
He Should Be Just. “Behold,” Says The Psalmist, “I Was Shaped In Iniquity, And In Sin Did My Mother Conceive Me.” Read
The Account Of Man Before The Deluge, And There We Find That Every Imagination And The Thoughts Of His Heart Were Only
Evil, And That Continually. The Same Account Is Given Of Him After The Flood. The Deluge Could Not Wipe Away The Stains Of
Moral Pollution, Could Not Destroy In Man The Deep-Rooted Depravity Of His Heart. “The Heart,” Says Jeremiah, “Is Deceitful Above All Things, And Desperately Wicked, Who Can Know It?” I Think That What Our Blessed Lord Said To The Jews Of
Old, Is Applicable To Every Unconverted Man Under Heaven—“But I Know You That You Have Not The Love Of God In You.”
Some Of You May Be More Humane Than Others, More Benevolent Than Others, More Compassionate Than Others, As Men,
And As Women, But One Has As Much Of The Love Of God In Him As Others. “The Carnal Mind Is Enmity Against God,”
Against The Being Of God, Against The Government Of God, Against The Gospel Of God, Against The Purposes Of God. The
Enmity Of The Human Heart Is Unconquerable By Any Human Agency Whatever! It Is Mortal Enmity, It Strikes At The Being Of
God, And, Therefore, As President Lincoln, Of America, Justly Observes, “That When It Found God In Our Nature, In Our
World, It Put Him To Death On The Accursed Tree.”
Such, My Brothers And Sisters, Is The Enmity Of The Heart Of Man, Such Is Its Deep-Rooted Depravity, That In Him There
Is No Good Thing! We Can Never Speak Too Badly Of What Sin Has Done For Us, And We Can Never Speak Too Much, Or Too
Well, Of What God Has Done For Us, In The Person Of His Son, And In Us, By The Agency Of His Holy Spirit!
Fourthly—The Doctrine Of Human Depravity May Be Proved From Those Passages Which Assert The Universal Necessity
Of Redemption By Jesus Christ. “You Shall Call His Name Jesus,” Said The Angel, “Because He Shall Save His People From
Their Sins.” “In Him We Have Redemption Through His Blood,” Says Paul, “Even The Forgiveness Of Sin According To The
Riches Of His Grace.” Now, The Work Of Redemption Presupposes The Sinful State Of Man, And Implies A Deliverance From
That State, And From The Punishment To Which Man Is Exposed. Hence It Is Said Of Christ, That He Came Into The World To
Save Sinners, To Seek And To Save That Which Was Lost, And That He Died—The Just For The Unjust—That He Might Bring Us
To God. Now, If Redemption By Christ Is Necessary, It Is Evident That Man Is A Sinner; And, If Man Is A Sinner, It Is Evident
That Man Has A Depraved Nature! You Cannot Make Anything Else Of It. Say What You Like About Man And About His Excellencies, You Must Come To This Conclusion, That He Is A Condemned And A Depraved Creature, Or Else He Would Not Need Redemption Through The Blood Of Our Lord Jesus Christ!
Fifthly—The Passages That Assert The Universal Necessity Of The New Birth Prove This Very Truth—“Except A Man Be
Born Of Water,” Said The Savior, “And Of The Spirit, He Cannot See The Kingdom Of God. Marvel Not That I Said Unto You,
You Must Be Born-Again.” But If A Man Has Some Good In Him, And If That Good Could Be Cherished, And Be Increased, And
Worked Up So As To Make Men Fit For Heaven, What Need Of The New Birth? What Need Of The Spirit Of All Grace To Renew
Him In The Spirit Of His Mind? Whenever, My Brothers And Sisters, You Pray To God For The Spirit To Change The Human
Heart, Whether You Believe The Doctrine Or Not, You Imply It In Your Petition Before The Mercy Seat! They Are Represented
By The Sacred Writers As Having Been Called From Darkness Into Light, As Having An Unction From The Holy One Whereby
They Know All Things, And Those Of Them Who Have Been Called Readily Acknowledge That They Were Once Foolish, Once Deceived And Deceiving, Once Depraved—Very Depraved; And Not Only So, But The Very Best Of Christians In The World Confess
With Humility The Depravity Of Their Hearts, And I Believe That The Man Who Knows Himself Best Is The Man Who Is Most
Ready To Confess This, And To Humble Himself Before God—“Oh Wretched Man That I Am, Who Shall Deliver Me From The
Body Of This Death?” And While Christians Feel This, Their Language Is, “Create Within Me A Clean Heart, Oh God! And Renew A Right Spirit Within Me; Purge Me With Hyssop And I Shall Be Clean, Wash Me And I Shall Be Whiter Than Snow.” Apply
The Blood Of Sprinkling To My Guilty Conscience, And Let The Spirit Of All Grace Work In My Polluted And Depraved Heart,
And Form Me To The Image Of The Lord Jesus Christ, And Prepare My Immortal Spirit For The Inheritance Of The Saints In
Light And Of Angels In Glory!
My Dear Friends, I Need Not Say More. I Should Not Think There Is An Individual Here This Afternoon Who Is Not Disposed To Agree With Me, When I Say That Man Is A Fallen Creature, Is A Depraved Creature, Is A Condemned Creature; He Is
Under The Curse Of God’s Righteous Law, And At The Same Time The Subject Of The Reigning Power Of Depravity, The Subject
Of The Effects Of Sin Throughout His Whole Nature; And That, As A Sinner, Let It Be Recorded In High Heaven There Is No Good
In Man’s Nature Until God Puts It There, And You Will Never Be Brought, My Beloved Hearers, Into A Right State Of Mind
Before God, Until You Are Brought To Feel That You Have Nothing, And That You Must Have All In The Lord Jesus Christ.
“Oh, Israel, You Have Destroyed Yourself!” But Here Are Good Tidings—“But In Me Is Their Help Found.”
Does Not This Subject, My Hearers, Teach Us, In The First Place, The Amazing Long-Suffering Of God Towards Our Race?
God Might, As Soon As Man Sinned, Without The Least Imputation Of Injustice To His Character, Have Cut Him Down, Because
The Fall Was The Result Of His Criminal Choice, And Attended By The Most Aggravating Circumstances. But God Has Borne
With Us, And Is Bearing Still, Which Shows That He Has No Pleasure In The Death Of The Sinner, But Rather That He Should
Turn From His Ways And Live. “Turn You, Turn You, For Why Will You Die, Oh, House Of Israel?” And Does Not The Subject
Teach Us Also The Helplessness Of Man As A Sinner? He Is Unable To Atone For His Sins Or To Renew His Heart. Many Attempts
Have Been Made To Atone For Human Transgression, And To Cleanse And Purify The Human Heart, But They Have All Failed—
Not One Has Succeeded! No Sacrifice, Short Of A Divine One, Could Satisfy Divine Justice, And Magnify The Broken Law. No
Power, Short Of The Omnipotent Energy Of The Eternal Spirit, Can Renew The Human Heart. But, While Man Is A Helpless
Creature, He Is Not A Hopeless Creature! We Do Not Say To Him There Is No Hope. Oh, No! I Rejoice In That Thought At This
Very Moment. God Has Remembered Us In Our Lowest State, He Has Laid Help Upon Us From One Who Is Mighty, One Who, By
His Passive And Active Obedience, Has Magnified The Law, And Made It Honorable, Satisfied The Claims Of Divine Justice So
That God Can Be Just And The Justifier Of Him Who Believes In The Lord Jesus Christ! And While He Made Atonement For
Our Transgressions, He Has Procured For Us The Spirit Of All Grace To Renew Our Nature, To Transform Us Into The Likeness Of
Himself, And To Prepare Us In The Use Of Means For The Inheritance Of The Saints In Light!
Those Of Us Who Are Made Partakers Of The Holy Spirit And, I Trust, Most Of Us Are—Would To God That I Could Believe That We All Are—Let Us Pray For A Larger Measure Of The Spirit Upon Ourselves, Individually, And Upon The World
Around Us. Surely, My Hearers, My Dear Brother Who Has To Occupy This Platform, And Who Has To Unfurl To You The Banner Of The Cross, Will Need A Large Measure Of The Holy Spirit! May He Come Upon His Head And Upon His Heart; And May He
Never Ascend This Platform But In His Strength, And Under His Guidance, And In His Light! May He Never Preach A Sermon
Without Its Being Blessed To The Conversion Of Souls, And The Building Up Of The Church; And May You, As A Christian
Church, Continue Earnestly In Prayer For The Spirit To Come, And If The Spirit Will Reconcile Us To Each Other—The Spirit
Will Remove Differences Between Arminians And Calvinists—The Spirit Will Bring Us To See, By-And-By, Eye To Eye, And This
World Will Be Filled With The Glory Of God! May The Lord Command His Blessing Upon These Remarks, For His Name’s Sake.
Amen.
